Trip Recap Part 1: Sydney

Well it took me a while, but here goes!  Our trip was an unforgettable experience and luckily we have 700 or so pictures to remind us of our time.  I promise I won't share them all but will try to recap the highlights, starting with Sydney.  We were able to share our trip with our friend, who lived in Sydney and New Zealand and he showed us around so we were really able to get to know the places and people we traveled to. 

We arrived in Sydney on a rainy day and took a ferry to the apartment we would be staying in with our friend.  It was a little rainy, but something we had to get used to for our trip.

We immediately unpacked, changed and set out on the first of many, many 'walks' we would go on. What my hubby and his friend failed to tell me is that their definition of walking is different than mine.  In many cases it involved my short legs speed walking to keep up with these speed demons for several hours.  This was no glam trip.  The flat iron was sadly left behind and yoga pants and rain jackets were the new black.

 The views were beautiful and it was an opportunity to do a little warrior 2 overlooking the beach.

We set out for a city tour the next day and spent our time exploring the city on a red double decker bus.  If you are in a new city, the city tour is a great way to get a general sense of the place and then you can find out what you want to get a closer look at and where to spend more time- like the ice cream shop at Bondi Beach.

In between bites of sugar we hopped on and off the bus, admiring the mix of old and new buildings and gorgeous architecture in the hilly city.

We ended our day bonding with the natives.  The famous didgeridoo was really cool and I'm sure this was a highlight for the hubby.

There were many, many more highlights of our time in Sydney.  The Sydney Harbor Bridge was stunning.

The Sydney Opera House was pretty from far away-

But not so pretty up close!  It's the impressionist building of the city.

The city is incredibly green and has beautiful parks and gardens throughout.  This tree was so unique and pretty.

Some of our best times were had outside of the actual city.  The day we took a train to Bondi Beach was so much fun.  We walked a path that took us from the main beach to a smaller beach where hubby surfed and I hid from the sun.

Another memorable trip was two hours outside of the city to visit and hike the Blue Mountains.  Below is the series of small peaks called The Three Sisters- you can see why.

The best part was looking down- it was like a miniature version of the Grand Canyon and breathtaking.

So is this- but I'm easily distracted.

One of the most amazing things we noticed is how the terrain changed- a long dry walk led us to a large rainforest section.

So did we do anything but hug trees this part of the trip?  We did go out to check out the Sydney nightlife a couple of times.  New Year's Eve was spent watching fireworks at Darling Harbor while listening to DJ Frankie Knuckles spin and drinking lots of bubbly.  Sydney knows how to party VIP style and they listen to a LOT- a LOT of house music.  Here is a picture of one of the times we went out.

This was also the beginning of our trip and a chance to use our new camera to capture the sunsets.  The sunsets were one of my highlights.  My wise hubby says we never appreciate the sunset while racing home from work.  On vacation our senses are heightened and it doesn't hurt when everything is bathed in a gorgeous golden glow.  Gorgeous.  Here are a few shots.

While I'm supposed to be a FOOD blogger, the food will have to wait.  I'm going to devote a special post to the food we ate on our trip because really, what else matters?

What do you appreciate most while on vacation? For me it's nature, learning about different cultures, and of course new foods.