Sabrina in Sydney - Part 1, Arrival in Alexandria & Manly Sundownder

As I was determined to make 2018 my best year yet - it passed like a whirlwind, and was packed with travel adventures and reunions with old friends.

Hence why I only managed to post about my adventures with Caroline, as a couple of weeks later, another one of my favourite humans popped over to NZ for a visit...

Sabrina and me met at my first agency job in Munich over 5 years ago, where we bonded over a shared sense of humour, Bavarian dialect, ability to still look like 12-year olds, and obsession with Oktoberfest!

By the time the "bourgeois"-themed work Christmas party rolled around, our friendship was truly cemented - despite the fact that she would remain in Munich on the opposite side of the world to me. Or so I thought... 

But Sabrina had other plans. A fellow gypsy soul, she dreamed of living in Sydney - 'straya! 

While it has been a long time coming, with a year "stop over" living in Bali (where I met up with her, while I was on surf camp - blogpost to follow...), and her visit to NZ, she has now fiiinally been granted her visa, and is living her Australian dream!

I couldn't be prouder & happier for her - especially, as it means she is now only a three hour flight to visit! So that's what happened a couple of weeks back...

 

By lunchtime I was in Sydney, Alexandria - The Grounds of Alexandria to be exact, where Easter was already in full swing...



For somebody who is already always perpetually peckish, with a very quick cross-over to "hangry", the three hour time lag between Auckland and Sydney is somewhat of a complication, as even if I've just had lunch in Sydney, it's already dinner time in Auckland...#firstworldproblems

So without getting too distracted by the very cool set-up of "the grounds" - as the locals call it - essentially a "grown ups playground" including petting zoo, bars, restaurants, and a dessert stall, I had no time to pose for reunion photos, instead following the rainbow...



...past some gorgeous blooms...



...and an important reminder to myself (and Mama SoulFood who will be reading this ;)...




...beneath some foliage-clad arches with chandeliers dangling off...



...past the lemonade stand (okay, not quite I got one!)...



...for a very non-Sydney start to the trip:

I say "non-Sydney", because in a city filled with so many beautiful people, most of which don't eat carbs or sugar - a greasy veggie burger, washed down with a sweet & tangy homemade lemonade is something of a taboo.

But I needed to carb-load for my first afternoon of re-discovering Sydney on foot (more on that soon) while Sabrina had to #bossbabe back at work for a few more hours. 

We met up again at Circular Quay, for a hop, skip 15 minute fast ferry ride to her 'hood, Manly - where we did more yakking over a sundowner, before enjoying a delicious home-made chilli back at Sabrina's, as we had an early rise again the next day...



More on that soon...

Until then - yours truly,

Fräulein SoulFood x