Aussieland Day One: Sydney

After nearly missing our flight from LAX to Sydney due to a visa issue we were so thankful just to get on the flight. We were both in middle seats in row 50 but ended up being able to switch some seats around to sit next to each other. The 14 hour flight was long but bearable thanks to a few essentials: a good travel pillow, ear plugs and an OTC sleep aid. When we arrived in Sydney it was about 8:30 am local time and we hit the ground running. Sydney has an amazing transportation system that is easy and convenient. Trains leave straight from the airport to tons of different destinations. I downloaded an app with the Sydney rail map so I knew exactly which rails we would need to take when we got there.

We found the hotels in Sydney to be extremely expensive so we stayed in a hostel instead. We had never stayed in a hostel before and it's certainly not for everyone but we spent very little time actually in the room so we didn't mind it much. The hostel we stayed in was directly across from the Kings Cross station. This made it very convenient to get from place to place (especially since we were pulling luggage) however if we were to stay in Sydney again I would choose a different area. It wasn't the nicest part of town and there were a few too many strip clubs on the street for my taste.

When we arrived at the hostel our room wasn't ready yet but we were able to leave our things and change. We packed important essentials in our backpack since there wasn't a safe and off we went! We went straight to the harbour to check out the bridge and the opera house. One of the things we really loved about Sydney is they have water bottle refill stations everywhere! We never had to buy drinks and we just kept refilling our bottle everyday. After a quick lunch by the water we hopped a ferry to the famous Manly Beach. The ferry gave us a great view of the opera house and harbour bridge. Manly beach was beautiful! The beach itself was quite large and people were able to really spread out and relax.

My husband's wallet popped out of his back pocket as we were taking our shoes off and we didn't notice it missing until a couple of hours later as we were heading back to the ferry. We retraced our steps and combed the beach in a little bit of a panic. Thankfully the lifeguard was holding onto it! Even more thankfully, all of the cash and cards were still there. Australians are awesome.

After catching the ferry boat back from Manly beach we were on a quest for Kangaroo pizza and boy did we find it! We wandered over to the Australian Heritage Hotel where we found good food, good beer and good company!