Sydney: Day 1

After our wee taster of some of the magic Sydney has to offer last night, we awoke keen to get out and explore more. And boy did we!

Our first stop was breakfast, it’s the first time in a while that we’ve not had it included in our hotel so we went in search for something tasty. We did what any clear thinking person would do: we found some pastries the size of our heads and sat down to enjoy our haul in a sunny park.

We were thoroughly enjoying our brekkie, surrounded by small birds chirping away. Suddenly they scattered, and I was wondering what the rush would be when this guy came strutting round the corner…

After only some mild expletives from me, we gobbled our pastries down fast! Although the Ibis actually seemed pretty chilled out and quite happy to hang about until we were done.

If David Attenborough could interject here, he would tell you that the Australian White Ibis is native to the marshes of Australia and only moved to the cities of the east coast in the 1970s. They’re about as popular as the Aberdonian Seagull but their need to move into urban areas is a warning sign of their natural habitat.

With breakfast done we headed to the Botanic Gardens, having passed them on our way to the viewpoint the evening before, we decided they looked nice enough for an exploration in themselves. So breakfast done we continued on our way.

 

We were wandering without specific intent when we realised we were close to the shore line, and sure enough, we were soon confronted with an excellent view!

We were so close to the opera house it would have been rude not to go along and see it up close.

Something that is very apparent in Sydney is the general outdoorsy attitude to fitness, this is of course excellent, but guilt inducing when you’re busy eating your own weight in pastry on a Sunday morning. We realised very quickly however, that it was further heightened today with the Sydney Marathon taking place.

The finish line was at the opera house and by the time we arrived it seemed like most people had crossed the line. With cheers erupting from everyone in the area when a new person was nearing the line, there was definitely an excellent community spirit.

As we climbed the steps and neared the building it felt almost unbelievable that I was within touching distance (I totally touched it) of something so iconic. Growing up in Britain, this world famous building (and by extension Australia) was always seen as about as far away as one could get while staying on the planet and yet here it stood in front of us.

I hadn’t really thought about what materials were used in the Sydney Opera House but seeing it in detail was a surprise!

The views of harbour bridge and the surrounding area were spectacular too!

Having enough of my all round elegance and gracefulness we decided to move on and find our way to actually crossing the bridge ourselves.

On our way to the pedestrian entrance we stumbled across The Rocks Market which was something that had been recommended to us, but in true Opal & Smoke fashion, we happened upon perchance.

We spent some time wandering around the market and resisting the urge to splurge (mostly on roast chestnuts) and rounded a corner to meet the stairs that would take us to the bridge.

The bridge is about 1.1km across so it’s quite a nice walk and an easy way to see the other side of Sydney.

All of this walking and jumping had gotten our appetites up so as soon as we’d reached dry land we went in search for lunch.

After becoming happily accustomed to South East Asian prices, the luxury of eating out multiple times a day has diminished so we may a stop to a supermarket to make up our own picnic. This is actually a welcome change for us as we enjoy any opportunity to spend time outside and Sydney’s abundance of parks makes this a very easy task! …also eating out that much is probably not best for the waistlines…

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering from park to park, and along the waterside through leafy suburbia in North Sydney.

A particular favourite for us was Wendy’s Secret Park, nestled near the railway and some of the more cosmopolitan spots of North Sydney, this really was a little secret quiet corner of green.

We also enjoyed Blue’s Point which had a real seaside feel to it and provided more beautiful views of the bay.

As the sun began to dip slightly lower we decided to head back over to the south side and make our way slowly back to the hotel (or dinner.)

Dinner was at a cosy little Italian place near the hotel and we figured after our day of record breaking distances (33,000 steps or about 22km according to our phones) we deserved some ice cream!

And with that we were off to sleep to rest our weary legs!

Hatti x