Our Walkabout in OZ: Stop 1 NSW/Sydney

As our plane rose into the clouds and our coastal North Queensland home became smaller and smaller, Lindsay couldn’t keep the tears back any longer.  I knew how much she enjoyed our time in Townsville, but it wasn’t until that moment, her head buried in my sweatshirt, that I realized it really had become our home.  From the time we started thinking of spending this year in Australia, almost everyone asked why.  My stock answer, which also happens to be true, is that although we have done a fair amount of traveling, neither Lindsay nor I had ever had the opportunity to actually live in another country.  As we proceded south toward Sydney, I reflected on how incredibly lucky we were to have chosen Townsville, to have made the friends we made, and to have had so many wonderful experiences here.  Townsville was not just a home away from home…it was just home.

Ok, enough with the sappy stuff.  We had an adventure to start.  We arrived at the Sydney airport at 5pm on Friday April 23rd, caught the train, and checked in to the YWCA near Hyde park.  Its fun to stay at the Y…W…C…A!  Well, it was cheap, clean, and in a great location.  We had to make a quick turn around as soon as we arrived because we had plans for the evening.  All gussied up, we caught a cab to the Sydney Opera House down near Circular Quay.  After a quick meal of sweet potato chips and soy/ginger brussel spouts at the Opera House bar, we proceded to the concert hall and took our seats for a symphony/classical guitar performance.  Our seats were located behind and to the right of the orchestra (the only ones left when we booked), but they turned out to be a real treat.  The music pieces they were playing were percussion-heavy, so we had a great vantage on their use of the tipani, water-gong, xylophones, etc.  By the way, I am not being sarcastic, it was really cool.  After the show we were pooped, so we went straight back to the Y and crashed.

The next morning we got up and went for a fantastic run from our hotel through Hyde Park and all the way down to the Botanical Gardens.  The weather was perfect and people were out to enjoy it.  After a quick jog past the Opera House, we ran back to the hotel and cleaned up.   From there we were off to the Sydeny Fish Market, where apparently 15,000 tons of fish is sold every year.  After a bit of gawking on our part, we sat outside and fended off the voracious seagulls, who were after our lunch of fresh oysters and mega-sized plate of tuna and salmon sashimi.  Next we went to Circular Quay where we caught the ferry to Manly Beach.  It was a great ferry ride over providing amazing views of downtown as well as the other parts of the harbor.  In Manly Beach we relaxed by the water and found ourselves a nice rooftop bar to share a plate of wedges and a pint.  That night we got takeaway Turkish food and watched Iron Man in bed.  Not the most exciting Saturday night in Sydney, but we had fun.

The next day was April 25^th, ANZAC day.  It is essentially Australia’s version of memorial day complete with parades and ceremonies.  After a morning of working and blog writing, we emerged from our hotel room into Hyde Park, the epicenter of Sydney’s ANZAC festivities.  Our timing was perfect.  We watched as a a long parade filled with veterans, bagpipe players, current soldiers, etc. marched on past.  The rest of Sydney's CBD (central business district) was completely empty due to the parades, which was a site to see in itself.  After a quick lunch, we went out for another run around the city which was great.   That night we we got suckered into eating a couple of burritos from a local “Mexican” restaurant. We couldn’t help ourselves.  It had been so long since we had had a burrito, that even the little voice in our heads that was saying “remember you fools, this is Australia, there is no way this is going to be a good burrito” wasn’t enough to keep us walking on past.  So we got the burrito which had all the right toppings and would have been good had the meat not been seasoned with Indian-style curry sauce.  Later we ended up having a drink in a posh piano bar in Kings CRoss before retiring for the night.

Our Australian Itinerary

2500 miles as a crow flies from coast to coast in the US

9421 miles as a crow flies on our trip in Australia.

17369 miles total as a crow flies on our trip from Townsville to Tucson.

24,901.5 miles as a crow flies circumference of the earth.

Townsville: Our last week

My last day of work was April 15^th, and although I was ready to get going and explore Australia, Lindsay had convinced me (i.e., demanded) that staying one extra week for us to pack, clean and see friends would be the right course of action. Initially I was concerned that I wouldn't have anything to do and that I would be bored.  That, as it turns out, was a nonsensical worry. Below is a brief rundown of our last week at home:

Friday April 16th: Matt does errands, Lindsay works.  Lindsay calls cleaners for final “move out” clean estimate and finds out the price is $450.  Lindsay slightly loses it.  Matt convinces her they can do it themselves. Dinner at Vine 21 with Chris, Sara, and Andrea. American-style wings and heaps of wine.

Saturday April 17th: Matt does errands, Lindsay works and packs.  Matt and Lindsay come up with detailed plan of attack for cleaning.  Drinks at Anders and Carina's place.  Goodbye party at Jamaica Joes with work friends Martin, Collin, Jeremy, Liz,  Brownie, Denise, Lisa, and others. Matt unable to remember the end of the evening.

Sunday April 18th: Slept in late, Matt cleans and does errands, Lindsay works and cleans.  Dinner at home.  Matt cooks Masala Dosa.  Andrea, Chris, and Sara come over for indoor s’mores.

Monday April 19th: Lindsay works and packs, Matt cleans. Lindsay realizes that there is a lot more work involved with cleaning and now regrets her decision to not hire the cleaners.  Lindsay informs Matt that due to her workload, he will have to do 99% of the rest of the cleaning.  This scares her because Matt “has a different definition of clean.” This scares Matt because he is fundamentally incapable of cleaning as well as Lindsay. Matt goes to bank with $909 worth of saved up Australian coins.  Matt buys a suit jacket for $8, a tie for $3, and his new favorite Bundy hat for $2 at the thrift store.  Last night hanging out with Andrea.  Dinner at the Brewery Restaurant.  $1.75 sundaes at Macca's.

Tuesday April 20th:  Lindsay works. Matt cleans, does errands, and discovers Pips homemade pies.  Matt and Lindsay agree it is a very good thing these delicious pies were not discovered earlier. Lindsay gets final haircut with the girl who thinks she's old.  Matt and Lindsay go to final Trivia Night at Molly Malone's with Chris, Sara, and Carina.  Team wins despite minimal participation.  Free drinks and crumb steaks.

Wednesday April 21st: Matt and Lindsay take a “Relax in Townsville” day.  Matt and Lindsay walk Castle Hill, swim in Rock Pool, swim in ocean, go to Osman’s for dinner and sit in cozy spot, and see a movie at the BCC theatre
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Thursday April 22nd: Matt and Lindsay go for last run on strand.  Lindsay works, Matt…you guessed it, cleans.  Lindsay cleans.  Crazy bogan carpet guy comes to steam clean the carpets.  Matt and Lindsay go to the Strand's water park.  Matt and Lindsay open special Villa Maria single-vineyard Sauvignon Blanc and drink on porch.  Matt and Lindsay drive up Castle Hill for one last beautiful sunset.  Matt and Lindsay finish wine and go to Brewery, the location of their first dinner ever in Townsville, for their last dinner in Townsville.   Matt and Lindsay try to finish off the last of the Connoisseur ice cream.  Lindsay is successful, Matt is not.

Friday April 23rd:  Matt and Lindsay get up early.  Lindsay and Matt finish cleaning.  Matt and Lindsay pack up and go to hospital to drop off car and say goodbye.  Matt and Lindsay ride with racist but nice cab driver to airport.  Matt and Lindsay have a drink at the airport cafe.  Matt and Lindsay board the plane.  Lindsay cries.  Matt and Lindsay say goodbye to Townsville.  Matt and Lindsay fly away.

Mum and Dad arrive

We got back from Vietnam the morning of March 31st, and luckily I didn’t have to work until the evening of the next day.  So we spent some time relaxing and getting settled back into life in Townsville.  I then worked the next 7 or 8 days, which were overall uneventful.  Lindsay used the time to get caught up with her work as well.  After that stretch, I had 4 days off in a row in anticipation of my parents visiting.  They had been gallivanting around the continent for the previous 2 ½ weeks apparently having a good time.  Of course, I wouldn’t have known that if not for my numerous phone calls around Australia trying to find out if they were even alive.  From my first trip to Europe to this current year in Australia and every trip in between, I have been hounded to call them and check in.  What do I get in return?  Some excuses about an inability to find an Internet café (there are millions!) and broken phone cards (not needed to call domestically).  I guess it a good thing that they were having so much fun that they just didn’t have time to check in and reassure their loving and caring son.

At 5pm on Thursday, Lindsay and I drove to the Townsville airport and picked them up.  The next four days were great.  The night of their arrival we had a Greek BBQ, sat out on our porch, and drank wine.  In anticipation of their arrival, Lindsay and I had gone to Dan Murphy's, our favorite discount liquor store, to stock up on vino.  We were initially worried we had bought too much and that we would have to give some away when we moved away two weeks later.  One hour after my parents arrived we no longer had that worry.

The next day we went for a walk on The Strand and then drove out to the Billabong Sanctuary, where they held koalas, fed kangaroos, and saw a croc feeding show.  After a quick picnic lunch, we came back home and cleaned up before heading out to our favorite restaurant, Osman's, for a delicious Turkish meal. On our way to dinner we drove up to the top of Castle Hill to watch one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen.  

The next day started with another nice long walk along The Strand followed by a BBQ down by the Rockpool, where we met our friends Anders and Carina.  It was one of those typical perfect Townsville days.  That night we drove to Dairy Farmers Stadium for ¾ of a very uninspired North Queensland Cowboys rugby game.  We actually spent most of our time talking about how to the game could be improved....

On Sunday we got up early and took the ferry to Magnetic Island for our last trip on the island.  We picked up a moke and we were off.  We saw the rock wallabies and did the “Forts” hike, where we saw two koalas in the trees.  Later we had lunch and hung out at Horseshoe Bay.  After lunch I was able to convince Lindsay to join me on a tube ride around the bay.  Despite her paralyzing fear of the deadly irukandji and box jellyfish in the water, she agreed to do it - and what a great time it was.  After returning on the ferry to Townsville, we went out to the Seaview Hotel for a steak dinner…on them!!!

The next morning I went off to work while Mum and Dad watched the last round of the Masters before catching their flight to Sydney.  It was such a wonderful weekend and it was hard to say goodbye even though we knew we'd be back in the States soon enough.  On a selfish note, their visit was a perfect excuse for Lindsay and me to check out all of our favorite places one last time prior to moving.  It was great.