'Three Sisters', Ice Skating & Bygone Beautys @ Blue Mountains
The last weekend with my sisters in town we had to make it a budget holiday having spent so much already in Queensland, blue Mountains was the place to go and we stayed at the Katoomba YHA (FYI one of the best YHA’s I’ve stayed at in Australia), warm brick building with a huge common room and a cosy lounge with a fire place, perfect for the freezing winter weather we travelled in. We caught the train up from Sydney, and stepped out at Leura - a small quant town that everyone who heads to the mountains must stop by. It has the cutest boutique stores and cafes around. After a bit of browsing and a nice lunch we headed to our destination of Katoomba and were glad to be indoors for a bit. The Blue Mountains is definitely a place to visit when it’s cold.
The Carrington hotel had a small but sweet ice ring in its front yard, open to all, and even though put together the 3 of us must have skated about 3 times in our lives – we couldn’t resist. After an exhausting hour of trying our best to not fall on our asses, we decided to call it a night, eat and drink back at the hostel. An hour later, a pot of pasta down and a bottle of whisky by our side, we sat by the fire and in classic girl mood and talked.
Next morning bright and early we decided to hit the trail and were pleasantly blessed with good weather. Now don’t go mistaking us for the indoors girls who can’t get their feet dirty. We went bush walking and not just the small easy walk to see the infamous 'Three Sisters’ but down all those stairs and around and walked on and on for about 4 hours. Well then that was pretty much the end of the trip. With all the exhaustion and cold weather all we wanted to do was get home warm and cosy. So this trip doesn’t sound bad at all right? Agreed it was a bit touristic and we did the things everyone can only do ever so often. That’s why this post goes longer as there was a third trip up there, which had none of the ‘normal’ things to do.
The most recent of all, the getaway for the long Labour Day weekend. As most of you will remember, it was shit weather (pretty much the kind we are experiencing this week). Well it didn’t dither us from our plan, we went, by train, up to the mountains. Had to have our winter jumpers out, carry big umbrellas and wear warm boots to protect us from the rain, but it was all worth it. Our stops were the same Leura first then Katoomba and then an added Blackheath (which I am going to skip talking about as it didn't impress me one bit). At Leura we did the previously mentioned boutiques & cafes, but in addition went to this Antique store that has a collection of over 4000 tea pots. It was crazy, never seen so many different kinds in one place, and oh there is a cupboard full of salt & pepper shakers, a must visit Bygone Beautys when there.
The rest of the trip pretty much consisted of a lot of chocolate(@ Cafe Josophan’s), a lot of drinking (@the Old Country Pub) and food, yummmmmmy the food (@ the Common Ground Cafe). Oh and how could I possibly forget – Shopping!
