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. 

SYDNEY...Day 1!

Ta da....we made it! After 26 hours of traveling we finally made it. I was just reaching my peak of patience with traveling when I sat up on hour 12.5 in the plane, opened my window for the first time and saw this:

It was literally breathtaking, this picture doesn't even come close to doing it justice. Seeing this though suddenly made everything worth it and I was VERY excited to get to Sydney! Traveling always makes me so inspired and give me the feeling I can conquer the world, this image was so bright and vibrant I could tell it was going to another great trip! 

We were fortunate enough to sit next to an Australian on the plane who encouraged us to take the train to our hotel instead of a cab. The train was a little crazy, but definitely worth it - it ended up saving us about $150 in transportation fees. (did I mention Australia is EXPENSIVE -  like $8.50USD for a small red bull expensive!) In our quest though to see everything and to get ourselves time adjusted (as I type this it's 5:45pm on Tuesday in Sydney, and my computer which is still Iowa time says 1:47am Tuesday) we decided to not let ourselves sleep and get out to see this city!

In my first hour here I noticed two things right away: 

1) Australians seem to be very anxious to help tourists out - they are VERY nice!

2) The progressive insurance commercial here has an australian FLO - she looks almost like our FLO, but she has a thick Australian accent.

We had a great tip from another seat mate on the way over to check Sydney Groupon when we arrived, so far we've found passes for four exhibits and I signed up for surfing lessons on Friday!) 

Since it started out foggy, we did not want to go on the bridge today - so this afternoon we went to the Sydney Aquarium and the Sydney Wild Life Experience first. We crossed off one of the things I was the most excited for - to meet a Koala. This little gal's name is Lara and she was super soft! The Koala keeper told us Koala's sleep 18-21 hours per day, Lara woke up for our meeting though which was only proper considering how far we traveled to meet her! She was very soft - which surprised me, I thought her fur would be a little more coarse. Also, with our "Koala Experience Package" we were given a key-chain with our picture with Lara in it. Mom - I'm glad your birthday is coming up!

After these two awesome stops we went for a drink and some lunch. They have Bulmers (an irish cider beer the states does not have) here! That made me very happy - and Derek found he likes Murray's - an Australian beer. After that we went to the Chinese friendship garden which was very pretty and friendly of course! Then we made our way back to the train station. 

We're supposed to be going out for dinner in a half an hour, but Derek is officially sleeping. We've made it SO long today, yesterday and the day before that which out much sleep. Hopefully we can push through just a few more hours and we'll be set! All in all today was great, I'm very proud of us for really getting our bearings and we have figured out how to get around. 


"green note" - Australia is RIDICULOUSLY clean! I noticed right away how little trash (or as they refer to it - rubbish) - was on the ground. It seems like they are very earth sensitive as well as what their carbon footprint is. I love that!


Cheers!