Our third and last day in the Blue Mountains started, as the Saturday with a nice brekkie prepared for us by Rosalie. As it was our last day in the Blue Mountains and our stay with Rosalie, after breakfast we pack our bags and “checked out.”
We didn’t have any major plans for the Sunday, but Jenny had given us the advice to visit Leura, the town next to Katoomba if we had time left.
We walked to Leura; it was a fair bit to walk especially because of the hilly countryside. Well in Leura, we visited a local crafts market and then set off in search for what seemed to be a good lookout spot.
Again, we walked for some time. When we got to the place where the map said the lookout would be, it looked to be inside a park with paid entrance, which we didn’t feel like doing.
After closer inspection of the map, Linnea realised that next to the park there was a pathway leading down past the park. This pathway led to the Elysian Rock Lookout.
The view was amazing, and when we arrived, we were completely alone. So we occupied the very well placed park bench and had some fika.
When we had taken in the view and the fika, we left on another track going on a short walk alongside the cliff before making our way back to central Leura. When we got back we sat down at Lily’s Pad Cafe for a soup lunch and then got some additional food from Woolies. Then we rushed to the train station where we had to take the train replacement bus (because of track work).
The Blue Mountains was a really nice place to spend a weekend in with amazing views and a challenging workout all in one. People recommended it to us before we went to Australia, and we’ll certainly recommend it to people in turn.
On Friday 26 August after Linnea had her Friday class, we went on the train to the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, to the town of Katoomba, to be precise. The train ride took four hours, but we had brought food and things to listen to, so the trip wasn’t boring.
In Katoomba, we had booked a room through Airbnb. The house was located really close to the train station and the area that makes out the centre of Katoomba. At the apartment, we were greeted by Rosalie, our host, with whom we shared the apartment and also with her cat Tigy.
After we had left our bags in our room, we went out to get some dinner and to buy som food for our hike the upcoming day.
On Saturday, we got up at 10 am and made our way to the sunroom in the apartment where we were served a nice brekkie that Rosalie prepared for us consisting of toasties, coffee, and strawberries.
When we had eaten and packed the things needed for the day, we headed out towards Echo Point which is one of the main lookout points in Katoomba famous for the view of the Three Sisters, three rock formations as seen in the picture below.
At Echo Point, we got to see the majestic view that is the Blue Mountains. Looking out over the valley, it was hard to grasp that the green cover far below was trees, big trees.
After we had taken in the view, we started walking along the Prince Henry Cliff Walk. There were some really great lookout points along the walk where we stopped and at one well-placed bench we stopped to eat our lunch.
We continued after lunch to the Furber Steps, walking down the valley through the cold rain forest and along the bottom of the canyon. While walking down had proved quite easy, walking up would prove to be harder.
When we got to the bottom of the canyon, we decided to take the route towards the Great Stairway instead of taking the cable car up. Looking at nature, so different from back home, while at the same time convincing ourselves that it was too cold for snakes to be awake kept us busy.
The Great Stairway was really engaging. Most parts were really steep and narrow, but there was railing in good condition mostly. My, Gustav’s, strategy was to climb as much using the arms as the legs when getting up the stairs. I would say that it was a winning strategy and a good workout, although I might have looked a bit like a monkey.
When we finally got to the top of the Great Stairway, we discovered that it ended at the Three Sisters, which was cool and felt like a good way to end the hike.
The passage of time is hard to capture in the form of text; we walked a lot. At the end of the day, we had walked 13 km. Looking at a map over Katoomba and the Blue Mountains distances does not look far at first glance, but that’s before you know there is a hundred meter drop that separate point a from point b.
The Blue Mountains was a really cool place to visit. Stay tuned for our next post about our third and final day in the Blue Mountains.
The third Saturday of every month, a market called Hunt & Gather takes place in downtown Newcastle.
We’ve come in contact with this through one of Linnea’s university courses, the one called Furniture, form and function. The assignment for the whole semester in that course is to create a furniture piece that could be sold at that specific market. So naturally, when the first market day of the semester came around we went to check it out. Honestly, this type of field research is incredibly fun!
Even though our main objective was simply to observe the market and talk to a couple of stall owners, we ended up staying for a big portion of the day. The reason being that we were having a great time. We ran into some of Linnea’s classmates and also the two sisters that are the masterminds behind the market (they held a lecture for Linnea’s course, so she recognized them at the market). We talked with them for a while, then had lunch at the market, after that Linnea got a henna tattoo in one of the stalls, we got some coffee and continued going around the stalls and talking to the owners… A lot of them felt excited talking about their experiences and knowledge of the market.
After shopping some clothes in one of the stalls, we felt tired and decided on heading towards Newcastle beach, which is less than 5 minutes walking distance from the market. But before we had time to make our exit, a guy at a table asked if we wouldn’t mind being painted by him for a ‘cartoon census’ that was taking place that day. We said sure and sat down for a while, talking to the guy as he painted. The guy’s name is Ben Mitchell and apparently, he has a class at UoN in graphic design which Gustav thought about taking when we were selecting our courses. The world feels very small sometimes.
Happy with that we had taken part, we headed towards the beach. There we sat down in the sand and contemplated for a bit what a wonderful Saturday it was. We sat there until the sun was about to go down, then we felt like it was time to head on home. But we’ll definitely go back to the market before our time in Australia is up, you can count on that.
Our Sunday was eventful as well. We were going to our first live rugby game! We had gotten a really nice deal through the university that included the tickets, a hat, and a scarf. The game we were going to watch was a National Rugby League (NRL) game between Newcastle Knights and Penrith Panthers.
We went to Hunter Stadium together with a bunch of other international students. Outside the arena, we got our tickets and our accessories.
Inside, we bought an ice cream and got to our seats and waited for the game to start. There were a lot of sponsors that needed to get their names out there. When each player was presented, they were also sponsored by a specific company each.
Another interesting thing concerning the sponsors is that the ads shown on the field on television are added live during the broadcast while the field itself only has the Newcastle Knights logo printed in one place. For more about this technology, watch Vox’s video about it:
The game got started, it started off in a good way. Both teams were very active, and the score was close. As we’ve seen some games on the television, we have started to get a hang of the rules in rugby league, but still, it was hard sometimes to understand why the game progressed in the manner it did.
At halftime, the score was 6-6, and the other international students and we were escorted away for something special. So, we got to go down onto the field and stand at the entrance of the field to greet/cheer/high-five the players as they exited for the second half, which was very cool. A VIP event apparently, and it was very exciting!
As we were getting back to our seats, we went to buy some coffee. The queue was very long and when we got back to our seats, half of the second half had elapsed and Knights had managed to keep their 6 points fixed while Panthers were in the lead at 26 points. The game progressed in the same manner and ended 42-6 to the Panthers.
Although the crushing defeat, it was interesting to watch and the weather was lovely. So, it was a good way to spend the Sunday.
(PS. The roads were jammed after the game. Cars everywhere.)
On Saturday, 13 August, we went on a wine tour in Hunter Valley. The wine tour was arranged by the student association Newcastle University Affordable Wine Appreciation Society (aka. The Goonion), and we went by bus from campus at 9 am.
After about 50 minutes on the bus, we arrived at our first destination, Tamburlaine Organic Wines. We were ushered into a warehouse where stacks of wine-filled oak barrels were stored. In the warehouse, we were greeted by a man called Tumbleweed from the vineyard who were going to guide us through the wine tasting. He was an alumni from UoN and was one of the founders of The Goonion, so some of the other participants knew him from before.
We tasted eight wines at Tamburlaine, a sparkling white, a sparkling rosé, three white, and three red wines. One of the white wines was a fruity but sweet, late harvest Riesling wine, which we really liked so we bought a bottle. We bought the wine from Tumbleweed, and it turned out he was going to Sweden in two weeks. He asked for some advice for good places to eat in Stockholm or Gothenburg, so Gustav suggested two places nearby Klarna’s office in Stockholm.
Next stop was at Hunter Distillery, which (yes, I know) is not a vineyard. They produce and sell flavoured spirits, and that was what we got to taste. So you might ask, “After drinking eight kinds of wine, how were you able to drink eight kinds of spirits without getting drunk?” First of all, I didn’t tell you there were eight kinds of spirits; we tasted ten. But to answer that question, we got a 1-millilitre sample of each spirit, and they were served in a chemistry style test tubes, see the above picture. Out of the different flavours, Linnea liked the Chocolate Vodka the most, while Gustav preferred the Blackberry Schnapps.
The third and last stop was at Kevin Sobels Wines, but we arrived a bit early so we walked around in Pokolbin Village and browsed in the stores there before the tasting. The tasting was quite similar to the other wine tasting. They started with a sparkling white wine and continued with two white wines followed by three red wines. They ended, however, with two fortified wines; a white and a red port wine. The red port wine was really nice.
After the tasting, we browsed some market stalls before we ate. At one of the stalls, we found a dog that we played with for a bit. For lunch, we had some BBQ. Still, the definition of BBQ seems to be sausage or veggie burger on a slice of toast bread. But it was nice and tasty.
When we got back from the wine tour, we ended our evening by watching the sixth and final film in the Maria Lang series that we’ve been watching. It was good; a nice film to watch after an eventful day.
Our Saturday started by going into town by bus and walking to the Ocean Baths, right next to which we had spotted a good place for looking at shells and smaller sea life during ebb. We spent some time walking around on the rocks.
A man that was there with his children helped us spot both starfishes and a crab. Can you spot the three starfishes in the picture above?
Watching the sea life was really amazing! But when the waves started crashing in with the incoming tide, then we decided to head back up.
After the ocean bed exploration, we went to the Grain Store to have some lunch. We both ordered a burger and a glass of cider each. It was delicious!
After lunch, we first walked along the wharf but then decided to walk up Darby Street. A short distance up Darby St we found Newcastle Art Gallery, which we have wanted to visit. So we went in and had a look around. There were a lot of aboriginal paintings, but also some video exhibitions, as well as a collaborative exhibition of drawing on small stones. We both drew on a rock each. The motifs took some inspiration from the Aboriginal style seen previously. When we were done, we put our rocks in the collection. Can you guess which two rocks we painted?
When we went out of the gallery, we were in the mood for some fika. So we went to the wharf and the Mövenpick ice cream bar for which we had gotten a discount for a tasting on Groupon. So we enjoyed a “basket” of ice cream and a coffee each and relaxed before going back home again after a peaceful day in the city.
In the end of June this summer, we spent a week in Germany and Switzerland “warming up” before going to Australia. We visited Cologne and Bonn in Germany and Zurich in Switzerland. We arrived in Cologne on Monday morning. We stayed with Linnea’s friend Rosa, who was an au pair in Zurich at the same time as Linnea. We’ve kept in touch ever since and Rosa came to visit in Sweden last year as well. It was really fun hanging out and catching up!
We went sightseeing in both Cologne and Bonn, which used to be the capital of West Germany. In Bonn, we went to a Haribo store (apparently “bo” in Haribo stands for Bonn) and we also dined at a popular Peruvian restaurant with Rosa and her colleague Maria. We had a bunch of delicious tapas to share and it was a great experience, all though we were rolling out of there cause we had so much to eat!
On Thursday morning we caught the train to Cologne/Bonn Airport and got on the shortest flight either of us had ever been on, we were only in the air for about 1 h 10 min. Arriving in Zurich, Linnea was overwhelmed with memories coming back to the city that had been her home for one of the best years in her life. We made our way with the excellent public transport into town to meet up with a bunch of Linnea’s old friends. We stayed with three guys that are studying at ETH in Zurich; Djalma, Gerson and Mattia. The other friends also flew in from other countries; Alex and “the other” Linnea flew in from France and Emma hopped on a flight from the UK. We had all gathered for Züri Fäscht, which is a really big city festival happening only once every third year, last time was 2013 when Linnea was living in Zurich.
As you can imagine, we partied most of the weekend. Only stopped to crash a few hours at the apartment each night, otherwise we stayed outside and looked at all the crazy events Swiss people with an overflow of money had thought out. A part from partying we made some time on the Thursday afternoon and on Friday to go sightseeing. Since it was Gustav’s first visit to Zurich we visited all the best look out points and highlights.
On the Friday we also met up for lunch with Linnea’s old host family. She was a bit nervous seeing them after such a long time, but that feeling quickly disappeared after they started talking about what they had been up to. A funny surprise was that the host family actually were going to Australia in just a few weeks for vacation, so we promised to be in touch about that.
Late on the Sunday evening we arrived back at Arlanda Airport. We were delayed even before we went on the flight, so it was close to midnight when we finally saw Gustav’s parents that greeted us at the airport.
Today we were going to Sydney again, but this time for The Rocks Aroma Festival, the largest coffee festival in the southern hemisphere.
We got up at 7 am, fixed some brekkie to take with us, and went to the train. We spent most of the train ride listening to music or sleeping. This way the rides don’t seem so long. When we got to Circular Quay in Sydney and tapped off our Opal cards, the screen displayed that the trip had only cost us A$2.50 each (approx. 16 SEK). That was a nice surprise that we didn’t expect since the usual price is A$8.30.
At Circular Quay where we arrived at 11:30 am, the festival had started. Stalls were located along the wharf towards The Rocks, which you could say is Sydney’s old town. Since Sebastian and Hermione were arriving at noon, we decided to go to the Customs House where we had read that a miniature model of the Sydney City Centre was located under the glass floor in the foyer. It was impressive, and when we got there, we were alone looking at the model.
Walking towards our meeting place with Sebastian and Hermione, we walked past many market stalls. Some of them had queues stretching far; other were less frequented and at some of those, we decided to stop and have a look or a free sample.
We arrived first at our meeting place and decided to look around. We found a market stall where they were selling liquorice! As we were looking at the candy, the owner and manufacturer started handing out pieces of candy while explaining their composition and ingredients. His showmanship and attitude made the comparison to Willy Wonka quite easy. We ended up buying a bag of liquorice and one of peppermint sticks. But the price of candy seems to be higher in Australia compared to Sweden (both in stores and market stalls).
Together with Sebastian and Hermione, we went to a local restaurant called The Glenmore to eat. We shared three dishes, swordfish (first time either of us had that!), squid, and fries. The food was really nice and tasted great!
After lunch, we roamed around The Rocks looking at market stalls. We bought a packet of Vanilla Chai tea from Pukka. Then we bought our first coffee at a market stall from the company Sacred Grounds. We shared a large cappuccino. Delicious!
Sebastian and Hermione went to go shopping while we went for some sightseeing. On our way to Sydney Harbour Bridge, we stopped at a market stall where they sold gilded leather jewellery. Linnea bought a beautiful golden necklace shaped like leafs.
When we arrived at the Sydney Harbour Bridge, we walked along the sidewalk and continued a bit past halfway over before deciding to go back. The view was good from the sidewalk, so we decided not to go up the pylons.
When we came back to the festival area, we got ourselves a coffee each for “free” in exchange for a gold coin donation (gold coin being a one dollar coin or a two dollar coin). At the same time the NSW barista championship final was just about to start on a nearby stage, so we stayed there watching it. The competition evaluated both the latte art and the taste. It was really interesting to watch their technique and the final result.
As the winner of the competition was announced at 5 pm, the festival drew to a close. We went for a last walk alongside the stalls and showed up just in time for when the sushi stall started selling out what remained of the food for half price. We got some sushi and dumplings. We devoured the food in no time as we’re big fans of East Asian cuisine.
Since the festival was over, we went back on the train and discovered when we arrived in Newcastle that our journey was even less expensive going back, this time, there was no charge for either of us. We’ve read up on the Opal card now, and apparently, the maximum charge on Sundays is A$2.50 and after that, you go for free. That means Sunday is now officially “Travelday” in our book.
Last, but not least, here’s the promised video of how to change the direction of a seat on a Sydney train.
Saturday morning was spent finishing unpacking our bags and sorting our clothes. We hung up all our clothes on our new clothes rack or in the wardrobe, alternatively folding them and putting them in our hanging storage compartment on the clothes rack. It finally feels like our room is clean and tidy!
We spent the Saturday afternoon together with Jenny and Grahame. We went out for drinks, first at the Customs House and then at the Grain Store. Both very nice bars that we’ll probably visit again in the near future. We talked about the past week and what we’ve been up to. We got, even more, suggestions from them to add on our bucket list since Jenny thought that we seemed to go through them so fast that we needed some more!
On our way back from town, we went past Christ Church Cathedral and had a look inside. The architecture of the church is interesting, and the window paintings are really beautiful and detailed. One of the must-sees in Newcastle from what we’ve gathered.
Afterwards, we went to Woolies (aka Woolworths) to stack up some more on groceries, before Jenny and Grahame dropped us off at home. Thank you for the day, feels nice getting to know Newcastle more and more.
Linnea and I had been thinking about it for a long time and today was the day, we were going to Ikea!
We started off by taking the train to Sydney, which in itself took some time (about 2h 30min). We passed the time by listening to podcasts or music, or by sleeping. Side note: on the trains, there are some really cool seats. You can move the back of the seat to either end of the seat (I will show a photo/video of this next time).
When we arrived in Sydney, we took another train to Circular Quay and arrived with a view over the harbour, Sydney Harbour Bridge, and Sydney Opera House.
We walked along the water and walked into an exhibit on the wharf next to a museum. The exhibit showed what I would call the “deer-apocalypse” and wetlands, not far from how some parts of northern Sweden looks (although with fewer horns laying around).
We continued up to The Rocks, where a market was going on. A lot of preparation were also made, it seems, for the Aroma Festival happening on Sunday, which is the largest coffee festival of the southern hemisphere. As soon as we got to know about the Aroma Festival, we decided to go.
We walked up to The Australia Heritage Hotel where we had lunch. The food on the menu was a Coat of Arms pizza, which is a pizza with one half of emu meat and the other half kangaroo meat. The pizza was really good! Linnea liked the emu most, while I preferred the kangaroo. So now we can tick off eating the coat of arms pizza on our bucket list.
After lunch, we walked back down and walked along the water again. We arrived at the opera house and took our pictures. While stopping, we also put on some sunscreen as the weather was splendid and we could feel the power of the Australian sun.
From the opera house, we walked on into the Royal Botanical Garden. We saw some impressive trees growing there. The outlook over the water was spectacular with a good view of the opera house and the harbour bridge. Linnea relaxed a bit in Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, a carved rock seat, with this outlook.
We were meeting up with Sebastian later at the Art Gallery of NSW. On our way over, we saw a flock of wild cockatoos. Linnea got excited as she wanted one when she was younger. But we have now heard their screech, which I think is all you need to hear to reconsider.
When we arrived at the museum, we went in together with Sebastian and had a quick look at some of the paintings. Linnea took the opportunity and voted on a painting for the People’s Choice in the Archibald Prize. We looked at some aboriginal paintings. They were simple, yet complex and also peaceful.
After the museum, we had fika along with both Sebastian and Hermione. We discussed the possibility of going to an opera, concert, or show at the opera house.
By bus, we went to Ikea in Tempe. The Ikea warehouse was far bigger than the one in Linköping and the one in Örebro. It was huge!
We started our Ikea visit by having dinner. Meatballs with lingonberry jam! Linnea tried the chicken meatballs; they were good as well.
When we had eaten, we started our search for the products on our shopping list. We knew we only could buy as much as we could carry, so we had planned in advance only to buy the things we needed.
A the checkout register, Linnea could use her employee discount, which was nice. This is a bit impressive that they manage to keep all the warehouses connected even though they are so far apart.
We bought some food in the Swedish Food Market at Ikea. Herring, Kalles creamed smoked roe, cloudberry jam, lingonberry jam, elderflower juice, etc. So good!
We walked briskly to the Sydenham train station and got into Central a few minutes late, making our wait a bit short. So we ran through the central with all our Ikea stuff, making it to the train to Newcastle just in time before they were about to close the doors.
Home, at last, we assembled our clothes rack Rigga and started to sort and hang our clothes. A picture of our room after the Ikea transformation will come tomorrow.
