Australia: Sydney

My flight lands in Sydney at 6 in the morning, and by the time I get though customs and everything it's 7. Quite early, and it feels like the city is still waking up, I get the train to the city center and drop everything off at the hostel.

Santa maria Cathedral and Hyde's park

My first plan is to walk around the city, so I leave the hostel and start walking towards the big buildings. On my path I find a tourist map and see that I'm not far off the harbour zone, which is where all the well known building are.

The city is amazing, the combination of old buildings and new buildings, the busy streets and the big parks, the city has such a nice feeling to it. It all seems to be in harmony.

On my way to the harbour I walk by Hyde park and the Santa Maria Cathedral, and just after these I find the harbour. Everything keeps amazing me, and I just walk around taking pictures of the opera house, the bridge, the harbour... everything. The weather isn't the best, as it is a bit cloudy, but maybe it's for the best, because it doesn't feel to hot, but it's not cold either. 

Around the afternoon I decide to get my planning ready, and head towards a few travel agencies to see what the best way to travel around Australia's east coast is. And I end up booking an incredible trip, with scuba diving, kayaking and sky diving. We plan everything carefully in order to match the time that I'm here.

World's most famous Opera House 

The next day was Sunday, a quite quiet day in Sydney, as a lot of little cafés close, the big companies are closed as well, and there just seems to be much less people walking though the city. I was planning on taking the city sightseeing bus, but due to it's cost (and the fact that the biggest part of the tour is around the same area) I decide just to walk around all the spots that the bus does except Bondi Beach.

I visit the botanical garden, the opera house and walk over the bridge. Continue all the way up to the rocks, and at this point it tarts raining, so I look for somewhere to get cover.
By the afternoon I head towards the cinema, because Deadpool is just out. I get a ticket and get in the cinema, which I later found out is the world's biggest Imax screen!

For the last full day I have a tour to the Hunter's Valley planned, Hunter's Valley is the wine area of Sydney (of New South Wales actually) . Even thought that most Australian wines are made at the west coast or at the southern states, where the weather is a bit better for the grapes, they still have a lot of wine estates in Hunter's Valley as well, about 240 estates, they also specialize in making port.

So it's an early morning, waking up at 6 and being at the bus station at 7:30. By the time we get to the Hunter's Valley it's about 10 a.m.

A view of a tiny part of the Hope vineyards 

We do 2 wine tasting at different wine estates, the first one being a family run estate for over 6 generations, where we got a lot of interesting information , and the second one being a big estate called Hope estate, it's better known and feels more like a business. We have our lunch at this estate and continue towards our last wine tasting, at a little estate which was specialized sparkling wines. The trip ends with a visit to the Hunter's Valley gardens, which is a park known for being the biggest display garden in Australia.

Back in Sydney I get invited to a party organized by the travel agency, with free beer and free pizza.
After a long day I eventually make it back to the hostel to spend my last night in Sydney, the following day I will be taking the night bus towards Byron Bay.