Sydney II Day 8-9: Last Days in Sydney City

DAY 8

We went back to Sydney Fish Market for breakfast this morning because we couldn't get enough of the food 😄

We decided to pack our food back to our hotel to eat for 2 reasons: 1) there were limited parking lots at our hotel and we wanted to ensure we could find a good lot before the lunch crowd, 2) parking was expensive at Sydney Fish Market!

We ordered fresh seafood from Peter's this time. The hubby wanted to try their grilled lobster legs!

I remembered loving fried whitebait when we had it in London, hence when I saw something similar at the fish market, I bought a box to try.

The whitebait turned out to be so good that the Littlest Girl almost finished a whole box herself! 😋

We brought the rest of the food back to the apartment and lay them on our dining table.

Obviously, the grilled and fried food would have been much better eaten at the restaurant but it still tasted great!

My kids' favourite was the avocado salmon sushi donut! My boy still asks for avocado sushi back in Singapore as he missed it so much!

After brunch, we headed back to QVB for more shopping.

We ended up not buying anything but it was nice admiring the British decor that reminded me so much of London!

I wanted to see if there's something I'd like at Louis Vuitton since the hubby had not gotten me a birthday present. I found a pink Speedy that both me and my Littlest Girl love! She was like, "Mummy get it!" 🤭

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I love my birthday present! I use it all the time now! 🩷

One of the hubby's favourite brands, Boss, was having a sale and he managed to buy some clothes for a good deal!

As we explored the streets, we came across Midcity Mall, where I found Goelia! I've seen it online and liked their clothes but needed to try them in person before buying.

I bought a pink trenchcoat that I'm super in love with! 😄

We also stumbled on a BTS Pop-up store! I'm not so 'army' that I will buy the merchandise but 'army' enough to sing along with at least 10 songs and recognise its choreography after just 10 seconds of seeing it 😆

We were tired from shopping and decided to take the tram back to our hotel instead of walking. Interestingly, you tap at the tram stop before you board the tram rather than tapping onboard.

After dinner, I brought the kids for a swim at the pool one last time.

As usual, after the swim, the kids soaked in the bathtub with a Donki bath bomb. Blessed life indeed 😄 

With that, it was our last night in Sydney! We'll be heading back to Singapore the next morning! We were so sad that our time in Sydney was ending 🥲

DAY 9

We woke early this morning for breakfast before checking out of our hotel and heading to the airport.

We returned our rental car and took the shuttle bus to the airport.

We processed our tax refunds before having lunch at McDonald's.

We also did some last minute shopping at the airport before boarding our Singapore Airlines plane. 

There're people who don't like SQ food but for our family of foodies, we are not one of them! I personally like SQ food the best compared to all other airlines I've flown with (and this includes ANA & JAL)! Maybe because the taste reminds me of home 😁

Singapore Airlines also brought back their famous ice cream on their longer flights! Love it so much!

We were sad that our vacation ended but happy to be home! 😊

<< Back to Sydney II Day 7: Meriton Suites Kent Street, Sydney Opera House & Harbour Bridge 

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Sydney II Day 7: Meriton Suites Kent Street, Sydney Opera House & Harbour Bridge

In a blink of an eye, our stay in Blue Mountains have come to an end! 🥲 After breakfast, we packed up and checked out of our apartment at 10am and drove down the mountain to our next accommodation.

We stopped by Westfield Penrith Plaza along the way for shopping and lunch. There was a small playground near the Food Court where the Littlest Girl had fun playing by herself 😀

We set off for our next accommodation, Meriton Suites Kent Street, and reached around 1.30pm. 

Our hotel was located in the CBD, which meant that we had to pay separately for parking as it was not typically included in the room rate for hotels in the CBD area. The carpark cost us A$50 per day, which is expensive but still cheaper than some other hotels in the area!

As you can imagine, staying in the CBD is definitely not cheap! Our main considerations for choosing this hotel were the amenities, close proximity to all the prominent landmarks in the area and the availability of 2-bedroom apartments so that the whole family can stay together.

We booked the 2-bedroom Darling Suite at S$564 per night. Although it was pricey, it was also our best accommodation for the trip! 😀

We were greeted with a spacious living and dining room on entry. The master bedroom and ensuite bathroom were on the left, while the second bedroom and bathroom were on the right. Both bedrooms had huge windows that let in the light and allowed us to enjoy the view.

The master bathroom was a generous size, with a large bathtub for taking our favourite hot baths.

The second bedroom was a little smaller than the master but had doors that allowed for easy access to the balcony.

The second bathroom, which was located next to the second bedroom, was smaller than the master bathroom and did not have a bathtub. 

A small area next to the kitchen housed both a washer and a dryer! This was definitely one of the perks of this apartment as we could wash all our clothes and have less to wash back at home!

The kitchen was a bit dated and relatively small but had enough amenities. 

The highlight of our suite had to be the huge balcony with the amazing view!

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We were staying on a really high floor! My Littlest Girl was warned not to go to the balcony without an adult's permission. She agreed and didn't, possibly because it was cold outside!

The hubby and I enjoyed hanging out on the balcony, admiring the view and chatting! Wish the weather in Singapore was cool enough for us to do this back at home! 😂

Towards the late afternoon, we headed out to explore the area.

It was just a 5-minute walk to Townhall Station, the nearest tram station to our hotel.

The streets in this area were bustling with activities, especially the area in front of St. Andrew's Cathedral. 

We visited the famous Queen Victoria Building just across the road. 

We didn't get to visit QVB during our last trip, although we did manage to visit Sydney Eye (the tall tower in the photo below).

We walked for about 20 minutes from QVB to Sydney Harbour Bridge to catch Vivid Sydney, Sydney's annual festival of lights, music and art. We were really lucky to experience it as Vivid Sydney is only available for a limited time.

By the time we arrived at Sydney Harbour Bridge, the skies were turning dark.

I love the beautiful shade of purple that covered the skies as the sun went down.

It was our first time seeing the Sydney Opera House up close as previously we got lost and didn't manage to find our way to it for some reason.

We were lucky to have had a good weather for viewing! We found ourselves a nice bench to sit and admire the show!

The show was good if you happened to be in the area but it won't be on my "must-watch" list.

After the show, we considered eating dinner at Darling Harbour like we did previously but we decided to have our dinner at our hotel instead. We were tired as it had been a long day and we had walked from our hotel to Sydney Opera House along the tram route for about 4 tram stations (approximately 20-30 minutes). 

Since it was so convenient to take the tram, I enquired at the tram station for the prices. A friendly staff advised for the adults to tap our credit cards so that we didn't have to pay for the card deposit and have to find somewhere to get back our deposit and unused amount at the end of our trip. It was the best advice because the cost was not very different! I regretted not doing the same for my kids because we bought 2 child Opal cards to save money (child price is half of adults) and now I'm stuck with the cards 😔

We arrived at Townhall Station and walked to Meriton Retail Precinct, the mall at the base of our hotel, to get our dinner.

There were a lot of Asian food at Level 1 to choose from! We got some Vietnamese, Taiwanese and Japanese food while the Eldest Girl had to have her bubble tea 😅

I'm glad we decided to have dinner back in our apartment rather than squeezing with the crowd! The food was good!

We were pretty energised after dinner and could go for a dip in the jacuzzi at the indoor pool, which was definitely another highlight of this hotel!

The kids couldn't get enough of the water, so we filled our master bathroom's bathtub and added a Minion bath bomb (cute right?) for part 2!

It was a long but fun day!

Continue to >> Sydney II Day 8-9: Last Days in Sydney City
<< Back to Sydney II Day 5-6: Wentworth Falls, Echo Point & Bilpin

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Sydney, Australia

AND

Download my Sydney Itinerary 2014 for more travel ideas!

Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!