Australia

  Sydney, Australia
Saturday, July 28, 2007

G'day mate! We have arrived! I cannot believe that our trip is over! We spent a week in Australia and had a great time! It was not too cold in Brisbane, but we spent most of our time in Sydney where, I am ashamed to admit, I broke down and put socks on with my sandals! We had been in 80-87* weather and all the sudden we were in 45-50* weather! We arrived in Brisbane on Sunday, only to find out that the train we needed to get to go to Sydney had already left and there was not another one until Monday! After asking around, and storing our extra luggage at one of the train stations, we finally found out that we could take a bus to a city about 4 hours away and then catch a train to Sydney from there. We did that and arrived in Sydney on Monday morning at about 7:00am. When we checked into our hostel, which was very nice and very cheap, we went out and found a grocery store! A real....big...have everything...grocery store! We bought a bunch of bread and peanut butter and then we set out to find the Sydney Aquarium! On the way there we went into St. Andrew's Cathedral. It was really pretty. At the aquarium we saw a platypus! It was so cute!

We saw sharks and crocodiles and all kinds of other sea animals and then we went to get on the ferry! The ferry left from Darling Harbor and went under the big bridge and stops next to the Sydney Opera House!

Bethany wanted to take the tour of the Opera House, but Daniel and I saw that we could go see "Othello" at the Opera House for only $30 each! It was awesome! I made spaghetti for dinner and we rushed back to the Opera House to see the play.
Tuesday morning we were able to finally call our families! Bethany had been able to get through to her family while we were in PNG, but ther rest of us had to wait to get to Australia! After we were all done we walked to Hyde Park and to Starbucks! We went and found the giant chess board that is in the park and ate lunch while we watched some guys play. I, being the history nerd that I am, was able to go into the Parliament building! The chamber looks just like the one in London, except smaller. After we left the building we went to Bondi Beach! It was cold, but fun! We hung around and took pictures and then headed back to the hostel. Luke and I went grocery shopping and then we all went to sleep! There was no heater in our room, so we were all VERY glad that there were so many blankets!
Wednesday morning Luke, Bethany and I got up at 6am to go get our tickets to the Blue Mountains validated. We were able to grab some cappucino on the way back to the hostel...YAY! Our train left the station at 9:00am and we arrived in Katoomba at 11:00am. We checked into our hostel...which was beside an amazing, wholesale fruit stand...and then walked to the mountain park area!

It was so amazing! It was clear that day and so we were able to see SO far! We had a great time walking around the ridge and also discovered that you can put nutella (an amazing chocolate spread) on oranges and it is great! We saw lots of wild cockatoos flying around and had a great time walking around and exploring! On our way back to the hostel we bought some oranges, kiwi, snap beans and potatoes...not to eat together! I made some awesome cheese-potatoes..if I do saw so myself...and beans for supper. We also got some hot chocolate and it was great to drink since it was soooo cold! The hostel we were in was great...except that it was not heated! The den had a fireplace, so it was warm in there, but not in the rooms!
We were planning on going to the Gold Coast on Thursday morning, but we were having such a great time in the mountains, we decided to stay another night! When I woke up I convinced Luke to go with me to get some rolls from the fruit stand and after I heated them up on the stove...they were awesome! Everyone decided that we woud have a free day since we girls could walk around Katoomba by ourselves. Bethany went to a coffee shop and the rest of us went to the store and then Luke went to buy a hat. We met back at the hostel for lunch and the guys wanted to go back to the mountains and go into the valley. Rachel was sick and Bethany has a bad knee so we girls decided to wander around the town. We went to this huge house that had been turned into a hotel, but we went in and looked around before heading out of town to a souviner shop. By the time we got back to the hostel it was almost 5:00, when the guys said they would be back, so we got cleaned up because we had all planned on going out to eat that night. This is where it gets really interesting.....let me preface this by saying that both Luke and Daniel are very responsible and did NOT do this in purpose, but this is how it happened! The guys were supposed to get back at 5:00, well, I kind of expected them to get back at 6:00. Rachel expected them at 5:00, but I talked her into giving them until at least 5:30 before she started to get too upset. There was nothing that we could do if they didn't come back before dark except call the police or the US embassy, which I was prepared to do if needed, so we decided that at 6:00 we, Rachel and I, would walk down the main road towards the mountains and see if we saw them and then go back to the hostel and call the police. I would not have been worried too much except that it was cold and they were not prepared to be out all night. It got to be 6:00, so we headed out. Poor Bethany stayed so that if they came back another way one of us would be there and they would not think that we had all died or something. We were walking down the street and Rachel kind of started to panic. I was worried, but I also decided that the two of them had enough common sense to take care of themselves and to not do anything that would end up getting them hurt....not that stuff does not happen, but I had faith in them. We walked out of town a little ways when we saw Luke walking down the raod towards us. He did not see us, and we did not see Daniel! He didn't look panicked, so I was not worried about Daniel having died anymore, but Rachel kind of stopped breathing when Luke turned off the road and went into this building. When we got there Luke AND Daniel were walking around the corner at us! I have never been so glad to see anyone on a dark street in my life! They appologised profusely for scareing us half to death and then told us their side of the story as we walked back to the hostel. They had been making great time on the trail and decided to go a little further when they saw a sign that said "crumbling castle this way." By the time they realized that they were not going to find the castle before it was time to be back...they were almost late. When they finished climbing up the stairs that led out of the valley they were on a deserted, dirt road! They ran/ jogged for a good 45 min to get to a place that had a phone so they could call us....but when they got there the operator could not give them the number to the hostel! They ran for another 15 min into town to another phone...that is when we found them! We got back to the hostel and Bethany started crying. They were fine, just VERY tired, and so after they took showers we still went out to eat. We went to an Italian resturant that was amazing! When we got back to the hostel we made hot chocolate and went outside to the fire that was burning out there to enjoy it. There were some other people out there and they had trained a opposum to come up to them! The opposums there are cute and fuzzy and only barely look like ours. We all slept VERY well that night!
We were going back to Sydney this, Friday, morning. Daniel and I got up at 6:30 to go get our tickets validated and were able to see the sunrise! It was so pretty! Our train left at 8:20, so after breakfast we went to the station and got back into Sydney at 10:30ish. Rachel wanted to go to an opal store, Australia is the largest opal producer in the world, so she and Luke went to the store while I sat in McDonalds across the street and did a little people watching and icecream eating! Icecream cones at McD are only $.50 in Australia! Daniel and Bethany wanted to go up in the Sydney tower, so we all decided to meet back at Starbucks. Luke and Rachel finished in the store and we went to Hyde Park for some lunch and then went and met Daniel and Bethany at Starbucks. We went to the Central Train Station and got on the train to the Gold Coast after Daniel and I got our tickets figured out. We were on the train until 4am and then got on a bus til 6:30am when it dropped us off in Palm Beach. We ran over to the ocean to watch the sun come up...it was amazing!

Then we went to Subway to eat breakfast and my walking was not the same again! I had fallen and bruised my knee, but nothing had really hurt until we were leaving Subway and I hit it on a chair. I don't know what I did to it exactly, but good grief! It got to be just an ache pretty fast, but Daniel would not let me carry my big backpack anymore, so Rachel carried it and I carried hers. We walked about 20 min to the Currumbin Animal Sanctuary. When we got there we were able to feed laurakeets...kind of like parakeets...by the hundreds! We held bowls of this nectar stuff and tons of them would land on you and eat!

We saw koalas, dingos, wombats, tons of birds and we got to feed kangaroos and wallabies!

It was awesome! When we were done in the animal sanctuary we went to a chocolate factory and a honey store and then cought the bus to Brisbane! We got to Brisbane and tried to call the hotel we were booked for, but no one would answer! Daniel figured out which train and then bus to take, but when we got to where the bus was supposed to be, we found out that it only ran in the mornings! Well, after getting on another bus and then being shown where to go by a Japanese student studying in Brisbane, we finally arrived at the hotel! It was soooo nice to ahve a hot shower and tea and fruit provided by the hotel!
Sunday morning dawned bright and early! We had arranged for a shuttle to pick us up at 7:30 to take us to the airport and after getting through security we ony had one hour until our 11:00am flight!



We arrived in LA at 7:00am on Sunday morning! Rachel, Bethany and Luke had to run for it to make their flights home and Daniel and I had a little more time, but the lines were long, so we had all split up by 8:00. The LA airport is NOT my favorite airport in the world. It is MUCH less organized than even the airport in Alotau! Oh well, I got to Altanta at about 6:45pm and it was so nice to see my family! I slept like a rock that night because neither Daniel nor I slept on the flight over because we were trying to let ourselves get back in the right time zone!