On this rather dull, rainy day we thought here at Boho Life we would share some very sunny pictures with you from Australia. Australia looks totally beautiful and Paloma from Photography by Paloma has captured the true essence of this beautiful place. Paloma has also kindly shared some links for places to eat, drink and visit in Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney. Please do check them out if you are thinking of visiting Australia in the future. I will hand over the blog to Paloma to tell you all about her travels.

Australia – Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne 

We visited Australia at the end of April and beginning of May to attend the wedding of one of my dear friends. It was their autumn, so I believe it was a great time to go as it wasn’t too hot, but still warm enough.

Neither of us had ever been so we tried to squeeze as much as we possibly could; we decided to visit Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne; as we were traveling with a 4 month old, we rented a car to go from one place to another as this seemed much easier than getting into more flights or endless train/bus journeys. We rented ours via Budget and it was all very straight forward, they provided with a car seat for the little one, and we could pick up on arrival to Sydney airport.

We had 1 night in Sydney to recover from the trip before we set off to Canberra; we stayed at the Vibe Hotel in China Town.

Canberra

We arrived in Canberra on AZNAC day (April 25^th) which is like Remembrance Day in the UK, after a long drive, we stayed at the Best Western Garden City, which was about 15 minutes’ drive out of the town centre, but it was lovely and clean and had a very much needed launderette (3 days’ worth of bibs and baby clothes!).

The first day we took a drive to Lake Burley Griffin, which is in a beautiful setting, even more so with all the lovely trees changing colours

There’s a number of walking and cycling routes to go around the lake.

We also visited the Common Wealth Park where we found loads of cockatoos; we didn’t realize they’re like pigeons or doves and they’re everywhere! For us they were so exotic!!. In this Park there’s also the Captain Cook Memorial, which is worth having a little look at

As we walked into the park, we could hear this screechy noise coming from the trees, and we thought it was birds settling for night time… But when we looked up we saw dozens of fruit bats in the trees, it was all kinds of wicked!!

During our visit to Canberra we also went to the Parliament, which is a beautiful building  and right across it it’s the war memorial as it had been Aznac day it was all decorated with poppies which was rather impressive, I loved walking around it

We also went up the Telstra Tower, which had breath-taking views of the eucalyptus trees, Lake Burley Griffin and the city

Then we were on route to Melbourne!

 Melbourne!

We loved the Sea Life centre, great few hours specially if you go with kiddies… lovely location

You can’t miss a visit to Bourke street Mall… it has the best Pancakes ever! ( check out the Pancake Parlour, it’s a chain and they have shops everywhere! Not cheap but sooo worth it!) also the shopping centre is lovely to look at and so many shops!

I highly recommend the Eureka Skydeck; the views from up there are amazing and if you’re feeling brave you can pay a bit extra and go into this glass cube called the edge which takes you literally out of the building in case you dare looking down through the glass floor at 285metres…
If you’re not feeling so brave maybe just post your postcards/letters from the highest post box in Australia

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As we lived in Brighton when we met we couldn’t help a visit to Brighton Beach, and we loved it… colourful beach huts, an amazing beach with clear blue waters and golden sand… just how we imagined it!

We also visited the Old Melbourne Gaol, which was interesting and spooky in equal measures, and loves the Immigration Museum which we found fascinating, great bit of history about how people arrived and settled in Australia.
It’s also worth a visit to Victoria Market, it’s a bit out of the way but you can find all the bargains here, food, clothes and souvenirs!
The longest leg of our trip was spent in Sydney, and to say it was our favourite would be an understatement, we loved it!! It has a wonderful vibe and it’s a beautiful place.

Sydney

Loved walking around the Royal Botanical gardens, loads of cockatoos again! and giant huntsman spiders, but also some lovely trees

One of the best views we found in Sydney was from Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, which is within the park, lovely sunset. Loads of people walking around and on their bikes, also running, doing yoga, families having picnics… Just lush!

You can’t go to Sydney and not go to Taronga zoo, make sure to take the ferry as the journey is lovely and the views, again beautiful.

You can get a ticket with the ferry and entry fare included, we chose to go on the cable car, also paid a little extra to have an encounter with the koala bears (well you have to don’t you?) and to feed the giraffes… The views from the zoo again are amazing!

You also need to get yourself to the Opera House, the area is buzzing with restaurants, shops and once again some amazing views! We did the tour and found it very interesting, definitely worth the money!

Darling Harbour is another must! Lots of restaurants (Hard Rock Café is here!) and another small ish shopping centre with all kinds of shops.

Our favourite day trip outside of the city was to the Blue Mountains, this included a visit to the Featherdale Wildlife centre where you can feed Kangaroos and touch the Koala Bears. The tour of the Blue Mountains included a visit to scenic world, which was amazing, you get to walk through the Eucalyptus trees, and can get into a 2 different cable cars and the steepest railway in the world, so much fun!

You can’t miss Paddy’s market, it’s a bargain shopping centre! You could easily buy all of your OZ souvenirs here at a fraction of the price they sell them at the Quay or Darling Harbour.
Our friends were kind enough to take s to both Manly and Bondi beach on our last day for some lovely scenery and food.

TIPS

A launderette is known as “Coin Laundry”… we didn’t know and struggled to find one by googling self service laundry or launderette.

Hotels will charge obscene amounts of money to give you access to their wifi. Don’t bother, pretty much everywhere in the big cities has free wifi (malls, restaurants, attractions…).

Walk around and get lost in the cities (with a map!) we discovered some lush places within the cities just by going by foot instead of in the rented car… but loved the flexibility of the car as we could around to places a bit out of the way.

PLACES TO EAT

http://www.grilld.com.au/ (Beautiful burgers and chips!)

http://www.pancakeparlour.com/

https://www.hogsbreath.com.au/

PLACES TO VIST

Sydney

http://www.scenicworld.com.au/experience/scenic-railway/

http://taronga.org.au/taronga-zoo

http://www.featherdale.com.au/

http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/homepage.aspx

http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/

http://www.darlingharbour.com/

http://www.sydneytowereye.com.au/

Canberra

http://www.visitcanberra.com.au/attraction/lake-burley-griffin

http://www.aph.gov.au/

http://www.awm.gov.au/

http://www.telstratower.com.au/about.aspx

http://www.nationalzoo.com.au/

Melbourne

http://www.oldmelbournegaol.com.au/

http://www.eurekaskydeck.com.au/

http://museumvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/

http://www.stpaulscathedral.org.au/

http://www.qvm.com.au/

http://www.melbourneaquarium.com.au/

For more information on Paloma’s work go to:

www.photographybypaloma.co.uk
wwww.photographybypaloma.blogspot.co.uk
FACEBOOK
@PhotosbyPaloma

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