Australia Winter 2022 : Bondai Beach, Sydney Opera House, Harbour Bridge, KBBQ

It’s been more than three years since my last international travel (Taiwan Autmn 2019! I don’t think I’ve ever written about it here but I do have a vlog 🙂) so now I’m back with all the travel posts!

 

I haven’t been outside Asia so this kind of made me excited to go.  It was an incentive trip so everything’s paid for except for our pocket money, so that’s a plus, too.  Unfortunately, we were only there for about four days so it was really exhausting.

 

August 20, 2022

I even got new boots for this! Haha, ordered this pair from Rob & Mara and it’s the comfiest! Wore this for five days straight.

As usual, I crammed packing for this trip so I was up until around 2am the night before.  I was talking to K over the phone (*sniffs* I will NOT cry anymore about that) about what not to bring, haha.  So I ended up leaving my cat beanie at home lol.

Our flight was 8pm so I was there around 4pm already.  Met up with Nicole at McDo, then with Marion by 5pm at the airport.  It sucks that Kim and Mich were in another flight so only the three of us were inseparable during the whole trip.

The flight was eight hours long which was a first for me.  The plane was huge, unlike the budget planes I was used to.  It made me remember the first time I flew out of the country via PAL with my family.  I didn’t like it because we were seated in the center so I was far away from the windows.  I was seated in the center now as well and I was surprised there were meals and blankets and all these stuff.  Haha, I haven’t experienced this since 2013.  Couldn’t afford it then, probably can’t still afford it now.

 

I didn’t enjoy the plane ride because I couldn’t sleep at all.  I felt uncomfortable in my seat but luckily, I was in the aisle.  Someone even tried to exchange seats with me and I didn’t allow him, lol.  He said he goes to the toilet often, I didn’t care.  I wanted my seat and just wanted to listen to my music (and voice messages) in peace.  We arrived by 6am, Australia time, two hours ahead from Ph.  I had almost zero sleep.

Since it was still so early, we went straight to Bondi beach.  Didn’t get a chance to eat breakfast.  We were handed snacks but I’m still full from the airport food.  I craved for coffee but we didn’t have Australian dollars yet, lol.

Haha, people were commenting that Jun got more travel opportunities than they did.  It’s cute, hehe.

The beach was cold.  I’m in boots and pants and a hoodie but I’m still freezing.  Nothing to do there, really.  We just walked for a couple of minutes and took pictures.  Some locals were out there swimming and sun bathing and that’s pretty much it.  I didn’t even notice if the beach was beautiful because it’s incomparable to the beaches in the Philippines, haha.  At least the sand is white and fine? But NOT Boracay-fine 😛

Went to a park next to get a view of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge.  I WAS SO SLEEPY.  I couldn’t really function if I didn’t sleep.  I know I sleep late most of my life but I try to sleep during the day as much as I can, too.  Having zero sleep makes me a zombie, I don’t like it at all.  When everyone was busy enjoying the view and having photoshoots here and there, I sat in a corner and tried to close my eyes hahaha.  Good thing Nicole and Marion dragged me to walk and take more photos.

I swear it’s cold! Nicole’s wearing a crop top and Marion’s wearing a shirt but I’m there shivering in my warm clothes, haha. I think it was around 10 degrees that time?

Always lost.

Most of our pictures were taken by Sir Neil, so we’re thankful we have a lot of group photos.  And as usual, I took care of the videos but it would probably take a while before I finish the blog.  Please give me at least 60 working days hahaha.

I was a bit upset tho that we had to ride different buses or that we couldn’t choose our travel buddies since we were separated.  Would’ve been nice to be with the others, too.  They also had a different itinerary so we didn’t see each other that often.  We just bump into them like this so every time it happens, we were all so excited.  LOL.

We had lunch at a cruise and it wasn’t the best experience.  I didn’t review the itinerary so I forgot to take my meds.  My motion sickness really acted up and I couldn’t enjoy the view.  The food wasn’t so great, too.  It’s buffet but mostly vegetables and we were craving for meat.  It didn’t help that my head was spinning.  Luckily, one of my officemates brought some menthol to reduce the dizziness.  After lunch, my officemates were out of the boat to take pictures but I had to stay inside.  Puking was not an option for me that time, haha.  Plus, I’d be hungry again!

Good thing we immediately checked in at the hotel so I slept for at least an hour.  We showered and went out for dinner albeit a bit late.  It was funny because I was so excited when they said we’ll have barbecue for dinner.  I was expecting an Australian barbecue of course but surprise, it’s samgyupsal! Loooooool.

Everything tasted great because well, it’s kbbq.  What do we even expect? Hahaha.  Then we went to the supermarket for a bit to buy some chocolates since we had no idea if we’ll have time to shop in the next few days.  Plus, I was just really tired and sleepy.  Some of my friends went to the much cheaper option (I forgot the name of the store, sorry!) but I wanted nothing but sleep.

Went back to the hotel and tried to sleep but unfortunately, I couldn’t.  Oh, we stayed at Holiday Inn which was supposedly one of the best ones but since it didn’t have a bidet (sigh, this is why Asia is still the best lol) I cannot say I enjoyed it very much.  Haha.  The room’s okay, there was no view and uh, can I just say that our stay in MovenPick was a hundred times better?

Anyway, that ends the first day of our trip! It was the most exhausting day I’ve had in a while.  I feel like I need at least two months to recover, lol.

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I post updates on Tiktok, too! 🙂

• Flight from MNL to SYD
• Bondai Beach
• Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge