Sydney!

So we've been off the grid for a bit - but now we're back, and ready to update you on our adventures in Australia. Our total trip was 17 days, including flights, but we spent the first 6 in Sydney, then 11 days in Cairns with a four day trip on a dive boat, so we'll break the blog posts up along those lines.

We flew out of HCMC on Wednesday, the 3rd of August, in the afternoon. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, but I'm glad we did because the lines to check in were horrendous! We waited in line for nearly 90 minutes as a variety of people in front of us unpacked and repacked their bags to make luggage limits.  We did make friends with some Danes in line though. We made it to our gate with barely enough time to catch our flight to Singapore. We got in to Singapore in the late evening and tried to check in for our next leg only to be told we needed to apply for a visa! We felt understandably silly for not realizing we needed one, but the process is quick, painless, and entirely online, so it only took about 30 minutes to complete. We then had a few hours in the Singapore airport, which is very clean, orderly, and easy to navigate, until our midnight departure to Sydney. We arrived in Sydney at around 10 on Thursday morning. Both flights were fine, very full, and a little cramped, but no screaming babies.

From the airport it was an easy, if expensive ($17.50 each!!), subway ride to our AirBnb in the neighborhood of Woolloomooloo. Our AirBnb in Sydney was fabulous! We had views of the harbor, bridge, and opera house, and our hosts were very friendly. One was a Brazilian man getting his PhD in nutrition and the other was an Australian woman who is a personal trainer. They weren't around much because of work, but it was great to have a kitchen and laundry to use, and Chris got to talk about mountain biking with them.

Day 1 - Thursday Afternoon - Sightseeing

Once we were checked in and settled, our first stop was Foodcraft, a small cafe in Erskineville, which is well known for it's Tella Ball Milkshakes. They were out of Tella Balls, which are basically doughnut holes filled with Nutella, but I got a milkshake anyway and it came with a Nutella waffle on top! We also got sandwiches, tandoori chicken for her and cheese sausage for him, and they were both delicious.

From left to right: tandoori chicken sandwich, Nutella milkshake, cheese sausage sandwich

After stuffing our faces, and taking some leftovers to go, we walked back up to central Sydney to see Mrs. MacQuarie's chair, the opera house, and the bridge. Mrs. MacQuarie's chair is a rock perch overlooking the harbor which was enjoyed by the wife of Governor MacQuarie. The governor had the perch carved for his wife in 1810, and then a road cleared through the bush to it between 1813 and 1818. It features a lovely walk through the Sydney Botanical Gardens and The Domain to get to it and is an excellent spot to take photos from.

After our eating and walking and sightseeing we were pretty well worn out and headed back to the AirBnb for an early night. We didn't catch much sleep on our overnight flight and the bed at the AirBnb was possibly one of the nicest ones either of us has ever slept in.

Day 2 - Friday - Blue Mountains

We had an early morning on Friday, we were up at 6 to be picked up at 7 for a tour of the Blue Mountains. We went with Sydney Great Escapes and had an excellent time. Our pickup was prompt and our tour guide was very friendly. We were in a small group with three other Americans - a mother daughter pair from SoCal and a Navy virologist from Puerto Rico - and a family of four from Nice, France. Our first stop was Featherdale Wildlife park. We were there right as the doors opened, and we were the first ones in. Featherdale features a variety of Australian animals, and lots of opportunities for feeding and petting. We got to pet a Koala, and feed some pretty aggressive wallabies and kangaroos - one even tried to bite through Chris' jacket to see if he had food! Kim had really hoped to see some quokkas, but it was drizzly and chilly, so both they and the wombats were hiding in their nests. The dingoes were out an about though, as were many of the birds. Apparently in New South Wales, the state Sydney is in, you can keep a dingo as a pet, just like a dog.

Clockwise from top left: Chris feeds Wallabies, Koala, Kim feeds Wallabies, Dingo

After the wildlife sanctuary we made our way into the mountains. It was still pretty rainy, so instead of hiking about in the mud, we drove around some back roads looking for wild kangaroos. We found lots, as well as a variety of wallabies and emus. Lunch was at a tiny hotel in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. It was fine - mostly food of the pub variety. Once we were all done with lunch we headed further up into the mountains towards Katoomba Scenic World. We stopped to look at Katoomba falls, and then headed further up the mountain towards the cable cars. While the rest of the people in our group opted to take the cable cars down into the forest, Chris and I chose to walk along side of the canyon to the three sisters rock formation. It is a beautiful walk with woods to one side and beautiful views across the other. Unlike the Grand Canyon, the gorges through the blue mountains aren't formed by any particular river. Instead they are from the gradual erosion of the sandstone by rain.

Top: a panoramic with Katoomba falls on the far right
Bottom: The Three Sisters rock formation

Our day ended with a drive down the mountains to a ferry, and a river ride back to Circular Quay in Sydney Harbor. Back in Sydney we headed down to China Town and happened upon a street festival. We loaded up on dim sum and Emperors Garden Cream Puffs before heading back to the AirBnb for some shut eye.

Freshly made cream puff - hot off the pan

Day 3 - Saturday - Bondi to Bronte

Saturday morning we had a bit of a lie in preparation for another day of walking. Instead of cereal and milk for breakfast we held off for a big brunch at Speedos cafe at Bondi beach. It was another cold, drizzly day, so the cafe was packed (although there was no shortage of swimmers in the 65-70 degree water!). Kim had an excellent green smoothie and Pokemon themed cronut, and Chris had a full English style breakfast. The food was delicious, but it was super cramped, and very noisy.

Left: English Breakfast, Right: Pokemon Cronut

A fortifying brunch in our bellies, we set off on our 3km coastal walk. Given the rain it was pretty empty, so we didn't have to contend with too many other people, but it was a lot of stairs and hills, especially to get around parts of the walk damaged by a recent storm. The full walk took us about an hour, with plenty of stops for goofy photos. But also given the rain we were pretty well done with being outside by the end of it so we took a bus home.

Left: Bondi Beach, Right: Chris falls off a cliff

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the AirBnb before we headed to a local place called Waterman's Lobster Co. for dinner. We had, as can be expected, lobster rolls. We did one with just butter and lemon and the other with mayo and celery and they were both delicious. Even the sides, brussels sprouts and mac and cheese, were on point. We didn't take any pictures because we ate it all too fast!

Day 4 - Sunday - Church, Australia Museum, Cat Cafe

Sunday donned sunny, if not exactly warm, and we made the short walk into downtown to attend St. Mary's Cathedral for mass. St. Mary's is an imposing hulk of sandstone done in the Gothic style, with less detail, but construction wasn't started on the building until 1869 and it wasn't complete in its present form until 2000. The inside is dark and cold, and if it weren't for the sandstone it could have been April in some 13th century church in Europe. The mass was nice, if somewhat poorly attended, and afterwards we had a nice wander around to see the windows or the arches built in honor of various dead people from the 1800s.

We made it out of the Cathedral just in time to miss the giant tour of Chinese adolescents on its way in to sightsee in order to go for brunch. We stopped for brunch at Bahista, a cafe on the opposite side of Hyde Park from the Cathedral. Most things in Sydney still bear the names of of their British colonial past, the state Sydney is located in is New South Wales. Brunch was good: Turkish eggs Benedict and a green smoothie for her, English breakfast and a coffee for him, though it wasn't $50 good, which is what it set us back. Everything in Australia was outrageously expensive, even more so that Europe or the US, and made only slightly more bearable by the $0.75 to $1.00 AUD to USD exchange rate.

Brunch accomplished, we wandered back across the park to the Australian Museum. It holds the distinction of being the first museum on Australian soil, and holds true to its 18th century roots with its catch all exhibits of Australian history, geology, and zoology. There were many exhibits featuring rows and rows of insects, birds, or rocks, meticulously labeled and otherwise unidentified with function, location, or value. The features on the Aboriginal way of life, which were somewhat newer, were excellent, but the exhibit on dinosaurs were forgettable. While modern Australia holds the distinction of some of the world's most unique flora and fauna, prehistoric Australia appears to have been much the same as the rest of the world. We did, however enjoy the exhibits on all of the deadly Australian animals roaming the sea and land, especially the great barrier reef - which we were looking forward to visiting. While we did spend nearly four hours in the Australian museum, I'm not sure that I would recommend it on itineraries for others. It is a great catch all museum if one is in Sydney for only a day or two, but longer stays allow visits to the many varied and more specific attractions like the Hyde Park Barracks, the Maritime Museum, the Taronga Zoo, or the Aquarium.

Having explored the Australian Museum top to bottom we made our way south on the metro to the real highlight of the day: the Sydney Catmosphere Cat Cafe. We have been desperately missing our own feline, Naboo, and as such took the time to visit Sydney's only Cat Cafe, which is like a regular cafe with coffee and drinks, but it also has cats to snuggle, play with, and pet. We enjoyed a full hour in a room with 12 beautiful felines and only four other human guests. You have to make reservations ahead of time to maintain an optimal human to cat ratio as generally only two or three cats are interested in interacting at any one time. I sat most of the hour next to a sleeping cat who graciously allowed be to pet her. Cat cafes are springing up all over the world, and there is even one in Saigon which we are bound to check out soon. 

Beauties from the Cat Cafe

Our cat needs briefly sated we went next door for tacos. They were fine, if a bit pricy at $6 a taco. From the Mexican themed bar we went on an adventure for dessert. We first walked the three quarters of a mile back to china town for cream puffs, which were as delicious as the first time, and the line was slightly shorter. Also, they're three for a dollar, so you can't beat the price - we got six. We then walked an additional mile to Darling Harbor, where we alighted at San Churro, a chain outfit specializing in, you guessed it, churros. We enjoyed ours with Nutella and salted caramel sauce. Having eaten a half dozen cream puffs and a half dozen churros between the two of us, we were ready for the mile and a half walk home. I'm certain even three miles of walking doesn't cover the calories we ate, but both the cream puffs and the churros were well worth it and we had both a sugar coma and exhaustion from walking to lull us to sleep that night. 

Day 5 - The Taronga Zoo

I would like to say Monday got off to an early start, but by the time we left the house it was nearly 10am. It then took us almost an hour and a half to pick up lunch at the grocery store, walk to circular quay, get cash, and top up our opal cards. Sydney has recently switched to refillable plastic cards instead of paper tickets for basically all passengers and has drastically reduced the number of machines issuing single ride paper tickets. It just so happens that the single ride ticket machines are also the only machines that let you top up your opal card, which we had, with cash, and our credit card refused to work at any of the credit card top up kiosks. So we waited for nearly 20 minutes in line with other tourists at the singular working cash machine to top up our cards. By the time we had accomplished that we had missed the ferry and had to wait an additional half hour. As such, by the time we made it through the 20 minute ferry ride and the line to buy tickets into the zoo we were ready to stop for our picnic lunch. 

The zoo as a whole was pleasant. Not nearly as exciting as the Featherdale wildlife park because we couldn't touch any of the animals, and the big cats exhibits were all closed, but we did get to see some tree kangaroos and walk through a lemur enclosure. There were also penguins and seals as well as the typical elephants, bears, and giraffes. It was an exceedingly pleasant day with little rain and not too many other patrons. 

Clockwise from top left: giraffes, a baby gorilla rides on it's mother's back, mountain goats

After the zoo, and on our last night in Sydney we went for Italian at a local place not too far from where we had previously had lobster. Fratelli Paradiso is a cozy Italian place with a small menu waiters with Italian accents. We were seated close enough to our neighbors that we could have eaten off of their plates if we had wanted to. While nothing can beat the food we had in Italy itself, the food was very good, and very filling. We split two different pasta dishes, one of which had Tasmanian truffles in it, and the rolls were endlessly resupplied. Having stuffed our faces with carbs we stopped for a more pure sugar on the way home: ice cream. Good Times Artisan Ice Cream actually serves soft serve, but its the toppings that really steal the show. Kim had one with caramel filled chocolates and Chris had one with cheesecake bites. 

Day 6 - On to Cairns

Tuesday was simply a travel day, we packed up our stuff and took a morning flight to Cairns (pronounced Cans) where we checked into another AirBnB. Generally we traveled without issue, except for the brief hiccup where Chris accidentally pushed the button on the kiosk that said we were flying with banned substances like weapons and aerosols. All this necessitated was a trip to the almost empty check in counter (basically everyone was just using the automated kiosks) where the Quantas agent laughed at our mistake and quickly issued us our boarding passes. 

Thanks for following our adventures (or at least looking at the photos) and please feel free to leave comments and questions! We'll follow up shortly with another post about our adventures in Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. We are in fact back to HCMC now to renew our Vietnamese visas, and will be on to Nha Trang within a week or so to continue teaching. 

-Chris and Kim

**Disclaimer, all travel is funded by us personally. Fundraised moneys were used exclusively for costs related to missionary work.