Australia, Australia

The Famous Harbor Bridge Turns 75

My first task in Australia seemed a simple one - to hop a cab to Severine and Laurent's. I figured this would be easy but the cabbie spoke a language roughly equivalent to English only a bit gruffer. After leaving the airport it took a while before he understood where I wanted to go, and as we sped along he finally admitted he didn't know where it was, threw an atlas at me and said, "find it on the map." I could tell I would like Australia already. What a country!

After a silent 25 minute ride ,where I marveled at just how normal everything looked (besides the silly practise of driving on the left), he pulled up to Macauley street and announced "shite!" at the top of his lungs as he discovered it was one way. A bit startled, and awoken from my zombie-like state, I offered to walk since after 9 hours on a plane I could use a little exercise.

I rang the buzzer at the small set of flats on the quiet back street and was soon greeted at the gate by a smiling Gwen. She'd come from D.C. a couple days back and had already been enjoying what Sydney had to offer. It was 8 am and Severine and Laurent were preparing for work. They're a French couple whom lived in D.C. for about 4 years then were sneakily married in France (to the surprise of some of their friends and family) and then moved to Sydney and got new jobs (basically they're my heroes). They are also extremely gracious hosts, wonderful cooks and an all around fun couple. As proof I offer their blog which, apart from being all in French, has very nice pictures and a video showing the aforementioned craziness of the streets of Vietnam.

After a couple cups of coffee and a brief shower, Gwen and I headed downtown and jumped the ferry past the Opera house and across the harbor to munch on fish and chips, down a pint and watch the beautiful people on Manly Beach. We then did a 10 Km hike around preserved section of the harbor and finished off the evening with our hosts and a picnic and open air screening of "Jackass 2" in one of the many Sydney parks. During the movie, I felt like hiding behind a tree for shame of my countrymen, but I was too tired to resist, so I just lay in the grass and laughed my ass off like everyone else.

Looking into Sydney over Grotto Point

In a testament to my exhaustion from the overnight bus followed by an overnight plane and an exciting day in Sydney, after finally going to bed I slept for a solid 12 hours (and definitely could of slept more). This was the first time on the trip I had gotten a serious night's sleep on the trip and it felt great.

Over the next few days, Gwen and I learned about the founding of Australia, visited more beaches, went on a wonderful hike through the Blue mountains (just west of the city), cooked a gumbo feast for our hosts and shared many more fine meals with Severine and Laurent.

Bondi Beach Lifeguard Competition


The Grand Canyon - Blue Mountains


A Tree Bounces Back from the Devastating Forest Fires in the Blue Mountains


Enjoying Gwen's Near-Lethal Sangria with our Hosts

The weekend behind us, Gwen rented a car and bravely drove us through blinding rain (drought my ass), making sure to keep on the left side of the road, north up the coast. The rain stopped just long enough for a pleasant afternoon in Newcastle watching the huge waves beat up against the empty beaches and jagged rocks. I was wearing my raincoat and got some photos taken by a local journalist trying to make it "look as wet as possible" despite the fact that the rain had clearly stopped.

Waves Beating Against the Shore in Newcastle

That evening we drove inland to the Hunter Valley wine region and made it with fading light for a small drive through the picturesque countryside and then got a room above a local pub in the town of Cessnock which was run by just about the friendliest people I had ever met. We grabbed a pint and some grub downstairs at the "Swill and Grill" and then retired to prepare for our big day of wine drinking, I mean "tasting".

The next day the weather still looked questionable with huge grey clouds navigating among patches of blue sky, but we decided to forge away with our bold plan and rented a tandem bike for the day. From there on out it was wine tasting, cheese eating and awkwardly scooting between wineries on our double bike. We had some great wines, helped plunge some freshly picked Shiraz and saw a bevy of wild kangaroos. There are about 90 wineries in the lower hunter and we were lucky to get in 7, ranging from a small boutique winery where we were the only patrons to a huge operation that's sponsoring a INXS, Simple Minds and Arrested Development concert (this is not a joke - oh how the mighty have fallen, the Australians really like their 80s rock!). All day the grey clouds rolled overhead , but to our amazement it didn't rain a drop all day.

Hunter Valley Truck

Plunging the Cap of the Shiraz

After returning the bike to the small metal building nestled among some vines at the end of a short dirt driveway, we were immediately greeted by Glen, who had jumped out of a smaller metal building which looked like an office of sorts. Glen could very well be the friendliest guy ever. He told us a range of stories for an hour and a half ranging from how to become a Quantas Stewardess to getting TV press coverage for a company that didn't exist and finished up with the time he gave the PM of New Zealand a lift to the Sydney airport in his "ute" (I think that's a truck). Just when we thought he had finished, he pulled out his new wine and told us all about that. Glen says after traveling independently for a long time, you get the feeling that you can do anything, and I'd like to believe that's true and am beginning to know the feeling, and I certainly believe Glen could do anything after the stories he's told.

Friendly Glen and His New Chardonnay

The next day we headed back to Sydney, dropped the car off and Gwen headed to the airport to return to the snow covered northeast (poor girl). With all the hubbub I forgot that I still hadn't gotten a good walkabout in Sydney so after Gwen jumped in the cab I did a little tour of the harbors, the harbor bridge, the opera house and the botanical gardens (complete with huge napping flying foxes).

In my week in and around Sydney, I've really grown to love the place. It's like a big American city, but more laid back. People take the "no worries" attitude to heart and seem to enjoy a consistent and decent standard of living. The people are friendly and like to smile a lot and I must admit I like the Aussie accent on the ladies (but that's just between you and me). The natural scenery is beautiful and the beaches are great and easily accessible. there isn't much to say about the food since Australia doesn'tseem to really have its own cuisine apart from Vegemite (really salty but actually not that bad) and kangaroo (Laurent showed us the merits of this meat on the barby), but they have a great mix of food from all over the world, especially from Asia.

All in all it's been great to be back in the western world and to see old friends. I've been extremely relaxed to finally not have to worry about carrying around toilet paper and to be able to eat the food and drink the water without concern. Yesterday I hopped a plan to Airlie beach to visit the Whitsunday Islands via sailboat. I can't wait.

More pictures from Gwen.