We arrived in Sydney on the 23rd of December and didn’t feel at all Christmassy. I’d just spent the previous day getting sunburnt whilst trekking up to the Cape Byron Lighthouse. I was supposed to feeling cold and be singing carols about snow. However, we did a little research on what we could do to entertain ourselves with in Sydney for Christmas Eve as we weren’t looking forward to being away from our families.
I noticed there was going to be some carolling on in Darling Harbour and hoped this would get me feeling festive, and dragged my boyfriend along for company. When we arrived people were already singing and it was nice to see all sorts of people coming together to celebrate.
Once we’d sang enough, we thought we’d explore Darling Harbour. We discovered there was an IMAX cinema there (which we later visited to watch Avatar), an aquarium, and best of all…a British Lolly Shop. There are only a few of these shops in the country so you’ll probably spend quite a bit of money ‘stocking up’ on all sorts of British sweets, chocolates, and crisps for the rest of your travels. At Christmas I always get a Terry’s Chocolate Orange in my stocking, so I spent $12 on one here! Totally worth it after 5 months of Aussie chocolate.
We spoke briefly to the staff about all the wonderful imported food (including Bisto gravy granules) and they suggested we hung around the harbour for a little while longer because there was going to be a firework display. We found a nice little spot in front of the Guylian café (which we never got around to trying!) and waited for the show to begin. There was a great atmosphere and the fireworks were so good to watch after missing out on Bonfire Night back home.
So after some carol-ing, a chocolate orange, and some fireworks, we were finally feeling festive and decided to head down to Circular Quay for some cocktails to see in Christmas Day.
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