eat, drink and be merry....

Half-liters at the Lowenbraur

The Real World Sydney hangout at Darling Harbour

Franziskaner Wheat Beer at the Lowenbrau

Taqueria near the hotel

The Aussie burger - beet root, pineapple, bacon and a fried egg

Straight from the ocean at the Sydney Fish Market

Beef pho

Peking duck

Australian cuisine has a lot of heavy American and Asian influences. During our trip to Sydney, we had fantastic (and cheap) Vietnamese, fresh catches of the day at the Sydney Fish Markets, and Peking Duck at the BBQ King in Chinatown (you know this place was the real deal because it had raw and cooked poultry hanging in the windows). We also had beers at the Lowenbrau on Friday and some Tiger beers (from Singapore) with the duck on Saturday night.

Sydney

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Opera House from bird's eye view

Saturday night's main attraction

The Queen something - huge cruise ship in Sydney Harbour

St Mary's Cathedral

Hyde Park Barracks

Not the same as in New Orleans...

Sydney Tower

Anzac War Memorial and Reflecting Pool in Hyde Park

First thing we saw when we got off the train at Kings Cross - for you Sopranos fans

Little Penguin - only grows to be 1 kilo as a full grown adult (for you Cindy...)

Jellyfish

Insert Steve Irwin/stingray joke here...

Dugong - not to be confused with a Dugas

Bullshark

More bullsharks




Snapshot of Darling Harbour

Former Real World House







Bondi Beach



Oh, Miss Corningstone. I wasn't expecting company. Just doing my workout. Tuesday's arms and back.

To say that Sydney is a melting pot is an understatement. Approximately 1/3 of its residents are "foreigners"; add in tourists, and it's safe to say that 40% of the people occupying the city are from outside of Australia at any given moment. During happy hour at the Lowenbrau on Friday, we heard at least 7-8 different languages being spoken at once. We were in the city for a little over 48 hours, and probably walked at least 10-12 miles. It was an extremely busy weekend, yet we barely scratched the surface of things to do.

The train ride from Newcastle to Sydney had great scenery (we will have to take pictures next time). It's about 100 miles, takes 2 and 1/2 hours, and takes you through the Australian bushland; the ride went over mountains, through them (literally), and over the bay at the mouth of the Hawkesbury River. We easily spotted more kangaroos than people along the way.

Once we arrived in Sydney, we dropped our bags off and spent Friday touring The Rocks (where the original settlement in Australia was built), Circular Quay and Sydney Harbour, which included the Sydney Opera House. As amazing as it looks in pictures, it's even better in person.

Saturday sightseeing included Darling Harbour (home of the Real World Sydney cast), the Sydney Fish Markets (second-largest fish market in the world, only surpassed by Tokyo), Chinatown and the highlight of the day - the Sydney Aquarium. It included exhibits which took you into underwater tunnels, where dugongs (close cousins of manatees), stingrays, and several species of sharks were swimming right beside you. Very surreal moment.

Sunday morning/afternoon was spent at Bondi Beach, the most famous beach in Sydney (also where shark attacks are quite common on surfers). The beach itself was quite similar to the beaches of Newcastle, but the atmosphere/bars/restaurants/shops surrounding the beach was quite different.

As I mentioned, there's so much more to see: the Taronga Zoo, views from the 200-foot cliffs at Watson's Bay, Olympic Park, Sydney cricket grounds and the Telstra Dome, just to name a few. We will post more pictures from this Sydney trip later on - I can't tell you how many we took. We honestly could have made an entire album of "Pictures of Asian Tourists Taking Pictures."

March is going to be a busy month - trips to Watson's Bay/Port Stephens, Canberra and Melbourne, the beginning of the Asian Champions League for club soccer, Broadmeadow Race Course and a visit from Sam and Dawn. We are also taking pictures around the city and will post them soon to give everyone a better perspective of Newcastle.

Random Thoughts/Observations

We will not bore you with facts about Newcastle that you can find in Wikipedia, but here's some semi-useless information to clog your brain:

1. Newcastle is the largest coal port in the world. Anywhere from 40 to 60 barges sit in the ocean waiting for entry into the harbor.

2. The band Silverchair originated in Newcastle.

3. Newcastle is widely regarded as a blue-collar town, but they are pumping a lot of $$$ into developments on the harbor and along the ocean.

4. Due to its proximity, Thai/Indian/any Asian food is delicious (Melody - Melissa promises we are going to start taking food pictures).

5. The Australian idea of Mexican food is Old El Paso products.

6. Subway is the most prominent American fast food joint - I blame you Jared Fogle.

7. At times we feel like we are in a bad 80's movie. Rat tails and mullets are in
style, everyone wears plastic sunglasses, brightly colored mismatched clothes and cutoff jorts.

8. Wine is cheap (5-10 bucks for a good bottle), beer is expensive ($40 a case)
and liquor is absurd (a fifth of Jim Beam is $50).

9. Most people don't actually buy liquor at the bar because "liquor drinks are
too strong". The alternative: pre-mixed cocktails in cans/bottles (Captain
Morgan's and coke, Jim Beam and Coke, Johnnie Walker and coke).

10. All bar/restaurants have slot machines and a booth for OTBgambling at the horse tracks. Apparently gambling is legal throughout all of Australia and apparently every bar is equipped with this.

11. Eggs at the supermarket aren't refrigerated. I kid you not. And they still
sell "Chicken Tonight".

12. The standard burger over here comes with canadian bacon, a fried egg,
pineapple and beet root (Dwight Schrutte would approve). An absurd combo, but
it's absolutely delicious.

13. El Camino's and various "car with a truck bed" knockoffs litter the streets.

14. Shirts are optional at least 2/3 of the time.

With all that being said, we absolutely love it here and we wouldn't change this experience for anything.

Blackbutt Reserve (Drew)

This past Saturday Melissa and I made a trip to Blackbutt Reserve, a nature reserve a few miles outside of Newcastle. Even though severe flooding destroyed most of the reserve 18 months ago, they have managed to rebuild and repopulate most of the area. Several miles of walking trails are available to go "bush-walking" and enjoy the scenery. However, we cut the nature hike short b/c temps were around 105 deg F. Along the walk we encountered peacocks, roosters, possums and several large, colorful spiders.

The highlight of the trip was the animal exhibits. We got up close and personal looks at wallaroos, wombats, all sorts of species of birds, and Melissa's favorite - the koalas. Because of the soaring temperatures, they did not want to take the koalas out of their environment - so we got to enter their habitat instead (the misters were very welcome at that point in time). We got to feed and handle Jarah, a 13-month old koala shown in the blog. You could tell she was used to people b/c she ate up the attention. We ended the day with our now favorite activity - going to the beach.

Home sweet home!

View Larger Map

This is our home for the next 6 months.
Follow the arrows down King St, make a left on Pacific and a right on Ocean, and you can follow the path we take to the beach every day...

My sad Super Bowl party (Melissa)

Kurt Warner in his last attempt to win the Super Bowl. We all know how that ended.


My super bowl meal. Spaghetti and Diet Coke.

Aussie commentators along with the Eagles punter discussing Ben Graham's performance.

The Super Bowl kicked off at 10:30 am on Monday. Ben Graham, the Cardinal's punter, was the soul reason the Super Bowl was televised live. He is the first Aussie to play in a Super Bowl. One of the morning shows interviewed a football analyst. The host was disappointed to learn Graham had the lowest probability of scoring points.

When the game cut to commercial, the Australian commentators would discuss details from the game. They were extremely excited when the Cardinals forced a safety which they credited to a fabulous punt. Who knows? Maybe Mat McBriar will be the first Aussie to win a Super Bowl.

Around town...

Coal ship leaving the harbor.

Wedding party taking pictures in garden.
Drew and me at the harbor.



Its midnight in Texas and 1:00 am in Kentucky.

Outside the library.

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oy! Oy! Oy! (Melissa)

Will Smith's long lost brother.





Drew and I hanging out at The Brewery.




Our new favorite hangout on Sunday afternoons!

Rainbow after the storm.

Lawn Bowling

We were very fortunate to arrive in Australia just in time to celebrate Australia Day, which is the 26th of January. It's the anniversary of the First Fleet arriving at Port Jackson. It's the equivalent to our 4th of July and celebrated in the same manner.

We spent the holiday weekend learning a new game called lawn bowling, which is very similar to bocce ball. During the game, it began to rain and I was able to photograph a picture of a rainbow. Unfortunately, the rest of the weekend was spent indoors due to the bad weather. It was very foggy during the fireworks but the show went on anyways.

The Brewery is a very popular hang out on Sunday afternoons. Its a great way to end the weekend. Everyone puts on their Sunday best (aka board shorts and tank tops) and enjoy a few cocktails.