sydney

after dropping the rental car off without any major incidents, katrina & i were off to an early start sunday morning to explore sydney. we began at circular quay, the main hub of sydney harbour. while we waited to meet up with carolyn for breakfast, we wandered around the southern shore of the harbour to an area known as the rocks. in the late 1700s, the first buildings constructed here were made of local sandstone- hence the name. many of the original buildings remain after being renovated; it was cool to see the contrast between their historical nature and the modernity evident in other parts of the city centre.

circular quay (we were quickly corrected in pronouncing quay as "key" not "kay" .. we're just silly americans)

walking towards the rocks

milk crate art in an alleyway in the rocks. at night they lit up, part of Vivid Sydney's many light installations (more about that later)

historical buildings + ivy

i really liked the ivy

market at the rocks, set up every weekend

after a delicious breaky of pancakes and eggs, we set off to walk across the sydney harbour bridge to catch some great views of the harbour and opera house. 

if you look closely you can see the opera house in the background of the rocks

the rocks, opera house, and circular quay

we saw people doing the popular BridgeClimb - i was just as happy walking across and seeing the same views without paying a couple hundred dollars

when i thought of sydney, the opera house was definitely one of the first things i pictured. awesome seeing it in person! such an intriguing structural design

view of the north shore

i wouldn't mind living in one of these apartments..

we continued our journey from the bridge down to darling harbour. (ps- i realized i've been spelling harbour the australian way.. am i finally blending in?!)

just a little ways away from darling harbour was the chinese garden of friendship. we admired the flora and classic chinese architecture before heading further into chinatown, where paddy's market awaited. paddy's market is this gigantic market that sells tons of cheap clothes and gifts; i was instantly overwhelmed and highly uncomfortable in such close proximity to so many people and so many souvenirs. however, the prices were so irresistible that i managed to sucked up the claustrophobia for fifteen minutes in order to get some new earrings and sunglasses before booking it out of there. 

the chinese gardens

we recovered from paddy's market by grabbing some bubble tea at a nearby cafe before heading out of chinatown. it was lovely wandering down the streets of sydney, going from one neighborhood to the next and seeing such a range of character. 

in hyde park, st. mary's cathedral in the background

eventually we made it to sydney's royal botanic gardens. the gardens seemed to go on forever, with inviting green fields, glistening fountains, and beautiful blooming flowers.

i enjoyed taking some macro shots as usual

dragon blood tree - i'd never seen one of these before! fallen over, but still growing

lovely spot for an afternoon nap

we then found ourselves once again in view of the opera house and decided to go check it out up close. while we weren't allowed in past the box office, we were able to admire the iconic white tiled roofs. gleaming in the sun, they reminded me of abstract sails or shells. (or maybe orange slices, according to katrina)

of course we had to get some tasty pastries and take an artsy shot of them

as we left the opera house, we saw a castle-like building overlooking the harbour. we discovered that this was in fact the government house. peeking in through the windows, we caught a view of the luxurious interior - the surrounding gardens were just as gorgeous. 

just relaxing at the "house"

as dusk approached, we walked toward macquarie point to get the best view of the opera house and bridge silhouetted in the glow of the evening sun. after so much walking, our aching feet thanked us as we laid on the grass and enjoyed yet another beautiful australian sunset.

we consulted our bible, aka my guidebook, once the sun had gone down and decided to go check out lord nelson's hotel & brewery, argued to be the oldest hotel in sydney. the trusty guidebook suggested we try lord nelson's home brewed Quayle Ale, named after the former US vice president who had once enjoyed a beer at the same spot.

as we made our way back to circular quay, night time sydney was alive with elaborate light displays. we had unknowingly planned our trip during vivid sydney, a two and a half week long festival of light and music. every night, various buildings and installations were colorfully illuminated.

a smoking red orb.. interesting

the best display was hands-down the opera house. we walked back up to the bridge avoid the crowds down at circular quay and were rewarded with the best views of the light show. it was so cool watching the colors and patterns dance along the roof - we are still mystified as to how the light can be projected so perfectly along its contours. 

what an incredible city! although we only really walked around for just a day, i feel like katrina & i got a strong sense of what sydney is like. this trip was pretty impulsive- we decided to come down not really knowing what to expect, and i am 100% glad we did. 

the next day we were off to manly beach for surfing and hiking..

mountain air

katrina & i arrived in sydney on thursday evening after a quick 2.5 hour plane ride south. finding out way to our hostel was easy and we were instantly impressed by sydney's efficient (and clean!) city rail system. however, we were not as impressed by our hostel, located in eastern sydney in an area called king's cross. while we had been warned that king's cross was a notoriously sketchy area, the only crimes i witnessed were the club-goer's trashy outfits. the streets were mainly filled with hostels, clubs & restaurants - backpacker central. 

our roomy 8-person room. 90% sure the dude sleeping below me was semi-permanently moved in. we quickly escaped and met up with our friend andrew to grab dinner. 

after eating st. mark's sad attempt at pad thai too many times, we were desperate to find some real thai food. luckily we wandered by three different thai restaurants within two blocks and took our pick!

SO GOOD. i can't wait to get back to LA and get back to eating thai food regularly (and chinese and japanese and vietnamese and really anything but the food served at st. marks)..

after a delicious dinner, we were pretty exhausted (katrina maybe more so after pulling an all nighter to finish a paper the night before) and attempted to get to sleep early. easier said than done.. for some reason the guy in the bunk below me thought it was acceptable to return at 3am  with friends. that's what you get when you stay in a hostel! 

friday morning we woke up super early to pick up our rental car and drive out west to the blue mountains. after getting mildly lost in the city thanks to my lack of navigational skills, we reached the open road of the great western highway - and katrina was finally able to breathe after a stressful first time driving on the opposite side of the road.

our sweet ride

first stop: leura

we stopped off in the town of leura first to grab a coffee. it truly felt like autumn here, and the small town reminded me of classic new england. we would've loved to stay a while longer and walk around, but we had a pre-determined strict schedule of hiking to stick to!

after perusing the internet and my guidebook (which would later prove to be invaluable) we chose the prince henry cliff walk as our first hike. the blue mountains are named aptly- a blue haze floats above the tree line, caused by sunlight reflecting off the oil released by the vast amount of eucalyptus trees. i was mesmerized by the broad cliffs and valleys carved out by an ancient sea. the hike took around two hours, winding us along the edges of cliffs and offering the most gorgeous views on the way from leura to katoomba.

felt so good to breathe in the crisp mountain air - it was a perfect cool day for hiking. i hadn't realized until then that i had been missing fall weather.

we truly felt like we were in another world

bridal veil falls

so many ferns, felt like we were in jurassic park waiting for the dinosaurs to appear

at the end of the cliff walk we made it to the three sisters, an iconic rock formation i had been eager to see through my own eyes.

so beautiful! 

the three sisters overlooking jamison valley

necessary tourist pic of katrina & i

we had made it to the end of the hike, but now we had a dilemma - the trail back would take another few hours and we needed to get back to the car soon so that we would have enough time for our next hike. naturally, we hitchhiked! i used my american charm and ended up just confusing a friendly australian dad and his daughter into thinking we were lost - luckily he agreed to give us a lift back to the car park in leura. 

next stop: blackheath, a town just a short drive north of katoomba

here we stopped at evan's lookout, overlooking grose river valley and the start point for the grand canyon hike. very unlike the grand canyon of the USA, this trail took us deep down to the mossy valley floor. 

view from evan's lookout

descending into the canyon

felt like we must have walked down millions of stairs. going down was easy - ascending was not so fun...

as we hiked through the canyon, we heard running water all around. every so often we would come across a waterfall.

we walked under and around towering rocks and over creeks

view of a narrow slot canyon, presumably extremely deep

the further we descended, the darker it got

at one point we got to walk through a dark tunnel

katrina doing her best cave face

sunlight eventually returned to us as we made our way back out of the canyon. going up was brutal, but the epic experience was so worth it. 

unfortunately we only had our car for a day, and thus had to get back to sydney that night. there is just never enough time.. we spent the rest of the evening watching a beautiful sunset over the mountains and attempting to find an abandoned railroad tunnel that is now home to cave glow worms. glow worms are possibly the coolest thing EVER, so we were really invested in finding this magical place. however, we ended up just driving around in circles through this town called lithgow that we now had a deep hatred for. 

it was an easy drive back to sydney, but once we got back into the city it was pretty intense navigating around the hordes of people and cars. at one point we went through a police check point and i got breathalyzed for the first time, exciting stuff!!! walking back to our hostel we witnessed more of the class of king's cross as a rat was literally kicked out of a club onto the sidewalk. 

sunday : exploring sydney (to come in the next post)