sydney for easter long & anzac day

My Red Tulip bunny & bilby

For Easter Long weekend, we headed down to Sydney for some fun and also to celebrate Anzac Day there. Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating again so it was cloudy and rainy. Aussies have an extra day off this weekend because Anzac Day fell on Easter Monday so they had the Tuesday off as well! I noticed that Easter is a pretty big deal here in Australia. When I went to the shops, there were aisles and aisles filled with Easter chocolate eggs, bunnies and everything Easter! I also heard that Easter is celebrated more than Christmas.

We stayed with Kristy and Jarrod for the weekend, thanks again guys!

Shane and I went for some Dim Sum (they call it Yum Cha in Australia), Saturday morning, at Kam Fook in Chatswood. It was really good dim sum but pretty pricey. Then in the afternoon we went to Paddington Market with Jarrod and Kristy.

We went to some pubs on the weekend, which was pretty fun! We stumbled upon a nice pub in Glebe, AB Hotel, on the way to the race and stopped there for some dinner and drinks. Hotels are pubs here, some hotels have accommodation as well, but almost everywhere you go you will see "Blah blah Hotel." It was hard to get around the idea at first, like when someone would say lets go to this hotel, I would be like why are we going to a hotel?? haha..

Paddington Market www.paddingtonmarkets.com.au

AB Hotel, www.abhotel.com.au in Glebe

  

Ainoya, www.ainoya.com.au

At The Oaks Pub

We also went to a pub in Kirribilli, on another night, to meet up with some friends. Then Shane and I went to a really nice Japanese restaurant a couple blocks from the pub called Ainoya Japanese Restaurant. The sushi and food was soo delicious. I would say it is one of the best places I've been to for sushi, every bite would be savoured and would be just as delicious as the first bite! I was enjoying the food too much to take photos. After dinner, we back up with everyone at the pub and had a fun night out.



Greyhound Races

Greyhound Race at Wentworth Park

Went to the Greyhound Race, the Golden Easter Egg Race, at Wentworth Park. Quoted: "Australia's richest greyhound event! Winner of final $250,000" Kristy's cousin had a greyhound in that Golden Easter Egg Race, and there was a busload of supporters that came to race. We put some bets on their dog, "Adam Meway." It was a pretty close race, but they came in third place with winnings of $30,000.

Adam Meway wins 3rd place in the big race! I win some money as well!.... like $10? haha

Sydney Harbour as 'Japanese Tourists'
On Saturday afternoon, we got lucky and the sun came out, so Kristy and I went out to the Sydney Harbour to take some photos and do some touristy stuff.. as Kristy would say "Let's be Japanese tourists today and take lots of photos!" ... for the sake of the post, I'll only show a few photos haha.

Anzac Day
On Anzac day, April 25, we went to Hardboard Diggers in Manly around 11am, but the weather was crappy and rainy so they had to hold the Two-Up game inside and the place was packed!

Anzac Day is an Australian War Memorial day (http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac/) and Two-Up is a traditional Australian gambling game played on Anzac day. It's a coin spinning game where your odds are pretty much 50/50 betting on the coins landing on either heads or tails. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-up). The spinner gets a chance to win a lot of money if they keep spinning heads because the pot doubles each time!

1. Hardboard Diggers, Two Up Ring   2. Buena Vista Pub,  Jarrod spinning   3. Buena Vista Pub with the girls

We stayed at Hardboard Diggers for a couple of hours and then decided to go back to town where some other friends were. We ended up at the Buena Vista Pub in Mosman. It was less busy, so we got a chance to place some bets on two-up. I won some and lost some. It's a really easy and fun gambling game to get into.

The Royal Easter Show

Can't remember what the ducks are called but the last one is an alpaca

Went to Sydney's Royal Easter Show the next day, it's kind of like the Calgary Stampede, but all things Australian plus Easter stuff. It was more of a kids & family event though. I was supposed to meet up with my friend Kiet there but he had some car troubles and couldn't make it until later but we had to go.

Shane left to head back to Old Bar and I went to my hostel (backpackers) for the night to start my trip to Melbourne early next morning!

Next post: my bus trip to Melbourne