Sydney Post (Part 4 of 4)

So, it's winding down to our last couple of days in Sydney. It was kind of raining and pretty overcast on Friday when we woke up. Jon and Mona headed off to explore, and Brad and I headed to the aquarium. It was a really nice aquarium! They had all sorts of fish, sharks, seals and an exhibit of the Great Barrier Reef. We got there at the perfect time because when we left, it was SO crowded!!! My favorite thing was the playtpus. He was swimming so fast all over the place, but I got a photo of him!



When we got back from the zoo, we went for a walk through the botanical gardens, which are huge! We walked up to Mrs Macquaries's Chair (it's actually a rock bench and she was the wife of a governor who had it commissioned for her.) There was a beautiful view of the opera house and the Sydney Harbor Bridge from there. We continued to walk around in the gardens, where we saw a lot of cockatoos and then we looked up in the trees and there were all these flying foxes hanging upside down in the trees. It was absolutely amazing how many of them there were! They are similar to bats, but a little bigger and when they were in the trees, they looked like punching bags. They come out at night, and I would definitely be scared if I was in the gardens and they came flying out! Brad was really excited that we finally got to see them.



After that, we headed off to do our Bridge Climb to the top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It was absolutely amazing! It was quite an operation they had. We arrived and they gave us a breathlizer test (Good thing I only had one glass of wine at lunch!) and then they gave us these suits to wear that were wind and water proof, as well as a rain jacket to wear in case it started raining up there. They gave us lockers to put everything in, as we could not take anything up there with us, even watches, since we were over 8 lanes of traffic! They then took us to this station to get our harness with this thing (I can't think of the name right now) that attached to the line that went all the way around the bridge. We (there were 12 of us in the group) got our headsets and then we were off to the bridge. We climbed up about four ladders, which came up in the middle of two lanes of traffic, and then it was pretty easy sailing from there. The steps were not steep, and there were some really great views of the city from up there! We would have been able to see even farther, but it was kind of overcast. It was REALLY windy up there, but it was very cool to see the opera house from above and see out to where the ocean comes into the harbor. There are 60 harbors in Sydney and if you went along the water to all of them, it would be about 400 miles!! Our group leader was very knowlegable, and took about 4 picutres of us on top. (We bought all of them of course, but we don't have a scanner!) The last member of our group was scared out of her mind I think because we were ALWAYS waiting for her, but everyone made it! I am really glad we were able to do that!

After we finished, we headed out to dinner and had Thai again. This time we went to Sailors Thai, which is the second best Thai restaurant in Sydney (according to the concierge), and it was very yummy! I got Pad Thai again, which I know is really boring, but it was excellent again. It was a different kind of restaurant, it was "canteen style," which means it was basically one big long table.

Then, we headed out to the hotels again for a few drinks. We went to two different places, which both had live bands, which were playing songs similar to what we would have heard at a bar here, like Elvis, Bon Jovi....it was pretty cool! It was just so nice because it was warm outside. We tried some good beers there, my favorite was Toohey's Extra Dry. Brad's was Crown Lager.

Saturday, we got up and headed out to do some shopping for souveneirs at the Rocks Market again. We got some good momentos, including an absolutely beautiful picture of the Three Sisters which is being framed at Michael's right now! Then, we were off to the airport.

It was definitely the most beautiful day of the whole week on Saturday, of course. But at least we were leaving with a good picture in our head. The flight on the way back was much harder. I slept about 3 of the 20 hours we were on the planes! I watched at least three of the movies. So, needless to say, when we got home on Saturday night, we slept for about 14 hours! And it took about a week to get re-adjusted to the time change.

What a great experience! Who knows if I will ever get to go back, but if so, I want to explore more of what there is to see outside of Sydney!

Hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventures!

Sydney Trip (Part 3)

Wednesay, we went to the BEACH! We got up early and got on the Bondi Explorer bus and went through a few nice towns on the way, and got some great views of the city along the way.

(If I had taken a picture of the beach, I would insert here, but I did not take a single picture at the beach. Oops....) It was a fabulous beach!! It was very crowded because the schools were still on holiday. (I sound like such an Australian!) And it was a topless beach, which was interesting. I did not go topless; however. That would have been a little awkward with Mona sitting right there. And I think a sunburn there would REALLY hurt!! It was the sunniest day the whole time we were there, so we definitely picked the right day to go to the beach. I am really bad at putting on sunscreen, and this time I forgot to put it on my thighs, so I had some REALLY bad sunburn. (Like, I still have a little bit left and it's been two weeks.) But it was still nice to soak up the Australian sun! I did venture into the ocean, although not too far because there were all sorts of reports about shark attacks in Australia. (I think they were north of where we were in Brisbane, but sharks can still swim!!) The water was actually colder than I expected it to be, and the waves were pretty big and there was a pretty strong current. But I love being in the ocean! They were a nice breeze the whole time we were there, so it didn't get too hot.

The town of Bondi was a very cute little beach town, with lots of little shops and restaurants right on the water. We had lunch at a little cafe not too far from the water.

We headed back and the guys picked us up and we headed to the restaurant where Brad had the best Thai food he has ever had! It is called Satasia and we met 4 of the Australian employees and their spouses there. It was really cool to have an entire meal with people with Australian accents!!! We had SO much food, and it was all AWESOME!! I was boring and got Pad Thai, but I decided that it was probably going to be the best Pad Thai I have ever had, so I had to try it, and I was right. It was SO good!!! We got a lot of different dishes to share with the table, including Red Curry Beef, Calamari and Pecan Crusted Chicken. Yummy!!!

The locals were telling us all about all the different creatures and huge bugs and spiders they have there, like the Huntsman Spider and flying cockroaches!!!! I don't know if I could handle it!!!!! The huntsman spider is as big as your hand and furry. It's not poisonous, just very scary looking. And I guess the cockroaches are hard to get rid of. We even saw some really small ones on the wall at the restaurant (after we finished eating!) and they weren't phased at all. Mona got pretty freaked out about them.

Thursday was kind of cloudy and overcast. I couldn't get ahold of Mona. (We couldn't use our cell phones over there!!) So, I decided to hop on the Sydney Explorer Bus and take it around the city to see some different parts than we had seen before. We drove by China Town and Star City (the casino in Sydney). It was cool, and the driver was like Asian dude who was making all these funny comments to everything. After that, I went back to the Queen Victoria Building to do some more shopping. I just love that place!!!

Then, I took the bus over to China Town, where Paddy's Market is, which is just like a big flea market. It was kind of cool, but it was REALLY hot in there. It was mostly just t-shirts and jewelry and Asian purses. There is a Chinese friendship garden that was given to Australia by China to celebrate the bi-cenitiary. It was really beautiful and VERY peaceful. It was all about feng shui. It was pretty cool because it was kind of in the middle of everything!

Mona and I were hoping to be able to get some tickets to go to something at the Opera House, but we waited too long (like the day of, so I am not surprised) to get tickets to either Madame Butterfly or this comedy show that was there. But no such luck. The guys went out to dinner with the new manager and couple of other employees, so we were on our own. We ended up eating dinner at this place RIGHT on the water in the harbor by the opera house. I had this fish called Barramundi, which is local to Australia I think. It was REALLY good. Very fish, and not at all fishy. It was kind of buttery. I was proud of myself for trying something different! :)

Then the guys met us and we went to this really interesting bar called Minus 5 (meaning minus 5 degrees Celcius, which is about 20 degrees farenheit.) It was a very interesting concept!!! I had on a skirt and flip flops! But, they were prepared. They gave us all these really warm coats with hoods, glove liners and gloves. They also gave Mona and I some Ugg boats to wear. So, we got all suited up, and then they took us into this room where they gave us these buzzers that let us know when our 30 minutes was almost up. And they told us how to hold the glasses (with two hands) so it wouldn't slip out of our hands. And they made sure to tell us that if we broke the ice sculputres we had to pay for them. So, we headed in and they gave us a pre-mixed drink that was kind of like a screwdriver. It was pretty cool in there (literally, ha!!) They had tables set up with animal skins on the stools and some ice sculptures and a fountain. We just hung out in there and talked until our buzzers went off and we were out. It did get cold the longer we were in there, but my bare legs didn't get as cold as I expected! It could be the newest bar trend, but I don't think 20 above is as catchy as Minus 5!

Sydney Trip (Part 2)

So, on Monday, Brad and Jon had to go to work, so Mona (Jon's wife) and I were on our own! I got up pretty early and Mona and decided to meet at noon, so I had a couple of hours to kill, so I did some exploring.

I walked down to Hyde Park, which is named after the Hyde Park in London and is the oldest park in Sydney. It was a nice little park and there were all sorts of people around, including some older men playing chess on this big chess board. Also in the park was St Mary's Cathedral, one of the oldest churches in Sydney and the ANZAC War Memorial, which is dedicated to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.


Then, I walked over to the Queen Victoria Building, which is one of the coolest buildings in Sydney in my opinion. It was built in the 1800s as a shopping area, and has been restored with most of the original decorations. There were beautiful tile floors and stained glass windows and this really interesting clock. The shops were mostly boutiquey shops, (kind of reminded me of Armitage in Chicago), but there were also a couple of places to buy souviners and lots of jewlery stores.


I met up with Mona and we did some shopping at a couple of the department stores, David Jones and Myer's. They were definitely similar to department stores in the states, they were even having the semi-annual sale like they do at Nordstorm's. I bought a skirt and shirt and Mona bought a few things as well, so all in all it was a succesful trip. The one big difference was that in the shoe departmentof David Jones, they had all the shoes out on tables and racks, so there is no need for a shoe salesperson. It was interesting to see them like that. We were both amazed at all the shopping there! The mall that the department stores were part of was called the Pitt Street Mall, and it just went on and on!

The guys came back around 5, and we headed over to Manly Beach for dinner. We took a water taxi to get there, so we got some great views of the city as we were leaving the harbor. The beach was really beautiful and the waves were HUGE!! We ended up eating at this place called Jellyfish, which was great. The ironic thing was that none of us had seafood. It was really nice to eat with a view of the water! On the way back, we stopped for some yummy gelato! It reminded me of being in Europe.

Tuesday, Mona and I headed to Taronga Zoo, so we could hopefully see some Australian wildlife! We got to see some kangaroos finally! The most exciting thing about the zoo was they had a koala exhibit where you could get really close to the koalas and have your picture taken. The eucalytptus leaves that koalas eat are very low in energy and something about the way the leaves ferment make them somewhat drunk, so they sleep like 20 hours per day! Talk about Lazy!!! But they were still cute, and it was fun to get so close to them. We saw lions, tigers and bears (oh my!), and all the normal zoo animals. It was a nice zoo, and it was a hot day. My arms got a little sunburned. It didn't occur to me that we would be OUTSIDE at the zoo. There were also some beautiful views of the city from the zoo, so that was pretty cool!

For dinner, we ate at this place called Fish on the Rocks, which is the CIO's favorite restaurant in Australia. It was delicious!! We all got seafood. I had some wonderful prawns with three different sauces and Brad had some great tuna. Mona ordered a variety of shellfish, and the prawns came whole, with the heads and everything, so that wasn't so appetizing, but I think that's how they serve them over there. Thank goodness mine were tempura, or mine would have come that way too!!

More to come.....

Sydney Trip (Part One)

So, this will probably take a few posts because we were pretty busy down under!

First of all, the flight was pretty brutal! 14 hours on a plane is just not too fun, but we did manage to sleep a few hours, which helped to pass the time. We arrived in Sydney around 8 AM on Saturday and got the rental car. It was pretty funny because it's backwards, so everytime Jon went to turn on the turn signal, he did the windsheild wipers instead! It was pretty funny!! We checked into the hotel, which is in a great location because you can see the harbor bridge from some rooms and the opera house from other rooms! It was nice and warm in Sydney, so I got to wear my flip-flops! We all got showered and headed over to the Rocks Market, which they have on weekends where they sell all sorts of things like jewelry, art, olive oil, and other miscellaneous souvenirs. It was very cool.



Then, we went to the Pancake House on the Rocks for the famous pancakes with ice cream. They were YUMMY!!! They serve them all with ice cream, you don't even have to request it that way. My brother would be in heaven.

After lunch, Brad and I decided to explore the area around the hotel, so we walked down to the opera house and the surrounding botanical garden, which were both gorgeous! Then, we decided to go have a beer or two. We ended up at the Orient Hotel (an old law in Australia states that any place that serves alcohol must also have a place to sleep, so a lot of the "bars" have hotel in the name.) It was a pretty nice place. The most interesting thing was that a bachelorette party came in, with the bride complete with a veil and t-shirt stating and "Kate's Hen Party." So, that was pretty inresting! I thought the veil was an American tradition, but defintely not because that was not the last Hen party we saw!

For dinner, we headed to Darling Harbour for some yummy Chinese food. Darling Harbour was a nice little area with restaurants, bars, the aquarium and the convention center.

Sunday, we headed out on an adventure to the Blue Mountains, which are directly west of the city. It was so beautiful out there! Lots of great views and waterfalls and walking trails. We kind of went the wrong way around, so we didn't get to the visitors center until we were about 2/3 of the way through, but we got some good information there and went to Govetts Leap, where we took a short hike over to the Bridal Veil Waterfall. The bad part about the trip was the fly epidemic that was going on out there, so every stop we made, we were surrounded by flies, so that was pretty yucky! But it was still a great adventure. We also saw The Three Sisters, which is a stone formation, which legend says is three sisters who were turned to stone by their father.
We were hoping to see some wildlife, but no such luck!!

Down Under, Mate

Happy New Year, all! It's hard to believe that 2006 is here. 2005 just went by so quickly, and almost all of it as a New Jersey resident!

My new year is going to start out with a bang. In three days, Brad and I are headed down under for about 7 days to Sydney to explore the outback. Brad is going for work, and I am lucky enough to be able to tag along. We are leaving on Thursday and will return the following Saturday, so it will be a quick trip. But it should be awesome, considering Australia is one place I have always DREAMED of visiting and it's summer time down there, so I get to wear flip flops! I hope I will see a kangaroo and a koala bear! We will actually be staying right next to the opera house, where this photo was taken.

The one hitch is that I am supposed to get my passport on Wednesday. I had a "Duh" moment last Thursday (one week prior to our departure date) that I didn't have a passport with my married name on it. So, I was freaking out!!!! I found this website that promises passports in 24 hours. (That's business days, however.) So, I had to FedEx my marriage liscense, old passport and lots of money in hopes that when I get home from work on Wednesday, I will have a passport waiting for me on the front porch. Keep your fingers crossed for me!