Our third day in Sydney and we again did anything but what we’d planned. We had a leisurely breakfast and then walked to Darling Harbour to catch the ferry to Circular Quay. It’s quite a pleasant little 25 minute ride across the harbour, going past Luna Park where most of the families with kids got off. Of course I had to take the odd photo or two along the way:
From here we caught the bus to Bondi Beach. I don’t think Bondi is particularly representative of our beaches being packed with people like European beaches! But you can’t come to Sydney without going to check it out.
The first thing we did when we got here, though, was get a coffee fix. I have my priorities after all. The cafes facing the beach were packed out and were quite expensive. We found a little cafe on the corner which had more reasonable prices and had people sitting on milk crates on the footpath. The coffee was great though!
After this we went looking for the Seafood Restaurant Ela wanted to go to for lunch. It was more a fish and chips joint, but had won prizes for its fish & chips. Once we’d found it and had settled on our lunch-stop, we went down to the beach. We came past beautiful tiled seats and planters which I had to photograph, and then Ela went onto the beach while I wandered around on the concrete above and took photos:
Then we had lunch at the fish & chips place. I had swordfish and chips, which was very nice. Ela had the half-lobster mornay with chips for $18.50. It was very nice. So was my swordfish ;-)
We had toyed with the idea of going to Vaucluse House after lunch but Ela was keen on seeing the Chinese Friendship Garden, so we went there instead. I had never seen it this crowded. But it was nice to see quite a few people, especially families, getting into costume. The jade wedding procession that used to be in the QVB and was now supposed to be here is sadly reduced. Now it’s only the carriage itself (the bride and groom and their costumes are gone) and that is behind hip high dirty glass and is itself covered in dirt and spiderwebs. I didn’t want to put up photos of it in this sorry state:
We had a pot of tea each – one of oolong and one of Pu Erh tea, as well as some Chinese specialty sweets. It was all new for Ela and wasn’t outrageously expensive either at $11 for the lot.
We had about 2 hours to kill before meeting up with David and Kyla at Circular Quay, so we wandered through Darling Harbour a little. Ela went to get changed into warmer clothes, while I took advantage of the fantastic golden light of this time of day and took too many photos:
We met up at the ferry station at Darling Harbour (Pyrmont) to ride back to Circular Quay again. I took photos again (how could I resist!?!?) as the city lit up around us:
Once back on dry land, I had the chance to set up my camera for some long exposures while we waited for David and Kyla to arrive at Circular Quay. Not as many photos since they were all 15 – 25 second exposures:
We had a nice dinner at the Paragon Hotel, a place Kyla and David knew they could eat at without worrying about their various allergies and intolerances. I was good and had a haloumi salad (which was really, really, really salty), while Ela had the lamb wraps, which were a lot nicer. David’s steak looked great, as did Kyla’s fish and chips.
We wandered around the harbour in the direction of The Rocks, but since it was a ‘school night’, David and Kyla headed home soon after. Ela and I ended up having 45 minutes to kill so went to the City Extra for a hot chocolate because it was quite cold and windy outside. I would not recommend the hot chocolate. It was sickly sweet and at $5.60, rather expensive. Ela couldn’t even drink hers because it was so cloying. I forced mine down but regretted the nausea later.
Then it was off on the last ferry to Darling Harbour at 9.55pm. I only took a very few photos then since I’d already photographed most of the sights earlier. But not quite so dark with so many lights:
When we arrived at Pyrmont, we couldn’t actually go the way we had come earlier in the day – I assume it’s because the Maritime Museum was closed. We ended up having to walk through the back streets and car parks, but at least it got us out of the cold wind!
