13/01 - The Domain & the Royal Botanic Garden

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVE!!!

Today is Damien's brother's birthday, it is weird not to celebrate it with him this year. I was at all his birthday since 2011 (even before D. and I started dating!).

Today we got up early and we actually left early, HOORAY!! We brought the big luggages into town for long term storage. We used CBD Storage, because they have a good location (8 minutes from Central, 5 from Museum) but mostly because they were the only ones that offered a monthly price for barely nothing $33 the luggage for 1 month, after that $1.10 each extra day. And we can email them to extend.

Once in town, we did a bit of shopping: we bought a foldable lunch box (to save space but also have something to store homemade (Damienmade) food. We bought some pastries (from an asian shop) and vegetables for lunch. We also did a pit stop at a game shop, to look at their selection of boardgames. We crossed town and managed to see the town hall, QVB (this time I had my camera!!) and Hyde Park.

 QVB

Town Hall

 

 Hyde Park Fountain and St Mary's Cathedral

Finally we headed towards the Botanic Gardens, atually we realised that the whole park area is divided in 2: The Royal Botanical Garden (RBG) and The Domain. We had lunch in the Domain, on the rug Margot bought as a Xmas present for Damien. We also had a small nap, it was nice and relaxed!

After our lunch break we decided to follow the coast instead of entering the RBG. We saw an outdoor pool above the water of the bay, a few military ships...

 

 

We reached Macquarie's point with a lovely view of the bay, of Sydney's skyline and obviously of the Opera House.

We kept walking along the water, passed an open air cinema, with the screen above the water. We entered the RBG and settled under a tree near a pond. D. drew and listened to some music, I wrote in my travel journal, listen to some music and watched all the exotic birds surrounding us!

open air cinema

We decided to stay under our tree in RBG until the sun get lower (and less hot!!). So around 6pm, we continued our walk along the water, all the way to the Opera House.

une grosse pensée pour Grand-mère et les Herbes folles

 

We went inside to book tickets for a Guided Tour on Monday, luckily we had vouchers because it is a bit pricey... On our way out, the sun was setting: Golden hour!! everything was a fantastic colour!

To finish, we walked to Circular Quay and to the supermarket, from there we headed to the bus stop (took a few pics on the way):

 

By 9.30 we were home and eating Damien's dinner. We prepared our bags for our 2 days trip to the Blue Mountains and were in bed around 11pm.

Walked 9.4 km today.
Slept in a mixed dorm (full of smelly guys), in Glebe Point YHA, in Sydney