Date night

I bought a Living Social a couple weeks ago for pizza and drinks at The Flynn, a bar just a few blocks away from where I work. So we went out tonight for a "free" date night.

Toby met me when I got done with work and we walked up to the bar. It was a pretty cool place, kind of styled like a 1940s American club. It also seemed to be a pretty popular place for after-work drinks and appetizers.

 

We got two kinds of pizza and both had a drink with our voucher. We've only had pizza one other time since we've been here, so it tasted pretty amazing!

This is Toby's "Don't take pictures, just eat" face

We both agreed that we'd put The Flynn on the list of places to go back to.

During dinner we were talking about foods that we missed, and from-a-box macaroni & cheese came up. So on the way home, we detoured by Woolworths to see if they had some. Lucky us, there was one kind - and it was Kraft! I'm crossing my fingers that it tastes the same!

The happiest you'll ever see Toby - holding pizza and Mac & Cheese

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A weekend with Megan - Sunday

As much as I hate to admit it, my activity plans for Saturday might have been a little over-ambitious, so we woke up a little tired on Sunday. It also didn't help that we were woken up at 7 AM on the dot: there was a band playing across the street and they started early and loud! We found out later this was entertainment as part of the Seven Bridges charity walk where participants walk across 7 bridges all over Sydney. Milsons Point is one of the checkpoints along the walk route.

Anyway, the early start to the day was nothing that couldn't be fixed with a little jaunt out to grab some coffee/hot chocolate! Then we took a few minutes and Skyped with family before we headed out for the day.

Darling Harbor & Pyrmont Bay

Our first destination was Darling Harbor, which we reached via another ferry ride. Yay! We took the ferry to one extra stop so we could get off at Pyrmont Bay and walk across the Pyrmont Bridge.

Pyrmont Bridge (and the monorail track)

Models walking the bridge

It just so happened that there was dragonboat racing going on in the harbor as part of a fundraiser. It was pretty cool to show Toby what I had done a few weeks ago! He was properly impressed, and we walked down to watch a race.

Boats finishing a race

Enjoying the race!

Chinese Friendship Garden & Celebrations

When we were done watching dragonboat racing, we headed toward the Chinese Friendship Garden. The Chinese Friendship Garden is basically connected to the harbor area with a series of green spaces and parks, and it was a short, pleasant walk over.

When we got close to the park, we realized something was going on. Unbeknownst to us, it was the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Australia and China, so there was a big celebration going on to commemorate it. We got to see a pretty cool performance going on!

We walked through the booths at the celebration and by the Chinese Friendship Garden, then meandered over through Chinatown.

Surry Hills

After our walk through the parks and Chinatown, we decided to walk up to the Surry Hills neighborhood. Surry Hills is a middle of the road neighborhood with lots of eclectic shops and boutiques, and a good variety of cafes and eateries. I had read about some of the things to check out in the area, so I was excited to spend some time exploring.

Megan and I found lots of cute shops to pop into!

The cutest shop name!

We also stopped in at a pub and got a snack. Lucky for T, a soccer game was on. He was pretty happy!

Pitt Street Shopping

After conquering the shops in Surry Hills, we headed back to the CBD. We walked by Hardy Brothers Jewelers, one of the stores in the company that Megan works for. The store was amazing and had beautiful jewelry displays, so it was fun to window shop. And dream. =)

We also walked by this alley with tons of birdcages hanging from wires strung across the buildings.

We wrapped up the day doing some more shopping in the stores on Pitt Street. Megan pointed out some good clothes shops in the mall that I might like. So yay for future shopping! We also treated ourselves to some macaroons at LaDuree.

After we were totally shopped-out, we headed back to the apartment and Toby fixed us some dinner before Megan had to leave for the airport.

If it sounds like we did a lot of stuff this weekend, we did! We went all over the city and saw a lot of stuff.

Our weekend route

It was a wonderful, full, busy weekend. It was so great to see some family and spend time with someone we love! Hopefully we can see Megan again soon, maybe in Brisbane next time!

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A weekend with Megan - Saturday

My fabulous cousin Megan lives in Brisbane and came to see us this weekend! It was so great to see some family after a month of being here on our own. She graciously came for the whole weekend, even though we have only the bare necessities and put her up on the smallest Ikea couch-turned-bed you'll ever see!

I think we walked about a million miles this weekend and did about fifty things, so I'll try to capture each day so I remember everything. Also, I took many, many pictures, so I'm putting up separate posts for each day so they'll actually upload!

Too bad I already found a dress for the Melbourne Cup

Following a successful airport pickup via the trains on Friday night (yes, I'm very pleased with myself about that!), we kicked off the weekend with a pretty full Saturday. First up: a visit to the Kirribilli Markets right across the street from our apartment. It was pretty much a repeat of the market visit T and I did a couple weeks ago except that I found this gem!

Watsons Bay

Then we headed out on the ferry to Watsons Bay. This is where we went last weekend with Kath, but I loved it so much there that I wanted to explore around more. It was also a lovely, sunny day but not hot, so it was perfect for ferry-riding and coastline-exploring!














When we arrived at Watsons Bay, we headed up the coastline, just wandering through charming neighborhoods and walking in the general direction of where I thought a lighthouse was located.

Bonus bird in the pic!

Sydney city in the background

We eventually came across a national park walkway that had some amazing views...

There was also a nude beach on this route. The views there were less glamorous. =\

We found the lighthouse and I decided it was one of the cutest lighthouses I've ever seen!

The second oldest lighthouse in Sydney, and it's still in operation

We grabbed a bite to eat in one of the little cafes and then walked up to the overlook that runs along the cliffs on one side of the town.

View of the cliffs. We walked to the top of the cliff in this picture.

Our intrepid visitor

View from the top of the cliff of the town of Watsons Bay

There was a race going on that we could see from the top of the cliffs

Then we caught the ferry and headed back to the city.

Opera House & The Rocks

When we got back to land, Megan and I decided we were up for some more touring, but T was done for awhile. He headed home and Megan and I walked over to the Opera House to snap some pics.

I could probably come here every weekend and still be in awe of how amazing this view is

Unfortunately, as we were walking around, a big gust of wind came and took the hat off my head, blew it about 30 feet in the air, and plopped it into the bay. Nooooooo!

Bon voyage, hat =(

Then Megan and hat-less I walked over to The Rocks to check out the Saturday markets. It was really fun to do some browsing with a girl shopping companion. Toby always makes a valiant effort when I'm shopping, but it's just not the same!

Tapas & Wine

After cleaning up and refreshing with some cocktails (thank you for the duty-free alcohol, Megan!!!), we walked over to McMahons Point and had dinner at a little tapas restaurant. My aunt told Megan to treat us to dinner on her, which was really, really nice. (Thank you, Aunt Kaye!) We tried to repay the favor by capturing a picture of our server who had his shirt unbuttoned to a ridiculously low button, which showed off his cleanly waxed chest. It was quite impressive.

You're welcome!

We had a bottle of wine and ordered a few tapas to share. The highlight was probably the haloumi cheese, which is much more popular and easier to find over here. We love this cheese, and it was so good with our meal!

It was a lovely dinner and a perfect end to our fun-packed day!

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Friday fun lunch

On Friday, I met Stephanie and her son Tucker for an early lunch. I met Stephanie through the Draegers a couple weeks ago at the Noodle Night Markets, and found out she lives just about a 20 minute walk from where I work. So she graciously agreed to meet up with me for lunch one day to give me some Sydney living tips and give me something fun to do over a lunch break.

Where else would two American girls meet besides Starbucks?! =) There aren't that many Starbucks here in the city - certainly not as may as you would see in a city in the States. The biggest coffee shop chain in Gloria Jean's, but the majority of the coffee shops seem to be tiny, independent pop-up coffe shops tucked into small spaces between buildings.

Stephanie is a frequent customer at the Starbucks near her apartment (and by frequent, I mean that they know her and her boys by name and they let the kids behind the counter to "help" them work.) We had a nice coffee break lunch and she gave me some more recommendations on things to do in the city, the best doctors, the best grocery stores, all those good kinds of things. I am alway grateful when people save me time and heartache and just tell me the easiest way to get things done here! =)

Anyway, it was a really nice lunch, and - bonus! - I didn't get lost on the way or the way back!.

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Bats!!!

So the past couple of nights, we've been going out to look at bats. And it. has. been. awesome!

Sydney is home to these huge bats called gray-headed flying foxes. We discovered one evening when we were out on a walk that they've been coming to some of the trees nearby to feed at night. (They eat nectar from fruits and flowers.) The first time we saw a bat flying in to land in a tree, we thought it was a big bird, like a crow or raven. But after we heard it make noises and fly over us, we figured out it was a bat!

We did some reading on them that first night after getting back to the apartment. It turns out that there is some history with Sydney and these bats. A big colony used to live in the Royal Botanic Gardens, but the city decided to "move them" when trees started dying because of them. There is some interesting reading about the bat-moving controversy and process, and apparently it was quite a big issue in Sydney for a long time.

Anyway, after learning a little bit about these guys, we decided to go out at dusk the next night and get the full experience. We went out right as it was starting to get dark and picked out a spot by the tree where we'd seen them before. We waited for awhile, and then sure enough, right after it was properly dark, the bats started flying in. At first it was just one by itself. But within the next 10 minutes, they were steadily appearing out of the sky and landing in the tree.

It's hard to describe how cool and big these things look when they come swooping in over your head! They really do look like large birds, but once they get close you can see the bat-shape to their wings.

It was dark where we were watching them, but we could get pretty close to the branches where they were. (They digest food in like 30 minutes, so we didn't get directly under them!) It was so interesting to watch because they would land on a branch and then crawl around on it, hanging upside down with their feet. They were really very active, especially when two ended up on the same branch! That seemed to cause a bat-fight, where there was lots of screeching and rustling, and then sometimes one or both of them would fly out of the tree and circle around.

The screeching was just one of the sound they made - they were very vocal little guys and chirped quite frequently while they were in the tree.

Overall, we stayed out by the trees for a couple hours that night. It was so fascinating, especially when one would take off to circle. I have to admit that I ducked a couple times when one would come flying over really low - they were a little intimidating up close! I also covered my head, just in case there was poop. Preparedness!

Toby said this was his favorite thing we've done in Sydney so far, and I have to admit that it's petty high up on my list too!

We managed to snap a couple pics, but they're not very good. It's much better seen in person, so everybody come on over so you can look at bats with us!

Those are Harbor Bridge lights in the background for a little reference of where we were

Oh, and here's Toby, excitedly waiting for bats.

That's his excited face. 

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I'm a Sydney fashionista!

This morning T told me I was dressed like a Sydney girl. So that made me think about how people here dress a little differently from what we're used to seeing.

If I had to describe the typical style of people here, I might call it "urban hipster" when they're not dressed for work. In general, most people are extremely trendy dressers - there's not a lot of "classic style." (Although, I will say that girls typically wear really cute, flattering dresses.)

One style is universal, and that is skinny jeans. And to take it one step further, a lot girls wear leggings or tights as pants - not just under skirts or dresses.


I went out to snap some pics to back up my story. Here are some pictures from just a few minutes outside.

Skinny jean collage

And here's three in a row!

 

There are also a lot of straight up hipsters.

 

Guys get in on the hipster action too. Toby snapped this gem a couple weeks ago.

 

So, here was my outfit today. Maybe I am dressed like a Sydneysider, but I'm going to need a lot more leggings and skinny jeans to complete the transformation!

 

 

 

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