Australia / Sydney / 31 Aug – 4 Sep 2026

Sydney, after the race

Five days of Sydney once my legs stopped mattering: a recovery dinner that underdelivered, a library that overdelivered, a beach walk, a musical, a zoo, and the best meal of the trip.

Sydney
Bondi & Tamarama
Taronga Zoo
Sydney Fish Market
Food-heavy

The race was the reason for the trip. These five days are the part I’d repeat. It’s also where every good meal happened. Not a coincidence: you eat differently when nothing depends on your legs tomorrow.

A whole spiny sea urchin opened and held up over the water at Sydney Fish Market — The trip peaked here: standing up, outdoors, holding this. No restaurant beat it.

Sydney is a much better city when you’re not saving your legs for something.

The first day after was mostly a slow shuffle between coffee and food, plus a trip back to the Opera House for the photo I was too destroyed to take the day before.

After that every day went the same way: a coffee, one proper thing, one long walk, one dinner. After a week in a city, three things a day is plenty.

31 Aug

Recovery day

The medal photo I was too wrecked to take the day before.

1 Sep

The full tourist day

A library I went into for five minutes. It was not five minutes.

2 Sep

Bondi and a lion

A beach day and a musical, in the same twelve hours.

3 Sep

Zoo day

A short day on purpose, with the skyline behind the giraffes.

4 Sep

Sydney Fish Market

The best meal of the trip, and it wasn’t a restaurant.

Seafood that was in the water nearby not long ago. No technique, you just eat it.
Sydney Fish Market, 4 September

31 Aug

High expectations, medium Thai food, and then a very good bar

Morning: coffee, toasties, moving slowly. Afternoon: back to the Opera House for the photo. Evening: the one real disappointment of the week, then the best hour of it.

Coffee bar with terrazzo counter and a barista working at the machines — Standing at a counter the morning after a marathon counts as an achievement.

Two toasted sandwiches on plates at a wooden table — Nothing clever. Bread, cheese, salt. Exactly right for the day after.

Takeaway tray of sliced steak with chimichurri and charred broccolini — A tray of protein and green things. My body was asking for it.

Hand holding a Sydney Marathon medal up in front of the Opera House sails — The obligatory one. I’d earned the right to be this predictable.

Plate of stir-fried pork with green chillies on a banana leaf — Doo Dee Paidang. Fine, just not what I’d talked myself into on the walk over. The food itself did nothing wrong.

Unmarked dark doorway numbered 49 with an intercom panel at night — Saga Bar fixed the evening. If you only do one night out in Sydney, make it this one.

1 Sep

Coffee, a library I didn’t expect to like, and the Opera House

Started at Stitch Coffee: cold brew, a piccolo, egg tarts. Then Green Square Library, the surprise of the trip. Up the Sydney Tower Eye, lunch at the Fortune Alley food court, dessert at Freo, then the harbour.

Stitch Coffee shopfront with pink bench seating outside — Open early. On a tourist day that matters more than the menu.

Latte with rosetta art, iced coffee and two egg tarts on a tray — Egg tarts at Stitch.

Wall of shelves filled with brightly coloured book spines arranged by colour — Green Square Library. The first-floor reading room has these shelves. I went in for five minutes and stayed a lot longer.

View over Sydney rooftops and towers from the Sydney Tower Eye observation deck — Worth doing once. From up here the course I ran looks easy. It was not.

Cup of dark chocolate gelato held in front of a neon-lit gelato counter — Freo for dessert. Gelato as a planned part of the afternoon: good trip.

Circular Quay with ferries and the Harbour Bridge in the afternoon sun — Circular Quay in the late afternoon, when it stops being a transport hub and starts being the photo.

Sitting on the steps opposite the Opera House in afternoon sunlight — The Opera House photos everybody takes. Still worth taking.

Wide lawn and large spreading tree in the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney — Back through the Royal Botanic Garden out to Macquarie Point. Same stretch as the shakeout run, much slower.

Platter of nigiri including sea urchin, salmon roe and tuna on a blue plate — Dinner at Mikazuki around half seven. We meant to end the day at Observatory Hill but skipped it. The day was already good.

2 Sep

A beach day, then a musical, in the same twelve hours

Coffee at Eksentrik, then the bus to Bondi. Saw the beach and the Icebergs from a distance, not up close. The walk along to Tamarama is the better part anyway.

Bondi Beach seen from the grass above, with sand and blue water beyond — Bondi on a clear September morning, before the crowds.

Bondi Icebergs ocean pool seen from the clifftop path — The Icebergs from the path above, not up close.

Rocky coastline and turquoise water on the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk — This stretch is the real reason to go to Bondi. Everyone photographs the beach instead.

Acai bowl topped with banana, berries and chocolate sauce held up on the coastal path — About an hour lying on the sand at Tamarama doing nothing. This view was my excuse.

Wagyu rice bowl with sliced beef, egg yolk and pickles on a tray at DOPA — DOPA: the second-best thing I ate on this trip. Juicy, tender beef, and the sauces and condiments actually doing something.

Illuminated Lion King lion mask artwork in a theatre foyer — The Lion King at seven. Beach walk straight to a theatre: peak holiday.

Plate of beef noodles with Chinese broccoli at a late-night restaurant table — Late Thai dinner at Krung afterwards.

3 Sep

A short day, on purpose

Bohaus Coffee just before one, Taronga Zoo at half two, dinner at MuMu at six. Three things. After a week in a city, that’s enough.

Giraffe standing in its enclosure at Taronga Zoo with the Sydney skyline and harbour behind — Taronga in one photo: a giraffe, and somehow the city right behind it.

Kangaroo lying on its side in the sun on dry ground — Exactly what I wanted to be doing four days after a marathon.

Koala asleep in the fork of a tree branch — Asleep, as advertised. That’s the whole koala deal.

Takeaway coffee cup branded Bohaus held in front of the cafe entrance — Bohaus just before one. Late start, right call.

Plate of char-fried flat noodles with lime and banana leaf at MuMu — Dinner at MuMu at six.

4 Sep

The best meal of the trip, and it wasn’t a restaurant

Sydney Fish Market, where the trip peaked. Dim sum at TinTin first, then the real reason I came: oysters, sea urchin, caviar, salmon sashimi, prawns.

Plate of freshly shucked oysters on ice with a lemon wedge — The oysters and the sea urchin were the standouts. They’re why this, not any sit-down dinner, is the meal I’d come back for.

Steamer basket of black squid-ink dumplings shaped like small parcels — Dim sum at TinTin first.

Market counter display of prawns, lobsters and shellfish on ice with price tags — You order by pointing. You want it, you point, you eat it.

Tray of sliced salmon sashimi held up beside the water — Eaten on the deck outside, over the water it came out of. A dining room wouldn’t make this better.

Best for

Anyone who’d rather stand up and eat something excellent than sit down and eat something impressive. Go hungry and know what you want. The counters move fast.

What didn’t work

Nothing at the market. I ate five separate things, and the only thing I’d change is eating the dim sum first and arriving less hungry.