Australia

10 April 2008
Sydney, Australia
                About 30 minutes before the plane landed we both woke from our 3 hour coma.  Our bodies were exhausted.  The flight was on time.  It was now about 8:00am, Australia time. 
                The passport check was pretty normal but as we arrived at customs we saw them dumping bags out and inspecting every item in peoples bags.  As we approached the guy who decides which lane we should go to, he just waved us through.  Wow!  Thanks! 
                We then took a shuttle into Sydney.  The shuttle was to drop us off at Cooee backpackers.  Since we arrived at Cooee around 9:30 it was too early to check into our room.  The check out time was 10:30, and our room was still occupied.  The girl at the front desk offered the free breakfast to us.  We each had a couple pieces of toast.  (The breakfast consisted of cereal or toast.)  It was time to explore.
                The first thing we needed to do was go to the Central train station to inquire about the “backtracker” pass.  The subway was right next door to the hostel.  We bought two tickets and hopped on the subway.  Three stops later we were at the Central train station.
                The backtracker pass was pretty explanatory and inexpensive compared to what we would have had to pay without having the pass.  It allowed us unlimited train travel between Melbourne and Brisbane for one month.  We then booked tickets with the pass to and from Melbourne.  We are taking a flight from Melbourne to Tasmania on the 13th.  Conveniently enough we were able to book the train overnight.
                After getting our passes and tickets, we began walking.  The first thing to see on the agenda was the Sydney Opera house.  This is where we headed first.  The city was definitely alive.  We walked about 45 minutes to get to the Opera house.  Of course there were tons of tourists surrounding the house taking photos.  This is what we were about to do. 
                Next it was time to eat.  We were both starving.  Walking by a pizza restaurant Doug said he had previously eaten there.  Pizza always sounds good, so we went in.  Doug was really excited to be in Sydney and suggested splurging on a bottle of wine.  We ordered garlic bread, a large pizza, and a bottle of wine.  After lunch we were both shot!  Neither of us had more than 3 hours of sleep within the last 48 hours and we were drunk.
                We started walking towards the hostel.  Somehow we managed to get through a park, stop at a convenience store for snacks, and find our hostel.  Now it was time to take showers.  Thankfully the water was nice and warm.  Anna was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.  Doug decided to go downstairs and get a movie from the front desk.  He was asleep about an hour and a half later.

11 April 2008
Sydney, Australia
                The day started early since we went to bed around 8 or 9 in the evening.  Checkout was at 10:00 so we took advantage of the breakfast.  Then we checked out.
                Yesterday at the train station we discovered that we could check our bags in the morning even though our train didn’t leave for another 10 plus hours.  We took the subway to the central train station and did just that. 
                Next stop was a café and then to the botanical gardens.  The gardens were beautiful but a couple sections were overrun with bats.  One of the information desk ladies there said that the bats were destroying the trees but they have yet to get approval to get rid of them.
                Around the gardens we came back to the Opera House.  We decided it would be fun to walk across the bridge.  As we walked over we were treated to a beautiful view of Sydney Harbor.  On the other side we found a nice little Thai restaurant with a good lunch special.  Doug had some garlic beef and Anna had a sweet and sour chicken dish.
                We explored North Sydney for a bit and then walked back across the bridge.  After going to an internet café and exploring a couple shopping areas we were starting to get hungry again.  We came across China town and found a basement “food court.”  All of the restaurants were different Asian food vendors.  We picked the one with a lot of Asians in line.  The portions looked big so we decided to split a Szechwan chicken dish.  When our number was called and Doug picked up the tray the food was sizzling and spraying Doug’s arm with hot marinade.  The dish was extra spicy and full of flavor.
                With a couple hours still to burn we wandered around the central business district until it was time to catch our train.
                Boarding the train we thought the car was nice enough.  The seats weren’t too unlike airline seats but with much more room in between.  We tried to get some sleep on the train with some marginal success.

12 April 2008
Melbourne, Australia
                The train wasn’t too far from Melbourne about the time we were both woke up.  After getting off we collected our luggage and tried calling a hostel we had contacted the day before.  Unfortunately we failed miserably at figuring out how to dial the number that was provided.  We tried to find an internet place and were lucky to find a café that had a couple computers we could use.  We did a bit of research and found a different place a few blocks away that wouldn’t cost us an arm and a leg (just the arm).
                We arrived at the Spencer Hotel and found it closed.  We tried the doors and looked in the windows and didn’t see any movement.  A gentleman at a bus stop in front of the place said we should try calling them from the phone across the street.  In the phone booth was a guy talking way.  We set down our bags and waited.  After about 30 minutes we decided that this guy wasn’t getting off any time soon and it looked like a phone booth was up one block.  Doug set off for the phone booth only to discover it was a bus stop.  He walked around a few more blocks and turned up nothing.  Back to Anna he found the guy hadn’t budged.  After about another 15 minutes Anna spotted somebody going into the hotel.  We walked over to the hotel and tried the door we found “locked” before only to discover it was one of those fancy “push” doors and not a “pull” door like we thought.
                At reception we got booked in and bugged our desk guy about airport shuttles and if there was any rugby or football today.  He booked us a shuttle and said that there were two Australian Rugby Football games today, both at 2:10 in the afternoon.
                Up in our room we decided to shower.  We had heard another lady at the reception desk mention that one of the showers in the ladies was stuck on, so our hopes of hot water were pretty low.  Doug’s shower room was a bit interesting.  There were two shower stalls.  One was “out of order” and the other should have been.  The shower head unit was dangling from the wall.  When he turned on the water it sprayed sideways right into the wall so that Doug essentially had a glorified mist for a shower (and a freezing one at that).  Anna’s shower was slightly better.  She had a normal shower head, with a full shot of water, but the water was COLD.
                After getting “cleaned up” (or as close to as you can with a shower like that) we went exploring.  First stop was the Queen Victoria Market.  They had a bunch of touristy stuff to buy along with a market and food court.  After exploring there for a bit we decided to get a bite to eat.  There was a bratwurst place and Doug ordered a spicy brat with the hottest mustard they had.  Anna found a really good vegetarian pizza slice.  Now Doug is pretty good with spicy food, but the mustard they put on this brat was borderline inedible it was so hot.  Doug ate it anyway, crying.
                The central business district was busy (it was Saturday after all).  We stopped in a few stores and then wandered towards the football stadium.  As we were on our way we were re-routed across the street to avoid some sort of commercial or something.  We stopped, and watched the film crews get ready for the shot.  After a bit the director yelled “ACTION” and everything came to life.  The cameras seemed to be following one guy as he worked his way through a busy street.  When the shot was over and the guy worked his way back to do another take Doug thought the guy looked a lot like Nicholas Cage.  Then we came to realize it was Nicholas Cage.  We took a couple photos and then left.  As we left Doug asked a security guy what the name of the movie was and he said it was called “The Knowing”, with Nicolas Cage.
                The football stadium was being flooded with people.  We found a ticket booth and got our tickets.  Neither of us has ever been to an Australian Rules Football (Footy) match before.  We took our seats and greeted our neighbor and apologized in advance for a bunch of stupid questions we were bound to ask because this was our first match.  As the match went on we probably grasped about 75% of what was going on (the remaining 25% was mostly penalties and what constituted them). 
                The game is played on an oval field.  The game is won by the team who scores the most points.  This is accomplished by kicking the ball between the goal posts (IIII-pretend these are the goal posts).  Each end has four goal posts, the middle area is worth 6 points, to the left and right are worth 1 point.  The ball can be kicked through in two different ways.  The first way is to get the ball down near the goal and simply kick it through.  The second way is catch a kicked ball inside a designated ring around the goals.  If you catch the kick you get a free kick at the goal up to the point where you caught the ball.  Moving the ball is accomplished by running, passing it to another player like in rugby, by kicking it to another player, or “bumping” it like an under hand serve in volleyball.
                At the first quarter the home team was down a couple points, at half time they brought up the score leading by 10 points.  The 3rd quarter the home team was up 30 points, and at the end they simply retained the lead winning the match. The game was very fast with lots of great catches and fantastic tackles.  The gentleman next to us was nice enough to help us sort it out as it went along.
                On our way out we started looking for food.  Everything that was open early seemed to be closed (perhaps they were at the football game too?).  Finally after doing a bunch of circles we finally found a pizza place that did a decent pizza.  After eating it was back to the room for the night.

13 April 2008
Strahan-Tasmania, Australia
                The alarm went off at 5:30.  Anna looked at Doug, “5 more minutes…or 10”.  Doug was up getting ready and Anna soon followed.  The shuttle was to arrive to take us to the airport at 6:15am.  We were outside ready to go at 6:00am.  The shuttle was prompt, arriving on time.  The ride to the airport took about 20 minutes.
                Checking in for our flight was pretty straight forward.  Doug was really happy after we were assigned to the emergency exit row seats…more legroom.  After getting through security and locating our gate, Anna got her morning coffee.  About 20 minutes later we boarded the plane for our hour flight to Hobart, Tasmania.
                The plane arrived on time into Hobart.  We gathered our bags and walked over to the rental car agencies to get quotes.  The first company quoted us $184.  This was outrageous.  The second company we tried, Hertz was more reasonable.  We reserved the car and signed the paperwork.  Walking outside we searched the parking lot and came upon the car.  It was a very small two door Hyundai.  Little did we know the car would be manual.  The van we drove in New Zealand was automatic.  Now we not only had to drive on the other side of the road.  But now we had to get used to the stick shift being on the left side, instead of the right side.
                Doug started up the car and took off.  Luckily it wasn’t too much of an issue.  And we were pretty much getting on the highway and not getting off for around four hours.  Strahan, the city we were driving to is on the other side of Tasmania.  Doug soon was doing fine.  Only after one mishap, going through a roundabout the wrong way into oncoming traffic, scaring the beajesus out of Anna, we were on our way. 
                Soon we were pretty much alone on the open road.  The scenery was beautiful going through the mountains.  Anna saw her first kangaroo, unfortunately it wasn’t alive (either were the next four).
                We arrived in Strahan a little over four hours later.  Coming up to the town entrance sign Doug pulled over and Anna took two photos.  The next stop was the information center.  We were still not sure where to stay for the night.  The girl at the desk recommended the backpackers joint down the street.  This is where we headed to next and checked in.  The cabins were nice and spacey.  We then took our showers, HOT showers. 
                It was time to eat, we were both starving.  The time was about 3:00pm but we hadn’t had any real food all day.  We soon discovered the two restaurants in town stop serving lunch at 2:00pm and don’t begin serving dinner until after 5:00pm.  We came upon a place selling fish, and chips.  Anna ordered prawns with chips and Doug got his cheeseburger with chips.  The food was not what we had really wanted but filled our stomachs.
                The next stop was the souvenir shop.  We wanted to get a bunch of holiday gifts for the Strahan family.  After walking around the store 5 times, our hands were full of different souvenirs with the name Strahan written on them.  We then walked back over to the information shop and noticed a small theater production was about to start in the next 5 minutes.  This sounded fun.
                “The ship that never was”, turned out to be really good.  The play only had two actors, but they used the audience throughout the play.  This made it even more fun.  All the attending children were used at least once, also including a good number of the adults.  After the play we were tired.  We stopped by the convenience store for some snacks and headed back to the room for the night.

14 April 2008
Strahan/New Norfolk - Tasmania, Australia
                The day started a little later than usual.  We gathered up our things, also making a laundry pile, and checked out.  The first stop was to put our laundry in the washer.  Then we parked the car and found a bakery for breakfast.  Doug then began to write out his postcards to the family.  We wanted to send one to each of the Strahan family members.  Anna did a couple to her family as well. 
                After breakfast, and putting the clothes in the dryer, we went back to the souvenir shop to double check if we had missed anything.  The souvenir shop didn’t have much of a variety of Strahan things as we would have liked.  Then we walked down to another shop and found a couple of other Strahan items to purchase.  Now we had bought the lot.  We then drove to the post office and got a couple of boxes to send our purchases home.  Lucky enough everything fit in two boxes.
                The chores were done for the day.  The laundry was still not dry; two more coins were put in.  We then went for a short walk around the bay.  It was turning out to be a nice day.  About 45 minutes later the laundry was done.  We folded everything and packed it back into our backpacks.  It was now time to leave.  We had to turn the car in Hobart the next morning by 9:30am.  And we were still a four hour drive away.  We were hoping to find a nice place to stay along the way.
                Doug said goodbye to Strahan and we were off down the road.  During the drive we stopped to have lunch, and take a couple photos.  Since it is autumn here the leaves are changing.  The coloring of the landscape is beautiful.  Driving along the gas gage was going down a lot faster than it did on the drive over to Strahan.  Soon it was almost on E.  We stopped in two towns at what we thought were gas stations.  But there were no attendants, nor any way to pay or pump the gas.  Finally we came to a city called New Norfolk.  By then we were down to fumes in the gas tank.  We then asked the attendant if there was a cheap place to stay in town.  She suggested the Bush Inn.  She said it was “a bit doggy, but cheap.” 
                With her directions we drove off.  Arriving at the Bush Inn, we were not too worried.  We went inside and inquired of the price for the night.  The price was reasonable.   The guy said we could have a look at the rooms and pick the one we wanted.  The rooms were pretty nice; this was a very old motel from the 1800’s.  We got lost upstairs and ended up coming out another exit, then walked back around the building to the entrance.  This was hilarious.  But we told the guy we would take the room.  The price was per person.  So we selected what he called “The honeymoon suite.”  Anna was very impressed and excited with the quaint room. 
                We unloaded our things and hung out for a while.  It had already been a long day.  At around 8:00pm Doug went downstairs to the pub for a couple drinks.  Anna stayed upstairs reading for the night.
                Doug hung out with a few locals who were curious who the next U.S. President was going to be and also wanted to quiz him on Australia music bands (“Silverchair” was his only answer).  But they were nice enough and Doug bought a “shout” (Australian for “round of drinks”).  They repaid the favor, but Doug finally left when the bar closed at 10pm.

15 April 2008
New Norfolk, Australia
                Not able to find the women’s showers Doug snuck Anna into the Men’s showers.  Thankfully we seemed to have the entire hotel to ourselves so sneaking wasn’t too necessary (but definitely more fun).
                Downstairs we were welcomed to a complementary continental breakfast.  While we ate we looked outside down at the river which was surrounded by trees each with leaves a different fall shade (yellows, reds and oranges).  We read some information that was on our laminated placemats that said the view had inspired lyrics for an opera (which opera we can’t remember).
                All checked out we headed to Hobart.  We tried to find a particular hostel before we turned in the car but failed to locate it before we stumbled across the rental return lot.  Thankfully just two blocks from the return lot was the street we were looking for and now we at least knew which way to walk after we dropped off the car.
                The rental return was easy enough but we did discover some bad news.  Doug opened a newspaper they had and found an article that said the local Cadbury chocolate factory tour had to close due to “health and safety” concerns.  We were really disappointed because we were looking forward to seeing a chocolate factory (actually we were just really excited to try a bunch of chocolate).  The people were nice enough to let us use the phone to call our hostel and book our room.
                After walking a few blocks we arrived at the Pickled Frog.  We couldn’t check in to our room until 1 pm (in 3 hours) so we dropped off our luggage relaxed for a bit and then went into town.  We stopped to make some phone calls and then had a “toasty” (Australian and New Zealand for “grilled cheese sandwich”).  We decided to walk down to an old penitentiary to book a “ghost tour.”  The people working there didn’t give the tour but let us use their phone to call the guy that did.  They were also very interested in who our next president was going to be.
                In town we walked down to the harbor and around town for a bit doing some gift shopping.  Then it was back to the room before going to dinner.  We found an all-you-can-eat sushi place for $15 a person.  The sushi was about what you would expect for a deal like that. 
                It was now time for the penitentiary “ghost tour.”  There were a total of 7 of us.  The guy handed out two very weak battery operated lanterns for us to share.  He brought us through two court rooms, holding cells, tunnels, the exercise yard and finally the gallows (where they hanged 32 convicts).  All the while our guide would tell stories of encounters people as recently as last week had had.  The only thing that was vaguely odd we experienced on the tour was in the bottom of the gallows (where the prisoners would hang once the trap door was opened) Doug thought he saw what looked like blood on the floor.  When the guide’s flashlight finally lit the spot he was looking at, Doug saw it was just spots where dripping water had make indentations in the dirt.  Then the guide started telling stories about how a number of people in here had smelt or tasted blood while doing the tour (bit of coincidence?).  Overall the tour was fun walking around in the dark through tunnels underneath an old prison.
                Time for bed, we headed back to the hostel.

16 April 2008
Hobart-Tasmania, Australia
                The day began around 8:00.  We gathered ourselves up with some postal things and headed out to find some coffee.  There was a candy shop we walked by the night before, we decided to stop by to get some fresh licorice.  Anna went a little crazy at the candy shop buying some gifts for others.  We walked around for a while and then settled on a café on the corner.  Unfortunately the raspberry muffin ordered was dry and old.    
                The next stop was the post office, there were a couple of things we needed to mail home.  One packaged was mailed.  This is when we realized we left something back at the hostel that needed to be mailed along with an address for another package.  We then left the post office and walked back to the hostel. 
                After leaving the hostel on the way back to the post office we walked over to the bus station to find out what time we needed to arrive for the airport shuttle.  Then we found a pay phone to reserve a tour at the Cascade Brewery.  Doug booked us for a tour at 1:30.  We had an hour to finish our errands.  Then it was back to the post office. Now we were done with our posts.  The brewery was supposedly about a 30 minute walk out of town.         
                About 50 minutes later we arrived at the Brewery.  It was a nice day, with sparse clouds in the sky.  We checked in at the desk for our tour, waited about five minutes and the tour began.  There were about 20 people in our tour.  The lady began the tour by explaining the ingredient process to everyone.  Then after she had us put on our safety glasses and safety vests she led us across the street to the brewery.  She showed us where the ingredients are mixed and where they sit to ferment.  The bottling process was the last step.  The tour lasted about an hour and ten minutes. 
                Back where we checked in for the tour was the restaurant.  Everyone in the tour received three unused bottle caps to try three beers of their choice after the tour.  We both got our first beer and ordered some food.  The only thing we had eaten was the shared muffin and licorice.  It was now about 3:00 in the afternoon.
                After we had our beers and finished some surprisingly good nachos and spicy wedges (fries), we headed back to town.  It was a pleasant walk.  The walk was much quicker on the back to the hostel. 
                Arriving at the hostel, we rested for a bit.  Doug found a restaurant in one of the guide books for dinner.  Around 6:30 we headed out to dinner.  The Sydney Hotel was about seven blocks away.  We sat down and Doug went to the bar to order. Anna ordered a sundried tomato & olive pasta and Doug ordered a spicy chicken sandwich.  The food came out about 20 minutes later.  We enjoyed our food, and then headed back to the hostel.  Anna was exhausted from the day.  

17 April 2008
Hobart/Melbourne, Australia
                The alarm went off at 7:00am.  The shuttle was to leave at 7:35 and we were only a block from the bus station.  We gathered our things and walked over to the station.  The shuttle left promptly on time.  It was a good thing the shuttle left on time.  The driver drove around the city picking people up for the next 40 minutes, before heading to the airport.  Our flight was to leave at 9:40. 
                Arriving at the airport we checked in and went through security.  Doug got breakfast which consisted of coffee, hot chocolate, carrot cake, and muffin.  The flight was about 15 minutes behind.  We arrived back in Melbourne around 10:45.  We then went to the information booth to get a shuttle back into town.
                The shuttle dropped us off at the train station.  Luckily we were able to check in our luggage for the 7:45pm train we had book a week prior.  After dropping off our bags, we headed back out to check out more of the city.
                Doug read an advertisement about a “Game On” exhibit going on at an entertainment building down by the harbor.  We walked down to the entertainment building and went inside.  There was a $15 fee for each of us to check out the exhibit.  The exhibit turned out to be all about video games and the history of video games.  Doug was very excited to check everything out, but Anna was not.  After walking around looking at everything Anna left, went outside to sit in the sun and read.  Doug stayed playing the different games, and exploring more of the exhibit.  The actual “game” exhibit was smaller than we expected but had games starting from “Pong” all the way to the newest Wii, X-Box and Playstation games.  Admission covered unlimited play on the machines.  Doug reminisced while playing games like: 1942, Mrs. Pac-Man, James Bond “Golden Eye” (a college favorite) and many others.
                Doug joined Anna about an hour and a half later.  We then headed out to stretch our legs.  It was now about 4:00pm.  There was about three hours we had to burn.  Somehow we stumbled into China town, and looked around for about two blocks.  (It was pretty small)  Then we found a mall to explore.  There were a lot of American shops, as well as local shops. 
                It was now time for dinner.  We walked around for another hour before settling on an Asian restaurant.  Anna ordered a Teriyaki chicken bowl, and Doug ordered a beef dish.  The beef dish turned out to be a ramon type dish with beef.  (The noodles were much thicker than the normal ramon package meal)  After dinner we walked back to the train station.  We found a bar on the second beer and decided to have a beer.
                At 7:35 we walked down to the train.  After sitting for about 5 minutes, someone came across the intercom, and said the train would be 30 minutes later.  Then 10 minutes later, someone came across the intercom saying the train would be another hour and 10 minutes later.  By the time the train finally arrived, everyone unloaded, then we all loaded the train back up it was now 9:45 (2 hours behind).  We were both tired, and ready to leave.

18 April 2008
Newcastle, Australia
                The train ride up to Newcastle continued to be delayed.  The cause was supposedly “track work.”  They had to shut down sections of track so trains couldn’t go in both directions, so one train would have to stop and wait until the other went by.  Also we had a 30 min delay due to a passenger behind us.  We were minding our own business during the majority of the incident but somehow it involved a guy harassing a German tourist and also losing his bag.  The part we did catch was him running up and down the aisle practically yelling about how he wanted his bag at 2 am.  He was eventually removed from the train after the German girl had to give a couple statements to the train staff.
                When we booked our ticket; Sydney to Broadmeadow, we originally had a 3 hour layover in Sydney.  But now it seemed we might just make it in time to catch the connecting train to Broadmeadow.  We knew we were going to be pushing it on time and soon discovered that we were going to arrive about 20 minutes after our connection was scheduled to leave.  Thankfully a worker came through and had a plan (apparently we weren’t the only people with this problem).  Both legs of our journey share a stop in a place called Stratfield.  It is the next to last stop going into Sydney and the first stop going out.  The train workers arranged for us to debark at Stratfield and catch our connecting leg.  They said they would even move our checked luggage.  We were happy for some good news.
                At Stratfield we jumped off and waited a couple minutes until our connection arrived.  We jumped on and a couple hours later we arrived in Broadmeadow.  We got off the train and looked to see if our luggage had gotten taken off but they weren’t moving any.  The train would be leaving any minute and we didn’t have our luggage.  We tracked down one guy who pointed towards the front of the train and then they pointed to the back of the train.  Finally we found the luggage room and they took a quick look.  No, they didn’t have it.  They never moved it between trains like they said.
                We were directed to the main office and they said they guaranteed they would have our luggage by tomorrow…but most likely in about 2 hours on the next train.  We gave them a contact number and called Dan and Kelly.
                Kelly answered the phone and said she would be right over.  She arrived with their son Connor, listened to our story of lost luggage and brought us back to the house.  Thankfully a couple hours later we got a calling saying they had our luggage.  Kelly drove us back to the train station.  On the way back to her house, she took us by a grocery store so we could make sure there was enough beer and wine in the house.  One last purchase on the way out was a wild berry cheesecake (mmmm).
                Back at the house Dan had arrived from work and we started drinking and eating.  Dan and Kelly put on a huge BBQ for us complete with grilled lamb, sausages, veggies, garlic bread, and salad.  For desert the cheesecake came out.  After feasting and drinking for hours we collapsed in a big clean bed.

19 April 2008
Newcastle, Australia
                Once everybody was up Dan cooked some French toast.  After breakfast the decision was made to go wine tasting.  Nearby is an excellent wine region called Hunter Valley.  There are enough vineyards in the valley that a person could spend a week there and not do tasting at every one of them. 
                As we pulled into the first vineyard we finally spotted Anna’s fist “alive” kangaroo.  There were a bunch of them just resting in the grassy field by the vineyard.  Unfortunately there were too far away for a decent picture.
                We were happy to discover that none of the vineyards charge tasting fees.  Inside we tried a number of excellent wines.  When it came time to try the last red wine on the list, the guy refused to give it because he felt we wouldn’t be able to appreciate it because after a few tastes they all start to taste the same.  We were a bit confused because we weren’t drunk (this was the first visit for us) and we had already decided to purchase a bottle.  Lastly we were a bit disappointed because Dan had raved about this last wine and now we weren’t going to try it.  We purchased our bottle and left while Dan stayed and gave the guy some trouble. 
                Our next vineyard was a small one appropriately called “Littles.”  After tasting Dan snatched up a good deal on some of their Syrah.  The next place was a center point for a few small vineyards to collectively bring their wine for people to try.  They had about 4 or 5 different small labels represented there.  We found an excellent Merlot for a pretty good price.
                The last place was one of Dan’s favorites.  The host was probably the best we had all day.  Thankfully this was also the least crowded of all the ones we had visited. 
                On the way back Dan and Kelly insisted on letting us experience some genuine Aussie cuisine, the meat pie and sausage roll.  The meat pie tasted a lot like a chicken pot pie, but with beef.  Doug actually thought the sausage roll tasted more like stove top stuffing than sausage.
                Back at the house more wine and beer bottles were opened and Anna made her “not yet, but soon to be famous, fajitas” with help from Kelly while Dan and Doug supervised from the living room watching Aussie Rules Football.  Dinner was a hit and followed by an encore of wild berry cheesecake that survived being devoured from the day before.  Once again we crawled into bed with full bellies and wide smiles.

20 April 2008
Newcastle, Australia
                The day started off around 7:30.  Anna decided to go for a quick jog before starting the day.
                Dan wanted to take us around Newcastle.  We all hopped into the truck and headed off.  The weather wasn’t really cooperating.  It started to rain off and on most of the morning.  Dan drove us down by the beaches and cliffs.  After driving around for about an hour and a half he drove us to the local brewery. 
                The five of us chose a table on the balcony.  Doug and Dan then went to get some drinks from the bar.  There weren’t any servers in the restaurant.  People had to go order, and pay at the bar, then take a number.  This is pretty common in Australia, being that tipping is not required.  Then about five minutes later Anna and Dan went to order lunch.  Doug ordered a burger and Anna decided to try the chicken sandwich.  The food arrived about 20 minutes later. 
                The weather finally let up after we had finished our meals.  We decided to go for a walk along the water out onto the jetty past a light house.  The weather was fresh and thankfully not raining. We then all headed back to the truck and headed back to the house.
                Dan and Kelly graciously let us use their washer/dryer to do a load of washing.  Our train was scheduled to leave at 6:45pm, it was now 2:30pm.  We all hung out and relaxed the rest of the afternoon.  Around 4:15 Dan ordered pizza for an early dinner. 
                By 6:15pm we said our goodbyes to Kelly, and Dan drove us to the train station.  We were keeping our fingers crossed that the train was on time.  Dan dropped us off five minutes later and we walked towards platform #2.
                The train arrived promptly at 6:43; we hopped on, dropped our bags off, and found our seats.  Due to the luggage mishap last time, we wanted to keep an eye on our luggage….not checking it in.  Doug set the alarm on his cell phone for 3:30am.  We needed to be awake to get off the train in a city called Casino.  Then catch a bus to Byron Bay at 4:00am.

21 April 2008
Byron Bay, Australia
                Doug cell phone went off at 3:30am.  We were already awake, this told us to put our shoes on and get ourselves arranged to debark the train.  To our surprise someone came by making sure we were awake and alert to debark once the train arrived in Casino.
                We got off the train, walked outside the train station, gave our luggage to the bus driver and got on the bus.  The bus was very clean and had shoulder seat belts.  At 4:00am, the bus driver came over the intercom telling everyone to fasten their seat belts.  Then he went over the itinerary for all the next stops.
                The bus arrived in Byron bay 5:45am, right on time.  Thankfully, the guest house Doug booked for the night said it was alright to check in early.  The room was to be left open for us, because they were not yet open.  We started the walk. 
                After walking a mile or so, we arrived at the Byron Springs guest house.  A mile is really not very far, but it is when you have backpacks and your hands full with other bags.  We followed the ladies directions walking around to the back, and located room #5.  The room was open.  We were both (especially Anna) exceptionally surprised to see a clean room, with a big bed, large towels, x2 soap, x2 shampoo, and four pillows to share.  The lady had left a note on the bed letting us know breakfast is from 8:30am-10:30am.  She was still going to feed us breakfast, this was awesome.
                We both unloaded our things and crawled into bed.  The night-trains are decent enough, but very uncomfortable to sleep in.  Neither of us had more than an hour and a half of sleep. 
                Anna woke up at 10:00am, then waking Doug up for breakfast.  We couldn’t miss the “free” breakfast.  There was bread for toast, 2 kinds of cereal (cocoa puffs, corn flakes), granola, milk, yogurt, orange juice, and tea or coffee.  Before breakfast we noticed there was a secured Wi-Fi available. Doug asked the woman at the front desk regarding the Wi-Fi.  The place also had free Wi-Fi, we were in heaven.  The only thing wrong with this place, it that it is a half hour walk outside of town. 
                We did some email checking and then set off to see the city.  Arriving back at the city we walked down the main street.  There were tons of little shops.   Anna found a shop with ladybug stuff; she had to check it out.  After walking around, saying everything is cute, she settled on buying two toothbrush holders for her and Doug.  One is a ladybug and the other is a bee.  We continued walking occasionally walking into other shops.  The beach was another quarter mile down the street. 
                The beach was pretty and surprisingly about half of the people in the water had wet suits on.  The water must not be that cold.  We walked for another 15 minutes, then turned around and walked back.  About 30 minutes later it started to rain.  We found shelter underneath a big tree.  The rain let up 10 minutes later.   We continued walking down the main streets, looking at the shops. 
                A little while later Doug knew Anna still had not had her coffee, so he suggested ducking into a café for a snack.  Doug ordered a milkshake; Anna got her coffee, and a piece of cake to share.  We had bad luck ordering milkshakes in New Zealand; we were hoping it would be different in Australia.  Despite ordering an “extra thick” milkshake, the milkshake was just like the one Doug had ordered in New Zealand, flavored blended milk (and about as thick as cold water).  The cake turned out to be excellent, it had Banana, macadamia, white chocolate, with cream cheese frosting.  It was divine. 
                After our snack we headed back to the room.  We were both still pretty tired.  Arriving at the room there was a note on the door saying the electricity would be turned off for 2 or 3 hours starting at 1:30pm.  The time was now 3:15pm.  Doug began working on some journals.  By 5:30pm, Doug went to inquire about the electricity.  The electrician said he hoped to have the electricity working before it got too dark.  It was turned on by 6:00pm. 
                It was about time for dinner.  We gathered ourselves up, and decided to head to the Cheeky Monkey.  Arriving at the Cheeky Monkey, the sign said it opened at 7:00pm.  The time was now 6:45pm.  Anna wanted something to drink, so we wandered into Woolworths.  Coming out of Woolworths, the Cheeky Monkey now had a line to get in.  We then got in line.  The Cheeky Monkey apparently is a place to get cheap food, and late at night it turns into a night club.
                We finally got to the front of the line.  The procedure is to order your food before going inside.  Doug ordered a spicy chicken sandwich; Anna not being too hungry got some Veggie nachos.  We went inside and found some seats.  Then Doug went to the bar, coming back with a pitcher of Toohey’s beer.  Our number soon came on the board and Doug got our food.  The food was cheap, but it also tasted cheap.  Doug’s spicy chicken sandwich was not spicy and the chips on the nachos were very stale.  No big deal, we ate our food, drank our beer, and left.  The day had been long, so we headed back to the room for the night.

22 April 2008
Byron Bay, Australia
                After sleeping in and enjoying our free breakfast we headed into town.  Our first stop was to the bus stop to book our travel up north.  Turns out that there is a train station that doesn’t have train service anymore where we had to book our travel north.  The lady was nice and booked us a bus to Tweed’s Head where we could get another bus on to Surfer’s Paradise (Gold Coast).  We also had her book travel from Brisbane to Sydney later on Saturday afternoon.
                Next, we decided to head out to the lighthouse which also serves as the furthest Eastern point in all of Australia.  The light house provided some great views of Byron Bay and the ocean below.  Then we walked down around the most Eastern point of Australia taking more token photos.
                On our way back we took a different route that kept us right near the Ocean.  Eventually we worked our way to walk right on the coast. 
                Next stop was for lunch.  We found a sushi place with one of the little conveyor belts that keep different types of sushi constantly going right in front of the customer.  When you see one you like, you just grab it off the line.  When it comes time to pay the bill they just look at the number of plates and the color of them (different colors are different prices).  The lunch was way out of our budget, but it was excellent.
                On the way back we stopped at the grocery store for some dinner items later in the evening.  We decided to go low budget and got some crackers, salami and cheese.
                In the room we enjoyed our free internet connection for awhile and waited until dinner when we enjoyed our little picnic style meal.  We did a big update for the website and then to bed.

23 April 2008
Byron Bay/Surfers Paradise, Australia
                After enjoying our last breakfast at the guest house we grabbed our stuff and checked out.  We walked to the bus stop and waited for our ride.  While we waited it began to rain.  A few afternoon drunks/bums decided to use the bus stop as shelter with us.  After the rain let up we noticed that people were waiting out in front of the train station and we wondered if that was where our bus did the pickup.  Doug went to go check and found out that we were in the right spot but the bus was over an hour late.  The lady at the desk offered to watch our bags so we could walk around a bit.  We took her up on her offer and dropped them in her office.
                Our walk around took us to all the same places we had seen the last two days, but it was better than hanging out with the homeless drunks at the bus stop.
                Back at the bus stop we finally get picked up and our ride takes an hour and a half up to Tweed’s Head.  From there we got a public transportation bus the rest of the way. 
                We arrive in Surfer’s Paradise; it reminds Doug of a smaller Miami.  We check in to our Hostel which was a 2004 best hostel in the world award winner.  We stayed at one other award winner in Hobart and we have formed a theory about hostels that have won awards.  Our theory is once they win the awards they seem to have a free pass to let their hostel derail.  The advertising they receive from the award seems to keep traffic coming in and they can get by with things like charging $5 a day per person to watch your luggage even if you are a guest.  Or not having Wi-Fi despite their advertisement saying that not only do they have it…its free!
                The bags get dropped off in the room and we set out to check out the town.  This particular hostel is pretty far out of the Surfer’s Paradise central business district.  We ended up visiting just north of it looking for a place to eat.  We walked far around to a bunch of restaurants near the wharf.  Neither of us could really agree on place and we decided that there was a Japanese steak house near the hotel.  We walked back and were a bit disappointed to discover that we couldn’t sit right in front of the chef while we did all of his fancy cooking.  We took a small table off to the side and ordered.  Our dishes turned out to be fantastic despite not being to watch them cook it up in front of us.
                It was then back to the room for the evening.

24 April 2008
Surfers Paradise/Brisbane, Australia
                The night was long, the morning seemed even longer.  For some reason neither of us could sleep last night.  We gathered ourselves up around 8:45 and went downstairs to check out the free breakfast.  Well the free breakfast turned out to be large wheat biscuits and milk.  The biscuits looked horrid.  We quickly left the kitchen and returned to our room.  There were some left over granola bars we ate.
                About 30 minutes later we were packed up and checked out of the hostel.  Today we were going up to Brisbane to visit some friends we met in Fiji.  We walked back out to the bus stop we were let off the day before and waited.
                The bus arrived about 15 minutes later.  The bus driver let us purchase a bus/train ticket all in one price with him.  The bus ride lasted around 45 minutes and then we were let off at the train/subway station.  The ride into Brisbane took another 45 minutes.  We arrived into the city around 11:00am. 
                Anna really wanted to see the koala bears and kangaroos.  Doug suggested the Australian zoo.  He visited the zoo a couple of years ago while his boat was in port.  Anna made the phone call to Bronwyn checking in.  She said she would be getting off work around 5:00pm.  This was perfect; we had the afternoon to visit the zoo.  There were lockers close by.  Thankfully all of our bags fit into one locker.  We then walked up to the information desk to inquire about transportation.  It turns out the Australian zoo is about an hour and a half away by train and bus.  The soonest we would arrive at the zoo would be close to 1:30pm and the zoo closes at 4:00pm.  Not to mention is costs $50 or so to get in per person.  The other option was to visit the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  The lady at the information desk said it was only about a 20 minute bus ride away, it closes around 4:30pm, and it is not nearly as expensive.  With all of this information we decided on the Koala Sanctuary.
                The bus stop to the sanctuary is right in front of the Casino and leaves every 30 minutes.  We had 15 minutes to do the 10 minute walk.  After walking 7 or 8 blocks, Anna asked someone where the Casino was.  The guy pointed to the block we had just walked by.  We changed our direction and found a line of people waiting to get on the bus we needed to catch.  The timing was good.  The 20 minute bus ride took about 45 minutes. 
                The Lone Pine Sanctuary is on the outskirts of the city, right on the river.  Doug paid for our tickets.  The lady at the counter said the koala presentation had just begun.  We walked across a little bridge, turned right, walked about 50 meters, and saw the koalas.  Doug had already seen them before, but this was Anna’s first time up close and personal with them.  We sat down listening to the woman talk about the lifestyle of the animals and how they have their young.  After she finished her speech, she went around the corner bringing back a one eyed koala.  The koala was clenching to her shoulders, just cuddling up to her body.  She let everyone pet the koala.  Anna took advantage of this, and Doug took a couple photos.
                After petting the koala, the decision was made for Anna to get a photo holding a koala.  With the photos, a friend/family member can take a bunch of additional photos with the purchase.  Getting through the line a little koala bear named Sharky was put into Anna’s arms to hold.  The little animal very calm, and just sat in her arms.  Doug didn’t hesitate with the photos…taking many.
                We then walked over to the café.  Doug ordered two chicken sandwiches and water.  Thankfully the lady only understood him saying one chicken sandwich.  The sandwich was terrible.  It tasted like the chicken was cooked a couple of days earlier.  The texture was dry and tough.  After eating the sandwich, we headed off to see the rest of the sanctuary. 
                We came across some fresh water crocodiles and then saw the kangaroo holding area.  Anna still had not gotten close and personal with a kangaroo that was alive.  We walked into a very large gated area.  There were a lot of kangaroos hanging around the shaded areas.  It was getting warm.  We walked towards the kangaroos observing.  Finally Doug said let’s pet them.  Anna was a bit hesitant, but soon got over her shyness.  There were many different roos hanging around.  We walked around checking them all out.  They just sat patiently letting anyone pet them. 
                Soon there was a park ranger in the kangaroo information gazebo getting ready to speak.  We headed over to the gazebo to learn about the roos.  After she was done, we headed over to another roo to get more photos.  While we were watching and petting the roo a man walked over to us telling us this roo had a joey (baby kangaroo) in her pouch.  We instantly became very interested.  The roo walked away, we followed.  A short while later the mom bent down to eat some grass, then joey stuck its head out of the pouch and began eating grass.  Anna had the camera this time and took advantage of the joey sticking its head out. 
                Walking around the roo area, we met a girl from the Netherlands.  The three of us left the roo area and went around exploring the rest of the sanctuary.  Around 3:00 we headed over to the lorikeet area.  The feeding was supposed to be going on.  Arriving at the lorikeet area there were lorikeets everywhere.  The birds are very loud and show their presence well.  We hung out with the lorikeets for about 10 minutes. 
                We thought after reviewing the bus schedule one was coming at 3:30pm.  So we said goodbye to our new friend and headed to the bus station.  We wanted to make sure we were back in town in time to meet up with Bronwyn.  It turned out the bus wasn’t coming until 3:50.  We just sat and chatted about the day. 
                The bus arrived on time and we were back in the city around 4:50.  We found a pay phone and called Bronwyn.  She would be leaving work in the next 10 minutes and would meet us outside the train station at half past the hour.  We had time to get back and get our things. 
                Bronwyn arrived half past the hour, we loaded up our bags and she drove us to her house.  She and her partner Urs rent a cute old house on a small hill.  The house had a view of the city from both the front and back.  Our bags were unloaded into what would be our room for the next two days.  Then we headed to the grocery store.  Urs wouldn’t be home from his Aikido class until around 7:30 or so.  We wanted to make them dinner.  It was the end of their work week and we had had a long day.  Staying home drinking, eating, and chatting appealed to all of us.
                At the grocery store we bought the making for shrimp/vegetable pasta, garlic bread, Caesar salad, and apple crisp with vanilla ice cream for dessert.  Then back to the house.  Bronwyn got beers for herself and Doug.  Anna poured herself a glass of wine. 
                Urs showed up about 40 minutes later.  It was now time to cook dinner.  Anna and Bronwyn started the preparation and cooked.  45 min later dinner was served.  It tasted pretty good…everyone seemed to eat the meal.  We all helped clean up the empty dishes.  Then it was time to cook the dessert.  We were all full, but the evening would not have been complete without dessert. 
                We all had a serving of the apple crisp and cleaned up again.  By now it was after 11:00.  This is way past Anna and Doug’s bed time.  We said thank you again for having us and said goodnight.

25 April 2008
Brisbane, Australia
                The day started late (for us), around 8:30am.  Everyone had their showers and then breakfast was set out.  Bronwyn and Urs set out a beautiful brunch.  Prior to sitting down, we put in our laundry.  The brunch included yogurt, muesli, croissants, toast, corn flakes, fruit, and a variety of spreads for the breads.  After breakfast we all cleaned up.  Urs needed to do some studying; Bronwyn suggested we go for a drive.
                She drove us up Mt. Coot-tha.  About half way up the mountain, there was a road block.  The police were doing breathalyzer tests at 11:00 in the morning.  Today was Anzac Day.  This is similar to the Memorial Day in the states and most everyone had the day off.  She pulled into where the police had the tests, and did her duty.  All the policeman did was instruct her how to breathe through the breathalyzer.  Then after she did her test, the results were given.  This is when the policeman asked her if her day had begun early.  (On Anzac day there is a tradition.  There is a dawn ceremony, followed by a parade.  After the parade everyone goes to the pub and drinks all day.)  She continued driving for another five or so minutes, coming to a bunch of cars parked on the side of the road.  There was a waterfall we were going to walk to.  The car was parked and we walked.
                Walking about 20 minutes, we came to a bunch of dry rocks.  This is where the waterfall was supposed to be.  There had been a drought the past few years, even though it had rained most of the summer, the drought still continued.  We walked back down to the car and got in.  She then drove us up to a lookout of the city.  Brisbane is a bit inland from the ocean and a river flows through the center.  The three of us took some photos of the city.  There was a café next to the look out.  We all got ice cream bars and had a sit admiring the city.
                We arrived back at the house around 2:30pm.  Urs still needed to a little more studying.  We killed some time on the internet, gathered the barbecue food together and chatted.  Soon we left for the park.  The park was a short 10 minute walk down the hill.  Urs met us down there with his vespa.  At 5:15 he was going to drive over to get the rugby tickets for the evening game.  
                The snacks and beer immediately came out.  Shortly we broke out the botchy ball.  Urs left around 5:00 to get the tickets.  Then 20 minutes later we took control over a barbecue and started dinner.  The menu for dinner included German brats, and grilled vegetables.  Dinner was on the grill, Urs soon joined us.  We enjoyed our meal, cleaned up, and headed towards the stadium. 
                Urs, and Doug went to find our seats, while Bronwyn and Anna got some beers.  The seats were at one corner of one of the goals.  Throughout the game we were trying to follow the rules.  The game was great, the home team ended up winning by about 20 points.       
                The four of us walked back up to the house after the game.  The day was great and the four of us were tired.  We chatted for another hour, then said our goodnights, and hit the sack.

26 April 2008
Brisbane, Australia
                It was another day of sleeping in.  When we did get up, Urs and Bronwyn put on another fantastic spread for breakfast.  Urs had to take off after we were cleaned up for more Aikido.  The rest of us walked into town looking for a place to get Anna’s haircut.  A lot of places were closed due to the holiday weekend.  We finally found a place that was reasonable.
                Doug and Bronwyn took off while Anna went for her cut.  They walked down to the river and through the nearby park which had a pond.  In the pond some kids were feeding three eels and a turtle.  Then we headed back to pickup Anna.  She emerged with a beautiful haircut.
                The three of us headed across the river and went through the touristy area of Brisbane.  Then it was back to the house.  On the way back Urs passed us on his Vespa heading for the house.  When we arrived we needed to pack up the car, said goodbye to Urs, and head to the train station.  We needed to go back to Sydney.  The ticket we had took us by bus to a city called Casino, then we were to hop a train down to Sydney. 
                At the train station we said our final farewell to Bronwyn and tracked down our bus.  We discovered it was leaving in about 10 minutes so we grabbed some last minute snacks and tried to board the bus.  The driver stopped us and said that food was forbidden on the bus so we had to wolf down an ice cream bar that Anna bought.
                The bus ride to the town of Casino was uneventful.  When we arrived three hours later we headed to a nearby food place to grab a bite to eat.  Doug ended up getting a burger.  It was a traditional Aussie burger where they added a big slice of beet and replaced pickles with cucumbers.  After Doug removed all the stuff that wasn’t good for him (the vegetables) he had his burger.
                On the train Anna got a chicken pot pie type of snack and we settled in for the evening on the train.

27 April 2008
Sydney, Australia
                Eleven hours later the train arrived promptly on time in Sydney, at 7:00 in the morning.  Somehow we managed to get a little sleep while on the train.  At the central station we got metro tickets to King’s Cross.  We planned on staying at the place we stayed at before.  When we got to the place it was locked up.  There were a couple other backpackers anxious to get in as well.  We decided to get some breakfast.  There was a place across the street that we shared a breakfast special of two eggs, two pieces of toast, some bacon, and a tomato.  When we were done the hostel still wasn’t open.  We decided to look up some other places.  There was another one just a block away and we settled on it.
                At the front desk the guy handed us three sets of keys for us to inspect rooms.  We picked a decent sized one with a view of the tower.  Then it was off into town.  We wanted to check on tickets at the Sydney Opera house.  There were two options.  Tonight we could buy tickets for a standup comic to the tune of $32 per person, or we could get tickets to an actual play on Tuesday night called “The Serpent’s Teeth” to the tune of $77 per person.  Obviously the cost was a major factor but Doug finally rationalized that we could see a standup comic anywhere.  We decided to take the plunge and splurge for the big tickets.  At the ticket window the lady said the tickets were $77 each…however if we showed up 30 minutes prior to the show opening we could purchase “rush” tickets for $32 each and that there would be plenty available.  Excellent news!
                Next we both got a $0.30 soft serve at Micky D’s.  From there we went to a weekend market in “The Rocks” by Sydney harbor.  There were a lot of places to try fudge, cheese, and a number of other things.  Next we found a sushi place and had a couple rolls for lunch.
                Our next stop was the Sydney Observatory.  There was a lot of information about their work with assisting the charting of Australia and also the charting of Venus back in the 1800’s.
                After walking across town we came back to our hostel.  We settled in for a little work on our journals and then finally took showers.  Doug ran across the street for some Thai food and we were asleep shortly after finishing up.

28 April 2008
Sydney/Blue Mountains, Australia
                The alarm went off at 5:30am, Anna pushed snooze.  Finally at 6:30am we were up and getting ready.  Today we wanted to take the train to the Blue Mountains.  The book had some good things to say about the area and getting up to a higher elevation sounded good. 
                After getting ready we walked to the subway and used the vouchers received when purchasing our month train-pass.  The pass took us to the central station.  The train to the Blue Mountains was to leave in 27 minutes.  We walked around, Anna made a couple phone calls and then we hopped on the train. 
                About 2 hours later we arrived at Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains.  We got off the train, and looked at one another, the air was COLD.  We knew it was a different elevation, but not this high.   It was now about 9:30am and Anna needed her coffee.  We ended up buying pastries and then found a cute café to get coffee.  Doug ordered his usual especial, Hot Chocolate. 
                After eating our pastries, we got yelled at for eating because the café has a no eating food not purchased here policy.  “No problem…next time we come here, we won’t do that.” 
                We walked to the nearest phone booth.  It was Monday for us, but Sunday in the States.  Doug called the family while Anna wandered, looking in the stores.
                After Doug got off the phone, Anna walked him down to an outdoor store to “look” at something, she convinced him to let her buy a blue fleece hat.  Once the purchase was made, we began walking towards the end of town.  The big attraction in Katoomba was the 3-Sisters monument.  We walked about 20 minutes and came to Echo Point.  Here we could see the whole valley and the 3-sisters monument.  Next we went into the information store to inquire of any short trails nearby.  The guy at the counter told us we could walk down to the monument.  It was only a 10-minute walk away.  This sounded easy and fun.
                Walking down trail was simple and then we came to some stairs.  There was a sign, “only strong walkers should use the stairs,” or something to this effect.  We then walked down the stairs to a small ledge right next to the monument.  It was pretty and the other side of the valley was more visible from this spot.  But we were still pretty cold.  We walked back up the stairs. 
                Next to the information store there was an indoor shopping area with a couple of restaurants.  We decided to share a lunch special.  The special included a foot-long sandwich, drink and cookie.  This was perfect for us.  After lunch we walked around looking at the shops for a bit then began walking back into Katoomba.
                In Katoomba we wandered into another couple of shops which included an antique book store.  Then we walked back to the train station.  The next train was to leave in 20 minutes.  We just waited in the waiting room.  There wasn’t much else to see in the town.
                The train arrived 2-hours later in Sydney.  On the way back to the hostel we bought a 6-pack of beer and some sandwich fixings.  The day began early; we had been cold most of the day.  There wasn’t too much energy to do another else.  We shared the beer, made sandwiches, and called it a night. 

29 April 2008
Sydney, Australia
                The day started a little later today, around 8:30 or so.  After getting cleaned up we went to the building next door to have our free toast breakfast.  Once we had our fill of the toast we headed off to the subway.  Bondi Beach is supposed to be the popular beach in Sydney, so we went to check it out.  Doug had been to Bondi a couple years early, but he wanted to show the beach to Anna.
                A train and bus ride later we arrived in Bondi Beach.  It was nice, but very small.  Since it is Autumn right now, the crowds were thin.  We walked around for a while taking some photos, checking out what we could.  Anna wasn’t too impressed.  After hanging out here for about 2 hours we headed back to Sydney.
                In Sydney we decided to do a couple errands.  This was the last full day in Australia and we needed to check a couple of things.   We went back to the room to get an address of a tour company specializing in tours through Russia.  The company turned out to be downtown.
                The walking began.  Downtown is only about a 15-minute walk from where we were staying.  Arriving at the tour company, they told us the person who specializes in the tours only works Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Today was Tuesday and we were leaving Australia tomorrow.  This was quite inconvenient.  She did hand us a couple of brochures to look at. 
                Next we needed to find Singapore Airlines and confirm our flight for the next day.  The office was supposed to be only a few blocks away.  Arriving at the building where their office should have been there was a sign.  “Singapore Airlines has moved, please call this number.”  We walked back towards our hostel until a payphone was located.  Anna called the number and successfully confirmed the flight.
                We walked back to the hostel.  The both of us were hungry and laundry needed to be done.  There was a Thai-food place across the street from the hostel.  We decided to share a dish, since neither of us was very hungry.  After lunch we put the laundry in to wash.  Thankfully the washer was empty.  Then we hurried to the internet café to do a website upload and some accommodation research for Singapore.  An hour later we walked back to the hostel to find clean warm clothes. 
                The clothes were carried to the room.  We then took turn taking showers.  Around 5:30 we headed out for dinner.  The play we wanted to go to at the Opera house started at 8:00pm.  This should give us enough time for dinner and to walk over to the Opera house. 
                We took the subway to the Town Hall station and began walking towards the water.  Eventually we settled on an Italian pizza restaurant in a section called “The Rocks.”  For dinner Anna ordered a pizza and Doug ordered ravioli.  Wine wasn’t too outrageously expensive and neither was the cheesecake.  After dinner we walked over to the Opera house.  It was now about 7:30. 
                Doug walked in to purchase the tickets.  Two days earlier when we went to buy the tickets the girl at the counter guaranteed us the show wouldn’t sell out.  And if we showed up 30-minutes early then we could get the tickets for $29, instead of $77.  Doug came back with two tickets.  The lady at the counter said they were lovely seats.  We went into the theatre about 5-minutes before show time.  The play started promptly at 8:00. 
                Two hours later we leave the theatre in awe.  The play, “The Serpents Teeth” was very powerful.  It was a combination of two different plays with two different views.  Please Google the play for a better description. 
                We then walked back to the subway and returned to the hostel for the evening.

30 April 2008
Sydney, Australia
                The airport shuttle van met us early in the morning.  We checked in and a couple hours later we boarded the airplane.
                As we walked on to the Singapore Airlines airplane there was a choice of a few different newspapers handed to us by the flight attendants.  We picked a copy of the Sydney Herald and also The Strait (a Singapore based newspaper).  After we were seated the flight attendants brought us all hot washcloths to clean our faces with.
                Once we were up in the air drink service started which included complimentary beer and wine.  Meals were served a little later and were surprising good (Doug had Thai Beef curry and Anna had a mixed vegetable dish).  The hot snack served later, an Asian version of chicken pot pie, was also very good. Each seat also had its own personal viewing screen with a remote/telephone.  Everyone had access to over 50 “on-demand” movies, a bunch of TV shows, games and bunch more.  Doug was having such a good time he was sorry the plane landed.

Singapore Journal               

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