I’m done with all the assignments for the year, wrapped up nicely with a little promotion and been procrastinating ever since. Given 2 weeks worth of break have been tiring – all I ever find myself doing is eat A-LOT. So when the mood to blog kicks in, I don’t think I’m going to wait any longer. Let’s just clear 2012′s resolution now shall we?

#Throwback Destination – SYDNEY

I’d like to bring you a little back in time during my little trip to Australia with Lynn. Just a brief introduction, myself and Lynn were friends on Twitter for a pretty long time but we never really interacted much so when we finally met during one of the talks that was organized by Darul Arqam, things just sped a little faster and since then we’ve been good buddies. We shared a couple of similarities yet so different on the inside. She’s more introvert while myself, an extrovert. (Yes, she entertains my dramas.) Heading down under with her has been such an interesting experience, one I would never forget (for life!) and one I’d never trade for the world. Here’s Part #1 of our mini adventure – SYDNEY.

SYDNEY is such a beautiful city. I love everything about it. People have been nice to us during our 3 days 2 nights stay so we pretty much had an easy time. As time wasn’t on our side, we did a lot of touch and go through the city. The only outskirt was Picton for Skydiving. In which right after we found ourselves just killing our feet walking down towards the Harbour. There’s really nothing much to highlight about Sydney other than the great weather and how we enjoyed being out of our comfort zone. We also starved ourselves by a little bit, we didn’t have time to search for good halal restaurants around anyway, we settled for kebab picks-ups which were sooo huge it had us filled till the next day. Perks of starting on a salad diet

I know holiday posts can be such a bore, so I cut down a lot on photos which I felt was redundant, like many many shots of the same building from a different angle. Haha I have a bad habit of either doing that, or I enjoy what I have in my hands and forget to take pictures all together! But I’ll be nice and highlight where I can on what to look out for, when and why – if I can recall any.

Any questions, leave them in the comments below okay? I’ll update on our Gold Coast trip next year (;p) till then have a gooood December 30th :)

The ticket from the airport to city was mad expensive – If I can recall its AUD 15.40 even to the nearest station! The alternative was getting on a bus but we were too excited to wait for one so we paid our dues and went onboard the double decker train towards the city!

We spent an hour trying to figure both our Aussie simcards by Alfred Street, I actually find it hilarious. Us with heavy backpacks, both on the phones trying to reach our operators. Thank god for good weather, it played a vital role in keeping our temper down! No sweat (literally!!!) Hahaha

We,then, settled for our breakfast+lunch. Fish and Chips – battered and crispy! AUD 31.40 for a meal for two with perfect scenery ;D

We were too tired to find a perfect spot that this was good enough

Our place was across the bridge, a little neighborhood called Kirribilli. And since we’ve got our energy recharged, we decided “Lets Walk” – oh boy we had no idea what we were getting into!

We both had 8kg on our backs, and I had an additional 3kg up front. It wasn’t an easy journey, we were both like hobbits on our mini adventure (Yes I recently caught Hobbits – An Unexpected Journey and I rate it 4/5!!! ) but I think the excitement we had just kept us going and the weight we were carrying wasn’t half as bad till we dropped our bags back at the apartment and realized “OH MY GOD FINALLY!!!”

I chose to share this shot (below) cause I find it “ARTISTIC” – ya, one of those macam-paham shots that I went “BINGO!” Heh

Right after this shot (above), a man came up to me and asked “What did you snap this picture for?” and I went, “well, I am a tourist?”. “Yeah, but what for?” and as I was about to reply that he continued, “are you muslim? what you take that for?”. Taken aback by his questions I just went, “I’m a tourist, I’m taking pictures for the people in Singapore!!” (I had no idea why I said that but I burst laughing after he left!) x) People in Singapore? Seriously, Hana? What were you thinking? LOL and you know what Lynn was doing? She was standing far far away from me, giggling away (cause thats what friends do right?!?!?!)

Night came and after freshening ourselves up, we decided to go for a walk. Enjoying the beautiful lights, the weather and just about everything. It was a moment of just bliss. Blessed to be able to experience this, blessed to be given this opportunity, blessed for everything

This picture have me laughing each time I browse through. WITHOUT FAIL! It’s one of the most memorable moment caught at the right time. Picture perfect! So as you can see from the first shot (top left), we were ready for a self-timed photo of us. The moment picture #1 was shot, we heard someone screamed “SHIT” followed by a loud “PLOP!!!!”. The following #2, #3 and #4 was me watching the camera of a filipino guy, in his mid-20′s, dropped into the water. It was HEARTBREAKING. I was so traumatized I immediately took my camera and told Lynn, “No more self-shots by the water”. We spent the next 20 minutes, just walking and talking about how the guy must have felt. Oh my god, imagine the pain.

So we went to heal our traumatized hearts by walking across the bridge and get some………

Bubblegum flavoured McFlurry with marshmellows! Such bliss. Took our worries away, instantly.

If you’re wondering how we can afford to eat ice-cream at such cold temperature? Beats me! I watched the locals taking on ice-cream like hot dogs and I had the same thought, but no one can ever describe till you try it for yourself. I have no idea where the chills went, the indulgence was just heaven

We decided to take the ferry home, since we’ve got on the train and walked across, so why not try something different at 10pm eh? Yes why not! So we got ourselves two tickets at AUD 11.25 for a one stop (thrilling) ferry ride across, which leads us to the next moment to remember -

We found ourselves at the other end of Kirribili. Turned out, WE TOOK THE WRONG FERRY TO OUR STOP! This was kinda funny cause we ended up walking past the houses that were just pitch dark. No lights were on and we had to depend on our phones to lead us home (thank you GPS!!) and it was a steep walk up the hill to get to our apartment (exercise anywhere, everywhere kan?) but it was not funny trying to look out for stray dogs in the dark. We were blessed to not bump into any!! But it was nice, just pin-drop silence and darkness. I could just sit there in yoga pose and freeze myself in the middle of the road, no kidding! :p

This is the view from our apartment. Beautiful, without a doubt. Both day and night The owner is very lucky to have such a spot.

Rise and shine at 5 am as we head down to Picton all the way from Milsons Point. Our tickets cost us AUD 8.20 per person because we were travelling to the suburbs. I wish I had taken more pictures but the video camera had most of it. I will compile and perhaps do a finale for this Aussie trip with the video, insya Allah. The journey was like in the movies, us in the train, going through the suburbs with a lovely scenery keeping us company! But oh well, you’ve got to wait for that to understand what I mean heh

 

We had to wait for someone to pick us up as the place was quite a distance and there were no cabs nor buses to take us there. Here’s what its like to drive down the mini suburb, Picton

You have no idea how happy I was at this point of time, it was just incredible. I replayed my video over and over and I can’t help squirming yet laugh at how exciting it was. The whole video I was just smiling and you can tell how happy I really was when I was at 14,000 feet above ground. Everyone thought it was scary, but it was like living a dream, it made me see the world from a different perspective and I can’t help thinking how blessed I was to be able to land safely on my bum! If you love adrenaline rush, like myself, you should totally go for this. There’s no space in your heart for fear cause the thrill is what filled up most of it! You can catch my video here -

SKYDIVING SYDNEY

Back at the city, after an hour’s ride from Picton, we found ourselves STARVING. But we didn’t want to sit in a restaurant cause time wasn’t on our side. So we decided to grab a kebab and walk over to Paddy’s Market and down towards the Harbour.

I don’t want to waste time showing pictures of the market – cause then it’ll be super boring. Not like you can buy off the pictures right? So if you’re curious, go get yourselves a ticket and head down to shop! It’s nothing WOW, but lots of stalls selling souvenirs and boots and hats and costumes, etc. We left empty handed other than a bag of fruits. Like makcik-makcik only ah :p

From Paddy’s Market we walked down all the way to the Opera House No train, no bus, no taxi, no ferry. Just a pair of feet walking us to the famous attraction!

We were just lucky to be here at the right time

This shot was taken at approx 6 in the morning! So so beautiful eh?

We rushed our way to the airport to catch our 7 am flight back to Gold Coast! Our muka so sembab like that :/ LOL Too obvious we were bright and early! Haha

Our trip continues to Byron Bay and a drive up to Brisbane! Catch us on the next post! Hope you enjoyed our mini trip to Sydney!

xx