Ultimate Tourist Day!!

I have been blessed to make a really nice Aussie friend named Sarah who was gracious enough to take me on what she calls the, “Ultimate Tourist Day.” She said that she and her friends love going on tourist days around Sydney and finding fun new spots to hang out at. She picked me, one of my roommates, Natalie, and one of our friends Greg up at 8am on a Saturday morning and then the adventure began!

The four of us hopped into Sarah’s car and had no idea what was in store for us for the day. Our first stop was Bradley’s Head where we had a picnic breakfast that Sarah packed for us which was delicious. Bradley’s Head looks out across the water at the Sydney skyline and the Harbour Bridge. There is a wharf where a few men were fishing and a footpath that went through a really pretty bush area by the water. We all put on wicked Aussie flag tattoos, because what tourist day is complete without one, and then walked a bit along the path.

After we ate breakfast, we went across the Harbour Bridge into the city and parked and then walked to the Luna Park, which is a bit like Chicago’s Navy Pier. Luna Park is an old fashion retro theme park/carnival that closed for a while but reopened for the public and looks exactly like it did when it first opened. The entrance is a really creepy clown head thing but it’s really fun inside because it all still looks vintage and retro. It’s right on the water and a ferry goes right to it. After we took a bunch of fun and silly pictures we headed to get a pick-me-up at a small café.

After being caffeinated we felt prepared to walk across the Harbour Bridge. I was a bit surprised because the bridge wasn’t quite what I expected. It has a fence that goes up so I felt a bit caged in on the bridge, which I realize is for safety purposes but it did ruin the effect a bit! We went up one of the pylons of the bridge which had an amazing view though. For $9 you can climb a bunch of stairs to walk through up to the top of the pylon where there is a display of information about the bridge and you walk outside and can see all around the bridge. You can literally see almost all of Sydney from atop of the pylon. I could see the Opera House, the Rocks, Circular Quay, Darling Harbour, and even the Gladesville Bridge, the bridge I cross every morning to get to school. It was beautiful!

After the bridge we went through Circular Quay to go to the Royal Botanical gardens where Greg climbed some random trees, I made friends with a duck I named Quizie, and we saw an anti-democracy socialist protest march. We grabbed lunch from a vendor by the garden and had lunch in one of the garden’s pavilions and had to defend our food from some very nosey birds. The Botanical gardens is of course very pretty and overlooks the water right beside the Opera House. When we finished lunch we went to the Sydney YHA because one of Sarah’s friends works there and he let us up to the rooftop where there is yet another amazing view of Sydney. Everywhere you go Sydney is gorgeous!

One of my favorite parts of the day was taking a ferry across to Watson’s Bay. Watson’s Bay is a really chill and relaxed part of Sydney and there is a small beach and a park right across from the wharf. There were two weddings going on so we saw part of a ceremony ending and another newlywed couple taking pictures on the beach. We were getting tired at this point so we relaxed at the park for a while and watched the sunset across the water and it was stunning. It was a nice way to end a super busy day because it was just completely relaxing. We grabbed fish n’ chips at a place called Doyles that was right on the wharf and ate and talked while we waited for our ferry to take us back across to Sydney. It was a long twelve hour day but we got to go to a lot of parts of Sydney that we hadn’t been to yet which is always good!