OK here's part 1 of my Sydney series! First up - hot chocolate madness. I think y'all have long established that I am a crazy chocolate addict. And of course, that meant that when I was in Sydney, I searched for the best hot chocolate in town - and I found the Guylian Chocolate Cafe by chance! I didn't even know that there was a Guylian Chocolate Cafe...so I just winged it and when I discovered it, it was the best thing that happened to me during the trip...ever. You'll find out why, soon.
OK here we go. Documenting the hot chocolate feast. The hot choc was meant to be poured over the seahorse, such that the seahorse melted and mixed together with the hot choc. It was so delicious. And I went for dark hot choc because that's my favourite. The hot choc was smooth too, and of the right strength. Best of all - the portion was actually pretty big - one pot for two cups of hot choc.
On the first night I was in Sydney, I went to Guylian Chocolate Cafe...and subsequently, I went back 5 more times during my stay in Sydney. I think there was one day where I had two "doses" of hot choc. And now I miss it so much.
Some additional pics of Guylian Chocolate Cafe. I just had to take pics of it for souvenirs. Apart from Guylian hot chocolate, I love their iconic seahorse chocolate too!
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These pics came from my photo archives. In this present moment, I really feel like having Guylian chocolates. Thank goodness we've got them in Coles supermarkets...and I also bought a bar of Guylian milk chocolate to try (haven't opened it yet, but once I open it, I'm pretty sure it will be devoured really quickly). Maybe I should do some mindful chocolate eating.
The "mandatory shipment" of chocolates from the trip - I have finished one block of honeycomb chocolates and am about to start munching on another one. I missed honeycomb chocolates so much! And of course, I missed Haigh's chocolates terribly...so I bought as much chocolates as I could from Sydney before I left. If there's any way to buy Haigh's chocolates online and ship them to Perth, that would be so awesome!
OK chocolate aside...we also went on a wonderful cruise around the harbour, on our first day in Sydney.
The Circular Quay precinct - our very first destination - with an art museum featured. I actually landed in Sydney in the wee small hours of the morning (sometime around 6am or so if I'm not mistaken), and had to down a large cup of mocha to sustain me throughout the day. It worked...but by the end of the day, I was so tired that I literally crashed.
Fortunately I only crashed at around 9pm at night - so I did manage to get lots of pics :)
We also headed to Campbell Cove at The Rocks precinct - a popular destination featuring different restaurants, cafes, including Guylian Chocolate Cafe. There's also a weekend market here at The Rocks, and this area gives us a really good view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the historic buildings around. The Rocks was named due to its sandstone buildings, and was established around 1788. It was previously known to be a slum, and was frequented by visiting sailors. It has since been converted into a tourist attraction, and a popular hangout place.
Sydney Harbour Bridge in its full glory, from The Rocks. I've got lots of pictures of this wonderful icon here. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge spanning Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) - it was opened in 1932, and now functions as a pedestrian, vehicular, bicycle and train bridge. Construction of the bridge was supervised by Dr. J.J.C. Bradfield from NSW Department of Public Works. The arches were constructed from both directions - until both ends met, and were joined, and the pylon towers (the two massive towers on either ends) were constructed later. Pretty cool!
The iconic Sydney Opera House - designed by the Danish architect Jorn Utzon. Another important landmark in Sydney, and in the world. I have lots of pictures of the Opera House too, and took the tour in there too! The Opera House is built on Bennelong Point, a small area of land protruding out from Circular Quay. Building the Opera House was quite an interesting feat!
Hopped onto the ferry after grabbing tickets for the cruise, and as we turned out of Circular Quay - we got even better views of the Opera House, from all angles! We also had coffee, tea and some awesome snacks on board the ferry.
The ferry ride took about 2 hours, and we got to see lots of interesting stuff around the harbour. We also went around some of the seaside suburbs.
These cliffs look pretty imposing! Apparently there is only one entry to the Sydney Harbour from the open ocean, and this entry is bordered by steep cliffs...we spotted a striped lighthouse and a church (from what I recall), on top of the cliffs.
Some of the seaside houses were so immaculate! I heard that some of them were worth millions of dollars, and belonged to celebrities. And of course, at one point, we passed by a nudist beach...and I saw everything...literally...there were people skinny dipping in the sea.
I've been to Mandurah in Western Australia, but these Sydney suburbs are really different. The houses are actually built on top of cliffs and elevated areas, and some had spiral staircases to allow owners to go to the beach. And there were plenty of sailboats around of course.
One of the smaller islands off Sydney - we spotted this on the way back to Circular Quay.
The mast of HMAS Sydney in the distance. HMAS Sydney was one of the warships in the Royal Australian Navy during the late 1930s and early 1940s. It was involved in convoy escort and patrol duties in the early part of the Second World War. The ship was sunk in battle in 1941 (on the way to Fremantle), but her wreckage was only discovered sometime in 2008. She has since been commemorated in various memorials throughout Australia, including one in Geraldton (WA).
Approaching the Sydney CBD - you can see the Sydney skyline with the skyscrapers and all, and of course, the Harbour Bridge. The Harbour Bridge is such an essential part of the Sydney skyline.
By the end of our cruise, the skies were starting to clear, and we were having some interesting cloud formations above the Sydney CBD. And at this point in time, I had even better views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge! These are probably some of my favourite pics from the cruise.
Got back on land - and passed by the Customs House and another heritage building in the area. Our hotel was situated in Circular Quay - right in the CBD, so it was really convenient for us.
Oh yes...While waiting to board back in Perth, I bought two more psychology books. I've finished "Mindsight" as of now, and am currently reading "The Emotional Life of your Brain".
And I guess that's it for today's post! In the next post I'll be featuring pics from Sydney University! Do stay tuned!