The Two Sisters Try and Meet The Three Sisters.

When I think of the Blue Mountains spewy, romantic weekends away usually spring to mind. Suffocating couples everywhere you look, lovey dovey weekend retreats. Can you tell I am a tad bitter? Yes, I call this state ‘post-break-up-no-one-in-the-world-is-allowed-to-be-happy-while-i-wallow-syndrome’. A bit of a mouthful so maybe we’ll just stick to broken hearted.

So it was a calculated risk doing a day trip to the Blue Mountains, worried all the love and starry-eyed couples may cause me to combust with rage. Luckily I had my sister by my side and off we headed with our packed chicken sambos and bananas (currently pinching pennies for impending trips to the Hunter and Byron) to see if I could potter around the Blue Mountains without getting an aching heart.

The all important first stop was in the main drag of Katoomba at the Paragon. The Paragon is an old school, saloon style restaurant. You can snuggle up with an overpriced hot chocolate, $6 to be precise, in the coffee coloured oak booths as you gaze at the faded, autographed photos of Aussie ‘celebrities’ from yesteryear. We did succumb and fork out $4 for a latte, nothing special but it’s nice to cuddle up to a warm drink and absorb the atmosphere of the place. Now, you cannot go to the Paragon without trying their hand made chocolates. It’s hard to ignore the huge glass window displaying all the treats. I always opt for the hazelnut shells. Two of these bad boys will set you back another $4 but they are something special and well worth splurging on.

We then swung by the Carrington Hotel for a sneaky sticky beak. This would be an ideal place to have the quintessential Blue Mountains tea and scones but I was still recovering from scoffing down two huge chocolates in the space of one minute. The Carrington reminds me of a grand, old federation palace. It’s like stepping back in time. There are elaborate chandeliers, a ballroom, a billiard room and large, open fires around every corner. It’s the kind of place you want to whisk your Grandmother away to as you know she’ll be in heaven.

After squeezing Katoomba for all it was worth it was time to move on to the next destination - Mount White aka The Pink Town. The name is self explanatory as literally every building is painted a cute shade of baby pink. By this stage I was more than ready to tackle some jam and scones. We found a cosy little café (yes, it was pink!) and parked ourselves next to the open fire. The reading material was quite dire but I managed to find an interesting feature in Notebook magazine (my idea of hell). It was written by various female Australian writers about their age and what it means to them. The most interesting was Germaine Greer’s piece, it showed a more light hearted side to her and was quite funny. She said now that she is 70 she is on her last set of dogs, after these ones pass away she won’t be getting anymore. It’s funny to measure things by dogs. So an apology is owed to Notebook you’re not so boring after all. The travesty of the day was the huge amount of jam and cream that was left over, I contemplated getting a spoon and eating it but resisted the urge. What a sad waste.

No trip to The Mountains is complete without paying your respects to the Three Sisters. Echo Point was awash with tourists and fog so we couldn’t exactly see the three mighty sisters, which was not such a loss considering the other twenty million times I’ve seen them over the years on family holidays and school excursions. I quite liked the foggy blanket that covered the valley and even though you couldn’t see the main attraction it was still beautiful.

The scenic drive home timed in with the Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time countdown, hosted by Scott Dooley – could you ask for anything better? So, you really don’t need romance to enjoy the Blue Mountains, just good company, good chicken sandwiches and Dools’ dreamy, husky voice.

- BELLA