Sydney - Bondi Beach - Travel Diary

11 hours. That's how long it took us to drive from Melbourne to Sydney. In one day.

Okay, so it wasn't actually as bad as it sounds. When you go with the mindset that you are going to be in the car all day, it doesn't seem as bad. The biggest issue? My driving license still hadn't arrived, so Hollie had to drive the whole route. Sorry Hollie.

The drive is a pretty boring one. It's not really very scenic, and it's pretty much all one road. I was in charge of the playlist, so we spent a lot of time screeching along to Little Mix and Taylor Swift songs. There was excitement every time we made it another 100kms.

We stopped for lunch in a service centre, but we were unable to get wifi anywhere for the whole drive. There wasn't even a payphone, so there was a bit of panic when we started to fall behind schedule and realised we weren't going to make check-in for our apartment.

When we got to Sydney, the sat-nav decided that it was going to make our lives nice and difficult. It wasn't recognising the tunnels along the motorway (there is a few) and we were losing signal whilst in them. We ended up in Sydney CBD and it was not an enjoyable drive. Eventually we arrived in Bondi and we could finally relax. Luckily the apartment complex had put our keys in a safe place with a note, so we were able to get in nice and easily.

We stayed at Ultimate Apartments Bondi Beach. We booked this accommodation through STA Travel when we booked our flights. It cost £247 for 2 nights. I have since had a look on Expedia, and I think this is pretty good value. We had a private apartment. The complex was gated and there was a pool - it was just in the middle of the car park and we didn't have time to use it - but it was there! There was also plenty of free parking, laundry facilities, and a little kitchenette in our room. The only downside was that you have to pay extra for wifi. This seemed to be quite common in a few of the places we stayed. Do these people not realise it's 2018!!

When we arrived, we took an evening stroll down to the beach. We were a 10 minute walk away and there was plenty of bars and restaurants along the way. There was lots going on at the beach, and lots of people around. As it was early evening, there were many very fit looking people making us feel bad about themselves whilst they worked out on the beach. We walked along the seafront and dipped our toes in the sea so we could say we had done it - neither of us were that keen on the sea.

Although we had planned to go sightseeing in Sydney the following day, we made a last minute decision to stay in the area and explore Bondi.

The next morning we met Shannon, our friend from uni, and went for a morning Diet Coke because it was a little too hot for a coffee.

Shannon told us about a coastal walk to Coogee Beach that she had done a few times, so we agreed that would be a good way to spend our day. Now, my geography has never been great, but that was a decision I regretted for the following 2 hours. We started walking and shortly stopped for our obligatory photos outside Bondi Icebergs, and I thought we were about halfway. No. We hadn't even started. We set off in the blazing sun on a 6km walk. Don't worry I only got a little bit sunburnt.

To be fair, I am really glad I did it. On our journey we took some fab photos, saw dolphins in the ocean, and saw some amazing views. We walked through Waverley Cemetery, which was a huge cemetery with hundreds of extravagant tombstones. There were a few beaches along the way that we could've stopped at (but chose not to). The walk was fairly easy. There were a couple big hills, and some steep steps, but this seemed a lot worse because it was so hot. It probably would have been a lot more enjoyable on a cooler day, or even as an early evening walk.

When we finally reached Coogee we had a delicious lunch at Little Jack Horner on the seafront. I had calamari and chips and it was just what I needed after all that exercise. Yes, we did get the bus back, but we were short for time, so it wasn't really cheating.

In the evening we freshened up and headed back to Bondi, where we spent Valentines Night eating pizza and drinking wine in Hotel Bondi. The Hawaiian pizza was delicious, and I was really sad that I agreed to share one, because I pretty much spent the rest of the evening thinking about how I could have eaten a whole one all to myself #imdisgusting.

Bondi had a great atmosphere and I really wish we had planned to stay there longer. There was loads to do in the area, and Sydney has really good public transport, so it's easy to get around. There was so much we didn't have time for. I feel like we barely scratched the surface. The downside is that accommodation in there area is pretty expensive.

Fingers crossed I get to return one day so I can explore some more.