Sydney Travelogue Part I

Because Sydney had been a blast, I have decided to document down all the things that we had done! We went on an 8D7N trip to Sydney a week after my FYP oral presentation! And we have been waiting for this trip since last year! We got our tickets booked last December during Qantas sale. Managed to seal the deal at $697! Initially we wanted to go with budget airline but realize that the difference is about a hundred. It was going to be a long flight (8 hours) to Sydney; we thought Qantas would be good since meals will be served and we don’t have to worry about going hungry. Took the redeye flight for the first time, and didn’t manage to get much sleep. Landed at 9am (Sydney timing), that’s actually SGT 7am. I’m glad that we came at the right time! It’s autumn in Sydney now, so temperature ranges from 10-18 degrees Celsius. 

Phone card
Phone card with data is a must for us! We headed to the Optus booth to get our numbers before heading off to our hotel. For $2/day, you get to have unlimited calls, unlimited messages and 500MB worth of data! It’s definitely more than enough for you to load your Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Google Map! 

Transport
We purchased the MyMulti3 card as recommended by my friend. 
They have 2 types of cards: 

1. Opal (which works like our Ez-link card)
2. MyMulti Pass (a concession pass that gets you around the city in all forms of public transport.) It ranges from 1-3 and we got MyMulti3 as it covers us for a week! We were really glad that we bought the concession ticket because during the trip we were really spontaneous and most of the time we were hopping on and off the train! So there are 4 types of Public transport in Sydney; the normal train, bus, Light Rail and Ferry! The ferry is a must take! We took it in the daytime, night time as well as before the sun sets! The pass is only AUD$65 excluding the airport pass.

Their double decker train! 

The view is gorgeous and it’s super windy! The train ride from the airport to our hotel was only 30 minutes! Checked in our luggage and made our way to the nearest mall for lunch. Because we were staying in the CBD area, most of the shops were close. Our first stop was Ding Tai Fung, we had been to most of the Ding Tai Fung in the countries that we have been to so far! Sadly, the one in Sydney isn’t up to standard even though food was prepared by Chinese chefs.

Accommodation
The hotel we were staying at is Vibe Hotel! Super good location and clean! For a 4 stars hotel, we managed to book this hotel via Agoda at just $120+! Quite a steal! We figured that the best time to book your hotel would be weekdays!
On the last night, we stayed in this service apartment located at Townhall. Slightly more expensive than Vibe, but it's a 5 stars apartment at a price of $180. 

Our hotel lobby! 

After that, we went strolling around and chance upon Belmore Park. It’s my first time seeing park like this and it kind of amaze me. I only get to see this in movies and shows and now I get to see it with my own eyes! So photo is definitely a must! The weather was so cooling and walking around feels good. Since it wasn’t early, we headed off to Oxford Street to the Paddington Market. It’s a Saturday market that is open from 10am to 4pm. It’s quite similar to the flea concept in Singapore, but most of the products that were sold are handmade. Definitely worth a visit and the stretch of shops along Oxford Street is also a must walk! It’s mainly their designer brands and things that we don’t usually get to see in Sg. Really glad that the weather was really cooling even though there was Sun, otherwise walking would definitely be a NO and we would had probably miss all the good things. We did not realize we were already near our hotel after walking for so long. Probably everything was worth looking at, and making it enjoyable. The sky in Sydney starts turning dark at 430-5pm. By 5pm, everything is already like 8pm in Singapore. So throughout the trip, we ended up having dinner at 6pm-7pm (4pm SGT) because we couldn’t tell what the time was.

Belmore Park! 

Paddington Market! 

So dinner for Day 1 was at Chur Burger! It’s one of the recommended burger bar and there were really lots of locals in the bar. Not really my kind of food I guess. But the price is reasonable!

DAY 2

Woke up early on Sunday morning and headed over to The Rocks for breakfast! Breakfast was at Pancake on the Rock. They have a few outlets in Sydney but the one at The Rocks is open 24/7! It’s quite easy to get to The Rocks from the Central station. Probably a 5-10 minutes walk. We took longer than that because we kept stopping to have photos taken. First time there, so we were really excited to see all the nice architecture and scenery. Thanks to BF for all the nice OOTDs taken! J

Breakfast served!!

The reason for us to have breakfast over here was for The Rocks market that’s only opened during the weekends! Headed over to The Rocks market after breakfast! It has a similar concept as Paddington market. I really love how chilly the weather is! We just kept walking and walking for the next hour without knowing where we were heading. And we ended up at the Pitt Street Mall, Queen Victoria Building and the other shopping areas. This is where all the shopping malls are located! Like Topshop, Pandora, Uniqlo, and all the usual branded stores! Time flies when we were walking and exploring our surrounding, and we were back to the usual question of where should we go for lunch? Took us quite while to decide and that’s how we managed to chance upon Hyde Park! And I swear this is by far the most beautiful architecture that I have seen in real life! Maybe because I haven’t get to see the rest of the world? But this is definitely picturesque.

Settled lunch over at some Vietnamese restaurant and it was my first time having Viet food! Huge portion and it tastes good! Heard that Australia has really good churros and decided to give San Churros a try but it was quite disappointing.. Either we over ordered or the churros were too oily. After 2 sticks, I already feel like puking… Oh the one we had is located at Harbourside Shopping Center. But I guess this is one mall that not many would want to explore; there is nothing much inside the mall. But if you want to have some nice food or view, there are really many restaurants and bars located right outside of the mall! Because the period we were there coincides with Vivid Sydney, we managed to catch some light and music show! Not too bad and it’s really creative! And this place is only a 10 minutes walk from our hotel!