After such a big meal at Quay (which we later learned is pronounced “Key”), we wanted to sleep in a little bit and have a later breakfast.  Unfotunately, the housekeeping lady was ringing the door bell before 9 am.  It was so weird.  That’s the first time we had that problem!  Well, we were awake after that and decided to head down to breakfast.

The breakfast at the Park Hyatt in Sydney was very good, but it is an extremely busy restaurant.  The views are beautiful and it seemed like it is a popular spot for brunch.  As a result, the service is somewhat slow.  Usually, we just attribute the difference in service expectations as a difference in culture.

It has been interesting to learn the different terms that Australians use for coffee.  For example, a “long black” is two shots of espresso over boiling water.  A “short black” is two shots of espresso.  A “flat white” is similar to a latte.  Usually, we just took the easy road and ordered cappucino.

The weather was pretty nasty so we hung out until the afternoon then caught the bus to Bondi beach.  Bondi beach is about a 1 km long strip of beach surrounding Sydney.  It has a California-like vibe with lots of surfers, a skatepark, and shops/restaurants.  We walked up to the top of the cliff and took some great pictures.

Then, we took the bus back and looked at some more opals.  We returned to a store called, Opal Minded, that we went to the day before.  At this point, I was pretty sure what I wanted.  I decided on a pair of black opal earrings.  They are so pretty (although they were a little out of my price range), and I know that I will wear them all of the time! Luckily, the shop was duty-free, and the saleswoman gave me a little extra discount (putting them a little closer to my price range).

We skipped dinner that night, but Justin wanted to check out a bar that he heard about called The Lord Nelson Brewery.  It is one of the oldest pubs in Australia and opened in  1836.  They make several hand-crafted beers, and it is a really great environment (not clubby/loud/smokey).  Justin had a couple of beers.  I’m not really a beer drinker so I just tried his and had a diet coke (I know, big nerd).

On the way home it started pouring raining.  I’m glad that I had on my rain jacket, but poor Justin got soaked!

The next day, the weather was still bad so all we did was walk around the Botanical Gardens and got some more pictures.

For our last night in Sydney, we ate at a great restaurant called Tetsuya’s which has French and Japanese influences.  This is a 10ish course tasting menu, and it was delicious!  We were a little nervous when we walked in and saw a crying baby at the door.  Typically, we don’t see kids when we eat at these kinds of restaurants but everything turned out fine, and we had a wonderful night.

The highlights of the meal included: the raw fish course, the truffle and parmesan butter (for the bread), the milk fed veal, and the oysters.  However, the star of the menu  (at least for me) was Tetsuya’s signature confit of ocean trout with fennel and ocean trout caviar. Yummy!

I’m sure that it is no surprise to anyone that we ate every single bite of every single course of the 4 hour meal.