Finally - a day with nothing on the schedule. Nowhere we had to be, nothing we had to do, if we didn't want to. It was awesome. We slept in, puttered around our room, which we decided is bigger than Stephen's apartment. It has a living room which could hold 15 people standing comfortably, a master bedroom through doors that separate from the living room, and a master bathroom with a tub you could sleep in and a glass shower that looks like the elevator from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
After complimentary breakfast upstairs, we spent well past lunch working on getting our blogs written and online. While our original plan included joining a bus tour throughout the city, we decided we were tired of bus tours and would rather have room to roam. Not only that, a closer look at the route revealed we had hit the majority of the stops already. We decided we wanted to explore an area known as "The Rocks" - one of the oldest neighborhoods in Sydney, full of history, social events, and some highly recommended bars. Here is one block of "The Rocks" - the cobblestones very reminiscent of Boston:
After walking around most of the area, we decided to try out some of the local libations. The first bar we stopped in was called Lowenbrau - our travel book had recommended it, and it didn't disappoint. Full of German culture - from the steins to the beers to the attire of the waiters and bartenders - it was a pretty awesome bar.
This is a picture of the Lowenbrau dining room/restaurant - rows and rows of long tables, really creating a family feel. Since neither of us had a hankering for meat or potatoes, we continued on.
Our next stop was the Fortune of War - which we were inclined to visit as it boasted to be Sydney's oldest pub - as you can see below. We decided after ordering the same beers at Lowenbrau that we should try other local beers - each ordering different drinks so we could get a sense of the local beers.
After Fortune of War, we decided we should get some dinner. Our wanderings led us to the Orient - where we had, in my opinion, some of the best bar food I've ever had. Stephen had a lamb pie (looked like a homemade chicken pot pie) and I had vegetarian soba noodles with grilled vegetables. It was delicious. Of course, while we were waiting for dinner, we each had another drink - Stephen had a Fat Yak (left) and I had a Pure Blonde.
We spent over an hour at the Orient, just enjoying the drinks and the food and watching the live band set up for their concert. At this point, we decided we should probably start to make our way back to the hotel. However, we had received recommendations of many local bars from some locals, so of course, when we passed one more on the way back, we had to stop - for one drink. I ordered a "half pint" and Stephen ordered a "pint" - thinking they'd be nice and small and a nice way to end the night. Below is a picture of the drinks we actually got.
Note, Stephen's drink is bigger than his hand. Below is a picture of the bar at an empty moment.
Finally, we decided to head home - as tomorrow is full of lots of adventures - both a Harbor Cruise and climbing the Sydney Harbor bridge.
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