A Great Day in Sydney

Today was an all around pretty fantastic day. We woke up around 8 to catch the metro into the city to meet up with our new friends, Becca and Joe. We had been messaging back and forth yesterday to figure out how we could meet up and decided on breakfast at Pancakes on the Rocks - a famously delicious pancake place located in "The Rocks" section of Sydney, close to the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

We had such a great time hanging out with Becca and Joe who, as it turns out, are basically identically myself and Jon. We quickly discovered that we just are the same people - ideas on travel, values, thoughts on life - you name it. It was so much fun meeting them and hanging out with them for the day!

From Pancakes on the Rocks (where Becca and I ordered the same dish (chocolate pancakes with chocolate ice cream) and Jon and Joe ordered roughly the same dish (eggs, bacon, etc.)...) we took the fast ferry from the Sydney Harbor to Manly Beach, about a 20 minute ride away. The ferry ride was amazing and it was SO beautiful out!

We arrived at the beach and hung out for about 3 hours, enjoying the waves, the sun, the PERFECT weather, and wonderful company :)

Manly Beach was BY FAR the nicest beach we've been to on our trip so far. We'd been told it was the place where locals go to the beach in Sydney (as opposed to Bondi Beach which is more touristy) and sources did not lie - the beach was B-E-A-UTIFUL.

After our lovely morning, we grabbed some kebabs and left for the ferry back (MUCH windier on the way back into the city but still lovely!)

Overall it was a lovely morning but it was unfortunately time to say goodbye to our new friends because it was time for us to..... climb to the top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge!

I had seen the Bridge Climb on a few TV shows (mostly Modern Family) and decided that I really wanted to do it. Despite the fact that it cost a bajillion dollars and that Jon and I are both slightly scared of heights...

At 3 pm we made our way over to the bridge for our 4 pm climb. We got geared up, went through safety briefings and gear checks with our guide, Jason, and then we were off!

While it's definitely a touristy thing to do, it was a LOT of fun and (close to) worth the money. While in a lot of these activities where you pay to go to the top of buildings, etc. you are timed and only given like 15 minutes, we basically had free reign of the bridge for about an hour. It was awesome! Our guide was very friendly and made us feel comfortable while climbing and telling us all about the bridge and its construction (of course none of which I remember...but it was cool at the time!) We spent a ton of time wandering the bridge and enjoying the views with our fellow climbers (we were only a group of 6 and he said normally there are 14 people per group - so we were nice and small) before heading back down to the safety of the ground. Not gonna lie, it felt GOOD to be back on solid land, but it was definitely an awesome experience!

After the climb we went in search of dinner, ending up in Sydney's oldest bar, The Fortune of War. And what did we order for dinner? Jon got a salad with chicken and I got....CROCODILE!

I'd wanted to try it while we'd been in Australia and hadn't gotten a chance yet...so I figured it was time to "grab the croc by the tail" and try it :). And ya know what? It was pretty delicious!! I would not shy away from ordering it again!

After dinner we VERY TIREDLY made our way back to the apartment for some well deserved sleep. More adventures in the morning!

Jess' highlight of the day: too many to name! Pancakes! Friends! Beach! Bridge! Croc!
Jon's highlight of the day: climbing the bridge