Sydney - Three Relaxing Days

Upon arriving in Sydney, our first task was to check in to our Airbnb apartment. The apartment was great! We stayed just outside of the city center in Merrylands with a gay couple. They were super funny and accommodating. On our first night, we just relaxed from our long journey. It's always tiring, after all...

On our first full day, we naturally went to see the Opera House. But instead of simply taking the metro there, we decided to take a ferry and see it from the water. Since the ferry is also accessible with the 'Opal Card' - just like in Singapore and Melbourne, you need a special card to use public transport - we got one. We took a bus and a train for over an hour to reach the harbor. Finally, we arrived and went from the Balmain Wharf to Circular Quay. We passed under the famous Harbour Bridge and from there, we had our first view of the Opera House. It would probably be even more beautiful at night, but even during the day, it was a really amazing sight. When we arrived at Circular Quay, we had to take a closer look at the Opera House. Conclusion: Not very pretty, but definitely unique. The roof of the Opera House is made of old white tiles, which is not particularly appealing, but they were also a bit yellowed and dirty, making it not very spectacular. But it looked really beautiful from the water. We also walked around it (not a good photo opportunity, unless you have a wide-angle lens). Since the Botanic Gardens are right next to the Opera House, we walked from there into the park. It's a really beautiful park that has been around for 200 years. In the park, you can also take a rainforest walk, visit a herb garden, and learn about the process of turning cocoa beans into chocolate. There are also blue-purple trees that smell incredibly good - in my opinion.

After a walk through the park, we went to the other side of the bay to take more photos of the Opera House from the mainland. It's a beautiful photo spot, which also attracts many bridal couples. On our way back to the train station, we passed a Christmas market where you could have your photo taken in a sleigh. They also had free advent calendars - we grabbed two :D After that, we had seen enough for the first day and headed back to Merrylands.

On Sunday, we went to Coogee Beach around noon and walked from one beach to another. There is a direct path - the CoogeeBondiBeachWalk - which leads to Bondi Beach, about 7km away. Coogee Beach is apparently the only beach in Sydney where you can legally drink alcohol in public. Otherwise, it's forbidden to drink alcohol on the streets throughout Australia. That's why you often see people with a brown paper bag around a bottle. Not all of the beaches are sandy, there are also large rocks where people lie down and enter the water. Some of the rocks were really big, like cliffs in the water where the waves crashed against. You have to be careful not to get splashed. But since we wanted to go to a restaurant in the evening, we didn't walk the whole way.
For dinner, we went to the Koi Dessert Bar, which is owned by a Japanese Australian who came in 3rd place in a cooking show on TV and excelled particularly in desserts. The restaurant is specialized in desserts. You could choose between the 4-course dessert menu and the 6-course dinner menu. But since I am a bit picky when it comes to food and don't eat seafood, which would have been the first course of the dinner menu, we chose the dessert menu. I definitely got full, but Tom could have eaten a cheeseburger afterwards :D
The best dessert was a pistachio mousse wrapped in chocolate with a caramel filling. It was served with frozen yogurt snow and a kind of bread that looked like moss. The whole meal was also decorated in green. Very rich but incredibly delicious! The yogurt in bubble form was also interesting, it actually looked like tiny balls of mozzarella. And in the end, we had cauliflower ice cream with a sugar flower. Honestly, the ice cream wasn't really my cup of tea, but it wasn't terrible either. I didn't taste too much cauliflower, but still a bit too much for me.

On Monday, we went to the neighborhood of The Rocks, from where Sydney was first settled. Well, it was okay... It's nice with small alleys and cute shops. But we weren't overly impressed. I'm sure it's more lively in the evening. From there, you can also do the BridgeClimb - but it's definitely not cheap at $250.

We actually wanted to go to Bondi Beach again because there is a swimming pool that gets some seawater when the waves are high. But since it wasn't that warm on Monday - at least not the announced 31 degrees - we decided not to go.

And then we went to the Blue Mountains, which are right next to Sydney. Or rather, they tower over it.