Category: Australia (2004)

This morning, I met up with Nick to have a last breakfast. We went to a great place for hotcakes, ricotta, and bananas. It was so good. It’ll be a good start for my long journey back to San Francisco. I know I will be back, and if everything goes as planned, it will be for a new life in Australia!

Today I headed out to Surfer’s Paradise and met up with my new friend George. We went to the beach for a while and then headed to Bond University where he’s a law student. I got to see the campus and it was really cool–really nice buildings, green, warm, and great athletic center. The water in the pool was great, so I did several laps. We then headed to the airport to meet up with Mike and head back to Sydney. All in all, the Gold Coast was a really interesting adventure!

This morning, Mike and I went straight to the beach for a nice swim for an hour. We then headed to several rent-a-car places to see the best deal for us to drive up the coast up to Brisbane, and to the Australia Zoo. Most of you will know about this zoo because of that crazy crocadile guy, Steve Owen. We found a place that would rent us a good deal. We ended up with a tiny Toyota Echo, manual. As soon as we got in, it is so backwards that Mike was turning on the windshield wipers to make a blinker signal, etc. It was hilarious. He got the hang of it pretty quickly, and we headed up towards Brisbane. After about 2 hours of driving we arrived at the Australia Zoo and headed in to see all the animals. What’s really cool about this zoo is that it’s primarily focused on the regional animals. We saw a crocadile show, pet and played with the Kangaroos, held Koalas, watched Wombats, listened to the prehistoric cry of an emu, ate free pop sicles ;) and watched the tasmanian devil go to sleep. It was great! We then started to head back to Brisbane for dinner. There we found a place that was having a quiz game, and we stayed for that. I had the worst pizza in my life full of lamb, beef, cheese, etc. It was like two dead carcasses on my plate–talk about meat lovers pizza! We then headed back to the car and drove back to Surfer’s Paradise to be greeted by the biggest, orangest, low-hanging moon I’ve ever seen in my life. Unfortunately, I was driving, and it was impossible to take a pic :( Tomorrow we head back for our last days in Australia..

Today we headed for the beach at Surfer’s Paradise. After a great sandwich I headed to get a henna tattoo around my arm. Spent all day lying on the beach and watching all the schoolies run around. It was funny to see how many of them there are. The day passed quickly and before we knew it, we were looking for places to eat.

This morning, I got up a little bit early because I didn’t calculate the time properly. So we got a head start and moseyed on to the airport. Once there, we had a snack and boarded our Qantas flight to the Gold Coast. We had a great flight with beautiful weather, and watched the amazing coast line develop right before our eyes. The higher we got, the bluer the water got. After about an hour, we arrived and found our way to Surfer’s Paradise, where, unbeknownst to us, is where the Australian Spring Break is held–so teenagers who have just graduated high school, called ‘Schoolies’ are swarming around and such. It’s quite a sight to see, and really reminded me of Florida–After wandering around for a while, we got settled and went to the beach. The world’s largest residential tower is being built–they have the first 50+ floors done, with another 30-40 to go. We went out for a nice dinner, looked at the kids, then headed to bed. I’ve started having a little bit of sinus trouble the past couple of days, so hopefully it won’t get worse.

Today, I woke up and got my stuff together for picture day and headed out for lunch and downtown. Ended up at the rocks, went through the markets and such then headed for Circular Quay. Great views of the opera house and bridge, and the day was clear and sunny. Mike met up and we headed through the botanical gardens where we found wild cockatoos that would come right up to you (and crap on you). We fed them peanuts, had some pictures, and then headed on our way. It was getting so hot that we decided it would be fun to go to the public pool–so we got our bathing suits on and went for a snack, then to the pool. It was so nice. There were lots of people and we met some new friends. The water was so nice and refreshing, and salted! It was like swimming in the ocean.

That night we went with our new friend Greg out to China Town and had a chinese dinner. After some hilarious things at dinner, we headed for night photos. During the night photos, James, a guy we had met earlier this week came to meet up as well. We continued walking around–the night was so nice, until I finally needed to retire back to the dorm for some sleep for our trip up to the Gold Coast.

This morning, I met up with my friend Nick to go to the beach. We had lunch at a great café overlooking the beaches and the scenery was just amazing. After seeing all this, I want even more so to pursue a chance to live down here. The beaches were clean, the sun was great, the atmosphere was happy. I felt great being there. We then left late in the evening after spending the day meeting people and chatting it up while getting darker. I had sushi for dinner, and then met up with Mike and Jaime for a night out on the town–AGAIN.

Today, we woke up late due to our partying last night, and started out the morning with some shopping. We went around Oxford Street that became a nonstop store by store visit for buying jeans, a couple of shirts, etc. We also went by the travel centre to buy a ticket up to the Gold Coast for next week. We’ll leave on Monday and go up to the Gold Coast, Brisbane, and Byron Bay and return back in Sydney on Thursday night. We ended up then having dinner back on Oxford street at an Italian restaurant, and before we knew it, it had fallen to night. Time is going by slowly here which is great, because it seems like we are doing so many things! That night we went to a couple of bars to see the nightlife of Thursday night, and as expected, nothing too stupendous. Luckily tomorrow is Friday so we’ll go to dance!

As we left the airport, we boarded a train for a quick 10 minute ride to the City Center. First impressions: I LOVE IT HERE. It’s got the feel of England, the convenience of the US, and the scenery of San Francisco. Everyone who had told me about Sydney before told me that I would absolutely love it, and after just a few minutes, I could practically agree. On board the train, we met Jaime, a guy from California, who had been living in England. He has just moved here for potentially one year, and we all went toward King’s Cross together. We headed for a place to eat lunch, and ended up at a really cool Italian deli, that had the best salads and sandwiches. After eating my weight in food, we headed for a hostel that was located right next door called, the Blue Parrot. It was run by an eccentric woman named Christine from Greece. She was hilarious, and gave us our room in the dorm. After we got settled in, we all headed for a walk to see the area. Along the way, we passed by a hotel called Medusa–the same hotel I remembered my friend Nick worked in. Well, low and behold, I go up to the door and he was working! So, he told us where to go, what to see, and we got an idea of the direction of what we should do for the few days we’re planning to stay here for. After a walk around the city, ending up at the harbour next to the Opera House, we headed back to have a power nap before our night out in Sydney. We headed for a nice Japanese dinner at ‘Wagamama’ and my meal consisted of teriyaki chicken, avacado/tuna sashimi salad, and apple/celery/mint juice. It was delicious. We then headed out for the evening at a popular club, and rolled back into the dorm after dancing and partying ourselves out! This was a great start to my stay in Sydney, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of our time has in store for us!