After Tasmania, we flew into Sydney!
We were ready to hit the big city of Australia and see the famous Sydney Opera House!
We rented an AirBnB in an area of the city called Glebe. The location was fantastic and it had an incredible view of the city!
On our first day, we decided to head straight for the Sydney Opera House. Before we started exploring, however, we stopped in for lunch at the Opera Bar right next to Opera House. It had a patio, a view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and was right on the water.
Well, welcome to Sydney!
I couldn’t have been happier when Kevin returned to our table with a bottle of champagne to get the afternoon started!
God, I love that man. It’s like he knows what I am thinking without me even having to say it.
After a delicious lunch and some bubbles, it was time to explore the Sydney Opera House and its surrounding area.
We took in our first views while walking up the steps of the Opera House. While you could tell how massive it was staring up at its door step, from there you could not appreciate the full size of the building.
We needed to see more views!
So, we walked over to the Royal Botanic Gardens located next to the Opera House to see if from another angle.
For the first park of our walk, we enjoyed the greenery and tranquility offered from a city park. It’s always nice to take in some nature, especially when you are in the middle of a large city. We also enjoyed some sites along the way like the Government House shown above. Pretty cool looking government building, if you ask me!
After a bit of a stroll, we finally caught our first great view of the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge from a distance.
Just as I suspected, it is far more impressive a little further away! From a distance, we could finally appreciate the full size of the building.
After the Gardens, we headed through The Rocks neighbourhood, an area across the Sydney Cove closer to the Sydney Habour Bridgemto catch more great views!
It was an excellent first day exploring in Sydney! After all the walking around, we ended our day at a German Beer House and ordered ourselves a couple of 1/2 litre beers.
With rain on and off throughout the rest of the week, we found ourselves taking a few easy days to get caught up on our photos, the blog, and watching “Making a Murderer” on out condo’s Apple TV!
NOTE: if you have not seen the show yet, it gets very addicting.
The rain also gave me some extra time to research our restaurant options near our place in Glebe. I mean, rain or shine, you have to eat!
What I discovered was one of our favourite restaurants during our travels: Na Zdrowie.
Now, Kevin and I have many things in common. I think that is how we can spend 24 hours a day together and continue to get along. Not to mention, we both think we are pretty funny. Keeps us laughing all day!
Anyway, one thing that we both LOVE are pierogies. In fact, Kevin and I love them so much, we have decided to make them a Shieffer family tradition for major holidays. Last Christmas Eve, we dedicated the whole day to making pierogies from scratch! We even made enough pierogies for breakfast, lunch and dinner for a WEEK. Also, Kevin totally nailed the dough. He must of channeled his inner Polish heritage some how. They were the best I have ever had.
Until Na Zdrowie.
We both ordered the white cheese and potato with fried onions and sour cream. Oh, and I can’t forget the side of Kosher pickles and Polish beers. Best way to wash them down.
They were perfect. Somehow they managed to infuse the flavour of caramelized onions within the pierogi stuffing. I can’t wait to try and replicate it next Christmas… Maybe sooner.
For now, all we knew was we needed to come back for more!
So, before we finished our meal, I booked us in for Easter Monday…. No wait, Dyngus Day!
Turns out the upcoming Monday was a fun, Polish holiday celebrated on the Monday after Easter. Apparently, the tradition on the holiday is for boys to drench girls with water through the use of squirt guns, buckets or any other container they can get their hands on. It’s also tradition to hit ladies on the legs with pussy willows.
Wait, what?!
Kevin didn’t dare pull any of those moves, but if eating pierogies was going to be a Sheiffer family tradition on holidays, we could definitely celebrate Dyngus Day by eating heaps of those amazing little dumplings!
Mmmmm….. And they were just as good the second time around. So good, we ordered another plate when we were done our first order..
After a bunch of rain and pierogies, we lucked out with sunshine for our last day in Sydney. We decided it was time to hit the beach!
Bondi Beach to be exact.
This trendy beach neighbourhood was a great way to spend our afternoon. We checked out the beaches, dipped our feet in the water, and soaked in the views of young kids running along the beaches with their surf boards ready to catch a wave.
Australia really is a cool place.
Not to mention the beach was organized for everyone to enjoy. At the edge of the beach was a wading pool sculpted in the rocks for families. We walked around it and loved how the crash of waves fed into the sculpted pool.
I love turquoise water.
Better yet, on the other side of the beach, there was a swim club with a pool alongside the shore. I would love to swim laps while soaking in the views of the ocean. I thought this was amazing!
Bondi beach also has an amazing paved path that weaves along the shore for those that are looking to soak in the sights or get some exercise at the beach. We loved this too!
Finally, for those who want to just hang at the beach, there is a row of restaurants and pubs along the boardwalk to enjoy!
Overall, Bondi beach was a perfect way to end our week in Sydney!
While we did not explore much due to timing and rain, it was a great place to recharge for our upcoming adventures in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Fraser Island.
We had a feeling we would find the best beaches of our trip on the Gold Coast or Fraser Island. Bondi Beach was good, but I still thought Australia could do better.
So, bring it on, Australia. Bring it on.
