She'll Be Coming 'Round the Blue Mountains When She Comes....Yehaw!!

After we left the Gold Coast and flew to Sydney, we decided to head up to the Blue Mountains.  One my favorite gifts from my mom was the book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and I use it to research my options before heading anywhere new.  Of course, the Blue Mountains were listed.  Our excursion included a stop at yet another wildlife park...this was getting a bit old.  But, I have to say, each one had its perks.  

Here we are petting a koala.  This park took pictures with our own camera for free.  To be honest, this was all I needed.  As cute and as soft as koalas are, they have super sharp claws, are not the nicest animals, and reek to high heaven of poo.  Mark couldn't get enough sanitizer after touching them.  

Here was a cassowary up close and personal.  They look like dinosaur birds to me.  

Here were some penguins that are from the area.  I didn't know where to see them for real, maybe I'll find out before my next trip.  

These were flying foxes.  They didn't call them bats, which was good, because they were about the size of Lulu.  I got a couple good looks at their faces, and I really think they are small mammals.  

Here are the dingoes just lying around.  I didn't really understand why they would round up wild dogs to put in a wildlife park, but it's their call.  

For some reason, there was a whole section of albino animals here, including this peacock.

A wombat!  I thought this was the cutest thing there...but the sign said not to touch, because he bites!

By this point, I felt really comfortable touching the animals.  This wallaby was super cute and friendly.  I was trying to get it to shake my hand, but wasn't quite as assertive as Mark, who just grabbed it anyway.  

After the wildlife park, we headed to a large recreational area near Black Town, whose history is quite interesting.  After learning a bit about the Aboriginals, I would like to learn more.  It seems that natives of every land just get the short end of the stick.  Anyway, we were here to learn a bit about boomerang throwing.  It was much harder than it looked.  And, believe me, you can't just pick it up and throw it.  It has to be held at 2 o'clock at the release point.  

Getting my boomerang on...

Yep, I thought I was pretty tough.  But, as it turned out, the guide was quite impressed with my skills.  Compared to the non-athletic group, they did stand out a bit.  I got it to swoop around, but it always went too wide and ended up behind me and to my left.  

The Blue Mountains are about 75 miles west of Sydney.  We got there by taking a nice van ride through 26 small towns along the way, which were all amazing and quaint.  The Blue Mountains are called that because of the microscopic droplets of oil from all the eucalyptus trees refracting in the sunlight.  

After riding a very steep gondola 1000 feet over the valley down to the rainforest below, we started a nice hike in Jamison Valley.  

The blue haze was beautiful and mystic.  The day was marvelous, but much too short.  I would have liked to hike here for much longer than an afternoon.  

Here I am in front of the Three Sisters.  These are the park's famous sandstone structures.  

In order to get back to the top of the mountain, we had to ride the world's steepest railway.  Believe me, it was scary.  There were no seat belts or anything really to hold on to.  Once it started going up (while we were sitting backwards), I pitched forward and had to tense of every muscle in my body to keep from going over the railing and hitting the people in front of me.  I even tried to grasp on to the chain link cage surrounding us, but as soon as I did, we went through this tunnel and my knuckles scrapped the sides.  No thank you...that was the last time I'll ride that.  I couldn't even include the action shots of this ride, because the faces I was making are too hideous for the web.  

After walking around one of the small towns, we hopped on a ferry down the river and back to the city.  It was a long ride, but beautiful, especially when we got closer to Sydney. 

The shorelines surrounding the city were filled with sights such as this.  It really looked relaxing and like an amazing place to live.  

Here we are coming up on the city.  It really was beautiful.  

Here is the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  It was amazing to come down the river at it, because I climbed all the way to the top where the flags are on my first day in town.  You'll read all about that later.  

My trip to Australia was amazing.  Everything was new and exciting and for the first time since I can remember, I just felt relaxed.  I didn't have a care in the world.  I wasn't stressed, just chill.  I think this is a crossroads of my life.  I am finally making things happen and enjoying eery moment.  There is much to be thankful for, and safe travels is one of those things.  

Gold Coast

After spending one too many days in Brisbane, Mark and I decided to hit the road and head to the Gold Coast before flying to Sydney.  Although I already had my picture with the koala, Mark still wanted one, so we headed to Lone Pine.  This is the most famous sanctuary in Australia...in fact, it's where all the celebrities come to experience Australian wildlife.  

I definitely loved the kangaroo habitat much more than my previous experience.  This one had fields of grass and lots of shade too. I was a little frightened of them at first, because I was afraid that they'd kick me.  

But, I got much more comfortable hanging around them.  The longer I spent there, the more they reminded me of goats.  I think that somewhere down the line, goats and kangaroos are close cousins.  

There were many with kids...seriously, that's what they're called.  I thought that this one was a little large for it's mothers pouch.  I could make a joke about my brother right now, but because my mom will most likely scold me for it, I'll refrain.  But, check out how the kid's legs are hanging out right by it's head...that can't be comfortable.  

There were tons of koalas here too.  I was surprised that this one was awake, since the rest were sleeping, but he was definitely staring me down.  He didn't break eye contact for so long, that it kind of freaked me out.  

After visiting Lone Pine, we made our way to the train station, and then to the bus station, and finally took the bus to the beach.  Along the way, I saw this road sign and hoped that it wasn't an indication of what was to come.  

There were hotels and high rises galore here.  It was interesting, because they were right on the beach and there didn't seem to be much else.  

The beach was absolutely gorgeous, with soft white sand and nice waves.  I didn't bring my suit, because I knew that we wouldn't have a ton of time to make a day of the beach, but I would love to go back here at least for one nice day in the sun.

I really wanted to get a picture with the nice sets of waves coming ashore, so I handed Mark my camera and backed up a bit.  Seriously, the waves were fairly small where I was standing until all of a sudden, I was attacked by a huge one.  Mark just laughed and cackled, as I wondered why in the world he didn't warn me about it's arrival.  So, my pants, undies, and purse was completely soaked and since I didn't bring any swim gear, I had to walk around like that for hours.  

I just loved the lighting from the setting sun, the beach and the city combined.  I found that I really needed the sunshine.  It's hot and humid during the summers in Japan, but it's different and I don't know how to explain it.  The sun here felt warm and inviting...that's probably why Australia is the leader in cases of skin cancer in the world.  

I would love to own a condo in one of these buildings.  I would wake up and walk across the street to the beach for awhile, then go back to nap and cool off, then head back out to star gaze at night.  How relaxing!

The waves did start to pick up, and the beach was technically closed due to the typhoon that hit the northern coast while we were there.  I think that the natural disasters seem to follow us now...maybe because we know how to handle them and do not get shaken too easily.  

No city (or blog) is complete without the local ferris wheel.  This one was on top of the main bus station in town.  Imagine if bus stations in America had these on the roofs.  People would probably know where they were...I'm not even sure where the bus station is in Springfield.  After an eventful train ride back to Brisbane, where we encountered rowdy cricket fans, the police (trying to calm them down), and some totally inappropriate teenagers, we settled in to pack for our trip to Sydney the next morning.  We had to leave the hotel by 5 am to catch our flight.  Whew!

Brisbane or Bust

After a rocky start (I missed the check in for my flight by 5 minutes and therefore my flight), I finally got underway to Brisbane.  I arrived at the hostel and inquired as to if Mark (my friend who was meeting here) had checked in, and was told that he had not.  That got me worried, because he was supposed to check in on the 23rd and it was already the 24th.  So, in addition to feeling bummed about missing my flight earlier, and depressed that I was not with my family for Christmas, I was worried about Mark.  I paid to set up wifi and found out that he was trapped in New Zealand due to the earthquakes.  Thankfully, it just meant that he would arrive a bit late in the evening on Christmas Eve.  So, I had the day to roam around Brisbane and get a feel for the city.  Overall, it was very beautiful and clean.  

This was a really interesting pedestrian bridge that I took over to the other side of Brisbane.  

This was the museum of modern art, which was really inviting, but unfortunately closed during my stay here.  

I thought the architecture here was great.  It married new age, sleek buildings and traditional style.  

This was just down the road from our hostel and was the beginning of Queen Street.  This is where all the shopping and many restaurants are located.  

More of Brisbane.  

This was a park area near the waterfront.  They had these trellis' all over and they covered the walkways offering relief from the sun.  Near here was a great market, lots of funky shops, a public pool area, and many gardens.  

Seriously, everywhere that I travel seems to be filled with ferris wheels.  I'm not sure what excitement is for foreigners, but they're all over Japan, and now I'm finding they're ll over Australia.  

This is a Thai Temple that was located across the river near the gardens.  It looked really old and was very beautiful.

As soon as Mark arrived, we headed out to find a place to eat our Christmas Eve dinner.  Nothing seemed really special, so we decided to stop at Harajuku Gyoza.  After a quick look at the menu, I was thrilled to discover that they not only had gyoza that was NOT made with pork, but they also made it from hand too.  Of course, this was the perfect place to eat.  We found out that the owner visited Japan and loved gyoza, so he started to open these in Australia.  Now, I'm hoping that he opens some in Japan, so I can eat some pork free gyoza!  

Here is the Christmas Eve feast.  Beer and turkey gyoza with cranberry sauce to dip.  We had a fabulous time catching up about our weeks in different cities.  I told him all about my diving experiences and he told me all about bungee jumping.  I was very thankful to have someone to spend my holidays with, even if it wasn't family...good friends are a close second.  

We woke up on Christmas Day and needed to find some food and fast.  So, we stopped down the street at Pie Face, which became our go-to place to pick up food.  I had the chicken pie with mashed peas and potatoes in honor of Christmas morning/afternoon.  Honestly it was delicious, which is good, because it was about the only place that was open for business.  

On Christmas Day, there wasn't much to do, so we took the public bus up to Mt. Coot-tha to get the most beautiful view of the city.  It looks so huge, and is actually the size of Chicago, but there was absolutely nothing to do.  We didn't find much night life and even the cultural side of things weren't exciting.  It was a running joke that many people called it Bris-Vegas, but in fact, it was so boring here.  

Hanging out in Brisbane reminded me of when I was a kid.  Things closed really early (like at 7 pm) and most things were closed on Sundays.  It was definitely a wake-up as to the way that America has started doing business.  While staying here, I also found out about Boxing Day.  Essentially, it is exactly like our Black Friday.  Everything is on sale and since it's a holiday here, everyone is also off work to hunt for bargains.  

After getting our fill of the view and the people watching, we decided to take a hike.  Little did we know that the hiking trail would take us down to the near bottom of the mountain.  It was quite an adventure.  

First, I noticed this bird.  It looked nothing like anything that I had ever seen before.  I know the picture is out of focus, but I had to include it.  This bird was like half black crow and half colorful pheasant.  It could fly and hop and it didn't stay still for long at all.  

As we continued to hike further and further down the trail, we came across a clearing.  Mark says how nice it is here and how that would be a great place to camp and then we happen upon a stream with a bridge across it.  And what pops up from under the bridge, but a snake that was about 9 feet long.  Now, many of you know how I like to exaggerate, but seriously.  This snake was at least 9 feet long.  It scared the beegeezus out of me.  

As we continued to hike and at many points thought that we were lost, we came across this beautiful golden bamboo.  I had never seen this variety and thought it was magnificent.  We hiked and hiked and ended up walking alongside a busy highway down the mountain for a bit, but finally (and luckily) we ended up at a place that we knew, the Botanical Gardens.  After a quick look around, we had just enough time to catch the very last bus back into the city for our Christmas dinner.  

I saw this parked in an alley and ran to photograph it.  Each emergency vehicle here has it's own type of checkers.  They are all different colors and it makes them easy to spot.

After walking around a bit, we stopped on Queen's Street for some dinner.  As I said before, it didn't seem that there were many places open, so we were lucky that there were some along this road.  I decided on fish and chips, especially since that seemed to be super popular here.  It was funny to notice the English influence in Australia.  They definitely retained it much more than the United States.  

We took a walk around after dinner, looking for a bar to have some holiday drinks, but didn't end up finding anything.  As we crossed one bridge, I noticed this one was lit up with a floral design.  This bridge is just a plain white color during the day, but this was exquisite at night.  

In the spirit of the season, we strolled downtown to look at the lights and the decorations.  It was definitely odd to see all the Christmas stuff while in a sun dress.  As you know, Australia is in the southern hemisphere, so they celebrate Christmas in the summertime.  Either way, this tree was beautiful.

These statues were down by the tree and I couldn't resist hopping on for a picture.  Brisbane was a beautiful city, but I wasn't impressed with sights or opportunities for entertainment.  In all fairness, it could have been the holidays or the fact that it was the weekend, but I probably won't be heading back to find out.  

PS, I didn't include pictures of the hostel here, probably because it was such a dump.  Seriously, it looked nothing like the website and Mark and I were both horrified.  We have many stories from the broken shower, to the burly roommate who lived there, to the air conditioning, and finally the surprise roommate that it will always be memorable to us...even if we'd rather forget it.  

Kim