Flying to Meet My Love – Our First International Vacation -Sydney, Australia!

I’m flying to meet my Love, The Big Guy, on our first international vacation Sydney, Australia! The two of us were flying from opposite sides of the world to meet for a long anticipated meet up – he from Iraq & I from Texas. We had not seen each other for six months since he had left to serve in The Middle East on a ‘project’ & I was able to choose the spot. Unlike trips taken later, this was more of a destination vacation as expense was not a factor on this particular trip so we upped our game on this travel.

I Get the Call!!!!

The Big Guy called me one day & says “hey I get 3 weeks R&R, where do you want to meet?” I was so stoked. Where could we meet? When he said ‘you pick’ I picked Australia! Once was not enough for this girl! I had been to Sydney years before on a work assignment. Since I knew wherever we met that I would probably be there first, I picked a spot I was familiar & Sydney was an easy choice.

Now its 2007 & Australia here I come again only this time The Big Guy will meet me there.  I knew I could do a walk about without getting lost & so I reserved the same hotel I had stayed in on the first trip, bought my ticket & I was off to meet The Big Guy!

Now I have to say this, Australia was not an inexpensive place to visit. First time I visited Sydney had been years before for my work so no cost to me. Difference is now in time of year we were meeting, in season & thus hotel prices were up.

What I’m trying to say is I’m sure there are better prices during their off season but on for this trip we had to go when The Big Guy could go so. Definitely not the time of year we would have chosen but it was what it was. We were able to save with my ticket using American Express rewards. Quick note, a great way to budget travel is by using flight rewards. Most airlines offer these in some form.

Now, Lets Talk Sydney!

Where do I begin? There are so many things to see, foods to taste, gardens to walk. Here is a little taste of sight seeing in Sydney! Buses & ferries made it very easy to get around to sites outside of Sydney proper. Here are a few of my favorite sights for you should Sydney becomes your next destination vacation!

Sydney, Australia Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is amazing with beautiful structure & views. The Big Guy & I were able to attend an Italian opera on our trip. It was everything I dreamed it would be. The atmosphere was so rich, the Opera had The Big Guy & I both tearing up. Really! Just so beautiful. Neither of us understood what was being said but the emotions & body language touched us.  All during the opera the words in English were displayed across the top of the stage so you could easily read but really even if the words had not been there we would still have been able to follow. At intermission everyone left the auditorium to the patio on the Bay where wine was being served.  Shortly it was announced by a bell that intermission as over & everyone headed back for the next Act…..IT WAS AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE!  

The Royal Botanical Gardens

The Royal Botanic Gardens is another must see. It is such a calm & beautiful stroll through trees, flowers, birds & bats [yep those big old bats hanging from the trees].  Macquarie’s Point is a pretty cool area for photos. Have some decent walking shoes! I think directly from this point we got on the walk path that runs around the water with great view of the Opera House & the Sydney Bridge. On an earlier trip with co-workers, I had the opportunity to watch a Harry Potter movie set up along this walking path. I swear we are all sitting in the chairs set up for the movie facing the water.  All of a sudden it seemed like the screen just rose out of the water? To this day, I’m not sure how they did it but it was great! Plus, once it got dark, the bats started flying across the screen leaving their shadows, it was pretty cool.

The Gap near Watson’s Bay

To round out my top three favorites [I really could go on a bit about Sydney but for now will leave at this] The Gap near Watsons Bay has to be mentioned. The Big Guy & I fell in love with the views from the top. This is at entry to Sydney Harbor. Looking one direction you can see Sydney, the other the end of the earth. Beautiful shades of blues & greens in water. We both could not get over the beauty.

This is the jewel of Sydney as far as beauty goes. As you can see from my photo above there was a short fence to keep folks from getting to close to edge but a few years after our last visit a taller bridge was constructed to keep people back. It has quite the interesting history so I would suggest checking it out online in your spare time.

One More Site You Must See!

Oh, I almost forgot this one. It really is hard to narrow my favorites down but I don’t want you wandering, is she ever going to stop? One last site I want to bring to your attention is The Three Sisters formation in Blue Mountains. It seemed a pretty long drive to the destination just to see a rock formation but hearing the story behind the legend from our Guide was awesome.  My photos did not do it justice so I picked one from the site online.

If you have the opportunity to go to any part of Australia, just GO!!!