People from Sydney call themselves Sydneysiders. For a people who so lovingly shorten even the most benign of bi-syllabic words, its surprising that these slickers chose to add on when nicknaming themselves. None the less, 'Siders is what they are, and we traveled amongst them.
Our time in Sydney was fast and furious. Ed and I spent one day on our own, scaling the Cremorne/Mosman peninsula. Sydney is so hilly its not uncommon to walk a straight-up staircase to get from one major roadway to another. Our first day, we hiked around the water line for about 4.5 hours. I literally had shin splints the next day. And I'm literally using the word literally correctly. For once.
The next morning my Mom arrived from NZ. We crammed the lonely planet top 10 into 2 short days together. From what we had heard about Sydney, we were expecting a business-y, buttoned up, not our scene city. In actuality, Sydney is colorful, interesting and has a ton on offer. When we return we're planning to stay for at least a week to take advantage of the top notch food, the groovy neighborhoods, and the excellent surf schools. Hopefully I can talk Ed in to seeing an opera too. I'll wear my fanciest Birkenstocks.
The 48 hour Sydney circuit went something like this. Day 1 we took the ferry from Mosman, where we stayed, to Circular Quay (pronounced "key" for reasons unknown). We strolled the market at the Rocks, walked up and looked out from the harbor bridge, had brewskis at one of the country's oldest pubs, and obligatorily posed for this:
Day 2 we did a coastal hike from Bondi to Coogee Beaches. Bondi is hip - hot girls, gorgeous graffiti and hard bodies abound. We ate giant burgers and, smartly, stayed fully clothed in post. There's a nifty outdoor market in Bondi on the weekends where people hock more-interesting-than-usual crap so we trinketed and then set about walking off the beef. The weather was relatively uncooperative but we were undeterred. Fortunately, the storms only encouraged the surfers who were out in full force and full wetsuits for our entertainment.
The railing for the walk is visible in the top left - the whole thing is about 4 miles long:
Non-sequitur... Having now spent time on several sections of Australian coast, we've been surprised to note how many cemeteries are perched on peaks overlooking the sea. We've guessed that this has to do with the incredible number of ship wrecks in Australia's history and its general sea-faringness. In any case, dead folks get some prime real estate in this country.
And back to the plot... We spent the our last night together at a truly fantastic Japanese joint in Mosman called Toshiya. The food in Sydney, on balance, was consistently the best we've had here. For all of Melbourne's braggery about being the food capital of Australia, we had some shit meals there. We literally didn't have one misstep in Sydney, even when my Mom (bold call) ordered eggs Benedict at the ferry dock cafe in Mosman.
The gang at Toshiya. I'm shocked that the sushi chef behind us didn't throw out a peace sign):
Thanks for coming to the other side of the world to see us, Mom. It was the best.
Our time in Sydney was fast and furious. Ed and I spent one day on our own, scaling the Cremorne/Mosman peninsula. Sydney is so hilly its not uncommon to walk a straight-up staircase to get from one major roadway to another. Our first day, we hiked around the water line for about 4.5 hours. I literally had shin splints the next day. And I'm literally using the word literally correctly. For once.
The next morning my Mom arrived from NZ. We crammed the lonely planet top 10 into 2 short days together. From what we had heard about Sydney, we were expecting a business-y, buttoned up, not our scene city. In actuality, Sydney is colorful, interesting and has a ton on offer. When we return we're planning to stay for at least a week to take advantage of the top notch food, the groovy neighborhoods, and the excellent surf schools. Hopefully I can talk Ed in to seeing an opera too. I'll wear my fanciest Birkenstocks.
The 48 hour Sydney circuit went something like this. Day 1 we took the ferry from Mosman, where we stayed, to Circular Quay (pronounced "key" for reasons unknown). We strolled the market at the Rocks, walked up and looked out from the harbor bridge, had brewskis at one of the country's oldest pubs, and obligatorily posed for this:
Day 2 we did a coastal hike from Bondi to Coogee Beaches. Bondi is hip - hot girls, gorgeous graffiti and hard bodies abound. We ate giant burgers and, smartly, stayed fully clothed in post. There's a nifty outdoor market in Bondi on the weekends where people hock more-interesting-than-usual crap so we trinketed and then set about walking off the beef. The weather was relatively uncooperative but we were undeterred. Fortunately, the storms only encouraged the surfers who were out in full force and full wetsuits for our entertainment.
The railing for the walk is visible in the top left - the whole thing is about 4 miles long:
Non-sequitur... Having now spent time on several sections of Australian coast, we've been surprised to note how many cemeteries are perched on peaks overlooking the sea. We've guessed that this has to do with the incredible number of ship wrecks in Australia's history and its general sea-faringness. In any case, dead folks get some prime real estate in this country.
And back to the plot... We spent the our last night together at a truly fantastic Japanese joint in Mosman called Toshiya. The food in Sydney, on balance, was consistently the best we've had here. For all of Melbourne's braggery about being the food capital of Australia, we had some shit meals there. We literally didn't have one misstep in Sydney, even when my Mom (bold call) ordered eggs Benedict at the ferry dock cafe in Mosman.
The gang at Toshiya. I'm shocked that the sushi chef behind us didn't throw out a peace sign):
Thanks for coming to the other side of the world to see us, Mom. It was the best.
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