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Back On The Road Again – Sydney, Cocktails and Catching Up With Old Friends

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As we left our au pair family we were sad to go but we also couldn’t help but be excited for the next leg of adventures ahead! The van was no more. Unfortunately after it’s massive breakdown and the cost being too high to fix it up we had to sell it. We were so sad to say goodbye as it had been not just a source of transport but a home to us, somewhere we felt safe, knowing no matter what happened we had a roof over our heads. It is not all doom and gloom though as we now have… THE FALCON! Yes, we bought a Ford Falcon car to continue our road tripping dreams. It is much less glamorous but so much smoother to drive and with our camping equipment in the back we are still ready to pull up anywhere.

Our first long drive in the Falcon was going to be a big one! Tocumwal to Sydney was a 710km drive and took around 8-9 hours! We did stop along the way. Joey had lined up some interesting places from a humongous ram statue to a tiny one of a Dog on a Tucker Box in honour of the dogs that would guard their master’s valuables if their bullock teams, that serviced the area, got stuck. And lets not forget the H.M.S Otway, a reconstructed submarine about as far away from the coast as you can get but erected there in honour of it’s captain who completed daring missions and even had the town, Holbrook, named after him.

It had been a hot day and even with the aircon blasting we were feeling tired and frazzled by the time we pulled up at our destination just outside the city of Sydney. We would be staying with my best friend’s family Janet and David, and their sons Taylor and Harry. When I travelled to Australia eight years ago with my friend Elle we had stayed with them then and their kindness and hospitality had not changed! We immediately sat down to a meal by the pool and a rapid fire catch up session. It felt so relaxing and their kindness just kept coming as they offered to keep an eye on the car while we stayed in the city for a couple of nights and then even offered for us to stay again on our return. The cherry on the top was getting to have a cooling nighttime dip in the pool before bed.

The next morning Janet and Taylor took us for a drive around the local area. They were fortunate enough to live right on the edge of national parkland so we wound up and down hills, getting glimpses of the sea through the thick trees. Again the landscape is changing for us, the humidity picking up, and more greenery with dense trees. It was a joy to see the ocean too as our trip has been severely lacking beach time so far. We were also passing some magnificent beachside houses and we marvelled at how the car ports had better views over the sea than most homes do!

They took us to Avalon Beach and Palm Beach, which is used for filming in Home and Away. The weather being on the verge of turning we didn’t stop long at the beaches and instead headed into the city to catch the Sunday markets at The Rocks. This was also where we drove over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and caught our first glimpse at the Opera House. We enjoyed some great burgers for lunch, wandered through the markets and drove back in time for an afternoon at the cinema just as the rain came down.

Unfortunately the rain was not short lived and in fact looked set to haunt us over the next week or two up the East Coast. The following day we visited a nearby mall, got in some retail therapy and some terrible cheap haircuts and the day after that we caught the Manly ferry into the city, staying in Wake Up! Sydney hostel for a couple of nights.

Once we were checked in we went to see the Botanical Gardens and walked through Hyde Park to see the Anzac Day Memorial. The calming effect of walking through the gardens seemed to make us a little too calm and no sooner had we found a nice spot to overlook the Opera House than we found ourselves dozing on the grass.

The girls we were sharing our hostel dorm with seemed to have much more energy than us! We couldn’t help but feel old as they played drinking games and talked about bar hopping and we got ready to go out for some sophisticated cocktails. Sometimes we are definitely not stereotypical backpackers! We had drinks at Zephyr Sky bar overlooking Darling Harbour and we didn’t care what kind of backpackers we were, we had a great time! Slightly less of a great time was being woken up by the girls giggling at 4am. Hostel life!

Our second day in the big city turned out to be lovely and sunny so we took advantage by heading to Bondi Beach. It somehow seemed much smaller in reality than what we had seen on Bondi Beach Rescue. I loved the murals on the walls along the beachside and watching the surfers catching waves. There is a great walk from Bondi to Coogee beach so we set off, getting to see rockpools, stunning coastline and other smaller beaches along the way. Lack of sleep plus tiny hangover plus heat plus time constraints meant we didn’t manage to complete the walk.

Another treat from being in the city was going to the cinema and since we couldnt get tickets to an outdoor one in the Botanical Gardens, Joey tracked down a library themed VIP experience nearby. We sat in reclining leather chairs, bookshelves all around us, drinks and popcorn being delivered to our table – it was bliss! We went to see 1917, which I was sceptical whether I would like as I’m not usually a fan of war films but actually found to be spectacular! Reluctant to go straight back to the dorm we ventured over to the Opera Bar for a drink by the harbour, only having to duck inside once to avoid the rain.

With the rain on and off all day we didn’t do much exploring on our way back to the ferry, or get to see much of Manly as planned, instead hiding out in a restaurant until Janet could pick us up. We told them all of the fun things we got up to in the city and spent the evening feeling cosy watching T.V.

The rain only got worse the following day and so other than popping out to a favourite local cafe for lunch we hid out having a full on movie day and watching the water in the pool slowly rising. The news was warning about flash floods and where we had been looking forward to Byron Bay we were now hearing residents were knee deep in the water. Just when we were looking forward to some beachtime it seemed our plans were being sabotaged. We werent going to let it stop us though and set out the next day, planning on spending a couple of nights in Coff’s Harboour hoping to wait out the worst of the rain, and continue to Byron Bay after that.

Sydney was just as pretty a city as I remembered but what made our time there so nice was having Janet, David and their family to make us feel so welcome in their home and show us what they love about Sydney so much.

Melbourne – Exploring Australia’s Most Liveable City

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Melbourne was voted most liveable city by the Economist Intelligence Unit for seven years in a row, a record breaking length (until it recently lost out to Vienna) and out of everyone I had spoken to about Melbourne I had only found two people who weren’t too keen. It was why we chose Melbourne as our starting point, to suss it out as a potential place to live later in the trip. Yet a week into arriving in this magnificent city and we hadn’t seen anything more interesting than the VICSRoad office, the bank and our caravan park. With life admin squared away we decided it was high time we checked out what Melbourne had to offer.

Melbourne Sea Life Centre

Just down the road from our hostel (also a short walk from Flinder’s street Station) is Melbourne Sea Life Centre, so after passing it so many times we decided to kill an afternoon while waiting for van repairs to take a look around. It was fun to check out, especially when trying to spot and name the fish we had seen on recent dives, but it was definitely more of a family activity. With the ticket price at per person $42 (or $32.50 if you have student discount) it probably isn’t worth it for a backpacker on a budget. That being said I did enjoy the talk by the big tank which features several types of shark, giant rays and a massive grouper called Mr G. When they first bought Mr G to the aquarium they decided to make sure he was well fed so that when he was introduced into his new tank he wouldn’t eat any of the other fish. They stuffed him full of 12kg of fish and figured that was more than enough. Oh no. Not for Mr G! He had been in the tank only a short while before he swam up to one of the sharks, almost the same size as him, and swallowed him whole. Yep. A grouper ate a shark whole. I never thought I would be more scared of a grouper than a shark! Apparently if you had blinked you missed it, his huge mouth opened and just gulped the shark whole. As unbelievable as it sounds, watching Mr G contentedly swimming around his tank, huge mouth gaping, it actually wasn’t too hard to believe.

Melbourne Zoo

I love a good zoo! I know a lot of people question the ethics of zoos but I believe as long as you are selective about going to legit zoos with a good reputation and outstanding conservation efforts, you can support something worthwhile. Melbourne Zoo was super easy to get to with tram, bus and train routes that stop directly outside the zoo. It’s a reasonable size too that if you want to see the whole park you can fi it into a full day without feeling rushed. The enclosures are broken down into groups and paths lead you on loops around each section. There are plenty of eating options but like most zoos it is all overpriced so best to bring a picnic. The only downside was the animal talks were quite short, less than ten minute run downs on the animals main attributes and background. It was one of my favourite things to do in Melbourne because it is always a joy to me to watch animals just being animals.

Free Walking Tour

After an incredible free walking tour in Berlin that set the bar high, we always keep a lookout for free walking tours wherever we travel. They are a great way to get a feel for a city and know your way around while getting an interesting history and side stories about the place. At the end you tip what you feel the tour was worth, or what your budget will allow. We took this tour with walkingtours101 which we heard about through the YHA hostel as they do pick ups there. He told us many interesting facts about the city, including that it was originally designed without any town squares as they didn’t want places where people could gather. Our guide explained the rebellion against the gold mining licences at the Eureka stockade and how the Eureka tower represents this with the red representing the blood shed, the blue the flag they flew and of course the gold top for the gold. Another interesting fact is that the city was originally called Batmania after one of the founding fathers called John Batman. Personally I think they should have kept the name, imagine telling people you were just off to Batmania for the weekend! The highlight for me was ending. At the Melbourne gaol where Ned Kelly was hung. Our guide told us the story of Ned Kelly’s final showdown and it sounded epic and made me interested to know more.

Secret bars – Berlin’s Bar

There are loads of secret bars in Melbourne. They have adopted the prohibition style without ever having had a prohibition in Australia. I wanted to check out a few more than just Berlin Bar but being a bit far out from the city centre this was the only one we made it to. It is above a bar called House of Maximon, which holds a free comedy night (again tip what you like) every Wednesday night. The bar is designed with one half like east Berlin and the other half like West Berlin, though we heard that strangely most people choose to sit by Stalin’s portrait in West Berlin than to enjoy the glam of the East Berlin decor.

Laneways

As part of our walking tour we passed through Hosier Lane, well known for its ever-changing street art. We were recommended to go more than once as you’ll see something different every time; this was definitely true as some of the art had already changed only a few days later when we passed through again. Most of the best stuff in Melbourne happens down these laneways, there are quirky shops, cute cafes and hidden gems of restaurants waiting to be found. We also met a friend for drinks at Chuckles Park Bar, right near Flinders Street, that turned out not to be down an alleyway but the bar was the alleyway itself! Heaters gave the place a warming glow, lanterns hung above us and the little shed at the end served up cocktails, wines and beers. Perfect place to spend an evening after a day exploring the city’s backstreets.

Immigration Museum

We walked past this museum over and over again and what caught my eye was the exhibition on tattoos in different cultures that sounded interesting. On a rainy day we decided it was a good time to mooch about the museum. Students get in for free, otherwise an adult ticket is $15, and it is worth checking out. The exhibitions are detailed and thought provoking. I’ll admit I found the tattoo exhibition the most interesting but it was a great rainy day activity.

St Kilda

I had heard lots of good things about St Kilda – basically if you like cafes, good food and markets this is the place to go. We went on the weekend and there were definitely Sunday vibes in the air. Everyone was eating outside in the sun and it reminded of pub lunches back home. The other great thing about Sunday is the St Kilda Esplanade Market that runs every Sunday and sells all sorts of trinkets, home-made soaps and tasty oils, spices and other foods with plenty of tasters on hand. Another must do is to try one of the cake shops in St Kilda. Europa has windows lined with chunky cheesecakes, thick wedges of cakes and fruity tarts – just about every treat you could want! We grabbed a chocolate cheesecake for me and a lemon meringue pie for Joey and headed to the Botanical Gardens for a mini picnic.

As the sun started to set we headed to the Pier for the other reason we had come to St Kilda. Every evening the little Fairy Penguins that call the rocks surrounding the pier home come back to their nests to fee their young and rest up before heading back out into the bay at dawn to fish again. Get there early as it gets very crowded but once the penguins start coming in people tend to disperse and stay a little later to see many of these cute penguins up close. The little penguins are kept an eye on by volunteers from Earthcare St Kilda, a non-profit organisation that work to protect the penguins and their home, making sure a safe distance is kept and their habitat isn’t disturbed.

I could see why Melbourne had won the award for most liveable city. I imagined myself living here, heading to the markets for fresh veg, hopping on the free inner city trams, spending lazy weekends in St Kilda and discovering all the secret bars with friends of an evening. At the same time the cold and the rain was off-putting and with so much more to explore of this vast country we were excited to move on. It was the perfect start place and I look forward to visiting again in the summer, whether we will settle here or not is still a long way off, for now we have some road tripping to do.