Australia!!
As I'm finishing this, I'm actually sitting in the Melbourne airport, reflecting on our trip and the amazing experience. Here's some quick notes on our travels, and some pictures to go along! Hope you all enjoy!
(this post is super long and may take a minute to load with all the pictures...but I want to remember this in 50 years!!)
Sunday Aug 4th
After 23 hours of travelling, we arrived at 6am at Sydney airport. Even though we had no sleep, we powered through and spent the day seeing some of the most famous sites in Australia. First stop was our hotel, which was really amazing. We stayed in the Travelodge on Wynyard Street, just a block from the Wynyard Metro Station and right in the center of downtown Sydney. It was a perfectly good hotel with a great location, and I strongly recommend it if anyone is ever going to Sydney!
We spent the day walking through the tourist area of central Sydney, and got to see The Sydney Opera House, the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Harbour Bridge, Circular Quay, and lots of other things.
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| Sydney Opera House - famous for fireworks on New Years Eve. Beautiful site on the water in the middle of a section of the city called Circular Quay (pronounced Circular Key). |
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| Sydney Harbour Bridge - connects the Central Business District with North Sydney. |
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| A Sundial and roses from the Royal Botannical Garden. The garden is just east of the Opera House right on the coast. Not bad for the middle of winter!!! |
Try as we might, after 6 or 7 hours of walking and a great breakfast in Circular Quay, we desperately needed a nap, so back to the hotel for a snooze. That night, we went to another really cool place called Darling Harbour, which is west of the city and a really cool spot for restaurants, night life, shopping, and walking.
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| Darling Harbour - A Really cool place full of great restaurants, bars, shopping places, and hotels |
We ate steaks at a place called the Waterfront Grill in Darling Harbour. The meal was great, but after being here for 3 weeks, I will say that steaks in the US are better than in Australia. (Lamb and seafood, however, are a totally different story!)
Time for bed. It's a 14 hour time difference, and our clocks were ALL screwed up. GREAT first day though! We saw so much of the city - Sydney's tourist spots are very centrally located and we really saw a lot on this first day.
Mon Aug 5th
On Monday, we got up and wanted to explore the city. Since we had seen lots of the "tourist' stuff the day before, we wanted to get out of the tourist area and into the real city to see what it was like. Our first stop was a small area called Kings Cross. The area is known for being a trendy neighborhood with lots of cool places, and the city's red light district is adjacent to it, so it gets a bit rowdy at night (which is why we went during the day. :) We walked around a bit, seeing the sites, stopping at a few shops, and soaking in the culture.
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| Kings Cross Train Station and a very cool water fall in the middle of the Kings Cross neighborhood. |
Then we walked north of Kings Cross (through an area called Potts Point) to a waterfront area called Elizabeth Bay - which was a very cool little area with really nice luxury apartments along the water and a big dock where boats were stored. We sat here and talked for a few hours, and then had a cup of "coffee" on the dock restaurant while we watched the boats and fairies on the water - it was a very relaxing place and one of my favorite memories. (I put coffee in quotes because after being here so long I finally learned that they don't brew coffee in Australia, everything starts with an Espresso and hot water is added to make a Long Black. Needless to say - I can't wait for some good brewed coffee...)
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| Apartments over Elisabeth Bay. I would LOVE to live here! |
On the way back to the Kings Cross train station, we happened upon a place called the Bourbon, and we obviously decided that this was the perfect time for some afternoon cocktails! We had the best time at this place - the bartender was super nice and they weren't busy, so we chatted with him about where to go, what to do, what's great about Australia, and why the US does all the dumb things that it does.
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| Their house bourbon was Maker's Mark. What was I supposed to do? |
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| Sydney Opera House at night. Awesome. |
Tuesday Aug 6th
We woke up Tuesday with BIG plans. We wanted to go north of Sydney and check out some of the really cool wineries in Hunter Valley. Unfortunately, we didn't have a car, so our plan was to take the train 2 hours north to Morisset, and then catch a bus to another town, where we could cab it up to the wineries and back. However, that's not QUITE what happened. The train took too long, we missed the only bus out of Morriset, so we ended up riding the train 2 hours north, having lunch at a "country club", watching old people play Bingo for 2 hours while we had beers, and then riding the train 2 hours back to Sydney.
We were SO bummed at first that we didn't get to see wineries, and even more so that we were wasting one of our days in Sydney, but this day really brought to light what I love about travelling with my wife. We had the BEST time, and have some of the craziest memories of that day trip.....the bingo hall patrons were crazy, the people on the train were hilarious, mostly drunk, and wildly inappropriate, and the view from the train as we wound through the mountains and coast was really cool. I'm actually laughing as I type this - a complete failed trip that ended up being so much fun. We didn't see any wineries, but we saw the Australian countryside, and we DEFINITELY experienced some culture.
When we finally got back from the crazy train ride, we headed back to Darling Harbour to find some great seafood and spend our last night in Sydney relaxing on the harbour. We ate at a place called Nicks, which is most definitely the best seafood I've ever had. I also learned what "Bay Bugs" are...a popular Australian sea creature that's sort of a cross between a shrimp and a lobster. DELICIOUS.
No pictures of this day - camera's weren't allowed in the Bingo Hall. (Trust me, you would have followed the rules too....)
Wednesday Aug 7th
Wednesday morning was when our whirlwind trip to Sydney ended. We jumped on an early morning flight headed for Melbourne. It was a quick flight, and by mid-day, we had landed, picked up the car, and were driving towards my apartment in downtown Melbourne on the wrong side of the road.
My apartment was really nice. It's a brand new high-rise just 10 minutes north of the heart of the city and right next to a tram stop. My unit was on the 23rd floor, and we had an awesome view of the city of Melbourne.
After settling into our apartment, we jumped onto the tram and headed downtown to see the sights, all while discussing how awesome cities with public transit are. Here's some shots of the things we saw downtown!
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| Alleyway in downtown Melbourne with lots of small cafes. We had pizzas at Vicolino and talked to the owner for quite a while about what there was to see in Melbourne. |
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| Flinders Street Station - the oldest train station in Australia. |
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| Riverbar - a restaurant and bar along the Yarra River, which cuts right through downtown Melbourne. |
Thursday Aug 8th
While talking to an Australian at a restaurant earlier in the week, we found out that there are lots of great wineries Southwest of Melbourne on a peninsula. In an attempt to make up for our Hunter Valley bingo fiasco, we decided to spend Thursday driving out to see some of the countryside, see if we could find some wineries, and see some small towns along ocean.
The first winery we hit was called Jack Rabbit, and God helped us out a bit here, because we picked it randomly off of a list, and it was absolutely phenomenal. It butts up right against the water, and has spectacular views across the bay, where you can see the mountains, the ocean, and even downtown Melbourne 200 miles away. Awesome place - and great wine!
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| Amazing.... |
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| Such a cool winery and restaurant in an amazing location. |
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| I love this picture because it shows how much fun we were having. I love traveling with her! |
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| Heres a shot of the vineyards...no grapes in the winter, but you can see how this place sits up on a mountain right on the ocean. You can't see it in this picture, but in person we could see the high rises in downtown Melbourne on the horizon. |
After we spent some time at Jack Rabbit, and learned a TON about wine, we left and headed for the next winery. Oakdene was another highly regarded winery, but where Jack Rabbit was known for it's scenery, Oakdene was well known for its trendy locally-supplied restaurant, and its award winning wine. We had lunch there (I had some fantastic lamb flanks) and then we went out and explored the winery, which was a really cool artsy place, and did a wine tasting, where they let you taste each of their great wines for $5.
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| Oakdene winery restaurant. The food was amazing. |
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| Oakdene winery and tasting room. |
After hitting the two wineries, we went south and east a bit to a small ocean town called Queenscliff, which is at the very apex of the peninsula, where the ocean meets the bay. We could see for miles and miles in every direction, and even though most things in the town were closed for the winter, it was still a very cool place.
We headed back after a long day of exploring and had a perfect end to the night - cocktails, frozen pizza, and a couple episodes of Friends. :)
Friday Aug 9th
This was the day that I started working (bummer...) so Kara went exploring a bit during the day while I got caught up at the Caterpillar site where we were putting Bastian Conveyor system in. When I got home, Kara had cooked dinner for my roommate and I (which was awesome!). We took it easy this night too because we knew we would have lots of fun on the weekend.
Saturday Aug 10th
Saturday was a GREAT day. We hung around the apartment during the morning, relaxing, and then in the afternoon, we headed back downtown to grab dinner in the Docklands. On the west side of downtown, Docklands a main shipping depot, as well as the location of the biggest train station in Melbourne. However, the real reason we knew it would be busy is that it's towards the end of Australia Rules Football League (AFL), and one of the biggest stadiums in Australia, Etihad Stadium, is also in the Docklands.
We found a pretty cool place called Platform 28 near the stadium, and after a great dinner there, we headed out to explore the South Wharf, on the south bank of the Yarra river, and it's main attraction - Crown Casino. It's the only casino in Melbourne, and is about the size of three Vegas casinos put together. It was ENORMOUS.
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| Downtown Melbourne on the Yarra River, taken from the Casino. |
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| The fire show outside the Crown Casino. |
We did some damage at the casino, and ended up spending a majority of the evening with two women in their mid-40's - Deb and Lindy - from the gold coast who were childhood friends (or possibly "friends") and were absolutely hilarious. We had such a great time, and even tried to get into a night club, where I was refused entry because of my really stellar steel toe tennis shoes I was wearing. We ended up at a more relaxed bar, sipping on good drinks and comparing Australian Public Education to American Public Education. (Deb was a school administrator and had taught in San Deigo).
After some nutritious and delicious KFC at 3 in the morning, we got back to the apartment and crashed.
On Sunday, I took Kara to the Caterpillar site to see the system we were putting in. They don't operate on Sundays, so we had the place to ourselves and were able to walk around the system and I showed her what I'd be doing there. It was probably boring as all hell for her, but I liked sharing my work with her. We spent most of the rest of the day recovering from Deb and Lindy, watching crazy Australia TV, and cooking.....
On Monday, I worked during the day, and in the evening, we went back to Federation Square for dinner and walked through downtown Melbourne one last time, checking out the graffiti wall, which is an entire alley where graffiti is legal and people are constantly painting incredible murals. We spent our last night laying in bed at the apartment, looking out over the city, and talking about our trip.
Unfortunately, Tuesday morning I had to drop Kara off at the airport and get to work. I was able to see some other neat stuff for the remainder of my trip (some more pics below), but the time that Kara was there was really fantastic, and I'm so glad that I got to share this trip with her.
It was really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I wanted to make a point to say that I am so incredibly grateful for all of the help from our families for taking care of our house and Luke while we were out of town. We wouldn't have been able to take this amazing trip without all of your help.
I'm on the 25 hour trip home now. I haven't seen Kara in 11 days, and I haven't seen Luke or Dexter in 24 days. As much as I love travelling, I can't wait to get home to my house and family.
Here's some photos of the stuff I went to see after Kara left. Thanks for reading!!
(One other thing I wanted to mention - one of the nights I was in Melbourne a Bastian Australia guy had the whole crew over to his house for a 4 course Australian dinner, where his wife cooked Lamb, and it was fantastic. A great experience!! Thanks to the Bastian Australia crew for being such great hosts.)
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| Cliffs and beaches along the Great Ocean Road - which is a 150 mile road that hugs the very southern tip of Australia. |
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| Light house at one of the stops along the GOR. |
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| When there weren't cliffs, the landscape reminded me of Ireland...lots of farms and greenery right along the water. |
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| 12 Apostles State Park - These limestone stacks were formed by the water creating caves,, and then the caves collapsing. It was raining when were there, but still very cool to see. The waves at the bottom are nearly 10 ft high. |
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| Etihad Stadium (pronounced Eddy Hod) - the AFL stadium is adjacent to the train station in the Docklands area of Melbourne. Right in the heart of downtown. |
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| Australian Rules Football - after watching it for 3 weeks straight, I understand about 70% of what was going on. :) |
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| Sunset on St. Kilda pier - St. Kilda is a suburb of Melbourne and just south of the main city along the ocean. Lot of bars and restaurants and night life in St. Kilda - I will definitely spend more time here if I ever come back to Melbourne. |
Awesome!!!
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