Hyde Park, Anzac Memorial, and Surry Hills

Sunday was an ambitious day for us: after our mid-day nap, we decided the time together in Sydney was too short and the weather too beautiful to let the day go by without seeing more of the city. So out we went! (Well those of us with the last name of Burwinkle. All the people named Minton stayed home.)

We caught the train into Wynyard, which was good practice for Monday when Holly planned to come meet me for lunch at work. From Wynyard, we checked out the route to my office building, and then we cut up through Martin Place and over to Hyde Park.
We couldn't have asked for better weather for walking around the park. We also popped across the street and checked out St. Mary's Cathedral and the fountains at the aquatic center.

Then we headed over to the Anzac Memorial; we agreed it's one of the most beautiful memorials either of us has ever been to.

Then it was off to catch the train at Museum Station and head up to Surry Hills!

Surry Hills is one of my favorite of the quirky Sydney suburbs, and I was hoping Holly would like it too. But I didn't need to worry: it proved itself to be the perfect place for shopping and poking around for a few hours!

One of the highlights: We stopped in at the Kurtosh House and watched them make chimney cakes for a while. Eating one of these has been on my bucket list since I've first seen them, but I wanted to know how they were made just as much! So we stood and took in the process for 20 minutes or so. It was really fun. And educational. And we managed to snag a few samples too! They were really tasty: kind of a cross between a crossiant and a cinnamon roll with a crispy side? Hard to describe but really easy to eat!

Another highlight of our stroll in Surry Hills: stumbling across Hudson Meats. This was a big deal because Hudson is the name of Holly's dog and we both miss him so much!
This is Hudson:

And this is his namesake shop in Australia:

We closed out the evening with some drinks at Yulli's, a cute little vego place in Surry Hills. There was a bit of a disaster figuring out how to use the sink - which was actually physically one piece with the toilet and seemingly shared the same buttons as the toilet-flushing ones!? It was very confusing and took many trips back and forth from the bathroom to consult with each other and the waitress.

Bathroom adventures aside, it was a great chilled-out night. Toby and a few friends from my office joined us for dinner and it was everything you want a Sunday dinner with friends to be.

Smiling pre-bathroom adventures

A couple more drinks at the Winery, then exhaustion caught up with all of us, and we headed home. Luckily the busy day made everyone sleep through the night this time, and there were no more midnight parties without me! =)

This is the face of a sleep-deprived T

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The Bridge, Botanic Gardens, Rocks, and Markets in one jetlagged morning

On Sunday morning, I woke up really early. And by really early I mean like 5 AM. However, I was not the first person up. Jetlag and book-publishing excitement had gotten hold of the other two people in the apartment, and they'd been up whispering and playing on the computer together for HOURS.

There was lots of excitement that I was "finally" awake - and many questions on what was for breakfast. So needless to say, the plans for the day were all pushed up a few hours and we decided to head out as soon as it was light!

We had an ambitious plan for seeing some of the main tourist spots in one long walk. (Made all the more ambitious since most of us had only had a few hours' sleep.) But that didn't deter us. First stop was a coffee shop next door. This was a funny adventure, since we don't really drink coffee but we all needed a boost for the morning. I'd mentioned to Holly how serious Sydneysiders are about their coffee, but it really became clear to her when her request for a "small coffee" was met with multiple questions: "A latte? Long black? (and other things we didn't understand)." So she quickly gave up on that and switched over to a chai latte.

It was a pretty cold morning, but the sun was out and there were some amazing cloud patterns in the sky. 

I wouldn't call our journey across the bridge a "walk" so much as a stagger, slow-motion stroll, or a just a general vertical drifting toward the city. If you know Holly, you know what I mean. But as Holly said, there was "so much to take in!"

At the end of the bridge, we stayed on the walkway toward the Botanic Gardens, which took us over Circular Quay and Sydney showed off a spectacular morning sky.

We skirted the Botanic Gardens, as I think we were all dubious as to how much endurance the coffees could actually produce. But it was enough to get an idea of how vast and lovely they are. 

Then it was on to the Opera House, which sadly was found a little wanting, I think. Holly mentioned that she thought it would be both whiter and larger. That didn't stop her from smiling for a pic. 

After a quick walk through Circular Quay, which was starting to pick up for the day, we made our way down through The Rocks and to The Rocks Markets.

By this time, it was about 11:30 and definitely time for a nap! So we ended the morning's tour of Sydney's must-sees with a ferry ride back to Milsons Point and a mid-day siesta.

Train ride to the Southern Highlands - II

The day overall had some funny bits and some consistent themes. Let me try to capture them so you can get a taste of the things that entertained us all day...

Getting to the train

In general, Australians are very laid back people. There was a great example of this just getting onto the train this morning. The website for the train ride said to check with an attendant on the day to see which platform to go to. I dutifully asked the first attendant I saw at the station, who pointed me to the ticket desk, which pointed me to the information desk, which told me they'd "seen a lot of people coming out of that door in dark jumpers - they could probably tell us what was going on." Luckily, I was able to spot a dark-jumpered train attendant and learn we were leaving from Platform 1. I think Holly was astounded at the lack of organization - I've been here long enough that I knew to allow for extra time for this kind of thing!

All you need to know about the train

About midway through our ride out to Robertson, the train attendants passed out a little sheet with some emergency information and an itinerary. Here are my favorite highlights from the sheet:

• "Please take care when using the on board toilet facilities - the toilets and washbasins are quite fragile."
• The refreshment menu differentiated "Full strength beer" ($5) and "Light beer" ($4)
• "Do not operate any handbrake, air brake or other carriage equipment which is installed for the use of authorised personnel only."

The toilet facilities, in case you were wondering

Robertson

The mid-point of the trip was a small town called Robertson. We had originally all made the mistake of thinking of this in terms of a destination; after spending 2 1/2 hours there, we realized that Robertson isn't so much a destination as a tiny conglomeration of a few cafes and an antique store. It was probably a typical Sydney-surrounds small town: one traffic light, a tiny school, a gas station that looks like it hasn't changed since the 70's, and most businesses closed up tight for the weekend.

There were roughly 4 cafes to be found in Robertson. We headed out down the road from the train, guessed a right turn and headed down the Main Street. The first pub we came to had a train specials board outside, which we all agreed looked promising. It was also the most legitimate-looking of the places we saw, so we headed in. No sooner had we stepped in the door, then a loud man met us asking if we'd made a booking. We said no, we had not. As we looked around the empty dining room, he told us a list of options we had since we'd shown up without a booking. Between the three of us, I think we comprehended about a third of what he'd said and just retreated to a bar table in the corner. After looking over the menu, we decided this was not the place for us and tried a cafe across the road.
The Three Creeks Cafe looked promising: there was a nice big chalkboard with a local wine and cheese tasting special that we all agreed sounded perfect! I headed up to the counter to order, and we had a conversation that went something like this:

Me: "Hi, we'd like to try the cheese plate special."
Cashier boy looks back at the lady making a sandwhich in the kitchen: "They want the cheese tasting."
Kitchen lady: "I can't do the cheese tasting. Not on train day."
Me: "So we can't have cheese?"
Kitchen lady: "I can't come stand by you and tell you what they are."
Me: "That is fine, we really just wanted to try them."
Cashier boy: "So the cheese plate then?"
Me: "Yes, please, for three. We also wanted to get the local wine tasting too."
Kitchen lady: "I can't do the wine. Not on train day."
Me: "So we can't have wine?"
Kitchen lady: "You can pick the wine you want to try off the shelf behind you and I will pour you a glass."
Me: "....ok"

As humorous as this conversation was, the cheese and wine actually all ended up being lovely. It was a good taste of the Australian take on customer service for Holly, too, and she remarked that she'd never eaten at a place that made it so difficult for you to give them money.

After lunch, we did a 20 minute walk and took in the rest of the town. That was all the time required!

The big potato

Australian towns like to make sculptures/statues of things they're known for. Robertson happens to be one of the biggest potato growers in the region. Lucky them!

Train day is a big deal

The people of Robertson weren't the only people that knew the steam train was running this weekend. The whole day we passed people who were out to see the steam train pass by. These ranged from people standing in their backyards, to people out in the middle of nowhere with their families and lawn chairs, camped out to see the train. It was a little unexpected to say the least.

I snapped a few pictures, just because. If I'd taken a picture every time people waved at the train, I would have filled up my memory card!

Roos!

Probably the universal highlight of the day was seeing all the kangaroos coming out at dusk as we made our way back to Sydney. This was the first "in the wild" kangaroo spotting for all three of us, and we were all wildly excited. We stayed glued to the windows almost the whole way back to see as many as we could. And we weren't disappointed - we all spotted one or more jumping along!

The final word

I'll let Holly close out this long post with a summary of the highlights from our day:

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Train ride to the Southern Highlands - I

On Saturday, we took a steam train ride down to the Southern Highlands. Old Sydney steam trains leave from Central Station a few times over the winter on various day trips. I had booked tickets a couple months ago, thinking it would be a good activity for jet-lagged people. I was also hoping it would provide a good slice of Australiana, and boy did it! I'll save those observations for a second post since I have lots of general train pics for this one.

The general itinerary for the day was:

- Leave Central Station at 8:30
- Make our way south, stopping at two outskirt towns - to pick up more passengers
- Head down through the Royal National Park and follow the coastline for a while
- Head inland and climb up the Illawara Escarpment
- Arrive in Robertson around mid-day and stopover for 2 1/2 hours to eat lunch & see the town
- Meet back at the train to head back to the city via a more inland route around the western side of the highlands.

The train was really cute: most of the cars were a dark maroon.

Especially when the train was getting up to speed, you could see the steam clouds rolling back over the carriages.

We were in the economy carriage, which meant we paid for our own food & drink. But we had a cool little booth for the three of us.

And here we are, a little more tired and soot-y at the end of the day...

One of us - I'm not naming names - brought his Harry Potter wand for the trip. Since that's what you do on steam train rides.

The train ride was lovely. We headed south down through the Royal National Park and alongside some coastal towns.

And through some rolling farmland and valleys.

Then the train made a steep climb up the Illawara Escarpment. During the climb, the train gained one foot every 30 feet of track, and the fireman shoveled about 3 tons of coal during the hour-long incline!

The views at the top were beautiful.

Then it was on to Robertson for lunch. There are many funny things to capture about Robertson and other parts of our trip, which I'll put in a different post.

Instead, I'll end with one of my favorite pics of the day, taken after the lunch stop in Robertson before we headed back to Sydney.

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My happiest day in Sydney

Friday was the happiest day I've had in Sydney yet. It was because this person showed up!

I've been looking forward to this day for months, and it still hardly feels real. But it feels happy!

Sydney turned on the best possible winter weather for us, so we headed out to explore the city a bit.

First stop was at a bakery in Kirribilli to charge up our batteries before lunch. We found some cool meringue flavors: passion fruit and blueberry. Holly was pretty excited to pay for them with a $2 coin!

 

Then it was off to catch everyone's favorite mode of transportation to Darling Harbour. It was a perfect day to be on the water.

The goal in Darling Harbour was lunch. But, of course, these things have to come behind koala-watching at the wildlife center!

Lots of happiness here....

The goal for the day was for Holly to stay awake until 8 PM - which meant we needed to keep moving but not expend so much energy that we got exhausted. So after lunch by the harbour, we strolled through Cockle Bay Wharf, Tumbalong Park, and Pyrmont.

We stopped in to say goodye to the koalas before catching the ferry for home!

Once we were back, I made some dinner and we had some bubbles with T to celebrate him being reunited with his kindred spirit.

Holly specifically took this picture "for my blog"

 

Long lost brother and sister

Holly made it to 7 PM, which was really good considering her day!

I'm so excited she's here, not just because I missed her like crazy but also because I'm excited about all the things we're planning to do together. The activities list I made on the fridge is just begging for us to put a dent in it!

I'm afraid the time is going to fly by, but we'll make the most of every day!

 

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