We landed in Sydney with no great expectations. We had heard Australia was a nice place, some of our friends completely fell in love with it but we didn’t think it would be for us. The main reason for our quick stop over was to see the Opera House as this was Alex’s main request for this trip. It is also the only way for us to travel from South America to Asia. But it is winter here and we knew it wouldn’t be the best time to visit the country.
But somehow we fell in love with Sydney straight away. A beautiful young, dynamic, creative city, with sun and sea. A perfect version of London! We stayed in an airbnb near Hyde Park. The area was full of funky little cafes and restaurants. We quickly discovered Buster Brown on Crown Street, where we met Dominic, a French chef that never went back home. We walked everywhere and our first stop was the Opera house. Alex was delighted as this was the one sight he had asked to see during this trip. He was however somewhat disappointed when we found out that we couldn’t get in to visit as it was closed. We walked to Darling harbour, one of Sydney popular hot spot and, on some passer-by’s recommendation, we found a great little playground with water games for the boys. We visited Sydney aquarium, which is I must say the most impressive one we’ve ever seen: the sharks tunnel is the best we have come across and there were plenty of animals to be spotted and even touched! We visited the little zoo, own by the same company but were very disappointed: beside a massive alligator, there was not much to see there. We walked to The Rocks, an old part of the town and down the commercial streets where we discovered beautiful old little galleries, amongst which the elegant and nostalgic The Strand and further on the Victoria’s Building, a beautiful building dating from the late 1800’s . In fact, everywhere in the city, we found beautiful remains of British architecture, like the Old Hopital, the Old Government House, Hyde Park barracks, ….
It was winter in Australia and the weather was not great but this didn’t stop us from walking everywhere. Armed with our umbrellas we strolled through Hyde Park, walked to the bridges. On the nice days we stopped for coffee on the steps of the Opera House and a light lunch on the parade along Darling Harbour, what a pleasant city!
We decided to extend our stay and to stay an additional three days and took the opportunity to go and visit the Blue Mountains. We rented a car and did a three hour drive west of Sydney. We visited the delightful little town of Leura and checked into the Three Sisters Motel in Kattoomba. Ranj had a flash back and recalled his trip to America as a young man. The following day was grey but we decided to go an see the Three Sisters, a three-peaks rock near the small town. The fog was so dense we could not see further than 20 meters and we decided to head on a small trek instead. We ended up walking for over three hours: we walked down a eight hundred step steep staircase leading us to the bottom of the valley from where we headed to a waterfall. At the bottom of the cliff, the Valley is a true jungle and we walked amidst the tall trees, bamboos, giant ferns and eucalyptus trees, following a little muddy path running all the way along the bottom of the valley. One part of the walk was under the suspended rock of the mountain, and we felt like proper explorers. After 5 kilometres or so we reach the busier side of the valley, the Scenic World, where a cable car and a funicular are available to go up and down and across the valley offering a beautiful of the 3 peaks.
After the beautiful little trip out of the city, we made the most of our rented car and headed to Watson Bay, the furthest bay on the Sydney Eastern side. Recommended by our friend Julie, this place is a little jewel of a hideaway: a beautiful beach, surrounded by coffee shops and seafood restaurants, with a little park and a view Point where you can see the 2 sides of the bay. We had fresh seafood at the deck of the famous Doyles restaurant, on a gorgeous hot summer day, with everyone nibbling on seafood or sipping on a cool drink whilst enjoying the park and the beach. The perfect ending for our Australian stay!
A little tour around the World 