Ah, Australia.. How I miss you so. It's been almost 2 weeks since our departure from SYD, and the what-I-thought-would-be-restful stopover in my hometown in Kennesaw, Georgia turned out to be a bit of a whirlwind visit. I'll be honest, I did have some time to write a post, but it took a good few days to get back on Eastern Standard Time...And we had to catch up on Mad Men...And Shameless...And watch "Gone with the Wind" (Which, by the way, Rhett Butler sounded much better in my head when I was reading... Um, where's the Charleston accent, Clark Gable?!)....And celebrate Mother's Day...Oh, and work on my resume (eek!). So, I am actually writing this post on the rooftop terrace of our hostel in Lima.
Rewind two weeks or so and our happy smiling faces were walking around Coogee Beach, enjoying the sunshine and seaside. We opted for an Airbnb place about a 30 minute bus ride to the Sydney harbor. We stayedwith a pair of cousins, Jaclyn and Gwyn, which worked out great. Coogee is a cool little beach town which has a nice walking path that connects the other beach towns, Maroubra and the famous Bondi beach. There were tons of nice local restaurants, and we had a kitchen so we could cook if we didn't feel like eating out. Sydney's bus system is pretty excellent, with buses running all hours of the day and night, and it's cheap to get around.
Coogee Beach
Sunrise during an early AM run.. I was able to get up super early during our stay in Coogee because there were these loud, crazy sounding birds that were a natural alarm clock beginning around 5:30 AM. Once I'm awake, it is hard for me to get back to sleep (Paul doesn't have that problem) so I tiptoe out and get my running gear on... At least I get to see cool sunrises like this one!
We were lucky to have lots of friends in Sydney while we were there, which made our stay even more fun. Our first night in town, we met up with a friend of Paul's from when we was at school in Portsmouth. He hadn't seen Rhys in about 15 years because he left for Tennessee, and Rhys headed to Australia to backpack around and ended up making it his new home by becoming a citizen (I don't blame him). We met up with Rhys for dinner in Surry Hills, a neighborhood in Sydney, and had the best Thai food I've had outside of Thailand at this place called Spice I Am.. It was so delicious! Sydney has a really ecclectic food scene, with lots of Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Middle Eastern places around the city.
Our second day in Sydney, we met up with Richard and Joann, Dave's cousins we met in Brisbane who happened to be there when we were. We walked with them from Coogee to Bondi along the seaside, about a 1.5 hour walk. It was a really nice day, and it was fun swapping travel stories with them, as they are two Brits who have been on the road for quite some time as well and are thinking about settling down abroad in Spain.. It seems most people who travel long term have very similar mindsets, home is where you make it!
Bondi Beach!
We did experience our first rainy day for some time in Sydney, but we still managed to get out and about. We found this used bookstore in Randwick, a nearby neighborhood, that was sadly going out of business. The shelves were still full of books when we got there, and everything in the store was $2.00 or less. We walked out of that place with 8 books, including Bourdain's book Kitchen Confidential, which I've never read. We wondered how we were going to get them home, since our bags are already pretty full, but we managed to squeeze them in among Paul's guitar case. After the visit to the treasure trove of used books, we found a cool movie theatre called the Ritz, that had an old fashioned feel. We ended up watching "The Grand Budapest Hotel", and when we came out the sun was out. Perfect!
We also were able to get an authentic Anzac Day experience while in Sydney. Anzac Day is similar to our Memorial Day, an also a public holiday where everyone gets really toasted. Anzac Day is also the only day of the year when Aussies can play "Two's Up", which is really a glorified "Heads or Tails" with two coins. People have apparently had to pull out second mortgages on their homes and have emptied bank accounts playing this game, so the government deemed it illegal to play in bars or public arenas on every day except Anzac Day.
Naturally, we had to see what all the Anzac Day antics were about and see "Two's Up" in the flesh. We met up with Rhys again at his favorite pub, which was absolutely packed full of people. After a while, a game got started. Basically, one person starts a bet on one side of the coin and then a contender matches them. There is one person who flips two coins in the air, and if both coins land on the side called, the caller gets the other person's money. Pretty much like playing Red or Black on a roulette table, and people get just as into it in the pub as they do in the casino. Definitely a fun game to watch, and a dangerous one to play as the night goes on and the drinks keep coming.. We had one round against an Aussie girl, we bet $20 on tails (tails never fails) and we WON! Then we walked away....that was our first source of income since we left (besides the awesome little deposits I get from Charles Schwab bank reimbursing my ATM fees abroad. I love you, Chuck)!
The next day was a big big day... My 28th birthday! My mom was great and bought us two tickets to climb the Sydney Harbor bridge for my special day. It was a blast! We had a really nice and informative guide that took us up the over 400ft high spine of the bridge. The tour lasted about 3 hours, and at no point during the tour did I feel scared. You are all strapped in and hooked to a zipline type thing, and there are wide paths with railings on either side. We had some really great views, but we weren't allowed to bring any personal items up with us, so that meant no cameras or cell phones. We did get to pay $20 for a picture at the end, which was worth it. They also did a free little 8 second video at the top of the bridge, in which Paul sings "Happy Birthday" as I do a stupid little dance and look embarassed haha.
The fun day didn't end when the tour was over.. Dave and Zoe just happened to be in Sydney too! Dangerous Dave was in good form when we met him after the climb.. Boardwalk, his racehorse who had come 7th in the race we watched him, came in 1st place in the horse race! Dave was super happy and insisted taking us out for my birthday, which was awesome. We went to this really good brunch place down at The Rocks, and enjoyed celebrating Boardwalk's victory and anniversary of my birth.
We finished our nice meal, and then we saw these........
Why not take a tour around Sydney in a weird converted motorcycle? Sure! Sounds great! Paul has way more pictures of us in our gear on his instagram, you can see it @tighthipshoppy. I think we had the biggest smiles plastered on our face the entire time we rode around the city. I had never been on a motorcycle before, and it was fun! We went over the bridge and around the docks, then through the city. The driver really kicked it into gear in some parts of the tour, which was exhilirating! IT WAS AWESOME.
The celebration continued through the day and way into the night, and we were so lucky to have such great friends to share my special day. They even let us stay in their hotel room (which was huge, and had a nice couch for us to sleep on) so we didn't have to trudge back to Coogee that night. It was definitely at the top of my list of epic birthday celebrations.... May have been, without a doubt, the best one yet!
The next morning was rough. I had worn a t-shirt and shorts for the Bridge climb, and ended up buying a whole outfit to wear for our night out, thanks to Topshop. We woke up to a steady English-style, light- but soak you to the bone, rain and then realized we had to somehow get back to Coogee. The bus stand we needed was a good 30 minute walk away, we were hungry, and Paul didn't have a rain jacket. By the time we got the sense to stop in a convenience store and buy him a poncho, he was already completely soaked. We then seeked out some food in the basement of a random shopping mall to get out of the rain, and made our way to wait for the bus. We sat on the bus, shivering, and I was asleep by the time we got to our stop. Needless to say, I was happy to get back to a warm house and dry clothes. Totally worth it, though, for the day we had before!
Our last few days in Sydney, we spent time walking around the parks and giving ourselves a tour of all the "must see" spots, like the Opera House, Botanical gardens, The Rocks, and Darling Harbour. The weather the rest of our stay was beautiful, which was great! We had a really great time in Sydney, mostly because of all the friends we were able to spend time with! We have been so fortunate to have such awesome people in our lives, and they have made this experience so special. I am sure had we visited without having friends randomly in Sydney, it still would have been great, since pretty much all the people we have met here have been extremely friendly and love to have a good time. I really miss Australia!
We flew out of SYD on our buddy passes (THANK YOU Martina!!!!!!) and got on the flight easily and without problem, despite the warnings we had had about the possibility of being stuck in a city because you fly standby and get repeatedly bumped. Delta was great, I love their flight attendants. We then touched down in LAX and were sooo lucky to get on an oversold flight headed for Atlanta. Originally, we had planned to stay in LA for a couple of days and then head to Bogota via Atlanta, but that all changed after 14 hours and a dwindling bank account thanks to expensive places like Taiwan and Aus. Instead, we changed our flight, got on the 9:30 AM flight to ATL, and ended up staying at my mom's house for 12 days. That, my friends, was a wise decision. Our bodies were shattered.
It was a huge culture shock being back home, and that's the topic of my next post. We had a little taste of the reality we will soon return to, and it was kind of hard to adjust back into life at home. I found everything was still the same, and I had changed a lot.
For now, I'll enjoy this rooftop terrace in Lima... We've come full circle, to the country that helped us decide, yes, we can travel long term and not want to gauge eachother's eyes out. Yes, travel is amazing and we have to keep going..
I have a lot of books to get through in my bag and I still have to finish Bourdain's book! Until next time..
MC
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