Top Ryde City ~ Paradise in a Mall

  So the other week, my friends and I wanted to enjoy the beginning of our Saturday chatting away about all sorts of things with one another, while absorbing the much needed Vitamin D and nom-noming away on a delicious brekkie meal.  But of course, as usual, we had no idea where to go! The other criteria in our search had to be somewhere between the North Shore and Strathfield, so that it would be convenient for all of us.  My friends then came up with a brilliant (especially in hindsight!) idea! The newly opened Top Ryde Shopping Centre - situated smack bang in the middle of the two places on Ryde Road!

  For the many times I've driven along Ryde Road, I've watched this place go from one sort of building to that being demolished to this shoppining complex in its infant stage to (after a long time) it being nearly built to it being complete! So yeh, I've seen it grow up and prior to this, I've only really been there once, so there was a sense of anticipation and freshness in going there!

  This shopping complex has two parts - outdoor and indoor.  There are shops and food places in both.  For the purpose of our visit, we pretty much dashed straight out to the outdoor section and it most certainly did not disappoint!

The modern architectural structure is quite impressive at first glance and somehow contributes to a relaxing feel! Must be the trees...haha

 There are cafes and restaurants lined up one after the other all along the path, which include famous restaurants such as Hurricanes (ribs...yum!) and Kazbah! As my friend NL pointed out, one day we might not even have to drag our butts out to the city to enjoy fine cuisine!



See the Hurricanes' sign??? PROOF right there!



 

Cafes right, left and center at your demand!




Kazbah is only a few steps away from Hurricanes! For those of you who might want second meals haha

 

Down this lane, there is a chocolate place like Max Brenners called Oliver Brown! The place exuberated yumminess and apparently it gets really packed at night! Must not to self to try sooooon!

  In the end, we chose Euro Taste Cafe, which gave us a good absorption of the sun and a cosy atmosphere!

Hmmm...I think I love places with wooden looking furnitures haha But it just gives off such a homey feel!

Topped off with one of my faves - skinny latte mmmmmmm

...with eggs benedict, what a special treat! OR -

The Euro Taster Cafe Big Brekkie! Deliiiiccciiooouss!!!

 Twas a splendid morning! Please consider having one too =)(And you know what, if you come here and if you love shopping, you can definiely top it off with that here!)




View Larger Map

[Japan] Sapporo - Odori Park

Whenever I think of my time in Sapporo, one of the places that inevitably conjures up in my mind is Odori Park (大通公園).  It's not like any other parks, it's not simply a big field in the middle of some suburbs like you see here in Sydney.  But rather, its rectangular form is laid out all along one of the main roads in Sapporo, which is incredibly close to town centre.  It's awesome because for someone like me who can get lost easily, it definitely serves as a life-saving landmark, giving me at least some sort of direction!

The famous TV Tower is also situated in Odori Park, great landmark to meet your friends!

In winter (which was when I was there), Odori Park is filled with people at night, because everyone's there to see the Christmas Illuminations which is held every December! For the Japanese, 'illuminiation' is the word they use to describe Christmas lights.  But I totally understand why they wouldn't use the word 'lights', if they did, that would totally undermine the beauty of these decorations in colour, in form and in creativity!

View of Odori Park from above! So vibrant with colours! Definitely a great place for families...

...and couples! Look how the 'Love Tree' transformed over there! I really love that tree <3

Now that's just a big-picture-snapshot of what the park filled with illuminations looks like! Wait till you see the individual illuminations themselves!

Lots of big flowery shapes lighting up the park!

Family time in the snow amongst the lighted up trees! Fun fun! (I really wish I was that kid!)

Though I have to say, my absolute favourite illumination has to be this:

Totally captured by the lights paved water, with the birds resting on it.  PLUS backgrounded with the TV Tower in its mighty colour! WOW! (and of course, the snow did make it look so much more amazing as well!)

Aside from the illuminations, during this festival, there is also a German Village set up, where people can shop for Christmas decorations and eat supposedly 'German' food! Each of the stores are set up like little wooden houses, it was pretty cool! (I don't have photos of this either...yeh pretty fail...>.<)

And for smokers out there, you need not be afraid that your habit would kill the atmosphere! Because in the park near the festivities, you might find something that look like this:

Yes a smoking site! A box where you get to enjoy smoke without troubling others! (Actually, you would find a lot of these around Japan, even in shopping centres!)

Another good thing is that it gets dark pretty early in Japan... I would say it's probably pretty dark around 4:30pm/5:00pm - the sun starts setting around 2:30pm/3:00pm!!! ( It was pretty crazy when that first occurred to me, who thinks daylight saving in winter in Sydney is already taking too much sunlight away!) So, the illuminations start around 4:00pm, which is perfect for if you don't want to stay out too late or if you have other plans during the night as well!

*Sigh* I really wish there was something like this in Hyde Park...could this ever happen in Sydney I wonder?

Parramatta ~ A Place to Chill

One Saturday, the sun was shining ever so brightly, the sky was crystal clear, what perfect weather for my friend's sister to have her wedding! Yup, so on such a beautiful day, my friends and I went to attend this special occasion.  It was a full day thing, with the ceremony at a church in Parramatta in the morning and a Chinese banquet at Rhodes Phoenix at night.  So there was this 4-5 hours gap in between the ceremony and the reception, after exhausting all our energies chatting and taking photos in all sorts of places around the church and in all sorts of poses, we were scratching our heads for something to occupy ourselves with.  We could have gone shopping at the Westfield in Parramatta, but after such a long week of work, none of us wanted to be stuck inside and miss another opportunity to befriend such brilliant weather!!!

Here's the moment where I discovered a gem of a street in the West...

Church Street

Along Church Street, you will find one cafe or restaurant one right after the other! The choices are plenty!

Filled with cafes and restaurants here on the left side...

...and also on the right!

Being the indecisive people that we are and with so many choices in front of us, we decided to go with the safe yet delicious option - San Churro!

San Churro Chocolateria for all you chocolate lovers out there!

You can choose to sit inside or outside and for us, because it was such a beautiful day, of course we chose to sit outside! I really liked their furnitures and setting, it kind of gave off a cosy feel! =)

Loved the design of the chairs and the wooden looking tables! They fitted together so well, as well as with the interior of the cafe!

The only complaint I would have about this (and as a matter of fact, probably sitting outside of any cafes/restaurants on Church St) would be the noise caused by the traffic.  I'm not sure whether this is a normal pattern, but on the day that we were there, a loud engine noise from bikes and cars would blast by every now and then.  This I thought ruined the atmosphere a bit and got a bit annoying for some of my friends.

Busy traffic on Church Street! Be careful of the cars/bikes that have loud engines!!!

But you know what... even though that might be the case, I think I can overlook it.  I mean, what's loud engine noises when you have a nice cuppa in front of you and good company together with beautiful weather, right? =)

Hot and Cold - cold white chocolate ice-cream in hot chocolate...indulgence goodness to the MAX! YUM!

So if you're ever bored and not sure what to do in the West, definitely get a few friends and check Church Street out together!


View Larger Map

[Japan] Sapporo - Government House

Since I've started work this year, sometimes I can feel quite exhausted and quite weighed down by the workload.  Do you ever feel like that? Friends have told me that a good remedy would be to either look forward to something or simply imagine/remember something good.  For me, whenever I look back to my one month stay in Japan last December, I would feel so happy at the memories of this experience blessed by God! Because it had such an impact on me, I really want to relive the moments and share them with you as I reminisce.  So every now and then, you might find blog posts on various places I've been to in Japan and hopefully you'll enjoy reading them! Perhaps, one day, you might even go to see these places for yourself (and I defintely recommend you to do so, despite the recent disasters!!!)

So I went to the northern island in Japan called Hokkaido (北海道) and stayed in the major city Sapporo (札幌) for most of my stay.  Since I went in December, I missed my most loved season - Summer - here in Sydney.  But what I gained though was my first time seeing and experiencing snow-ing! Yes, not just snow, but snow formed at the very height wherever the sky lies and fall from there!!! I still remember waking up one morning, rushed to the window and exclaimed with indescrible amusement as I saw this outside the apartment window:

Snow covering the streets, school, cars...everything!!!

Though I must say this excitement died off probably a week or so into my stay there, as I realised the difficulties of having to make twice the effort to walk and battle through the white fluff in order to go from point A to point B.  Not to mention you can never really walk elegantly, but rather more like a penguin no matter how hard you try! Nonetheless, I can't deny how beautiful it does make everything look, covering them in pure whiteness.

Sapporo is city not quite like Tokyo, while Tokyo might be bustling with life and is ever-changing, Sapporo is a bit more slow-paced and although busy, has a sense of peacefulness to it.  There are many great places to visit in Sapporo and we made sure we visited each one of them! We decided to go to one of the touristy recommended places first - the Government House!

All wrapped up in our down jackets on the way to the Government House! The whole place is surrounded by the fence, by which we walked along.

The Government House is quite grand in its style, giving off an old yet respectable stance.

The Government House

As you might be able to guess from the picture, the Government House is surrouned by a huge courtyard.  I would imagine it to be full of colours from the trees and flowers during the other seasons, which would be quite pretty.  But I also quite liked how the snow covered courtyard made things feel a little more...romantic hehe (Not that I was there with anyone of that special kind, but you know...=)

the bridge enhances the romantic atmosphere I think! Can't you just imagine standing there being with your beloved looking out to the lake?

This definitely feels like a scene from some Japanese drama...<3

There are also duckies swimming on the lake...

...and some parts of the lake was actually frozen over! Kinda reminds me of Harry Potter the 6th movie...(if you know what scene I'm talking about?)

The inside of the Government House is filled with the history of Hokkaido, with displays and interactive devices to interest the visitors.  Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of this.  But to be honest, as much as I respect the history, I found the scenery outside more intriguing.  Though that could just be a personal preference as I love looking at sceneries.

Walking out of the Government House definitely won't leave you feeling dry and overwhelmed with information, instead, you'll feel like a grand princess walking out of somewhere ever so important as you walk down a wide aisle before exiting through the gates.

Goodbye Government House! Feeling like an important citizen of sorts while leaving hehe

Although at first mention of it, visiting the Government House might seem a bit mundane.  But with all the drama like sceneries and photo opportunities, not to mention making snow angel on the thickened pile of snow (yes, my friends did this!!!), boring is definitely not in the dictionary of this visitation!

City ~ what you might encounter...

The city is usually full of people and filled with busyness, much to do and much to see.  And of course, one of the most famous places in Sydney city is Town Hall, where Queen Victoria Building (often abbreviated off people's tongue as QVB) situates.  There is a huge statue of Queen Victoria there and people love to make that the meeting place because it just can't be missed! And sometimes, while you're waiting for your friends, you might encounter crazy things! For example, one summer night, when my friends and I were waiting for someone, the following just so happened to be there!



Street dances and flipflops to blow you away



And of course a huge group of tourist setting the atmoshpere!!!

That's not all! A few meters down, in front of the entrance of QVB...

A chess champion of some sort versing 6 or 7 other people!

Even though I'm not much of a chess whiz, it was still very interesting to see the speed of the guy as he moved up and down the table.  Not to mention the astonished looks on everyone's faces no matter how many times he did it!

Everyone watching intently...at the chessboard or the players? Hehe

As you walk along George St as well, there are usually buskers here and there.  A most noticeable place is outside World Square.  The other night, I saw a guy doing tricks with a crystal clear ball, it was pretty cool.  Unfortunately, I didn't capture that moment, perhaps next time.

But all in all, one of the most mind-blowing things anyone could encounter in the city is not just any performances, but the amazing night view of Darling Harbour, where I love to sit and ponder sometimes.

Woman looking over the night view of the harbour

I will definitely dedicate entire posts to Darling Harbour one day =)

So, what have you encountered in the ever-changing CBD?

View Larger Map

Manly ~ Breath-taking stroll...

When a friend of mine came from Japan, wanting to be blown away by the beauty of Sydney, it was then that I realised how little considerations I have given to all the beautiful places in Sydney! But luckily, my friend SC is much more on the ball than me and created a schedule to blow our Japanese friend away!

Thank God the day started with gentle wind and blue sky as we met at Circular Quay and embarked on a ferry to Manly!


Circular Quay Wharf No. 3 to Manly



When you're on the ferry, you just feel like the 'King of the World' (anyone remember Titanic? Hehe) as you get tossed up and down, breathing in the fresh air and withstanding the strong wind, it is as though all the worries of the world have been lifted off your shoulders! Plus, you get to see the harbour bridge in the distant admist the water and blue sky!



Sydney Harbour Bridge sandwiched between the raging water and calming blue sky



 When you see Manly beach, you know immediately that it is a great place to chill, enjoy the heat from the sun and dipping your body in the cool water!



Many relaxing at the beach

  If you're not much of a beach bum, but more of a hiker, there's a coastal walk set out for you! This is what we did with our Japanese friend, even though we all love the beach and the ocean, but because we didn't bring our swimmers that day, we discovered such a beauty of a trail! Along the way, there are lookouts, where the magnificent views of the ocean might just take your breath away!




As our Japanese friend exclaimed under his breath: Wow.






Stand at the edge of the rock...take a deep breath in...and shout all your thoughts and feelings out (like they do in Asian dramas!)



Along the way, you might find hidden passage ways such as this!



Where might this lead to...?





I don't have photos of this, but depending on which route you take, some parts of the trails are filled with bushes and spiderwebs! Although that might not be ideal for those looking for a chillaxing afternoon, but for the adventures lovers, this is definitely an added bonus to an afternoon stroll!

Even though rain poured heavily in the afternoon for us, it didn't destroy our moods because the amazing views were still imprinted in our minds and all the breath-taking moments have driven a lot of stress built up in us from everyday life! Plus, what can go wrong when your friends are enjoying this as much as you are right? ;)

View Larger Map