Sarah Does Sydney Day 1 & 2

So I went to Sydney and wow. What an adventure, the first thing we did while we arrived at the airport was make sure we had our data stuff! I used Optus and Lyn used Vodafone. They’re just there when you get out of the arrivals at the Sydney international airport.

Both are good but I’m fancying Optus for their $2 per day for 500mb data and free local (Australia) sms and calls. Vodafone had some deal like that too but I just had Optus cause my friend passed his microsim to me in Singapore.

From the airport, we took the train to town hall! Pretty easy really, just got a multipass with an airport exit pass and a 1 week pass. We were going to be there for 6 days so, it’s pretty ok since we took a zone 2 multipass which meant we got to travel around the main city area anyway.

The first place we walked around and look-see-ed was Lord of the Fries!

We arrived on Tuesday. Tuesday was 2 for 1 fries and these were KID SIZED. Ahhhh.

By the way, Lord of the Fries is vegan/vegetarian, certified Halal and kosher. That’s a vegan sausage and oh man, we chose ones with a lot of cheese. From there, we just walked around Darling harbour and sat there chilling while seagulls wanted to eat our fries.

Since our first day was just waiting to meet Arrch in the evening after his work, heh. Then we got to our friend’s place, Mae to see her too and eat dinner.

Nothing much on the first day in Sydney, except getting multipasses, eating food and talking with pals.

Day 2 was Lyn and me going on a FREE WALKING tour of Sydney!

That’s the Queen Victoria Building, by the way but the guide told us everyone just calls it the QVB.

This is Islay, the queen’s doggy in front of the building. It can apparently talk and DOES so, what is fascinating is that you can drop a coin into the fountain and he’ll say thank you for it. The proceeds go to the deaf and blind children, so says Islay.

The tour brought us along a lot of historical and current Sydney spots. It’s pretty good too. This is St Mary’s Cathedral, remember this for the later part of this post. This is not too far from Town Hall, by the way but you can still take a train from a station there.

It’s Porccelino! A copy at the Sydney hospital, also you can see our guide there in green. As usual, rub on it for luck and also drop a coin for a wish.

There’s quite a lot of wishing well type of fountains around Sydney, I noticed. Especially in the historical bits which is pretty much nearly everywhere.

And then somehow near Martin Place we saw this set up for Game of Thrones?! Fandom follows us everywhere.

I found out after my trip since I wanted to know what the heck it was, was that if you took a picture at the throne, you might WIN IT.

Ha ha, yeah right as if I’d bring home an iron throne if I actually won it.

We took a little break before continuing on the tour, still the weather was soooo lovely. For some reason, that day had a lot of people going on the tour so that was pretty cool.

Somewhere at the Rocks.

The students remind me of Madeline. Anyway, go get the Free Walking Tour, the weather’s soooo much nicer to walk around in than in Singapore where it is humid.

The last spot was near the harbour where we got to see the Sydney Opera house, no pics for this post because you’re going to see a LOT more of it in the following posts about the other days. We tipped the guide too because it REALLY was a good tour.

Go for it if you’re off in Sydney and want to learn the best places and how to get around it too.

After the tour, we went for a late lunch at Bodhi’s a VEGAN yum cha place to meet Denise of Glam Comix. Yaaay, finally met her in real life!

Remember that pic of St Mary’s Cathedral? IT IS HIDDEN THERE. UNDERNEATH.

Well, not underneath the cathedral but it’s like to the ‘right’ of the cathedral and undergroundish in the open air.

We think it is sorcery. It tastes SO GOOD and like real prawns/chicken/whatever but in reality it is actually FAKE.

It’s all vegan and just… JUST SORCERY OK?

The best.

We didn’t have much pics of the food because we ate it. It’s really woah? Go there. Just go there. My objective in Sydney was try out their vegan things even if I am not vegan because they have one of the best, from what I heard.

And after tasting the stuff, YEAH. I THINK IT IS.

We still had time till before the ‘rush hour’ of the trains and wanted to see the geek stuff of Sydney and found where Kings Comics was.

Got some stuff there like… a whole… set of Dalek tumblers, an Australian comic for a friend as a souvenir and other stuff that our local comic store might not stock up on.

We then went across the road to Elizabeth’s Bookshop too.

Just to note, I bought the book with the ‘courtesans, artists, spies, father/daughter bond’. It was The Printmaker’s Daughter by Katherine Govier.

I haven’t read it yet though!

Went ‘home’ aka Arrch’s place and chilled a bit before the three of us went to Ocean Foods for dinner!

Their website says they’ve the best fish and chips in the universe.

Ok.

Can.

OK CAN!!

Yes.

There were lots of trophies too and a sign saying it won food blogger’s choice in 2013. I think it might win for 2014 too.

This was our platter.

Raw oyster with just a bit of lemon. I have now learned that yes, I do like them and yesssssssss I DO LIKE THEM.

From this point though, we did go ?!? at Australia’s food places having American serving sizes?

In any case, WOAH THE FISH. WOAH THE SCALLOP, WOAH THE PRAWNS.

Just woah everything. If you can head to Ocean Foods, just go. Arrch drove us there for dinner so that was just lovely!

Summary:

– Get the free Sydney walking tour, learn how to get around Sydney

– Try out Bodhi’s for vegan yum cha

– Try out Ocean Food’s if you can, if not go try Lord of the Fries cause it’s in town

– Have a look at Kings Comics or Elizabeth’s Bookshop for nice merchandise and books, they’re across each other.