Three Weeks Down Unda

I kicked off 31 with happy hour and an Aussie pub staple, Wedges with Sour Cream & Sweet Chili. Translation = potato wedges fried to crisp perfection, served alongside a heaping scoop of creamy sour cream/cream cheese/Greek yogurt tasting dip dolloped into a dish of tangy sweet chili sauce. I stole the photo below from here.

Why do we not have this appetizer in the states? It's right up there with Canadian dry ribs. For a country who loves its football and chicken wings, it makes no sense that American's don't get to enjoy these delicious bar snacks.

Speaking of delicious Aussie foods, I tried Vegemite! My coworker prepared it properly for me, spreading salty butter onto a cracker, then a thin layer of vegemite. I didn't hate it... It was definitely weird though, unlike anything I've had before. And very difficult to describe.

Besides trying new foods this week, I sunk to an all time cultural low, and watched the two hour Bachie finale. Sophie picked the right guy and that show is just as terrible down unda as it is in the US.

Apparently she's also semi-famous? #thingsIdontcareabout

And in other television news, this week I started watching Homeland! While we did get the new season of Stranger Things (thank goodness!) most of the other shows on Aussie Netflix are completely different that what I got in the states. None of my other TV aps work down here either so I'm going to have so many fun things to catch up on when I get home.

As exciting as new foods and TV is, this weekend was one of my best ones yet. On Saturday, I woke up bright and early to head out to the highly recommended, Blue Mountains. After scouring the internet for the highest value tour, I selected Tours R Us' Blue Mountains Tour.

I was the first one on the coach at 7am and got a nice tour of Sydney as we picked up the other passengers and hit the road heading west for about an hour. First stop, Featherdale Wildlife Park.

Stealing a koala is definitely against my better judgement but also...

The best animal.

Featherdale was also cool/gross because you could feed the kangas

A Canadian (proof I was not the youngest person on my tour bus!) and the roo

Australia has the best animals

crikey

 After plenty of time with the wildlife, it was back on the coach for about an hour drive into Katoomba, the largest town at the top of the mountain range. Most of the other passengers fell asleep on this ride but I was wide awake taking in the views. Our next stop, Echo Point for the Three Sisters view.

It was about a 20 min hike to the closest sister on the left, so I ventured off quickly to make it down there

the staircase down was super steep. It reminded me of the Grand Canyon.

View of Katoomba Falls from Scenic World

The next stop on the tour was Scenic World, a complete tourist trap. $32 includes all the rides! First, we took the sky-lift down to the rainforest at the bottom of the canyon. There's a paved pathway that takes about 30-45 min to walk through, then you take the "steepest train in the world" back up to the top. The rainforest was cool but I wish I could have just bush-walked on the trails rather than been affiliated with the silly park. Live and learn.

in the rainforest at the bottom of the canyon

 After the rides, we jumped back on the bus to check out a few viewpoints in the other canyons. Blue Mountains has three valleys, and we saw two of them. The Jamison Valley (where the 3 Sisters are) and the Megalong (below).

After the valleys, we stopped for lunch in the cutest little mountain town where any Sydney-Sider should want to retire, Leura. For any future tour-goers, I would recommend not including lunch with your tour and just trying one of the local cafes in Leura. It was adorable, and I'm sure way tastier than the tour-included meal.

The last stop on our tour was Olympic Park, in a suburb west of Sydney. Olympic parks post Olympics are never that exciting. But to its credit, this one was still mostly functional. The aquatic center, main stadium, and gymnastics stadium are all used for local events. They've also built an impressive bike path through the park lands in the area, great for families.

I'm still impressed by all the wildlife, so spent most of this stop mesmerized by the trees and birds.

Australian crested pigeon

I learned on the tour that there are 700 different kinds of eucalyptus trees. So if you were to guess that any tree you see is a "gum tree," you'd probably be right. After the park, we ditched the bus and hopped aboard a ferry boat to cruise the Parrametta river, under the Harbor Bridge, past the Opera House, and back to Circular Quay, my home away from home.

On Sunday, I took almost as many photos, as I ventured out east to the Pacific Ocean to complete the Bondi-to-Coogee beach walk.

Bondi Beach, 8:30am. Watching the Surfers

Setting off on my walk

the famous Icebergs pool on Bondi

Sculpture by the Sea is going on now, so the walk was extra crowded

Ants Marching, reminded me of Michigan

sure beats Lake Michigan

the kids doing surf lessons are called Little Nippers

Coogee Beach at the end of my walk

settling in for some beach time

I left around 1pm because I was getting burnt and it was getting so crowded

 While on the bus back to the CBD I rested a bit and figured, I might as well make the most of the rest of my afternoon, so grabbed the ferry and hit up Watson's Bay, another highly recommended area. It's the northern most part of the south side of Sydney.

Watson's bay beach area was far less crowded than further south, and you're swimming on the harbor side, rather than the ocean side, so it had teeny tiny waves. Great for swimming, terrible for surfing.

the view facing north from the South Head. A few weeks prior I had visited Manly, and North head.

Week Two - Turning 31

I'm feeling much more situated in my new city, having done quite a bit of exploring and socializing this past week. I met up with a former coworker from Chicago, who loves living here, despite the lack of Amazon and very substantial cost of living difference.

Morningstar Sydney

One of my big bosses from Austin also came to visit this week, and took our Aussie team out to a divine Italian dinner at nearby, Rosetta. We did a family-style meal with entrees (appetizers) and mains (entrees). I also got a lesson in how Australian's name their courses.... Different than the US.

On Thursday I journeyed south to Surry Hills to for a blind friend date with some Americans. And in typical Texan fashion, opted for El Loco. And because I don't believe in Mexican food outside of Texas, I got a delicious salmon, salad, and chips (french fries).

Cheers to Mark, the matchmaker.

My second weekend in Sydney was equally eventful. I lawn bowled it up at the employee Spring Party, while also meeting many other colleagues and their families. Free food and drinks complete the afternoon and a spontaneous party in Bondi rounded out the evening. I even taught a local how to play Beer Pong.

they used Peroni and we lost the game

It's official, Sundays are for ferry boat rides. And birthdays are for free entry to the zoo! I spent my birthday with the koalas, little penguins, crocodile, kangaroos, and cassowarys.

ferry to the zoo on my 31st

sleeping koala in the background.

when I first saw it I did a double take. "Is it real?" So bloody cuddly

Saltwater Crocodile, definitely the scariest. Surpassed the Tasmanian devil and the completely unnecessary amount of killer snakes they had in the reptile house.

all the kangas eating lunch

I'd never heard of a cassowary before coming to the zoo but do it not look like a dinosaur? Native to the Australian rainforest. The oldest rainforest in the world.

Sydney views from the zoo

these giraffe's have a far better view than my buddies from the Lincoln Park zoo!

before heading back on the ferry I did a quick hike to the beach. Because, hiking and beaches are my two of my favorite things and birthdays are all about doing your favorite things.

and then it started pouring rain

Sydney Week 1 - look right

I left Austin on Monday evening for a smooth flight to LAX, where I was in the very last row of the plane. Foolishly, I left my ipod and bluetooth headphones in the seatback pocket in front of me so I definitely appreciate some good vibes sent toward AA to resolve my missing item case.

LAX's international terminal is pretty freakin' fancy. But unfortunately I couldn't use my priority pass membership to get into the KAL lounge after 20:00 so whomp whomp, I was left to wander around the duty free shops sampling fancy perfume. I boarded that 14 hour flight smelling mighty nice.

Quantas flys a double-decker plane to Sydney and my premium economy seat was on level two so I got to go up an escalator before boarding. I thought it was pretty neat and I guess I was expecting something cooler, but being on level two didn't affect the in-flight experience at all. The premium economy seat was really nice though, I had plenty of legroom and fell asleep for almost half the flight. I kept dozing off during the movies (Lego Batman, The Circle, and Gone Girl) and would wake up during the credits, so I'd rewind the movie and try it again. The food on board was decent, but nothing special. I chose salmon for dinner with delicious Australian wine, and some tasty scrambled eggs for breakfast. Nothing fancy like flying to Asia; I definitely got spoiled on Japan Airlines.

And then, on Wednesday morning, I arrived in Sydney! Security was a piece of cake, so I gathered my bags, stopping to buy an Aussie Sim card to get back on the grid, then caught a cab to the CBD, my home for the next few weeks. My heart was set on taking a shower, but unfortunately my plan was stalled because I couldn't check into my room for another 4 hours. So, I rearranged my things and set out to explore the city and pretend I wasn't tired.

First stop, the Sydney Opera House!

Second stop, Australia style coffee at Jo's recommendation, Cabrito. Holy cow, is it ever strong. Esheldunk would love it.

Next I just wandered around, found a grocery store to knock out that errand, then stopped for lunch at Noodle Story in the MetCentre, a common food court, loads better than the American-mall style. After circling the numerous options 2-3 times I finally settled on a Chinese noodle soup with shrimp (prawns, they call it here, woman had no idea what I was saying), greens, and beef. Finally settling on a lunch option reminded me so much of traveling SE Asia. In every city I visited I'd wander for blocks trying to pick where to dine. Such a struggle that hasn't gotten any easier.

After skirting the Botanical Gardens and capturing the Opera House up close, I meandered back to my hotel for check-in time. I unpacked, showered, and napped before a brief 6pm walkabout and back to bed by 8pm.

Sydneysiders lunchtime yoga in Martin Pl

sunset from the 23rd floor of my building, night 1

The next two days were fairly normal doing the whole work thing. The Syd office view is just gorgeous and all the office peeps are friendly. We have way fancier free snacks down here too. Sweet Tooth Sanchez would be in heaven.

view from my temp desk space

Friday after work I gathered up my courage and set out for the Australian Beer Festival. The hotel hosting the fest is ridiculously close to my Sydney home, so I had little to lose by swinging by. Making conversation with locals became gradually easier because I sincerely wanted to learn which beers were not to miss.

my notes

#4 on that list, the Watermelon Pilsner was my favorite from the event. I learned that most Australian craft breweries are owned by larger conglomerates. Similar to Goose Island or Karbach.

On Saturday, I did a little Christmas shopping at the Rocks Market, played tourist as I wandered through the Discovery Museum and stopped for brekkie at Jo's recommendation, The Fine Foods Store. That afternoon I caught the ferry to Mosman, where her parents toured me around their neighborhood (precinct) ending the night with a wonderful home-cooked meal and a little surfing on the telly. I was also exposed to the utter chaos of the AFL.

Sunday I again caught the ferry, but this time out to Manly. I rented (hired) a bike for the day and explored North Head, the beaches, and almost made it to the spit before my stomach and legs told my brain they'd had enough. Google photos put together this nice little slideshow from my day. It was great.

watch the slideshow for more Manly photos