Sydney! Sydney!

Sydney Opera House

Mid 2011 two of our good friends, another couple from our Ireland days, moved to Brisbane. Now that we're practically neighbours again, we thought it would be a good idea to catch up some time. K (the lady half of the pair) suggested we meet up in Sydney instead of Brisbane for two reasons -- 1. There's not that much to do in Brisbane, and 2. So I can knock that off my ailing 2011 bucket list -- perfect!

It was September of 2011 and off we went! After a quick three hour flight from Auckland we were finally in Sydney and making our way to the domestic terminal to meet up with K and P (the other half of the pair). After the hugs and hellos, we were on our way to the city.

First stop, the harbour bridge, the opera house, and some much needed breakfast. This part of the tour, we did in the usual Filipino way. We came, we saw, and we ate! We didn't bother finding our way onto the bridge, or even attempted to walk into the opera house -- in our usual metropolitan appreciation of things we stood on prime real estate with the landmarks in the background and snapped photos. There. Tour over. Now where's the food??

All jokes aside, I do find it funny how I am blissfully content to be the observer and hardly ever participate. I've been to the Louvre and was literally zipping through everything happy to glimpse what everyone else is raving about and eager to move on to the next exhibit. PIC is the opposite. He appreciates the history, the back story and everything else you can observe with all your senses. You can tell, who the more cerebral of our pair is...

Anyway, the harbor bridge was literally just another bridge for me. If I were to do a pageant just for city bridges, I'd still put the Golden Gate way on top of the list. The Sydney Opera House on the other hand had its own charm. Seeing it live, it felt larger than life, it wasn't as big as I thought it was (like most landmarks it seems) but it definitely had character. We all saw it in daylight, which to many edifices is like a lady caught without make up -- you always want to see the evening version of a building when the black sky offers the best backdrop and the lights make everything pretty. Even though, the opera house held its own and to me felt chic and classy. All this, from our few minutes outside while taking a million pictures.

Sydney Harbor Bridge

After breakfast, we decided to take a city tour with the ever reliable hop-on-hop-off double decker bus. Folks, if you are in Sydney for the first time, I think you'll survive without this ride. I don't recall seeing anything uber memorable on this ride or anything not easily accessible through public transport. It did save us from the ridiculously hot day though... and at some stage I think we all nodded off during the trip. It was so reminiscent of jeepney rides in Manila under the sweltering tropic sun and succumbing to the siesta stupor that comes with these types of hot humid weather.

Inside the QVC Mall

With most of our day almost gone, we needed to make sure we made the most of the rest of it - so hello QVC and the rest of the shopping district. It was so good to have this old set up back - while K and I shopped, the men occupied themselves catching up, talking about everything and nothing at the same time. This was one of the main advantages of this friendship. K & I easily have the same shopping habits. We may not buy the same stuff, but we certainly shop in a very similar fashion. Our husbands on the other hand, gripe and complain in a very similar fashion too. Well whoopty doo. So imagine our immense joy when we first discovered that as long as the men were left in a corner of the mall or store, they can pretty much talk till kingdom comes and wont realize what we women were up to until we came back with our shopping bags. The nice thing about this endless chatter between the men is that this set up actually holds through multiple stores and ends only when the grumpier one (PIC) is either hungry or tired. As luck would have it, this arrangement applies internationally. It worked in Dublin, and worked just as beautifully in Sydney. Awesome.

Shopping bug temporarily satisfied, that was the end of day 1. Some must see spots in the city seen, half paid attention to the city bus tour, and capped the night early. Embarrassing as it is to admit, I was so drained by the day I actually slept through my intended "nap" and left PIC, K and P to have dinner on their own. Lucky our friends weren't offended as they assure PIC that they were similarly done for the day and the trio ended up having dinner at the hotel for the ease of it.

PIC giving me the evil eye for not letting him nap

We had an early, coffee deprived start on Day 2. We found a trip on Viator that combined a trip to the Blue Mountains and a trip to a wildlife park. Now, PIC and P are both big animal fans, while K and I are fans by association so the wildlife park was a sure hit from the get go.

Good thing it was an hour or so drive, our quartet at least got to nap while on the bus. Once there, SLRs out and the non stop clicking began.

The 3 Sisters - unfogged

First we tried for a stop at Echo Point to see the Three Sisters, but alas. The ridiculously sunny weather of yesterday was gone, replaced by damp and thick thick fog. Not even shadows of the Three Sisters could be seen. Oh well, at least we get an excuse to come back again.

Next we were off to Scenic World, to trek through the Katoomba rainforest and coal mine (well we never really went into the mines, but saw the entrance and walked around it at least). This was a nice relaxing trek, lots of scenery to shoot, but no firm activity really apart from the leisurely walk around the mountain. We did get to see a glimpse of the falls despite the fog while on the skywalk (a tram with glass floors), ride the ridiculously steep Katoomba Scenic Railway, and the cable car - again through the fog.

Just as I was beginning to wonder if I led K & P astray by bringing them onto this trek through fog, we reach Featherdale park and things start looking up. As soon as you enter the park there were "free range" wallabies, birds, koalas, peacocks and whatnot roaming the grounds. It wasn't too crowded and there wasn't a shortage of animals to see either. This part of the trip I think more than made up for the fog stressed morning we've had so far. Although I did shriek publicly at least three times on this trip. Once when I thought a wallaby was going to attack me, another when I was up close with a lizard and PIC pretended there was one on my neck, and a last one when I thought a koala was about to jump my head. This last one was particularly embarrassing as I had the old lady beside me chuckling and telling me it doesn't bite. Yea grandma, keep telling yourself that...

Touchscreen Menu!

And that my friends was how we spent Day 2. For dinner we ended up in this small place in Chinatown that allowed you to place your order from your table, with no server, via touchscreen technology. C'mon do it with me --- oooooooo, grooooovyyy... Food was good and we were happy.

Day 3 was much simpler compared to our first two. K & P had to be at the airport in the afternoon so we opted to just stay in the city and explore by foot. Did a bit more shopping, then ended up spending a few hours at a cafe stuffing our faces with delectable pastry.

Really, when time is precious few, all you need is good company and the rest can fade away. It was a quick trip, and while we were happy to see each other again, it was also sad that two and half days wasn't enough to exchange all our stories. Not to worry though, I hear from K that there is a chance they'll be over for Easter weekend soon. Rotovegas here we come!