A Hypnotic Weekend Bash

5 years ago, while still living in New York City, my parents came to town for a visit my sister and me. Our plan was to wander around the fabulous city and see all that it had to offer. As we were walking through Washington Square Park we heard an amazing brass band playing, The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. We joined the already existing crowd to hear the sweet jams. Instantly my older sister and I were hooked and agreed to go halvsies on a CD right there on the spot.

As it turns out that same summer, before Adam and I were even together, he too wandered through that same park and stumbled across HBE. Moved by the music just as I was he chose to buy one of their CDs as well.

Now here we are present day living in Sydney and what do I find on the Sydney Opera House website? None other than the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble playing on my birthday weekend. We instantly bought tickets!

Best show! So much energy from the band and from the audience. It was a great night followed by a beautiful birthday Sunday filled with brunch and a massage compliments of Adam.

Thank you to Adam for making my birthday far from home, far from family and friends so special!

Dalz Came to Town!

I had the pleasure of spending the last 1 1/2 weeks exploring Sydney with my sister, Dalia, who came to visit from Israel where she has been interning for the last 5 months.  We started her trip here with a ferry ride to Manly where we spent the day and night hanging on the beach and around town with some friends. Sydney was experiencing a heat wave, with temperatures hitting 106F (41C). Basically, being at the beach was like putting your head in the oven. Nonetheless, we had a blast!

The next day we decided to take a break from the heat and go to the Annie Leibovitz exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art (yay for air conditioning!) down in The Rocks. It was a huge exhibit and I personally loved it! It’s on through March so check it out if you can.

Dalia and I decided to spend one of our afternoons chilling poolside at the Ivy Pool, a complex of restaurants, bars, and a hotel. It's very posh and very Miami, and we had a great time ordering food, drinking wine, and swimming in the pool downtown among all the suits out on their lunch break.

That night we decided to hit up Opera Bar for some pre-dinner drinks. I cannot express enough how amazing this place is! The views, the crowd, the food, and the drinks are fantastic. We could have stayed and stared at the spectacular views all night but we decided to head out so we could hit up some more places. Here are a few photos:

By far the best lunch we had was at the Sydney Fish Market in Pyrmont. After two bus rides from Bondi we arrived to the smell of fish. Amazed by how much fresh fish and seafood there was to choose from we ended up getting a spread of salmon, king prawns, ½ of a lobster and some sashimi. Dalia even got a free raw oyster. Not wanting to end on a fishy note, we decided to grab some fresh cut mango slices and a couple strawberries dipped in chocolate. Probably the best strawberries of my life! If you come to Sydney this place is worth a trip.

In an effort not to make this post tooooo long, I will close with a few pictures of our coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee. The walk is too beautiful to pass up. The Bronte seaside pool is so beautiful and perfect for a swim. There is also a Bondi pool and they are both free to the public.

Dalia is now on her way to Thailand where she will be exploring yet another country. I think my older sister said it best…"Dalia, have fun on your trip within a trip within a trip!"