on the road again.

i've spent the last two weeks traveling around australia a bit. i visited a few people, and saw some new places. thanks to everyone who let me stay with them and/or showed me around. i had a wonderful time.

1/8/2009
i spent most of the morning running errands around melbourne, then most of the afternoon cleaning my room... its amazing how quickly it can get dirty! especially because it is so small. at around 3:00 christine's friend tim picked me up to drive out to mount beauty, which was a beautiful place. the mountain in victoria are quite a bit smaller than the rockies, which was to be expected, but still have a similar feel. mt beauty is in north east victoria and over looks mount bogong, the tallest mountain in victoria. i spent the night at barb and tim's place (alas i didn't take any pictures), which really was a mountain home. it was built on the side of the hill and had this amazing deck that wrapped half way around the house.
barb and tim's son tom was there as well with his girlfriend. they have the cutest dog i have ever seen! her name is maggie, we had an instant connection. i think she is a staffordshire bull terrier.

1/9/2009
christine and i woke up pretty early because she had to get back to newcastle. on the way out we took sue to the airport in aubury to pick up her car. after that we stopped in holbrook to get breakfast from one of christine's favorite bakeries.
the drive from mount beauty to newcastle is about 9 hours long. christine let me drive the car, and was very patient with me. i didn't have much experience driving on the left side of the road, and it was michael's' nice lexus... so i was pretty nervous. i did a good job and only turned on the windshield wipers about two or three times. (for those of you who don't know, the windshield wiper and the blinker are on opposite sides of the steering wheel. i would think i was putting on the blinker, then suddenly the wipers would go on!).
we got into newcastle around dinner time, so we went out for chinese.

1/10/2009
christine had some stuff to do around the house, so it was a laid back day. i spent most of it reading.

1/11/2009
katie came up from gosford for a visit. she took me to darby street for coffee while michael and christine went to meet up with their motorbike club. michael grilled out for us and christine made a wonderful salad.

katie and me.


michael at the barbie!


after michael and christine went to bed katie and i went out on the town. we started out at a place called the irish, definitely a good example of an australian pub. after a bit the place filled in and a band started to play. they were interesting... though after two songs katie and i had had enough so we ventured out to a few more iconic newcastle hot spots. this included the kent and the brewery (which were both filled to the gills with 18 year olds enjoying a saturday night). for the final hoorah we tried to get into a place called fanny's, apparently michael went there as a young lad, but were not let in due to an early lockout. on the way home we decided it would be a good idea to call charles and maria to wish them good luck with james's christening, which in all reality wasn't such a good idea since we had been out drinking.... they didn't seem to mind it though! :P



1/12/2008
katie had to head back to gosford that afternoon, so we hung around the house until she had to leave. then michael and christine took me out for a kebab on newcastle beach. i asked michael if sharks ever attacked anyone on this beach, he said it was pretty rare. someone was attacked the next day; i jinxed them.
after the beach we went home for a bit, then to lake macquarie to see the yacht club. michael's brother mark is thinking of putting his boat on the lake. we drove back into newcastle and met up with their motorbike friends bob and claire, who went to vietnam a few weeks ago. we went to the newcastle yacht club and claire gave me all kinds of advice about what to do/where to go/etc while in vietnam. it was some great information.

1/13/2009
i drove down to sydney with christine to see her niece, nephew, and mother. christine's mom is named joan as well, and i hadn't seen her since i was one year old. their house was amazing, it over looked a harbor. i'm not sure what the name of the suburb was, but looking around i couldn't believe how beautiful the area was. their house literally looked out over a small harbour filled with little sailboats. it seemed very tropical, and i should have taken a picture but forgot my camera.
we went to the powerhouse to see the star wars exhibit, but the line was so long we decided to head over to china town for lunch first. we ordered all kind of dumplings, way too many for the five of us. afterwards we walked back to the powerhouse, but decided not to pay the extra money for the star wars bit. nobody was that interested.

1/14/2009
christine and i went for coffee at a little cafe on the beach before she drove me to the airport to head to brisbane. i went up to spend a few days with the heathcocks, who i hadn't seen since about 1996. they are family friends from kentucky. we spent a few christmases and halloweens together.
i took the train in from the airport and brisbane is a beautiful city! i had heard so many negative things about it, i was amazed to find out how beautiful it actually is. everyone is always talking about how brisbane i hot, and kind of a country town. it was a very mild/regular temperature the whole time i was there. most of the city is built along a river so there is generally a cooling breeze through the whole city.
i met heather at the station and stored my bag in her office she she had a few more hours of work. when she was finished we caught the city cat back to their house.
claire (23) and andrew (26) came over for dinner. it was amazing to see how much we have all changed in the last twelve years. we all look similar to the way we used to, just more grown up now.

1/15/2009
i headed out into the city at about 8:30. i walked all along the river front and met with claire and andrew for lunch. claire works at the art gallery and showed us around on her lunch break. i then went over to the modern art building with andrew after lunch. i didn't take enough pictures, but here is one of the river walk.


1/16/2009
i spent most of the day walking around the heathcock's neighborhood, i had a pretty late start since i was booking flights to sydney etc. i then ventured over to the botanic gardens and had a walk around there.
i met up with jane and her housemate sarah for drinks. they picked me up and we went to a place called the lark. it was a beautiful little cocktail bar. we then headed down to 'the valley', which isn't actually a valley, for dinner. we talked about jane and sarah visiting the US next year, i hope they do!

1/17/2009
heather didn't have to work so she drove me to the gold coast. i couldn't believe how many giant apartment buildings were squashed into such a small space! the streets were packed with cars, but there didn't seem to be many people around.
we walked down to surfer's paradise, but couldn't sit and enjoy the beach due to the weather. it was pretty windy and the sand was being blown right into us.
we had lunch and drove back to brisbane.
that night i went to andrew's birthday at the lawn bowling club. i had never played before, so they had to explain it to me. i had no idea what i was doing, but someone managed to win a few games.

1/18/2009
heather and i went to see her local golf club in the morning, then hit up the southbank markets. there were so many stalls! i didn't buy anything, but it was still neat to look at all the clothes/food/crafts. there was a street band performing, a woman and a man. the man was playing a diggery doo, the drums, a tambourine, and the bongos. the woman had a drum and a few stringed instruments. i usually don't like those kinds of street acts but these two were pretty good, they were selling their cds left and right. we also went to a cafe called flowers of the world, apparently the daughter of the owner went to school with claire.
claire picked me up and we went to visit lone pine, a koala sanctuary. she had been talking about it all week... ill let the pictures speak for themselves.

baby koala having dinner!


the emu was stalking us, it was actually pretty scary!


wombats look like foot stools.


lorikeet feeding time.


lizzie with the birds.


hungry birds!


they like claire!


claire shouted my kangaroo food.


claire with a wallaby.


feeding the wallaby with my three hands...


claire has a thing for ducks.


didn't feed him fast enough! he actually took a chunk out of the bag!


double feeding time with lizzie.


full and sleepy.


after we finished at lone pine claire drove me up mount coo tha. apparently it only takes twenty minutes to walk up... but it still had a great view!
we then went back to the heathcock's to meet up with john and heather for andrew's birthday dinner. we went to a nice turkish restaurant down by the river.

1/19/2009
i left for sydney that afternoon. heather had to work so i woke up early to say goodbye over breakfast. i decided i would take the city cat in to catch the train, after all it isn't every day i can use a catamaran during my commute! i got to the airport and arrived in sydney right on time. julia arranged for rob to pick me up so i wouldn't have to take the bus.
her house was amazing! it is located in an area called paddington, which is next to oxford street. there are a lot of shops and little cafes around there. after dropping my stuff off rob and i went to a used book store at the end of her street. there were so many books, well over 60,000 (according to the sign). after browsing for a bit we went to get a few drinks at a pub, the beer garden was lovely. the weather was perfect and we talked for awhile. we then went to one of his favorite indian restaurants in surrey hill, where i tried my first dosa. it was huge! and delicious! julia finished work and we met up with her. she was quite tired so after one drink we headed back to her place.

1/20/2009
sydney is a beautiful and amazing city. it is a super hodgepodge of surf culture, business workers, and everything in between. i lefter her house at about 8:45 and walked down oxford street to the city. i stopped at the new south wales state library. i walked through hyde park, st james park and into the royal botanic gardens. it was massive! i decided to pay the five bucks to get into the carnivorous plants and orchids exhibit.

orchids.


giant leaves.


carnivorous plants.


tropical greenhouse.


giant tree.


i then walked along the edge of the park down to the opera house. i saw it the last time i was in syndey from the other side of the harbour bridge, it was good to actually climb the steps this time.



afterwards i took a bus to bondi beach, it was packed! i have never seen so many people on the same beach, which makes sense since it is a city beach afterall. on sandi's suggestion i walked from bondi to bronte, which took about 45 mins. it was beautiful scenery, however against my better judgement i walked it at about 1:00 in the afternoon. i also forgot my sunscreen. i had put some on that morning so it wasn't a horrible burn, just a little annoying.









after my walk i headed back to julia's place. we talked for a bit before she had to go to work, then i went out to explore darlinghurst before going to see slumdog millionaire. finally made it back to julia's about 9:30 and read until she got home at 10:30. rob came over and we looked through their vietnam photos, i'm getting very excited for the trip!

1/21/2009
christine drove to sydney to pick up julia and me. we went back to newcastle, i did some reading while julia sorted some school stuff on teh computer. she had applied to several architecture programs and was trying to decide which shool she would like to go to.
we met michael for lunch at a nice pub called the duke. julia is planning her 21st and they were thinking of renting out their function room, so naturally we had to do a little food research.
christine invited claire and bob over for a vietnamese dinner in order to celebrate julia's return. we made so much food, it really was a feast! again michael was out at the barbie.
after dinner julia and i watched a few episodes of six feet under. it is a pretty good show, i think i could easily get addicted.

1/22/2009
julia's friend madeline met up with us for breakfast at the three bean cafe. afterwards julia drove me back to sydney so i could catch the plane to melbourne. the plane was delayed for five hours, then diverted into avalon. they never told us why it was so delayed, but at least i wasn't stuck at the airport all night! finally made it home at about 11, did some unpacking and read until i fell asleep.

as a final note i would like to suggest that if you are going anywhere sunny you should take two pairs of shoes. i took the one, which was a mistake... this is for you jenny b.