Hey Now, Hey Now, Don't Dream its Over

Liz on Red Bull ???

When we arrived on Dec 21st we stayed in an apartment on Bondi beach, just 10 mins walk from Carmel’s house............ We have done cliff top walks visiting different local beaches, gone swimming in very dangerous currents; in fact we have walked so many miles up and down the hills of Sydney that we have both got "buns of steel" as Carmel calls them!

Everyday has been a breakfast experience, we have had so many delicious breakfasts in numerous cafes all over the Bondi area, we tried to pick the best breakfast but after a while they all blended into each other (in the memory that is!). Carmel cooking us a fine breakfast!

We have visited the Circular Quay and the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge; & taken umpteen photos, well you can't have too many pics of the Opera House and it looks different from every angle. We spent a day at Watson’s bay to see the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race; We visited another area of Sydney called the Rocks, where we ate Kangaroo and drank real Ale!; this is an old area of Sydney where many slums used to exist prior to the construction of the Sydney Bridge, it is now an arty area with a great street market, and of course lots of hills.

Arty Statue in The Rocks District

We hired a car for 3 days and went to the Blue Mountains where we walked in the Rain Forest, also to Palm Beach where we slummed it with the rich and famous in the posh suburbs. we spent another amazing day in The Royal National Park south of the city. We have eaten meals out in a variety of nationalities of restaurants including Thai, Brazilian, Italian, Japanese, Moroccan, French;
Our adventures have not just been confined to day time; the Sydney festival started on the 5th January and we went to the opening night of The Sydney Festival where we saw Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame, also the multi- international group The Pink Martinis in The State Theatre.

Monday 7th Jan
Today we moved out of our Bondi apartment to spend our last 4 nights in Australia in the City (CBD – Central Business District) and give ourselves a luxurious treat, we booked into the 5* Sheraton Park Hotel, which faces Hyde Park. This area is a complete contrast to the village like atmosphere of where Carmel lives. It is hectic and vibrant, with a mixture of old and modern architecture.
We met Carmel at 6pm and got the train to Darling Harbour. A bit touristy but a very impressive area. We had dinner at the famous Nick’s Fish Restaurant and afterward sat on a bench with ice creams and watched the world go by. We ended the evening with a night cap on the Sheraton balcony bar, overlooking Hyde Park people watching. (Liz gave them a royal wave off the balcony.)

View of Hyde Park from the balcony

Tuesday 8th Jan
Apologies for going on about breakfasts so much, but the breakfast at the Sheraton was something else! one could feed a 3rd world country for a day with the range of food on offer here, from the usual bacon eggs etc. to freshly made pancakes & omlettes to cereals, fruit, rice dishes yohurt and even a full honeycomb for people who wanted honey on their breakfast or in their coffee!

Wednesday 9th Jan
After Breakfast we met Carmel at The Circular Quay, Customs House, but she had to do a days work work, so Keith and I went to the port and got ourselves a ferry to Manly for the day and got yet another angle for photos of the Opera House and the bridge. We had a bucket of King Prawns with a pint of Toheys beer on a roof top bar overlooking the beach for lunch.

We met up with Carmel again at 6pm to go into the city to go to the cinema. First we went to a Spanish restaurant and had Tapas. The cinema experience was in Gold class, to see "Atonement". (see Carmels blog for a film buffs guide to gold class!)

Thursday 10th Jan
Carmel met us at our hotel and we went and had 'Yum Cha', which is basically Chinese food brought to your table on trolleys, and the staff try to pursuade you to try their wares. You select your choice, then someone else comes along with another trolley of food, eventually they go away, you pay for whats on your table, and its a great way to do a buffet! (and luckily for Liz , nothing was raw!!) Then we shopped til we dropped.

In the evening we went to eat in the mainly Italian area of the city just below Hyde Park, we actually ate in a Moroccan Restaurant, although on the menu there was kangaroo, crocodile & local fish dishes.

CHEERS!

Then to The Speigal Tent to see "La Clique"

Friday 11th Jan
Carmel joined us for our final breakfast in Auastralia, at The Sheraton,

The Roof Top Pool at The Sheraton

We sat in the lounge reviewing the holiday and all the great things we'd seen and done. Sadly at 2pm we had to say our goodbyes and we got a taxi and headed to the airport for our 24hr journey back to the uk!

Thanks a million Carmel for a Fab holiday and our first Oz experience!!

Bye Bye Carmel.............X