Day 11, our Final Day

Today’s plan was to revisit The Gap and Watson’s Bay, the places I’d fallen in love with the sweeping views and endless blue Tasman Sea. We took the Ferry (took pics of the Opera House from the Ferry); it was quite a windy day, even for the beach, but with predictably perfect blue skies.

We had a quick lunch of Kebabs—beef with sweet chili sauce for me, with fries, and a can of Coke for $9AUD—cheap! We had to laugh when the TV in the kebab place starting the Dr. Phil show. Gotta love him.

This time, we spent more time reveling in our surroundings—not only the rocks, cliffs, and ocean, but also the views of the harbour and city on the other side of the radius. In fact, we sat on one of the benches, high up, overlooking the city and split a Cadbury Milk with Caramel Bar. (Good and rich, even for “cheap” chocolate). We relaxed and admired the city we now BOTH loved so much.

We took the 1:45 ferry back to Circular Quay, and spent a few more hours exploring George Street, both George and Pitt Streets had become quite familiar territory by now. Jay bought a rugby jersey, and I found a little bit of artistic heaven in Dymocks Stationery Shop (imagine if Barnes and Noble had it’s own stationery shop). I found some delightful Aussie scrapbook supplies, including a stamp of the Australian continent (can’t wait to use in my Australia albums). A nice little fix!

For dinner, we weighed our options. We could track down a new place to eat, and perhaps be underwhelmed with the quality for the cost, or we could revisit Zia Pina where we’d be guaranteed fantastic food for a good price. So of course, we chose Zia Pina! We bought two Cokes, placed a carry out order, and picked up our pizzas. Then we headed for Circular Quay and ate “our last meal” on the benches by the lights on the water, with the Opera House on our right and the Harbour Bridge on our left. It was a beautiful, romantic, fitting, and perfect meal. We sat there for a while, eating, ruminating on us, our trip, the best moments in our relationship (surely this was one!), and lots more.

I cannot put into words how much I will miss this city. It is full of such natural and structural beauty, and such classy and interesting people. It is lively. It is soothing. It is the most perfect city I’ve ever been to. Australia is such an experience, a life-changing one.

Loving Sydney is quite a bittersweet feeling; knowing you can’t just visit it any time you want (because of cost and distance). However, we will be back—we have to go back. It has been the honeymoon, the trip, of our lives – and is forever a part of our past and future.

Stay tuned in the next couple of days for some more wedding candids. We hope to get our wedding proofs in the next week or two.