Sydney: A day to chill and a day to wonder at the Opera House

I just LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the Sydney Opera House. I could go there, spend hours, take a million pictures over and over and never get sick of it. It's such an amazing building and I loved returning there today, five years since the last time. (Full photos from today here)

But let me back track.... yesterday I did just about zero, and it felt great. I woke up a little early, had breakfast, visited with Shaan and Geoff, enjoyed the amazing view while drinking my tea:





I did some Terry Pratchett reading, and sat in the warm sun for just a little bit. My buddy, Sam, kept me company:


And then I took a nap, we ordered tasty Thai food, and watched some tv. It was quite a lovely relaxation day.

Today Shaan and I had a breakfast and got ourselves ready and then set out to see the Opera House and take the ferry to Manly Beach. The forecast was iffy, but we decided to chance it.

First we drove downtown and walked around Circular Quay (pronounce "key") and down to the Opera House. Did I mention how much I love this building? No, really. Here's just a few of the photos I took:















And of course we saw the bridge, too! But the big news will be Friday when I get to do the bridge climb and go to the top! I'm so thrilled about that. I hope it doesn't rain.




We did actually take the ferry to Manly beach and have lunch there, but it turned quite chilly and rainy, so we basically just came right back. I really need to get some Manly gear before I leave, though. It'd just be too funny to go to the gym wearing a Manly t-shirt or something!

On our way home, we picked up Juliette, Shaan and Geoff's ward (neice of a friend. both from Hong Kong) and had a lovely dinner.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but the folks here in Oz have a charity event called "Mo-vember". Mo, as in moustache, and many men around here grow one all month during November and then raise money and shave it off come Dec 1. The entire Wallabies rugby team is sporting them, and I saw many a porn handle-bar moustache around during my travels. And then sometimes you're not sure if it's mo-vember or just the way they are! Anyway, Geoff has been growing one, and Shaan was delighted to see it go this evening (a few hours early)!

Geoff with "Mo":


Shaan, Juliette, and myself awaiting the shave:


The final product (hooray!)


And that about wraps up the evening. We watched Hitchcock's Rope and I need to get packing for heading down to Canberra tomorrow. I'll just be taking the bus down, and am looking very forward to seeing the family down in that region. I hope it warms up, because it got downright chilly after some crazy heat! But not as chilly as it is at home in NH. :)

Bye-bye Brisbane, Hello Sydney

I'm safely in Sydney this evening, after traveling late afternoon. It's nice to return to a home I stayed in five years ago and even better to see my hosts Shaan and Geoff and catch up a bit.

But clearing up a bit of photos from the last few days...

Flat Stanley modeling the pretty and colorful money down under:


Here's a couple from walking Mark and Michelle's dog, Bandit, and a shot of a suburban Brisbane street:




And then last night, after our lovely Thai dinner, Mark, Michelle, and I went up to Mt. Coot-tha and got a gorgeous view of the city. A bit of a fuzzy photo, but still really pretty:


Today was pretty darn fun. Mark had made arrangements to give good friend Michelle L the gift of a barista course for her birthday, and I was fortunate enough to tag along (thanks, Mark!). It was a few hour course, and we learned how to work an espresso machine, make foam, and how to make all of the drinks on an Aussie cafe menu (which is about 80% the same as a US menu, but has a bunch of other things and different names). I now have a certificate (and possible 2nd career if I give up software ;), as well as a much greater respect for a good barista. Sadly for future cafes, I'm also more likely to throw up a stink if I get crap espresso drinks. I'm once again considering (more than I already had) getting an espresso machine. There's a whole secret to how hard to tamp down the espresso, and the sound I thought was good for heating the milk turns out to be not good at all (too much air in the foam). It was good fun, and I drank a LOT of coffee. Here's some shots from our morning:





After all of that coffee, we definitely needed some food, so the three M's took me to Breakfast Creek Hotel for an amazingly tasty steak. Mmmmm, so good!


After that, it was straight off to the airport to catch my Qantas flight to Sydney. It's sad to say goodbye to my lovely hosts. I had such a fun time in Brisbane, and got to relax, too, which is very nice for a vacation. :) But new adventures and more visits await!

In general observations.... I've already long ago adopted "no worries" as a phrase that I use regularly. I think I picked that up on my visit 5 years ago. This visit, I'm thinking "reckon" might be a good one to steal. Although I guess it's already something used in the south US. It just suits the occasion sometimes! But maybe it sounds better with an Aussie accent....

Anyway, here's hoping that all of those coffees hours ago don't affect my sleeping. I'm tired!

Aussie animals!

You want photos of koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, and wombats? Oh yeah, we got that!

Today started off slowly. I woke up and immediately called various friends and family to wish them a happy Thanksgiving. Some calls were more successful than others at reaching their targets, but it was nice to catch up with some folks (and thanks Skype for the cheap calls!) And then I had an easy morning, except for packing a box to ship stuff home since I've acquired a lot of stuff in my travels.

After that Michelle and I ran a couple of errands and then came back to the house for lunch. Finally, in the later afternoon, we went off to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I've been there twice before (the last two times I was in Oz), but I still love it. First off, you get to hold a koala and get a photo (they make a webpage for you, too). Second of all, you get to go a field and have kangaroos and wallabies eat out of your hand. Plus the emus chase you around. Awesome!

There's not much else to narrate besides that. We visited, saw the animals trying to stay cool in the hot hot heat, and then came back. But here's what you want to see... cute animals!! Of course Flat Stanley got a closeup with many of them, too. :)

Michelle got to join me (there's another with flat stanley, too)


Kangas and wallabies:










I thought he was going to eat Flat Stanley:


The koalas find every imaginable way to sleep, and none of them look comfortable:




I swear this wombat is actually alive, just sleeping in a totally splayed out position. It was very hot, after all!


This evening Mark, Michelle, and I went out for a lovely Thai dinner. Yum. Tomorrow is a fun activity, but I'll leave that as a surprise. Then it's a steak lunch and off to the airport to head to Sydney. Looking forward to the next leg, but I'll miss Brisbane and my lovely hosts!

Ship photos from the reef

I paid the pricey fee to get the photos from the tour group, but I had to wait until my return to Brisbane to get them off the CD and upload them. But here they are! Totally worth the cost (and since I paid, you get to see them all!). :)

Getting on board:


Snorkling:




Getting ready to scuba dive:


Scuba time!

Kuranda: a train, a rainforest, and a skyrail

Yesterday I walked through a lot of rainforests, went on an old rickety train through 15 tunnels and across rivet-fastened bridges, saw a bunch of butterflies, and visited some cool (if touristy) markets, but my absolutely favorite part of the whole day was the skyrail ride back down the mountain, over the treetops. Loved it!

To start, I joined up with my tour nearby and the bus took us to the Freshwater train station. It’s a lovely old-fashioned place, and there’s great plants and a little museum to keep you busy until the train arrives.





The train is an old-fashioned one, and the ride up is lovely. You go through 15 tunnels that were all made with dynamite and hand-tools by 1500 men. And the bridges feature tight turns and rivet-fastening.







There’s a lot of squeaking going on, and the views keep getting better as you go up the mountains. We stopped to take a look at Barron falls, which was nice.



Once into Kuranda, there’s time for just wandering the town. It’s a very small town, and a million shops. I did my part to support the Queensland economy yesterday, that’s for sure. And I had a lovely lunch at a little café. Then I went over to the Butterfly garden, and saw a million butterflies. They flew all around me, but it’s really tough to get a photo of them! My favorite is this one, which is just a blue blur.



And here's one of the movies I got of them fluttering


I decided to head down the jungle walk, because I wanted to see some rainforest, and that was a really lovely path. Animals are very difficult to spot in jungles, by the way, so I just have plants. But the vegetation was pretty cool.



Unfortunately, I realized at the end of the path that I was far away from where I needed to be to catch the skyrail back, so I had to hoof it down the road to get to the skyrail station. Treking up the road in the hot weather was not too fun, but I made it!

And that was when my favorite part started! Flat Stanley and I got our own pod, and the ride over the treetops was amazing.







There’s also two stops along the way to see more of the rainforest, and the other side of Barron falls, but riding over the mountains and then seeing the ocean from way up high was really the best part.





Tons of photos of the day, of course. I was having a rough time yesterday because I didn’t sleep well the night before, but I think I still managed to squeeze a lot of fun out of the experience. Even though it’s a bit of a tourist trap, there’s really a lot of wonderful things about doing the Kuranda trip.

But at this point I’m happy to be back to Brisbane for a bit more and then going down to Sydney and Canberra to meet up with more family. I think I need a few more relaxing days before I go to New Zealand, if Carins is any indication. This long-time-travel stuff is exhausting. :P

In my travels, though, I met Erika from Argentina, and shared the hostel room with some girls from Denmark, and a girl from Germany. We had plenty of Germans and Japanese on our boat the other day, and I've heard French and Korean around. Cairns is definitely a multi-cultural destination! And the girls in the hostel put my measly six week trip to shame, with 8 and 12 week trips themselves. Lucky them! So yeah, neat to meet folks from so many places. The world is very small when you travel!

Photos from the Kuranda trip are all here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/86747592@N00/sets/72157622872906334/