Chronicling Sydney Beach Hopping

As Sydney's summer heat wave hit, we opted to swap our usual inner-city outings for the coastline. Our top picks for some of the best beaches Sydney's lower north shore has to offer, are:

1. Shelly Beach

2. Balmoral Beach

3. Manly Beach

4. Chinamans Beach

Chronicling Sydney Opera Bar

On Friday night, we both headed into the heart of Sydney, Circular Quay and farewelled one of our best friend's to New York for 5 months. The city was perfect, with remnants from New Year's Eve evident from the temporary light display on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The whole night was spent at Opera Bar, the perfect seat for Sydney's most mesmerising views. Opera Bar is the perfect place to be on a clear Summer's night with their new "Backyard BBQ" section feeling like you are relaxing with cocktails in a backyard with multi-million dollar views. 

♫ ♪  All of Me - John Legend   ♫ ♪

Chronicling Brisbane

This past weekend, we opted to exchange Sydney's bipolar weather for its sunnier neighbour up north, Brisbane. The getaway started on the 32nd floor of a hotel in the heart of the busy CBD, with views extending from Brissie river to Queen St Mall. This perfect location allowed us to explore what Brisbane's CBD had to offer, including their local restaurants, cafes and stores (minus the biggest Topshop in Australia that unfortunately opened the day after our departure). Within this relatively calm city, our new favourite hiding spot was uncovered in the form of eclectic cafe, Brew, in Burnett Lane. Not only did Brew have the best coffee in town, but their Brew's Brekkie Salad is now our favourite thing to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and all meals in between. In addition to exploring Brisbane's concrete jungle, a lot of time was spent in their trendy inner-city suburbs of Fortitude Valley and Paddington, where we discovered the perfect French patisserie for afternoon tea, at Le Bon Choix. Despite being 920km away from home, Sydney's erratic weather did not escape us, with much of the first 24 hours being spent with the latest issue of Frankie and novel, the Rumour Mill. 

Chronicling Sydney Harbour Bridge + Kirribilli

On this gloomy Friday morning in Sydney's CBD,  we decided a caffeine fix was vital. Although, what probably wasn't "vital" was our choice to do the 3km walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge to get it. Thankfully, it was the best coffee either of us had consumed in a long time, in an intimate, rustic cafe lining Kirrbilli's Upper Pitt Street. 

Chronicling Crown St, Surry Hills

The best thing about going to university in Sydney's CBD is that we are surrounded by inner-city suburbs like Surry Hills, that have transformed from a working man's area to modern and creative hubs for Sydney's most artistic talents. On this abnormally warm winter's day, we decided to explore its main thoroughfare, Crown Street, and ended up enjoying ricotta pancakes and a vegetarian bagel in an old converted terrace house at the Ampersand Cafe and Book Store. If we had a minimum of $1 million to spare, then we would definitely live here, savouring every kind of cafe at our doorstep. 

Chronicling Hyde Park

During our university breaks, we find there is nothing better than escaping our concrete surroundings and taking the 20 minute walk up to Sydney's relaxing, Hyde Park. Hyde Park is infamous for it's Archibald Fountain and the Anzac Memorial, amongst many other intricate bronzed statues and is the perfect place to unwind amongst fellow university students or business people who seek composure in their chaotic surroundings.  

Chronicling Surry Hills

Our break, away from chaotic university life, lead us into the backstreets of Surry Hills where one's love for graffiti, art and peanut butter iced chocolates are prerequisites for entry. Creativity thrives in these alleyways from the liberally decorated terrace houses, to the unconventional and earthy cafes, inspiring the imaginations of even the most conservative of us. Definitely a great place to relax, despite being so close to the chaos of Sydney's CBD.