Surfin'

It's official, I'm a true Aussie now - I've been surfing!

This week at work we had a release party for a project that I helped on a little bit. So I got invited to go! The party was surfing lessons at Bondi Beach, which is one of the iconic Sydney Beaches.

Of course, having never been surfing before, I was pretty nervous and didn't know what to expect. Luckily, we went out in the middle of a weekday and the waves were really small, so it wasn't as intimidating as I thought it would be.

We almost didn't get to go because the day before red algae bloomed at the beach and it was closed. It looked pretty creepy.

Luckily, though, it cleared up, the beach reopened, and away we went!

Our surfing instructor was everything I thought he would be!

That's him in the doorway

Then I signed my life away, including not holding the surfing company liable in case I was bitten by a shark or stung by a jellyfish and died.

We had a little bit of time before surf time, so we explored some of the tidal pools.

Then it was surf time! I don't have any pictures of that, since I was obviously in the ocean. But it was a blast! Most of my attempts ended in big falls, but I did OK a couple times. And toward the end of our hour, I did ride one wave all the way into the beach! I had a ton of fun even though I didn't really excel at surfing. It was also a great way to hang out with work people and have some good times.

Here I am at the end of the day, surfer Christine.

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Double Trouble take Brisbane by storm - Tidbits

Some interesting/funny anecdotes from the weekend...

• We went across the Walter Taylor bridge several times over the weekend. I mentioned to Megan what a pretty bridge it was, and she told me that there are actually apartments in the bridge towers.

I looked it up, and the tollmaster's family lived in the bridge apartments until a couple years ago. How charming is that?!

• Megan introduced me to the TimTam slam. This ritual is where you bit off a corner of either side of a TimTam, then drink tea of coffee though it. The TimTam gets all deliciously warm and melty, and you eat it like that. I've decided that if you're going to use a straw for tea, a TimTam is the way to go. =)

• When we stopped for sangria on our Sunday bike ride, we saw this guy walking around:

Yes, that is an arm "cast" made out of an ace bandage and duct tape. Some self-doctoring was happening there, Aussie-style.

• Two nights after I left, Megan texted me this picture:

That is a huntsman spider in the house. He's by the toilet for size reference. Just as happy I didn't see that while I was there!

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Double Trouble take Brisbane by storm - Sunday

On Sunday, we started the day with a walk with Torrey. This is Torrey!

There's a bushwalk close to Megan's house where Torrey gets to go in the mornings. I kept an eye out for kangaroos, but pretty birds were the only wildlife we saw.

It was really neat to walk the through the bush a bit.

After our walk, we grabbed some brunch and then headed down to the city for some bike riding. Brisbane has a really cool program where you can rent bikes from stands all around the city and the return them to other stands. It's all computerized, so the system is not without its glitches. But we managed to make it happen!

I was so impressed with how bike-friendly the city was. The city has done an amazing job of making the waterfront a place where people come out to enjoy the city. In a lot of places, the path has three lanes: two for bikes in either direction and one for pedestrians.

Ready to ride!

It was really fun to get to ride around parts of the city I'd seen in the dark the night before. It was even more beautiful in the daylight.

Two of Brisbane's unique bridges

Harbor by the botanic gardens

We took breaks on our ride to check out some of the beautiful areas in the city.

Heading back down the South Bank

Another interesting thing Brisbane has done to make the city family-friendly is to create some beaches along the waterfront. These beaches actually look like a cross between a pool and a beach, but they were really cool-looking. There are several different beaches, each separated into their own little "lagoon" area. It was a really popular place to be on a hot day like Sunday.

After we'd been riding for a while, we stopped at one of the restaurants overlooking the river and the city and had some beverages.

Delicious drinks & great vistas

On our last water break of the day, we saw this water dragon out getting some sun.

It was a great day, and bike riding was a fabulous way to see the city!

After this fun day, it actually felt good to get on a plane and take a nap. But it was a wonderful weekend and I'd repeat it again in a heartbeat!

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Double Trouble take Brisbane by storm - Saturday

This weekend, I flew up to Brisbane to visit my lovely cousin, Megan. She's quite an Australia pro, having gotten her Masters degree here and lived here for a while now. I've been sooo excited to visit her in Brisbane since we got here, and even more so after we had so much fun in Sydney a few weeks ago.

First, though, no good girls weekend happens without some tidy, orderly packing.

It got even worse after this!

I flew up to Brisbane Friday evening after work. It's a quick flight, about an hour and a half. Airport security is much more relaxed here (no taking off your shoes! You also don't have to show your boarding pass to go through security, so people can still meet their family at their arriving gate. It's so nice!), so it was a breeze getting through and onto the flight.


We didn't do too much on Friday after I arrived. As girls do, we had plenty to talk about and catch up on. We also went to the garage to look for huntsman spiders. These are the quintessential Australian spiders that are HUGE. Megan had seen one in the garage the night before and felt like it was important for my Australia experience that I see one while I was out of the city. Sadly (I guess!), there were no hunstmans to be seen on either of the nights we looked.

We went to bed pretty soon after the spider search since we had an early start the next morning. However, I didn't go to bed before Megan telling me the possums lived in the ceiling and not to be alarmed if I heard noises over my head or a possum fight. Between this and the spider search, you can understand why I checked the sheets for creatures before getting in bed.

Sunshine Coast Eumundi Markets & Noosa

On Saturday, we got up bright and early and headed up the Sunshine Coast toward Eumundi. First we stopped and picked up Megan's good friend, who grew up in Brisbane and graciously drove us around for the day.

Eumundi is home to the Eumundi Markets, which are big weekend markets full of crafts, clothes, souvenirs, and food.

There was also some weird stuff.

We had a lot of fun just walking around and shopping.

Then we headed up the road just a bit to Noosa. Noosa is a tourist beach town bordered by beautiful beaches. We walked around a bit so I could take in the sights. There aren't words for how gorgeous and picturesque the sands and water were there.

Less beautiful were the bush turkeys that were EVERYWHERE there. They seemed to mind their own business, but they looked pretty shifty to me.

Then we grabbed a bite for lunch and did some good people watching.

The highlight of my day came next. Megan had told me that Noosa was the only place she'd seen a koala in the wild, so I went with high hopes of some repeat success, however unlikely. BUT, luck was with us, and as we were getting ready to leave, we happened to see some people standing under a tree, staring and pointing up.

And then we saw this little guy!!!

He was pretty far up, so it was hard to see him, much less get a good picture. But we stood and watched him for a bit. He didn't do too much - at one point, he swung his leg down over the branch, and that was about it. But I didn't care - it was just the best thing ever!!

We couldn't really top this experience, so we headed back home. But this time we took the coast highway, which goes by beautiful beach after beautiful beach. It was really hard for me to believe there were so many gorgeous beaches in such a short distance. It's a good thing Megan's moving, otherwise I think I'd be in serious danger of becoming a total beach bum and visiting every weekend!

We closed out our afternoon with a lovely snack out on the deck.

A Turkish dinner in Brisbane

Saturday night was a big night - Megan's friends from work had organized a going away dinner for her at a Turkish restaurant in the city. We got ourselves ready (wearing very similar outfits, coincidentally) and headed out!

We took the train in and got off a few stops early so we could walk across the bridge and see some of the city. A river flows through Brisbane, so it has lots of bridges and scenic waterway walks. It was gorgeous even at night!

All of Megan's friends were very welcoming and friendly! The Turkish restaurant was really cool too. The food was delicious, and we got some entertainment during our meal too.

The belly dancer came by our table

It was a really lovely night, with perfect weather and good times.

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Happy Thanksgiving from Oz

OK, we're not that far in the future, but since I have BIG plans for next weekend, T and I celebrated Thanksgiving this Saturday. But first, we went out for the morning.

The Rocks

We decided to walk across the bridge and explore the area on the opposite side from the more touristy area (where The Rocks, Circular Quay, and the Opera House are). That quieter side is called Walsh Bay, and it has lots of historic buildings and quaint old houses.

But first, I had to walk through the Rocks Markets, just to make sure I wasn't missing a deal anywhere! I was just there a couple weeks ago with Megan, but there are always new things going on down there. And today didn't disappoint!

There was a cruise ship at port in Circular Quay so it was pretty packed in the markets.

There was also lots of entertainment around, like this band outside the German bier stube.

I really like going down to this older part of the city, because even when it's as crowded as it was this day, if you even slightly leave the main streets, it can feel like you've stepped back in time.

T is really good about patiently standing aside or walking slowly when I'm taking pictures. But sometimes, a guy just needs to be in some pictures of an alley!

Try 1

Try 2

Success! (But I think the first two are my favorites!)

Walsh Bay

After thoroughly checking the vendors at the markets, we headed over to Walsh Bay. We crossed under the Harbor Bridge where we saw several groups getting ready to do the bridge climb.

We also this guy's campaign poster:

Glen Wall wants YOU!

After the bustle of The Rocks, it felt like we had entered a different city (and maybe a different decade) after we crossed under the bridge. All of the buildings are quite old in that area, so it made the whole atmosphere slower and overall peaceful.

Some cobblestone streets...

And lots of old stone walls, ancient concrete, and winding streets.

Then we walked down to the wharf, where the old commercial port buildings have been repurposed for lots of different things, including a theatre, a hotel, and restaurants.

It was a beautiful area - lots of peaceful harbor views and a lovely fresh sea breeze blowing in. I was a little surprised that there weren't more people down there, because it was relatively deserted.

We wandered through there for a while and then decided to head back. But, before we got off the pier, I saw a bunch of kelp attached to a little dock. When I stopped to take a closer look, I noticed there was a HUGE school of jellyfish floating by it! There were more jellyfish than we could count and in all sizes - from tiny to bigger than my hand. It was so cool! We stood there staring at the water like crazy people for probably 15 minutes. =)

It was hard to get a picture because of the glare, but one was close to the surface when I took this one, and you can kind of see it, right by the leaf in the middle bottom. I wish I knew what kind they were!

You pretty much can't beat a casual jellyfish sighting, so we called it an afternoon after that and headed back across the bridge. The wind had picked up, so the harbor was full of sailboats.

Dinner Time!

We started cooking our Thanksgiving dinner when we got back to our apartment. Our menu was:

• Smoked tofu
• Sautéed brussel sprouts
• Roasted green beans with goat cheese
• Smashed sweet potatoes with feta
• Pecan pie cheesecake

So not exactly a typical Thankgiving meal, but it suited the two of us perfectly.

And not to worry, we found Australian brussel sprouts. (Not to be confused with inferior varieties!)

We had fun working on dinner together, and I think it turned out great!

We also finished our tree of thanks, which I've made us add to every day this month. It felt a little juvenile at first, but now we have a pretty tree full of all the things we're grateful for! I'm going to keep it around for a while.

So even though it was a far cry from celebrating Thanksgiving with our families, we had a fun day together. We'll miss seeing the people we love next weekend, but we are both so thankful for this opportunity and the experience we're getting to have here.

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