Monday, July 20, 2009
Hungarian Goulash...
...is actually what I'm eating in the Qantas lounge right now. Thank goodness for Tyler having a complimentary guest pass so I could hang out in here for my 4 hour layover in Sydney. Free cheese, crackers, wine, etc - I never want to do normal airport waiting areas again!
So the last weekend in Australia was as great as all the rest of them. It's always so much fun to hang out with TJB and we definitely always find a way for an adventure. (There I go with the mushiness again...) It started with the delicious and very filling Burmese dinner mentioned earlier with Claudio and Sandra. Then we went out to an Irish bar in North Adelaide that supposedly had live music although seemed to be on an endless break the entire time that we were there. We didn't stay too long before Sandra was falling asleep on Claudio's shoulder and it was time to go home. Tyler and I weren't quite done with our night so we decided to wander in to the bar next door to Tyler's apt. We'd always been curious about it but usually too scared to go in. It was advertised as "topless" which supposedly doesn't mean strip club in Australia. So we went in. First - standing at the door - was a tall midget. Nuff said. Then we went up to the bar to get a drink and saw only one topless girl. As we sat down in a booth in the sparsely filled bar, several different girls with 1/2 of their teeth came up to talk to us. They sat down at the booth and awkwardly asked us if we needed anything. It was actually a really comfortable booth and the music was playing soft enough for conversation and had we not been awkwardly approached several times - we might have stayed for more than one drink. Oh well. It was an adventure.
Saturday we woke up early to cook some breakie before heading out to Hahndorf - a local German town in the Adelaide Hills outside of city. It was advertised as having one of the largest Lutheran settlements in Australia. We found the main street quickly and were surprised to see how busy it was. By Australian standards - it was FREEZING outside - maybe like 45 degrees and grey - so we expected no one to be out. There were lots of people though. We explored a few shops and did some cheese tasting in the cheese factory. We also grabbed some chocolates to take back to Adelaide at the N05 factory. Then we made our way out of town to the nearby wineries. Another afternoon of wine tasting. We were becoming quite the experts. We made it to 5 wineries and then stopped at a brewery called Grumpies for a delicious dinner of pizza and beer. It was a great Saturday! We then headed back to Adelaide to meet up with Doug (Tyler's coworker) and hang out with him for the rest of the night.
Sunday we again got up early to grab breakie of French toast down the street and do some last minute souvenir shopping. We then ended up in a nearby park on East Terrace to throw a boomerang around a bit. No trip to Australia is complete without boomerang throwing, of course! Tyler got the hang of it much quicker than I did - although I can hardly throw a Frisbee sometimes so even small advances were counted as a success. Then we headed off to the bus stop to meet up with Doug again and grab a bus down to Port Adelaide for the Port Adelaide vs. West Coast footie game! It was awesome to see an Aussie rules game! I didn't quite understand all the rules but Tyler did a good job of filling me in on the basics. It was awesome! Port Adelaide killed West Coast by about twice the score (120ish to 60ish).
Tyler and I then ended my last night in Adelaide with a DELICIOUS steak dinner at the 3rd steak house we'd been to in town, Gaucho (an Argentinian Steak House). It was delicious! And the service was amazing too! It hardly felt like Australia! We shared both a large 500 g rump steak and a full Barramundi fish (a relatively common fish in South Australia). Amazing!
Leaving this morning was no fun and hardly amazing at all though. The alarm went off at 4 AM and Tyler took me to the airport. Luckily in Australia - you don't need a boarding pass to go through security so he was able to come hang out in the lounge with me for some breakie and cribbage. We even tried the yeast-y Australian spread of Vegemite on an English muffin. It was so disgusting! I couldn't take more than my tiny bite.
So the last weekend in Australia was as great as all the rest of them. It's always so much fun to hang out with TJB and we definitely always find a way for an adventure. (There I go with the mushiness again...) It started with the delicious and very filling Burmese dinner mentioned earlier with Claudio and Sandra. Then we went out to an Irish bar in North Adelaide that supposedly had live music although seemed to be on an endless break the entire time that we were there. We didn't stay too long before Sandra was falling asleep on Claudio's shoulder and it was time to go home. Tyler and I weren't quite done with our night so we decided to wander in to the bar next door to Tyler's apt. We'd always been curious about it but usually too scared to go in. It was advertised as "topless" which supposedly doesn't mean strip club in Australia. So we went in. First - standing at the door - was a tall midget. Nuff said. Then we went up to the bar to get a drink and saw only one topless girl. As we sat down in a booth in the sparsely filled bar, several different girls with 1/2 of their teeth came up to talk to us. They sat down at the booth and awkwardly asked us if we needed anything. It was actually a really comfortable booth and the music was playing soft enough for conversation and had we not been awkwardly approached several times - we might have stayed for more than one drink. Oh well. It was an adventure.
Saturday we woke up early to cook some breakie before heading out to Hahndorf - a local German town in the Adelaide Hills outside of city. It was advertised as having one of the largest Lutheran settlements in Australia. We found the main street quickly and were surprised to see how busy it was. By Australian standards - it was FREEZING outside - maybe like 45 degrees and grey - so we expected no one to be out. There were lots of people though. We explored a few shops and did some cheese tasting in the cheese factory. We also grabbed some chocolates to take back to Adelaide at the N05 factory. Then we made our way out of town to the nearby wineries. Another afternoon of wine tasting. We were becoming quite the experts. We made it to 5 wineries and then stopped at a brewery called Grumpies for a delicious dinner of pizza and beer. It was a great Saturday! We then headed back to Adelaide to meet up with Doug (Tyler's coworker) and hang out with him for the rest of the night.
Sunday we again got up early to grab breakie of French toast down the street and do some last minute souvenir shopping. We then ended up in a nearby park on East Terrace to throw a boomerang around a bit. No trip to Australia is complete without boomerang throwing, of course! Tyler got the hang of it much quicker than I did - although I can hardly throw a Frisbee sometimes so even small advances were counted as a success. Then we headed off to the bus stop to meet up with Doug again and grab a bus down to Port Adelaide for the Port Adelaide vs. West Coast footie game! It was awesome to see an Aussie rules game! I didn't quite understand all the rules but Tyler did a good job of filling me in on the basics. It was awesome! Port Adelaide killed West Coast by about twice the score (120ish to 60ish).
Tyler and I then ended my last night in Adelaide with a DELICIOUS steak dinner at the 3rd steak house we'd been to in town, Gaucho (an Argentinian Steak House). It was delicious! And the service was amazing too! It hardly felt like Australia! We shared both a large 500 g rump steak and a full Barramundi fish (a relatively common fish in South Australia). Amazing!
Leaving this morning was no fun and hardly amazing at all though. The alarm went off at 4 AM and Tyler took me to the airport. Luckily in Australia - you don't need a boarding pass to go through security so he was able to come hang out in the lounge with me for some breakie and cribbage. We even tried the yeast-y Australian spread of Vegemite on an English muffin. It was so disgusting! I couldn't take more than my tiny bite.
Burmese Impersonator
Friday Sandra took some time to take me grocery shopping for some Burmese food (where she moved from a year ago) and then cook a Burmese dinner for Tyler and Claudio. She even brought out several of her Burmese formal traditional outfits and we tried them on. It was tons of fun! And the food was delicious! I wish I could say that I might be able to cook Burmese myself in the future - but I'm not nearly as good as she is! She just knew which spices to add when - it was great!
King of Australia
Friday I finished up my souvenir shopping by stopping in a few local bookstores. I ended up upstairs at Adelaide Booksellers and asked for the Australian history section. The lady pointed me in the direction of the area but then I asked for a recommendation. She had tons of good information. She talked a lot about how Australia doesn't really have too much history - even comparing it to the US - another relatively young country - as compared to the old old cities in Europe and Asia. She talked about how there hasn't been a civil war here or even that many important leaders. They just don't have that much to talk about. And even until recently, the whole convict situation was kinda kept under wraps. It was interesting talking to her for sure.
She also pointed me to the Australian politics section where I was prompted to ask what she thought about Australia ever breaking away from the UK. She said she thought it would happen in the next few decades. She was probably around 50 years old herself and she felt that her generation and younger were not as tied to the UK as people who had participated in WW2. Those people had a real connection that they didn't want to break. She also talked about a referendum - which seems to be the same as a bill in Congress - that was attempted to be passed in 1999 getting the ball rolling for this break away. Unfortunately the prime minister of Australia at the time was very conservative and not very supportive of the referendum so he worded it in a way that would not be supported. There is currently still a party known as the Republicans who are continuously trying to work this angle and eventually hoping to break away. I bought a book about this so let me know if you're interested in borrowing it....
She also pointed me to the Australian politics section where I was prompted to ask what she thought about Australia ever breaking away from the UK. She said she thought it would happen in the next few decades. She was probably around 50 years old herself and she felt that her generation and younger were not as tied to the UK as people who had participated in WW2. Those people had a real connection that they didn't want to break. She also talked about a referendum - which seems to be the same as a bill in Congress - that was attempted to be passed in 1999 getting the ball rolling for this break away. Unfortunately the prime minister of Australia at the time was very conservative and not very supportive of the referendum so he worded it in a way that would not be supported. There is currently still a party known as the Republicans who are continuously trying to work this angle and eventually hoping to break away. I bought a book about this so let me know if you're interested in borrowing it....
Boomerang Symbols
Thursday I concentrated on locating the best of some of those souvenirs that I had been scouting out for awhile. I eventually wandered into an Aboriginal Art Shop where the owner was super helpful. He had tons of information for me regarding boomerangs, didgeridoos, emu callers, and opals. He didn't seem to high pressure sales me either - he was just giving me lots of historical type information and then leaving me to look around by myself. He explained what a lot of the different symbols often used in Aboriginal paintings meant. He talked about how the boomerang and then Aboriginal style of painting originally came to be. He even let me play the didgeridoo! It was pretty cool. Of course I ended up buying a boomerang there and I can't wait to show it to everyone! It has symbols on it that basically tell a story even!
With the Wind in our Sails
Last Wednesday we had an all day layover in Sydney so after wandering around the city a bit, having breakie at Pancakes on the Rocks, and starting some blogs from glow-worm adventures, we decided to go sailing on the Sydney Harbor. We found a sailing company in Tyler's Australia Lonely Planet book and made a booking. 
The sailboat actually ended up being almost exactly - if not exactly - the sailboat that I had looked at with Laurel last summer as a potential purchase for her. It was a really nice Hunter with a good bit of space. Allan was the captain and there was a family of 4 with us as well. It was really fun. 
Allan let us do most of the steering and even help a little with the sails. And the views of the Harbor and the Opera House and the City and the Bridge were amazing! It was tons of fun! Allan was great and super interesting to talk to - being an Australian born citizen who had a lot of questions about the differences in the US - which prompted a lot of interesting conversations regarding politics and economics.
The sailboat actually ended up being almost exactly - if not exactly - the sailboat that I had looked at with Laurel last summer as a potential purchase for her. It was a really nice Hunter with a good bit of space. Allan was the captain and there was a family of 4 with us as well. It was really fun. 
Allan let us do most of the steering and even help a little with the sails. And the views of the Harbor and the Opera House and the City and the Bridge were amazing! It was tons of fun! Allan was great and super interesting to talk to - being an Australian born citizen who had a lot of questions about the differences in the US - which prompted a lot of interesting conversations regarding politics and economics.At the end of our tour, we hurried over to the Shangri La hotel where we met up with Jill and Ruben for some drinks on the top floor. I had been there last time I was in Sydney due to a suggestion from Tyler but this was Tyler's first time. It was awesome! 
Heading Home
So I'm currently sitting in the Sydney airport for a 4 hour layover here before my flight to San Fran, likely a run through San Fran airport to clear customs and get to my next flight, back to Seattle. And its lonely. I'm used to traveling with Tyler. Tyler was even with me on my way to Australia from San Fran! It's terribly sad. I miss him like crazy for sure. There's no one to play cribbage with. Or look at youtube videos with. Or be a pillow. Or tell me stories. Or listen to my stories. Who signs up for a year of long distance? It's silly. But he's been amazing. Absolutely ridiculously amazing! I couldn't have asked for a better 2 months off. We had so much fun together and... ok ok - I'll stop being mushy. I should probably stop thinking about how it might be as much as another 5 months before I even see him again. Ugh. Yay skype conversations. :(
Anyways - lets focus on some other happenings since the trip to New Zealand which was the last thing I wrote about.
(BTW - don't get me wrong - I'm super excited to come back and see everyone in Seattle and hang out with everyone there and get back into a normal life with routines instead of just doing whatever I want all day - I just wish Tyler were here to spend some of that time with too...)
Anyways - lets focus on some other happenings since the trip to New Zealand which was the last thing I wrote about.
(BTW - don't get me wrong - I'm super excited to come back and see everyone in Seattle and hang out with everyone there and get back into a normal life with routines instead of just doing whatever I want all day - I just wish Tyler were here to spend some of that time with too...)
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