So I I left off the last post talking about the day Reilly I visited the Botanical Gardens and the Sydney Opera House. That was Saturday, December 23. That day, Skandy was still feeling a bit under the weather. However, the following day, he was feeling almost entirely back to normal. So, that morning, the three of us took a walk around the corner from our hostel to a breakfast place that had come very highly recommended from a friend of ours who had done a semester abroad in Sydney last year (the friend’s name was Jack Lampert). On the walk there, we found this sick building that was one of the most uniquely shaped buildings I’ve ever seen (ironically, probably second only to the Opera House).
Sadly, when we arrived to the breakfast place, it was closed. So, we audibled to another local spot with good reviews. And man oh man was this a good find. We have been back to this spot three times already. It was a super cool little breakfast spot wedged into the side of a residential building. Reilly and I both got this breakfast sandwich that had a fried egg, bacon, avocado, Tomato, cheese, a hash brown, and Sriracha mayo. It was one of the best breakfast sandwiches I’ve ever had. Skandy got a cheesy breakfast sandwich that he also thoroughly enjoyed. I also got a mango pineapple smoothie that really complimented the sandwich. The spot was called Cafe Kappuccino. Highly recommend it if you are ever in Sydney.
On our walk home from the breakfast spot, it started to rain. We debated waiting out the rain or just going home. We had a tour of the Opera House planned for 1:30 and it was only 11. But luckily, I spotted a market in the building across the street and we headed over there. Everything was super cheap and we managed to find some really cool stuff. I got Thongs (flip flops) for only $4 Australian Dollars (like $2.75 American). We also each got some really cheap Aussie shirts. And of course, we took some fun pics along the way!
Luckily, after our time in the market, it had mostly stopped raining. So the three of us tapped our Opal cards and hopped on the tram towards Circular Quay – the stop closest to the Opera House.
Our tour started beneath the Opera House and we worked our way up. It was super cool to see the building from the inside and learn a bit about the complicated history of its’ construction. We were taken into one performance hall that was relatively small and had only recently been introduced as a show room. They told us it was initially to be used as a lift to bring props and things up to the main performance hall. So, it was basically an elevator that got converted into a theatre. Afterwards, they brought us up to one of the main performance halls called the Joan Sutherland Theatre. It was huge. Our tour guide informed us the room could seat 1,507 people. Wow! She also polled the group to see what we thought the shape of the hall was modeled after. Some people guessed the shape of a rhombus, or a barn, or a UFO. But, she told us it was modeled after a human mouth to best project sound all the way to the back of the theater. It turns out this is actually only their second largest concert hall in the Opera House. The largest hall, called the “Concert Hall,” can seat 2,679 people. Sheesh! I wish we could have seen that one but they had it closed off because they were rehearsing for the Circus 1903 production that is currently being shown.
After the tour, we spent a bit of time outside taking in the view of the city and getting some cool close ups of each of the “shells” of the Opera House. We learned during our tour that in order to make the building structurally and mathematically sound, they designed it by taking a semi sphere and slicing it up into pieces, and then stacking these slices to form the shape of the building.
After our tour, we headed back into the city to head up to the top of the Sydney Tower Eye – a giant structure overlooking the city that you could pay to get up to. We knew it would cost around $20 Australian dollars to get up there. But, when we arrived, the guy working the desk informed us that there was also a bar/restaurant at the top of the tower that we could go to for free, and just had a minimum purchase of $20. This seemed perfect! A chance to grab a bite and a drink basically for free by paying to get up to the top. This was an awesome surprise as the bar itself was super fancy and futuristic, and the views were spectacular. We had a whole photo shoot up here.
We each got our own order of Pork Tacos which were scrumptious. And as for the drinks, I got this yummy watermelon pilsner and Reilly and Skandy decided to get fancy and ordered some whiskey, on the rocks. Reilly got Buffalo Trace and Skandy got Wild Turkey. Here is the Watermelon Pilsner.
After our time at the bar, we decided to join in on the hostel bar crawl that was happening that night. We have made a few friends in the hostel and some of them were going as well so we thought it would be a nice way to hang with the friends we’d made and make some new ones. The bar crawl was fun, but it was quite different than many of the bar crawls I had been on in Europe. The first bar we went to was more of a billiards club. We pretty much just drank, chatted, and played pool while we were there. The second bar was cool, we floated around, danced a bit, and drank some (not so) delicious XXXX Gold. The last stop on the bar crawl was the bar/club that is in the basement of our hostel. But at this point, we were pretty hungry. So, we settled for some Doner Kebab down the street and called it a night. Very successful Day!
I am thinking of basically just breaking up almost every day into its’ own post. I feel like every day has been so action packed to the point that, for the most part, each day deserves its own post. So, here is Sunday the 24th, and I’ll move along to the Christmas post now! Cheers!
Nick Henderson
11:31am
Wake Up! Sydney Hostel, Sydney, Australia