Australia!
I had a dream last night about Australia and kangaroos, so I figure that it's my subconscious telling me that it's time to formally document the trip.
I believe this may be my longest post ever. I tried to document everything to the best of my knowledge, but it could change if accurate info is brought to light or I edit things due to my awful grammar mistakes. Also, I'm new to posting pictures and using flickr, so if anyone spots something that I've done wrong, please let me know!! I've spent the past couple of days just trying to get it all right!
Not sure where to begin, so I guess I'll start at the plane ride. Our plane left on Friday evening. We got to the airport early to get through the security lines, which it turns out there was no line at all, but whatevs. We get to the gate and find out that we will be sharing a plane with a college rugby team from Canada. I did my best not to completely freak out about this news, because I was a bit annoyed at the thought of having to sit for 14 hours with a bunch of college jocks. We are finally called to board the BIGGEST PLANE I've ever seen. Seriously, I had my doubts that the big 'ole mamba jamba could even stay in the air, but Jerrad assured me it was air worthy. We get to our seats, and its a 3-4-3 configuration. Jerrad had the aisle, I'm in the middle and we will have a stranger in the window seat. As I sit down, I notice that the guy sitting next to me has already closed the window shade! It's 10 o'clock at night, completely clear & a beautiful sky; the perfect setting for a night take off, and this bastard has closed the window shade! I thought about asking him to open it, but I noticed that he was SUPER twitchy. Like, 'I'm going to break your neck and eat your arms while you sleep' kind of twitchy. I was seriously praying that he wasn't some crackhead who would need to get up for a hit every few hours, but luckily, after take-off he seemed to calm down. By the end, he was almost civil and even opened the shade for landing, but that's getting ahead of the story.
(More photos from the airport).
When I realized we would be flying International, I had all these grand ideas in my head about my own personal tv in the seat, where I could watch anything of my choosing. Of course, not on this airline. We were shown 4 movies on tiny screens in the aisle with tv programming shown in between. Absolutely none of the movies held my interest. So I read, watched Stepbrothers on my ipod and slept. Much to my surprise, before I knew it, we were there. I think I was sooo nervous about the flight that it literally just flew by (har har).
Our plane arrived early Sunday morning (time travel ftw!) When we stepped off the plane, the first thing I noticed was just how freaking HOT it was. Hot and awesome. Luckily I had a pair of sandals easily accessible in my bag. We finally get our bags (bit stressful because we were traveling with beer & liqour for Jeremy), make it through customs (the aforementioned rugby team got held back because the dirt in their shoes was not allowed in the country. We saw a whole bunch of people washing shoes behind a door!) and go outside to try to find Jeremy. We finally meet up and start the trek to his house, on the freaking wrong side of the road! Seriously, I was prepared for it, but it was crazy. It's 3 hour drive from Sydney to Newcastle, a very lovely ride the countryside is beautiful. It actually looks like a lot of California, but... backwards.
We get to Jeremy's place and relax, walk to the beach, hit up a pub for dinner, etc. The next few days Jeremy has to work, so we are on our own during the day. On Jeremy's recommendation, we find a great little coffee shop with WIFI to briefly check internet, then spend the rest of the day just walking around, getting acclimated to the area. Newcastle is a splendid little city.
(More photos of Newcastle.)
By Thursday, Jeremy was able to get the day off, so we went to the Hunter Valley Wine Country. The area was beautiful, the people were so great (much better than the stuffiness of Napa), and the wines were fantastic. I'm still on the lookout for any Verdelho from the region, but I just can't seem to find any in the states. Honestly, if you ever get the chance to try a wine from the region, I urge you to do so. I'm not a wine expert, but the selections there were soooo tasty.
(More photos of Hunter Valley.)
The next day, we decided to be fancy and chartered a Sea Plane to Sydney (short video taken of takeoff & landing). Our 3 hour car drive took 30 minutes by plane flight, the whole time hugging the shore for an amazing vieww. It was fantastic, and definitely a preferred way to travel. We arrived at the Sydney port, found a ferry to take us to another port, then walked a few miles to our hotel.
(More photos of the Seaplane.)
After our long walk, we finally made it to the room, and decided that we were starving. We decide to go to a pub down the street that Jeremy had been to while previously visiting, and I choose to order the Chicken Schnitzel (actually a pretty popular dish down there, almost every restaurant offered it). But this Schnitzel was awesome, and I completely fell in love with the dish that moment. Leave it to me to go to Australia to fall in love with German food. Later we hit up another pub and ended up meeting some locals, who were hilarious. One guy was telling us how much he loves the states, and we are like their big brother. No matter what the US does, Aussie will follow. It was actually quite humorous and they were very good people. Fun night!
On Saturday, the plan was to go to Taronga Zoo. It was a bit rough cause we were out pretty late the night before, and I really really didn't want to get out of bed, but we got up and chugged on nonetheless. Taronga Zoo is incredible. I thought of it as the Disneyland of zoo's because of how clean and meticulous it was. We had a lot of fun in the "Australia" section, even though it didn't make sense to me why so many locals were there (as a dad said to his son while walking through the kangaroo walk about, "You can see these in the backyard".. well then why the hell are you here then, get out of my way!). The "Asia" & "Africa" animals weren't as exciting to me, but only because I can see them at zoos here!
(More photos of Taronga Zoo.)
Sunday, we took a light rail to the Powerhouse Museum where they had an awesome Star Wars Exhibit. The actual museum itself was quite amazing as well. Can I just say that transportation in Sydney is far superior to San Francisco? That is all.
(More photos of thePowerhouse Museum.)
That night, we met up with a friend that we met earlier this year on a Tahoe trip who moved back to Australia a few weeks before our trip, and he took us to Kings Cross, where we proceeded to walk around and visit the bars. It was a pretty slow night in the area, given that it was a Sunday, but we did our best to see as much as we could, including a strip club. That wasn't terribly exciting though, I guess they are the same everywhere. After being denied entry into a bar because as beefcake bouncer said, I was too drunk (I wasn't, I swear), we decided to take another cab closer to the hotel to have a nightcap. From what I recall it was about 4am by this time, so it was a bit of a goose hunt to find an open bar. We sit down and Jeremy and I kept nodding off, when the bartender would smack the bar and tell us to wake up. I fell asleep at a bar earlier that evening as well, they really don't like people sleeping in their stools. :)
(More photos of Kings Cross.)
The next day, our brief jaunt to Sydney was over, and it was time to board the train back to Newcastle. A long, grueling, hungover 3 hour train ride. It was not too horrible, though, and eventually we made it home.
(Photos of Sydney).
Jeremy had to work the next couple of days, so Jerrad and I were on our own to mill about again, which was super nice and relaxing. I read a few more books and just enjoyed being on vacation.
Given that we were in Australia, and only eating pub food, it was decided that it was time to cook dinner, and what better to make than the Australian Coat of Arms for dinner. We went to a local butcher and bought raw emu & kangaroo to grill. (On a side note, the butcher told us that emu & kangaroo are big sellers on Australia day, and Rabbit meat is very popular on Easter.. WTF. Peter Cottontail brings you Easter Eggs then you have him for dinner?!?!) We spent the evening marinating the meat, chopping the veggies, and drinking our yummy wine from Hunter Valley. It was a very fun night. :) After cooking up the meat, I found out that much to my surprise and slight dismay, I enjoyed both the Kangaroo & the Emu, and it was a wonderful dining experience.
Check out my awesome farmers sunburn while chopping veggies for our feast!
(More photos of our Edible Coat of Arms (AWESOME)Feast.
Well aware that our vacation was about to end, it was do or die time for things we wanted to do, so we hit up a few beaches to do some kayaking and surfing. Jeremy has his own kayak, so the plan was to rent a two person kayak for Jerrad and I, so we could all go kayaking together. Unfortunately the rental guy wouldn't let us rent a kayak without taking their guided tour, and wouldn't let Jeremy join the guided tour with his own gear so that was out. In the end, we all just took turns in his kayak briefly paddling around the area. The search for a surf board for Jerrad to surf was also a bust because the season was ending and they there just aren't any surfboard rentals available right before the fall season. It was still a fun day, though, and the beaches were lovely.
(More photos of various beaches we visited throughout the trip.)
After the beach, we went to a cricket game that Jeremy's coworker was participating in to view a "real" game. After it was over, we had a few beers with the players and decided to meet up with them later at a local pub. We get to the pub in time for dinner and I had another Chicken Schnitzel (yum! though not as good as the pub in Sydney. I miss that place tons!). The evening was spent the night hanging around the pub, watching the Australian horse races. Gambling is legal there, so we took a few turns playing the slots, winning nothing, of course.
After that, it was time to go home. I was so sad to leave, it really broke my heart. I can honestly say that I love Australia, and I would move there tonight if I could.
And that, my friends, is my trip in a nutshell. If you would like to view the whole gallery instead of broken down, it is located here.
I believe this may be my longest post ever. I tried to document everything to the best of my knowledge, but it could change if accurate info is brought to light or I edit things due to my awful grammar mistakes. Also, I'm new to posting pictures and using flickr, so if anyone spots something that I've done wrong, please let me know!! I've spent the past couple of days just trying to get it all right!
Not sure where to begin, so I guess I'll start at the plane ride. Our plane left on Friday evening. We got to the airport early to get through the security lines, which it turns out there was no line at all, but whatevs. We get to the gate and find out that we will be sharing a plane with a college rugby team from Canada. I did my best not to completely freak out about this news, because I was a bit annoyed at the thought of having to sit for 14 hours with a bunch of college jocks. We are finally called to board the BIGGEST PLANE I've ever seen. Seriously, I had my doubts that the big 'ole mamba jamba could even stay in the air, but Jerrad assured me it was air worthy. We get to our seats, and its a 3-4-3 configuration. Jerrad had the aisle, I'm in the middle and we will have a stranger in the window seat. As I sit down, I notice that the guy sitting next to me has already closed the window shade! It's 10 o'clock at night, completely clear & a beautiful sky; the perfect setting for a night take off, and this bastard has closed the window shade! I thought about asking him to open it, but I noticed that he was SUPER twitchy. Like, 'I'm going to break your neck and eat your arms while you sleep' kind of twitchy. I was seriously praying that he wasn't some crackhead who would need to get up for a hit every few hours, but luckily, after take-off he seemed to calm down. By the end, he was almost civil and even opened the shade for landing, but that's getting ahead of the story.
(More photos from the airport).
When I realized we would be flying International, I had all these grand ideas in my head about my own personal tv in the seat, where I could watch anything of my choosing. Of course, not on this airline. We were shown 4 movies on tiny screens in the aisle with tv programming shown in between. Absolutely none of the movies held my interest. So I read, watched Stepbrothers on my ipod and slept. Much to my surprise, before I knew it, we were there. I think I was sooo nervous about the flight that it literally just flew by (har har).
Our plane arrived early Sunday morning (time travel ftw!) When we stepped off the plane, the first thing I noticed was just how freaking HOT it was. Hot and awesome. Luckily I had a pair of sandals easily accessible in my bag. We finally get our bags (bit stressful because we were traveling with beer & liqour for Jeremy), make it through customs (the aforementioned rugby team got held back because the dirt in their shoes was not allowed in the country. We saw a whole bunch of people washing shoes behind a door!) and go outside to try to find Jeremy. We finally meet up and start the trek to his house, on the freaking wrong side of the road! Seriously, I was prepared for it, but it was crazy. It's 3 hour drive from Sydney to Newcastle, a very lovely ride the countryside is beautiful. It actually looks like a lot of California, but... backwards.
We get to Jeremy's place and relax, walk to the beach, hit up a pub for dinner, etc. The next few days Jeremy has to work, so we are on our own during the day. On Jeremy's recommendation, we find a great little coffee shop with WIFI to briefly check internet, then spend the rest of the day just walking around, getting acclimated to the area. Newcastle is a splendid little city.
(More photos of Newcastle.)
By Thursday, Jeremy was able to get the day off, so we went to the Hunter Valley Wine Country. The area was beautiful, the people were so great (much better than the stuffiness of Napa), and the wines were fantastic. I'm still on the lookout for any Verdelho from the region, but I just can't seem to find any in the states. Honestly, if you ever get the chance to try a wine from the region, I urge you to do so. I'm not a wine expert, but the selections there were soooo tasty.
(More photos of Hunter Valley.)
The next day, we decided to be fancy and chartered a Sea Plane to Sydney (short video taken of takeoff & landing). Our 3 hour car drive took 30 minutes by plane flight, the whole time hugging the shore for an amazing vieww. It was fantastic, and definitely a preferred way to travel. We arrived at the Sydney port, found a ferry to take us to another port, then walked a few miles to our hotel.
(More photos of the Seaplane.)
After our long walk, we finally made it to the room, and decided that we were starving. We decide to go to a pub down the street that Jeremy had been to while previously visiting, and I choose to order the Chicken Schnitzel (actually a pretty popular dish down there, almost every restaurant offered it). But this Schnitzel was awesome, and I completely fell in love with the dish that moment. Leave it to me to go to Australia to fall in love with German food. Later we hit up another pub and ended up meeting some locals, who were hilarious. One guy was telling us how much he loves the states, and we are like their big brother. No matter what the US does, Aussie will follow. It was actually quite humorous and they were very good people. Fun night!
On Saturday, the plan was to go to Taronga Zoo. It was a bit rough cause we were out pretty late the night before, and I really really didn't want to get out of bed, but we got up and chugged on nonetheless. Taronga Zoo is incredible. I thought of it as the Disneyland of zoo's because of how clean and meticulous it was. We had a lot of fun in the "Australia" section, even though it didn't make sense to me why so many locals were there (as a dad said to his son while walking through the kangaroo walk about, "You can see these in the backyard".. well then why the hell are you here then, get out of my way!). The "Asia" & "Africa" animals weren't as exciting to me, but only because I can see them at zoos here!
(More photos of Taronga Zoo.)
Sunday, we took a light rail to the Powerhouse Museum where they had an awesome Star Wars Exhibit. The actual museum itself was quite amazing as well. Can I just say that transportation in Sydney is far superior to San Francisco? That is all.
(More photos of thePowerhouse Museum.)
That night, we met up with a friend that we met earlier this year on a Tahoe trip who moved back to Australia a few weeks before our trip, and he took us to Kings Cross, where we proceeded to walk around and visit the bars. It was a pretty slow night in the area, given that it was a Sunday, but we did our best to see as much as we could, including a strip club. That wasn't terribly exciting though, I guess they are the same everywhere. After being denied entry into a bar because as beefcake bouncer said, I was too drunk (I wasn't, I swear), we decided to take another cab closer to the hotel to have a nightcap. From what I recall it was about 4am by this time, so it was a bit of a goose hunt to find an open bar. We sit down and Jeremy and I kept nodding off, when the bartender would smack the bar and tell us to wake up. I fell asleep at a bar earlier that evening as well, they really don't like people sleeping in their stools. :)
(More photos of Kings Cross.)
The next day, our brief jaunt to Sydney was over, and it was time to board the train back to Newcastle. A long, grueling, hungover 3 hour train ride. It was not too horrible, though, and eventually we made it home.
(Photos of Sydney).
Jeremy had to work the next couple of days, so Jerrad and I were on our own to mill about again, which was super nice and relaxing. I read a few more books and just enjoyed being on vacation.
Given that we were in Australia, and only eating pub food, it was decided that it was time to cook dinner, and what better to make than the Australian Coat of Arms for dinner. We went to a local butcher and bought raw emu & kangaroo to grill. (On a side note, the butcher told us that emu & kangaroo are big sellers on Australia day, and Rabbit meat is very popular on Easter.. WTF. Peter Cottontail brings you Easter Eggs then you have him for dinner?!?!) We spent the evening marinating the meat, chopping the veggies, and drinking our yummy wine from Hunter Valley. It was a very fun night. :) After cooking up the meat, I found out that much to my surprise and slight dismay, I enjoyed both the Kangaroo & the Emu, and it was a wonderful dining experience.
Check out my awesome farmers sunburn while chopping veggies for our feast!
(More photos of our Edible Coat of Arms (AWESOME)Feast.
Well aware that our vacation was about to end, it was do or die time for things we wanted to do, so we hit up a few beaches to do some kayaking and surfing. Jeremy has his own kayak, so the plan was to rent a two person kayak for Jerrad and I, so we could all go kayaking together. Unfortunately the rental guy wouldn't let us rent a kayak without taking their guided tour, and wouldn't let Jeremy join the guided tour with his own gear so that was out. In the end, we all just took turns in his kayak briefly paddling around the area. The search for a surf board for Jerrad to surf was also a bust because the season was ending and they there just aren't any surfboard rentals available right before the fall season. It was still a fun day, though, and the beaches were lovely.
(More photos of various beaches we visited throughout the trip.)
After the beach, we went to a cricket game that Jeremy's coworker was participating in to view a "real" game. After it was over, we had a few beers with the players and decided to meet up with them later at a local pub. We get to the pub in time for dinner and I had another Chicken Schnitzel (yum! though not as good as the pub in Sydney. I miss that place tons!). The evening was spent the night hanging around the pub, watching the Australian horse races. Gambling is legal there, so we took a few turns playing the slots, winning nothing, of course.
After that, it was time to go home. I was so sad to leave, it really broke my heart. I can honestly say that I love Australia, and I would move there tonight if I could.
And that, my friends, is my trip in a nutshell. If you would like to view the whole gallery instead of broken down, it is located here.