Australia: Bondai Beach and Music Awards

Sculpture by the Sea

Sunday, Nov 7:  After two days of rain, it was finally a sunny and hot day in Sydney!  We got takeaway coffee at Room 10 and walked around the cute Kings Cross weekend market.  We then walked to Oxford Street to catch a bus to Bronte Beach, which sits on Nelson Bay.  Now this is the Australia you see on television and postcards - home to one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world!  Room 10 suggested we do the coastal walk to Bondi beach which was STUNNING!!! And we were lucky to be there during the "Sculpture by the Sea" - Australia's largest annual outdoor sculpture exhibition displaying over 100 sculptures by artists from around the world.  They were set up beautifully along the coastal walk that we wandered along.  In the middle of it, Stephanie and I stopped at a cliff ledge overlooking the beach and surfers to eat our lunch. 

Bondi Beach

Bondi beach is one of the best beaches in the world and is about one kilometer long.  We walked down along the graffitied walls and onto the hot, sunny beach where we laid down and soaked in the cosmic rays for a few hours.  Once we had had enough sun, we ate at the Sushi Train.  Different plates of sushi and Asian food came around on a conveyor belt and we had to pick the plates we wanted.  We had so much fun here.  I got called out on using my chopsticks incorrectly.  Meanwhile Steph was using her fingers.  Not fair.

We caught a bus back to Kings Cross and walked to the Sydney Opera House to see the ARIA music awards.  We settled down by the water where we got a pretty good view of the steps and stage.  Everything was lit up, there were tons of people, and we got to hear some bands play.  Steph and I dubbed today "call out Shona day" because first the chopsticks, then I got called out for standing on the bench taking pictures, and some random guy passed while I was yawning and said "why are you yawning?  It's still early!" Steph and I laugh way too much :)

ARIA music awards

So after an awesome display of fireworks over the harbour, we went back to our hostel where we had another horrible night sleep with our disrespectful French roommates ...  But it couldn't damper our moods too much after another awesome day.

Australia: Macaron Day

Saturday, Nov. 6:  This morning the streets were literally flooding with rain.  We hung out until it dried up a bit and then went to Room 10 where we ate yummy sandwiches and free banana blueberry smoothies while talking about skydiving. 

Soon we walked though the beautiful botanic gardens to Sydney Harbour.  There was a lot of commotion around the Opera House and we found out they were setting up for the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) awards which would be held Sunday night.  Steph and I decided we would return here to witness this grand event.  We are so lucky we came this week!

We ventured through the Rocks market where I bought tea and a didgeridoo and boomerang made by aboriginals.  I cannot wait to learn how to play the didgeridoo! 

Didgeridoo

Ferry to Balmain

Then, following Room 10's suggestion, we caught the ferry to Balmain.  We had amazing views of the Sydney Harbour from the ferry.  Balmain is a cute, artsy suburb peninsula where we found Adriano Zumbo patisserie.  Zumbo is renowned for his creative genius when it comes to cakes, pastries, and macarons.  He has been featured on Australia's Masterchef TV show!!  We just happened to come on his birthday and the famous macaron day!  Totally serendipitous.  With unusual flavours such as Salted Butter Popcorn, Toothpaste, Vegemite Sourdough, Beer and Nuts, Blue Cheese and Burnt Toast, making a choice was no easy task. Flyers listing the various flavours were handed out so people had ample time to make a choice before stepping into the patisserie which was cleared of the usual desserts to make way for the mountains of macarons. 

We split ten different flavours and slowly indulged in them at a nearby cafe.  Our list in favourite order is:  Salted milk chocolate caramel, peanut butter and jelly, milo, coconut, yogurt chilli tangerine, blood and chocolate, cucumber mint yoghurt, burnt toast, strawberry bubblegum, and salmon. 

Adriano Zumbo Macarons

We got the ferry back and walked to the Sydney Centrepoint Tower.  We were hoping to go up to the bar at the top an because we heard there are spectacular views.  However although we were wearing nice dresses, the snobs wouldn't let us up because we were wearing flipflops.  Not cool.  So we decided to leave and chill at O'Malley's Irish Pub which was fun.

Our first day in the land down under

Wednesday, Nov. 3: Schools out for the summer!!!  Wednesday night Steph, Court, Cathy, Max, and I ate at Space of Love.  Again, I love this place.  We had amazing vegetarian mince pie, spirulina smoothies, hot chai, sweet and sour salad, and this crazy carrot dessert.  That night we said our goodbyes to Max, Lindsey, Jess, and Sarah :( ... then Steph, Cathy, Court and I hung out in my room, watched hot rod, and laughed so much.

Leaving beautiful NZ for Australia

Thursday, Nov 4: All of Steph and my crazy planning was somewhat complete as we headed to the airport 4 am Thursday morning.  Right away we got good vibes from the Aussie people.  However, we did hit a bump in the road when we arrived at our hostel in Kings Cross and they told us they overbooked.  They sent us to a different hostel called Kanga House Backpackers.  Worst travel experience of my life.  The hostel and reception was nice but the inmates were extremely rude and awful.  We hated going back there every night and couldn't get out of it without losing money.  But we did not allow this to ruin our trip because the rest of Australia was incredible.

After we dumped our bags into our room, we wandered the streets of Kings Cross and came across a cafe called Room 10.  This was one of the best choices ever because it became our haven after every night at Kanga House.  We had amazing banana bread as the guys told us about cool things to do in Sydney.

On our way to the grocery store, we passed by a table raising money for the para-olympics.  We almost didn't stop but we felt good vibes so we wandered over.  The two guys were super nice and we talked to them for so long about more things we can do in Sydney!

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbour Bridge

After that we walked to the Sydney Harbour where we found the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.  It was all so much more epic than I imagined or saw on TV!  We walked up to and inside the Opera House and then across the Bridge.  It began to torrential downpour on our way across the bridge so we caught a train back to Wooloomooloo.  Here we went to the famous Harry's Cafe de Wheels.  It is a caravan cafe that serves the best meat pies I have ever tasted ... and has served so many celebrities!