18:04 Sun.
12 Nov, 2017

Last Days in Australia

Sydney , Australia
20 °C
Mostly Cloudy
5:46 am
7:35 pm

After arriving we found our way to hostel we booked in the city center. Since we wanted to go to the Sydney’s marathon the next day, which started early morning, we didn’t have time to stay at Veronika’s relatives in the suburbs. Since we arrived too early we left our backpacks at hostel and left to explore the city. We visited a market, where a lot of Asians were selling all kings of cheap stuff. We bought some souvenirs and gifts here, some were actually made in Australia and had certificate (if it wasn’t counterfeit).

For lunch we decided to visit famous Sydney’s fish market, which had really great reviews. The fish marked looked really good, there were tons of fresh food raw and cooked. Sadly everything was very expensive, in the end we decided to grab a 2 person’s plate with various sea fruits, which was about 50$. It was pretty disgusting, so I would say if you aren’t prepared to spend more than 200$ on lobster don’t go to the fish market.

After the lunch we walked around the city some more. I really liked the dead end streets with circular ending so you can turn your car around. We also saw some old building in the city center alongside high modern skyscrapers.

In the evening Veronika’s cousin brought us the rest of the suitcases that we have left at their place so we finally checked in at the hostel. After a short shower in the most disgusting bathroom I ever was in (the water was leaking from the ceiling)  we were ready to explore the city a bit more. We took another hike through the Royal botanical gardens, from where there is a great view of the opera and Harbour bridge. We sat there and watched the sunset, together with around 50 tourists.

Sydney Skyline
Sydney Skyline

After the sunset we had to go back to our hotel to get some much needed sleep. Next morning we had to wake up really early to get to the marathon. Veronika had decided to participate, so we took metro under the bridge to the other side  where the start was. There was great view of the opera from this side.

Before the marathon
Before the marathon

The rout went over the bridge and then around the city center. I walked over the bridge and took couple of more photos.

Veronika in Sydney's marathon.
Veronika in Sydney’s marathon.

After the run we took couple more photos and then sadly had to head back to our hotel to prepare for our departure in a couple of hours.

Veronika after the marathon.
Veronika after the marathon.

Sadly we lost almost 2 days of exploring the city with flight cancellation, still we had about 4 days of exploring the city which was enough to get the first impression. It is a nice city to visit, from all the cities however I preferred Melbourne but most of all I loved our trip in the Queensland, there is so much to see and so much to do there compared to the rest of the country.

Sadly this was the end of our great trip to Australia. I definitely loved every day of it and would love to return. I’m a bit sorry I didn’t know about working holiday before (now I’m almost too old for it), it would be an interesting experience living in New Zealand or Australia for a year. Anyway at 3 PM we boarded our plane and left Australia. After gruelling 23 hours we touched down in Venice.

06:32 Sun.
17 Sep, 2017

We're going to miss you.

Sydney , Australia
18 °C
Sunny
5:52 am
5:49 pm

After a month we are sadly leaving Australia to fly back home. It was great, wish we could stay for longer.

13:55 Sat.
16 Sep, 2017

Last Night in Australia :(

Sydney , Australia
11 °C
Mostly Cloudy
5:53 am
5:48 pm

We survived the long 15h bus drive from Gold Coast to the Sydney yesterday. We arrived to Sydney little before 8 am and had hours to spend till 3pm when we had check in in a hotel in the city. We chose the hotel in the city because we have something planned for tomorrow and we need to be in the city center before 7am.

In the morning we explored city center on foot a bit more, went to see the big market/mall house and after reading much recommendations decided to go to lunch on fish market. Spoiler alert it was crap and not worth either the time nor money.

In the afternoon we met with Veronika’s relatives who brought us luggage we left in their house for our backpacking tour of the north. After that we took a quick nap. Despite sleeping quite a lot during our drive in the night we were still very tired, I guess bus chairs and tons of interruptions due to stops don’t make for a good sleeping conditions.

In the evening we went for a long walk to the botanical gardens and saw opera and harbour bridge again. Today is our last night in Australia during this trip. We are quite sad it had ended already, but frankly don’t have much time to think about it since we are rushing to prepare our suitcases for tomorrow when at 3PM we will leave Australia.

Sydney opera and Harbour bridge at dusk.
Sydney opera and Harbour bridge at dusk.
03:45 Tue.
29 Aug, 2017

Hello Sydney

Sydney , Australia
15 °C
Partly Cloudy
6:18 am
5:36 pm

I have finished my work on Friday evening. It was very interesting and informative conference but very tiring at the same time.  Next year Sweden, hopefully! 🙂

In the evening Veronika and I decided to go see a rugby game on an enormous stadium near our hotel. I have never been in a stadium that big, it can accept 55.000 people, but during our visit “only” 48.000 people were present. The game on the other hand was interesting, I guess it would be more fun if we actually new the rules. It seems like some kind of mix between football and baseball.

Enormous stadium with capacity of 55.OOO people.

On Saturday we spent whole day on the Ocean Road and in the evening we had to prepare for our departure. I was pleasantly surprised by the city and it’s citizens. Everyone was incredibly nice to us, the city is relatively clean for it’s size and the architecture in the city center is nice.  I still haven’t gotten used to the left side driving yet, but hopefully will soon, we are planning to rent a car later on our trip.

We left for the airport on Sunday 7 AM and arrived in Sydney at noon.

Veronika has some relatives living in Suburbs of Sydney so we are staying at theirs place. The city is enormouse, it took us over 3h to drive from the airport to their house, and we never left the city.

Yesterday we took an opportunity to explore the city, but more on this later as we are already at tge airport again, preparing to go to Cairns in the north for almost 17 days. This time we are traveling extremely light, only 2 backpacks 6kg each. Hopefully we wont freeze up there since we didn’t have space for warm cOpera and Opera and bridve

The most well known landmark in Sydney.