My Trip to Sydney, Australia

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Day 1: Circular Quay and Sydney Opera House

After a long night flight, we arrived in Sydney, Australia (though it was 1 pm in the afternoon). After we got through customs, we took a taxi to Hyde Park Inn which is conveniently located across the street from Museum Cityrail station. Our room fit all four of us and also had a kitchen which was good because we ate breakfast in our room every day. (This helped us save money because food in Australia was expensive!) The hotel overlooked Hyde Park.

After we got unpacked, we went to Museum Station, the station looked like the New York or London subway. It was older and had a nice high ceiling. The trains were commuter trains and had two levels plus they had conductor that blew a whistle. I liked this quaint station and trains, but our Australian friends complained that the public transit infrastructure was old and creaky.

We rode the train to Circular Quay station where the Sydney Opera house was located.

The Sydney Opera house looked futuristic from a distance, but as we got closer, I realized they used lots of concrete and it somehow didn't look quite as fancy as it did from far away. In fact, I was unimpressed because it really was old-looking. The thing with iconic architecture is you see it in photographs so much that when you see it in person, somehow it doesn't live up to all the hype. But I liked the way the building looked from different angles because it looked like mountain peaks. I think the building was designed to be viewed at a distance from the water.

In general, the architecture in Sydney was nothing special. The buildings were blocky and probably built circa 1960s and 70s and kind of reminded me of US cities rather than the brand-new Asian cities.

After the Opera house, we went to the Royal Botanic Gardens. At the gardens, we saw these strange looking birds with long thin beaks, they looked kind of like giant mosquitos, except that the birds was very friendly and didn't bother us, even when we went up close.

Day 2: Taronga Zoo

On day 2, we took the Cityrail train to Circular Quay and hopped on one of the old ferries to Taronga Zoo. Once we got there, we went and looked at the koalas. At the Koala exhibit there was this weird porcupine that walked like a penguin on four legs. The koalas were very cute but they all seemed annoyed, but that was understandable because they sleep 20 hours a day. But we did see one Koala with a baby in its pouch. Also, you are no longer allowed to hold the koalas because they have passed a law against it since it was stressing the animals out.

Then we saw the kangaroos, we saw one walking (not hopping) around by pulling itself with its front legs. But the only reason why he came out was to finish off what was left of his lunch. We also saw a couple wallabies walking about and the only animal in there that did not seem annoyed was the Emu, but even he could've been annoyed.

Then we walked to a cafe to have lunch, but it was kind of strange because they had a sign in front of it saying "Save the fish" and one of the only things on the menu was Fish 'n' Chips. I ate fish and chips anyway.

Then we saw this weird furry chicken, a couple spiders, a snake, and a few insects. We walked over to see the elephants. Unfortunately for my Mom, she was wearing this brand-new hat and a gust of wind (there was a big cloud coming in) blew the hat into the brownish water of the elephant pool (my brother called it the elephant poop pool, which might've been somewhat true.) We managed to fish it out but afterwards it smelled like elephant poop and nobody wanted to hold it.

After that we saw a few lonely looking seals and went to the ferry terminal to go back to Circular Quay and downtown Sydney. The zoo was not the best zoo I've been to but the view of Sydney harbor was nice.



Day 3: Hike Bondi Beach to Bronte Beach



After my Mom washed the hat a few times, it didn't smell so bad (but my brother, who has a very good nose said it still smelled like elephant poop.) So she decided to wear it to the famous Bondi beach. We took Bus 180 from our hotel in Hyde Park to Bondi Beach and it took a lot longer than everyone thought.

Once we were at Bondi, we did this hike over a headland to Bronte Beach and it was a very nice hike and had plenty of good views, but half-way through my brother complained that his legs hurt (even though he runs around and plays soccer every day) so we turned around.



When we got to Bondi, I built a Sand City but it kept getting washed away by the sea so we built a giant wall. At lunch time we ate at this cafe with lots of menacing-looking seagulls on top of every pole or streetlamp and some not-so menacing thin pigeons wandering on the floor. Every time someone left, all the birds in the cafe would converge on the table and they would fight over it until one bird and not much was left (basically, all that was left was a leafy green and the plate.) The birds are like my brother who doesn't like vegetables!



Day 4: Paddington Market



Today we went to a Paddington market where there was all this art at really cheap prices and we ate some yummy Himalayan kebabs. We walked around Paddington Street's cute old terrace houses with wrought-iron balconies, built around the mid 1800s. My mom said it reminded her of New Orleans. Later we picked up our rental car downtown and drove up to our friend's house in Saint Ives, near Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park, where we went on a quick hike. There were some cool trees with squiggly lines that looked like graffiti or art but actually were made by parasites that live in the tree trunks. There were also some aboriginal rock carvings. Although it struck me that the whole time I was in Australia, I didn't see a single Aborgini person.



Day 5: Boat Ride and tubing in Sydney harbor



On Day 5 we took our friends boat to middle harbor and we saw an old ammunition shelter, and the Spit Bridge. Soon we arrived in the main harbor and we went to Shark Island and walked all the way around it. Then we saw downtown Sydney, the Opera house and went under the Sydney Harbor bridge. At lunch time we stopped at a fish and chips place and got some food to go. Then we went to a beach and I built two sand cities. After that we went tubing.

Day 6: Surf lessons at Manly Beach

On Day 6, we left our friends house to go to Manly Beach. We stayed at the Novotel on Manly Beach, it was a decent hotel facing the ocean. At Manly I built a city on the beach and had Surf Lessons. That night we went on a walk to the other side of the Manly peninsula, facing the Sydney harbor.

Day 7-11: Rent a Beach Cabin on the South Coast (Bateman's Bay)

On Day 7 we left Manly and drove 6 hours down the coast to a beach cabin we had rented near Bateman's Bay, bordering the Murramarang National Park and Maloneys Beach. By that time it was already so late so we didn't go to the beach, but there was a herd of kangaroos (about fifty) grazing on the grass near our cabin and we watched them.

On Day 8 we went to Pebbly Beach and hiked to Snake bay. On the hike I saw another beach, but this one was made out of pebbles so I wonder if they got confused about which beach they saw and called the sandy one Pebbly Beach. Anyway Pebbly beach has some nice surf so we went boogie boarding. When we were building on Pebbly beach (the sandy one), we got a call that said our friends were here, so my Mom must've mistaken the date for another day and so we went back to our cabin and made a big city at the beach there.



On Day 9 we went to another beach and I made the 2nd Biggest Sand City I ever made, it had 5 subway lines and expanded over an area of around 40 sq. meters. Down on the South Coast of Australia, there were endless white sand beaches with hardly any people even on Easter weekend. The weather was sunny and hot about 28 C every day during our visit in March, only just at the end, the weather turned cooler. I recommend March as a good time to go since the weather was still warm but the tourist sights were not as busy and hotels not as pricey.



On Day 10 we went to Durras beach, and I built a big city and built a giant tunnel underneath it. Durras was a nice white sand beach with great surf so we went boogie boarding and did some surfing on our friend's board. This was my Dad's favorite beach, it reminded him of Hawaii and Northern California but without the people!



On Day 11 we had to leave and we drove 5 hours back to Sydney airport.

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Photos

Kangaroos
Kangaroos in our backyard of the cabin

Maloneys Beach, South Coast Australia
Beach near our cabin