Sydney, Australia

I stayed at Sydney Central YHA, which is walking distance from Sydney Central station. It is also a pick-up point for my Hunter Valley trip. It's location is superb!

From the YHA, I walked along George Street to Queen Victoria Building. 

 Queen Victoria Building. There are many cafes inside. 

My favourite landmark in Sydney has got to be the Sydney Harbour Bridge! I am really impressed by how the bridge was constructed! It's an engineering wonder!

One can go for the Harbour Bridge climb. The Bridge climb takes around 3.5h and cost about AUD 200+ to 300+, depending on the time of the climb. The twilight climb would allow one to catch sunset. I contemplated over it but did not climb the bridge in the end, partly due to the high price and partly because the weather was terrible with intermittent rain. The sky looked gloomy and I could not see sunset that day. 

The Harbour Bridge climbers. It is not as scary as it looks as the steps are not so steep and there are railings and safety checks. 

I paid AUD 13 to climb up the Pylon Lookout next to the bridge.

At night, I walked over to Fish On The Rocks for dinner. Seafood lovers would love Sydney for the fresh seafood!

Fish On The Rocks - highly recommended by me!

Sydney Harbour Bridge at night

Sydney Opera House at night

From Sydney Central Station, I took a light rail to Sydney Fish Market. There is a wide selection of raw and cooked seafood. Yummy!

The pelicans were hunting for food!

There are a few popular beaches in Sydney, e.g. Bondi Beach and Manly Beach. I chose Manly Beach because it has a manly name, and because I could take a ferry to the beach. 

Manly Beach 

Fish & Chips at a restaurant at Manly Beach

Fish & Chips is a popular dish to eat at Manly Beach. You could either eat at a restaurant or takeaway the food and consume it at the beach. I did not eat at the beach because there were many birds preying on food. 

I visited Darling Harbour on a Saturday night to catch fireworks. It is similar to Singapore river. At Darling Harbour, I went to queue for pancakes at Pancake On The Rocks. It is a very popular restaurant! The pancake portion was huge though! It would be good to go with a group of friends to share the pancakes. I would not recommend having wine at Pancake On The Rocks though. 

Darling Harbour

Pancake On The Rocks

On my departure day, I went to Sydney Central Station to take a train to the airport. Alas, the airport line was down and we were instructed to board the train to the next station where an airport shuttle would bring us to the airport. At that station, we were frustrated when the train staff told us that they had just called for airport shuttle and the buses would take around 1 hour to arrive. We waited and waited and there was no bus. Instructions were unclear and we were led from one bus stop to another. Eventually, the crowd grew larger, majority was rushing to catch a flight. Those who couldn't wait jumped into a cab out of desperation. In the end, I shared a cab with a few people and the cab fare was exorbitant. What was worse? The remaining amount in my Opal card could not be refunded as I had neither an Australian address nor an Australian bank account. 

Port Stephens, Australia

I spent 3 days 2 nights in Port Stephens to enjoy the sea, sun and sand. Port Stephens was rather inaccessible via public transport. To save me from the hassle of lugging my luggage through trains and buses, I took a coach from Port Stephen.

I booked my accommodation with Port Stephens YHA and the YHA staff kindly arranged for me to take the Port Stephens coach from Sydney Central Train Station to Port Stephen YHA. Here are the details:

Depart : Sydney Central Train Station Eddy Ave, Bay 14

Time:   2pm

Arrive: Samurai Beach Bungalows

Time: 5.20pm

AUD $46 return. Pay at the hostel.

Depart:  Samurai Beach Bungalows

Time:     9.10am

Arrive: Sydney Central

Time: 12.50pm  

Take note that the timings are fixed. There is only one bus commuting between Sydney and Port Stephen everyday.

Here are some photos of Port Stephen YHA located in the middle of forest! There are a few of such bungalows. Imagine having your meals in the kitchen which is in the middle of the forest!

Back to nature at Port Stephens YHA

Morning call by wild animals! I heard some howling in the middle of the night which sounded quite scary though. 

The bus timetable is not reliable though. Use google map for bus timetable instead. 

Technically, I only had one full day at Port Stephens. To maximize my day, I signed up for 3h Moonshadow Whale Watching + Sandboarding 4WD tour. Note that this can be spreaded over 2 days if you stay longer at Port Stephens.

The Moonshadow whale watching tour departs daily at 10.30 am and 1.30 pm from Nelson Bay. I went for the morning tour. If no whale is spotted during the tour, the tour operator offers a free return cruise.

Nelson Bay

Onboard Moonshadow cruise

Caught a seal sunbathing

Spotted a few dolphins along the way

We waited patiently for the whale!

It was a fruitful trip. After I had lunch at Nelson Bay, I took a bus to Anna Bay for sandboarding. The bus frequency was low and from the bus stop, I had to walk quite a distance before I reached Anna Bay beach and took a shuttle from Anna Bay beach to the sand dunes. Do not have a full meal before you hit the sand dunes because it is going to be a super bumpy ride.

Finally, I reached the sandboarding area. Based on personal experience, I'd recommend anyone interested to do sandboarding to wear sunglasses to protect the eyes from the sun and sand and not to open your mouth when sliding down (unless you would like to taste the sand). The up slope climb was pretty tiring. Even though we are allowed unlimited attempts, most of us called it a day after a few attempts. 

Sandboarding 

Hunter Valley, Australia

I signed up for a day trip with Hunter Valley Wine Tasting Tours. It was a full day trip with pick up  and drop off at Sydney Central YHA (the hostel which I stayed in). I paid AUD $100 for the trip, exclusive of lunch. As the name suggests, it is a wine tasting tour! We were brought to a total of 4 wineries. At each winery, we were presented with an average of 6 glasses of wine samples for tasting. Note: you don't have to finish drinking everything, you can discard it if it is not your glass of wine. 

Wonderful weather at Hunter Valley!

Wine sample. Not a full glass.

I found James Estate the most interesting and engaging. We were each presented with 4 glasses of wine as shown below, 2 white and 2 red, and a wine list. We were to match the name of the wine to the correct glass and the person who gets all 4 correct answers wins a free bottle of wine! Sounds simple! Yet, nobody in my group managed to get all the correct answer. However, all of us had lots of fun guessing and matching.

Here is a sample of the wine list with the price stated in AUD.

If you intend to buy more than 2L of wine back to Singapore, do check the amount of tax which you have to pay.  

Blue Mountains, Australia

I went for a day trip from Sydney to Blue Mountains in September 2015. To get to Blue Mountains from Sydney, take a train from Central station and alight at Katoomba and take a bus to Blue Mountains. The train ride took around 2h and I strongly recommend you to visit Blue Mountains on a Sunday. This is because travel fare is capped at $2.50 on Sunday. You can take unlimited rides on trains and buses using your Opal card at only $2.50! 

Breathtaking scenery. Fresh air. You won't regret it!

The Three Sisters

I went to Scenic World which offered unlimited daily rides at $35! It got pretty crowded from lunch time onwards, so, if you would like to take the rides, go early! 

Scenic Skyway

Scenic Railway was the most fun out of all! The waiting time was the longest though.

Ghent, Belgium

Since the "Tag der deutschen Einheit" (Day of German Unity = National Day of Germany) fell on a Friday, I seized the long weekend to travel to Ghent in Belgium.

Ghent train station

I took a tram at Ghent train station to Backstay Hostel Ghent. As I did not know which tram to take, I asked the tram conductor and bought the tram ticket on the tram itself, which cost more than if I were to buy it at the ticketing machines at the tram stop.

Some of the food that you shouldn't miss when you come to Belgium are definitely belgium chocolates and traditional belgium waffles. I emphasize on the word traditional as I encountered many stores selling tourist waffles in Brussels, Belgium in 2012. In my personal opinion, those touristy waffles were too sweet and crazily piled up with strawberries, chocolate etc. 

Freshly made Belgium chocolates. I absolutely love the dark chocolates!

Traditional Belgium waffles at Brasserie Agrea

I was so hungry that I had chicken soup from another restaurant as well. Yummy!

Cuberdons or neuzekes (little noses) are candies. 

After eating the delicious food, it was time to explore the city. Some of the places of interests are Adoration of the Mystic Lamb in St Bavo's Cathedral, the Belfry, the Gavensteen (a castle) and the many churches. My favourite of all was simply to stroll along the river bank and to spend a lazy day basking in the sun. The view was simply breathtaking!

St Bavo's Cathedral 

The Belfry

 

The Gavensteen

Don't forget to catch the parade!

The daytime view of the river banks was awesome! The night view of the river banks was even more magnificent!

Some tips on finding the way to the destination if you do not have internet connection. 

1) Ask the staff at tourist information center

2) Ask the reception at any hotel / hostel

3) Tap on the free WiFi provided by any hotel / hostel and try to locate yourself and find your way!