North to South

I’ve posted this photo from the North Head before, but it’s one of my favorite views so it’s worth another showing, especially so it can be compared to this shot from the South Head:


I took this from The Gap at Watson’s Bay looking out at the spot at Manly where I took the first one a month earlier. The Heads mark the entrance from the ocean into the harbour. (A map for perspective.) There’s also a Middle Head at Balmoral, which I realized I also have a photo of.


I didn’t go on the Middle Head, but you can see it here from Awaba Street. To the left is North Head.

Thrilling, I know. I guess the point of this is just to show different angles of Sydney. During my time there I saw so much, and now I'm going back and really recognizing how much ground I covered...sometimes not even on purpose.

The Long Way to Watsons Bay

Watsons Bay is a great spot in Sydney. Though I’d say it’s a Level 3 tourist zone (beyond Centerpoint Tower and the Opera House, but still in the guide book), it’s relatively peaceful and had a cozy feel to it, at least on the day we went. Imagine a lazy Sunday in the park and by the water. You can take a really quick ferry from Circular Quay, or you could do the almost 8km scenic route.

My mom, two housemates and I train-and-bussed it over to Rose Bay. I had a vague idea of where we needed to go and figured the walk would be self-explanatory from there. We randomly hopped off the bus at the above spot on New South Head Road. We walked through residential streets until we came to the historic Strickland House. Wandering the public grounds lead us to the water and the Hermitage Foreshore path. Perfect.


There we walked across the rocks and collected colorful bits of beach glass, admiring the gorgeous day that developed out of a drizzly morning. The trail followed the shore, but turned out to be more of a bushwalk than I’d expected. Nothing too strenuous, just more dirt and vegetation than the Bondi-Coogee walk.


Soon we reached Nielsen Park, a stunning family beach with crystal clear water, a lush park and rainbow lorikeets in the trees. It was nearly June, but we wanted to dive in. Instead we sat on the concrete steps for ages, watching the little girls at a birthday party splash about.


After Nielsen Park, our walk moved back to the residential streets, which was fine because we loved seeing the beautiful homes in Vaucluse. We weren’t sure if this was the route we were supposed to take, but we kept winding back to the coast, so I suppose it was right. We crossed the bridge over Parsley Bay, then shared a bench for another extended period of time.


Eventually we reached Watsons Bay. We had no idea what would be there — I hadn’t done any research — but we were pleasantly surprised. There was a big open park, restaurants along the wharf, and a trail up to The Gap, which offers extraordinary views south to the city skyline and north to Manly, not to mention the sparklingly cobalt Tasman Sea.


Back at the wharf, we ordered takeaway fish and chips from a place called Doyle’s. We had to finish the meal on the ferry back to Circular Quay, but it was delicious. I later learned Doyle’s is something of an institution at Watsons Bay, and for good reason. Those were the best fish and chips I’ve ever had. My friend Becky later declared it the best meal she had in Sydney, but to be fair, we had just walked nearly five miles and my mom paid for it. Still, I’d say it’s worth the trip...by ferry or by foot.

Visiting the Sisters

The Three Sisters (not to be confused with the Flying Fajita Sistas) is a rock formation in the Blue Mountains, about 70 miles west of Sydney. The name comes from an Aboriginal legend about three sisters who fell in love with three brothers from another tribe. Since a tribal law did not allow them to get married, the brothers took them away, starting a war between the two tribes. A witchdoctor seeking to protect the women turned them into stone, but died before he could change them back. Thus, the three sisters remain.


Our study abroad company gave us a free trip to Scenic World for a view of the Three Sisters. Scenic World has walking paths, cable cars and a railway that take you through the rainforest and up in the air to see the Sisters and the Blue Mountains, which are named as such because of the blue haze resulting from the eucalyptus trees.


You get in a caged roller-coaster-type cart and descend the steepest railway incline in the world. It doesn’t go very fast though. I suppose that would defeat the whole scenic purpose.


We also took the Scenic Skyway (they make it sound really exciting, huh?) across the canyon, past a waterfall and closer to the Three Sisters. It has a glass floor, which is pretty cool, or really scary depending on your degree of vertigo.

If you can see this, you’re not lost

Even as someone who sets out to explore and “get lost,” I like knowing where I am. Luckily Sydney has a recognizable skyline, including the Sydney Tower, about a thousand feet high. Also known as the Centerpoint Tower, it’s my point of reference wherever I go, and I’ve seen it from nearly every angle and varying distances.

From Glebe (southwest):


From Rose Bay (east):


From Centennial Park (southeast):


From Kirribilli (north):


From Manly (northeast):


From Royal National Park (south):

Greetings from Sydney

With a few papers due last week and my mom visiting this week, my blogging has fallen by the wayside. But I have a stockpile of photos and stories to share...eventually. Until I catch up, enjoy this delightfully coincidental view of Sydney Harbour today from Milson’s Point.

Harbour Bridge Walk

With this past Saturday being the last in April, I took a quick train north for the monthly Kirribilli Markets. A friend of mine from class, who lives just a few minutes from Kirribilli in North Sydney, met me for a browse through a few hundreds stalls of clothes, crafts and food.


Though she had to leave for soccer practice (she’s on the Sydney Uni team), I hung around and explored Kirribilli, from the main restaurant row to Luna Park and through the residential parts along the water.


It was cool seeing the opposite side of the Opera House.


Then an American friend, Jeff, met me at Milson’s Point so we could walk across the Harbour Bridge back to Circular Quay. The Harbour Bridge Climb, which takes you to the very top, costs up to $300, but a simple walk on the pedestrian path doesn’t cost a thing.


The views are still pretty good.

The Best Spot I’ve Ever Had a Matzo Sandwich

The best spot I ever had a sandwich was a remote ledge on the Barrenjoey Head in Palm Beach. But this overlook in Manly was pretty spectacular as well. Here’s to the last day of Passover and the return of bread, rice and legumes to our residential college kitchen!


Sydney finally saw some sun this weekend after two solid weeks of rain. My friend Sarah and I took advantage of this by taking a ferry to Manly, which is probably Sydney’s most famous beach after Bondi.

We only stopped briefly at the beach because we were headed on a coastal walk around the peninsula. The walk took us to Shelly Beach before leading us uphill to said fantastic sandwich spot.

Then it was more of a bushwalk until we reached North Head Scenic Dr.


This point of Sydney Harbour National Park near the North Fort Artillery Museum has an incredible view of the whole city. But where haven’t I gone with a good view? Sydney just has too many. Sarah and I kept turning to each other, smiling and saying, “We live here.”


And after beautiful days like this one, it gets harder to consider living anywhere else.

The Balmoral Lifestyle

I’ve made it a mission to explore areas of Sydney outside the tourist/uni student bubble. I have a list of neighborhoods still to check out. But with autumn rain clouds hanging overhead for more than a week, not to mention a few thousand words worth of research papers due, it’s been harder to get out these days. Finally on Sunday, I set aside a few rainless hours to visit Balmoral, an area of North Sydney brought to my attention by Not Quite Nigella.


I noticed a few things about Balmoral (pronounced BAL-moral, not bal-MORALE, as I originally wanted to call it). First, everyone smells like coconut. Second, everyone has kids under age five or is pregnant. The area is beautiful and so are the people, their modern houses and snazzily dressed kids.


I wandered through the hilly residential streets with my friend Becca, admiring the homes and thinking of Malibu. We eventually found our way to The Esplanade on Hunter’s Bay. As per Not Quite Nigella’s recommendation, we stopped at the Bather’s Pavilion Kiosk to grab a snack, which we ate on the small headland park, surrounded by young couples and their kids.


Ah, the Balmoral lifestyle.


In town we saw several children’s clothing and maternity wear shops. Becca and I stopped in a few home stores to look at kitchen gadgets and gourmet non-perishables.

I decided Balmoral would be a fantastic place to get married, buy a house (like this one) and then make tarts and babies for the next few years. Of course, I’d have to find that coconut scent everyone was wearing.

Belated Spring Break Post

I had one final adventure over the school holiday, which I never got around to sharing. Our Aussie friend Paul took three American friends and I to his family home in Tascott about 50 miles from Sydney Uni. He was a great tour guide. I happened to mention that I swam in waterfalls once in Los Angeles so we made a short detour to check out Somersby Falls in Brisbane Water National Park.


He drove us by the popular Avoca Beach before taking us to his preferred Copacabana Beach. That’s right, Copacabana isn’t just for Rio anymore. We could have used the Brazilian sun though because it was a bit too cool for swimming.


Paul then took us a little further north to Terrigal, where we climbed this massive hill for a great lookout before a break at a local beer garden.


It was a nice town on the water with some great looking houses in the hills.


After our long day, we cooked up some beef and chicken fajitas, whose leftovers I added to scrambled eggs the next morning and quesadillas for lunch.



School resumed the next day, and I've been wishing for break again ever since.

Into the Bush

My next Easter Break adventure involved bushwalking in Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park, a 45-minute to an hour train ride north. After my daytrip to Palm Beach and Avalon, I felt ok exploring on my own and was looking forward to the 9km hike I’d plotted out. I know my aim is to “get lost,” but I also need to live to blog about it, so a planned route and map seemed in order.

Once I got there, I was very glad to be prepared as I was because the hike definitely took me out of my comfort zone. Ku-Ring-Gai covers almost 37,000 acres, and at least in the section where I started in Berowra, there weren’t any clearly marked trails with happy arrows or park ranger booths to keep you on the right track. For the first half-hour, I wasn’t even positive I was on the path I intended to be on. Looking back, I probably should have gone with a buddy, but I read too much Kerouac this summer and going alone seemed like a good idea.


Once I reached the creek at the bottom of the trail, I felt surer of where I was going. All I had to do was follow the creek for the next two hours.




Well, even that was easier said than done. The bush was very overgrown and the path became hard to follow at points. Huge spider webs loomed overhead and it always felt like one of these guys was on my arm.


I also ran into this four-foot-long goanna, which scared me out of my pants because I nearly stepped on it without looking.


At this point my shoulders were beginning to ache because of my backpack. Sure, I could have packed lighter, but how much would I regret it if I had left behind that beach towel that could’ve served as a blanket or been fashioned into a tent in the event I got lost in the bush and needed to spend the night before a rescue party found me? Exactly. So I flipped the backpack around to my front because I figure that’s where women are meant to bear loads about that size. Why fight evolution? It helped so I wore it that way except when I saw boats on the creek and felt self-conscious. Hey, who’s that weird girl pregnant with a backpack? And did she just pull out a sandwich?

Like I said, the trail was overgrown with fern and brush. Plus, there were several fallen trees and steep rocks to cross over. I later realized this might have to do with the fact that the Berowra Trail I took was temporarily closed to the public. When I reached the intersection with the Mt. Kuring-Gai Trail, I saw the trail I had come from had been fenced off. Who knew?

After I got to the second trail, I felt much more at ease because I knew I was going the right way and was ahead of schedule. (I attribute this to the fact that my “flight” response is much keener than my “fight” and I booked it through the tall brush and cobwebs.) The Mt. Kuring-Gai Trail was steeper but had wider, more worn paths so I thought less about potential creepy-crawlies around my ankles.


I finally made it up to the top where I found another great scenic sandwich spot. Then I walked down out of the park, through a residential area to the train stop one ahead of where I got off and was home in time for dinner.

Another day, ‘well Done.