Sydney, Australia (Extended)

11-30 Apr 2017  •  Sydney, Australia  •  by Sebastian Zaha

A much shorter summary photo album can be found here.


Sunrise over the Persian Gulf, with North Star.

Our home for the next 3 weeks.

Out for a walk on the first day.

Surprisingly for Sydney it's rainy and overcast as we arrive. Unsurprisingly though, the opera house looks amazing in the harbor despite the weather.

We're on holiday, so... everything is indeed A.OK!

Taking it all in.

Visiting the Sydney Royal Easter show. Fun for the whole family.

A llama after a haircut. I should get one too.

Woodchopping event. Strong boys & girls.

Woodchopping competition participant, in the over 60 years category.

Early bird catches the worm. (Tawny frogmouth.)

Polo!

Both horses & riders are sweaty & tired at the end.

Driving to the surf camp. Guess the country from 2 road signs, 100 points.

Friendly kangaroos abound.

Scratchy, scratchy, scratchy ...

"So... : I stop pooping near the tents, you come back later with some goodies. Deal?"

A deal is a deal, we're all marsupials of our word here.

Stingrays also show up to receive some goodies. No deals were made though. (Couldn't shake on it.)

Starting with some theory. Photo by Lily from Australian Surf Tours. (as are most of the next surfing ones)

Laura's first time on up.

Me & the coach. (I'm on the left :P)

Looking majestic. NOT

Laura wearing a three-sizes-too-big wetsuit.

Taking a break. This sport is HARD.

[Green Island]

Cheezy pics, auch wichtig.

Yep, I'm the one about to faceplant. Also yep, Laura's the head on the left about to be slammed by the board.

Back to Sydney, sun's out in Hyde Park.

Watchin' the chess game in HD.

Selfie in the Queen Victoria building.

Visiting the Anzac war memorial.

As Laura says, Sydney's got some New York vibes in the City, surrounded by California vibes on the beach. :)

Cooking in tight spaces.

Another day at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, Rodeo in the evening.

I'm pretty sure the rodeo guys survive on raw manliness and pain medicine...

Manly beach, time to try out this surfing thing by ourselves.

... you can tell how well it went by the fact we only have 2 pictures from this day, both with some walking on the shore with the board

On the Manly to Circular Quay ferry. "Duuude, stop fidgeting, just relax & enjoy the view!"

Hunter Valley, visiting Krinklewood Vineyard. Laura barging in on a stranger's table.

Laura & the "guard" dog, Pinot.

Classical music time!

First day of the scuba course. Laura's checking her equipment.

Second day, diving in the rain, and photobombed by our instructor.

Third day's sunny again!

Visiting Atlassian's Sydney offices. They have multiple buildings in vicinity of each other, so someone helpfully hashtagged the neigboring office roof.

If hashtags are not enough, there's also portals between them!

Awesome view from the newest Atlassian office.

Enticing whiskey list at The Baxter Inn swillhouse. (But not enticing enough for my wallet :))

Daytrip outside of Sydney for a hike to Blue Mountains & the "Three Sisters" (pictured).

Not much wildlife in our bushwalk, except for these loud guys.

A break at the bottom of Bride's Veil Waterfall.

A neighbor in our garden. I googled him and it's fine, he's in the "Spiderbro" category, not the "OMG kill on sight" category despite his size. Chill dude.

Last day in Sydney, we're back to Palm Beach to get some surfing practice time in.

Palm Beach is easily taking over 1st place for "nicest beach we visited since 2015".

Aaaaand it's hard and I can't do this shit.

Neither can she.

A school of fish are showing us how to catch the waves.

Laura's in the foreground, and some dude that's better than us in the background. I was actually trying to photograph the boats, they were just in the way.

Standing up on the board looks quite unimpressive when there are 2 dudes in the background chilling and the sea is flat :)

That's better! Whitewash surfing, cause we all have to start somewhere... Move to the front of the board Laura!

Quicksilver, away!

Remake of an old photo from Sf. Gheorghe. Hair is considerably whiter.

After surfing & sandwiches on the beach, late afternoon calls for some refreshments, to say bye bye to the Pacific.

Wind powered. All of them.

Also these.

Traditional Sydney blouse.

Setting up the yoga spot.

It's all upside down in Oz.

See you next time Palm Beach!