Days 380-386! WOW! What a week it has been (sorry for another late post, lots to write about)! Not only did I start a fun adventure in Sydney… but I’m getting to experience a new part of Australia WITH my parents!! I haven’t seen them since January of 2024 and I’ve missed them a ton. The start of this blog post week was a bit slow, but lemme tell ya… it picks up in action quick!

Thursday, January 16th… we’re already halfway through January?! I didn’t get up to too much today. It’s been awhile since this had happened (at the beginning of my time in Yamba it happened quite a bit), but my manager said he might need me to work tonight but said he’d “let me know” when he knew or not. Before this though, it was supposed to be my day off.

So for most of the day, I watched TV (a new anime called Kaiju No. 8), read more of my new big Stormlight Archives book, and played some guitar. It was a rainy and cloudy day, and week, so I didn’t make it out to the beach. But I got a call from one of my managers kids asking if I could take his shift at 6pm. His sister was in town and he wanted to spend time with her. This guaranteed my start time though, so there was no more waiting around!

The work shift wasn’t very notable… but there was an absolutely stellar sunset! It made me miss all of the beautiful sunsets in SE Asia. This one is definitely up there though!

I worked till after midnight and ended up playing some pool before heading home to get some sleep.

Friday, January 17th, I didn’t have work till 5pm. So I did laundry, watched TV, read more, and played more guitar. Once my laundry was done, I folded it and then got to packing for my upcoming adventure! Tomorrow, I’d be heading down to Sydney, Australia on an overnight bus! It’s been a WHILE since I’ve had one of these.

I needed to pack for a week of fun that was going to be spent with my freaking parents!! Words could not describe how excited I was to see them and give them a hug in person!

It had been a bit since I’d packed up my backpack, but I still had the touch. I had a few other things to pack last minute, so with that mostly out of the way, I went off to work!

Now unfortunately, I’ve found out that the hotel won’t be able to help me with my 88 days of rural work… BUT I should have another option with another job, so I shouldn’t have to leave Yamba. Potentially, I won’t have to stop working at the hotel either… we’ll see how I can manage my time and work hours!

But it is disappointing I won’t be able to work the same hours I have been at the hotel. I’ve really enjoyed this job and my coworkers!

Saturday, January 18th… now usually I’d get to sleep in on a Saturday, especially after another late night of playing pool after work. But for some reason, I was scheduled at noon today. So no sleeping in for me!

This wasn’t a worry though, because I was still getting my hours in and I’d be able to easily catch my 10pm bus. Work today was brutally slow. The lunch crowd was super quiet and it was to the point that I was struggling to find work to keep me occupied. It was wild for a Saturday lunch! I worked till just before 5pm and then made my way home to shower and finish packing.

I was laying in my bed waiting for the time to pass by, when I received a text from my friend Sam, asking if I wanted to hang! I still had plenty of time, so I met up with him and his sister, Sarah, up at the hotel. We ended up having a few beers and chatting! We even went up to my manager’s (their dad’s) suite that he has to play some card games and Rummikub. He has a NICE living arrangement… but I don’t envy him having to check people in at all hours of the night!

It was a super lovely way of capping off the night before my overnight bus. But I unfortunately had to leave my friends to eat all my leftovers quickly before my bus! LUCKILY, Sarah has been living in Sydney, so before I left she said she’d send me recommendations on what my parents and I should do!

I threw on my bag and headed out into the drizzly night as I walked to the bus stop. Conveniently located just down the road!

The bus ended up being a bit late, but I was accompanied by a couple other backpackers waiting for it as well. So I knew I was in the right place! Eventually the bus rolled up and I got checked in. It was super empty, so our pre-assigned seats didn’t matter. I took a window seat and made myself comfy as I was about to embark on a 9 hour ride south.

The bus took off and I tried to fall asleep. I was fairly successful but ended up having one of the worst nights of sleep in a while… probably since my last time trying to sleep on a bus.

I arrived bright and early to Sydney at 7:30am on Sunday, January 19th. While I was heading down, I booked a luggage storage nearby where I was dropped off and also nearby our Airbnb!

This was the same one my parents had booked too, so I wandered into downtown, dropped my bag off, and found a nearby cafe to sit and wait.

It wasn’t too long after that I received a text saying they were nearby! So I stopped halfway through my hot chocolate and rushed outside to greet them! Over a year had passed since I last saw my parents, I was so happy to finally give them a loving embrace in person!!

I showed them to the luggage drop off, finished my hot chocolate, and then we made our way to a nearby breakfast restaurant for our first meal in Sydney!

Now, I slept terribly on my bus ride and my parents slept terribly on their long, cold plane rides… but as Cage the Elephant said, there ain’t no rest for the wicked. We ended up spending the majority of the rest of the day wandering around the city!

We started our wandering to where our Airbnb was located, near China town! We then started strolling to the closest place we could see the ocean, the harbor.

We still had a while until we could check into our Airbnb, so we kept on walking! The harbor is a beautiful spot with plenty of space to walk along the water. And on top of that, it started to lead us to our first two major sights of Sydney! The Sydney Harbor Bridge and… the FREAKING Sydney Opera House!

It was pretty surreal that we were standing in front of such a famous building that I’ve only ever seen in movies, tv shows, etc. To be honest, seeing it so up close was semi-lackluster. But later on I saw it further away and it was a lot more impressive.

After all that walking, we found a place to sit, enjoy the view of the opera house and the bridge, and have a drink!

We were all pretty exhausted, in need of a shower, and very ready to get into our Airbnb. but we still had a little bit of time left. So we walked to our luggage storage, found a Mediterranean place next door, and got a couple wraps to share before heading to our Airbnb!

After settling in, we walked to a nearby Woolworths to grab some groceries. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to have a home cooked meal from my parents and we were starting off our time together with one.

Now unfortunately, I couldn’t shower yet because I didn’t bring a towel and our Airbnb host didn’t give us 3. So… we had to set out on one more excursion to get a towel, for me and the beach.

After that though, I showered and we all passed out!

We woke up nice and early (but not too early) on Monday, January 20th and had breakfast at home before setting out on our adventures for the day! We took a nice walk back to the ferry pier at the harbor to catch a boat to our first destination.

Now, what was awesome was we got to pass by the Sydney Opera House each time we took a ferry! So we had to take some more pictures with it!

Our first stop of the day was to the Taronga Zoo! There were a couple zoo options in Sydney and I think we ended up making the right choice. This zoo was INCREDIBLE! Probably one of the best zoos that I have ever been to.

Not only were we able to see all the Australian wildlife we could want to. But the layout, the facilities, and the animal’s health and wellbeing were some of the best I’ve seen. Also the workers were super attentive and ready and willing to answer any questions.

We saw everything from birds large and small, to classic Aussie animals like the kangaroo, koala, and even a Tasmanian devil. There were also plenty of other wildlife like the two Thai elephants that were rescued from their various jobs that were not suited for elephants.

We also got up and personal with an emu… I’m surprised they let themselves get “captured” after winning the war against the Australians. And I finally saw my first koala!

We all agreed, this was a fabulous zoo experience. We spent around 2-3 hours at the zoo, seeing literally all the animals, and then we caught the ferry back to the harbor.

We had some time to kill before our next bit of fun. So we grabbed some Baskin Robbins, a couple drinks, and played some cards looking over the harbor.

6pm rolled around and we had our next activity, a free walking tour of The Rocks.

This ended up being a very good hour and a half tour of one of Sydney’s historical sites. The rock is nearby the harbor and is the first area that was settled in Australia by the criminals of England. It’s home to some of the oldest buildings, including three pubs claiming to be the oldest. And it is full of stories about the criminals who took up residency in the aboriginals land.

The guide took us all around this part of the city and told us a bunch of different stories about the buildings and the people. I’d highly recommend it if you find yourself in this fun city!

We were met with a beautiful sunset at the end of our tour. The tour ended a far walk from home, so we meandered our way back to China/Thai town to find a restaurant that was still open. We stumbled onto a Thai restaurant that was surprisingly very tasty! I got to enjoy a few of my favorite dishes with my parents. Now it may not have been IN Thailand, but it was the next best thing.

We were exhausted, but wanted to stay up a bit later to help get my parents onto Australia time. So we played some cards before calling it a night.

Our walking wasn’t close to being done yet! We woke up on Tuesday, January 21st with big plans ahead. After eating breakfast, we hopped onto one of the city busses and made our way to the eastern reaches of the city, Coogee.

I had never heard of Coogee before, but I was suggested a beach walk from Coogee to Bondi Beach. This 3.2 km coastal walk took us through a number of beaches along the coast. It was a very hilly walk taking us to beautiful views overlooking the ocean and all the way down to the very wavy water.

We even passed through an above ground cemetery that was overlooking the ocean. Not a bad final resting point.

There were a ton of surfers out too catching some massive waves inside coves and out at the points of the beaches too!

A few hours later we rolled up to beautiful and very busy Bondi Beach!

We walked past a very busy ocean side pool and across the, also, jam packed beach. The water was full of surfers and the area for swimming had very little room for swimming. But it looked like everyone was having a fun time in the sun.

Originally I thought I would never want to surf at Bondi Beach because of how packed it was. But to my surprise the south part of the beach was big waves for the experienced surfers and the north was smaller waves for the less experienced and long boarders. Maybe next time I’d try it out!

We washed off our feet and then made our way into town to find food. We were in the mood for Mediterranean, and after a quick Google search, we started heading towards a nearby restaurant. We somehow chose one of the best Mediterranean restaurants I’ve had outside of Israel!

The restaurant was Savion and it was incredible! The shop was run by a lovely older gentleman who helped us pick out what to eat. Everything was cooked on the spot and we split a falafel plate and a chicken shawarma plate. A must have if you end up in Bondi Beach.

We had already done a lot of walking today. But after taking an hour bus ride back to the north end of the city, we set out on another long walk! This time, over the Sydney Harbor Bridge!

To do the bridge climb it costs $300+… but to walk across the bridge, it’s free! It may not be as high of a view, but MAN it’s a pretty great view if you ask me.

On the other side of the bridge, we found a small restaurant to grab a drink and relax after a long day of walking.

We sat and chatted for a bit before setting back out, this time not walking. We took the ferry back over to Circular Quay and then sauntered home.

We ended the night by having dinner at home and playing cards late into the night!

Wednesday, January 22nd rolled around and it started out way earlier than expected. At midnight a terribly loud fire alarm started going off in our room and across the entire apartment complex. We went outside and had to stand around for 20 minutes before the fire department showed up! And then waited another 20 minutes before we could go back inside. It seemed like it was a false alarm, but what a rude wake up in the middle of the night!

But once we woke up, for real this time, it was time to enjoy the hottest day of the week! But… it actually started out cloudy and a little chilly. This quickly changed as we made our way on another ferry to the famous Manly Beach for our beach day.

Manly Beach was the site of the first ever surfing competition (allegedly) in the world!

We started out by walking along the main beach, but only a section of it was swimmable due to the heavy currents. We noticed a more secluded beach in the distance, with far less people. So we had a nice walk along the ocean to it.

This beach was called Shelly Beach which apparently has great snorkeling. Too bad I didn’t have my snorkel or scuba gear! But we made do and had a wonderful time basking in the, now, sunny and hot day. The water was very cold (not as cold as Melbourne) and felt extremely nice in the heat. My dad and I also got around to making sandcastles and of course, digging holes in the sand.

We found a nice pub/hotel to have lunch at and a creperie to have an incredible desert at too!

We wandered around for a bit too, but the wind combined with the sand became a downer on our day and with the temperature dropping fast, we made our way back to the ferry.

We walked home and then got ready for dinner. We enjoyed another great shared meal at a Chinese restaurant not far from our Airbnb. The perks of staying near China town!

To cap off our night, we played some heated games of monopoly deal, which the game for some reason has made a comeback throughout my travels.

This is only half of the trip planned with my parents, but completes another week of 2025. It’s pretty incredible having my parents here with me in Australia! Sydney has been nothing but wonderful to us and to have this quality time with my parents after so long apart has, so far, been great! Now of course, it’s been awhile since we’ve seen each other so we’ve had to make up for lost time in many facets. But I won’t bog you down with any family things, those are private!

What you should know is, my parents are freaking awesome and great travel buddies! That they flew all the way to the other side of the world speaks volumes on their love and has made me a very happy traveler!!!

On top of that, Sydney is another wonderful gem of Australia. I really enjoyed Bondi Beach AND the Taronga Zoo. I’ll be looking forward to getting back to my quiet coastal town of Yamba. But for the next few days, I’m going to savor every moment with my parents in this city. Because it’s going to be another few months before I see them again!

I do know… those few months are going to fly by. So plenty more adventures to come!

– Elie