Even though I’ve only done a handful of them, Travel Tuesdays have quickly become my favorite section on this blog. I hope I can keep them up for 2014.

As I mentioned, I went to Sydney over the Christmas Holiday for 1 week. It ended up being my only travel opportunity so I’m glad I went the full week. It reminded me a lot of NYC in that it was a fun city to visit but I didn’t find it as sightseeing heavy as say, Paris, London, Florence, etc. I had a great time, don’t get me wrong! But it was mostly because I shopped until I, quite literally, dropped at the end of the day. There were nights I went to bed certain that my feet had swollen to twice their normal size. Good thing I had bought out Lush earlier and had about a million different bath bombs to soak them in! SO excited.

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make aside from the fact that I’m a horrendous consumer whose soul belongs to Lush and Starbucks, is that though I enjoyed Sydney, I may not have as many pictures as I anticipated. Despite my week long trip, I think I may only get about 2 or 3 Travel Tuesdays out of it. And I hope I don’t bore you.

Now, let’s begin. Day 1 I arrived at about 6 pm to my hostel, Sydney Central YHA. It’s the same chain I stayed at when in Brisbane and was totally sold when I found out they had a free movie night each night. An excuse to stay in and not have to socialize while simultaneously sort of being social since I’m experiencing an event with 30+ strangers and making small talk over the free popcorn machine. Count me in!

Day 2, I planned on getting up early so I could photograph Bondi Beach at sunrise. Turns out it was cool, cloudy and rainy and I mostly woke up at 5 am to get a lot of overcast pictures of the sky. I would later drown this disappointment by raiding Lush (for the first time), dying of excitement over finding fro-yo and aimlessly walking around a giant mall which was so large that I actually got lost. All and all, I would count it pretty successful.  After all, any day that has me walking away from a beach not sunburn is  victory in my book.

Now, onto the photos! (just click on the photo to see Full Size. It should open in a new window):

Let’s just take a moment to admire my packing skills here. This was round 1 of my attempt to pack. Yes, that is my suitcase before  I went to Sydney. In otherwords, before I went shopping for a whole week. Clearly, I had to dump this all out and do some serious editing. I think it’s safe to say I need to work on traveling light.

Waddup Sydney Central Hostel! I spent three nights here in a room with 5 other girls. I can safely say I didn’t hate it. The staff was helpful, there was a nice restaurant inside with breakfast served all day and the most important thing, I didn’t get bed bugs. I can also say, I didn’t love it. Especially when two of the girls in my room rolled in at 3 am on the morning I was waking up at 5 am. Then turned on all the lights so they could see. Then one got a booty call at 3:15am and proceeded to talk to said booty call until 3:30am when it finally dawned on her that maybe it was rude and took it out side. I didn’t love that so much. But the rest of the hostel was nice!

Now, endless beach pictures:

why yes, I did wear my Converse to the beach and yes, I am still finding sand in them. BUT, since it was cloudy and cool, I ended up walking about a mile and a half up a rather steep street to get to the mall , Bondi junction, so it ended up being a wise decision.

Anyone who knows me knows that the Achilles heel of my veganism is Fro-yo and ice cream. It’s my kryptonite. I love it. So when I found a fro-yo place at Bondi Beach, I almost died. There are no fro-yo places where I’m living in Toowoomba. I don’t know how I moved to a place with no Starbucks and no fro-yo but somehow I did. This was is half original fro-yo with pomegranate and granola. And have chocolate with cookie dough, Tim Tams (!) and a sour gummy worm. Not vegan but delicious. Ironically, for lunch I stopped at this little vegan joint called Iku Whole Foods bought sweet potato millet balls, ate it on a fresh roll (from Tin Pin Bakery) with some hummus and fruit salad from Bondi Road Fruitologist (heaven!). Did I photograph any of that? Of course not. I just photographed the ice cream. oi!

I’m pretty sure sharks don’t come this close inland. I think I’m safe.

It wouldn’t be a trip to Bondi without a few surfer pics. Because of the weather, the beach was almost deserted that day but I know the few days before and after it was mobbed.

This bird has one foot. Just saying.

More to come next week! I visit the opera house and go on a wine and cheese tour which may not have been the best idea for a light weight vegan. But it was still fun!