Sydney Day 1: 26/ 27 June 2015 (Blue Mountains)

It was probably one of the most hectic and stress Fridays that saw me barely making it to the airport for my long awaited trip to Sydney!

On board a full flight, the seats of British Airways was surprisingly comfortable!  I last took this airline when flying to London, so now I've kinda completed a Kangaroo trip with the same airline after almost 9 years!!  The touch screen was sensitive and intuitive, although the entertainment options were somewhat lacking.

7 hours 5 minutes later, touch down Sydney! The same airport I left only a year earlier, and so good to be back!  It was wee hours at 5am with wintery temperatures of less than 10 degrees, but spirits were high.

After the standard customs and declarations, it was straight to Edward's place for meet up and a great breakfast at Baffi & Mo Espresso.  It seemed only yesterday I bade Edward farewell back in 2014.  Oh how time flies!

A 2 hours drive later, we arrived at Katoomba.  The sky was clear and air fresh.  We ventured to Scenic World for some panoramic views of the mountains.  Along the way, we stopped by at Cassiopeia Specialty Coffee, supposedly the best coffee in Katoomba!  My, the coffee aroma was definitely strong here!

Scenic World consists of 4 walks: SkyWay, WalkWay, CableWay, and RailWay.  We started with the CableWay which took us down to the valley of Blue Mountains.  It was linked directly to WalkWay which was a nice walk underneath the rainforest foliage and very cool fresh air.  The journey up was via RailWay, which was so unexpected fun due to the intense steepness of the ride!  Lastly, it was SkyWay across the canyon.

After some dazzling heights, a small hike to Echo Point where the 3 sisters was in place.  It was a beautiful (and tiring) walk that afforded the magnificent views of the canyon. My sneakers were definitely not built for hiking!

The walk back to hotel saw us stopping by at Blue Mountains Chocolate store with handmade goodies, and boy were they delicious!!

Finally checked into the rustic Metropole Guesthouse.  The place was retro English style with fireplaces and squeaking floors to boot!

Dinner was a nice family style affair at Ruby's Brasserie.  And what a huge dinner it was!  Risotto, salad and French onion soup were the entrées while the mains were steak, Atlantic salmon and pizza.  All these were paired with a bottle of red French.