Everyday is a G’Day in Sydney, Australia!

Let’s throw another post on the blog! We made it to Sydney, Australia! After spending six amazing weeks roughing it in New Zealand we were pretty excited to see bright lights and tall buildings again. Australia has always been a country we’ve wanted to visit and what better place to start than the most populous city on the continent.

Prior to arriving in Australia, we spent our last night in New Zealand laying on beanbag chairs in an airport lounge watching the entire third season of House of Cards.

Frank Underwood 2016!

To say we were a little bit tired when we first arrived would be an understatement, so as soon as we checked into our hotel we did the obvious thing… walked to the closest farmers market to stuff our faces! Not even being exhausted can stop our inner fat kid. The real reason why we went to the Eveleigh Market right after arriving is that it was only open until 1:00PM on Saturdays and we had to check it out.

This was another one of those instances where the food alone was worth the trip, but to make things even cooler the markets held in a heritage listed railway workshop. Going to a farmers market tired and hungry is a bad decision when you’re traveling on a budget. As soon as we walked in we started buying anything and everything we could get our hands on. Cheese steaks, chocolate croissants, crepes, blocks of feta cheese, weird fruits we had never heard of, all the free samples in sight, we ate it all and consequently spent all the cash in our pockets… but it was worth it!

When we finally woke up from our food coma the next day we decided it was time to do some exploring in downtown Sydney. Since we had spent all our cash on the first day, we figured this would be a great time to do a free walking tour around the city. A big thank you to Justine (name twin!), our tour guide and one of the founders of I’m Free walking tours. For being a free tour we were blown away by how great of an experience it was. It’s a three hour tour that takes you across most of Sydney and gives you a great feel for the city and it’s history. Some of our favorite places that we stopped were Hyde Park, Martin Place, Australia Square Food Court, Circular Quay, and The Rocks.

After our tour we immediately hopped on a historic tall ship and sailed around the Sydney Harbour. We did a little time traveling and got to sail on the Southern Swan (not to be mistaken for Elizabeth Swan), a Denmark ship build in the early 1900’s that was part of the bicentennial voyage from England to Australia. The more you know! If that doesn’t interest you, there was an open bar and lunch was included. We sailed around the harbour for two hours, getting great views of the Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the city itself. Our guide was also very informative, giving us a run down of the local and maritime history.

Once we returned from our afternoon at sea, we walked over to the Opera Bar to hangout with the Aussies (probably more tourists than locals). Although it’s a crowded bar, we felt like we had to get a drink at one of the more iconic bars in Australia.

At this point in the trip we had been traveling with each other for nearly two solid months, living out of our tiny tent, and hardly having a minute to ourselves. We weren’t getting on each others nerves yet, but thought it was important to have some alone time. Even at home we make sure that we have some time apart to do our own thing.

Our relationship guide book will be coming out in December 2016… Be sure to pre-order!

So for our LMFAT (Leave Me the Fuck Alone Time) Justine went to check out the Opera House and take a walk through the Botanical Gardens while I went to a strip club zoo. No really, I did go to the Taronga Zoo and have pictures to prove it.

While in the past few cities we visited I have wanted to check out the local zoo (cause I’m cool like that) but we just haven’t had time to squeeze it in. I figured what better thing to do during our LMFAT than go hangout with some big cats. The Taronga Zoo is just a short ferry ride leaving from Circular Quay and located on a hill with great views of Sydney. It’s a massive 52 acre zoo with over 4,000 animals so it’s easy to spend an entire day walking around. My personal favorites were the lions, tigers and koala bears oh my!

While I was spending my day trying to avoid becoming part of an 8th grade class trip, Justine was doing the lady like thing of wandering around The Royal Botanic Garden and third wheeling it with strangers as she toured the Opera House. Her favorite part of the Gardens was making her way up to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair to get an unique view of Sydney. While on the Opera House tour, she was more memorized by the tour guides perfect radio voice than the actual Opera House itself. I leave her alone for a few hours and she’s already trying to pick up old men.

After our few hours apart we met back up at our hostel in Kings Cross, which is known as the Red Light District and has lots of great clubs and bars. Thanks to our good friend, Cronny AKA Cron Snow, we had a list of several bars to check out. Our two favorites were World Bar and Sweethearts Rooftop Barbecue. If you’re looking to get down in the club, World Bar is the place to go. We enjoyed a long-island iced teapot… yup, they serve you drinks out of teapots and they’re awesome! If you’re just looking for a casual place to have a drink or two head over to Sweethearts, they have great deals on pitchers of sangria!

After a night out on the town we figured we could use a more relaxing day and decided to take the train to Bondi Beach. Side note: Don’t be like us and walk to the beach. There are shuttles running every few minutes right outside the train station.

One of the many things we really love about Sydney is that it has the big city feel but is also just a short train ride away from amazing beaches. Bondi is probably the most famous and well known beach near Sydney and rightfully so. It’s an awesome little town filled with great restaurants and tons of shops. We ate dinner at Hurricane’s Grill and had some of the best ribs we’ve had in a long time! There is also a great walk that we did from Bondi to Coogee, which is an easy and beautiful 6 km coastal trail. At the end be sure to get a drink at Coogee Bay Hotel. Another great recommendation from Cron Snow!

Being our first stop in Australia, Sydney set the bar high! Of all the cities we’ve traveled to, this ranks right up there with the best of them.

What’s your favorite city to travel to?