A Stroll into Darling Harbour

Waking up feeling rested and refreshed following a good 12-hours or so sleep, we decided to take a lazy Sunday afternoon stroll down to Darling Harbour. One of the best things about actually moving to another country is that you can avoid scribbling out an unrealistic to-do list of sights to see in a time frame that assumes bending time and space is not a problem. So having explored very little of the local area we were surprised to find that Darling Harbour sits directly behind China town, about a 10-minute walk from our new house. This is not a small harbour and I have no idea how it took us well over two weeks to stumble upon it. One thing I will say is that we tend to spend a lot of time peering up at the trees when walking for fear of being dropped upon by a Red Back or Huntsman spider, or any of the other 10-million or so species in Australia that can seemingly kill a man just by looking at him.

The proximity of things in Sydney is also something we’ve come to expect and love. It might take half-an-hour to cross the length of the CBD by foot, but unlike London the city layout isn’t nebulous, and the partial-grid system makes it pretty straightforward to navigate. There’s no extensive underground system either but it’s easy to get where you’re going aboard clean and spacious double-decker trains (there’s actually room to breathe during rush hour and strangers talk to one another without fear). Sydneysiders are friendly, approachable, and most importantly for us very obliging. It could be that we’re simply seeing them from the tourist’s point-of-view, but when you walk around Darling Harbour on a day like this it’s not that difficult to understand why they’re all so cheerful. Photos to be added soon...

First Night at Abercrombie Street

Today we moved into our new place in Abercrombie Street, just off Broadway and minutes from town. After three weeks of sharing an inflatable mattress in a room not much larger than the bed itself we have upgraded to having our own beds again. The luxury of having separate beds, not to mention mattresses that don’t require re-inflating every night, has put a smile on both our faces. Not that we’re ungrateful for the help we’ve been given with moving to Sydney, it’ll just be nice not lying in fear from now on whenever one of us decides to make the blind and dangerously uncoordinated night-crossing of the room to get to the bathroom at 2am.

After collecting up our things and putting on our backpacks, which now feel like someone has filled them with rocks when we weren’t looking, we made the 20-minute amble to Redfern station before getting off at Central. The walk was tough as the temperature here isn’t much lower than back home, which makes it even stranger to see Sydneysiders wrapped up in scarves and jumpers. Somehow forty minutes later, and following a discussion/argument about The Return of the King and why one of us should mirror Sam’s gesture and carry the other the remainder of the way, we arrived at the house. Although we’re moving in with another five travellers only three have actually moved in so far.

Unfortunately with all the moving we didn't have time to hit the beach this morning for our second attempt at surfing, but next Saturday we'll be back out there and ready to face the fear once again. Feeling pretty wiped out after getting home at 4am this morning from a Greenday cover band in the city and finally free of our backpacks we've decided to take it easy tonight and enjoy the comfort of a good bed.

Pancake Morning at Circular Quay

After enjoying the thoroughly awesome film Iron Man this morning we headed over to Circular Quay to take photos and have fun with perspective – a decision that led to the obligatory 'we’re eating the Opera House' photograph. After taking these tasty shots we followed our big appetites to pancakes-on-the-rocks, an eatery where you can order any pancake you desire. Since we’d already consumed the Opera House we weren’t about to shy away from a couple of long-stacks drizzled with maple syrup with a side of ice cream, whipped cream and butter. How wrong we were...

Big Saturday

On Saturday morning we went to Manly beach for our first surfing lesson. It was a gorgeous sunny day and this time an ambulance didn’t roll up as soon as we got to the seafront. We squeezed into our flattering wetsuits and walked along the beach with three other slightly more experienced friends of ours. Struggling to carry our 10-foot boards we walked as men, men with something to prove, but no real idea what. After a top-gun high-five moment and a quick tutorial in which Lee proved he can’t actually crouch with his feet flat on the ground - a major problem if you’re planning to stand up on a surfboard - we entered the water.

We didn’t get hit in the head by our own surfboards. We weren’t even stung by a jellyfish or attacked by a ravenous shark. We were however, let down by our meagre upper body strength as we paddled out to a sandbar we could stand up on to catch our first wave. Standing there exhausted, spitting out salt water as wave after wave slammed into us and knocking us under the surface, we waited for a calm moment to climb aboard our surfboards. As it was our first time the instructor lined our boards up to face the beach. Then we waited for our wave to come in. Feeling the fear we glanced over our shoulders to spot a four-footer heading straight for us. I know that doesn’t sound impressive, but from our point of view we’d found ourselves in a scene from the perfect storm. Clinging to our boards we had a few seconds to look at each other, powerless. As we peered up at the wave curling over us, an unforgiving monster that dragged us into it, I had time to utter the word righteous... then we heard the instructor call out to us to paddle as fast as we could, eyes fixed on the beach ahead we paddled with the combined strength of a small child. Lee pulled himself up, ready to jump to his feet. As he stood up he instantly knew something was very wrong. He looked over at me and I could see the terror in his eyes, he knew he was doomed, a dead man riding a wave that was about to leave him disgraced and flat on his back on the sand we’d spent 10 long minutes paddling from. Lee disappeared under the water, his surfboard marking his point of departure.

With my remaining strength waning I pulled myself up. With my profound ability to crouch with my feet flat (an ability shared by most human beings apart from Lee) I stood up. There I was, actually standing up and riding this thing, no doubt with a look of unbelievable concentration grazed across my face. But one ill-advised second later I decided to turn the surfboard and ride across the wave. The next second I was under the water and being rushed out towards the shore.

Over the next hour we both managed to more-or-less stand up and surf. Dignity intact we left the beach ready to return for more next weekend. Photos to be added soon!

The First Week in Photos

The First Week

We made it! We haven’t died, although we did pray for death a few times during the mammoth 30-hour journey. We spent the first 8’000 km sitting next to an angry drunk American woman who Lee made the mistake of starting a conversation with. We tried to sleep for the next 10’000 km over the Pacific Ocean but ended up catching up on every movie we hadn’t seen in the last 6-months whilst harassing the flight attendants for tea. Because we had rolled our watches back in L.A. and stayed ahead of sunrise as we flew over the Pacific, when we crossed the international dateline we jumped from the 10th to the 12th June. We may have experienced the 12th and 13th of June, but we spent those days dealing with so much jet lag and the uncomfortable situation of sharing a small inflatable mattress that it wasn’t until the weekend that we did anything.

At 7.30am on Saturday we headed out to Bondi beach to catch some early morning waves. Since we’re not exactly what you’d call experienced surfers, we were only trusted by the people we went with to use body boards (really small pretend surf boards for lying face down on, also known to local surfer-types as ‘speed bumps’). Unfortunately the weather was pretty bad. As we pulled in to the beach car park we were met with the sight of enormous waves crashing into the bay and a practically deserted beach. As Lee and I got out of the car and walked closer to the beach we could almost see the panic in the eyes of the lifeguards as they planted danger signs in the sand. By the time we got to the beach an ambulance had rolled up and the morning was over. I guess they saw us coming.

After the disappointment of the morning surf we spent Saturday evening at the SCG for our first Aussie Rules football match. In case you haven’t seen Australian Rules Football, it’s a kind of weird take on Football and American Football, but with an oval playing field and no offside rule. I’d go into it more but I really didn’t understand most of the rules. It’s a brutal game – it’s the only game I know of in which a player can run up another player’s back and get away with it. The teams playing were the Saints (from Melbourne), and the Swans (the local side). Lee decided to back the Saints and I went with the Swans. In your face Lee - the Swans won the game 101 – 66. A few jubilant fans thought they saw the Dalai Lama celebrating afterwards, but it was actually just your run-of-the-mill Tibetan monk. Still, not the kind of place you’d expect to find a Tibetan Monk.

So far we’re having a great time. The weather has been okay. As soon as we have a sunny day we’ll post some photos of Sydney. The only downside is that the tea here is not very nice, and it’s going to cost me $10 AUD to import a small box of PG tips each month.