So we’ve been working on our itinerary, in conjunction with what monies we have saved for this trip and it turns out we have a little less than we had hoped. Either that or we were being unrealistic all along, which is possible! People had said ‘Australia is expensive…’ before we even arrived in Australia and thankfully we were pleasantly surprised when we got to Melbourne with things costing pretty much the same as at home. Let’s be honest, Europe isn’t exactly cheap either. Sydney, on the other hand is quite more expensive than Melbourne. For example, we paid $5 for a 500ml bottle of flavoured soft drink, albeit it was nice, but five dollars. COME. ON. LIKE!
OMG we're in Sydney!
So right now we are trying to weigh up what we should do, continue for the duration we had planned all along and keep to our strict budget or, blow all our money and have a ball for the next month. Well maybe not a month, but you know what I mean!
At present with a one-way flight home in the pipe-line for Christmas (from New Zealand, hopefully), we have about $80/each/per day. This isn’t too bad I guess, but then again according to Lonely Planet we fall in to the lowest budget bracket, essentially the poor grade!
Saying all that, we had a super day on Friday and most things we did were free. Let’s be honest, eating is the biggest expense but there’s nothing we can do about that, a girl’s gotta eat! We got up around 8.30am, showered, got ready and left the hostel about 9.45am. Found a little portable coffee retailer, bought ourselves a coffee for $3.80 and then made our way to The Rocks region where Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House all overlook the absolutely spectacular Sydney Harbour. We didn’t quite know what to expect but it was absolutely outstanding, much better than I had ever hoped.
A friend of ours recommended we take a ferry from Circular Quay, the main docking region, to Watsons Bay, an eastern suburb of Sydney, which houses a lighthouse at the very tip with a magnificent walking trail. The trail in total took us about an hour and is a well maintained pathway along the shore. The return ferry from Circular Quay to Watson’s Bay was $11/each and we used our Opal Card (similar to the MyKi in Melbourne), you just top up, tap on when you’re boarding and tap off when you’re alighting, much the same as trains etc. Simple!
Click to enlarge.
We had a bite to eat on the pier before departing Watson’s Bay, at a reasonable $13.80/each for fresh fish and chips it was hard to say no. When back at Circular Quay we took a quick walk up to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Jamie and I are not the best when it comes to heights therefore we didn’t go the whole way across, rather about one third or so. We had even discussed walking up the Bridge while planning our travels, I don’t know what we were thinking because there is no way in hell I would’ve done it!
It was after this that we bought that really expensive bottle of soft drink and from there decided we really need to work on our plan, if buying a drink is going effect our upcoming plans then we really to need to knuckle down and prepare our meals for the day ahead rather than buying them while we are out. Therefore, we found ourselves a Coles, stocked up on some snacks, water and small lunch items for the next day for just $7 (all Coles products, as you can imagine!), found some Chinese retailer selling off their remaining dishes for just $5 and then made our way back to the hostel around 6pm.
What a view! - this photo was taken from the Sydney Harbour Bridge
All in all, our first full day in Sydney was great. For anyone that’s counting we spent $17.50/each/per night on our accommodation therefore we came in well under budget with a whopping $24/each rolling over to the next day! Ahhh….. it’s the little things eh!
Until next time folks!