Sydney, Australia

After hours of delayed flights from Melbourne, we finally reached Sydney, Australia! This was the whole inspiration for the Australia trip: to visit Tiffany and Greg who had moved to Sydney half a year prior, and of course Howard, whose wedding was the reason I visited in 2016. Our friend Tim had also just moved to Sydney, so I was happy to get to spend a lot of time with him on the weekdays as well.

First, a little walk around Tiffany and Greg’s neighborhood.

And then it was straight to Friendsgiving! Howard hosts every year for all his expat friends. He smoked two different briskets: a dry rub and wet rub. Both delicious.

Day two, brunch with Alex’s friends at Paramount Coffee Project in Surry Hills.

Then we embarked on the hike from Spit to Manly Beach.

It was probably a longer, more involved hike than we really expected, but it was lovely with such diverse landscapes to look at.

Turkey sighting.

Made it to Manly Beach!

Celebratory drinks at The Bavarian before taking a ferry back.

Ferry views!

We got a little extra scenic tour on the ferry because a giant cruise ship was leaving the harbor, so we went past the Harbour Bridge to wait for it.

The opera house looks like sleepy eyes from the water.

The buses in Sydney participate in Movember too. It’s the movement started in Australia where men grow out their moustaches for the month of November in order to raise awareness for men’s health issues. And even though the calendar had just turned to December, some of the bustaches hadn’t been shaved yet.

Dinner at Bang Tang.

A morning walk over to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair.

Alex got this niners sweatshirt from a shop in Melbourne, haha.

Such gregarious cockatoos.

Red feet and beaks for these fancy seagulls!

And just like that, Alex was back on a plane to go back to work in California. But my trip continued for a couple more days! Time for a ferry to Kiribilli to try and see some of the purple jacaranda blooms.

Brunch on the wharf at Celsius Coffee Co. Picturesque in every way!

Ok, so we definitely missed the peak blooms, but there were still some purple flowers left on the trees.

Back to Central station in Sydney.

Chinatown.

I was told to try these purple rice yogurt drinks, the hottest new thing since boba. I thought they were good but actually preferred to just have the yogurt minus the rice in them.

The Museum of Contemporary Art.

The museum has a roof cafe with prime views of the opera house!

Unfortunately, in the short time that we were up on the roof, the smoke from nearby wildfires got significantly worse, the skies turned grey-orange, and you could smell the smoke in the air. The fire season continued to get much worse after my trip as well.

Our explorations continue to the State Library of New South Wales.

Then, happy hour at Dear Saine Eloise.

Dinner at Cho Cho San

The next day, some solo explorations of Darlinghurst.

Organic Bread Bar and cute shops nearby.

Then Tim and I visted Tiffany at work at Google for lunch and a tour!

Australia’s weird pigeon equivalent… known as bin chickens.

A walk through The Calyx, part of the Royal Botanic Gardens. This was a whole exhibit of “plants with bite”.

The Queen Victoria Building.

Afternoon tea in the Palace Tea Room.

Wandering into some University of Technology buildings.

We attempted to visit the roof bar at The Old Clare but it wasn’t open that day.

On to dinner at Ho Jiak.

New favorite thing: scarlet prawns. Extra soft, flavorful seasonal prawns.

And on my final day in Sydney, one final meal before trekking to the airport: Boon Cafe.

Very creative, very tasty Southeast Asian food for brunch!

We walked through Paddys Markets, a huge warehouse space with lots of stalls filled with cheap goods, and a food section on the other end.

And one last drink from Yifang Taiwan Fruit Tea even though I can get this in the Bay too.

 

That’s it! It loved that since this was my second time visiting Sydney, I didn’t feel the need to go and see all the things. I got to spend lots of time with friends and wander rather aimlessly, and it was all so lovely.

Hope to be back again soon, Australia!

See the rest of my trip in the links below.

Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She compulsively documents and blogs all of her daily adventures. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.

Part 1: Melbourne, Australia
Part 2: Great Ocean Road, Australia
Part 3: Sydney, Australia