Week 3, Australia: Sailboats, Sunburn, Koalas, Shopping and Sydney

The experiences

Air New Zealand has a crazy big video library and we all know I was trying to take advantage of that, but I had a fairly drunk and newly married Kiwi sitting next to me on the way to Australia. She was talkative as you can imagine and a super nice person who was headed out for two weeks of solid work (so she was trying to enjoy herself on the way out at least) and just from talking to her I can tell she's great at her job (sales consulting for a group of duty free shops. She kept watching me and talking to me as I reacted to the movie The Judge, which she'd seen on a flight recently too and I did the same as she was watching episodes of Derek. So all in all I'd say it would have been a really entertaining flight if I weren't feeling crappy.

Yes, I did it, I came down with a cold not 2 weeks into this trip. Seriously. I got to my hostel and decided since I booked a cruise to the great barrier reef the next day, I'd better make an effort to sleep A LOT. And it mostly worked, I felt okay the next morning as I walked to the marina and got better as the day went on with the glorious weather. However, they wouldn't let me do an intro SCUBA dive as I have used an inhaler in the last 5 years (very strict in Queensland). I did get to snorkel and see scores of neat fish and coral. My highlight though was watching the captain steer the sailboat with his feet.

 And once we arrived on Green Island I realized I was going to get sunburn, where, I hadn't figured out. With the help of a nice lady from Boston, I finally bought a hat, which I'd struggled to figure out during initial packing. We also got to see several boatloads of Chinese people preparing for the Chinese New Year in the 5 star resort on the island. It's fairly interesting to see the hoards of people in Australia for Chinese New Year --then some guys I ran into at the airport (Epic users from U Miami oddly enough) told me it's the second biggest in the world.

Anyway, I discovered on the sail back that it was my legs. The part of me that never sees any change by the sun, were set to be lobster red like Amy J after her surf lesson in Hawaii. I actually have blisters, first on my chin, then on my knees. I spent the next day in bed trying to recover but finally went to talk to the chemist across the street who gave me a lidocaine spray  and I picked up some more aspirin. Then I was off to Brisbane. Originally I wanted to take a train there but 31 hours was a bit long for me so I decided to fly and do the train thing from there.

Brisbane is a great city, every person I talked to was just the nicest, the shopping was fantastic, and I got to hug a koala! Want to know how to hug a koala? Be the tree! It's been rather rainy lately because of the cyclone on the way so I'm glad to be moving south. The shopping here is fantastic too, don't worry I just picked up a few things like a new handbag and some solid scent packets in cotton for the freshness of my bag, shopping makes for a great rainy day activity.

The train journey to Sydney was looooooooong and only interesting for the first and last few hours. I booked a stay at the YHA attached to the central rail terminal in Sydney--on recommendation and because sleeping in an old rail car sounded like something I couldn't pass up. I was lucky to get a ticket to the observatory night show since it was sold out for the next week. I had to laugh because Davin, my officemate at Epic, and I would talk about what a cool thing the planetarium is and that we should do that when his family visits Milwaukee and I'm there too, but his kids weren't too interested. But rest assured Davin, I'm planning on visiting many more--because it is a cool thing to do.

View from Observatory Hill at night

Fireworks through the south dome

On the walk there I needed to pick up dinner and as luck would have it I found Jamie Oliver's Italian. And let me tell you, benefits of traveling alone are many but of my favorites is getting a seat in 5 minutes when there's an hour and a half wait. I came, I ate a lot, and witnessed a fair amount of Hell's Kitchen action between the wait staff and the chefs in the starters prep area (and watching all the delicious stuff I didn't order go by). Then I walked another hour to get to the observatory, checking my legs half way there and was happy I'd worn a long skirt since that sunburn is getting pretty gnarly looking.

Long Black and Brownie with Amaretto Ice cream and Amaretti popcorn

Lamb and Ricotta Tortellini

Special Pear Gorgonzola Balsamic Buschetta

Homemade Lemonade with Lime bitters--my new favorite and pretty easy to find over here

The show was really great despite it being cloudy and I talked our guide Sam into opening the dome so we could see the Chinese New Year Fireworks.  On the walk back to the station I decided that this city is like a very big melting pot of my favorite cities. It's a little New Yorkish, Seattle-like, Londonesque and at night it's like a weird mix of Madison and Vegas. I definitely like it here, it's an incredibly romantic city without being pretentious but it's surprisingly normal (aka the people watching is pretty bland). Because of my sunburn I avoided the beaches which I hear are spectacular so that's something to come back for.

I went to the Opera House to see Madama Butterfly which was excellent except for the two older Chinese gentlemen who sat next to and behind me. Their snoring was rather loud. The set was fantastic, the cast phenomenal (the audience even booed Pinkerton at curtain call), and the theater was of course beautiful (they even have bright orange seats (like we do at the Wisconsin Union Theater) and a great bronze explaining the design of a space meant to house the great arts--bringing back those design committee conversations). I spent the rest of the afternoon in the Royal Botanical Gardens, and then found a spot to watch the Chinese New Year Parade (I posted a few videos on Facebook already). It's been a while since I've been to a parade that was so energetic, it was a nice finish to the day.

Foyer outside the Joan Sutherland Theater

Describing the process of creating the Opera House

Year of the Sheep

Monday I headed out to Chinatown where I found the most authentic restaurant and tried my hardest, but I think it's official now that I just don't like Chinese food. I stopped to grab some snacks for the train ride in the morning and camped out in Hyde Park eating cookies and watching cross fit.

The lessons:

• The chemist is your best friend when traveling. Most times the medicine you need isn't on the shelf and these fine folks help you get the best thing for whatever ails you.
• I have been chided by a few people now for choosing to bypass Byron Bay. If I get to come back some day I will not make the same mistake. I don't really know what's there but I know it's worth it.
• Leave the electronics at home. A nice lady trying to help as I sunk in the sand on Green Island actually ended up soaking my Kindle and camera in salt water. The Kindle has not recovered which means really long train rides (15 hours to Sydney and 12 hours to Melbourne) are me, scenery, music, and for a 5 hour window some reading while my tablet still has a charge.

Interesting:

• Air New Zealand and Virgin Australian board from the front and back of the plane. It takes way less time.
• Work/Holiday visas are so popular here, I'm astounded by the number of people who just decided to come here (AU or NZ) for a year and do whatever. I almost did that one summer in Door County--now I'm thinking I should have.
• Gross: If you have severe sunburn and are still active walking around, the layer of burned skin comes loose and water collects under it...so gross...finally while I was up on the top bunk one night talking with the German girl below I peeled an entire leg of skin off. I'm still hoping I can wear shorts or dresses in the next week.

  

  From the Harbor Writers Walk