I’ve grouped these few places together because you really can’t explore one without the other. They are within walking distance. If you've read Part 1, you'd already know that Circular Quay is the place to board a ferry to get to other places. Again, be sure to check if there are any events going on at Circular Quay.
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| Taking pictures of Sydney Opera House while on a ferry ride. |
Get down to
The Rocks Markets to browse for souvenirs during the weekends. There’s a Foodie
Market on Fridays as well. You can also decide to have Pancakes on The Rocks at
The Rocks itself.
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| It's always nice to stop and watch entertaining street performances! In the background you can see that the Museum of Contemporary Art is located at The Rocks as well. |
If
possible, watch a musical or performance at the Sydney Opera House. My friends
and I caught South Pacific there! If you’re really interested, you could book a
tour. It’s a bit expensive and as a poor exchange student I could not afford to
go.
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| Sydney Harbour Bridge! |
If you’re interested you could do the Bridge Climb but again, it was too pricey and I felt that it wasn’t worth the money.
After walking past the Opera House you’d reach the Royal Botanic Gardens.
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| This is the Government House, another museum that is worth checking out. |
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| This picture was taken in winter. |
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| The flowers bloom in spring and you can enjoy the lovely flowers along the garden paths! |
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| Be sure to check out the Rose Garden Pavilion. I totally wouldn’t mind getting married there. |
7.
Chinatown / Paddy’s Market / Market City
Less
pictures for this one, because Chinatown is all about appreciating Asian food!
Especially when you feel homesick and would like a taste of local Singaporean
food. However, if you crave for roti prata, I absolutely do not recommend you
to spend $7 at Mamak in Sydney, when you can get prata in Singapore for just a
dollar. It is so not worth it!
And there’s
like chicken rice for $10. Are you insane?! It only costs $3.50 in Singapore!
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| I am ashamed to admit that I tried this expensive plate of chicken rice. |
Okay, so you must be thinking: if things are so expensive, why should we go to Chinatown?
The first
thing we came across in Chinatown was something called Emperor’s Puffs and they
were selling at 3 for a dollar. These small cream puffs were packed in a
plastic container, and it tasted really good as they were all fresh from the
oven. There was a queue but the customers were served pretty quickly!
There’s
also a place Taiwanese desserts known as Meet Fresh. The restaurant opens till
midnight and they have taro balls, herbal jelly, milk tea, pudding, sticky
rice… all sorts!
A cheap and good Japanese restaurant at Chinatown would be Daruma.
And yummy ramen can be found in Market City, the shopping centre in Chinatown. Market City is full of all sorts of stores, especially those selling cute stationery. Hakata-Maru Ramen can be found in the food court.
The ground
floor of Market City is also known as Paddy’s Market. You can pretty much find
all kinds of souvenirs here at affordable prices. This was my go-to place for
last minute purchases before heading back to Singapore. Do take note that it
closes at 6!
If you’re walking from Chinatown to Darling Harbour, you may come across N2 ice-cream.
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| Yum, ice-cream. |
It’s fun to look at how they prepare your gelato because it is as if they are scientists using test tubes and liquid nitrogen.
Oh yes, I almost
forgot! The Chinatown Night Market takes place every Friday. Don’t miss out on
those food stalls!
8.
Shopping: Glebe Markets / Broadway Shopping Centre
More
shopping! I’m not really that fond of shopping, which is why Market City is
number 7 and Glebe Markets is number 8. There are other flea markets around but
I’m most familiar with Glebe Markets. This is because the first time I visited,
I’d already spent almost $90 because I kept finding cute vintage dresses that
were my size. It was a shock to me because I’m not exactly a shopaholic!
Glebe Public School is located along Glebe Point Road and it opens every Saturday from 10am to 4pm, so be sure to get there early. There are also food stalls and live music, so you can just relax on the grass.
Broadway
Shopping Centre is very close to Glebe and also Chippendale, which was where I
stayed during my time in Sydney. I think it’s still important to mention the
shopping centre because you can easily buy all your necessities there. It is
very convenient. There’s Kmart, which practically sells EVERYTHING, in case you
ever need an extra toothbrush or some more underwear. There’s The Reject Shop
for cheap household items, snacks, and also mostly everything. Then there’s
Target, which is a little more expensive, but sells whatever you need as well.
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| Waiting for a movie to start! Hoyts Cinema is located in Broadway Shopping Centre. |
There’s
Coles – obviously the best place to get all your groceries. My roommate and I
always bought Golden Gaytime ice-cream, Red Rock Deli chips, and croissants.
Then there’s Harris Farm Markets, for fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as
yoghurt. Mmm, yum!
9. Sydney
Fish Market
Seafood
isn’t really my thing, but I enjoy a trip down to Sydney Fish Market every now
and then with my friends. I mostly just eat all the fried food like fish and
chips, and raw food like sashimi.
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| Lots of fish to be bought. |
Octopus! Calamari! Singapore Chilli Prawn! (I can’t help it but laugh and be a bit skeptical when I see that they have added “Singapore” to the name of a dish. It’s like they think it’ll attract more customers. What if it doesn’t taste like the ones I’ve eaten in Singapore? Can I complain like a typical Singaporean would? But okay lah, in this case I don’t really care because I don’t like prawn)
After ordering and grabbing some food, just grab a table, sit down, AND FEAST.
It is important NOT to feed the birds. This is NOT Marry Poppins.
There will be seagulls all over the place, so you have to look out for your own food and make sure they do not steal any. In other words, don’t leave your food lying around unattended, and be sure to clean up after you’re done. Sometimes, the seagulls would just snatch whatever you’re holding up anyway, even if it is just a single fry.
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| The view we had while eating. |
10.
University of Sydney
Just one
last mention: the university where I spent one semester at. This is number ten
because I probably feel sentimental about this place even though I did not
spend my entire university life here. But I also know that tourists come here
to take pictures of the magnificent building as pictured above, and couples
come here for wedding pictures.
I don’t exactly walk through Victoria Park on a typical school day because most of the time I’m rushing out of the house and the shortest way to get to school is to get around the park, not through it. But walking through Victoria Park is nice and I love these purple trees.
I only had
one tutorial in the castle-like building and most of the time I was in Carslaw
or Woolley. I love to just chill at the quad. The cool thing about studying in
Usyd is that there would be random booths and things on sale. Once, there were
posters on sale and I just had to buy some even though I had no space to
display them. On another occasion, Featherdale Wildlife Park came down with
some animals and I went to take a closer look at some reptiles, a koala, and a
baby kangaroo in between lessons.
There was a peaceful protest on the streets and lessons were cancelled. Professors and students went down to support one another while policemen sat on horses, bringing up the rear and allowing horse poop to litter the road.
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| To me, this was an interesting sight. You don’t ever see this in Singapore! |
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| One of the more awesome posters on the school noticeboard. |
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| The door of a female toilet. |
The Graffiti Tunnel connects one part of the school to another. There are other places in Sydney with street art, and actually when I first started living in Chippendale I made use of the graffiti to figure out how to get home. But the tunnel is probably the largest legal area in Sydney for graffiti artists to work their magic.
Exam time! I didn’t have my exams in such a large hall because the modules I took weren’t exactly popular. Also, I mostly had take-home exams.
This blog entry is getting too long but there are a few more special mentions so I'm going to have an extra post (Part 3!).
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