Goodbye Australia!

Hello Hello!

Our final blog entry is coming from the lounge at the airport in Sydney as we wait for the beginning of our flight home - 13 hours Sydney-San Francisco, then another 3 ish to Calgary. Flying is oh so much fun :)

I can't beleive that we've come to the end of our trip. It's a little bit unreal that our five months of vacation and relaxing is ending...but we've got lots of great memories, and tons of pictures (I think over 600 just from our month in Australia - not to mention the ones from New Zealand) to share when we get home! Here's a beginning to a description of our last few weeks in Australia.

After enjoying the Carnival and fireworks in Port Douglas, we spent a night in Cairns (where we used one of the outdoor public barbeques they have EVERYWHERE in parks here to make our dinner - so fun), and then flew to Sydney. Our week in Sydney has been really relaxing and fun - helped by the fact that we stayed in the Marriott (on points - so free!) a nice change after the grimy, busy hostels that we'd been in. Both Gavin and I are getting over colds, so it was nice to have a clean room, great comfy bed and free tea all week!

We love Sydney. The architecture is beautiful, and the harbour / big city / beaches / parks combination is pretty much perfect! The first night we got in we went for a wander around the city, down to the Darling harbour, the Rocks neighbourhood and through to see the bridge and opera house all lit up at night - just stunning. We also ran into a friend of mine from high school, Kevin, and his girlfriend Shirley,
just wandering around as well...what a crazy coincidence! The rest of the week we spent on the following:

- Taking a ferry ride around the harbour and out to Manley, where we hiked up a hill and had stunning views back towards the city from on top of some cliffs plummeting into the ocean. We lucked out on the ferry ride over, and just so happened to sit down next to a nice old gentleman who decided to provide us with a mini 'guided tour' of the harbour as we went! He was so nice, just riding the ferry for a day out, and happy to share all of his little tid-bits of knowledge with us - from stories of shark attacks in the harbour, to Navy stories, to some of his stories
about growing up in Sydney during the war - very interesting man!
- Wandering down to Bondi beach to watch crazy surfers (it was a bit cool for us to get in the water - but there were a lot of hardcore surfers out)!
- Exploring paddington neighbourhood and market, wandering down Oxford street (a crazy fun people street with a gazillion clothing shops etc.) - The women in Sydney dress sooooo nicely (on average), making me feel like just a bit of a bum in my travel-clothes...so needless to say, I couldn't resist the urge of some shopping time :)
- Having lunch at the Sydney Fish market - this was an experience...Dads (both Ian and Paul) - you would have LOVED this place. Absolutely packed for lunch, all different types of fish being cooked and sold, people outside munching on everything from squid to oysters to mud crabs to fish and chips...all fighting with the seagulls to make sure they didn't steal the fish! We actually found out about it because I spent an evening at the cooking school at the fish market (as suggested by Lonely Planet - a stellar suggestion :) - I joined a class for a 'fish stir-fry'. It
was great, as I learned how to make two delicious stir fry's; one with prawns, the other with Ling - and gained tips on how to buy fresh fish, clean, store, and then cook it to perfection! The class was great, hands-on, and I met tons of super friendly locals - I would do this again in a heartbeat (unfortunately the fish bbq class was full - - next time!)
- Visiting the Sydney Opera House for an evening performance by the Sydney Symphony. This was an absolute highlight - the performance was a tribute to Jazz musician Louis Armstrong, with James Morrison as a special guest trumpeter/piano player...it was AMAZING. Our seats were behind the stage, so we were very close to the musicians. We also managed to get to the opera house nice and early for some exploring, and had a glass of champagne overlooking the harbour from inside the
opera house!!! very swanky for two backpackers :) We ended the evening with a glass of delicious Australian wine at the Opera Bar, a bar close to the opera house, again overlooking the harbour. A very special evening!!
- We also spent a lot of time this last week enjoying our free evening drinks and canapes at the Marriott (most of which became our evening meal...hmmm :), looking out at a stunning night view of the city from the 21st floor. Couldn't have been a nicer way to end the trip!

I also have to mention another highlight from our time in Sydney - the food. The food in this city is deliciously incredible. We had the best pad thai and thai curry I've EVER had, amazing fish at the fish market...and we discovered a place with the most incredible hot chocolate (we went back a grand total of 3 times to enjoy the most delectable, thick, dark hot chocolate ever). mmmmmm.

Alright - we've got to go and catch our flight now - but we've had a great time, and loved being able to share our stories with everyone back home throughout our trip! Thank you for all of the e-mails, and we can't wait to share more stories in person!!!

HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGS,

Andrea and Gavin.