Melbourne

Having already spent a solid month in Sydney, Sarah and I felt it was time we ventured out to other cities. On Monday March 14th, Sarah and I headed to the airport for our 6:40 am flight, eager to spend three days in Melbourne. Melbourne is located at the south eastern tip of Australia, in the state of Victoria. We arrived in the city around 9 am, dropped our bags off at our hostel and explored the city. Downtown is filled with great architecture. Here are a few shots I took.

 

We stumbled upon a few alleys that were covered in graffiti. There was some pretty sweet art out there. This portrait was one of my favorites.

We spent some time exploring the lovely city parks as well.

While exploring the Treasury Gardens we found the JFK memorial. 

It just so happens that the day we were there was actually Moomba day, or their version of labor day. So we got to see another parade!  The definite highlight for me was Santa. Santa never fails to steal the show, but this Santa was special. He was wearing a hawaiian t-shirt and his sleigh was pulled by albino kangaroos. Now that's pretty cool.

 

After the parade, we visited the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. We saw a super sweet exhibit called "Dreams Come True: The Art of Disney's Classic Fairy Tales." I owe Sarah a big thanks for talking me into going to this. We were able to see original art actually featured in the films and the art that inspired the characters we are now so familiar with.  The art displayed was from Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Princess and the Frog, and Tangled. After a day of exploring the city, Sarah and I went to little Greece. I have had a lot of gyros in my day, both good and bad, and these were delicious! A perfect end to a fabulous day.

Watson's Bay... for real

You may recall from an earlier post that Sarah I took a day trip to Watson's Bay, saw some cool stuff, but somehow failed to find the beach. On Sunday the 13th, we finally found Camp Cove beach! It was quite beautiful and worth the second attempt. 

and the other side...

 

Another day well spent, I say.

Blue Mountains

On Saturday March 12th, Sarah, Melissa and I headed East to the Blue Mountains. We decided it would be a wise decision to take a bus tour and we had the best tour guide ever: Keenu! We left the city bright and early. As we crossed the Sydney Harbor Bridge, Keenu blasted Survivor's Eye of the Tiger. It was perfect. A few hours and a bit of snooze later (I fall asleep every time I get on a bus like this, it never fails) we had arrived. Our first stop was a hike down to Wentworth Falls. Here we are at our highest elevation. 

And this is the view we were blocking...

We had to meander our way down to the falls. Here's what a good portion of the path looked like. It was definitely not made for those a bit uncomfortable with heights.  Below the ledge we were standing on is a straight drop.

 

We also saw some mini waterfalls along the way. My main reason for inserting this picture is to showcase our sweet guide Keenu. (He's the one in the middle with the awesome hat.) There's really no way of describing Keenu. He was an extremely knowledgeable guide and I learned loads of interesting facts, but I am pretty sure he was also crazy. His favorite expression: "...BUT...so, yeah." (Ask Sarah or me to do an impression of him when we come back home. We're both pretty good at it.) No other guide will ever live up to you, Keenu...

BUT...so, yeah. When we finally made it down to the bottom, this is a taste of what we found. This photo doesn't come close to doing justice to this waterfall which measures at 250 meters.  And after we walked all the way down, guess what, we had to walk all the way back up. Trip highlight for sure...No but seriously, it was definitely worth it.

After visiting Wentworth Falls, we enjoyed a lovely lunch break (sandies and pasta, yum!) and headed to Jamison Valley. On our way to the iconic rock formation the Three Sisters, we had the pleasure of walking down the 860 Furber Stairs. That's a lot of stairs!  As we passed through the rainforest, we came across Katoomba falls.

Imagine you are looking at the falls. Now turn your head 30 degrees to the right. This is what you'll see: the Three Sisters (top left hand corner).  I can't help but think of my two amazing sisters whenever I see this :) It was a beautiful sight.

And here's a closer look...

Melissa and me admiring the views...

860 steps was a long way down, there's no way I wanted to hike back up. Luckily, we didn't have to. We took the Scenic Railway instead.  This is the world's steepest railway and it felt like it too. We were pretty much shot backwards up a mountain at what was likely a 60 degree incline. It felt like we were going straight up. And there wasn't much keeping us from falling out either (not much of a railing on the other side). As you can see by the expression on Sarah's face, it was a bit intense. Maybe too intense...

After reaching the top, we hopped back on our bus and headed back to Sydney. The highlight of our ride home? Keenu's stellar renditions of some Queen classics. All in all a fabulous trip and our first venture outside of the big city...BUT, so yeah...more to come in a bit!

Bondi Rescue

On March 8th, Sarah and I went to Bondi Beach...again. As we were walking, we encountered Sam the Butcher and his variety of fresh game.  I was very tempted to buy the kangaroo patties but ultimately decided to pass on the offer.


I know I have mentioned before that Bondi is pretty much one of the most famous of Sydney's beaches.  Not only is it known for the crowd it brings in daily, but it is also has it's very own television show. The first time we visited the beach, I noticed that there were cameramen following the lifeguards around which seemed strange to me. That very night I was flipping through our very limited TV channels and what do you think I discovered? Bondi Rescue.  Basically this show gives us a glimpse into the thrilling daily tasks of a lifeguard.  It covers everything from jellyfish stings, to thieves, to near drownings (mostly drunk americans, figures!). And while I can't say I'm a huge fan of the show, it can be quite entertaining. Here's a shot Sarah took of them filming. Our first brush with fame here! (But it won't be the last. You'll have to stay tuned to find out more...)


While television history was being captured on the sand, Sarah and I couldn't help but look to the skies. And I think this is probably the cutest message that was ever spelled in the sky. It was too massive to fit into one picture, but you get the idea. I know if I was "baby" the smiley face would have won back my heart. Gets me every time.

And that was that. More to come in a bit! :)

Shades & Parades

On March 3rd, where do you think Sarah and I went? To the beach of course! Bronte this time. And we brought our American friend Melissa along. If you couldn't tell, we like the beach. It's a swell place to spend some time. There's not much to say about this trip, so I'll just let you sit back and enjoy the view.

Here are the three of us at an "american" bar, Shady Pines. Apparently it's american because there are stuffed moose and deer heads mounted on the wall! Apart from that, I immediately took a liking to this place. The lighting, decor and staff made it feel as if I had walked into a different time.

On Saturday the 5th, we attended Sydney's world famous Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade. Here's Sarah and me before the parade, not quite sure what to expect from the evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 As you can see from the picture above, this parade draws quite the crowd. So many come that there are people on the sidewalks selling stools for parade goers to stand on. Sarah is doing a semi-decent job of protecting our stools with her life. At first the idea of buying a stool to see a parade seemed a bit too hard core for me, but I would definitely recommend it. I had no idea how fun it was to be 7 feet tall. You can see everything up there! And I only felt slightly bad for the people standing behind us.  Below is a picture of the first attraction at the parade: lovely ladies from Queensland on their motorcycles:

And here are some wanna be life guards (stay between the red and yellow flags!) I won't narrate all of these photos, but I think they will give you just a tiny tiny taste of what we experienced.

And here's what our sidewalk looked like at the end of it all. Glitter and confetti everywhere!! It was quite the fun time. Definitely the most memorable parade I've ever been to. And that was that. More in a bit.

We're alive!

And we're back in action! I apologize for my extended absence.  I admit I became a bit lazy in the blogging department, but I promise I will try not to let that happen again. Key word here being "try." So where were we? Oh, yes. On Monday February 28th, Sarah and I headed over the the Sydney Aquarium. While there we had the pleasure of seeing all the beautiful and deadly creatures in the sea. A few of our favorites included sharks of all varieties, jelly fish, octopi, etc. It was pretty much your standard aquarium. Here's me as I am about to be dropped down to the depths of the ocean!

We spent a good deal of time with the dugongs at Mermaid Lagoon. At first I thought dugongs were the same as manatees, but I have just learned now with the help of Wikipedia, that dugongs and manatees are different species but belong to the same order Sirenia. Here's Sarah sitting besides a lovely lego mermaid at the lagoon.  Legos were a theme at this aquarium.

And here's a dugong in the flesh:

The highlight of the trip for me was seeing the platypus. He was a very fast swimmer so it was hard to capture him with my camera. This venomous mammal was just so darn adorable.

On Tuesday March 1st, Sarah and I went to Coogee beach. It was rather deserted on the day we visited so we almost had the beach to ourselves. Here are a few pics:

Winos, Dinos and the Gap

On Saturday February 26th, Sarah and I went to the New South Wales wine festival which was held in Hyde Park. For a small fee Sarah and I were able to taste five different wines from the state and we were even able to keep our plastic commemorative wine glasses! At least they won't break on the plane ride home. Since it was a pretty scorching day, we decided to only try the chilled wines. We took note of a couple of our favorites. Here's me in front of the Warburn Estate tent. Our other favorite was the Moscato from the Savannah Estate. 

 

Having tasted the number of wines allowed within our budgets, we walked across the street to the Australian Museum.  There I was immediately greeted by a large T-Rex! Oh my!

There really isn't much to this museum. It consists mostly of a large collection of stuffed birds and other animals. If you are visiting Sydney for a short period of time, I would recommend keeping this at the very bottom of your to do list or just leaving it off completely. But since Sarah and I have nothing but time on our hands, we decided to give it a fair go. And we can have fun doing just about anything, as can be seen below. Here's Sarah terrorizing a penguin. I thought you loved penguins??

Here I am standing in the shadow of an average sized human. Hmm...

And here's Sarah again at a real live dinosaur dig! She really enjoys her work.

Here I am again being eaten by a T-Rex.

ttt

Some people like to call Sarah Muskie or DJ Muskie Musk, and look what we found! Sarah's very own rat-kangaroo. How special.

 

On Sunday we ventured off to Watson's Bay which is an eastern suburb. As you can see in the photo below, it offered an excellent view of downtown Sydney.

If you walk in the opposite direction, you will find the Gap, a beautiful ocean cliff. 

And here's a photo of the actual bay. It turns out we didn't make it to the part of the bay where people actually go swimming. We couldn't find it. But I am happy to say we have just today located it on a map and plan on returning to the bay soon.

And that was that. I would just like to make a note here that this blog post took me 3+ hours to create due to some technical difficulties and a fussy internet connection. I would really appreciate if everyone reread this about fifteen times so I feel like my time was well spent. Thanks! Hopefully more will be coming in a bit.