Sydney Day FIVE

After all of the surfing excitement it was time for some scenic therapy. We decided to go on a Blue Mountains tour. I'm really glad we decided to do this. It's always a risk taking a guided tour that lasts for the entire day. If it sucks - you've just lost a whole day in a city you've traveled very far to spend a very limited time in. Luckily though - this did not suck. Meet Sam - our tour guide. He was fun and was willing to trade out Australian information in exchange for us answering questions he had about the U.S. 

We started off the trip mostly through Sydney. It turns out it's actually quite difficult to get out of Sydney because it's so vast, land wise. We drove for about two hours away and were still in Sydney. I like tours like this because they tend to give you a lot of local information you probably wouldn't have any other way. For instance, we found out the cheapest housing to purchase in Sydney is around 300k (AUD - so basically 330k USD). Sam said at that price you don't even have a bedroom, that is a studio apartment. The biggest difference here though is for Australians their pricing on goods is relative to their income. Starting wages here for even non office jobs is around 60k (AUD) Derek and I noticed right away most, if not all, of the people that waited on us in restaurants were older adults - Sam said starting pay for waiters/waitresses is about $25/hour. Because it's so high though. tipping is not really customary here. Tipping only really happens if you had a special occasion, or something went wrong on your part (your baby threw food everywhere etc...). Otherwise - tipping is not so much here. It's actually really hard to get used to the idea, I still feel bad every time we don't tip. I keep asking different Australians their opinion and it's all the same. No tipping. I suppose when you pay $18 for two beers though, it makes sense. We also found out Australians don't pay for health insurance - they have a universal government provided health insurance. Because of this their government really pushes a healthy lifestyle. I have yet to see any sort of even remotely overweight Australian. (seriously! It's almost strange) They also seem to be very content people. I feel like in the US everyone is always competing - who's got a bigger house, better purse, better cars etc.... They don't seem to have status symbol concerns as much here. They also seem fine with working really hard for their paychecks. I think every dinner has had some of the highest service I've ever experienced - and all for no tip. They just are proud of their great work. I wish I could bring that mentality home to the US as a souvenir for the whole nation. Instead of working hard, we have people taking welfare just to cheat the system, or there's always people complaining about how hard they have to work for their paychecks. I suggest they spend some time in Australia. They seem to have it figured out. They are also the best "green" country I've ever seen. They do the following to protect the earth in their country:


1) All city busses run on natural gas


2) The government here pays you to install solar panels on your homes. They will pay HALF of the installation, then if the solar panels are providing enough energy for your home AND others they will pay you monthly too and you won't have an energy bill.


3) It's been practically impossible to find any rubbish (trash) anywhere it's not supposed to be, it's so clean here I'd consider eating off the ground. (consider)


4) Every piece of meat served to you anywhere is considered Organic. They do not have giant chicken or cow manufactures that have animals that have never and will never see the light of one day or one blade of grass. Every animal they have as food here was originally free-range and never fed one preservative etc...of any sort. It's really amazing. Every single menu promotes eating organic and being aware of where your food comes from. Every menu also has full on vegetarian options. I haven't really seen a lot of vegan - but a TON of vegetarian options. It's really awesome!
First top on the tour was the Featherdale Wildlife Preserve. This place rocks and is is a definite must do for anybody traveling here. It's basically one large up close and personal with the animals experience. It was SO cool. They had almost every bird that is found in Australia, which is a ton and some are very colorful and beautiful. We saw a Tazmanian Devil (he did not spin around in cyclones - to my dismay), a dingo, and my favorite the Koalas and Kangaroos. They have a whole area you were allowed to just walk around with the Kangaroos. You could also buy ice cream cones filled with food for them to feed them! It was fun but a little scary - there were no employees around just Derek and I and the two French people we were traveling with - left to our own devices with the Kangaroos. We were also the first people in the park that morning and they were eagerly anticipating the food we brought them (never mind their giant piles of food the keepers had already put out). This picture really only tells part of this particular story. This is Derek nicely feeding one - but look at the big Kangaroo to the left approaching - the baby Derek was feeding took that cone. The big Kangaroo did NOT like that so he (she?) went over to the baby and kicked it to get it to surrender the cone! Literally kicked it! Poor thing - so we turned over our only other cone to the baby. We did both pet one (not that big one!) baby Kangaroo. Then at the end of our tour one of the keepers put a bag (pouch) over my neck that had a really tiny Kangaroo in it! 

After that we headed to the Botanical Gardens where we also had lunch. The view was spectacular. I'm not sure I've ever seen something so huge and filled with so many trees. Sam kept telling us it was similar to the Grand Canyon, but that (to my memory) was brown and dry. These mountains (more like rolling large hills really) were filled inch to inch with trees. Again, it's Fall here so some of the flowers were starting to wilt -which is so strange to think because ours are starting to bloom! Here's a really cool flower we saw though!

After these gardens we went driving through the mountains. They are called the Blue Moutains because from a distance you can see the oil reflecting off of them and it gives them a blue tint. These mountains make up 60% of Australia's National Park land. Sam took us to three different stops for great views. The first stop was not a usual tourist stop - it was just a location he had found. He told us he thinks some people come here for an "Australian Divorce" a.k.a. push your spouse off the mountain. It was really high up, but Derek and I climbed on the highest rock we could find and it was breathtaking:

Next we went to another stop and saw a natural waterfall! It was just so unbelievable how large these mountains and valleys were. 


Finally we stopped by "The Three Sisters" rock formation. The original settlers in Australia (the Aboriginals) have a legend of how these rocks were formed you can read here. These were very cool too and gave us some great pictures. Also, we found out most of the worlds Opal's come from Australia. There were a ton of Opal shops around the area. 

We finished off the tour by driving through their Olympic Park. The Sydney 2000 Olympics were held here. The area the park is in now is actually really flourishing and the hot thing is to live in the athletes housing. I don't think I had ever seen an Olympic Park before (if I have my Dad will prove me wrong), but it's amazing how large they are. Also, how much was built around it - hotels, grocery stores etc... just to try and manage the crowds.
We took the ferry back to Circular Quay to avoid the Saturday rush hour traffic. I would definitely tell anybody to make sure they take this tour if they are visiting Sydney.


At night we went to one of the most beautiful dinners I've ever been to. It was a grill called Wolfey's and it was right on the harbor. It was just so beautiful I was giddy like a school girl the entire meal. We took this picture before - and our restaurant was about 10 steps from here. 

We absolutely had the best table in the place and it was all open so you could feel the evening's air while we were eating. I think it was one of the best views I've ever had for a meal. I ordered a Caesar salad and it came like this:

Derek had Baramunda fish for dinner and I tried one of their pizza's. Both were great. After dinner we went to a bar, that had a band playing. Every single song they played was something you would hear at a wedding at home. I asked the bloke (guy) next to me if they ever play any non-American music. He said no. There were also a bunch of Bachlorette parties taking place where we were, and the guy next to me looked at me, rolled his eyes and said stupid Hen's. I clearly look confused because he then explained to me they call those pre-wedding parties "Hen's Nights". The other unique thing about Australia is their bars don't have chairs at the actual bar. It's strange to see and normally Derek and I will grab a seat at the bar, clearly though we have left normal. 
Yet another amazing day and you won't hear any complaints out of me - maybe just that we have to leave this city soon....

Sydney Day 3 + 4!

We've officially been here long enough now the days are starting to run together just a bit. Plus we've been so busy it's been hard to find time to do any "regular life" things - a.k.a. blogging. I'm determined though to have this blog to read as a great souvenir when I get him and I want it to be as fresh and accurate as possible so I'm going to get caught up!
Sydney Day 3 - Derek was still gone on his business trip, so I decided to take advantage of the quiet and do some actual relaxing on this vacation. I figured it might be my only chance - because I knew once Derek was back I'd go all Chevy Chase in "Vacation" on him and leave not even one spare second for relaxing. (This apparently was true to form as you can tell with the lack of blogging) I walked town to Pitt Street where they have the 2nd biggest mall I've ever been to in my life (first= Mall of America, naturally). It was really nice - they had quite a few options at multiple price points. I found the Forever 21 Australia version stores but also saw about three Louis Vuittion, Channel and Burberry stores too. They seem to have quite a bit of couture here yet no real strong style one way or another. The way they dress reminds me a lot of when I was in Japan where the girls' outfits definitely did not "match" per say but they did look like it was intentional and very pulled together. Sort of planned chaos I suppose. Anyway - the other interesting thing here is it is officially their Fall season - they consider it to be a bit chillier right now where Derek and I are running around in shorts because it's mid 70's. (20's Celsius) All of their clothes were sweaters and jeans etc...Shopping was also a bit of an experience to try and do the european sizing conversions. There was also a lot of touristy trinkets and trash shops, most of which carried hundreds of versions of UGG's. (probably fake)
In the afternoon I had a massage and facial scheduled. We've been lucky enough to be put up in the Four Seasons which is in the heart of the Circular Quay (which I keep referring to as the Circle K when I ask people how to get home and they get very confused until I remember I'm referring to an American gas station) 
Here is our beautiful view:

I spent the night hanging out in the giant bed with the giant down comforter continuing my reading of Hunger Games. It was very relaxing and now a few days later I'm very thankful I took that time because we've been going like crazy! 

Day 4 approached quickly. This morning brought my surfing lesson at Manly Beach. I had to leave the hotel by 7:30am - which on vacation, suddenly seems VERY early. I had to catch a ferry - my first time on the ferry. Sydney has GREAT public transportation. We bought a ticket each for $42.50 on the first day at the airport, which is valid for one week unlimited ferry, bus, and train rides. It's been really great and MUCH cheaper than what paying each time or taking cabs would have been. They are all pretty easy to navigate too. The Manly Beach ferry was about a 25 minute scenic ride from Circular Quay. For some reason, probably because I'm an Iowan, I took this day to go ahead and assume I did not need to figure out directions from the dock to the Manly Surf School. I guess I figured I would just ask somebody and certainly they would know. Turns out - they didn't. Nobody really knew exactly what I was talking about - but with perseverance, and about a 2 mile extra walk, I finally found it. I was rush off (because I was late) into a wet suit, t-shirt and given a surf board. Margo (a guy) was one of my instructors. On our walk down the beach to meet the rest of the group I learned two things that lessened my excitement for my first surfing attempt. 1) Today (of all days) was one of THE HIGHEST waves Margo had ever seen when teaching a surfing lesson (awesome) and 2) Margo followed a "broad" to Wisconsin, went to college (University) there and it didn't end well. Her name was Katie. (double awesome). He told me he promised to take care of me though - and since he was all I had, I grabbed onto the hope. During the first half an hour of surf lessons they basically explain everything NOT to do because (and they said this following sentence at least 10 times) it will literally break you neck. yikes! Then after you learn how to surf on land - the real quest comes, and it turns out the hardest part to surfing is actually getting your giant, bigger than yourself board out past the rip. (part where the waves are breaking) I kid you not when I say the waves when they were breaking were 2.5 (AT LEAST) times my height. They were so big that day they made us stand near where they were breaking without our boards just to get used to their strength. So going in blindly thinking - how hard can this really be - (said the girl who recently flipped a snowmobile) I jumped right in. First attempt out I made fast friends with another girl in the group because at the first wave break our boards went horizontal and pushed us both down under it and slammed us into the shallow sand bar. Lita (our other instructor) to the rescue though because he came up - basically told me to hang on, took my board out - flipped me around and caught me a wave. Then he said "JUMP JUMP JUMP!!!" so I did and I can officially say I stood up for 1.5 seconds. YEA!!! So that was fun and I grew some courage. Up next Margo took me out  and I was exited until I realized the thing about surfing is once you're headed out with your board (attached to your ankle mind you) there's only one way to get back in, and it's catching a wave. So on the time I went out with Margo - I'll admit it - I TOTALLY freaked because the waves grew in seconds to twice the size of when they started. I started yelling - I WANT TO GO IN! Margo said Katie - you're fine - I'm going to protect you remember? I said yeah - I just really want to go in. He said there's only one way in (a fact I now noticed they DON'T tell you when they are teaching the land portion of the class). My last words I yelled before the wave hit us - YEAH - BUT I'M FROM IOWA DAMNIT! It turned out though Margo knew a bit more about surfing than I did, he was able to catch me a wave and I got up AGAIN! (maybe only for 1 second this time, but it's still up!) After that I was exhausted - it was extremely tiring. I decided to watch the experts after that. My teachers tried to get me out again but after you're in your head about it - it's over. I think I would definitely try surfing again, but with the following changes. 1) Get a one-on-one instructor and 2) get smaller waves - maybe I'll try surfing at Sailorville or Okoboji this summer? I think that would be more my speed. Here's a picture of one of my instructors and me:

After surfing though, Derek met me at this great bar called "Hemmingway's in Manly" it had old books everywhere. I'm just amazed we actually were able to find each other in a place we'd never been and with no phones. That afternoon we had fish and chips (of course) and laid out on the beach for just a bit. The sun is REALLY hot here so an hour and a half was all we really needed to be red. 

This night we went to a beautiful restaurant called Cafe Sydney. On the way though when an elevator stopped on our floor we got in,like normal of course, but what wasn't normal was Lenny Kravitz in there! He had a show here that night and it was funny because I had overheard some Aussie gals talking about how excited they were for the show earlier that morning. He was very nice and even said "ladies first" to me. Of course Derek and I must have looked like Shrek to him because he was very short. Dinner though was great, I had a gnocchi dish and Derek had Tazmanian trout. It was definitely an amazing day.

Sydney Day 2!

Theres always a day on every vacation I go on I get all sorts of "working-out" rejuvenation and decide I need to go run a few miles, even though I haven't ran in a long time. Today was one of those inevitable days. Derek had to leave this morning for work things through Friday so all the more reason for my running choice. About 10 steps straight out from our hotel and 5 steps to the left is the harbor which holds the Sydney Opera House. It's an area called "The Rocks" and it's very beautiful and has a ton of character. I ran through here amongst a lot of other Aussie's running members. It was a VERY beautiful run. After that I came back, got ready and decided to venture out to Bondai beach and the Padington area.  First challenge though was the bus system. It turns out the busses are much more difficult to figure out than the trains - so much that I walked up and down the street with the multiple pick-up's of the various busses about 4 times. On the 4th trip back and forth a guy from england asked me if I needed help - he had only been her a day longer than myself. (excellent on the ego) Finally I (we) figured it out though! 

Padnington was a historic area that was victorian housing transferred into stores and restaurants. It also apparently is the current residence for "Occupy Sydney". Seriously - an Occupy Sydney camp! I saw it when I was on the bus so I didn't get a picture, apparently though, the 99% is also residing in Sydney. 

Then I headed to Bondai - luckily two guys with surf boards got on the bus I was on and I was able to follow them to the beach. I thought the surf board guys were very nice to help me out until the asked me where I was from.  When I said Iowa - they of course asked if I was in potato withdrawal (sigh) then asked me if I like Mitt Romney?! I told them Iowa is known because we lead the Caucuses. First they told me they've never heard of a Caucus, and after explaining it they told me that's called a Primary (double sigh). Just when I was hoping I was finishing my surfer guys conversation they explained to me that New Hampshire actually leads the primaries in the states - they suggested I Google it to get a little more information. To end it all they asked me what temperature it was in Iowa right now - I told them it's unusually warm and before I left it even hit 82 - to which they explained that is impossible because people would boil at that temperature - literally boil. I told them we function on Celsius and if they wanted more information they could Google it. They still ended with a nice "Cheers" and got me to the beach so I'll take it.

Bondai is beautiful! The tour book I have says it's filled with backpackers, tourists, and very attractive bodied locals. (yes - it seriously says that). After a quick look - I completely agree. 

I was starving so I wandered around for a bit and two older guys told me I should eat at the Bondai Surf Club and invited me in. (it was a private club so you had to be with a member). Finally I had my first Fish and Chips and I was not let down by the food or the view! I tried to watch the surfers for some tips before my surfing lesson Friday. I think the only tip I came up with is wear a life jacket.

After lunch I went for a walk on their infamous path along the ocean from Bondai Beach to Bronte Beach. It was definitely not a walk along the beach kind of walk, it was more of a walk over the cliffs to the other beach. Luckily I had just went running. right. Half way though I needed a break so I found some cliffs off the path and parked up for a while to finally start reading Hunger Games. Here was my view:

I realized yesterday with just only one totally free day on my own how crazy our life really is. With nothing to do and no specific schedule the day went by SO SLOW! I actually had time to think and enjoy everything. I could say now I'm going to try and get better about that when I'm home, but I've made and broken that promise to myself too many times. I can try though to relish the quiet while I have it. 

After the beach I went back to the hotel and talked myself into going out for dinner. I'm SO thankful I did because when I got side - this is the first thing I saw:

Beautiful all the time, but especially at sunset! I had dinner at an italian restaurant and had a beer at "Sydney's oldest bar" (according to the sign). I should have drank more because my body still hasn't transitioned to the time. I didn't sleep until about 2:30am. Maybe though, it was the absolutely inspiring view of the city at night from our hotel window - I couldn't stop looking at it.