Wandering Fel

There are so many good restaurants in Sydney but it seems that whenever we are meeting our friends here, all of them jointly rave about the wonderful ribs at Hurricane's Grill. One of my friends say her experience there was so good up to the point she came back to Hurricane's to have another go at their ribs. Boosted by the rave review and our hungry stomach after conquering 6km of Sydney Coastal Walk, we made our way to Roscoe Street in Bondi, where Hurricane's Grill and Bar is located. The restaurant was pretty deserted around 5.30PM on a Friday evening with only 2 other tables occupied besides us but I suppose that's because 5.30PM is way way way early for dinner even for Australian standard.

Our Bronte to Bondi Coastal Walk continued with a simple concept in mind, you are on the right path when the ocean is on your right. Walking from Bronte to Bondi is that easy. The distance of the walk is about 6km (both ways) and you just need approximately two hours to complete the track. Rumours say that you can even spot celebrities along the way. Not that we recognised any during our walk though.

One of the best things about the city of Sydney is that the city has turned out to be a joy for people who love walking. Sydney has many walking trails to offer and each walking tracks provides different kind of entertainment because it has its own unique points to offer. There are so many walking tracks that you can walk on in Sydney but a lot of websites has listed down 10 most popular walking tracks: (1) Bondi to Coogee Walk (2) Grand Canyon Walk (3) Barrenjoey Lighthouse Walk (4) Watsons Bay Walk (5) Narrabeen Lagoon Trail (6) Cremorne Point Walk (7) Rose Bay to Watsons Bay (8) Federation Cliff Walk (9) Spit Bridge to Manly Walk and (10) Katoomba Falls Walk. 

The difficulty level for the above walking tracks varies from one track to another. But if you are a noob in walking and are only interested for an easy walk with a breathtaking view, I would recommend taking the Bondi to Coogee Walk, which is also known as Sydney Coastal Walk. As what the name implies, Sydney Coastal Walk offers you a view of beaches, parks, creek and of course the calming deep blue sea. I did not start the walk from Bondi Beach nor from Coogee. In fact, Lee has suggested to make Bronte as the starting point because otherwise, we might have to rush off our walk to reach Bondi by dinner time. In order to reach Bronte, you have to first make your way to Bondi Junction Station. From Bondi Junction Station, you can proceed to the Bondi Junction bus terminal and take bus no. 378. The bus will make its way through a quiet neighbourhood area and it may not be really clear on where and when to alight from the bus, which is exactly our situation. If you think you will be stuck in the same situation as us, you should turn on your Google Map and alighted at the nearest bus stop to Bronte Park.

Friday in Sydney is a huge chillaxing affair where a lot of people can be found lazing on the bench or even on grass on a summer day reading books or drinking booze. Some of the people who were sitting on the bench that day were wearing office attire, I kinda wonder if they really can go out from office anytime they want. After all, we have been hearing so many things about Australian's great flexibility on work life balance. Hmm, is anyone interested in working in Australia, then?

The concept of Friday Foodie Market offered by the Rocks is cool and relaxed. You don't see people rushing from one stall to another stall to get food. Even though there are some queue lines spotted at certain spot, people seem to just queue in a chill manner. A lot of homemade food is offered in the Friday Foodie Market from homemade jam, sushi, crusty bread and pastries, chocolate, condiments, oil, fresh fruit and vegetables to even, billtong sticks (which seems to be beef skewers). Lovely flowers for your beloved ones are also available at the Rocks Friday Foodie Market. Do note that the foodie market is only open from 9AM to 3PM so don't come here after 3PM to avoid disappointment. On the other hand, the Rocks Markets which is held on Saturdays and Sundays is open from 10AM to 5PM and it is held at the same place with the Friday Foodie Market.

Other than for the food market, the Rocks is an awesome neighbourhood to explore. The neighbourhood has many historic laneways in the shadow of Sydney Harbour Bridge. In addition, the area also have some of Sydney's oldest pubs and there are buskers performing along the busy harbourfront promenade.

 The creation of Pancakes on the Rocks' concept was inspired by a visit of certain Australians to America. Pancake is a popular staple of food in American restaurants and these Australians wanted to bring that similar love of pancakes to Australia. The first Pancakes on the Rocks was opened in Adelaide back in 1965 and now, the restaurant has many branches across Australia. The original founders separated with one and then moved to Sydney to open Pancakes on the Rocks. The restaurant is set like a family diner in America (based on the TV series that I watch since I have never set my foot in the land of freedom). Pancakes on the Rocks offers a wide selection of both savoury and sweet pancakes. Their savoury pancakes include Potato Au Gratin (AUD 16.95) and Mexican Potato (AUD 17.95). Despite the availability of the savoury pancakes, it seems that the most popular items from the menu are all the sweet pancakes (if the list is accurate) such as Strawberry Patch (AUD 14.95), Bananarama (AUD 13.95), and Chocolate Jewels (AUD 12.95). The serving portion of the pancake seems to be on the huge side, so be mindful when you only have two mouths to feed. Otherwise, you may have an overdose of pancake.

We decided to go for Coco Berry (AUD 13.95) which is described as chocolate pancakes with coconut, cream, vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate sauce and raspberry coulis (i.e. A form of thick sauce made from pureed and strained vegetables or fruits). My first impression of Coco Berry is definitely "what kind of a mess is this?" The pancake is a sweetness overkill because well if you work the combination in your brain, a chocolate pancake drenched with chocolate sauce alone equals to sweetness overdose in my opinion. Especially when it's not even made from dark chocolate. Thankfully, we only ordered a plate of pancake because I don't think I can eat a whole serving of the pancake by myself.

 Well, you can always go for other option than pancakes such as their gourmet pizza and grill items (e.g. Pork ribs, fish & chips, etc). But to be honest, what's the point of visiting Pancakes on the Rocks if you are not going to try out their pancake, right?

Pancakes on the Rocks is located at:

4 Hickson Road, the Rocks

Sydney, Australia

Opening hours:

Daily 24 hours

Whenever Sydney is being mentioned in any travel guide, the Opera House and Harbour Bridge are always included as places of interest. Hence, we did not miss out the chance to visit these two places when we were in Sydney. But first, we need to board the train from Central station. 

Cafes in Sydney opens pretty early everyday (usually from 7AM) but they close pretty early too (can be as early as 4PM). So I tried to make it a habit to start the day early. But sometimes, you cannot really believe your own standard of being early. As Lee and I have expected of our own capability, we were only able to get out from our accommodation around 9-ish. Not too shabby and yet, not significantly earlier than our usual waking-up time in Singapore when we are not working. But this timing works out to our convenience because by the time we were having our breakfast, the morning office crowd has dispersed and gone to their respective office buildings. This means we can easily find seats in any cafe for our breakfast fix. Woohoo!

For our first breakfast in Sydney, we are going to Bourke Street where the famous Bourke Street Bakery is located. Bourke Street is located in Surry Hills area and it is a quiet neighbourhood where you can enjoy morning/afternoon/evening walk peacefully.             

  

The problem that we found during our trip to Sydney is...we don't know what to do when the clock reached 7PM because most of the stores start closing up at this timing (okay, some even close earlier at 5 or 6 PM). This is the time when we usually end up wandering around before the sun really sets for the day. We saw what seems to be the Broadway of Sydney in our wandering near Haymarket.

Before I went to Sydney for my birthday trip, a lot of my friends suggested to eat Thai and Vietnamese food in Australia because (a) they are pretty authentic and (b) they taste so good. When I did my google search for "best Thai food in Sydney", the name Chat Thai popped up quite a number of times in both Zomato and Tripadvisor. It receives a lot of good reviews from the netizens and hence, we decided to just eat Thai food there.

 Sydney's Town Hall is the largest and most ornate late 19th century civic building in Australia. One of the good things about staying in the area of Surry Hills is that you can simply make your way to this rich in history and architecturally spleding Town Hall on foot. The Town Hall is still performing its civic duties for the Australian and it is open during Council's business hours, Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm. You cannot just roam on your own without any particular business in the Town Hall as you will be escorted immediately by the Commissionaire at the George Street entrance to the relevant location of the Town Hall. If you are interested in viewing the venues or specific areas of the building, it is recommended that you join a scheduled tour of the building by contacting Fosth@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au. One interesting thing that I noted back then from the Town Hall is the display of the rainbow flag. There was a parade celebrating the rights of LGBT and hence, probably the reason of the rainbow flag. If you are looking for a supermarket (where you can stock a year supply of Timtam and Kitkat), there's a big Woolworths located right opposite Town Hall. The entrance to Town Hall train station is located right in front of Town Hall and Woolworths.

 Just like Covent Garden in London, QVB was historically a market in the olden day. The market has been redesigned and refurbished throughout the years until it has attained its grand state of now. A statue of Queen Victoria is built and displayed right in front of the QVB. I suppose a lot of people has referred to the statue of the queen as their favourite rendezvous point here.