Six
days have passed since I last wrote, it has been so busy that I barely remember
what to write about, reinforcing the fact that writing is probably a great
idea.
My last day of Melbun (how I was taught to say Melbourne) was a good one, I went to the twelve apostles and got some epic drone footage, got to see the great ocean road and learn about the soldiers that returned from war and had a hard time finding work in the economic depression that hit Australia after ww1 (seems similar to america’s). The great ocean road united many industry towns along the coast to the west of Melbun and draws 6 million visitors a year mostly to see their limestone rock formations called the twelve apostles (though there are only 7 or 8 apostles they call it 12 because it sounds more appealing).
The following day I woke up early and caught a bus to Avalon Airport, heading to Sydney. Australia’s public transport system has been really convenient and easy to understand- traveling in an English speaking country may be a huge factor of convenience but I do also believe that Australia is just a really well designed country. I like it here quite a lot.
Landing in Sydney I was able to take the first two days to myself, meeting up with old friends from my last contiki (group travel tour in Turkey/Greece) and going for many runs through the city. I was able to run around the opera house and run across the bridge, exploring the city quite thoroughly. I took the train to central station from circular quey and also took a bus to Bondi Beach. Often, I stopped for up to an hour at various spots captivated by the views they presented – a beautiful city. Walking around site seeing was easy, I could not believe how easy it was to run around, even the Royal botanical gardens were free and completely open to jog through. I truly loved being a tourist in this city.
While at Bondi Beach I was really impressed with the sand and water, walking along the ocean wetting my feet and taking pictures - the locals are so friendly; one passed me a soccer ball but I wasn’t paying attention so it went right by me (and inconveniently into the ocean). I apologized but they smiled and said not to worry. Then I saw a couple guys throwing an American football and had to join in- they needed help - their throws were quite terrible. After a few minutes a girl jumped in and to my surprise threw much better than the guys. I was quite impressed until we finished and said she was from Texas; which of course I gave her a high five and told her Texas girls rock.
I randomly began talking to an Irish couple at one of the lookout vistas in between coogee and Bondi beaches and it turned out we were on the same group tour starting the following day. At 3:30 pm they told me there was an optional group meeting at 5 pm I wasn’t aware of and I decided to try to make it- if all went well i would have just enough time to make it back to my room, shower, and head to the meeting place.
All along this trip, the Australians have all been extremely helpful and also very nice/kind. Every time I ask a question they stop and properly address me, eager to help and answer any question I ask with a smile. I can’t help but believe they are rather happy people and it makes living here seem very appealing.
I made it to the group meeting right on time and officially started my group tour. The first person I met was Izaak, from England. He had a welcoming accent and warm introduction, well spoken and polite. Next, the tour operator introduced herself and asked me for my passport; she was surprisingly attractive and young, much different than my previous tour operator Ahmet, from Turkey. I loved Ahmet but Jill, was my age, attractive and blonde / blue eyed.
I met about half the group in the optional meeting - trying to learn names and where people were from. There was one person from California and one from Florida, otherwise most were from England, one from Pakistan, Japan, a couple from Ireland and also a couple from Austria.
After the meeting we went to get Thai food, Georgina, an attractive Chinese Cheerleader from England lead the way. She was looking intensely at her map and I felt comfortable she was competent to get us where we were trying to go. We ended up going the wrong way at first, corrected our path and then walked across the street. The place we were looking for was right across the street, she had taken us across the wrong street the first time and I joked with her about needing a map to cross the street. She responded with the fact that she is a geography major, which was quite funny. Georgina was immediately someone I knew I would get along with quite well.
Dinner was pleasant, it was nice to meet everyone and afterwards I headed back to the room to try to get some sleep. An old friend wanted to meet in Sydney from the last contiki tour but I didn’t feel so well so we ended up talking on the phone, it was nice to hear from her. I got about 5 hours of sleep, woke up and met the group at 7 am for a hike to the blue mountains. We had about 90% of the group together on this excursion and walking through these hills we were able to talk and get to know each other more. We had lunch at a surprisingly pleasant deli/cafe, and headed back around 1 pm, arriving at our rooms for a 3 pm check in. The tour guide told us to go get some $10 gifts for a secret Santa we were going to do “tomorrow” (Christmas). Some of the guys and me went to search the Chinese markets that Jill recommended for us. It was a great time, I was able to finally get the Travel neck pillow I’ve always secretly wanted - one for me and one for a gift. Izaak got a rubix cube, Justin got a boomerang and weird circular tube you could blow into and make aboriginal sounds, Liam got towels I think, and I forgot what Adam got.
There were much more guys on this trip than last time, and it looked like we were getting along well.
After shopping Jill took us to a place where we could cook our own steak for our first included group dinner. It was quite fun, and quite delicious. Immediately afterwards, the bridge climbers had to take off. 9 of the 31 of us decided to do the optional “climb the Sydney bridge” excursion on Christmas Eve. I didn’t really want to do it but so many people told me it was amazing I decided to just do it anyway.
The climb was rather uneventful, but our tour guide Bree was awesome. The 9 of us really got to bond with a very cool backdrop of Sydney at night, and we met a Brazilian family with the cutest little daughters and somewhat drunk, somewhat obnoxious, but overall well behaved older boys. The group worked out so that Justin and I were paired up for all our photographs. Justin was a 21-year-old guy from Calgary Canada. He looked like he was from California and even admitted people in Calgary would ask him where is from because he didn’t look like a typical Canadian.
At a point towards the end of the 3 hour climb the tour guide was stuck talking to one of the maintenance workers at one of the photography points; as I was the first in line I took a seat on top of the bridge with Justin and just sat on the top of the bridge observing the busiest highway in Australia and one of the most beautiful skylines I’ve ever seen. It is not massive like a New York, but it is definitely beautiful and definitely unique. The opera house to me is just beautiful day and night, one of my favorite buildings in the world and I think the only place I’ve ever updated my profile picture to while traveling that I can remember.
After the climb we went down to the harbor waterfront near the circular quay (pronounced “quee” like queen) train station and grabbed some refreshments. Four of us got a jug of sangria, a glass each, putting a nice touch on the closing of a wonderful evening.
We caught the last train back to our rooms, arriving home around 12:45 am, deciding to stay awake and talk in the lobby instead of sleeping. Five or six of us chatted all night and I really enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Lindsey, a 35 year old ex pro volleyball player and I really talked quite a bit about a lot of things. It was impressive how much my first impression of her changed after I got to know her more. Initially I thought she was probably a college swimmer or something around 22 years old, from San Diego, but afterwards I realized I was a bit off. I can’t help but have initial thoughts when I meet people, and I know better than to judge others or label them precisely for this reason- though it’s a book cover’s job to describe the book, you can’t always judge a book from its cover. Liam, Laura, Amy, Sydney, and Izaak also were downstairs with us and Izaak the ladies man he is somehow had two women petting him as he fell asleep – I knew we’d get along well.
The next morning was Christmas; we woke up to an advertised champagne brunch and ended up getting “bottomless mimosas” - a great way to start Christmas traveling in Australia. Georgi, Izaak, Sydney (a teacher from Florida) and Paula (a government employee from Canada) took full advantage of the bottomless mimosas then hopped on the bus for a tour of Sydney and Manly beach for our secret Santa exchange.
The tour went well, we had a lot of fun taking pictures with the opera house behind us and manly beach was even a better time. Though it was cloudy for the first time while I have been in Sydney, it was so fun to pack a picnic lunch and chill on the beach playing beach games on Christmas. We had the Christmas gifts and even a Christmas tree. Everywhere we went tourists often took pictures of us or joined our group for photos - we were around 31 certainly loud and questionably fun people dressed up in Christmas colors on vacation filled with mimosas, who could resist.
The beach trip was a really good experience - I hope I never forget it. Just a lot of stuff going on and really good memories. It was especially nice to be in an English speaking country and being able to talk with locals; for example, when I went to the restroom and saw a cute kid struggling with the sink, I was able to help him and talk to him and his father a bit about random stuff. No matter how fluent I get in second languages or third languages, it’s never the same as speaking in my first language (at least for me).
My last day of Melbun (how I was taught to say Melbourne) was a good one, I went to the twelve apostles and got some epic drone footage, got to see the great ocean road and learn about the soldiers that returned from war and had a hard time finding work in the economic depression that hit Australia after ww1 (seems similar to america’s). The great ocean road united many industry towns along the coast to the west of Melbun and draws 6 million visitors a year mostly to see their limestone rock formations called the twelve apostles (though there are only 7 or 8 apostles they call it 12 because it sounds more appealing).
The following day I woke up early and caught a bus to Avalon Airport, heading to Sydney. Australia’s public transport system has been really convenient and easy to understand- traveling in an English speaking country may be a huge factor of convenience but I do also believe that Australia is just a really well designed country. I like it here quite a lot.
Landing in Sydney I was able to take the first two days to myself, meeting up with old friends from my last contiki (group travel tour in Turkey/Greece) and going for many runs through the city. I was able to run around the opera house and run across the bridge, exploring the city quite thoroughly. I took the train to central station from circular quey and also took a bus to Bondi Beach. Often, I stopped for up to an hour at various spots captivated by the views they presented – a beautiful city. Walking around site seeing was easy, I could not believe how easy it was to run around, even the Royal botanical gardens were free and completely open to jog through. I truly loved being a tourist in this city.
While at Bondi Beach I was really impressed with the sand and water, walking along the ocean wetting my feet and taking pictures - the locals are so friendly; one passed me a soccer ball but I wasn’t paying attention so it went right by me (and inconveniently into the ocean). I apologized but they smiled and said not to worry. Then I saw a couple guys throwing an American football and had to join in- they needed help - their throws were quite terrible. After a few minutes a girl jumped in and to my surprise threw much better than the guys. I was quite impressed until we finished and said she was from Texas; which of course I gave her a high five and told her Texas girls rock.
I randomly began talking to an Irish couple at one of the lookout vistas in between coogee and Bondi beaches and it turned out we were on the same group tour starting the following day. At 3:30 pm they told me there was an optional group meeting at 5 pm I wasn’t aware of and I decided to try to make it- if all went well i would have just enough time to make it back to my room, shower, and head to the meeting place.
All along this trip, the Australians have all been extremely helpful and also very nice/kind. Every time I ask a question they stop and properly address me, eager to help and answer any question I ask with a smile. I can’t help but believe they are rather happy people and it makes living here seem very appealing.
I made it to the group meeting right on time and officially started my group tour. The first person I met was Izaak, from England. He had a welcoming accent and warm introduction, well spoken and polite. Next, the tour operator introduced herself and asked me for my passport; she was surprisingly attractive and young, much different than my previous tour operator Ahmet, from Turkey. I loved Ahmet but Jill, was my age, attractive and blonde / blue eyed.
I met about half the group in the optional meeting - trying to learn names and where people were from. There was one person from California and one from Florida, otherwise most were from England, one from Pakistan, Japan, a couple from Ireland and also a couple from Austria.
After the meeting we went to get Thai food, Georgina, an attractive Chinese Cheerleader from England lead the way. She was looking intensely at her map and I felt comfortable she was competent to get us where we were trying to go. We ended up going the wrong way at first, corrected our path and then walked across the street. The place we were looking for was right across the street, she had taken us across the wrong street the first time and I joked with her about needing a map to cross the street. She responded with the fact that she is a geography major, which was quite funny. Georgina was immediately someone I knew I would get along with quite well.
Dinner was pleasant, it was nice to meet everyone and afterwards I headed back to the room to try to get some sleep. An old friend wanted to meet in Sydney from the last contiki tour but I didn’t feel so well so we ended up talking on the phone, it was nice to hear from her. I got about 5 hours of sleep, woke up and met the group at 7 am for a hike to the blue mountains. We had about 90% of the group together on this excursion and walking through these hills we were able to talk and get to know each other more. We had lunch at a surprisingly pleasant deli/cafe, and headed back around 1 pm, arriving at our rooms for a 3 pm check in. The tour guide told us to go get some $10 gifts for a secret Santa we were going to do “tomorrow” (Christmas). Some of the guys and me went to search the Chinese markets that Jill recommended for us. It was a great time, I was able to finally get the Travel neck pillow I’ve always secretly wanted - one for me and one for a gift. Izaak got a rubix cube, Justin got a boomerang and weird circular tube you could blow into and make aboriginal sounds, Liam got towels I think, and I forgot what Adam got.
There were much more guys on this trip than last time, and it looked like we were getting along well.
After shopping Jill took us to a place where we could cook our own steak for our first included group dinner. It was quite fun, and quite delicious. Immediately afterwards, the bridge climbers had to take off. 9 of the 31 of us decided to do the optional “climb the Sydney bridge” excursion on Christmas Eve. I didn’t really want to do it but so many people told me it was amazing I decided to just do it anyway.
The climb was rather uneventful, but our tour guide Bree was awesome. The 9 of us really got to bond with a very cool backdrop of Sydney at night, and we met a Brazilian family with the cutest little daughters and somewhat drunk, somewhat obnoxious, but overall well behaved older boys. The group worked out so that Justin and I were paired up for all our photographs. Justin was a 21-year-old guy from Calgary Canada. He looked like he was from California and even admitted people in Calgary would ask him where is from because he didn’t look like a typical Canadian.
At a point towards the end of the 3 hour climb the tour guide was stuck talking to one of the maintenance workers at one of the photography points; as I was the first in line I took a seat on top of the bridge with Justin and just sat on the top of the bridge observing the busiest highway in Australia and one of the most beautiful skylines I’ve ever seen. It is not massive like a New York, but it is definitely beautiful and definitely unique. The opera house to me is just beautiful day and night, one of my favorite buildings in the world and I think the only place I’ve ever updated my profile picture to while traveling that I can remember.
After the climb we went down to the harbor waterfront near the circular quay (pronounced “quee” like queen) train station and grabbed some refreshments. Four of us got a jug of sangria, a glass each, putting a nice touch on the closing of a wonderful evening.
We caught the last train back to our rooms, arriving home around 12:45 am, deciding to stay awake and talk in the lobby instead of sleeping. Five or six of us chatted all night and I really enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Lindsey, a 35 year old ex pro volleyball player and I really talked quite a bit about a lot of things. It was impressive how much my first impression of her changed after I got to know her more. Initially I thought she was probably a college swimmer or something around 22 years old, from San Diego, but afterwards I realized I was a bit off. I can’t help but have initial thoughts when I meet people, and I know better than to judge others or label them precisely for this reason- though it’s a book cover’s job to describe the book, you can’t always judge a book from its cover. Liam, Laura, Amy, Sydney, and Izaak also were downstairs with us and Izaak the ladies man he is somehow had two women petting him as he fell asleep – I knew we’d get along well.
The next morning was Christmas; we woke up to an advertised champagne brunch and ended up getting “bottomless mimosas” - a great way to start Christmas traveling in Australia. Georgi, Izaak, Sydney (a teacher from Florida) and Paula (a government employee from Canada) took full advantage of the bottomless mimosas then hopped on the bus for a tour of Sydney and Manly beach for our secret Santa exchange.
The tour went well, we had a lot of fun taking pictures with the opera house behind us and manly beach was even a better time. Though it was cloudy for the first time while I have been in Sydney, it was so fun to pack a picnic lunch and chill on the beach playing beach games on Christmas. We had the Christmas gifts and even a Christmas tree. Everywhere we went tourists often took pictures of us or joined our group for photos - we were around 31 certainly loud and questionably fun people dressed up in Christmas colors on vacation filled with mimosas, who could resist.
The beach trip was a really good experience - I hope I never forget it. Just a lot of stuff going on and really good memories. It was especially nice to be in an English speaking country and being able to talk with locals; for example, when I went to the restroom and saw a cute kid struggling with the sink, I was able to help him and talk to him and his father a bit about random stuff. No matter how fluent I get in second languages or third languages, it’s never the same as speaking in my first language (at least for me).
For
a present, the Gods deemed it fate that I receive a purple bejeweled/bedazzled
cat shirt. Josh from the UK got it for
me, and I wore it for the next three days everywhere I went. It was a beautiful shirt, maybe too beautiful
for 95% of people to understand, as I got a lot of stares and comments. Ok, maybe it was a terrible shirt, but don’t
tell josh I said that, we both found it marvelous.
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