Thursday, July 25, 2013

P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney

Sydney is city I've been wanting to visit ever since I watched Marlin the clown fish try to find his beloved son Nemo. This past weekend Ben and I ventured out to the capital city of New South Wales, just a short and inexpensive flight away from Melbourne. We didn't have any luck finding P. Sherman or 42 Wallaby Way but we sure had a great time exploring the city home to some of the world's most iconic landmarks. As an added bonus I got to catch up with one of my oldest friends from home, Kelsey, who was in Sydney with her boyfriend!

While the infamous Sydney Harbour gets a lot of hype (and rightly so!) one of my favourite places we visited over the weekend was Darling Harbour. Great restaurants and lots of places to sit out in the sun - what's not to love?






But as I said, Sydney Harbour is obviously famous for a reason. It was pretty spectacular to see, especially on such a gorgeous (winter!) day.



None of us felt like dropping the $200 it costs to climb the Harbour Bridge itself so we settled on paying $10 to climb the southeast tower, which still gave us some killer views. The tower also had a great exhibit about how the bridge was built. Ben and I definitely found the bridge's history interesting but my friend Kelsey and her boyfriend, who are both civil engineers, were like kids in a candy store.



On Friday the four of us took a short ferry over to Manly Beach, one of Australia's most famous beaches. The weather wasn't the best but it didn't deter the locals from surfing one bit! I can only imagine how crazy Manly must get during the summer...




We got the ferry back into Sydney just as the sun was setting, which made for some stunning views.




On our last full day together we headed out to Bondi Beach, another well-known Sydney surf beach. The boys decided to rent boards and try to catch a few waves while Kelsey and I cheered them on from shore.





On our last day Kelsey and her boyfriend both had early flights to catch, which left Ben and I on our own. Without doing much research we decided to take a ferry ride around the Harbour and ended up at the seaside community of Watson's Bay, a place neither of us had heard of before but that turned out to be absolutely gorgeous (enhanced by the fact that we couldn't have asked for better weather!)


After wandering around Watson's Bay for a little while, we hopped back on the ferry and made our way to Sydney's Taronga Zoo. I won't bore you with all the shots I took of the animals but can you believe the views the giraffes get?!


After our last jam-packed day in Sydney it was time to jump on the plane and head back 'home'. 

While Sydney is a fabulous city that definitely has a wow-factor for tourists like myself, visiting it made me glad I chose Melbourne to live in. In spite of everything it has to offer, Sydney is a big city that in my opinion, lacks the character, charm and quaint cafes that make Melbourne such a special place. Guess I know where I stand on the Sydney vs. Melbourne debate! 


Still, the photos say it all: Sydney is simply a must-see city for anyone visiting Australia!

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