Sydney Blog

Over the weekend I went to Sydney for surprising my friend for her 21st surprise party as we barely see each other as we live in two different cities. Sydney was an amazing place for us to stay and explore and can be achievable on a university budget. In this post, I will talk about what I did in Sydney as well as ways of making the trip less expensive.

Friday 27th October 2017

We have arrived! Sydney is sometimes big and intimidating at times. I had arrived on train and I did not have a charged phone to contact anyone and no map of how to get to where I was staying. I got myself an opal card which has saved me so much money over the trip. Read Cheap Tips to see why. We stayed at the Wynyard Hotel which was over $100 a night which is quite decent for accommodation for the area. We went walking into Circular Quay to find somewhere nice to eat. This was hard as many places in Circular Quay are expensive. We found a small Italian restaurant where they specialised in pizza. We had a garlic bread and a Meatlovers pizza to share. It was so good but it did take time for us to receive the food and service was slow as well. Overall good place and reasonably priced at $19 a pizza. After a big day of travelling, we got some ice-cream at Messina and it was amazing, then home.

Saturday 28th October 2017 aka Haul Day!!

The next day we made our way to Pitt Street Mall where we also looked at Queen Victoria Building, Westfield and the Galleries.

We first looked at Pitt Street Mall where we discovered so many stores that I personally don’t go in as I am not located close enough to. I explored stores such as Sephora, H&M and EB Games. With some of the stores that started as chains in America, I compare them to those that I walked through in Times Square, New York. The stores in New York were much bigger compared to the ones in Australia. In Sephora, I bought Fenty Beauty highlighter stick in Confetti and Benefit Cosmetics Porefessional Moisturiser. The highlighter stick colour is amazing as it is purple but with blue sparkles which change in the light. The only thing I do not like about It is how hard the stick is which makes it feel like you’re taking foundation off when applying it. Benefit’s Porefessional Moisturiser is my holy grail now with skin care I use it every day and may face looks better after applying it and controls the oils on my skin which helps when I have breakouts. In H&M, I discovered so many different clothing options which my boyfriend wish I would wear more often. He bought me two dresses. One which I wore to my friends party and the other I wore on Sunday. Both dresses are comfy to wear and reasonably priced as one was $14.99 and the other $24.99. At EB Games, they had a Pop! Store within the store which had many different pop culture merch. I found these Harry Potter coasters which were originally $15 down to $7 which is a bargain at that quality and design.

Next we looked at Westfield mainly for a pit stop at Max Brenner Chocolate Bar for a drink break and everything is so bad for you, its good!

As Queen Victoria Building was connected to the Westfield, we ventured into the building looking at Mecca, T2 and Lush. At Mecca, I splurged on Bumble and Bumble hair products as I have fell in love with their Shampoo. I also bought their Conditioner and a Hair Styler for thick hair, so I'm hoping my hair will become less frizzy and more curly. I also bought the Better than Sex mascara by Too Faced, which is an amazing product as well as the Philosophy Microdelivery Exfoliating Facial Wash. T2 is my favourite tea shop and it has the best tasting teas. I bought a 5 tea box set with flavours like Apple Crumbe, Fruitalicious, Packs a Punch, Pumping Pomagranate and Strawberries & Cream. Lush is another store I love for body wash and I have yet to try their bath bombs. I bought a Christmas soap called Shooting Stars and one of my favourites Sexy Peel Soap.

We then moved to The Galaries which doesn't have many stores as other malls but it had a variety of different stores such as Monster Threads and Kinokuniya. Monster Threads is a unique store that sell many different artsy gifts. I bought a map which you can scratch where you have been, which I have wanted for a while. On the third floor is dedicated to the bookstore Kinokuniya which is has many different types of books. I bought two books #NewsFail and An Argument of Same-Sex Marriage. These books are for ideas for future endeavours at University. We had lunch here at Chat Thai which was very good Thai food that it priced reasonably for what you get.

Later, we went to my friends 21st birthday at El Camino Cantina and it was really good food and reasonably priced for the area it is in. Before we went to dinner, we got photos at the harbour because we are tourist.

I wore one of the dresses bought at H&M which was $24.99. My shoes are Doc Martens which I bought in the US for $89USD.

My make up I wore Australis Fresh & Flawless Pressed Powder as my foundation which I good for a basic face, not full face. Eyebrows I used Benefit Cosmetics Ka-Brow in shade number 5. For the eyes, I used Better than Sex mascara by Too Faced and the eye liner pencil by Be Cosmetics. For cheeks, I used Fenty Beauty's Confetti highlighter stick and Sephora Colourful blush So Shy!. Lips I used Dolce K by Kylie Cosmetics.

Sunday 29th October 2017

In the morning, we walked across the Harbour Bridge which was beautiful! We walked across the free walkway on the bridge which saved a lot of money! Maybe next time I'm in Sydney, I may pay to do the BridgeClimb at night to have a bigger view without the fence blocking the view.

We walked towards Luna Park and looked at the view of the Harbour and we caught the train to Central to have lunch in that area. The food where we went was amazing! I can't remember the name, so if it comes to me, I'll put it in later on. Then we walked over to Paddy's Markets where there were so many stores that have different stalls. There were so many things to look at and buy. We didn't end up buying anything but there was so much! Then we went to Town Hall where we ventured through Myer and David Jones where I bought a Philosophy body wash in the Daiquiri which smells amazing! I am now growing a love for Philosophy as the products work so well!

For Dinner, we ate at the Munich Brauhaus which had good German food, but very pricey. But if you are on a budget, I would not recommend but if you are into German food, I would definetely recommend.

Monday 30th October 2017

On the last day of the trip we walked to Circular Quay to get some of Zumbo's famous Macaroons which are the best I have ever tested and I which there was a way of purchasing them where I live because they are beautiful. At midday I caught the train to go home.

Cheap Tips!

Sydney can be very expensive but it can be cheap if you travel right! Here are some tips I found along the way on how to save money in Sydney.

• Travelling to Sydney may be expensive. Rather than driving or catching a plane, using train and bus services may save you money! I paid $101 from my location to Central and back again. The convenience of air travel may be more appealing but arriving and leaving Sydney Airport costs extra with Opal as Sydney pays a fee to use those railways.

• Opal Cards are a life saver! I put $30 on mine thinking that the fares would be way more expensive! It turns out it is much cheaper and the more you use it, the cheaper the fares will become. We figured this out when we travelled between Central and Town Hall as my boyfriend just bought a card at Central and I had bought mine a couple of days ago. My fare cost $0.18 and his cost $2.40. Opal will save you money! Start off with 10 and see how the fare’s level out for you.

• Shopping online before going for accommodation will help find cheap hotels. Looking at different websites can help with this. We found ours with Booking.com and it was a good price for the area. This can be done with food to have a rough idea to how eat cheap and stay away from fast food chains such as McDonalds. Places such as Chat Thai that are chains are relatively cheap and are cooked fresh and healthy. Some small businesses may not be chains but can be still cheap, you can look for those as well.

• Getting good views for cheap that are easy to locate such as walking the public walk way on the harbour bridge or from the Opera House and Luna Park. There are many views which cost little to nothing to access.

Happy Travelling,

Emily x