Sydney/Melbourne 11-21 June: Part 1

Sydney: 11 - 14 June, Melbourne: 15 - 18 June, Sydney: 19-21 June. It's not enough. I wished we could stay longer. So many things and so many places we haven't gone to. I believe regrets will bring us back to the place again. haha.

Day 1:


Flight
Flying was never quite a problem for me. Neither was sleeping through a flight (haha). But it was kind of a surprised that I didn't sleep well on this one, moreover a 12.35am (GMT +8) flight. First was because of my aching waist (due to all the half-bending while packing luggage) and then a baby who cried at frequent intervals. The baby should be sleeping at that kind of time! *shakes head* Nonetheless, still went in and out of sleep after watching Just Go With It starring Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler - 2 of my favourite artistes.

Hotel
We reached Sydney at about 10.40am (GMT +10). Got to the hotel quite early, all 3 of us fell asleep while waiting for our 4th member to join us. Finally checked into Grand Mecure Hotel at George St. and we were out venturing the place shortly after. To save cost, 4 of us shared a room with 2 double beds. And 4 of us shared a room throughout the whole trip, no matter where we were. Wasn't bad at all, just that we took a long time to get ready to leave and to sleep too. haha!

Touring around
Didn't know we could do so much in a day. Lunched, visited Paddy's Market, then had a walk through Chinatown (a rather short one), saw some of the Jazz & Blues Festival along the way to Darling Harbour. Then headed to Circular Quay after dinner and dessert and special show at the harbour. (More details on those later)

Was a fruitful day but a tiring one too!

Food
a. Marigold Dimsum
It was very crowded. The queue didn't ever end. They served quite traditional Cantonese styled dimsum. All being pushed around and to be taken off the tray. Choices are wide but not all are the traditional kind. Some are rather new ideas. And of course we didn't try everything. Favourite is most probably the beancurd, porridge and bo luo bao.

$74 in total. Not the cheapest you can get for the kind of standard but good enough for Sydney I guess? There were more expensive ones along Chinatown.

b. Hurricane's Grill @ Darling Harbour
Ordered a rack of Pork (you can choose between pork, beef and lamb) Ribs with Chips first round. Then we decided to order another half rack with chips and another portion of chips. (Ya, a lot of chips) Apparently it's because it's our first day there and we find the chips very nice. As we progress into the days, chips aren't that appetizing anymore. Haha!

Full Rack Pork Ribs

Also about $70 in total. The ribs were good. We were lucky to be there just slightly before dinner time and decided to join the queue. It was kinda cold to sit outside because we didn't make any reservation, but thank god for the heater. The queue never ended anyway. When we came out around 7pm, there were still a lot of people waiting and I heard the waiting time for new arrival was about an hour. (WAH!)

c. Lindt's Cafe
They are having their winter special Hazelnut Hot Chocolate. I'm not a fan of nuts, thus I opted for the normal Dark Hot Chocolate. We were presented with empty mugs with milk and chocolate separated. So we had to mix our own hot chocolate, quite a good idea I say. But then, if it's not nice then we cannot blame them right? LOL. But it's a blazing $7 per share of Hot Chocolate!

First Mix

Second Mix

d. Gelatissimo
I had a Chocolate flavour I forgot what was it because I was choosing between a few. They have a whole display counter of chocolate-flavoured gelato! That's like 16 different kinds. Really took me a while to choose. With the gelato in hand, we walked from Darling Harbour to Queen Victoria Building before taking a bus to Circular Quay. :)

Specials
It was kind of our luck that there was fireworks display at Darling Harbour. It happens on 2 saturday nights in a month. Lucky to fall on 1 which we were in Sydney. :) Caught the fireworks without any blockage in front. It was plain clear view, probably because it rained earlier, thus smaller crowd. Really cool.

Then we gone on to Vivid Sydney (27 May - 13 June). It was really nice. All the different neon lightings, designs and exhibits around the whole circular quay. Everything was so cool! There are exhibits which reacts to human body temperature or movement. So when we go near them, they light up.   We didn't even manage to finish seeing all of them despite going to that area for 3 nights in a row. Haha! There's a good 40over works, some are designed by Singaporeans! Love the cool lightings, projections and the fire show.