My blog has been screaming for an update, so I finally got around to do it! It has been a while indeed since my last post. I've started my fourth week at work. Today was the first day alone when the lady who I replaced had finished up on Friday. I am feeling pretty confident. We'll see what the future brings. At least I can do things my own way and make my own decisions, rather than being dependent on her.
Nothing exciting work wise to say.
The weather has been absolutely beautiful. About 27C every single day and sunny. What a life! I had an Estonian friend visiting from Perth last week and we spent quite long hours hiking in Sydney and in Blue Mountains which are about two hours train ride away from Central. I've only realised how big Sydney is with its suburbs. Area wise it is basically 1/4 of Estonia with 5 million inhabitants as opposed to the whole country of Estonia with a population of 1.3mln. How cool is that?
It was great to hang out with Kert. I got to see a lot more of Sydney, got to drink a lot of expensive cocktails and sip wine while enjoying views of the coat hanger. First night when Kert arrived, we walked around Darling Harbour and then headed back to CBD to discover the coolest lane way bars that the city has to offer. First stop - Baxter Inn. That was also the last stop for that Wednesday night. We spent all night drinking wine and Campari-Prosecco cocktails. I was definitely feeling it at work the next day!
Thursday I had to move apartments again, so I wasn't up for any fun that night. I have moved into a room just 7 mins walk from the office, sharing with two Chinese I think. Well, one is definitely Chinese and the other one is hiding in his room ever since I moved in. It's almost two weeks.... The Chinese told me the other guy was German but I am pretty sure I heard him speaking Chinese. I think there was a misunderstanding somewhere. On another note, if you ever plan on sharing an apartment with Chinese, make sure there's cutlery! They only have knives and chopsticks, haha! I should also say that those people I share with are really dirty. I had to hoover my room even before I could move in. The carpet was full of hair. Obviously, the girl who went to China didn't bother picking the sh*t up. I don't really care, this place is only for three weeks and then finally I can move into a more permanent place, in a nice area with a nice flatmate. That's class! How lucky am I again? And it's only going to be a 15 minute bus ride to work. Works well for me.
Back to Sydney & Blue Mountains. I got a bit sidetracked!
Friday night we decided to get a few bottles of wine and go sit in the botanic gardens near the harbour overlooking the Harbour Bridge. The weather wasn't great that night but can't complain. It was not really cold, just cool and wet. After finishing the wines we were not really bothered about going anywhere else, so we decided to go home to bed :) After all, we were due to meet with Kert on Saturday at 10am to go for a long walk from Coogee to Watsons Bay. That was a long walk but very enjoyable! Some magnificent views of Sydney Harbour and CBD. It seems like where ever you are in Sydney (relatively close to water), you can always see the bridge and the Opera House.I didn't expect to be able to see that much from that many different angles and locations. Beautiful! After a long day of walking (probably around 15k) we caught the ferry back to Circular Quay. We decided to meet back in town later on in the evening and yet again go and explore some laneway bars in town. We had an early night though as Sunday was another day of fun planned for us.
Sunday fun day didn't look that good when we arrived at Katoomba (near Blue Mts) and realised it was way too cold for hiking in shorts. I was "smart" enough to wear shorts and assume the weather would be around 20s.Too bad, it was 13C when we arrived, misty and raining. Quick pitstop in Rivers (sort of a Penneys price range shop but worse quality) - got myself a sexy pair of black pants to keep me warm for the day. Problem solved, we headed to search for a hotel where we could stay for the night. Found a quite reasonably priced, sort of old style hotel for 100 bucks for two. Great! We were ready for our adventure. Receptionist at the hotel was kind enough to recommend walking tracks for us for both days. First day was supposed to cover a lot more than actually happened. Of course we had to stop at each rock, tree and corner to admire lush rain forest and take hundreds of photos of waterfalls and cascades in the rain forest. And the amount of stairs we took, I lost count. Probably thousands! Most of the track guided us through Leura forest walking past Leura Cascades, Witches Leap, Bridal Veil Falls.
It was a perfect day - mysterious and misty :)
Second day looked much brighter and we were ready to head out to where we finished off previous day. We kicked our tour off from Echo point - the ultimate tourist spot where numbers of buses filled with Asian tourists are dropped off for a few hours to enjoy the views of the most famous part of the mountains - the Three Sisters. Once we got going the crowds became less dense leaving just the two of us walking along the lonely tracks of the mountains. We encountered the odd person or small groups of people here and there, but most of the time, the place was all ours. We followed the route towards Golden Stairs - the sign noted it to be a hard walk. No worries, we'll take on the challenge! The views were breathtaking. I will not even try to describe, you can see for yourself in the photos I have uploaded. Golden stairs were not really stairs, it was just an uneven track along the mountain with not much safety around it. The signs did warn us to be careful and that rocks may be loose and landslides may happen. Hmmm, wouldn't want to be alone there!
We finished our day off with an 800m climb up the stairs to Golden Stairs car park. The sign, again, warned it was going to be hard and average time to get up would be 45 mins. That was quite an exercise, I admit it. Reminded me of the good old times in the gym in Dublin when I had to walk 10 mins on the stairmaster. Clearly, the reward wasn't quite the same!
That was our second day pretty much done. As we were trying to figure out which direction town was going to be in an walked along the road we were offered a lift back to Katoomba town by locals. We had seen them earlier on the stairs (a grandfather and grandson I presume) and exchanged a few words with them. As I saw them getting into their car I wished they'd offer us a ride back. And they did. Aussie hospitality is priceless :)
We had planned to visit Wentworth Falls within those two days too but we didn't get enough time and had to leave it for next time. There are so many tracks for hiking that I will definitely return one day.
Nothing exciting work wise to say.
The weather has been absolutely beautiful. About 27C every single day and sunny. What a life! I had an Estonian friend visiting from Perth last week and we spent quite long hours hiking in Sydney and in Blue Mountains which are about two hours train ride away from Central. I've only realised how big Sydney is with its suburbs. Area wise it is basically 1/4 of Estonia with 5 million inhabitants as opposed to the whole country of Estonia with a population of 1.3mln. How cool is that?
It was great to hang out with Kert. I got to see a lot more of Sydney, got to drink a lot of expensive cocktails and sip wine while enjoying views of the coat hanger. First night when Kert arrived, we walked around Darling Harbour and then headed back to CBD to discover the coolest lane way bars that the city has to offer. First stop - Baxter Inn. That was also the last stop for that Wednesday night. We spent all night drinking wine and Campari-Prosecco cocktails. I was definitely feeling it at work the next day!
Thursday I had to move apartments again, so I wasn't up for any fun that night. I have moved into a room just 7 mins walk from the office, sharing with two Chinese I think. Well, one is definitely Chinese and the other one is hiding in his room ever since I moved in. It's almost two weeks.... The Chinese told me the other guy was German but I am pretty sure I heard him speaking Chinese. I think there was a misunderstanding somewhere. On another note, if you ever plan on sharing an apartment with Chinese, make sure there's cutlery! They only have knives and chopsticks, haha! I should also say that those people I share with are really dirty. I had to hoover my room even before I could move in. The carpet was full of hair. Obviously, the girl who went to China didn't bother picking the sh*t up. I don't really care, this place is only for three weeks and then finally I can move into a more permanent place, in a nice area with a nice flatmate. That's class! How lucky am I again? And it's only going to be a 15 minute bus ride to work. Works well for me.
Back to Sydney & Blue Mountains. I got a bit sidetracked!
Friday night we decided to get a few bottles of wine and go sit in the botanic gardens near the harbour overlooking the Harbour Bridge. The weather wasn't great that night but can't complain. It was not really cold, just cool and wet. After finishing the wines we were not really bothered about going anywhere else, so we decided to go home to bed :) After all, we were due to meet with Kert on Saturday at 10am to go for a long walk from Coogee to Watsons Bay. That was a long walk but very enjoyable! Some magnificent views of Sydney Harbour and CBD. It seems like where ever you are in Sydney (relatively close to water), you can always see the bridge and the Opera House.I didn't expect to be able to see that much from that many different angles and locations. Beautiful! After a long day of walking (probably around 15k) we caught the ferry back to Circular Quay. We decided to meet back in town later on in the evening and yet again go and explore some laneway bars in town. We had an early night though as Sunday was another day of fun planned for us.
Sunday fun day didn't look that good when we arrived at Katoomba (near Blue Mts) and realised it was way too cold for hiking in shorts. I was "smart" enough to wear shorts and assume the weather would be around 20s.Too bad, it was 13C when we arrived, misty and raining. Quick pitstop in Rivers (sort of a Penneys price range shop but worse quality) - got myself a sexy pair of black pants to keep me warm for the day. Problem solved, we headed to search for a hotel where we could stay for the night. Found a quite reasonably priced, sort of old style hotel for 100 bucks for two. Great! We were ready for our adventure. Receptionist at the hotel was kind enough to recommend walking tracks for us for both days. First day was supposed to cover a lot more than actually happened. Of course we had to stop at each rock, tree and corner to admire lush rain forest and take hundreds of photos of waterfalls and cascades in the rain forest. And the amount of stairs we took, I lost count. Probably thousands! Most of the track guided us through Leura forest walking past Leura Cascades, Witches Leap, Bridal Veil Falls.
It was a perfect day - mysterious and misty :)
Second day looked much brighter and we were ready to head out to where we finished off previous day. We kicked our tour off from Echo point - the ultimate tourist spot where numbers of buses filled with Asian tourists are dropped off for a few hours to enjoy the views of the most famous part of the mountains - the Three Sisters. Once we got going the crowds became less dense leaving just the two of us walking along the lonely tracks of the mountains. We encountered the odd person or small groups of people here and there, but most of the time, the place was all ours. We followed the route towards Golden Stairs - the sign noted it to be a hard walk. No worries, we'll take on the challenge! The views were breathtaking. I will not even try to describe, you can see for yourself in the photos I have uploaded. Golden stairs were not really stairs, it was just an uneven track along the mountain with not much safety around it. The signs did warn us to be careful and that rocks may be loose and landslides may happen. Hmmm, wouldn't want to be alone there!
We finished our day off with an 800m climb up the stairs to Golden Stairs car park. The sign, again, warned it was going to be hard and average time to get up would be 45 mins. That was quite an exercise, I admit it. Reminded me of the good old times in the gym in Dublin when I had to walk 10 mins on the stairmaster. Clearly, the reward wasn't quite the same!
That was our second day pretty much done. As we were trying to figure out which direction town was going to be in an walked along the road we were offered a lift back to Katoomba town by locals. We had seen them earlier on the stairs (a grandfather and grandson I presume) and exchanged a few words with them. As I saw them getting into their car I wished they'd offer us a ride back. And they did. Aussie hospitality is priceless :)
We had planned to visit Wentworth Falls within those two days too but we didn't get enough time and had to leave it for next time. There are so many tracks for hiking that I will definitely return one day.
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