DAY 4
University of New South Wales
I have been missing my university for the last 7 years. The last time I am in Sydney was when I got my Master degree from UNSW. I had the best time of my life studying there, so Sydney holds a special place in my heart. I have wanted to come for so long, but life gets in the way. When I had a chance to go, I was so excited. Finally, the thing I want is coming true. I visited the places I used to go, drinking the coffee I always love, tasting my favorite foods, and meets my old friends. I want to show my 4 years old son, the place where I studied.
The things I do with my son;
♥ Taking pictures in UNSW library lawn, and just chill there while drinking my favorite coffee mocha from the best coffee stall in UNSW. That place still exists even after 7 years, and it grows bigger. My son loves the library lawn, he kept running around.
♥ I also take my son to the food court where my favourite Indian food are, I love buttery chicken from that place. Turns out my son love it too.
♥ Go to grad shop to buy UNSW merchandise.
♥ Visit international house, an international house is the name of my old student housing; I heard that it is demolished. But the fact is the International House still standing.
I walk around from upper campus to lower campus and saw there have been a lot of changes here and there. But my faculty still look pretty much the same. UNSW now have new buildings and cafe. I wanted to take my son to Max Brenner (one of my fav cafe), coincidently UNSW now has Max Brenner on Campus so I take Dylan there. He is so excited to see the menu, and he says he wanted all. LOL. Then we order a waffle and chocolate fondue. It was sooo gooood.
DAY 5
Fish market
Do you like seafood? If you do, this place is seafood heaven. The place is actually a large fish market that sells mainly seafood whether it is raw or cooked. You can choose fresh fish and they will cook it for you. The place might smell fishy (duh), but it is clean and comfortable. There are a lot of food vendors and they all look so good. They have almost everything; fish, scallop, shrimp, giant crab, huge lobster, unagi, even sea urchin. My favorite is the baked cheesy scallop from Peter’s.
I went there with my friends around 11 am and it is already packed with people, it is a bit difficult to get seats.
If you can get seats inside, I think it is better for you to sit inside rather than outside because outside there are annoying seagulls that constantly bother you.
At the back side, there is a dessert shop that sells chocolate dip fruits, yogurt, and juice. My son loves the chocolate dip fruit the most.
Manly Beach
Since my son loves going to the beach, so I am taking him to Manly beach. He already was asking me to include a beach on our itinerary. The most famous beach in Sydney is the Bondi beach, but I did not take him there. I figure if we go to manly, my son can enjoy a ferry ride too. It is like doing 2 things at once. Dylan enjoys ferry riding so much that he fell asleep.
How to get there: ride a ferry from Circular Quay wharf to Manly beach. FYI, there are 2 types of ferry you can take to go to Manly Beach; regular ferries and fast ferry. As its name suggests, the fast ferry is newer and will take less time to go there, but it is slightly more expensive than the regular one. Both can be paid with opal card.
Things to do: swimming, playing sand, hang out, and shopping.
Dylan already prepares to play sand on the beach by bringing his toy dump truck and toy shovel. He really enjoys playing sand and refuses to come home. There are a lot of restaurants, food courts and shopping places but I cannot go there, because Dylan took forever to play sand. That’s ok, one of the reasons I go on holiday is to make my son happy. So we focused on playing sand for the rest of the day.
Day 6
Watson bay, Bondi Junction and Paddys Market
I went to Watson bay a couple of time in the past with my friends, so I take my son there. There are not really a lot of things you can do there. But it is a nice place to have lunch, and enjoying the view.
How to get there: ride a ferry from Circular Quay to Watson Bay. You can take bus from Watson Bay to Bondi junction.
Bondi junction is a large shopping mall. After Bondi Junction, if you want to go to the beach, go to Bondi Beach by taking another bus from Bondi Junction.
Then I went to Paddys Market to pick up some souvenir. If you look for souvenir like t-shirt, key chain, koala doll, fridge magnet, jacket, bags, etc, Paddys Market is definitely the best place.
Day 7
Wild Life Zoo
Actually, I wanted to take my son to Featherdale Wildlife Park, because that zoo is pretty big, we can walk among kangaroos and took pictures with a koala. They also have a large variety of animals. However, since Featherdale Wildlife Park located pretty far from the city, I didn’t go there. It is too much work to go there for me and my son plus it was raining all day since morning. I want to show kangaroo and koala to my son and he is very excited to see it. So, I went to the closet zoo in the city which is Wild Life Zoo. It is an indoor type of zoo.
How to go there: I took a train and get off at Wynyard Station then walk to the zoo for 20-25 minutes. It was raining that day, so it took me longer to get there. The place is right across Darling Harbour.
Ticket price: for an adult is $44 and child $31, if you want to take pictures with koala like I did, there is an additional fee $25. In total, I spend $100.
Day 8
Queen Victoria Building
The last day had to be a shopping day, even though I always shop whenever I found something I like. But hey, It is never enough right? LOL. I already make a list of things I wanted to buy in Australia; most of it is skin care and food. I went to Queen Victoria Building (QVB). QVB is a shopping place that located in pitt street. Around that, there are a lot of interesting shops, such as; Chemist ware House, Priceline, HnM, Woolworth, Lush, Lovina, Mecca Cosmetic, Sephora, T2, and Coles. There are so many things to look around, but not enough time. I found some great items at a sale price. And when I was in chemist warehouse, they have this promotion, if you spent $65 on skincare; they’ll give you a bonus of a cosmetic bag full of products worth $200. What a nice timing to shop.
If you visit Sydney and you wanted to buy skin care, supplement or make up, go to chemist warehouse or price line. They have brands like antipodes, sukin, Neutrogena, blackmores, swisse, la roche posay, trilogy, simple, and many more. It is such a heavenly place for me. I will make a separate post talking about the skin care that I bought.
For all the food I want, I went to Woolworth and Coles. I went straight to the chocolate section, then follow with tea, coffee, and nuts aisle.
I love tea as much as coffee, so besides Woolworth, I went to T2 for tea. T2 is like special tea shop that sells a huge range of loose leaf tea. They have unique flavors like caramel brownie, crème Brulee, choco chip chai tea, or white cocoa tea. A tea that tastes like chocolate is a new thing for me, I feel like I wanted it all.
Tips:
Traveling around Sydney is so much easier when you use opal card. You can also buy individual tickets. But if you use, train, light rail, bus, and ferries a lot, it is better to buy opal card. I purchase an adult opal card and child opal card. Children between the age of 4-15 must use child opal card. You can top up as much as you like. Always remember to tap the card when you get in and get off, otherwise the card will charge more. Also, if you travel on Sunday you will only spend $2.7 for the whole day! does not matter how many train and bus you take on Sunday, just remember to tap on the card. However, that fare does not apply on ferries.
That is it my Sydney itinerary for 8 days, I hope it can help you give an idea of how you can enjoy a holiday in Sydney. Thanks for reading, cheers.
ND PASSION 