The lessons I've learned from my travels will stay with me forever, but while they are still fresh in my mind, I made a little (14 minutes is little, right?!) video to fill you all in on my top 5 pieces of advice for travelling to Australia!
If you're looking for specifics, skip to...
1:51 for money tips!
4:05 for sun protection tips!
5:30 for packing tips!
8:07 for communication tips!
9:33 for tips on making it the right trip for you!
After seven amazing weeks I found myself in my last week of my trip! It started off on a high, with the amazing Blue Mountains, and the fun continued for the next four days!
On the Tuesday night I was lucky enough to be given a ticket to see Scottish comedian Danny Bhoy - my two cousins were going, originally with my uncle, but my aunt and uncle insisted I take the extra ticket, which was so lovely of them. Despite him being Scottish I had never heard of him before, but he seems to be really popular over in Australia. His show was brilliant, I laughed till I cried, and getting to see something in the beautiful State Theatre in Sydney was amazing!
The following day I took a trip into the city again to pick up some souvenirs for my family and friends! I also met Gemma for lunch in the restaurant at Darling Harbour we had her birthday dinner in - unfortunately I've managed to competely forget the name of it, but they do $10 steak and chips all day every Monday to Wednesday! It was a glorious day and the water in the harbour was so blue!
After a nice chilled out evening on the Wednesday, the Thursday was Anzac Day - a bank holiday in Australia. My uncle was off work, so we all went out on a family picnic at Brooklyn Marina, a picturesque spot just twenty minutes away.
We had such a lovely afternoon, and headed back to the house just in time for me to get myself ready, and out into the city to meet Gemma, Emily, Sarah and Sarah's boyfriend, to go for some drinks and then to the Sydney Opera House to see Tegan and Sara!! It was amazing to be inside the Opera House, and the concert was brilliant!
That night I stayed with Gemma and Emily in their flat in Bondi, before heading back to my aunt and uncle's the following morning for the daunting task of packing! My flight wasn't until 9pm though, so I had a nice lazy day getting organised! I booked my flight home with STA Travel, and got an amazing deal on an Emirates flight, which flew me from Sydney to Dubai (14hours!) and then Dubai to Glasgow (8hours), with a two hour stopover in between. I didn't manage to sleep at all unfortunately, but I did watch a lot of good flims and tv shows, which I'm going to do a separate post on actually!
My time in Australia was absolutely incredible, and I feel like it did me the world of good! Again, I'll do a separate post on that, but thanks so much to everyone for reading my posts along the way - it's been great :)
So now I'll be getting back to a lot of my regular posts! Weekly Favourites will be back as of tomorrow, and I have a couple of blogger event posts to write up, one from the INAA #shaba event last Monday, and I'll have another to do after the Grazia Live Beauty Parlour in Harvey Nichols in Edinburgh on Wednesday! If anyone is going along, let me know!
After my trip to Melbourne I flew back to Sydney for the final two weeks of my Australia adventure! I had a couple of things on my 'to do list' before I flew home to Scotland, and one of them was to visit the spectacular Blue Mountains.
The Blue Mountains is just a two hour train journey North of Sydney, and if you have the chance to visit them you must!! Emily and I set off at 9am on the Monday morning and arrived at Katoomba train station at 11, ready for a day of walking (note: take appropriate footwear for hiking in the mountains... we did not and boy did our calf muscles pay for it the following day!!).
You could spend days exploring this amazing place, but we decided to do the day trip on the Hop On/Hop Off Blue Mountains Explorer bus, which you can do for $49. That includes your train ticket from the city to Katoomba and your bus ticket for the day. There are 29 stops on the bus route, and it is entirely up to you which stops you choose to get off at! We pretty much followed one of the walk suggestions in our guide book which took us down the Furber Stairs (an hour long walk almost entirely downhill, with some amazing views!), Queen Victoria Look-Out, Echo Point and the Three Sisters (a famous rock formation in the Blue Mountains), the Leura Cascades, Bridal Veil View and Gordon Falls Lookout.
Amazing profile of a face in the rocks, known as Witches Leap!
The Katoomba Falls Katoomba Falls and the Scenic Railway
After our initial hour long walk, we found that we had reached a point where either we had to walk all the way back the way we had just come, or take the Scenic Railway up to the bus stop. It cost $14 for a two minute journey, but since we had a lot more walking to do, and a limited amount of time to do it, we relented and took the railway through the cliffside and got back on the bus. We hopped off at Stop 14, Echo Point, which has an incredible lookout point and views of the Three Sisters, and a really nice cafe where we got ourselves some lunch!
The Three Sisters Posing with the Three Sisters! Beautiful View from Echo Point
Our next walk took us from Stop 17, the Leura Cascades, to Gordon Falls Lookout, with the breathtaking Bridal Veil View on the way. This was a long, but beautiful walk, which took us around an hour. Due to one part of the walk being closed off, we were told to look out for a slight detour, which would take us back up onto the main road, and then back onto the cliffside path, just before we reached Gordon Falls. This resulted in me having a minor panic attack at one stage, convinced that we had missed the detour - poor Emily had to put up with five minutes of a ludicrously stressed out companion. There something so incredible about being out there, in what seems like the middle of nowhere. It's so rugged and untouched, and such a massive difference from the busy city - just like the rainforest in Port Douglas!
The Leura Cascades Amazing scenery - high up at Bridal Veil View! Emily and me at Gordon Falls Lookout Point :)
After my brief nervous breakdown - brought on by the fact we hadn't seen another human for around half an hour! - we were back on the main road and managed to reach Gordon Falls before it was time for us to get the last Hop On/Hop Off bus of the day to the train station in Leura, and catch our train back to the city. Not before we hit Woolworths for necessary supplies though...
Obligatory cookies for the train journey home!
I arrived back at my aunt and uncle's house at 8oclock that night, absolutely exhausted, but having had such an amazing day - you can see how beautiful it was from the photos. If you don't have time to make a weekend of it (there are lots of hotels, hostels and B&Bs at the Blue Mountains, making it easy to spend a few days there!), I'd definitely recommend going for the day! You might not have time to see absolutely everything, but you can go on a couple of amazing walks and see some stunning views you'll never forget!
Thanks for reading - watch out for my next post which may well be my final Australia post!! And be sure to check out my final Australia vlog which includes our day at the Blue Mountains :) Thanks for reading guys!!
One of my favourite places in Sydney was the Chinese Garden of Friendship. I had read about it before I even left Scotland and it sounded as if it would be right up my street... and I wasn't wrong!
Hidden away in the middle of an insanely busy city is this beautiful garden, complete with ponds full of koi fish, small temple-like buildings and gorgeous plants and trees. It cost us $6 each for entry, and then you are free to look around for as long as you like. We went on a Thursday morning, which seemed like quite a quiet time to go, and it was nice to just wander around and take it all in without having to rush for the sake of the people behind you!
I think this is such a lovely idea!
We thought this would be such a nice place to get married!
The Chinese Garden of Friendship is just a five minute walk from Darling Harbour, and located within easy walking distance of Sydney's China Town. It's one of the loveliest, most peaceful places I've ever been and I highly recommend stopping in! You don't have to spend too long there to get great value for the mere $6 entry fee!
I'm now up in the gorgeous Port Douglas in Queensland and have some very exciting photos to show you all soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that!
When you have weather as beautiful as we had here in Sydney last week, exploring some lovely outdoor places in the city is a must! While it was a bit too hot for us to feel like lying on a beach, Gemma, Emily and I ventured to two leafy paradises hidden right in the centre of the busy city towards the end of last week - the first was the Botanical Gardens.
The Botanical Gardens are absolutely beautiful, and I got myself all excited trying out the panoramic setting on my camera! With the city skyline appearing behind the beautiful trees on one side, and an amazing view of the water, complete with the Opera House, on the other, this is the perfect location for a stroll and a picnic - I can imagine it's a hotspot for locals to come and sit, read and relax, with a perfect mix of open, grassy areas to top up your tan, and shade in amongst the trees to cool down if it gets just a bit too warm.
We had such a lovely afternoon here. I would definitely recommend going for a walk around if you have a bit of free time in Sydney and are looking for something free to do - we all love a free day out, especially when everything here is so expensive! Take a book, something to eat and just relax and enjoy the amazing view!
Thanks so much for reading guys :) Let me know what you've been getting up to in the comments below!! The next post will be on the absolutely gorgeous Chinese Garden of Friendship, so keep your eyes peeled for that, and afterwards I might fit in a couple of regular posts like a Weekly Favourites, or a product review - I've been missing my regular posts!
On Monday this week Gemma, Emily and I set off on a trip to Taronga Zoo. It wasn't the cheapest of days, but it was definitely something we all wanted to see and so we splashed out (on the cheapest deal we could find!) and got a water taxi across to this beautiful Sydney zoo.
View of the Opera House from the water taxi!
Welcome to the zoo!
Cable Car up to the zoo!
Spot the Koala!
Hello little lizard
Feeding time for the Giraffes
A gorgeous Indian Elephant.
Me and my elephant pal.
The binturong (often referred to as 'bear cats')
One of the majestic tigers.
The zoo was absolutely beautiful, but if I could give anyone who is planning to visit it a piece of advice (or two!) it would be take plenty to drink with you and wear comfortable shoes!! The zoo is absolutely huge and a lot of it is uphill, so you need to have comfortable feet. I have been a total failure in terms of the footwear I have packed, and so by the end of the day my feet (which were in completely flat sandals) were killing me! In terms of taking juice with you, that is crucial both in tems of hydration and saving money - we packed a picnic for lunch but I seemed to forget about a drink and was charged $5 for a bottle of Sprite... that's right. $5!!! Otherwise I have nothing but praise for the zoo! The location is gorgeous, with a stunning view across the water to the city, and it has some amazing animals!
The view from the zoo to the city!
I really loved the nocturnal animals, which are housed in an amazing building you sadly (but understandably) can't take photos in. It is essentially simulated night time during the day, dark and with lots of night sounds (although we weren't sure if that was for our benefit or the animals!) and while the zoo is closed at night they light it as if it is daytime. The kangaroos let us down a smidgen in that there was only one out in the enclosure and it was lying down, refusing to face us, but the wallabys and koalas were in good form, and so cute! There was also an amazing sea lion show, which I totally forgot to take any photos of, but you can see some of it in my vlog from that day, which I'll link below!
My favourites though had to be the meerkats! I'm a huge meerkat fan, and they didn't disappoint!
Cheeky little meerkats!
All in all the zoo was one of my favourite touristy places so far - definitely worth visitng if you get the chance :)
Check out my vlog - which includes my trip to Summer Bay! - to see more of the gorgeous animals and more of the lovely zoo itself!
Thanks for reading guys, hope you are all well! :)
