Dec 29 - Jan 1

I know it has been awhile since our last post, but the days go by quick here and do not leave much time for writing. We are currently on a plane going to Cairns, pronounced cans, so I finally have time to sit and write. I sure am glad James brought his laptop!

From the past few days, I have realized how fun and beautiful Australia is. Not only physically, but the citizens as well. It is hard to find an unhappy or unwelcoming person.

The world…according to Sam..

December 29

After our exhausting day in the city, we decided to have a beach day. Unfortunately the weather was not ideal for it was extremely windy and cloudy. Being in Australia for over 48 hours, James was disappointed we had not gone into the water yet. Regardless of the weather, we had to take a swim. Needless to say, IT WAS FREEZING! My skin was numb. I didn’t last long, but James and Bret did. The waves were huge and they had a great time bodysurfing, or attempting to.

After it started raining, we hiked back to the hotel where James and I got ready for dinner at North Bondi Italian. We decided to dress quickly and grab a few drinks at a local pub. A few days ago we noticed a fun hole in the wall (literally) Mexican restaurant/bar. The Beach Burrito Café was such a fun place with really good drinks and mango salsa. Before we left the US, my dad said we had to come back with a drink recipe. I guess he doesn’t want James claiming his coveted Markarita recipe anymore. J Remembering this, we decided to order something we never heard of before, the mojada. A mojada is a mojito made with tequila instead of rum. It was delicious. Like my parents do when they find a fun drink, we asked the bartender for the recipe. We are excited to try it when we arrive home, the only issue is that the measurements and ingredients are a bit weird. I’m sure we will manage or make it better.

I know you are wondering how we could go to a Mexican bar in Australia, but the truth is that the cuisine assortment in Australia is similar to that in the States.

Needless to say, today was not that exciting. It was nice to relax and catch up on some of the time we had lost in the past few days. In addition, my legs were spent from the climb last night!

December 30

Today we went took an all-day tour of the Blue Mountains. I have been looking forward to this day because Jessica Cooper, a friend at MU who studied abroad in AUS last year, raved about the mountains and their greatness. Little did I know, today would be one of my favorite days, and not only because of the sights.

The tour consisted of traveling to multiple sights within the Blue Mountains, a wildlife park, and an amazing lunch at a local restaurant. We were picked up in Sydney by a large 4x4 semi truck. Being the first passengers to be picked up, our tour guide, Mark, asked us if we wanted to sit in front. I jumped up and volunteered James and I because it was a much better view and we could pick Mark’s brain. It took about two hours to get to the mountains, but it was well worth it.

Our first stop was to small area where wild kangaroos frequent. I think they are around often because of the campers. The “wild” kangaroos were quite tame and were not scared off by humans. It was interesting though and we snapped a few pictures. Looking back at the photos, it is funny how they look like deer.

After the wild animals, we traveled to the Pulpit, an extremely high lookout within the mountains. The view was absolutely beautiful and it comparable to the Grand Canyon. From the pictures you will see an array of levels. The ones from a distance are Robin’s. Her and George didn’t climb down, so you will be able to see what we climbed. Looking back, it is kind of scary. In addition to the height, it was extremely windy. I thought I was going to blow right off the canon, seriously!

We then traveled to a quaint local restaurant that served authentic Australian food. The smorgasbord included a beautiful pumpkin soup, roast, vegetables, butter chicken which tasted like curry, and fish. My favorite was the pumpkin soup. I am going to find a recipe and try to remake it.

After lunch, we went to a lookout to view the Three Sisters. The Three Sisters are a cluster of three stones that were supposedly three daughters that were turned into stone by their father when a witch was chasing them. It seems as if there are a lot of random stories like that in Australia.

After the three sisters, we moved on to the Wildlife Park where we could pet koalas, wallabies, and kangaroos. I have come to the conclusion a “wildlife park” is a fancy name for a zoo. I hate zoos. I feel horrible for the animals because they are trapped in small stalls. How can these animals be happy? Don’t birds need to fly in large spaces? The animals, especially the koalas, looked so sad. Even though I hate zoos, I did give in and fed some animals and had my picture taken. I wasn’t happy, but I decided that I had to since I came all this way.

After the tour, we took a ferry to Manly Beach and had dinner. Mark, who grew up on Manly Beach, said the fish and chips at Manly were the best. James and I both love fish and chips, so of course we had to try them. I’m not going to lie and say they were the best ever, but the quality of the fish was outstanding. I have had pretty good fish and chips in my day, but the actual fish was never this good. We are looking forward to trying more fish and chips in Cairns.

After dinner, the rest of the group headed back to the hotel. James and I decided to stay back and check out Manly. We wanted to go out, but we were exhausted. The wine at dinner didn’t help much either. Instead of going out, we stopped for some local ice cream and sat on the beach. It was a great ending to an outstanding day. It may have been the fabulous company, or the freshly made coconut ice cream, I can’t decide…

As I said earlier, today was one of my favorite days. It was such a great day because of our tour guide, Mark. Because James and I sat in front most of the time, we were able to talk to Mark for the duration of the trip. We picked his brain about everything. Him and James had a lot to talk about because Mark has his pilot’s license, and as most of you know, James is an aerospace engineer. They went back and forth about flying, Boeing, and the like. My favorite conversations were the ones about Australia and Mark’s travels. He seems to have gone everywhere. He’s lived in South Africa, Atlanta, Thailand, Australia, and so many more. In addition to his knowledge about those areas, we spoke about the differences between the US and Australia. He spoke generally about Australia’s views towards the US, our president, and lifestyle. It is so interesting hearing another perspective.

Something I’ve noticed while in Australia is that many people take the time to travel instead of worrying about being “on track” like in the US. Why can’t we be like this also? I want to travel and live life. This trip has definitely caused me to re-evaluate my career path. (Don’t worry mom and dad, you didn’t waste your money...my background is very flexible! J) I am going to look for a job in the tourism industry, everything else just seems mundane to me now.

December 31

It’s New Years Eve on Bondi Beach and there is definitely a buzz around the city. There are a variety of festivities going on, so it was hard to choose what to do. It is odd being so far ahead of everyone, hard to believe we will be experiencing the new year 17 hours before everyone else.
To start off the day, we took surfing lessons. There weren’t many waves today, so I thought it wouldn’t be that hard or rough….boy was I wrong! I was manhandled by the waves. I have never been so tossed around. Just when I thought I was safe, I would be knocked over by my board. All in all, surfing was a lot of fun and work. My arms hurt badly...we had to paddle so much! According to our instructor, I was the only one who stood up and stayed up for awhile. But I think Bret stood up a few times also. I look forward to attempting surfing again, but boogey-boarding may be more my style. I did notice a lot of the motions were similar to yoga, I feel as if that may have helped me…a little bit.

The weather was outstanding today so we had another beach day. Knowing that my body has issues with sunscreen, I pretty much showered in sunscreen before leaving the hotel. Sadly, that did not save my body and I have the wildest sunburn. Ever since Mexico in 2005, my body burns so easily and sunscreen doesn’t help much. I am hoping to tan over before the beach action in Cairns.

To celebrate the New Year, we went out to eat at a beautiful restaurant called Nick’s Seafood. The restaurant is located along the water and had a great view of the sunset. I tried a new drink called a Pimm’s Cup. It was delicious for it had a mixture of Pimm’s (gin), lemonade, ginger ale, apples, cucumbers, and oranges. YUM-O!

After dinner we went to Reviess’s, a swanky bar on Bondi beach’s strip. The bar was nice, but it could have been better. After the New Year countdown came and went, we went back to the hotel and enjoyed our complimentary bottles of champagne. There was a concert on the beach, with tickets at $200 each, but we could listen to it from above. We had a great time sitting on the beach, enjoying champagne and mimosas and discussing the wild rave music below. It was a great way to spend New Years Eve in Australia. Sure it could have been a bit more wild and crazy, but it was nice to to sit back, relax, and spend time with friends and family.

January 1

After our late night, we had a later start this morning. After getting started, James and I took a hike along the beach line. The path led to three other small beaches and rock paths. The views were amazing. The combination of the water splashing against the rocks and beach, the sun, and scenery contributed to a great ending in Bondi Beach.

Tonight we went into the city and ate in the Sydney Tower’s Rotating Restaurant. The restaurant was as high as the Eiffel Tower and rotated 360 degrees. The view was impeccable and the food was mediocre. I would suggest doing the observation deck and skipping the dinner.
After dinner we walked to Darling Harbor. We didn’t stay too long for we had to pack for tomorrow’s flight.
January 2
Today we leave Bondi Beach/Sydney and travel to Cairns. Cairns is located about four hours by plane from Sydney and is home to the Great Barrier Reef. As I stated earlier, I initially started writing this post on the plane. I am now crammed in the back of our rental van with luggage falling on me….obviously our travel mates didn’t pack as light as James and I. I must be going now….George is driving and it is a bit crazy for he has to drive on the other side of the road….say a little prayer for us..

…Well, we made it to our hotel safely – George did an amazing job driving on the opposite side of the road. We are staying at the Rockford Mercure Grand Esplanade, which are actually condos, so we have a full kitchen and laundry room! I’m excited because we can wash all of our clothes before Thailand. Robin was reading through a book on the table and it warned people about creatures in the water. I did not know crocodiles frequented the ocean, I thought they were only found in fresh water. Realizing this, my fear for sharks rose also. James kept promising me there were no crocodiles or sharks in this area, but I did not believe him. To compensate, I walked down to the lifeguard to ask a few questions. He told me there were sharks and crocodiles in this area and that they are a problem but I should be more worried about jellyfish/stingers. (He was in full stinger gear) The water was actually closed today because of the jellyfish – this area is home to deadly jellyfish….you will actually die. So, the combination of killer jellyfish, crocodiles, sharks, and stingrays has helped me decide that I will not be swimming in the water by our hotel.

I then continued to ask about the Great Barrier Reef and sharks out there. He said there are sharks and I will probably see them. Most of them are reef sharks, which are not dangerous, but BIG ones are sometimes there as well. I am not sure how I feel about this, but it will prevent me from diving. The lifeguard said he would not swim at our beach, but would recommend diving.
Regardless to say, Cairns’s beaches aren’t what I expected, but there are a lot of other things to do in the area. James and I are considering skydiving. :)

­­­­­­­­The world….according to James

A lot has happened since the last post, but Sam has taken care of telling you about all that. I would like to say that surfing is both difficult and exhausting, but if we went back out at low tide I think I would be able to do it better. It was still fun to learn and maybe I’ll get a chance to rent a board and practice on my own. If you ever get the chance to try you definitely should.
My beer search has yet to yield a winner, but all of the beer tastes good and I haven’t had a bad one yet. Most of them are Lagers so that’s the main difference between Australian beer and the beer at home. Per Dis’s suggestion I did try VB. It was good, but not something I want to drink every day. They do have a few good rums to choose from; both Bundaberg and Coruba are nice. The best drinks have been the extra dry beers, which taste more like pilsners than lagers, but I’ll keep trying new ones when I can.

The only other thing I have to tell you that Sam hasn’t already mentioned is my near death experience. Now most of you are probably wondering whether it involved some poisonous spider or snake, or maybe a shark or crocodile, or one of the many other ways to endanger yourself in a place like Australia. But you would all be completely wrong. This has nothing to do with Australia, or even any other location in particular. It could happen on any beach to anyone at any time, so I feel I should warn you all. We had all been lying on the beach catching some sun. Sam went up to McDonald’s to use the internet, and Bret and Andrea went up to the room to get cleaned up, which left me out on the beach by myself. Well, not exactly by myself since there were probably a couple thousand other people on this beach. I had noticed earlier that if you lay your head down on the sand you can hear the footsteps when someone gets close enough to move the sand within a few feet of your head. As I was lying there with my eyes closed I suddenly heard so many footsteps all around me that I sat up to see what was happening. I had enough time to grab the beach bag and the other towel and pull them in close to me before I was surrounded by a stampede of people. There must have been several hundred people all moving in a group down the beach, directly over where I was sitting. I kind of felt like a Wal-Mart greeter on the day after Thanksgiving, so I just sat there hoping they would all step around me. The herd managed to avoid trampling me, but they did step all over the towel I was sitting on and get sand everywhere. Just as quickly as they were there, they moved on down the beach, probably scaring their next unsuspecting sunbather. I had an idea what had caused the crowd, but I asked someone anyway. This massive crowd of people swarming all over the beach and ignoring anything in their path were all trying to get a glimpse of a famous celebrity. A star worthy of such adoration by hundreds of people; one that could cause them to run around holding their camera phones up in the air in failed attempts to get a picture of this “goddess”. You may have guessed it already, but I’ll tell you anyway; I was almost trampled to death by a crowd following Paris Hilton. Yeah, all for freaking Paris Hilton. She was doing an event in Sydney for Versace or something like that, and on this day she decided to take a stroll down the beach. I would have understood if some screaming teenage girls or maybe a few young boys had been following her, but this group included every type of person imaginable, from what I could see of their legs and the tail end of the hoard after it passed me. Maybe next time I can get almost trampled by a crowd following someone who is actually interesting; I didn’t even know people still cared what Paris Hilton did every day. I was pleased to find out on the news later that she cut her beach day short when someone threw sand at her. Maybe it was just an unruly fan, but personally I think it was someone seeking revenge after almost getting trampled and having sand thrown all over them. I wish I could find that person and buy them a beer….
So let this be a warning to you. If you are out on the beach always be aware of the dangers from sun, riptides, jellyfish, sharks, and massive crowds following “celebrities”. I guess if this is the worst thing that happens to me on this trip I should consider myself lucky. At least they didn’t smash my hat, she would have definitely gotten sand thrown at her then. That’s all for now, we are off to Cairns to do some snorkeling, scuba diving, rainforest tours, and who knows what else, so I’m sure we will have a lot to talk about next time.

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I am hoping to publish photos soon. It takes awhile to upload them and internet isn't as available here.

We hope you had a great New Year!

With love,
Sam and James