Sydney

Sydney was fast and frenetic and fun. It was three days of walking, shopping and coffee and I loved it. My sister Julie is a great travel companion. Her ideas of what would be good to do melded with mine so we never argued over activities.

We left early Friday and had arrived in Sydney before 9. Caught the train to Central and walked less than 500m to our hotel. Our room was ready so we could take up our luggage, dump it and be off to explore.

Our first port of call was Paddy's Market. Julie and I both seem to have an issue with map-reading so it took us at least 15 mins to walk there despite it just being over the road. Maybe if we'd looked away from the map and at our surroundings..? We needed to eat so we ended up with all the workers in a local cafe having the $5 special - fruit toast and coffee. Then we hit the markets.

From the markets we walked over to Darling Harbour, wandered around and had a late lunch. Then it was back to the room for a pre-show nap. Vietnamese for dinner and we were at the Capitol Theatre by 7:30.

Wicked was fantastic. The costumes were amazing (I wanted to see how they were put together)
The sets were seamless and the music was flawless. I really enjoyed the whole performance and couldn't get "Defying Gravity" out of my head for the rest of the trip.

Saturday we set out early for a walk down to Bondi. It took about one and a half hours and we felt like we'd pre-paid breakfast. Can I say that the view from our table at the cafe was beautiful?! We caught the bus back to Paddington to the Saturday Craft Markets then walked back into the city, around Circular Quay and the Rocks. We walked from 7 in the morning till 3 in the afternoon with just a couple of breaks. Back to the room for a nap and some reading (or was it reading then a nap?) then Darling Harbour for dinner and to watch the Christmas fireworks.

Sunday we were up early again to walk to Rushcutter's Bay for our sailing experience. I was a little anxious about getting sea-sick but I shouldn't have worried. I was fine and I loved it! It was so peaceful on the water. I felt like I'd left all the baggage from this year out there. I got off the water feeling so light and free. We filled in the rest of the day wandering around then back to the airport and a warm welcome home.