Following the Dream

Christian October 30th, 2008

     After 6 weeks in Europe, it was time to move on to Australia. After a month, we decided to post something for those of us who have been waiting to hear about our time in Oz.  We arrived at the Frankfurt airport around 10:30am and were lucky enough to squeeze into the check-in line just ahead of a large tour group of high school students.  After a quick check-in we continued past the food court and through security. Once by the gates, we quickly realized our mistake. There were no shops to look at books, magazines, or to buy a snack.  Our gate wasn’t even open yet to sit down, so we had 2 hours to kill sitting on a bench with nothing to do. Finally, about an hour before take off our gate opened and we raided the only vending machine around with our last euro cents for a twix bar and a snickers bar.  We were flying Cathay Pacific whom we had never flown before, we were very happy with what we found. Our seats were comfortable with nice headrests, we received blankets and pillows, and best of all each seat contained its own entertainment center, giving us access to 100’s of movies, TV shows, games, and music. It was great considering we had about 22 hours of sitting on planes to endure. Our first flight was about 11 hours long and was spent mostly watching movies. We got a great dinner, and even a snack of Ramen noodles, along with alcoholic beverages and a breakfast.  We landed in Hong Kong for a 2 hour layover.  It was exciting to be in Hong Kong, even if it was just in the airport.  I bought a post card to send home.  As we sat down to wait for the flight, we found some Australian money below our seat.  We asked everyone around us if it was theirs, and surprising nobody claimed it.  It was a good way to start off our trip into Australia.  The second flight seemed to last forever.  Upon arrival, our bags were sniffed by a beagle.  It looked like a skinner, younger version of Casey’s beagle, Rossi.  When we finally landed in Sydney, we were excited to see our friend Janine standing in the terminal waiting for us.  We were then wisked away to our luxurious accommodation in a sweet BMW.  It was nice to finally arrive.  A beer was shoved in my hand (traditional Aussie welcoming) and then we headed to bed.  The next day we visited Cronulla beach.  We walked alongside the beach for a while.  It was great weather.  We stopped for some fish and chips before heading to the shops.  We browsed the shops, and I even bought a pair of board shorts.  It was a good first day in Australia.

      The next day began work for me.  I was working on contract for my previous employer, who was gracious enough to ship me a laptop to work on for a month.  It was a nice surprise to see that I had over 300 emails waiting for me to weed through.  The daytimes of the week were filled with me sitting on my laptop working away.  We did make it to downtown Sydney a couple of times though in the afternoons.  One of the first things we discovered was Darling Harbor.  This is a harbor that is lined with a ton of restaurants, bars, an IMAX, and even a shopping mall.  We spent an entire afternoon just exploring that area.  It was really pretty.  The weather was great.  It was such a nice time, just strolling about.  Another day, we each bought a sweatshirt for the cool evenings and made it down to Circular Quay to see the Opera House.  We did not realize how far of a walk it was from Darling Harbor to there.  The walk seemed to take forever, however we were able to explore an area of Sydney named “the Rocks”.  It is the historic part of Sydney and is home to many older buildings.  It was nice to walk through it.  We vowed we were going to make it back there for their famous markets, but never did.  Once we reached the one side of the rocks, we caught our first glimpses of the Sydney Opera House.  It was pretty cool.  By the time we took some photos, it was getting late and we needed to get back for dinner, so we headed to the Circular Quay station and caught a train to Revesby, the suburb 40 minutes away in which we were staying. 

Dinner was terrific, and we soon found out that Janine was a terrific cook.  It was quite nice to have home cooked meals while traveling for once.  We may have packed on a couple of pounds due to the amount of food, but it was sure worth it.  On Friday night, Darling Harbor was having a Latin Festival.  We decided to give it a go and made our way downtown to check it out.  One of the first things that we saw was a performance by a latin rapper.  It was interesting.  There were dancers on stage who looked like they were pulled off the street and given $50 and gogo boots and told to just get up on stage and shake it however you want.  It was entertaining to us, but even more so to the people who have been drinking for a while.  After watching that for a while, we walked around the harbor at night, taking in views of the city skyline lit up at night.  It was very pretty, the buildings and lights were reflected in the harbor water.  At 9PM, they were having fireworks.  We found somewhere to sit right in front of the harbor. At 9 PM on the dot, the crowd was growing antsy when the fireworks did not start.  However, by 9:05, the first firework lit up the sky and the crowd cheered.  The show only lasted 7 minutes, but it was pretty to watch the fireworks over the harbor.  After the fireworks ended we went to what would be our favorite place in Darling Harbor, the Docks.  We sat and had a couple of drinks and went to the mall food court for dinner.  We ate Aporto Chicken.  It is fast food, but the best chicken sandwich I have ever had.  Their “Bondi Burger” is a grilled chicken breast on a bun with cheese, mayo, lettuce, and amazing chili sauce.  It was delicious.  We then headed back to Revesby for our early morning to go to the Blue Mountains.

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