After about 17 hours of sleeping the whole first day away in Sydney, our second day was much more productive. We got up early, ate breakfast with some mates (that's Aussie for friends) and hit the Royal Botanical Gardens Australian style. This area of town was unreal. It was like being in the middle of a tropical island but still in the city... much like NYC Central Park, but alot nicer. While walking along snapping pics left, right and centre, we stopped to take pictures of wild cockatoos then got ambushed by those crazy birds. We then heard the worlds worst noise and couldn't figure out where/ what animal made it. We looked up and saw count dracula and his gang.... aka a whole lots of bats in broad daylight (no joke!). The Royal Botanical Gardens is massive and hits the waterfront where there is an amazing view of the Sydeny Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. There were also tons of people running in the Gardens... a bit weird since it was the middle of a Tuesday. (When we say tons of people....we mean SWARMS OF AUSSIE'S in runners and spanks!!!) We asked to stop someone to ask if there was a race or something going on, but apparently its quite common for Aussies to take off about 1.5 - 2 hours of there lunch time and go out running together. There are about 10 large running groups that go through the gardens each day... pretty cool!
We then thought it was a great idea to grab some lunch. But we didn't have lunch just anywhere.... we definately had lunch in front of the Sydney Opera House! After that, we toured around inside the main entrance and the gift shop. It was amazing!
Next, we shopped around the Circular Quay (pronounced Key not Quay) where there was a lot of neat boutiques and cafes. The Circular Quay is where all the ferries run from Sydneys suburb beaches. We grabbed a ferry over to Manly beach which is a really cool surfer town and area.
After we got back to our hostel from Manly, we ran into two ladies who looked rather familiar.... Katie and Raji (Jazz's friends from her co-op term at RIM). We ended up spending the next two days with them. We went to Darling Harbour, Paddy's Market, the Sydney Aquarium (we found Nemo Marisa!!!) and a trip to the famous Bondi Beach. We lost the girls after Bondi where they were headed up to Cairns.
We loved Bondi so much that we decided to spend a whole other day there. We were determined to walk to Coastal Walk: from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach. This walk should have only taken us approx. 3-4 hours, however we stopped about a thousand times to take in the amazing views along the coastal cliffs, therefore it took us about 5 hours. The path took us up and down cliffs into different beach coves where you could hike up and over the cliff rocks. There were many times where we didn't think we could climb them, but we pushed ourseleves and did it anyways... it was breath-taking and well worth walking the whole way. After a long day of hiking and climbing, we found our next adventure just about to begin...
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Jumped off the plane at L.A.X.
June 17th- Mrs. D., Ms. Belinda, Amanda & John took us to the airport for farewells! (miss you guys already!!) Plane from Buffalo to Detroit had approximately 72 seats. Felt like we were on a private jet. T'was a ROUGH bumpy right...and Expedia steered us wrong, by not seating us together. Glorious.
Detroit to L.A. about 4 hours? Pretty good flight. Jazz sat beside a dude who wouldn't respond when she asked him how he was. Rad. The lady on her other side just spoke to her family sitting near her. I however, sat beside Pat & Duke from Detroit! (HEYYY GUYS!!! Hope you both enjoyed the wedding!!) Yes a wedding in Cali. My destination wedding for surrreeee.
Thenn.,...JUMPED OFF THE PLANE AT LAX!!! anddd we saw no celebs. Sorry everyone. We were feeling adventurous and decided to take the city bus to our hostel in Santa Monica - HI Hostel. While waiting for the bus, we met 2 French guys who happened to be headed to the same hostel! We befriended them and had a great bus ride. While wlaking to our hostel, we managed to catch the last 11 seconds of the final NBA playoff game... LA won and the city went wild! It was neat to be apart of. Got to the hostel, and got our keys for our room. Our roomates Orsina and Martina let us in our room (so we didn't need to use our keys). Chatted with them for 20, then decided to walk around a bit before bed. We wanted to make sure our keys worked before we left, but they didn't. Went down to the front desk to get them fixed...turned our, we went to the wrong room.
LA day#2 -- Got on the city bus at 8am. Our bus drived was WICKED!! He was our own personal tour guide. He even gave us free all day passes for the bus. We went to Beverly Hills, walked Rodeo Drive, wandered to the Farmer's Market & the Grove (a really great outdoor shopping area/celeb hotspot. Of course tho, no celebs.) Next we bussed it to Hollywood Blvd. and walked the famous "walk of fame." Saw Sid Grauman's Chinese theatre (with all the celebrity hand and footprints outside), the Kodak theatre, then booked a tour with the next Dolly Parton. We ate sushi that night, which was my first time trying Wasabi...which I thought was a scoop of avocado. To my surprise, it burned my mouth. Let's just say, I've never downed a pint of Budlight that fast in my life...
LA day#3 -- We checked out the Famer's Market which had lots of fruit, veg and cheese (Jaz fell in love with a Vanilla-cheesecake-cheesey-ricotta dip) which we dipped strawberries in for lunch. Santa Monica beach. It had a cool amusement park on the pier, lots of fishing, and many buskers trying to entertain for money. Went down the the Santa Monica beach and walked about to Venice Beach. It took us about an hour and a half. Venice Beach has alot of street vendours selling Bob Marley swag, Djembe drums, jewlery, sunglasses... They had this really neat skate/BMX park (you would have LOVED it Fabio and Justin!!) There were kids as young as 8-10 skating....doing tricks, nuts! That was short lived for us, we wanted to make it back to the hostel in time to change, eat and catch the bus for the airport. We ate dinner at a place called Buddha's Belly....Jaz recommended Thai green curry, which tasted AMAZING!!! After dinner, with packs on backs, we left (like...5 hours before take-off time) for the airport. This was officially the earliest I have been for anything...EVER. Jazz was chatted up by this 55 year-old, local-chatterbox-desperate for convo??? gentleman?? He kept talking about his ex-girlfriend. Yes I snapped a sweet pic (we'll post pictures when the library computers stop kicking us off every 15 minutes!!! sorry!!!). Again, arrived at LAX, haggered from the day in the sun.
LAX-Sydney -- hands down...longest plane ride EVER! 15 hours. Jaz slept 11 of the 15 hours. I was jealous. There were free movies, tv shows, music. They fed us supper and breakfast....and even had gluten-free meals for Jasmine. Lots of free snacks and drinks as well. The QANTAS flight team made the flight great (highly recommend for anyone travelling soon). We left at 11:50pm LA time, so it had already been dark for like....2-3 hours, but it kept being dark for another 13-14 hours of the flight. It's like we were flying into a dark hole. All in all, great flight. We were a bit tired, and still felt like napping though. We got to a meeting point in the airport to catch our (yet again Free) shuttle to our hostel when we met Anna from Virgina. She was staying at the hostel across the street, attending school here in New south Wales in a couple weeks. Once at the hostel (Maze backpackers) we checked in, then tried calling home. It took us actually 30 minutes to find calling cards, figure out the phone system and make phone calls (sorry families if we sounded stressed on the phone!) After that, we decided on 2 hours naps...which turned into 5 hours. Up and at'em for 4-5...enough time to unpack, explore, grocery shop and eat dinner. We slept the entire night through until 8am this morning. Now we find ourselved being called out on the streets by locals asking if we're from out of town; because we're not wearing winter jackets, rather shorts and short sleeves. The weather about 15-18C. Off and on clouds, but definitly warmer then a Canadian winter!!!! We now find ourselves scribbling a quick blog to our family and friends back at home, wishing you were here, and missing you lots!!!
From the Sydney State Library, this is Skittles and Gizmo signing off.... stay warm Canada!
xoxo
Detroit to L.A. about 4 hours? Pretty good flight. Jazz sat beside a dude who wouldn't respond when she asked him how he was. Rad. The lady on her other side just spoke to her family sitting near her. I however, sat beside Pat & Duke from Detroit! (HEYYY GUYS!!! Hope you both enjoyed the wedding!!) Yes a wedding in Cali. My destination wedding for surrreeee.
Thenn.,...JUMPED OFF THE PLANE AT LAX!!! anddd we saw no celebs. Sorry everyone. We were feeling adventurous and decided to take the city bus to our hostel in Santa Monica - HI Hostel. While waiting for the bus, we met 2 French guys who happened to be headed to the same hostel! We befriended them and had a great bus ride. While wlaking to our hostel, we managed to catch the last 11 seconds of the final NBA playoff game... LA won and the city went wild! It was neat to be apart of. Got to the hostel, and got our keys for our room. Our roomates Orsina and Martina let us in our room (so we didn't need to use our keys). Chatted with them for 20, then decided to walk around a bit before bed. We wanted to make sure our keys worked before we left, but they didn't. Went down to the front desk to get them fixed...turned our, we went to the wrong room.
LA day#2 -- Got on the city bus at 8am. Our bus drived was WICKED!! He was our own personal tour guide. He even gave us free all day passes for the bus. We went to Beverly Hills, walked Rodeo Drive, wandered to the Farmer's Market & the Grove (a really great outdoor shopping area/celeb hotspot. Of course tho, no celebs.) Next we bussed it to Hollywood Blvd. and walked the famous "walk of fame." Saw Sid Grauman's Chinese theatre (with all the celebrity hand and footprints outside), the Kodak theatre, then booked a tour with the next Dolly Parton. We ate sushi that night, which was my first time trying Wasabi...which I thought was a scoop of avocado. To my surprise, it burned my mouth. Let's just say, I've never downed a pint of Budlight that fast in my life...
LA day#3 -- We checked out the Famer's Market which had lots of fruit, veg and cheese (Jaz fell in love with a Vanilla-cheesecake-cheesey-ricotta dip) which we dipped strawberries in for lunch. Santa Monica beach. It had a cool amusement park on the pier, lots of fishing, and many buskers trying to entertain for money. Went down the the Santa Monica beach and walked about to Venice Beach. It took us about an hour and a half. Venice Beach has alot of street vendours selling Bob Marley swag, Djembe drums, jewlery, sunglasses... They had this really neat skate/BMX park (you would have LOVED it Fabio and Justin!!) There were kids as young as 8-10 skating....doing tricks, nuts! That was short lived for us, we wanted to make it back to the hostel in time to change, eat and catch the bus for the airport. We ate dinner at a place called Buddha's Belly....Jaz recommended Thai green curry, which tasted AMAZING!!! After dinner, with packs on backs, we left (like...5 hours before take-off time) for the airport. This was officially the earliest I have been for anything...EVER. Jazz was chatted up by this 55 year-old, local-chatterbox-desperate for convo??? gentleman?? He kept talking about his ex-girlfriend. Yes I snapped a sweet pic (we'll post pictures when the library computers stop kicking us off every 15 minutes!!! sorry!!!). Again, arrived at LAX, haggered from the day in the sun.
LAX-Sydney -- hands down...longest plane ride EVER! 15 hours. Jaz slept 11 of the 15 hours. I was jealous. There were free movies, tv shows, music. They fed us supper and breakfast....and even had gluten-free meals for Jasmine. Lots of free snacks and drinks as well. The QANTAS flight team made the flight great (highly recommend for anyone travelling soon). We left at 11:50pm LA time, so it had already been dark for like....2-3 hours, but it kept being dark for another 13-14 hours of the flight. It's like we were flying into a dark hole. All in all, great flight. We were a bit tired, and still felt like napping though. We got to a meeting point in the airport to catch our (yet again Free) shuttle to our hostel when we met Anna from Virgina. She was staying at the hostel across the street, attending school here in New south Wales in a couple weeks. Once at the hostel (Maze backpackers) we checked in, then tried calling home. It took us actually 30 minutes to find calling cards, figure out the phone system and make phone calls (sorry families if we sounded stressed on the phone!) After that, we decided on 2 hours naps...which turned into 5 hours. Up and at'em for 4-5...enough time to unpack, explore, grocery shop and eat dinner. We slept the entire night through until 8am this morning. Now we find ourselved being called out on the streets by locals asking if we're from out of town; because we're not wearing winter jackets, rather shorts and short sleeves. The weather about 15-18C. Off and on clouds, but definitly warmer then a Canadian winter!!!! We now find ourselves scribbling a quick blog to our family and friends back at home, wishing you were here, and missing you lots!!!
From the Sydney State Library, this is Skittles and Gizmo signing off.... stay warm Canada!
xoxo
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