Life as I have known it in Sydney has come to an end. Last night was my final evening working at the Summit Restaurant. Last night was my final night living in my share house. This morning I officially become a traveling nomad!
The plan: I leave this morning for the Gold Coast. I am spending the day there. Then my friend Natasha is flying in and we are going to Byron Bay, and then to Coff's Harbor where we will spend the holidays with her family. I will return to Sydney on January 28th and remain here for New Years (I can't wait to see the fireworks show!). Then on January 2nd I am flying to New Zealand to meet Laura, my sis, in Auckland. We have rented a car and together will travel around the north and south islands. Afterwards, I will fly to Cairns. I have purchased a hop-on, hop-off bus pass and intend to travel down the east coast stopping along the way at numerous towns and tourists hot spots including Magnetic Island, Fraiser Island and the Whitsunday Islands. Then I'm coming home on February 8th, and bringing along with me Natasha. She has always dreamed of 1) going to New York and 2) seeing snow, so this was the perfect opportunity for her to do both.
Because of my travels, I'm not sure how much access I will have to a computer and/or Internet. However, through it all I am going to try and continue to update you all! So please continue to check back to my blog, just with the understanding that the quality of the blogs may decrease slightly as I will probably be giving a rushed account of my journeys. But I will post, I promise. Until then- Bon Voyage!!
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
I Ate A Kangaroo
I couldn't let myself leave Australia without trying Kangaroo. Yes, Australians eat Kangaroo. And so I needed to too. I had been told that kangaroo was tough and chewy, especially if overcooked. Plenty of people here order a rump of roo (like a big piece of steak), but this did not interest me in the least. I decided that the best means to ingest this iconic aussie animal would be on pizza, with other "things" that could potentially mask its taste if unpleasant. So last night at the Australian Heritage Hotel I ordered their famous kangaroo pizza, accompanied by cheese, roasted capsicum (aka peppers) and berries. The pizza was tasty. I ate every inch of it. This means that kangaroo was not only edible, but actually quite to my liking. It was tough and chewy, as I had been told, reminding me of a piece of well done steak. I don't foresee myself craving roo again, but I am happy that I can say I tried and enjoyed kangaroo.
OPRAHHHHH MANIAAAAA
Oprah came to town, to Aussie town. Did you know that? Because it was a HUGE deal around here. To the Aussies, Oprah is practically on par with the gods. There was more excitement about her arrival than if it had been the Queen of England. Aussies love Oprah. Ironically, it's when I'm farthest away from the US that I am closest to Oprah. When I was in Melbourne, we accidentally stumbled upon Oprah and her crew dining in an elegant arcade (aka shopping mall). There were tons of security guards outside the venue warding off crazy fans with cameras. When I returned back to Sydney was the same time that Oprah arrived in Sydney. While at work I was able to see the filming of her show at the Opera House. I couldn't actually see Oprah, but I certainly saw the massive audience sitting on the Opera House steps cheering her on. How fun. It was all anyone could talk about for days. But not Oprah has gone, taking with her the hoopla, hype and madness. Normalcy has returned to Sydney. I just thought you should know in case you had wondered or worried where Oprah had gone. =)
Monday, December 20, 2010
The Great Ocean Road Road-Trip
One item on the top of my list of "Places To See & Things To Do" was to drive The Great Ocean Road, one of the world's most famous and beautiful coastal drives, and see its most prominent landmark- The Twelve Apostles. The road stretches 151 miles along the bottom of Australia through seaside towns, beaches, country hills and rainforests. I shared my desire to drive the road with Aubrey, and she was all for taking a road trip! While there are many guided tours of the road, we decided it would be more cost effective and fun to rent a car and drive the road ourselves.
Monday morning we woke and set-off to rent a car for the day. At the shop they informed us that they only had manual cars left, which I thought was a major problem considering that I don't have a clue how to drive stick. Fortunately, Aubrey's first car as a young teen was a manual car so she volunteered to be the designated driver for the day. We grabbed the keys, hopped in the car and were off! The car rental place had given us both horrible directions and maps (the index page was missing so I had no idea which map was for which area of Melbourne) so it took us nearly an hour just to make our way out of the city and onto the highway. However, after stopping a couple of times for help we made it onto the correct highway which turned into The Great Ocean Road. Finally, we were cruising off on our road trip adventure!
We enjoyed driving along the windy road, taking in the beautiful scenery around us. One moment we would be staring at the gorgeous ocean coastline, and the next we would be rolling through the country side surrounded by cattle and sheep. Our final destination was to reach the Twelve Apostles which from Melbourne was about a 4 hour drive, but the whole fun of driving the road is stopping at the small towns and sights along the way. First, we stopped at the Sheoak Falls. We walked through the rainforest for about 20 minutes until we reached the lovely waterfall hidden in the brush. After resting by the falls, we resumed our drive. Due to our desolate location, we had no radio reception and thus no music to accompany us on our drive. While I was not bothered by this static silence (thanks to the hooligans who stole my radio in New Haven), it drove Aubrey nuts. She was desperate to find some sort of music to listen to on our drive, and at any opportunity would pull up to parked cars and pedestrians and ask them, "Excuse me fine gentleman. You wouldn't happen to have any CDs that you are looking to part with, do you?" I cracked up laughing every time she did this (at least 5 times), and each time they would shake their heads no. Everyone she asked was either in a rental car like we were, or they had ipods. To make up for this lack of music, Aubrey and I sang. We sang Christmas carols and 90's music hits (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Will Smith were the favorite artists) at the top of our lungs as we drove along the road. I wish we had recorded our performances, because they were pretty spectacular. Undoubtedly grammy worthy.
Our next pit stop was at Apollo Bay, a seaside town located midway between Melbourne and the Twelve Apostles. We noshed on crackers, cheese and watermelon while sitting by the ocean, and then carried on. We arrived at the Twelve Apostles around 5:00 p.m. The Twelve Apostles are limestone rocks that jut from the water right of the shore of the Port Campbell National Park. I'm not sure why they are called the Twelve Apostles (there are only 8 rocks), but they were awesome and a unique site to see. We arrived just in time to see the sun set behind the rocks. Then it was time to make the trek back to Melbourne. It was such a fun day, and I am so grateful that Aubrey a) knew how to drive stick and b) was willing to drive the entire length of the trip. It was a long day and she was a trooper. I thanked her repeatedly for making my Great Ocean Road-Trip dream come true! It was the perfect end to an awesome weekend in Melbourne.
Monday morning we woke and set-off to rent a car for the day. At the shop they informed us that they only had manual cars left, which I thought was a major problem considering that I don't have a clue how to drive stick. Fortunately, Aubrey's first car as a young teen was a manual car so she volunteered to be the designated driver for the day. We grabbed the keys, hopped in the car and were off! The car rental place had given us both horrible directions and maps (the index page was missing so I had no idea which map was for which area of Melbourne) so it took us nearly an hour just to make our way out of the city and onto the highway. However, after stopping a couple of times for help we made it onto the correct highway which turned into The Great Ocean Road. Finally, we were cruising off on our road trip adventure!
We enjoyed driving along the windy road, taking in the beautiful scenery around us. One moment we would be staring at the gorgeous ocean coastline, and the next we would be rolling through the country side surrounded by cattle and sheep. Our final destination was to reach the Twelve Apostles which from Melbourne was about a 4 hour drive, but the whole fun of driving the road is stopping at the small towns and sights along the way. First, we stopped at the Sheoak Falls. We walked through the rainforest for about 20 minutes until we reached the lovely waterfall hidden in the brush. After resting by the falls, we resumed our drive. Due to our desolate location, we had no radio reception and thus no music to accompany us on our drive. While I was not bothered by this static silence (thanks to the hooligans who stole my radio in New Haven), it drove Aubrey nuts. She was desperate to find some sort of music to listen to on our drive, and at any opportunity would pull up to parked cars and pedestrians and ask them, "Excuse me fine gentleman. You wouldn't happen to have any CDs that you are looking to part with, do you?" I cracked up laughing every time she did this (at least 5 times), and each time they would shake their heads no. Everyone she asked was either in a rental car like we were, or they had ipods. To make up for this lack of music, Aubrey and I sang. We sang Christmas carols and 90's music hits (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Will Smith were the favorite artists) at the top of our lungs as we drove along the road. I wish we had recorded our performances, because they were pretty spectacular. Undoubtedly grammy worthy.
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| Brye ready to rock-and-roll as the DD |
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| Cruising down the highway |
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| At the start of the Great Ocean Road |
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| The Great Ocean Road |
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| The Sheoak Falls |
Our next pit stop was at Apollo Bay, a seaside town located midway between Melbourne and the Twelve Apostles. We noshed on crackers, cheese and watermelon while sitting by the ocean, and then carried on. We arrived at the Twelve Apostles around 5:00 p.m. The Twelve Apostles are limestone rocks that jut from the water right of the shore of the Port Campbell National Park. I'm not sure why they are called the Twelve Apostles (there are only 8 rocks), but they were awesome and a unique site to see. We arrived just in time to see the sun set behind the rocks. Then it was time to make the trek back to Melbourne. It was such a fun day, and I am so grateful that Aubrey a) knew how to drive stick and b) was willing to drive the entire length of the trip. It was a long day and she was a trooper. I thanked her repeatedly for making my Great Ocean Road-Trip dream come true! It was the perfect end to an awesome weekend in Melbourne.
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| The Twelve Apostles |
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| The seaside coast |
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| The end of the trip: sunset and our sturdy car |
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Melbourne Holiday
Last weekend Sara, Aubrey and I took a 4 day holiday to Melbourne, the rival city of Sydney. People here seem to be particular to one city; I personally love them both. I was told by some that Melbourne was a lot like New York City, but I disagree. I think it is more like a Philly- very cultural and artsy while at the same time historic. It mixes old European flair with a hip, funky art culture. We spent the first night in the city and the following 3 nights in St. Kilda, the beach part of Melbourne comparable to Bondi Beach in Sydney. We had an absolutely lovely time. It was the first and last trip that the three of us took together. Sara is leaving this week to return to the USA, thus it was bitter sweet to be able to travel to this awesome city together before she left.
The tour guide books say that Melbourne is a city you visit for the food, shopping and art, and so our trip was primarily comprised of eating (my favorite activity), shopping (window shopping that is) and exploring the city streets filled with colorful graffiti and art. Hannah, one of our Australian friends, put us in touch with Simon, one of her good friends who lives in Melbourne. He generously offered to be our tour guide weekend and took us all around Melbourne making sure to show us the local favorite spots not mentioned in tour books. But make no mistake, us tourists still made sure to see the places Lonely Planet said not to miss. I thoroughly enjoyed wandering the alluring and intricate cafe and boutique filled streets- they pulse with a unique energy. Additionally, Melbourne has a great trolley transportation system which makes getting around simple as can be. Some of the main sight highlights of the trip included: the Melbourne Royal Botanical Gardens, art galleries, various fairs and markets, the Melbourne Luna Park, and Brighton Beach.
The tour guide books say that Melbourne is a city you visit for the food, shopping and art, and so our trip was primarily comprised of eating (my favorite activity), shopping (window shopping that is) and exploring the city streets filled with colorful graffiti and art. Hannah, one of our Australian friends, put us in touch with Simon, one of her good friends who lives in Melbourne. He generously offered to be our tour guide weekend and took us all around Melbourne making sure to show us the local favorite spots not mentioned in tour books. But make no mistake, us tourists still made sure to see the places Lonely Planet said not to miss. I thoroughly enjoyed wandering the alluring and intricate cafe and boutique filled streets- they pulse with a unique energy. Additionally, Melbourne has a great trolley transportation system which makes getting around simple as can be. Some of the main sight highlights of the trip included: the Melbourne Royal Botanical Gardens, art galleries, various fairs and markets, the Melbourne Luna Park, and Brighton Beach.
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| My favorite mural located in St. Kilda |
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| Brighton Beach: Lined with the cutest, most colorful cobanas |
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| Gazing at art... |
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| The Melbourne Luna Park located in St. Kilda |
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| Indulging in amazing tapa bombas...one of the food highlights of the trip |
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On Monday, Sara had to return to Sydney for work so Aubrey and I decided to rent a car and drive the Great Ocean Road. The details of this adventure will come shortly in another blog. Thus I will leave this as- TBC!
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