Valentino

DAY 12, FRI AUG 20 – Surprise, Surprise…RAIN!! It seems to follow me wherever I go.  I’m finding that these kinds of days call for a visit to a museum of some sort.  Fortunately, my hostel was close to all the good museums in Brisbane and had quite a bit to offer as far as the exhibits were concerned.  Katerina and I thought it would be great to go to the Modern Art Gallery to check out the VALENTINO Exhibit.  What a show it was and worth the $20 entry fee.  The amount of detail and craftsmanship into each of his pieces were incredible.  I thought wow…I wonder if he actually sewed all these pieces.  Turns out he just designed most of them and collaborated with his seamstresses.  Still…the man is brilliant.  I wish we could have taken pictures inside of the exhibit, but unfortunately like all great exhibitions photography is prohibited. 

We later treated ourselves to a nice dinner at a restaurant.  We ended up eating at an outdoor restaurant around the corner from my hostel called Pig and Whistle.  Great name for a restaurant, huh?  Well we thought it would be cheap bc of the name but surprise, surprise everything on the menu was kind of expensive.  I enjoyed a nice spicy chilli sauce & cheese nachos.  It was surprisingly delicious.  The sauce closely represented spaghetti sauce…it was quite interesting.

After dinner we explored what Brisbane had to offer for its nightlife.  We ended up at this hole in the wall bar called Fat Louie’s which took us some time to find.  We had a few rounds to make it worth the effort.  They had pool tables and young people who barely looked like they could drink legally.  It reminded me of a rundown college bar.  Next, we walked another several blocks to head to bar called Friday’s, a restaurant located near the docks on the second floor.  It had an expansive deck overlooking the water as well as an indoor dance floor.  Of course that’s where we headed ;p  And the best part…I finally found a bar that carried Captain Morgan’s Spice Rum.  I could finally relish in a proper rum and coke with lime.  It made my night!  We danced the night away until it was time for me to catch a cab back to the hostel. 

Good Night to another great day in Brisvegas!

BrisVegas!

DAY 11, AUG 19 – After all the drama of missing the flight, I arrived in Brisbane nice and safe.  But of course I had to take the shuttle to the hostel…another $15.  I arrived at the airport at 7:30ish, but didn’t get to the hostel til 9ish.  I swear you get the fastest service from these airport shuttles…NOT! Anyway, when I arrived at the hostel I couldn’t check in until 2pm so I put all my things into the storage room and decided to explore the city.  After walking around, I was quite hungry and stopped in a small sushi cafe to have breakfast/lunch…which by the way it is the cheapest thing in Australia.  Two rolls for about $6 or less…so great!  I finished it off with a delicious banana honey smoothie from Boost.

Later, I met up with Katerina and we explored South Bank.  It was by far the warmest day I’ve experienced in OZ…a whopping 24 degrees (Celsius of course).  We decided to sit around and enjoy the weather at a fake beach/lagoon in South Bank.  Katerina also showed me a unique ceramic exhibit in the art gallery close by.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  Most of the pieces were larger than life but also included smaller intricate pieces.  It’s too bad the artist didn’t have a website, but luckily the museum did have postcard size advertisements for her exhibit (which I grabbed on the way out).  After the beach and gallery, we met up with her friend Florence to have lunch at a cute little café in the hip part of town.  It reminded me a bit of Colley Ave ;)  I wasn’t too hungry and everything was a bit expensive so I enjoyed another smoothie, mango strawberry flavored this time around.  The café had amazing food, which I’d probably return to if I get a chance.  Florence had this English style hash potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, etc that was very tasty.

 

After lunch all I could think of was a nice long hot shower and a nap.  I walked back to the hostel while they left to explore more of the city.  The hostel room was nice, clean, roomy, and included a drawer locker under the bed.  One of the girls was friendly enough to say hello though we had a bit of a language barrier.  She was Korean and didn’t understand English very well.  We made it work with a bit of sign language involved.   So after meeting the roomies I headed for the showers.  I must say their shower facilities were cleanlier than the last hostel I stayed and conveniently located beside my room.  Following a luxurious shower or at least as luxurious as it can get in a hostel, I walked around to get familiar with the hostel’s amenities. Base Brisbane Embassy had a huge kitchen and entertainment room, 2 large deck/balcony areas, and large laundry facility. I was impressed…especially for $22 a night for an 8 bed dorm.  Even better was the fact that they upgrade me to a 6 bed dorm for free.  

While waiting to meet up with Katerina and John for our evening outing, I went downstairs to watch TV in the entertainment room.  I met a nice Irish guy named Stephen.   I chatted him up for places he’d traveled in OZ and any suggestions he may have for where to stay, things to do, etc in those places.  Shortly after, I met Katerina downstairs in the bar for a drink until John showed up, our Canadian friend we made while @ the Blue Parrot.  We had a few there because drinks were decently priced.  Upon Stephen’s recommendation, I suggested this place called Victory.  We tried to find it, but no luck with a lack of directions given by Stephen.  So we just walked up the street to see what else this city had to offer.  We eventually made our way up to the balcony of Beaches which was blasting decent music.  After ordering a round we quickly found out that by 12 o’clock they were closing.   A bar closing at 12 on a Thursday night…weak.  But it’s okay I was pretty tired, Katerina had to make it for the last train to town and John had to get up early to check out. I passed out quickly despise the loud rowdy boys in the hall.

Welcome to BRISVEGAS…as the locals would call it.

Beginning Traveler's Mistake

DAY 10, WED AUG 18 – I am leaving Sydney today heading North for Brisbane in hopes of warmer weather.  It seemed like a normal day.  I’d pack, get ready, and say bye to all the new friends I had made.  My flight was supposed to leave at 15:10 or 4:10pm…or so I thought.  Clearly 15:10 is 3pm NOT 4pm.  I had scheduled the shuttle about 2 hours before departure since an hour was all that was needed to board a domestic flight.  In Australia, shuttle buses wait or they go around picking up as many people before heading to the final destination of the airport.  After an hour of driving around the city, I get to the airport…lugging 3 bags of heavy equipment and 2-3 seasons worth of clothing.  I wished I had packed MUCH less, but being here for 2-3 seasons required such necessities.  I’d say for a girl…that was exceptional.  Especially considering the fact that half the weight was the laptop, camera, and all the things that go along with it like chargers, external drive, tripod, etc. I would have borrowed a cart to lug all these bags, but they charge for everything here and a cart was $4.   No thanks!  I slowly dragged my way up to the check-in desk, ready to unload the bulge of what seemed like a large boulder fastened to my back. 

“Hi, I’m here to check in.”

What does the flight attendant say…”I’m sorry but your flight is closed.” 

A blank and confused look on my face, “Ah hem, perdon a me!?  WHAT!?  My flight doesn’t leave until 4pm”, I replied. 

“Well all flights require at least half an hour to board the flight, your flight was actually at 3:10pm.”

I looked at the clock, looked at my printed boarding pass and sure enough it was. 

FIASCO is what came next!  I asked if there was another flight that would depart later.

“Sorry, NOPE that one is closed.  The next one is not until 6am.   Oh and by the way it costs an extra $80 to change your flight now that you missed yours.  Your other option is to wait on stand by on a flight that will depart at 6pm to the Gold Coast.  You will have to catch a train or bus that will take you into Brisbane.”

Of course I would, because I had already booked a hostel right before leaving Sydney.  GREAT!  I called Stephany to see if there was a train that was scheduled to leave the Gold Coast around 8 o’clock.  Before she could call back with a reply, I decided that it would be too late to figure out how I would get to the hostel from the train stop.  Plus it would be dark and super late before I arrived into an unknown city. Guess it would be another night at the Blue Parrot. 

Stephany had offered me her free night on her bed since she was leaving by 8pm for her overnight bus trip to Melbourne.  So I paid another $15 to take a shuttle back to the hostel, which took another hour or so to repeat the process of filling the bus until it drove to the city.  I didn’t arrive back at the hostel until 5-6pm!  Fun stuff I tell ya.  I go to check in to see if I could take Stephany’s bed for free…but no! The owner of the Blue Parrot wouldn’t allow it, even though I had stayed there over a week and would only be there until 4am to leave for my flight the next morning.  LAME!  I frantically tried to cancel the hostel before I left the airport but the number was disconnected.  Finally after searching for half an hour for another number that might work (which didn’t), I called a branch of the same hostel which gave me the same phone number I dialed.  GREAT!  But thankfully she made the changes to my reservations and didn’t suffer the consequences of paying for that evening.  After settling a bit from the fiasco, I watched a bit of TV until it was bedtime.  The only thing that made my night was that, it was the best sleep I’ve had since I’ve been in Sydney, despite the fact it was only 4 hours because of my early flight.  There was no partying downstairs in the kitchen, no loud roommates entering the room late, and finally NO snorers in the room.  It was a quiet night ☺ 

I woke up early and thought about catching another shuttle or even the train, but didn’t want to take any chances so I hailed for a taxi to the airport.  He was a really nice New Zealander that I had an interesting and informative conversation with unlike the mute driver I had when I first got into the city.  He gave me good suggestions on where to visit in New Zealand along with other things and I guess that alone made it worth the $35 it took to pay for the fare.   I walked over to check my bags…only to find out that they were too heavy (only 2 bags, not weighing over 10kg together were allowed as carry ons) and paid an extra $40 for a 8kg bag.  UGH! 

So FINALLY after all the shuttle rides, taxi, the switching of flights, extra night @ the Blue Parrot and the extra luggage costs…the 1 hour mistake cost a total of $232 and a massive amount of stress. 

Note to self/Lesson Learned: Check and RECHECK when your flight leaves and ARRIVE 2 hours before it leaves no matter if it’s international or domestic.

Whales and the Opera

Again with the delay...keeping up with this thing is a lot harder than I thought.  Since I'm going to be in one place for at least a week I should have a few up this week.  I'll try to catch up on all my adventures and post a few of the hundreds of pictures I've taken.  Cheers!

DAY 7, SUN AUG 15 – Luckily Steph and I were wise enough to go back to the Hostel.  Apparently the night didn’t get much better from the frustration of walking all the way to the bar.  It took them an hour to walk there only to find out that one of the girls didn’t have the proper shoes on so the group had to go elsewhere.  I tell you its crazy that these bars and clubs will not even let you in if you have cute strappy sandals on…is wearing my chucks that much better than cute strappy sandals!?  Apparently…and if they’ll let me in wearing chucks well it’s pretty sweet but I’d prefer the cute sandals to match my outfit ;p

This morning the group decided to meet downstairs around 10-11ish to see if we could catch the Whale Watching Tour at 1pm.  Hooray!! We were able to fit in the tour.  So we walked our merry little way to the metro station.  2 stops and a change in the line and we were there. 

FYI – if you’re going to be in Sydney for a week or so it’s best to just purchase a My Train Pass.  $41 gets you unlimited ferry, train, and bus rides throughout the city for the week. 

We arrived early so we explored what Darling Harbor had to offer.  We checked out a few cafes and cute little shops.  I was getting hungry and thought we definitely need to eat lunch b/c the tour was from 1-5pm.  And ya’ll know I get hungry every 2-3 hours ;p  Lunch was delicious!  I ventured a bit from the normal menu and tried Lamp Kabobs served with a small salad (though their definition of a salad was quite different…peppers, roma tomatoes and a little bit of dressing).  Also, instead of having chips (aka fries) we went for the wedges.  OMG were they very scrumptious!  Here in OZ chips are pretty much served with EVERYTHING!  And most often they are paired with sweet chili sauce and mayo. Never thought of that combination, but the sweet chili sauce was great ☺  Xnay on the mayo…not really a fan.  Tomato sauce as they call it is not that popular here and if you do like the good ole ketchup on the chips, sometimes they charge extra for packets of those.  During lunch it started to pour, luckily we were done with our meals and were just hanging out until it was time to walk back to the pier.  We made our cover into this hidden room in the back that had a TV, pool table, and a few other games (pretty cool if you ask me).  The rain quickly subsided and we walked back to the pier and waited patiently for the boat.  It wasn’t very long of a wait.  We all boarded the ship, went over safety and other procedures…like where to find a bag in case we were feeling sick.  The guy was a bit rude by explaining, “He DOES NOT clean!” so you better grab one of these bags or else.  Whatever man…it’s your job if you’re part of the crew.  In any case, we were all excited to get a glimpse at these majestic creatures.  (SN: The great thing about this particular tour is that if you don’t get to see a whale you can either get ½ your money back or come back another time for free.)  When we left the pier we oddly made our way to Sydney Harbor and were surprised because we took the train and walked all the way to Darling Harbor when we could have just waited at this pier.  Weird I tell ya and a bit irritating.  But we were already on the boat so no worries. 

Group photo on our way out to see for the whale watching

The view getting out to sea was of course amazing…cliffs, coves, lighthouses, etc.  The rainy clouds looked feathery and I definitely had to take a picture of that.  As soon as we hit the open seas, the water and sky were just gorgeous, cerulean blue skies and deep sapphire ocean.  We quickly joined a group of near by boats who were also scoping out for whales and luckily came across a blue humpback whale.  He was shy for a bit but after getting comfortable with the surrounding boats he responded with frequent tail shows.  (He wanted some tail.  Hehehe).  The captain explained that each whale was unique; where the undersides of their tails were all different and so that’s how scientists could identify and tag each of the whales that returned each year.  We wanted him badly to breach, jump out of the water like those posters you see…but we weren’t as lucky ☹ We watched him for a bit and was supposed to move on but the captain decided to stay and watch him because we were pretty close to him.  Thankfully I had my telephoto lens with me; otherwise I couldn’t have gotten the shots I wanted.  The group wanted copies b/c he was just a bit to far and fast even for their 12 optical zooms cameras to catch a good shot.   I absolutely love the supposed 6.5 fps on my Canon.  After a bit we headed back to shore to see if we could catch glimpse of other whales.  I’m glad the captain turned the ship around when he did because the wind was getting out of control, as did the waves.  It still surprises me how fast conditions change out in the water.  We thought we’d enjoy the ride back by sitting in the front on the first level.  We quickly found out…not such a grand idea.  The wind was fierce…freezing us to death.   We were also greeted with a surprising cool slash of water that drenched us.  After shrieking from the icy water, we just started to giggle foolishly.  During our ride back we ran into quite a few more whales.  There were two whales far off in the distance in the direction of Manly, synchronized with each stroke and breath. I wish we were closer ☹ This experience was definitely cool…literally and figuratively.  I love nature at its best. 

We were heading back to Darling Harbor as the sun was setting and was thrilled to get shots of the Sydney Opera House during this time of day.  Colors galore! Instead of getting off at Sydney Harbour we decided to continue onto Darling Harbor where we boarded to explore the other side of it.  We found cool water fountains surrounding the grounds, a large ferris wheel, and plenty of restaurants and bars calling our names.  Though they were quite tempting, we decided to head back towards the city to catch the metro.  As were trying to find our to the metro we ran into an Irish Pub and decided that this was probably the best place to have an irish coffee that Katerina was craving.  The pub was huge as was the bar, with a second floor to beat.  In many of the places in Australia you pretty much seat yourself, order at the bar, take a number and they deliver to your table.  The great thing about this process is that all tax and tips are pretty much included.  You can leave when you want and don’t have to worry about waiting for a check and calculating the good ole tip.  Though if you do receive good service, an 8-10% tip is always appreciated…so says my guidebook.  We were in luck it was Sunday, because we quickly learned that Sunday’s are a big deal in Australia…they call them Sunday Sessions.  Friends get together, grab dinner and enjoy each other’s company at a bar.  It was a good ending to a wonderful day of adventure.

DAY 8 – MON, AUG 16 – I was supposed to go to Bondi Beach for the day but everyone woke up late.  It was alright with me because I had to take care of banking business.  It was taking forever!  Here in OZ or at least at the ANZ bank you come up to a little touch screen kiosk, choose which option you are there for (ex: personal banking, teller, etc.) and they give you a ticket as if you were at the DMV.  They post the number on a central screen directing you to which teller and that was it.  It was a different experience, as you all know, most banks have a winding rope leading up to front of the counter with tellers waiting to take the next guest.  It was nice to wait sitting down, but took forever.  While I was handling business, Joff and Stephany made their way to The Rocks to explore the oldest part of Australia.  After approximately 2 hours I was finally out of there…yet I still didn’t have an “active account.”  Apparently you need a chunk of change to start an account…$500!!!  My good buddy Broughski started his account in Perth with the same bank for a measly $70.  WTF!?  Obviously I wouldn’t carry that in my pocket, I only had $50.  I said I had that in traveler’s checks and they wouldn’t accept them!  I had to cash them at an exchange office and then deposit it…super lame!  I didn’t have the checks on me so I decided enough of this shenanigans!  They close at 4pm! which was not enough time to go all the way back to the hostel and back so I met up with everybody else.  I waited for Katerina and Mike at the metro station so we could all meet up with Steph and Joff.  I talked to Steph and they went to the Observatory and the Rocks already…so jealous.

Finally we all met up at the Rocks and walked around the Harbor for a bit.  We later headed towards the Sydney Opera House to check out prices for tix and times b/c Katerina had mentioned she wanted to see the opera that was playing there that evening.  After talking to the ticket attendant, we huddled in our little group and came to the census that it would be a unique experience even though tickets were a bit expensive so we waited back in line to buy the tickets.  While waiting the guy in front of us was getting quite upset and took forever getting his tickets.  By the time we finally came up to the front, a huge line had formed behind us.  Since we waited so patiently and were a large group, the ticket attendant was quite generous, offering us the tour and ticket combo w/o us having to actually buy the tour tix.  So for the fabulous price of $51 AUS dollars we were going to see an opera at the infamous Sydney Opera House!  The Marriage of Figaro…3 hours with one of the most controversial operas during its time but now infamous ☺ I don’t even remember if I’ve even been to an opera as a child so I was definitely looking forward to this experience.  While everyone wanted to grab dinner, I wanted to find nice shoes to go with my semi dressy dress for the evening.  Although we probably could have shown up in nice jeans and a cute top, I wanted to feel like I was going to a super fancy opera you pay top dollar for in the states.  So I headed to China Town to get proper shoes for the evening…yea I said it.  None of the shoe stores in the city carry a size 5 and even then those are often too big for me.  Lol.  After walking around and getting lost in a long search for shoes, I found some in a cheap place in Paddy’s Market.  I headed back to the hostel to change and have left over spaghetti dinner I cooked.  Everyone was supposed to meet downstairs in the lobby at 6:30PM… but as usual we were all running late.  We had to take taxi’s into town to catch the show…barely making it before 7pm.  As we entered the glass doors, everyone was semi dressed up all chit-chatting with their glasses of wine and champaign…so classy.  Hehehe.  I felt a little out of place with my not so fancy dress and shoes, but I made do with what I packed.  I’m glad I made the decision to dress up though.  Well, we made our way to our seats and on the way was a beautiful evening view of the bridge and city.  Entering the theatre was grandeur with the balcony seats covered in red duvet cushioned seats.  I was in love!  I felt a little like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Ha!  But everyone made their way to their seats, the lights dimmed and in a few moments the symphony began with one of my favorite Mozart tunes.  I couldn’t tell you the name but if you heard it, you’d know.  The curtains opened and on with the show in Italian.  Thankfully we had seats where we could see the subtitles.  What an amazing show!!!  It was quite hilarious too.

The cast taking their bows.

View of the Bridge from inside the Sydney Opera House

After the show, half of us went back to the hostel while others decided to see the city.  It was quite chilly so I went back to the hostel.  After changing into Pj’s everyone convinced me to go out again to a bar close by called The Sugarmill.  It was pretty chill music but not the best for dancing.  It definitely had the stickiest floor I’ve ever set foot.  I requested from the DJ to play my favorite genre of music to dance…reggae, but not surprisingly he never played my request.  All they played were a few popular R&B and 80’s/90’s to house music. Ugh!  I danced a bit, enjoyed a beer, was shot with Kim’s water gun, and walked home early with Joff.  It had been a long day and thought I was ready for bed…wow did I feel old. Lol.  I tried to go to bed but had a difficult time sleeping b/c I was still wired and these girls snore like crazy.  Everyone swears I snore a bit...I guess I'll accept that, but these girls were roaring beasts.  Oh well…guess that’s what I get for staying at a hostel.

Until next time...