Pies and Brekkie Reviews

I have spent the last couple of days lazing on the beach. Nothing of note really happened, beside some footy team showing up yesterday morning to go swimming. Imagine 20ish enormous, muscular men in prime physical condition, stripping down to go swimming. No biggie. Sorry, no pictures. I felt like that would cross a line.

I have a few food experiences to update you on- pies and aussie brekkie. I got pies yesterday for lunch- two small ones. One was a beef pie, the traditional pie of choice in Australia, and the other was chicken and vegetables, or pretty much a traditional American chicken pot pie. Naturally, I enjoyed the chicken pie more. There is something just a little sketchy, albeit adventurous about consuming an Aussie meat pie. It is almost like mystery meat, although you're fairly sure it is just ground beef.

This morning, I had decided I was going to go to Sunday brunch for my main meal of the day, so I really did it up. I went to a cafe across the street from the ocean and ordered what was called the "Irish Breakfast." This included eggs, crusty bread, 2 sausages, bacon, hashbrowns, baked beans, and something called white or black pudding. I selected white, thinking that would be the less gross version of whatever they were giving me. Not sure why I felt white is less gross than black, but I I felt like black pudding might be blood pudding, and I couldn't handle that. Behold the amazing platter I was presented:

I did my best to finish off as much as I could, considering this was my one meal today. I ate the eggs, bacon, bread, hashbrown, and most of the beans. I am not a big fan of their sausage, so I ate most of 1 of the two links they gave me- I think they are made of lamb, at least they taste like it. I do not like white pudding. I just googled white pudding to see what it was (courtesy of wiki): "White pudding or oatmeal pudding is a meat dish popular in Scotland, Ireland,^[1] Northumberland, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. White pudding is very similar to black pudding, but does not include blood (good call, Courtney). Consequently, it consists of pork meat and fat, suet, bread, and oatmeal formed into the shape of a large sausage.^[2] Earlier versions (pre-1990^[3]) often had sheep's brain added as a binding agent. A similar pudding, known as Hog's pudding, is made in Cornwall and Devon though it is much spicier than white pudding, as it contains black pepper, cumin, basil and garlic." Ok, fair enough.

Tomorrow I make my way to the CBD of Sydney. I will apparently have an amazing rooftop few of the harbor bridge and the opera house. I will be in the middle of the town, in the middle of it all. I am sad to see Coogee go, but I may be back sometime. It has been nice to have this laid back week on the beach, but I am excited to get to town and see the opera house again. My week is pretty much planned for me. After checking in tomorrow, I plan to walk around and reacquaint myself with Sydney. Tuesday, I am scheduled for a tour in the evening called Razorhurst in Kings Cross. It is about Kings Cross's violent past (not to scare anyone, but it still has a rather rough reputation these days too, as Sydney's red light district.) Wednesday I am going on a day long Blue Mountain tour. Thursday I will spend bidding Sydney goodbye for now. Friday I fly out to Adelaide to see my Pollock family!

I spent a while this afternoon re-reading my blog from my last trip. It brings memories flooding back and a huge smile to my face to be revisiting those great times. I am so excited to be here again!

Not a huge fan of the self-picture, but when you're traveling alone, you don't have much of a choice!