**You can click on pics to enlarge**
Ferris wheel in front of the Sydney Exhibition Centre near Darling Harbour.
I went to Sydney to meet up with Jonny boy who was there for work last weekend. It has been, almost 5 years since I last visited Sydney. The previous experience was tainted with my luggage being flown to QLD by the stupid airline company. So I suppose, this 2nd trip is a little compensation, and hopefully, a better experience.
I was there only for the weekend. Flew straight from Melbourne after work, and got into Sydney about 9ish at night. Thank God Jon has already been there for a few days, and has a hotel room *paid by his company, of course* So, no check-in fuss!! I literally just plonked myself onto the bed, and fell asleep.
Winter is alot milder in Sydney. The sun still shines, and it's less windy! The weather was perfect for us to be out for some sight-seeing, and lots of shopping! Haha.
Loving the Sydney weather :) Winter's like 20 degrees!!
The beautiful Darling Harbour.
Jon had to be at work in the morning, so I walked around a little by myself, and soaked in some sun! It felt really good!!
I have been mostly indoors at work in Melb, and besides, it's so cold and windy here!
The water taxi - that transports you from Darling Harbour to Circular Quay - home of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. These are the icons of Sydney. You cannot claim to have visited Sydney if you haven't posed for a photo with these magnificent icons!
Seafood by the sea~! Yummers!!
I was frowning because it was so sunny!! BUT, I loved it! Felt so healthy, walking everywhere, instead of having the luxury of just driving my car...
More of Darling Harbour. I then walked into Harbourside and bought myself a fairy floss~!!! :) Haven't had those in ages. AND I bought it for only $2.50 - what a small price to pay for happiness! Hehehe.
I then met up with Jon for lunch and some shopping in town!!!
Inside QVB. Reminds me alot of GPO in Melbourne, in terms of architecture, but it's alot bigger, and heaps more retailers here. I was so close to buying a pair of shoes, but they had no size! Not even in their interstate stores... so I suppose I saved myself from burning a big hole in my wallet.
We stumbled upon a Laksa place in the QVB basement, called Laksa House. It looked really crowded, so Jon exclaimed that it has to be good... and boy, was he right! It was indeed very authentic, close to the good ones that you can get in KL :) Needless to say, he slurped down in bowl of noodle in no time.
I ordered noodle soup, which wasn't too bad too. The service was quick, and quite reasonably priced too. I would definitely go back to try some other dishes they have if I had time. Jon kept saying it was one of the best laksa's he's ever had. I like to think that being Malaysian, I have tried better ones back home. =)
Posing with the Sydney Opera House on the background. Jon had to snap this pic like 3 times, before it was decent.
We went back to the hotel for abit to put down all our shoppings, before heading out for dinner @ The Rocks.
And oh, before I forget, I have to tell you how proud I am of myself, after walking out empty handed from Chanel. I was tossing between 2 bags, and I'm sure Jon was hoping I wouldn't get any of them. And I didn't! :) I didn't buy them! I was so good...
I actually stopped myself from buying heaps of stuff. But I still ended up with two handfuls of shopping bags! I don't know how...
Dining @ Peter Doyle, overlooking the Opera House.
We just stumbled into this restaurant, and the waiter asked if we had a booking. Cause they had to seat those with bookings first. We were a little apprehensive about not getting a place, because people just kept walking in! Perhaps it was a Saturday night, but how were we to know that we had to make a booking when we didn't even know this place existed?! Hehe.
Luckily for us, we were showed to our seats after about 10 minutes. AND, we had gorgeous views too! :)
Jonathan & Mei- on our 3 years anniversary! Well, kinda belated, cause I was working on the actual day, so we didn't get to celebrate.
Starters - I just loveeee my oysters! Slurp~!
Our seafood platter for 2. We were kinda stuffed by the end of it. There was no room for dessert...
The double tiered seafood platter.
The night was spent exploring Kings Cross, but I didn't think it was really appropriate to snap photos. We kept getting invited into clubs and strip joints by random people, it was kinda hilarious. This guy even went up to Jon and said "Come in for a show. We do special shows for couples as well!!" after seeing us walking hand-in-hand.
It was quite a sight!! At some point it got too difficult distinguishing which girls were just dressed to club, and which ones were the "working" girls... And I think I was close to being the only girl walking around in jeans that night.
Sunny again on Sunday morning!! Yippie!! We had breakfast in the hotel to charge up before heading out for another day of fun and adventure!
Sydney's Chinatown.
It's alot bigger than Melbourne's Chinatown, but doesn't seem to be as busy and lively. Perhaps everything's just a little more spread-out?
We headed towards Paddington to do a little more shopping before our flight back to Melbourne in the evening. Not knowing that the shops only open around 11, or some at noon... we were there pretty early, and didn't quite know what to do! But it was alright, for the shops started opening not long after.
Jon scored himself a pair of really nice Paul Rodriguez III Nike SB. We later found out it was only launched 2 days before! No wonder we haven't seen it in Melbourne! He absolutely loves it. He's going through this whole skater phase now...
Mei, @ the War Memorial in Hyde Park. That colourful scarf was bought from a place called The Pink Zebra. Pure cashmere, totally soft!!! Absolutely love it. I wish we had Pink Zebra here too.
Smiley Jonny - He made us walk all the way back to that Laksa place that we found the day before, so he could have another bowl of Laksa for the afternoon.
Pitt St Myer - so much like Bourke St, don't you think??
The afternoon was spent doing touristy stuff. We went up the Sydney Observatory Tower in CBD to cover the parts of Sydney that we didn't get to, in the short span of 2 days. Hehe.
This time around, the experience was tainted by a stupid girl who worked as the ticketing girl at Oztrek. Our ticket entitles us to go up to the observation deck, and also a virtual reality ride called Oztrek, featuring iconic places and animals of Australia. We wanted to go on the Oztrek ride first, and then proceed to go up the tower because we were sort of running out of time, but the stupid girl was being so obstructive!
She kept insisting that we have to go up to the tower first, and then come back and do Oztrek, because there are other people who were also waiting to go on Oztrek. She then proceeded to say "We normally get people to go up the tower first". I acknowledge that, but proceeded to say we were not cutting the queue, but we are going to join the queue and wait, so I didn't understand what she was fussing about.
Instead, she kept insisting for us to go up the tower. I then couldn't take it anymore and said "You mean you're telling me, as a paying customer, that I don't get a choice to do what I want? I have paid for this, and am entitled to it just like anyone else".
She of course couldn't retaliate, and just pulled a long sour face! Stupid girl that couldn't even speak proper English!!! You need to go back to school! And please, on the way... do learn some manners as well!!
So rude!! **Funny, you know I don't take shit service. Neither should you!**
Finally up on the observatory tower! Phew....
Don't worry. I didn't let her spoil my day.
The Darling Harbour bridge was opening, for a yacht to pass through.
People queuing for Skywalk. It's apparently, the highest outdoor activity in Sydney. Even higher than the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. You are sorta of on the edge of the Observatory Tower, hooked onto some device. It looked kinda scary. I was too chicken to try it, given I'm not wearing trainers.... I didn't want to like, slip and die!
Mei's still smiley after being annoyed by stupid incompetent ticketing lady.
Can you spot the HMAS Kanimbla, and Aria Restaurant?? Too bad we didn't get a chance to dine there. Instead we had to head back to the hotel and stuff all our shoppings into our luggage bags, and then grabbed a cab to the airport.
And oh, we had airline food for dinner :(
Grumpy Jon - who was reluctant to go back to Melbourne, and head back to work the next day... Oh Monday blues. I had to work the long day as well, the 14 hours shift!!
But the short getaway was absolutely lovely~! Thank you baby! Happy 3 years anniversary to you too!
New Zealand up next, in less than 24 hours! Woohoo!!! Only one more sleep, and I'm off and away~!
