Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a very different post ready to go about my blog being less specific now that I’m in Greece and not sure how Giannis feels about the details of our budding romance being plastered all over the internet. But too bad for him, I’m telling everyone this detail – I got the best birthday present ever – we’re getting MARRIED!He asked me to marry him at midnight on my birthday and I said yes.

This may seem extraordinarily romantic to some and crazy to others. To me, this is the man I’ve been waiting for. A man at first glance looks intimidating, but once he starts singing along with the cartoon sausage on tv, you realize underneath he is just a sweet and gentle man with a great sense of humor. A man that puts so much butter on my toast, all of my exes would cringe that I would ingest so many calories. A man that goes and gets fresh bread and milk every morning. A man that can speak four languages and fix anything.  A man that is so hard-working, he can have a rest after working 8 months without one day off and he still works if a job turns up.  A man that waited 3 months for me to come back to him even when I was too scared to give him the smallest commitment. A man that loves me more than any man I have ever been with.

You’ll all meet him soon enough. I’ll be home Saturday and Giannis will be soon to follow.

Sydney in a Day

Sydney in a Day originally written on December 1st in Sydney, Australia

My shuttle bus is picking me up at 6pm to bring me to the airport, so I have 8 hours to see as much of Sydney as I can. I started with a free walking tour that began in Hyde Park named after the Hyde Park in England. Since Australia was settled to become the home for England’s convicts, there are quite a few references to places and people in England.

Hyde Park

Archibald Fountain and St. Mary’s Cathedral in Hyde Park

Lachlan Macquirie, a major influencer in changing Australia from a penal colony to a free settlement.

Hyde Park Barracks to house convict men and boys – the building’s architect was a convict himself.

Old hospital for convicts built in exchange for rum.

Look familiar? The same pig statue is in Florence – this one was brought to Sydney to have a bit of Italy in Australia.

Flinders explored and mapped Australia.

Trim, the loyal cat that went everywhere with Flinders including jail.

Fountain in the Royal Botanical Garden.

Royal Botanical Garden

Sydney’s old and new architecture.

Sydney Tower

The Rocks neighborhood – founded by convicts.

The narrow alleys in the Rocks were a perfect spot for crime back in the day – now Sydney is very safe.

The reason the neighborhood is called the Rocks.

Convict sculpture in the Rocks.

Old woodblock roads in the Rocks.

Sydney Harbor Bridge

Sydney Opera House

After the tour, I headed to the Fortune of War pub – the oldest pub in Sydney. I didn’t make it to the pub last night, so I’ll go today for lunch.

Fortune of War – Sydney’s oldest pub

I had the recommended cheeseburger and two schooners of IPA. I started talking to the man next to me, a pilot from Montana, who would turn out to be my drinking buddy for the day.

The pilot and I.

We tried walking around, but it was so hot out, we ended up in Hart’s Pub, then Stitch. Stitch is a craft cocktail bar decorated with old Singer sewing machines and has a signature drink called the Smoking Rocket. We can thank my dad for calling with the tip on Stitch; he read about it in an article in the Star Tribune.

Stitch Bar

Inside of Stitch Bar

The Screaming Rocket

It was a great day in Sydney.  Sydney is like everything great about U.S. cities combined: the sunshine and palm trees of San Diego, the harbour of Boston, the shopping of NYC, the kindness of Minneapolis, a beautiful bridge like San Francisco, the beach and beautiful people of Miami and the history of Washington DC. To sum it up, I love Sydney.

I’m sad to be leaving Sydney, but am happy I’m heading back to Greece.  One of my favorite destinations on my trip and home of my boyfriend, Giannis.  Boyfriend, such a foreign word to this girl who hasn’t had one in 6 years.  I guess you could say it sounds Greek to me! Bahahahahahaha!

 

Bondi Beach

Bondi Beach originally written on November 30th in Sydney, Australia

After 13 hours on the bus, I was exhausted, but with only two days in Sydney, there was no time to rest. I checked into the coolest hostel I have been to yet – it is above an archeological dig!

View from the roof of the YHA hostel in Sydney

Archeological dig under the hostel!

Artifacts recovered from the dig.

After settling in, I headed to Bondi Beach for the day. Beautiful. Clear water, soft white sand and some of the most beautiful bodies I have ever seen.

After relaxing at the beach, I headed back to the hostel to get ready for my last dinner out as a single traveler. I decided to treat myself at a restaurant overlooking the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. After a lovely dinner of a dirty martini, oysters, steak, prawns and wine, I was exhausted. I wanted to try out the oldest pub in Sydney for a drink, but being so tired, I didn’t want to fall asleep in my beer.

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Oysters and a dirty martini.

Steak, prawns and broccolini.

Byron Bay

Byron Bay originally written November 29th in Byron Bay, Australia

Back on the Greyhound in the morning for my day at Byron Bay. And it will only be the for day as I get back on the bus at 7pm.

We arrived at 12pm, I dropped off my luggage at the Visitor Center and headed to the beach. I was there for about an hour when a dark cloud showed itself. I was hoping the cloud would pass and hold off the rain. No such luck, down came the rain and I found myself at the Balcony Bar for the better part of the afternoon.

My view from the Balcony Bar.

I tried to head to the beach again, but the thunder kept going. I walked around the town a bit. Byron Bay is a complete hippie town with plenty of shops to buy tie-dye, dream catchers and organic, vegan food. I did see one marijuana shop as well. And no hippie town is complete without protests. I saw two and signs everywhere for standing up for your rights and fight the parking fee.

One of two protests today in Byron Bay.

I ended my day at Byron Bay in the Railway Friendly Bar. It was across the street from the bus stop and had beer and fish n’ chips – what else do I need?

The Railway Friendly Bar

Fish n’ Chips

Surfer’s Paradise

Surfer’s Paradise originally written on November 28th in Surfer’s Paradise, Australia

I got back on the Greyhound and arrived at 12:15pm in Surfer’s Paradise. I headed out to get some lunch at Metro Coffee when a woman approached me to give me a small bouquet of flowers just because she wanted to do something nice. So not used to that – every time someone hands you something in Asia, they expect you to buy it from them. A really nice gesture to go with my lovely Brekky Burrito. Australians give everything nicknames, “chippies” for chips and “brekky” for breakfast for example.

Brekky Burrito

After lunch, I went to the beach – not much to say, but beautiful. The water was quite cool and there was a nice wind, so perfect for reading a book by the water.

Surfer’s Paradise

Surfer’s Paradise

Surfer’s Paradise

Me at Surfer’s Paradise

The sun started to go down around 5 and I walked into town. I found a seafood restaurant with a great menu. The server said in between 5 and 6, all the food is 40% off! I probably wouldn’t have eaten this early, but for 40% off, I could eat. I had a nice arugula salad and a seafood sampler with scallops, shrimp, salmon, calamari and bugs. Bugs are a crustacean found in Australia – a mix between lobster and crab. Everything was wonderful.

Arugula and Parmesan salad

Seafood Sampler

With so much time left in the evening, I took myself on a romantic stroll on the beach before heading back to the hostel with yet again the other guests being much too young.

Brisbane

Brisbane originally written November 27th in Brisbane, Australia

After 30 hours on the bus, I need a beer. And a swim. Good thing Brisbane City Backpackers hostel has both.

Brisbane City Backpackers Hostel

It may be a hostel, but it has a great view.

I had some dinner at the hostel and was informed about “schoolies”. Schoolies are the Australian version of spring breakers, some old enough to drink, others are not. I was approached by a 18-year-old schoolie looking for love – time to go somewhere with people closer to my age. I walked for a bit and found a brewery/restaurant called The Charming Squire. It was a nice place with good music and good beer.  I found out the place was named after James Squire, a man who had stolen horehound to brew beer and had received one-hundred-and-fifty lashes for it, hence the name of one of the beers 150 Lashes.

The Charming Squire

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! originally written November 26th somewhere in Queensland, Australia

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! For my Thanksgiving celebration, I’ll be on a bus for 30 hours on my way to Brisbane. I decided to take the bus because 1) I already bought my bus pass for unlimited rides going south and 2) I still get to see a lot of the country, even if it is through a bus window.

 

My home for the next 30 hours.

Australia from a bus window.

Ramen noodles for Thanksgiving dinner . . .

isn’t so bad when this is your view!

All of my bus neighbors are a good bunch, except one man that must not know you can yawn without making noise. 😦

The Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef originally written November 25th in Cairns, Australia

Another great day in Australia. I did really good diving, equalizing relatively easily and I was breathing slow and steady, so when everyone else had to go back up, I got to stay down longer.

We found several Nemos (clown fish), unfortunately no Crushs (sea turtles). I saw one massive fish that was probably the size of me and a damselfish trying to protect his home. He would swim at us and get right in our faces – he was a spunky little fish. There was a huge variety of coral as well, but not as bright as I thought it would be. Some people have told me the Great Barrier Reef isn’t as good for diving as it used to be.

Cairns Harbour

The Great Barrier Reef

Cairns Harbour

Cairns Harbour

 

White-water Rafting Down the Tully

White-water Rafting Down the Tully originally written November 24th in Cairns, Australia

It was a fantastic day. The sun was shining, a lot of water was let out of the dam and it was so much fun. This was my first time white-water rafting. I was a little nervous because most of the rapids are class 4.  Class 1 is like standing water and class 6 is Niagara Falls. I had a good group, one fellow American, Karen, three Irish gals, Emma, Amanda and Eileen and Natasha from Switzerland. We were guided by Swansea, from Swansea, England.

The rafting was fun and the other girls were hilarious. Towards the bottom, we had to watch out for crocodiles and the horseflies were really biting, but besides that, it was a perfect day.

After rafting, I needed to buy some essentials, so where else do you head but to Target!

Australian Target

The Australian Target is nice, but doesn’t have nearly as many items as the U.S. Australian Target did have everything I needed and I headed to dinner. I’m going to try out a Mexican place, even though I have been told the Mexican food is not good in Australia. Hmm, yes, their Mexican food is not so good . . .still have my craving for Mexican food that I have had since June.

A whirlwind trip on Australia’s East Coast

A whirlwind trip on Australia’s East Coast originally written November 22nd and 23rd in Denpasar, Bali and Cairns, Australia

I have spent the day at my hotel updating my blog and it is time to head to the airport for my flight to Cairns! Australia – a place I have wanted to visit forever.

You may be wondering about the title of this post. Well, I have news. My five-week trip on Australia’s east coast has been shortened to nine days. While I’m disappointed in only being in Australia for a short time, I’m happy to tell you I’ll be coming home early for a job opportunity that is too good to pass up and before I come home, I’ll be stopping back in Athens to see Giannis. You may be wondering, “Who the hell is Giannis?”. Remember my fling in Santorini? He and I have kept in touch and I’m heading back to see him. Is he worth cutting Australia short for? He seems to be and I’m hoping my heart is correct.

You may also be asking what happened to New Zealand and Africa – well, it turns out I’m a horrible backpacker. I’m a fine traveler, but I need some practice on the budgeting portion of being a backpacker. I’m not exactly sure where I went wrong, but I think the activities and food and drink are what put me over. I don’t regret any of the money I spent (except when the taxis ripped me off) – I may never go back to these places, so I should do what I want and be happy. Even if that does mean going home early. I’ll make it to New Zealand and Africa one day and I now have many additional places I want to go as well. Who knows, maybe I’ll be doing this again in another 5-10 years or maybe like Marie when I’m 67.

The next nine days are going to be non-stop. I’ll be able to see everything I originally wanted to see: koalas, the Great Barrier Reef, Surfers Paradise and the Sydney harbor, however my research has brought my attention to two wonderful places I will miss, the Whitsunday islands and Fraser island. I know I’ll be back and these islands will still be there.

Back to now. I arrived in Cairns around 10:30am and was selected for the border control bag check. 80% of Australia’s species of vegetation and animals are unique to Australia, so they are very careful about foreign plants and animal products coming into Australia. The agent picked up my elephant poo poo paper notebooks and said he didn’t think I could keep these. Well, there goes some of the souvenirs. He asked his supervisor and he said thought they were allowing poo poo paper products in now. Yes! He was right and I got to keep the poo poo paper.

I took the Gilligan’s shuttle to Gilligan’s Backpackers Hostel. I went to the tour desk immediately and asked about diving – I want to be sure to get that in. I got signed up for three dives on Wednesday, white-water rafting tomorrow and going to the zoo to see koalas today!

The zoo is an hour away and I still need to get some lunch and the zoo closes at 5pm – I need to get moving. After lunch at the Lilipad vegetarian restaurant across the street, I head to the bus stop to catch the 110 to Palm Cove. As I’m nearing the bus stop, I see the 110 go by – crap! I need to wait another 30 minutes for the bus. Now that I know I’m going home, I keep reminiscing about my trip so far, it seems I spend a lot of time at bus stops. It’s kind of nice to see local people just doing what they do instead of all the tourists trying to get in everything they need to do before they go home (guilty).

My baba ghanoush and vegetable flatbread.

I get on the bus at 2:04pm and get to the zoo at 3. The woman behind the counter is trying to urge me to come back another day because they close at 4, not 5. I tell her this is it or nothing, so let me through and I will see as much as I can.

I already had a plan of seeing just the Australian animals and passing by the others. The Cairns zoo actually isn’t that big and one hour was plenty. I saw koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, dingoes, wombats (well the feet of one), laughing kookaburras, emus and cassowaries. I walked by an American alligator and told him that I was from the states too – he wasn’t impressed.

Cairns Tropical Zoo

Wallaby

Laughing Kookaburra

Koala family

Kangaroos

Mama and Joey – look in the pouch!

A “Rooie” with my Kangaroo friend

Another Rooie

Mama and baby koala

Koala having a eucalyptus snack.

Koalas

Dingo

Cassowary

Peacock and wombat feet – look in the barrel.

I was undecided if I wanted to hold or take a photo with a koala. The decision was made for me. I got to the zoo past the last holding time. I really don’t know how I feel about touching wild animals. I know I touched the elephants, but there really aren’t wild elephants anymore in Asia, they are all owned by someone. I still was really close to the koalas and one was having his dinner – it was the cutest thing I have ever seen, besides Claude and Ruby and Giannis, whew, covered myself 🙂

I decided to just stay at Gilligan’s for the evening and had a couple of beers and some fish and chips. I had a good time, however I was starting to feel my age. Gilligan’s has a very Spring Break atmosphere. I’m glad I checked it out tonight because there is no way I’m stepping foot in this bar tomorrow or Wednesday night – wet t-shirt contest on Tuesday night and jell-o wrestling Wednesday. . . Not really my scene.