On New Year’s Day, we gave ourselves the liberty to sleep in, take it easy and get out the door late. We met Josh at Bondi Beach and by the time we met up around 3 p.m., we were all pretty hungry. We found a place that had pretty good reviews on TripAdvisor so we took it! Fishmongers had 4.5 stars and the reviews were all really good with a really high rank among the restaurants. We got the platter for all to share. We also got a plate of oysters. The food looked delicious and our appetites matched.
Lindy, in our new adventure, decided that she will be adventurous and try new foods. She’s not much of a seafood eater, so what better way to ease her into seafood than with a plate of fresh oysters! Perfect! This is how it went:
It didn’t go so well.
It turns out the oysters weren’t the freshest. Josh and I still ate them but they were STRONG. The Family Box of fun was a bit heavy-handed and I can still feel my nausea that I had after that meal. As of today, October 26, 2015, I checked the reviews of the restaurant again and sure enough, Fishmongers dropped considerably in its rank and it only has four stars now. Boooo for Fishmongers!
After that we walked to Bondi Beach and walked over to Tamarama Beach – the perfect detox! The walk overlooks all of Bondi with amazing views of the coastline. By the way, the crowds were insane on New Year’s Day.

The waves would crash and spill over into the swimming pool. The stupidest and coolest placement of a swimming pool ever.
After we walked to Tamarama Beach, we parted ways with Josh and wanted to catch the bus home. We started walking back to Bondi Beach via the city streets and came to the closest bus stop. The bus was only coming every 20 minutes or so and it took us several buses completely packed with passengers to realize that the bus is getting full before it even reaches us. We were not going to get on anytime soon. So we ended up walking all the way back to Bondi Beach just to get on the bus that would pass by the stop we were waiting at.
We waited an hour and a half total for the bus. #firstworldproblems Sometimes I can be a jerk. I laughed at the people still waiting. The guy in the video called me out on it. I tried to make myself feel better and excused it. Not cool younger me.
Later that evening, we were looking for another place to eat. Bondi Harvest came highly recommended by my friend Janet, who is an amazing food blogger/chef. Check out her food blog, Simply So Good, and try a dish or two. You won’t be disappointed. We came, we went, it was closed.
The next day we hit up Sydney’s own Taronga Zoo. It was on the opposite side of the Harbour of the Opera House and Bridge, which put the CBD as a perfect backdrop to the zoo. It had a pretty cool location. Like everything else, the crowds were insane. There was a line to get tickets, then another line to get in.
Eva was a champ all day and had fun spending over an hour going back and forth running around in a kid’s play area. She loved the dinosaur section. Did I ever mention she loves dinosaurs??? SHE LOVES DINOSAURS!!!
Can I just say I love Aussie animals??? They are pretty darn cute and furry and small. All the animals here are just screaming to take them home and cuddle.
After the zoo,Josh was kind enough to take Eva to our AirBnb and babysit for the evening. So Lindy and I had the night out! We took the ferry across the Harbour and found dinner at Jamie’s Italian, which is Jamie Oliver’s restaurant. It was hard to find but fantastic once we got there.
After dinner we walked around the CBD and came across a tent that was set up as a memorial for the two victims of an hostage crisis in Sydney just a couple weeks earlier. I remember hearing anti-Muslim sentiment was heavily countered with the #illridewithyou movement in which people proclaimed their support for Australian Muslims who may feel in danger because of backlash from the hostage. Pretty cool, pretty classy.
After walking around downtown, we headed to the Cirque du Soleil show “Totem”. It was fantastic! I had never been to a Cirque show but it definitely exceeds the hype I’ve heard over the years. It was really moving at the final act of the show when all the different cultural dancers came on stage and danced together in one dramatic finale.