Hi readers! This is the next chapter of our Australian adventures. This is a quick chapter, as I’ll be focusing on the the second day in Sydney.
Day #2 – Bondi Beach, The Rocks, Chinatown
Waking up from a really long sleep, we set out fairly early in the morning for our first destination of the day – Bondi Beach. To make things simple, we just grabbed an Uber from our hotel, as it wasn’t incredibly expensive. In Sydney there is public transportation called “Opal,” but we were a little hesitant to use it, as we didn’t completely understand the routes. As well, we didn’t want to spend a bunch of time towards commuting so Uber was the way to go!
We rolled into the beach for a quick breakfast (note – we totally played a tourist card and had breakfast at Hungry Jack’s, which is the Aussie Burger King. I don’t care; it was great, greasy food) and then started the coastal walk down the beach. The walk spanned a total of 6 miles (out and back) and provided us extremely picturesque portraits. It was, however, a very hot walk and was thankful for a quick sprinkle at the end towards our next destination – The Rocks. An interesting thing to note – Aussies are really into lawn ball, which is a mixture of bocce ball and bowling. During our time walking on the coastal walk, we passed by a couple lawn ball courts, where several individuals were indulging in a quick game.
The Rocks is a central shopping district that acts as a layover stop for major cruises. Nothing super unique to write home about, other than good food, pretty scenery on the other side of the harbor (opposite from the Sydney Opera House), and moderately affordable souvenir shops. We took some time walking around and grabbing lunch (Spicy Noodle – really tasty fast casual pad thai spot), and then starting a further walking tour of our own. After exiting the initial tourist area, we took a quick walk around the harbor to walk by all the major hotels on the pier as well as their centralized mall. It was nice to walk around and smell the sea air.
Awesome pad thai!!
We continued walking, taking a quick coffee break at one of the pier docks due to a pop-up shower. Once the rain cleared we continued walking around the Oceanside through Barangaroo Park, and then eventually snaked our way to Chinatown.
Chinatown was a cool spot that centered on their main building, Paddy’s Market. Paddy’s Market was a really cool spot that spanned over four floors of shops, restaurants, and arcade games. The bottom floor acted as a no-frills flea market, which was really fun to walk through and pick out cheap gifts for friends and family members.
Entrance to Paddy’s Market
At this point we were pretty tired, and made our way back to the hotel. We stopped for a quick bite at a close-by Irish pub, and then got some early sleep for our first tour of the trip. In total, we ended up walking 17 miles across the city that day – we were exhausted, but very satisfied with our own walking tour.
Till next time readers!
Happy Husband 🙂
Life In Wandering 