Good Morning, Sydney! Goodnight, Blue Mountains!

After that 9 hour flight which included an-hour stop in Melbourne, we were finally in Sydney. Damn! The first thing I noticed was the BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE around. Physically goodlooking as they are, these airport staff were so warm and helpful, too, that made me felt more excited for the things in store for us in Australia.

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Gina, a good friend who has been living in Sydney for a decade now, met us in the arrival area of SYD airport. She treated us with some ice cream cones as what she says as her welcome gestures for the three of us. We got her car from the parking area, and drove immediately to the city.

As soon as I got a sight of the city, It felt like I was in a completely different world.

Sydney was more interesting than I thought! Gina showed us some landmarks that say seem to be greeting our arrival, too. This crazy girl Gina. Knowing that Filipinos love to shop, she brought us to  the Factory outlet. Hahaha. I had no plans of purchasing an item at all, but when I saw the price of a pair of Lacoste shoes that I have been dying to buy in Manila, man I immediately grabbed them and paid at the cashier. I was like a kid who saw a candy and ran away for its ownership.  A pretty good start by losing some dollars righaway! But the biggest losers were Ginger and Ped who bought three pairs of shoes each! Hahaha!

And so we continued driving trough the city, passing by The Rocks, The Opera Harbour and Bondi. We all wanted to get off from the car and take a better view of these areas but we needed to meet another friend for lunch, and we have two days ahead of us to spend in Sydney anyways.

And so we proceeded to Chinatown's Nine Dragon Restaurant for lunch. Unlike in Manila where everything is almost Chinese, Chinatown here displays a dash of some Victorian styles which will remind you are still in Oz. After finishing our meal, we went to Rydges Capitol Square Hotel in Campbell Street. Since we will be spending the night in Blue Mountains, we got some clothes that we will be needing for the night before checking all our bags in. Gina showed us the way to the Sydney train station which was just a few meters from our hotel, making us appreciated Gina's choice of accommodation for us. We bought our train City train tickets to Leura station which cost AUD12.60 one way. Gina was so funny by appearing so worried of us like we were her own kids and had to leave us on our own trip. She wanted to join us to Blue Mountains but she needed to do some work in Sydney.

And so our train left Sydney Central at 410PM, while the three of us were kinda' uncertain, yet excited for the things waiting for us in Blue Mountains.

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It was drizzling when we arrived in Blue Mountains at 6PM. It took us awhile before we got a cab that brought us to our host hotel- York Fairmont, which was just 3 minute-drive from Leura Train Satation. Wow, the hotel lobby looked so cozy which made us more exciting for a relaxing overnight stay ahead of us. Once we have settled in our room, the next thing we all wanted to do was check out the hotel's swimming pool that Gina kept on telling us about. With cold temeprature of 5 degrees outside, it was but a great idea to dip in a pool of warm water. Indeed it was. The three of us were the only ones in the pool area, which gave us the whole ownership of all the facilities which includes our favorite warm jacuzzi.

We went back to our room after a couple of hours and needless to say, we all had a good night sleep. =D