Summer in January - Australia (days 1 & 2)

DAY 1 – Sydney

My aunt and cousin arrived in Sydney from Vancouver via Auckland. I picked them up in the morning – driving Tien’s car! I love driving, and I’m so glad I have improved over the past two years because I drove in Sydney (on the other side of the road than in Canada) and it was during the morning rush hour too. Thankfully, drivers here follow rules and are pretty nice in general. Google Maps is also a lifesaver and the best GPS.

We got local SIM cards at the airport and they had a good deal for visitors - $15 for 10GB of data and calling for 30 days…. That’s a lot better than what we have to pay in Canada! This might be one of the few things that I will agree with, that Australia has better data plans than Canada.

Our first stop after leaving the airport was food! So we stopped at the Sydney Fish Market for some fresh seafood. Compared to my first visit in 2014, the fish market was a lot busier and more lively. It’s not that big, but at least it looked more interesting. We got a couple of things to try – I thought the best was the Scampi and the Squid Sashimi, the Inari sushi wasn’t bad either. The Sushi donut looks good but I don’t think it tastes that great.

 above left: seared scallops with cheese

above right: sushi donut

below: inari sushi with toppings

 

above: the scampi (bottom left plate) were the most expensive, around AUD 56.00, but so yummy
Sea urchin was cheap, but it's really luck of the draw as you can't tell if the flesh inside is good or bad

After eating, we went home to take a shower and rest for a bit, then we made our way to Darling Harbour, walked around and then got on to one of the Harbour Ferries at Pyrmont Bay. I really enjoyed this ferry ride because it takes you to different pick-up/drop-off points around Sydney Harbour, and you can also enjoy the view of the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House from the water.

One of the things we find about Sydney that really rubbed us the wrong way is that their Opal system can be a bit inconvenient and the staff at station kiosks are not the most friendly or helpful. We went on the ferry at Pyrmont Bay, and while I expected to have to pay (tap on) to board the ferry, I didn’t see any signs indicating where to pay, and I also didn’t notice other passengers tapping on (maybe they had done it before we arrived). So we got on and I thought maybe they will have a machine on the gangway after you board, nope, none there. And so we just enjoyed the ride and took photos.

When we arrived at Circular Quay and got off, we tried to tap out. My aunt and cousin were able to get out, because they had enough on their opal card (but were charged full fare or something like that). But I wasn’t allowed to pass because my opal card did not have enough value on it. The thing is they should have some machines to top up within the gated area so that if you don’t have enough you can top up – well, they don’t. And then I went to the kiosk to find out what I can do, and the guy in there gave me a lecture about how I should have paid before I board the boat. Hello!? I would have if it was clearly indicated.

Then a man comes up behind me and says that he wasn’t able to top up his card before boarding because the machine wasn’t taking any credit cards (and I forget if he didn’t have cash, or the machine didn’t take cash). The kiosk guy again gives the exact same lecture to the man who has 2-3 children in tow. The kiosk guy wouldn’t let us out to top up (because you can only top up at the convenience store OUTSIDE the gates), in the end my aunt and cousin had to top up for me, and unfortunately we forgot to ask the man with the 2-3 children if we could help him top up.

And we looked into the Opal card’s refund policy, they do offer refunds, but you will need to have an Australian bank account – not at all helpful to visitors to Australia. At the moment if you are able to find a kiosk in a subway station, they don’t deal with any money issues, so you can’t go up to a staff and ask them to help top up, refund or do anything on Opal!

We thought we had learnt our lesson and probably won’t have to deal with Opal or the transportation staff again, but then that night, we had another issue – the trains stopped running without notice. We just heard an announcement in the station after we had already tapped in. The staff who were there didn’t have any info, just told us we could either wait for the train (and they don’t know how long we would have to wait) or exit the station. They also got a bit annoyed at all the passengers asking them questions – but hey, who else were we supposed to ask??? So these issues that we had with staff in Sydney’s subway stations and how they dealt with problems will forever be a memory of our Sydney public transport experience.

*edit* .... Hahaha, I forgot to talk about what we did after we got off at Circular Quay.... got side tracked with my rant about Opal cards.

So we walked along Circular Quay and at the end you will see the Sydney Opera House. My cousin went around and took photos. We also tried to get a seat at the Opera bar but so many people were there for after work drinks that it was quite difficult to wait for a seat. It was a different view and experience, and would have definitely been nice if we had got a table.

In the end we went to another restaurant for dinner but it wasn't that great the food, not bad, but not good enough for me to remember their name.


DAY 2: Sydney

The night before, after we got picked up at the train station, we went to a Korean restaurant to try their Seafood Tofu Soup and Abalone Porridge/Congee. It wasn’t that great – don’t know if it’s because they thought we weren’t Korean so they watered down the soup, or if their soup is really that bad… but I remember the name because it’s Unkle, but spelt with a ‘k’ instead of a ‘c’.

The next morning I finished off the leftovers with a bit of the soup base that Teresa had left over from the night when we made our own Seafood Tofu Soup. It tasted a lot better.

We went to Bondi Beach as it’s so famous – but seriously it’s just a beach. We walked around and then walked pass the Iceberg pool onto the Bondi-Coogee walk. It looks nice, but we didn’t finish the whole walk because we got hungry. We headed back to Bondi Junction and walked around to decide on what we wanted, but a lot of the restaurants were closing (it was around 2 something in the afternoon). Apparently, because some restaurants open really early in the morning around 7am, so they will close at 3pm (and some won’t open for dinner)….. AUSTRALIANS! Other places in the world they have longer hours to get more business.

 above: a graffiti artist touching up on her artwork

below: in the end we had fast food - Oporto, for lunch

After Bondi, we headed into the city centre. We made a quick visit to Black Star Pastry’s city centre location and got a slice of their famous Strawberry Watermelon Cake, and an orange cake and the Japanese Forest Cake. We also gave The Grounds coffee a try.

The cakes were good, small and enough for a bite of each which was very satisfying for us as we’re not sweet-tooths.

The coffee – well I hate to burst the bubble, but I don’t think Australia’s coffee is as good as everyone says. I may not be a coffee aficionado, but we had quite a few cups of coffee that were disappointing. Let’s see –

I had a cup of cappuccino in the morning and then a long black with a dash of milk while were were waiting for the fireworks in front of Sydney Opera House, ok I will concede that they probably were working in a makeshift kitchen, so maybe the coffee quality may have been affected. I could taste coffee granules in the long black!

Then I had a coffee…… I think at Black Star Pastry in the Rosebery location, that wasn’t too bad but I can’t even remember what I ordered. I only remember what Tien order because it’s the first time I heard of a dirty chai.

Then I had The Grounds Coffee with the cakes – that wasn’t that great either. And the rest of our trip to the Whitsundays and Melbourne we always tried coffee wherever we went….. The best we had was in Melbourne from Café 1932 – that one tasted good. And then we also got one once we had gone through security at Melbourne airport from Brunetti and it was bad….. I don’t know how they made it, but when I drank it, the milk foam was like hard bubbles (very strange, I don’t even know how to describe it better).

Anyways, so after we tasted our cakes and coffee, we walked around as the city centre has a lot of shopping, but mostly we just went into stores selling Australian UGGs. Then we met up with Teresa and Steve for dinner – Japanese Ramen, but I had udon.

Maybe we’re biased and were also expecting a lot because we heard people give such great comments about Australia’s coffee and food – see all those Instagram photos, they look great, but I think the food and coffee are just so-so. It’s not better than elsewhere in the world.

Oh, and we parked in the city after coming from Bondi Beach, and well parking in Australia is expensive when compared with Vancouver, usually it cost around AUD 25-30 for a few hours in Sydney. But here in the city centre it can go up to AUD 84.00 for over 3 hours!!!!! *jaw drop*

I didn't notice the sign when I came in, but my friends suddenly brought it up when we were having our ramen dinner... we were afraid that we might end up with an $84 charge on my credit card.... but then again we came in after 5pm, so they actually had night rates (THANK GOODNESS!), so in the end we paid only $20.