Sydney Part 1 (Day 1 & 2 Hop on Hop Off Bus Tour)

Initially, I was I don’t know I was a bit under whelmed, I am not sure why, I think I have been hugely spoilt on this trip with beauty over-load, however, and before there is a huge outcry lol, I found Sydney to be a grower and it sneaked into my pores and converted me. (To be fair it was pretty grey and was raining which didn’t help)

What a way to end my trip, the experience in Sydney just grew and grew for me and was enormously enhanced by my new friend Andrea. Being able to share this together rather than be on my own in this big city was a huge bonus.

We just clicked on this east coast trip with g-adventures and I hope that we will remain friends, albeit from a distance with some occasional hook ups for many years to come. Andrea has lived just outside Toronto from her mid-twenties, she was born and educated in Hungary, warm, funny and kind just my sort of human.

We get on the road early and head out to see if we can find some Kangaroo’s on the University grounds in the east of the city, however, instead of the usual numbers there were only 3, so off to the city we go.

I am booked at the Ridges which is very close to Central Station, Really good location and if only I liked beer, right beside the Surry Hill’s Brewery.

We get checked in, most of the group are doing the Big bus tour ie hop on hop off. Andrea & I have decided to split from the group today and do our own thing, we end up deciding on going for the 2 day option.

We get off at the 2nd Stop from Central to go into the Fish market, my expectations of a fish market were exceedingly low, I could not have been more wrong it was an eye feast and fabulous, just such a buzz around the place, we had lunch in the Boat Shed, we choose 2 mornay Oysters and half a lobster from Peter’s and then ordered crab claws from The Boatshed and ate the lot in there …..YUMMY! The choice was incredible and some fairly scary options!

This was what we chose:

This is what was available and I am sure there was much much more that I have missed:

Back to the bus, we get off at China Town which was fairly uninspiring, however the little jewel was the Chinese gardens they were gorgeous, only 12 dollars to enter. The rain eases and finally ceases enabling us to truly enjoy this lovely space.

Andrea and I didn’t do the detail and dilly dallied through the gardens and walked down under the Harbour Bridge to the Rocks, had a nice coffee/tea and headed off to the next bus stop, actually ran to catch what we thought was the next bus….duh! lots of people getting off, it was only 4.30 pm no more bus today, well all we could do was laugh! Sunday Service Oopsie!

It turned out that we were very close to Circular Quay where we glimpse of the Opera House for the first time together, very soon we have a proper view of the bridge , the opera house and the iconic skyline.