Two for the Road

Maybe it’s because we’re fresh from a couple of months in Asia, but it feels very British here (with better weather obviously). This has been great to help us to feel a bit closer to home and enjoy the festive season with a few home comforts and familiar culture.

Sydney has a beautiful skyline, which we experienced spectacularly from the restaurant where we had our Christmas dinner. Matt booked this place based on how the food/ drink looked without being aware of a very important gimmick about the place. For the record, this gimmick is probably why most people book said restaurant. On the 47^th floor of a skyscraper, we walked to our table which was on a little bit of a raised area, facing out to a great view of Sydney harbour including the Opera House. We were both seated side by side at the table, and looked forward to our meal, and the vista.

Following a glass of Champagne, suddenly I noticed the famous Opera House had moved, pointing this out to Matt, he insinuated I’d enjoyed too much of the bubbly too quickly and I was imagining it (I know, how rude!). But watching the windows like a hawk for a few minutes and it became apparent our view was changing, and the restaurant, called ‘O’ has a seating area which rotates 360 degrees every 100 minutes. It was a pretty non-traditional Christmas dinner (it included a lot of seafood and we got a takeaway cocktail and jar of piccalilli when we left), but we loved it! After our couple of rotations, we returned to our Airbnb for Christmas films and too much cheese and wine.

Following the big day, while continuing to have too much cheese and wine, we’ve also gone out and about to explore Sydney a little more, using the excellent public transport here: ferries, trams, buses double-decker metro trains – Sydney has it all!

On boxing day we went to BrewDog nearby our Airbnb in Redfern to watch the Boxing Day cricket, a day of highs and lows for the England team. The BrewDog itself was in a huge converted industrial building, which was really cool.

The next day, we spent an afternoon window shopping around the Queen Victoria Building, a beautiful shopping arcade near Sydney’s Chinatown. The arcade is full of luxury shops, restaurants and cafes. It’s well worth a visit for it’s beautiful stained glass, commemorative clocks and ambience, even without indulging in the sales.

We have also spent some time in Marrickville, a suburb out of the city centre with lots of breweries. We’d been recommended the area by some friends who used to live there, and it was certainly our kind of place. We took ourselves on a bit of a pub crawl, enjoying the leafy streets and sunshine.

Yesterday, we went to Manly on the ferry, a wealthy suburb across the harbour from Sydney’s CBD. The area is famous for its beaches, which were absolutely stunning. We went on a little snorkelling excursion at Shelly Beach which is part of an aquatic nature reserve and saw some amazing sea life (and a wild turkey or two).

On the way home from our day out, we were walking back from the supermarket at twilight and encountered some more wildlife – bats. These aren’t the tiny bats sometimes spotted in the UK, flitting about almost impossible to spot, these were enormous creatures, swooping between trees and hanging on to telephone wires. A bit spooky, but mainly really cool.

Today, we’ve had a quiet day, doing some laundry, food shopping and wondering the local area. Tomorrow is New Years Eve so we’re saving our energy for our evening out. We’re booked onto a harbour cruise for a front row seat to what is probably the most famous firework display in the world. Watch this space for our review!

Iris