Back to (Oz) Reality

So it's back to Adelaide, back to reality, back to the job search...

First thing Friday morning, I began shooting off the resume into cyberspace. Less than an hour later, I received a call from Stillwell, a temping agency, offering to have me come in today (Tuesday) and do some testing to be placed with a job. Wow! Then later that afternoon, I walked down to the bus station and applied to a job with Grayline, a touring agency. I had heard about the position because the driver on the Barossa tour I was on with mom mentioned there would be a temporary position open while a lady went on maternity leave. Sweet! Then Sunday, the tupperware lady has been trying to get me to become a tupperware salesperson. She called me again today! I don't really want to do that; hopefully something else will pan out. I also picked up a form at Subway in the city that was hiring. So I may have a job soon!

My testing went sooooo well today. I was stressed about the tests because I haven't used word or excel in a while (and I don't even have them on this laptop to look around a little). The test only let you try twice then it was wrong (like if you were searching around to find where the correct thing to click is and accidentally click something, the next thing you click has to be right or it's counted wrong).  I actually figured some stuff out that I didn't even know how to do though, so that was good. I thought I did bad to average, but the tester came in and said:

word: 75% (I was like, ew, and she said it was really good because most people get 20-30%)
excel: 85%
Spreadsheet entry: I can't remember, but it wasn't great because I had some errors
Typing: 45 wpm, but only 4 % error.


Also, only 12 weeks until I am home for a while. I need to buy my ticket soon to come back, but I was trying to wait and make sure I got a job. I will keep you updated...

A Couple of Days in Perth and Mom's Farewell

Mom and I got up to catch our 10 am flight from Alice to Perth. We actually saw one of our Rock Tour group people on the airport shuttle and he had gotten punched on the way home! Dingo was exactly right, it happened just like he warned us it would. This guy had a huge bruise over his eye. I felt really bad, but was glad I splurged for the 2 bucks for the taxi the night before.

After a discovering I had only $15 left in my Aus bank account, a few hours in the air, and a very non satisfying airplane lunch, we were in rainy Perth. Kim picked us up from the airport and took us to her house. We went to the markets in Freo later that afternoon with Kim and Jordan. For dinner, Gavin made his famous spaghetti at my request. It was, of course, delicious.

The next day (Monday), Mom and I went on our tour of Fremantle. We took a boat over to Fremantle then rode the tram through the whole town, learning about the history and getting great views in the process. We got fish and chips from Cicerellos for lunch and rode the ferris wheel to get a bird's eye view of Freo. We caught the 3:45 boat back to Perth and Kim picked us up from the harbour. She made us delicious pork with mashed potatoes and asparagus for dinner. We decided that we would cook dinner for the Shreeves the next day as a "thank you."

Tuesday we did a hop on hop off tour of Perth. Kim took us to town and we rode the tour for the full figure 8 loop around then got off in the middle of town for some shopping and lunch.

We then had to find our way back to Doubleview by ourselves. With a couple of questions asked an answered, we caught the correct train and got off at the correct stop. Our bus came within 5 minutes and we had a vague idea of where we were supposed to disembark. We ended up getting off the bus when a lot of other people did and walked the direction we thought was right. We found the road immediately and were home after walking up a hill! I began dinner and mom went to visit Kim at the bead shop she works in and made me some earrings. I made chicken fajitas for dinner. I had marinaded the chicken overnight and it was great. I had flour tortillas, spanish rice, spiced kidney beans, cilantro, lettuce, homemade salsa, sour cream, cheese, and limes. The girls had never had chicken fajitas before, so I had to explain how to construct one. Gavin ate about 4! Kim didn't want me to leave. I think it was a success.

The next day we got to the airport extra early after telling Jordan, Riley, and Gavin goodbye. Kim dropped us off and we had breakfast at the airport. Even though we were so early, we nearly missed the flight because they changed the gate and we didn't notice! We rode buses to the house once we got to Adelaide, then washed my clothes twice and mom for one last time repacked all her stuff. We got some groceries and Dominoes for dinner. Sarah took us to the airport at 6 am the next morning. I stayed with mom until she boarded and watched her plane leave. She stopped and waved every 10 feet walking on the platform to the plane. I was tired and sad, and I caught a bus back to Lyons Road.

The Rock Tour: Uluru and Goodbyes

We awoke again to lots of dust and got ourselves ready. We had to make sure we were in place for the sunrise over Uluru. As it ended up, we were like an hour early, and nearly froze waiting on the sun. Most people wanted to stay on the bus to shield the chilly wind until Dingo forced them off and locked the doors. He made us oatmeal, so we had something warm to eat as we shivered and took useless pictures in the predawn no-light.

After the sun arrived, we had a quick bathroom break then went to Uluru to do the full base walk. Mom opted to do a shorter walk, but I wanted to do the whole walk since I didn't in 2010. At first, it was freezing and windy. Our group trudged silently through small foresty areas on the side of Uluru, freezing when we entered shade. No one was talking, so I put my iPod on and played the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was perfect when the song "I Like Dirt" came on. You would really have to like dirt to do this tour. As it turns out, I missed a whole lot when I came with Matt in 2010. There is rock art and so many amazing things to see that you miss if you don't do the full base walk. It was a long walk, but we arrived back early to Dingo and my mom waiting for us on a bench at the climb site. Oh yea, I was going to tell you why you shouldn't climb. I didn't climb last time, and didn't intend to climb this time, because the Aboriginal people who own the site ask you not to do so. Dingo gave a speech about how it was not only disrespectful to climb- "Do you take your shoes off when people ask you to when you go into their house? Do you pee in on their house?"- but also a safety and environmental issue. People die every year, only 36 have died on the rock, but he says at least 150 can be attributed to deaths caused by doing the rock climb. There is no grip for your feet and only a tiny chain to cling to climb up. He says the vast majority of people who climb are Australian (due to ignorance) and Japanese (apparently there is a popular movie in Japan where the character climbs Uluru to scatter ashes and people like to recreate this scene).

Environmentally, we are polluting the only water sources in the area (there are 2 waterhole at Uluru) and animals have pretty much stopped going to Uluru for water. The climbers urinate and defecate on Uluru (it's a 3 hour climb up and back and no bathrooms on the rock) and when it rains, all of that goes straight into the water source. He said that someone even reported having a diaper fall off the side while doing the base walk. That means 1) someone took a baby up that insanely steep, very dangerous climb, and 2) they changed the baby and decided to leave the diaper on the rock.

Anyway, Dingo had warned us about all this stuff, and said that if anyone in our group still wanted to climb, he would set their stuff out of the bus and let them go for it, but if they were late, he would leave them. He said that there was not enough time for us to climb to the top and come back anyway, so if someone wanted to try it, they would not hold the rest of the group up. All of this was moot the day of the base walk anyway. The climb was closed due to winds.

After our walk, we got back on the bus and Dingo passed snacks around to everyone to eat. We dropped some of our group off at the YHA because they would be catching a plane from Uluru airport. Then there was lots of driving and lots of people sleeping on the bus. Dingo was a little resentful that everyone was sleeping and not entertaining him on the drive. I have a suspicion that he was making a game out of waking people up. It seems I would nod off and would be woken by him turning up the music or swerving . One time I woke up and Christmas music was playing. It was a weird half sleep/half awake bus ride. We had lunch at the gas station- wraps- half way between Alice Springs and Uluru before we resumed more driving. I tried to stay awake this time because Dingo made me feel guilty at lunch about sleeping. We stopped at a camel farm outside of Alice Springs for a brief camel ride. We also saw some kangaroos, emus, and a dingo.

We finally got back to Alice Springs around 4:30 pm. We checked back into our room, unpacked, repacked, showered, and got ready to meet the group at The Rock Bar. We walked down with the little Chinese girl from our group and went into the office to write some comments in the comment book about our experience. Then we went to the bar next door. All of our group eventually showed up and we ordered dinner and drinks. Mom got kangaroo again for the last time. I got us a jug of beer to drink. Later, Dingo dared us to take shots. I asked what it was, and it was 151. I was not excited about the shot, but mom took one too, which I was proud. Then she started poking people with straws so I sent her home with the Chinese girl, haha. I stayed a little longer to finish my jug. I ended up talking to the German can thrower, who had all these crazy conspiracy theories about 911 and even the Batman shooting, something about the Illuminati being involved. "I've always wanted to talk to an American," he said. I've been here 3 days, I thought to myself. But the people I planned to walk back with seemed to be falling asleep at the table, so I said we could leave too. We told Dingo we were leaving, and we did like a 4 person group hug, then he leaped up and wrapped his legs around the Canadian guy across from him, forcing me and the other person to hold him up. This went on for a while, then we did normal hugs and he told us not to walk home. "I don't even walk. Take a cab. People will just come up to you and punch you and steal your money. Take a cab, it will be 2 dollars each." So we did.

I had Dingo withdrawal the next day. I think when you spend that much time with people you get attached. It has never happened with tour guides before, but the group of girls on on of my tours last time to Exmouth were way cool and I almost cried when I had to leave them.

The Rock Tour: Kata Tjuta and a handshake with Uluru

Before the sun was even up, we awoke to Dingo saying "it's time to get up my little muchkins." Most people were taking a little longer than usual to emerge from their swags, mostly because it was freezing as soon as you stepped outside. I looked over an mom had not even moved yet. I nudged her to make sure she was alive. She hadn't even heard our wakeup call, or the several others he made when people were not moving fast enough. We managed to get out and roll up our swags, mostly powered by the promised shower that would occur once everyone was packed up. We loaded onto the bus and drove down to our next campsite, which had toilets (flushing toilets) and hot showers. Yessss.

Today was Kata Tjuta, Uluru's less famous sister formed by conglomerated rocks rather than sand. Kata Tjuta is pretty insane, and much more treacherous to walk than Uluru (unless you climb Uluru, which you shouldn't- I will explain later.). First, we had to walk through (well, Dingo had us mostly sprinting through) the aptly named Valley of the Winds. You literally were fighting these insane winds the whole time, so you were freezing and pushing again the gale force winds which climbing over uneven rocks. We finally made it to a grassy area and the winds died down dramatically. Dingo conducted a geology lesson in the sand, explaining the differences in Kata Tjuta and Uluru and how they were formed. Then he sent us off on our own and mom went with him for the less strenuous walk. "Keep the rock on your right at all times. Rock right, rock right. And it should look this size at all times too. If it gets this size **holding out thumb and finger distance apart** you are going the wrong way." We set out, only to have him shout immediately "no, you're going the wrong way! Rock right!" We turned and went down a different path. I never really got "rock right" because we were kind of in valleys and there were rocks to the left and right of us at all times, but I suppose we made it since I am typing this to you now. Our group trekked over loose rocks and steep hills for about 45 minutes until we reached this insane hill. I sighed, hating all hills, but slowly made my way on the crazy shifting rocks to the top:

Mom was up there with Dingo and the group reunited to make the full circle of the Kata Tjuta trail (which I later learned after looking at the culture center guide book is classified as "Difficult" and suggests more time than we were given to do it). We finished Kata Tjuta, which included at least one additional insane hill, this one going down, and with little to no gripping texture to walk down. We made our way again through the valley of the winds, this time less windy because it was later in the day, and loaded up into the bus. Lunch was wraps at a rest stop kind of place. Then we were taken on a brief detour down a red dirt road, one that extends all the way to the coast, for picture opportunity. I took pictures of Dingo laying in the dirt in the middle of the road:

And he took this cool picture:

Next we had several hours at the cultural center to learn about Aboriginal significance of the Uluru and Kata Tjuta area. We were not allowed to take pictures of anything, but there was a book there called a "Sorry Book" filled with letters from people sending back artifacts or rocks they had stolen from the sites. It is believed that you will be cursed with bad luck if you do this, so most people had returned the items with letters of apology. After the center, we did a short walk around a fraction of Uluru called the Mala Walk. We saw some rock art and Dingo told us a dreamtime story about a devil dingo that resulted in the dingos we have today. At some point in his story, he climbed up on a rock and leaped over my head to the ground. It was an entertaining way to get the message across and I felt like we should have applauded when he ended it. We did the rest of the walk without him to a waterhole area. It was weird to me to see a waterhole out there, but the area near it seemed lush with trees.

We drove up to the sunset viewing area and drank some of our copious amount of beer we had purchased the night before. Dingo made us dinner of noodles and vegetable and chicken and I took about 50 different shots as the sun went down.

After a brief pit stop for gas and a much needed bathroom, Dingo once again performed a techno music, strobe light, fist pumping, whistle blowing ride back to the campsite.

Drinking continued back at our campsite, and Dingo later took us out to a platform a distance from camp where the lights would not interfere with star viewing. We laid on our backs and looked up as he pointed out different things in the sky. You could see the milky way and 2 solar systems. It is always so shocking to me to see the outback sky. So many more stars than you are ever used to seeing. Sleep was once again in swags and I caught one of the German kids throwing empty cans at mom during the night to try to get her to stop snoring. Joke was on him, she didn't stop, ha!

THE ROCK TOUR

9/8: We were picked up at 6 am outside our hostel. I was a little intimidated when I had heard our tour guide's name was Dingo, and became even more so when I saw his amazing mane of dreadlocks. He just looked too cool and Aussie. Anyway, we all sat in dark silence as he circled Alice to pick up the rest of the group. Once everyone was picked up, he gave us a brief introduction and wrote a list of the windshield:
Name
Where From
What You Do
Favorite Place in Aus
Favorite Place in the World
Craziest Thing You've Ever Done
Camping Skills
Name

I was a little disappointed to see this list- I am never a fan of these introductory games, but little did I know what awaited me. He asked who wanted to go first, and mom sitting in the front of the bus said "back of bus," so of course Dingo says "ok, front it is." Mom goes first, answers all the questions as I would have guessed, that is until she gets to "Craziest thing you've ever done." She proceeds to tell these 14 strangers that the craziest thing she has done involved a balcony and the Bahamas and that I was the result. I wanted to melt into my seat. I could hear everyone laughing and felt faint. But she did give me an out for my answer: "The craziest thing I've done was to be conceived on a balcony in the Bahamas."
We had King's Canyon on the schedule today, which included 3 levels of almost vertical hills known as Heartattack Hill. King's Canyon was amazing, but we had to do it at break-neck speed, which isn't ideal for the clumsy people (me and mom) or people taking pictures (everyone on the tour). But we got through it only a little later than Dingo would have liked.

After King's Canyon, we had to gather wood for our campfires. Dingo pulled over on the side of the road and told us to get out and find wood in the woods and threatened to beat us with small stick we brought back. We thought he was kidding for a couple seconds, then got off the bus and proceeded to drag trees out of the woods. Another Rock Tour bus stopped just 20 feet down the road from us, after we had already picked the area clean. It was hilarious to see their small pile beside our massive pile of trees. Dingo began calling us "A Team" and them "B group." It would not be the last we would see of B group, or the last time we beat them in a non-competition competition. We blasted "We Are The Champions" as we drove past them with our full load of wood and they stared back, still dragging twigs from the woods.

We made a beer tally of the way to the campsite, ordering something insane like 120 beers and 24 ciders for 14 people for 2 nights. Dingo checked us into the campsite and bought beer while we used the last flushing toilets we had for the night. I don't think I have yet described how crazy or energetic this man is, but our group simply could not keep up with him. As he drove to the campsite, he blasted loud music, turned on a strobe light in the bus, and blew a whistle in rhythm to the beat, cutting donuts in the first campsite on the way to our site.

Finally there, we set up camp and made fire. Dinner was veggies, rice and chili, all cooked over the fire. Dingo also showed us how to make Damper bread with chocolate pieces baked inside on the fire.

 With utter despair, I discovered the outhouse. The seat was disgusting and 4 feet in the air, making it impossible for someone under 6 feet to squat over the toilet. Needless to say, I used the great outdoors later that night instead once I was sure everyone was asleep. The highlight of peeing outside was that I saw 3 shooting stars, haha. We slept in sleeping bags inside swags, which is basically larger sleeping bags with a hood. We had 2 pounds of red dust in our hair, clothes, and lungs when we woke in the morning.

Lots of Greyhound, lots of waiting in the cold, some opals, and some beautiful views

The next few (or 5 or 6) blog post have been written retroactively. I was without long term internet access for about a week, and a very eventful week at that, so I will do my best to update my blog readers on the most important and exciting events. Remember- dates are day/month.

7/8- 8/8:
After a long ride on the Greyhound from Adelaide with intermittent sleep, we were dropped off in the cold, dark of pre-dawn Coober Pedy. I was a little horrified to see that our hostel did not come to pick us up from the terminal, and became even more stressed when we approached the door of the hostel to find that reception does not open until 8 am. It was now approximately 5:15 am and hovering between 6 and 8 degrees Celcius.

Mom and I had nothing we could do but bundle up and wait for daylight. Around 7 am some people checking out early offered to let us have their room once they left to hang out and be warm. We gladly agreed and used the strangers' room until 8 am. We checked in and dragged our bags 6 feet underground to the underground rooms, only to discover our room we were signed up for had no doors. I was willing to just deal, but I could tell Mom wasn't having it, so I offered to go upstairs and speak to the old prospectory looking guy who check me in to see how much more we would have to pay to have a door on our room. It was only $15 more a night- sold. We moved into the improved room and went upstairs to meet George for the morning tour of Coober Pedy. Someone named Rudy was actually the person who picked us up and gave the tour. He was also pretty entertaining, giving us inexact details of his life throughout (he had 9 kids, he had no kids/ and ex wife, a dead wife, his wife ran off to the circus.) The tour was the same tour I took in 2010, a loop around town, including an underground church, a grass less golf course, and a model of a mine. We had Rudy drop us off at Josephine's Art Gallery after the tour, just in time to feed the baby roos. The take care of orphaned kangaroos here and work on donations. It was fun and they were of course very cute.

We went to John's Pizza Bar for lunch, me chancing food poisoning from 2010, but there are not many restaurants in Coober Pedy. I got a fried chicken sandwich that was good and mom got pizza. We killed time that afternoon by browsing opals, even though we had done all our buying that morning. We went on the Breakaways tour with George, which is always my favorite part of Coober Pedy. Unfortunately, we had a very obnoxious couple on the tour with us, but we did our best to block them out and concentrate on the natural beauty.

After the tour, we got takeaway yiros from John's and about 1000 fries. We were so exhausted from little sleep on the Greyhound that we took showers and were asleep by 9pm.

The next morning, we were up and dropped off by the old prospector by 5am (literally, he kicked us out of the bus into the cold and smoked inside even though the Greyhound wasn't there yet.) Again, we waited in the cold. The Greyhound was about an hour and a half late, saying it didn't leave Adelaide the night before until 7:30 (scheduled for 6 pm departure). Finally, on the bus again around 6:30am, the bus ride has no real highlights- some sleep, some reading, a crap lunch, only short breaks to make up for the dips leaving Adelaide an hour and a half late. We arrived in Alice Springs by 2:30pm and checked in at The Rock Tour office. We were told our tour would be 14 people and that we were with Dingo, which is immediately intimidating. We drag our bags down through the Todd Mall and check into the YHA. We unpack and repack our supplies for the next 3 days into smaller bags because we have been told many times we cannot have big bags for the tour. We put the large bags into the hostel's long term storage and set out to climb Anzac Hill for the sunset.

After taking pictures from all angels of Anzac Hill, we climbed back down and went to Bojangles for dinner (not our Bojangles, but an Aussie outback bar). We both had kangaroo, and it was delicious and we both ate every bite. We went back to the hostel, used the internet, called dad, and were in bed again by 9 pm.

Barossa, Hahndorf, and Medieval Party Times

Yesterday (Saturday) my mother and I went on a Gray Line tour of the Barossa area and Hahndorf. The day started off... not so great. I had it all planned out, and we waited at the bus stop near the house to catch the bus to the city. Then it slowly dawned on me that it was Saturday, and buses on our road only come once an hour. I checked the time table, and we could still make it to the bus station by 9 am... probably... but only if the 503 was on time- which it NEVER is. 10 minutes late, I was sweating. I finally decided to bite the bullet and called for a cab to meet us at Paradise Interchange in 10 minutes to take a cab the rest of the way. Finally, 15 minutes after the bus was supposed to pick us up, nearly 10 minutes past the time it was supposed to be at the Paradise Interchange, it shows up. We board the bus, finally make it to the interchange, and end up shelling out $30 to make sure we get to the bus station in time (we were there at 8:57.)

On the bus at last, our tour guide Gordon gave us details on everything we passed- trees, the towns, the buildings. We spent about 10 minutes at the whispering wall, the water reservoir for the Barossa that does the neat acoustical trick of letting a person on one side of the reservoir hear a person talking quietly on the other side of the reservoir. Mom was amazed. Next, we stopped at a little bakery in Lyndoch and had coffee and German sweets. We finally reached our first tasting stop at Richmond Grove and had a tour of the winery first. We got to taste both whites and reds and Mom and I were most impressed with a Cabernet Savegniot from 1994 and we got 2 bottles.

Next we traveled on to the Kaesler Winery and had an amazing lunch of Kangaroo, potatoes, zucchini, carrots, broccoli, and sticky toffee pudding.

Next we had another wine tasting before heading off for Mengler's Hill to take in panoramic views of the Barossa.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in Hahndorf, browsing the streets, buying 5 kinds of fudge and 2 six packs of Gulf Brewery micro brew beers.

Once back in the city and back home, we got ready for James and Hannah's birthday's- a medieval theme. I had rented a dress a couple of days before and Marie had purchased hers online. We spent the evening feasting on various meats that were cooked rotating over a fire and home brewed beer.






And also vodka jello shots prepared in orange rinds and cut into neat little slices for easy consumption!

Today Mom, Marie and I went to the markets at Port Adelaide. I got 2 pairs of earrings for a dollar each and mom got me a new purse. I also got polenta at Woolworth's- and guess what polenta's one and only ingredient is- corn meal! I have been looking for corn meal for several weeks, so I was happy to find this.

This afternoon I made brunswick stew and hush puppies for mom, Sarah, and Emmanuel for dinner. It was great, and I froze the leftovers for later eating.

Tomorrow mom and I set off for Coober Pedy, Alice Springs, and Uluru!

Insanity at Sydney Airport and Calm Day in Adelaide

Thursday mom and I had to catch our flight at noon, so we got up, had breakfast, packed up, and checked out. We caught the airport shuttle at 10 am, figuring that an hour would be enough time to check in for a domestic flight. Our driver got us to the airport earlier than I expected so we dragged our bags inside and tried to check in at an automated booth. After typing my information in twice and getting an error message saying there was no flight registered under my name, I went over to the nearest agent to see if she could check for me. She said Qantas did not have a flight scheduled to Adelaide today, which was frightening. Then, after typing in my name, she said I was actually scheduled on a domestic leg of an international flight to Singapore and that I was in the wrong terminal, which was more frightening. Mom and I lugged our stuff to a different counter to check in and we told we just made the cutoff for checking baggage, so we watched mom's bag go down the conveyor belt out of sight and shuffled off for security and the bus to the international terminal. After waiting 10 minutes, we were carted off to the international terminal, me checking the time every 30 seconds because I was positive we would miss our flight. We got there, finally got through customs only after I had to throw away 2 drops of my face wash because I might blow up the plane with it, then we sprinted to our gate. We got there with 10 minutes to take off! I don't really know how we could have avoided this, other than getting to the airport a little earlier, but no where on my ticket does it indicate we were on an international flight and were supposed to act as such.

Anywayyyyy, we landed in Adelaide as schedule and Sarah picked us up at the airport. We went grocery shopping that afternoon for some supplies for the next couple of days and for our Uluru trip. Then later that night, mom came with Marie, Sam, and me to volleyball.

The next day, the only thing we had scheduled was a 2 course lunch at the Botanical Gardens Restaurant. We took our time, washing clothes and making muffins in the morning before catching a bus to Adelaide. We walked around the botanical gardens about 30 minutes before our 12:30 reservation. It was beautiful, and I will definitely be going back this spring for afternoon naps in the sun.

We had an amazing lunch (pics below) before walking around the Botanical Gardens for about 30 more minutes. Mom had lamb and I had crispy skinned snapper. Her dessert was sticky toffee pudding and mine was popcorn ice cream with peanut mousse coated in rich dark chocolate. We actually got truffle mashed potatoes too. We were so full.

We then ran some errands, including buying lots of candy and postcards for people at home.  I rented a medieval costume for a party Saturday night, then we went to an event called "Uncorked" that happens every 2 weeks at the National Wine Center. Mom and I order a tasting of 3 wines and also a glass of Shiraz to try. They were all good, of course. We then caught a bus home and made shrimp tacos for dinner and watched movies. Tomorrow- Barossa Tour and Medieval Party!

Coogee and Dinner with Bert

Today (Wednesday) my mother and I got up and made pancakes at the hostel's DIY pancakes. We are there first and thankfully made our pancakes before everyone flocked downstairs. We then went down to Circular Quay and caught a bus to Coogee. It was a nice sunny day for Coogee, but windy, so we were bundled up most of the time.

We got fish and chips for lunch and walked around Coogee a while, taking some amazing pictures from atop the hill overlooking Coogee. After a little confusion involving bus tickets, we caught the bus around 3pm back to Circular Quay.

My friend Bert, who I first met on my last trip, offered to pick us up for dinner and take us to Little Italy. He arrived outside the YHA around 6:15pm and we went to one of his favorite Italian restaurants, tucked in an outdoor mall near the airport. We ordered a bottle of wine, a margarita pizza as an appetizer, and our mains. Mom got a pasta with chicken and avocado; I got chicken and mushroom risotto, and Bert got a risotto with tomatoes and prosciutto. It was all delicious, and so much food! After dinner, Bert took us on a tour around Sydney in his car. He took us through Bondi and around all the winding hill of outer Sydney. He dropped us off safely at the hostel, and so tired from the day, we went to bed almost immediately.

Swagman Brekky, Sydney Tower Eye, Disappointing High Tea, and a Opera House Play

Yesterday (Tuesday, July 31), mom and I got breakfast at a place called Swagman's Post Courtyard Cafe. Just a tiny place, but it was an amazing breakfast. I got french toast that came with an apple rhubarb sauce and whipped cream and mom got a swagman's breakfast that came with eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, hashbrowns, grilled onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes and we split each, taking the leftovers with us for later.

After breakfast, we walked through the city all the way down George Street to the Sydney Tower Eye, which is a tower 250 meters above the city. We were shown a brief 4D (like 3D, except they blow air and bubbles at you and make the ground shake occasionally) video of all the areas of Sydney, then boarded a super fast elevator to the top. We spent nearly an hour and a half examining ever angle of Sydney from high above the city. A couple of the best pics are below:

We did some souvenir showing and got several chai lattes before our high tea. We saw this statue, which is of Queen Victoria's dog, and I took several pictures of it because it reminded me of my dog-cousins (Kim, is it not "Dunc-esque"?)

Now, I was a little disappointed by my high tea experience. We got canned tuna sandwiches and tomato sandwiches and a bunch of desserts bought at a grocery store and placed on the stand. Mom's favorite thing was the grapes, if that tell you anything about the sandwiches or desserts.

So that left a bad taste in my mouth (literally and figuratively) but we had enough time to go by the hostel and rest a little while before our play, which was good since we were both tired. The play was good, called The Duchess of Malfi, and in the end, everyone ended up being killed except the guy who actually killed everyone (sorry to ruin the ending). One of the actors I thought I recognized and got home and googled him- he is in a car insurance ad over here, an ad that is played too frequently, which explains why he has been burned into my brain. All in all, a pretty good day.