3rd friend in Sydney

I was so happy when I got an email from Tina Lou letting me know she's back in Sydney for work with Oracle. My 3rd friend from back home within two months. Now I'm beginning to think, I'm gonna have a dry spell for soo many months that nobody will be visiting me anytime soon. I'm gonna enjoy it while it lasts. So I freed up my weekend to spend time with her.

After a long working day on Friday (its my first month end closing with my company), I met up with Tina on Saturday at her Intercontinental hotel (on Bridge and Phillip St near Circular Quay...for my future reference when Tina comes back...if you decide to stay at the Intercon again and hopefully, upgrade to the Executive Suite so we can get the free VIP dinner on top of the hotel... OR, Hilton Hotel is pretty good, too). From her hotel, overlooking the Domain/Botanical Gardens, we walked through the gardens towards the farm cove.







From there, we took the bus to QVB (Queen Victoria Bldg), did some shopping (Tina did...I did window shopping - remind me to check out that blouse you liked at 'Jigsaw'. Clothes are soo expensive over here and sizes are bigger...really makes you feel fat), came out of the building and started our long, I mean loooooooooooong walks. We started looking for this restaurant, couldn't find it, walked a few more blocks (basically going around in a circle), then decided we're done walking and taking a taxi cab instead to Darling Harbour for lunch. Ahhh, relaxing lunch! From there, we took another cab to King's Cross, the red light district of Sydney. It wasn't a happening place...since it was daylight but I'm sure there's lots going on once the sun sets. So we walked some more, and more, until we reached Pott's Point where we had a nice coffee break. The waiter said there were some really nice cafes, bars, and restaurants in King's Cross. That was what we were looking for in the beginning but didn't see any...I guess it was off the main road. So we gave it another try. And that means, more walking back to King's Cross. Ay yay yay!!! Here's a couple of pictures on King's Cross:






So we finally got out of King's Cross and went to the Circular Quay to meet Tina's friend, Jonathan. But first, we went to the Contemporary Art Museum (for free, of course). It was almost closing time so we were able to see some of the exhibits. We did get on the top floor where they were setting up a dinner party and got a good view of the opera house and the harbour bridge. I don't think I can ever get tired of the view.






We met up with Jonathan and we had a couple of drinks at "The Cruise" by the cruise ship docking area. See harbour bridge picture above where you will see the tables with white shades (bottom right corner). We then had dinner at "The Italian Village" nearby then went for some more drinks at "The Bridge" bar (see opera house picture above...it is the bridge between the two buildings next to the opera house) - don't worry. I didn't get drunk...I know my limits. After viewing the Harbour Bridge at night from "The Bridge" bar, we went to the "Summit" / Orbit by Australia Square. This is the revolving restaurant in Sydney which takes about an hour to rotate all around. I just had coffee this time. Really great views from this restaurant/bar. I'll take any of you there next time. Just a note. They won't serve just coffee (since its a bar) unless at least 50% of the drinks ordered are alcohol. We were like, "whatever!". Next time Tina comes back, we'll go have drinks at the Shangri-La hotel. She's been wanting to go there all day but Jonathan was just not in the proper dress code.

And that was the end of our night...lots of walking though.

Sunday, the three of us met up again at Paddy's in Chinatown. Jonathan and Tina showed me this good Taiwanese restaurant...it was good! Tina was actually more of a tour guide to me than I was to her. She's been here three times for work and she's checked out a lot of places.

After lunch, we took the ferry to Manly beach where we spent the afternoon checking out the people and just soaking in the water. We ended our Sunday with dinner at a japanese restaurant on Liverpool St and after drinks at the new Hilton Hotel (really nice hotel). By the way, I've observed that asian food here is not as good as asian food in the bay area. I've tried a good (by their standards) japanese restaurant near my work (Masuya) and even their sushi is not as good as back home.

'Til next time. Hope to see you back here in Sydney, Tina! I enjoyed hanging out with you.