Aussie road trip: 12641km (Part 4): September 2015

Melbourne

We arrived in Melbourne at night. It had been a long day, and we were looking forward to tackling the city in the morning. 

Melbourne had many exciting alleyways and arcades. There was one that was recommended to us for breakfast. It was a good recommendation, and we went back to try another place the following morning. I have to say though, we tried Vegemite for the first time, and were greatly disappointed. We had seen it in other countries where there is a high density of Aussie tourists. We even spoke to the owner of a hotel we stayed in Malaysia, and he told us the difficulties of making everyone happy. One of the things he mentioned was how at breakfast, he needed dumplings to keep the Chinese guests happy, and Vegemite for the Aussies.

Vegemite

Well, Javier ordered toast with Vegemite and it was simply awful. He took a few bites and downplayed just how bad it tasted. He offered it to me and I almost had to spit it out. He laughed and told me that he didn’t want to tell me how bad it was because then I wouldn’t have tried it. Needless to say, he didn’t finish it. Aussies love this stuff, but to us, it tastes like a bitter, stinky, multivitamin. I guess it’s one of those things you have to grow up with. 

We walked all over the city. We passed by a McDonalds and saw a “Maccas” sign above. Huh? Apparently, Aussies refer to McDonalds as “Maccas.” We went to both national galleries (international and domestic), parliament, the royal palace, churches, train stations, Chinatown, theaters, and the Victoria market.

Melbourne

We ended our day shopping on a street filled with outdoor gear. Javier had been looking for new boots, and found the ones he wanted, only problem was that they were fairly tricky to locate in Australia. He found a shop in Melbourne, emailed them, and asked to have a pair put on hold. They didn’t fit him, but we found another store just a couple doors down that had the boot in his size. The guy helping us out was Nepali, and used to guide people through Annapurna and EBC. Needless to say, we really enjoyed talking with him. 

Cook’s cottage, Melbourne

It was such a successful day. We hadn’t done that much sightseeing in a single day since Japan. We were exhausted. The following day, we attempted to go on a free walking tour, but I got the location confused, and we missed it- although, I have to say, we could have gone on the afternoon tour, but once we hopped on the free tram that takes you around the city center, we learned so much, we didn’t feel the need to take the tour. We visited Cook cottage and walked to the Royal botanic gardens, and the Shrine of Remembrance. I liked our sights today more than yesterday. Today, we walked through miles of parks. It was very peaceful, the weather was warm and sunny. I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day. 

Melbourne

We made our way back into the city for lunch. We went shopping for some jeans. I haven’t had any since they disappeared in India 9 months ago. It was about time, so I went through the headache that is shopping for jeans. I was surprised to find the brand I like in Melbourne since they were nowhere to be found in Perth. I was also surprised at the price. While I won’t say how much I normally pay for the jeans, I will say that they were twice the price in Melbourne. I just couldn’t do it. Instead, Javier found an Australian brand that happened to be on clearance. Yippee!

We relaxed the rest of the day. Javier had a Vietnamese coffee and I, a chai. We did some research and booked hotel rooms until our phones died. 

Lakes Entrance Sunset

We decided to take the coastal route through Lakes Entrance to Canberra, the capital of Australia. We were planning on driving straight to Canberra, but in looking for hotels, there was only one. Everything else was completely sold out. We did a little research to find out why. Canberra was hosting a duathlon among other activities, and all the hotels were fully booked. There was also a night festival that ended the following day, so we bought tickets, and booked a room for the next night. 

Our drive to Lakes Entrance was more of the same. Lots of grasslands and cows, spotted with massive power plants. :/ I had been trying to blog while Javier drove, so I wasn’t always paying attention. Today, that meant we went off track, but only maybe 20 minutes or so, which took us off the 2-lane road and onto a single lane country road, which we actually really liked. After a quick stop in Sale for lunch and fruits, we set off. We arrived at Lakes Entrance in the early afternoon. We checked in, warmed up (we were very cold for some reason) put on running clothes, and went for a short jog up to a lookout point and back through town center. We hadn’t gone for a run in a long time and the last was in SE Asia in the hot, humid, heat. It was so nice to run in the cool weather. My tendonitis started kicking in, so we called it quits a little early, but it was a nice distance for our first time out in a while. When we went back to the hotel, I noticed that my legs were starting to itch quite a bit. When I took off my pants, one of my legs was covered in a really annoying small bumpy rash. I bought lotion in Melbourne to help combat my dry reptile skin, thanks to the drastic and sudden climate change my skin was dealing with. But the rash was only on one leg, weird. After a shower, dinner, and lotion hiatus, we went to bed.

Canberra

In the morning, both of my legs were covered in this itchy rash, along with my arms. It looked really, really gross. I guess I won’t be using that lotion anymore. We made our way to Canberra. At one point, we were behind a logging truck. We are on a two-lane curly highway, so our options to pass were limited. Usually, these big long trucks will wait for a safe passing zone, turn on their blinker, which signals that the lane is open ahead of them, and it is therefore a good time to pass. It is very nice of them, and while we pass with care, they have all proved to be safe. This guy however, was the exact opposite. On the areas where it was unsafe to pass, he would slow down significantly. When it finally opened up for passing, instead of keeping a slower pace and signaling to pass, he would speed up. Enough to where it was unsafe as we watched his massive load swaying back and fourth all over the place. Needless to say, we had to wait quite a while for the road to straighten out enough to where he was still trying to speed up, but our little car was much faster, and he wasn’t swaying all over the place. We were still on the lookout for a wombat, but unfortunately only saw dead ones on the side of the road. For some reason, when we see a dead kangaroo, we get sad, but when we see a dead wombat, it’s still a little sad, but for some reason we think they look funny. I know, we’re horrible people. Just to give you an idea. We decided to count the dead kangaroos, only kangaroos. In 1.5 hours of driving about 70mph, we counted 83 dead roos. Javier started the count while I was blogging. When he hit 15, I stopped and started counting with him. Within 5 minutes we were up to 20, he didn’t see most of them, so who knows how many he missed along the way. Pretty gross, huh?

Floriade Nightfest in Canberra

We slept at the university! I didn’t know universities offered rooms for rent, but it was within walking distance to the event we were attending and highly reviewed, so we tried it out. It was kind of weird. Took me back a bit. We relaxed for a bit before taking off to the park. Every year, Canberra has a spring festival that lasts for one month. They pick 5 days out of that month to have a special night event with music, comedy, food, and lots of blacklights. We booked tickets while still in Melbourne, and good thing. When I went to will call, there were signs that it was sold out. One of my favorite types of flower is the tulip and this place was full of them! Who needs Holland! Just kidding…still on my bucket list. 

Floriade Nightfest

We walked around and appreciated the flowers; grabbed some hot chocolate and cookies, and listened to the music and comedy shows. We walked through the stalls and I wanted to buy everything. It reminded me of being at the fair, and made me really happy. Javier, as usual, was busy taking pictures. It was a really nice way to spend an evening. We also found out that we could visit the garden during the day for free, so we decided to stop by again in the morning before heading out. 

Floriade. Canberra

We were a little late getting out of the door in the morning. We walked to the park and went straight for the food tent and had a yummy outdoor breakfast with the flowers! We didn’t spend much time there, just took a couple more pictures and had to get moving. We had a 4 hour drive ahead of us to the Blue Mountains, and didn’t want to miss the sunset. 

After a few hour’s drive, we finally arrived at our hotel and walked to Echo Point- the lookout to the Three Sisters. It wasn’t too crowded, which was nice, and we enjoyed the views and sunset. We saw why the area is called the Blue Mountains- they really are blue! There’s this haze that covers them that gives this color.

Three Sisters, Australia

My mother did some research, and when we were talking, told me that it’s because of the eucalyptus forrest that covers the mountains. The area was beautiful and the Three Sisters were very majestic. We decided on a quiet night in, and since we were a good walk from town, we planned ahead and bought extra food for dinner. 

Javier wanted to see the Three Sisters in the daylight, so after breakfast, we walked back and you could see the tour buses lined up for blocks. It was much more crowded than the night before. We didn’t stay long, and were antsy to get to Sydney.

Blue mountain national park

We were staying at an Airbnb place in Sydney, and our host had recommended for us to go to an area called King’s Tableland and to try a German Bakery in the town, Wentworth. We tried, and failed, to get to King’s Tableland, and instead settled on Wentworth falls, with a view of King’s Tableland. We definitely made it to the bakery, where we found a Stritzel! I have heard that my last name was a sweet bread, but had never seen it. We had to buy it, and ate Stritzel for breakfast for the next three days. 🙂 Our host Dagmar, had recommended the pretzel, so we grabbed one for her and for us and hit the road. 

Jackie Pastry

We arrived in Sydney in the afternoon. Dagmar was waiting for us. She gave us a covered parking spot, and helped us to our room. Her place was so nice. It reminded us of our home in Marina del Rey. It was bright and spacious with plenty of natural sunlight and a pool just outside. Dagmar was so friendly and helpful. She is definitely one of our favorite hosts. We visited for a while before Javier and I decided to get ready to head into the city. 

Dagmar recommended us to go to Darling Harbour for dinner. Our friend Dion, currently living in London, but from Sydney, had sent me a long list of sights to see, places to eat and drink and a whole bunch of other recommendations.

Darling harbour. Sydney

One item on the list was a bar that has $1 hotdogs on Tuesdays. Well, it was Tuesday, and $1 dinner is right up our alley, so we decided to check it out. We walked to the metro station, purchased metro cards for our next few days, and took our four-stop journey into downtown. The place was really cute. You enter through a door that looks like an old Coca-Cola refrigerator. Inside, the place is dimly lit, and almost has a speak-easy feel to it, if it weren’t for the upbeat 50’s music. We didn’t have reservations (who knew Tuesday hotdog night was such a hit) so after we ordered at the bar, we wandered in search of a seat. Many of the tables were reserved, so we found a couple sitting on a long couch and asked if we could join them. They were very friendly and told us no problem, after all, they were occupying a reserved table themselves. They were hoping “Ryan” wouldn’t show up on time, so they could finish their drinks.

1dollar hotdogs. bomb.

We were served our gourmet hotdogs, which were quite delicious- all for a dollar! Thanks, Dion! At one point, the couple left, and another group asked if they could use some table space. We explained that we were squatters ourselves, so they were a little hesitant. We were half-way through our dogs when Ryan and his harem showed up. They were really nice about it, so we quietly excused ourselves and migrated to another open table where we hoped “Janice” was stuck in traffic. The wandering group found us, and joined our table where we all stood around eating as quickly as we comfortably could. I have to say, it made the whole experience quite fun. 

Sydney

We walked over to Darling Harbour, and took some pictures. We stopped to have ice-cream and enjoyed the sights. We walked a bit more, but were pretty tired, so took the train back home. When we arrived, Dagmar was visiting with a neighbor and invited us to join them. Before we joined, they were speaking in German, we noticed that after just a minute they had both switched to English, which we assume was for our benefit, since we hadn’t actually even joined them yet. That was quite nice of them. We planned on only visiting for a few minutes so that they could continue their night, but ended up drinking wine and having snacks. Next thing we knew, Dagmar’s friend had to leave because she had an early start the next morning, and the three of us stayed up a while longer just chatting and having a great time. 

Sydney walking tour

We had a busy day ahead of us. After a quick breakfast, we were off to the city for a free walking tour. We learned that most of Sydney was built by convicts and for the longest time, they had a single cannon on the beach for protection from invaders. Only one army tried, Napolean’s, but were stopped before they started. The tour was fun and we learned a lot about the history of Sydney as well as practical information for our stay. Our guide had mentioned a pub that she likes to patron that serves a pizza called “The Coat of Arms.” It’s half kangaroo/half emu and totally delicious.

Kangaroo Emu Pizza

A bit of trivia…Do you know why Australia chose a kangaroo and an emu for their coat of arms? Because neither animal can walk backwards…always moving forward. After pizza, we wandered over to the opera house. Can I just say, both Javier and I were underwhelmed by the opera house. It’s so iconic, and we were both so anxious to see it, but when we finally did, we both thought…meh! In our humble opinion, it looks much better in the photos. I don’t know if it is the building materials they used or what, but it kind of felt like it was built in the 70’s and was in need of an update. It’s like when you walk into someone’s grandparent’s house that was clearly decorated to the nine’s in some other decade, and now just looks dated. That’s the tragedy of the opera house. We still wanted to go inside, and they were showing, “Anything Goes,” so we went ahead and bought tickets for that night’s performance.  

Luna Park. Theme park

We had a few hours to spare so we jumped on the ferry to Luna Park across that water. It looks cool from the outside, but once inside, it felt like the amusement park from Pinocchio. I was half expecting little donkey children to start running around. Definitely a little creepy and rundown. We were out of there asap, yet missed the ferry by the hair of our chinny-chin-chins. 

Once back, we were in search of some much needed coffee, but found slim pickings in the CBD in the late afternoon. We found some bhan-mi sandwiches and pretty bad Vietnamese coffee to go along with it, but it did the trick. As the sun was setting, we snapped some pictures of the opera house and went in to take our seats.

Sydney

If the outside of the opera house didn’t impress us, the inside was even more of a let-down. Once inside the theater, it felt like we were sitting in a huge rock. Everything was concrete-and wood. No decorations, no color, nothing but grey concrete. Clearly, this look speaks to someone, just not us. The show however, was really good fun. 

The next day was more of the same. We learned on our tour that you can only spend a max of $15 a day in public transportation, so at some point, the balance on our “Opal” card stopped decreasing, so we just kept moving.

Manly Beach

We took a ferry to Manly beach where we walked around, had lunch, frozen yogurt, and took in the sights. It was a really cute little beach town. We were on the ferry back, when we decided to check out Bondi beach. We had heard from every local person that it sucks as far as beaches go, but it’s famous, so we had to check it out. When we arrived, there were still plenty of surfers out for an evening surf. Bondi has some street art that we admired and took pictures of. It quickly became dark, so we headed back home. After a little mix-up with the subway, we were finally pointed in the right direction.

savory pies

Javier had wanted to try beef pies in Australia, and our guide had recommended two places. One was a favorite of her boyfriend’s parents, who are English…good enough for us! It was also on our way home, so after eating the delicious beef pie, and washing it down with an even more delicious pumpkin pie, we waddled home. 

We had been pulling some really long days, without much rest, so we decided to take it easy on our last day to exercise, plan our trip, and just take it easy. We did some much needed laundry and went for a run around the park across the street. We stopped at a little bistro for lunch before hopping on the train to the city. I didn’t feel like going back, but Javier wanted to buy a new camera, so off we went. Javier being Javier, had done plenty of research on where to buy this thing. It is actually a camera we already own, but we seem to have purchased a lemon, and I was hesitant on buying more of the same. After talking with a guy at the store, he said the camera was still considered the best on the market for that category and the new version was supposed to be sturdier than the old model. We’ll have to se about that. Either way, we bought it, walked the city a bit more to take a few pictures that we missed the other two days, and went back home. 

Sydney

When we returned, Dagmar was there and asked us if we wanted to watch a movie later in the evening. We told her we would love to, we just had a little bit of planning to do, packing, and had to grab dinner. Before we left for dinner, we planned on starting a movie when we returned. She was currently watching a show that she said she could pause whenever we returned and finish at a later time. We walked to the main street in her neighborhood for dinner. After, I asked Javier if we could walk to a gelato place. Dion had mentioned it as some award-winning amazing gelato. It was only a couple blocks away, so we decided to check it out. The line was out the door and around the corner. Javier wasn’t too keen on waiting, but it’s gelato. How long could it take for people to order and move along? The line moved quickly and before we knew it, we had arrived. We each ordered a small scoop and started walking back home while we ate. I have to say, neither of us are gelato aficionados, and wouldn’t know if it was the world’s best if we tried it, but it was probably the best gelato we’ve tasted. 

We arrived back at Dagmar’s place a little later than expected. She was still watching her show, which she stopped for us, and together, we watched a movie. 

Dagnar

We finished packing in the morning, had breakfast, took a picture with Dagnar, and hit the road. Google told us that we had an 8.5 hour drive ahead of us, and Dagnar told us it was more like 12 hours. We arrived somewhere in the middle. It took us a little over 10 hours. We weren’t sure if we were going to make it to our desination or not, so we didn’t book ahead of time. We were headed by Byron Bay because I wanted to see the lighthouse. We were traveling on a long-weekend, which ended up biting us in the rear. Everyone was traveling. It was Saturday. Traffic was bad, and when we were a few hours away from our destination and realized we would in fact make it. We started looking for places to stay. Everything was sold out. We started looking at nearby cities. Everything was sold out or it was too late to book online. We arrived at a town called Lennox Head, and asked around for a place to stay. Again, nothing available. At one place, the guy had two female beds available, but nothing for men. He said we could check out another town, but that he had been sending people that way for the past 3 hours, and doubted there would be anything available. While we sat in the car, searching the web, we saw several more people being turned away. We decided that first things first, we needed dinner. As a last resort, we had sent emails to Airbnb hosts, and were hoping for a last minute acceptance. After dinner, we realized we were stuck, and yes folks, we slept in the car. We brushed our teeth, retrieved our sleeping bags, and finally found a dark, quiet place to sleep. By now, it was about 11pm and we had to be at the lighthouse by 6am the following morning to see the sunrise. We were both tired, but didn’t sleep too well. It was windy, and we were under a tree, which dropped small twigs and branches on us periodically, which sounded like the whole tree was falling. 

Sunrise at Byron Bay

We heard on the radio that it was daylight savings, so I changed the car clock before we went to sleep. I also set an alarm for the following morning. We had about five hours. My phone is weird, and a mystery as to whether it will update to the current time or not. I often arrive in a city and my clock won’t change until I connect to wifi. Probably an easy fix, but it surpasses my intelligence at this state. ANYWAY, I set the time thinking my clock wouldn’t change. Well, it did, so we woke up an hour early. So much for 5 hours sleep. We decided to head over to the lighthouse and wait there. It said online that first light was at 6:02 with full sunrise at 6:20. Not so, first light happened sometime around 5:45, so we were there to see it all. While there, we took some pictures and were waiting for the sun to come up. We saw some dolphins and whales in the water and were distracted for a moment.

Sunrise at Byron Bay

When Javier looked up, he said, “The sun!” Sure enough, there it was, a perfect profile view of a sunny-side up egg. Within less than two minutes the sun had risen, and it was a perfectly round orange ball. Neither of us had ever seen a sunrise like it. While we were there, a family walked up to us and asked about our car. Turned out that because of very limited parking availability, they had blocked us in, and told us that they would move it whenever we were ready to leave. As we were walking back to the car, they met up with us and we walked together. The mother told us that she has seen this sunrise many times, and this was the most beautiful she had seen. She too had never seen the sun so clear, orange and a perfect circle. It was truly magnificent. 

We were soon on the road and heading to our next destination. After we had been driving for a few hours, Javier points to the car clock and says, “Are you sure that’s the right time? Because my phone says something else.” My phone said something else as well, but I just chalked it up to my weird phone. We recanted how we had heard about daylight savings, and that I had move the clock correctly. After a quick google search, I found out that New South Wales, where we started our morning, observes DST. Queensland however, does not. So we lost an hour of sleep and gained it right back after 30 minutes of driving north, which is really great for us since we have a 12 hour drive ahead of us, but we were very confused for a minute there. 

Normally, we are each able to drive about 4-5 hours before needing a switch. Today, we couldn’t go more than a couple of hours. Javier started out, and I was so nervous that he would fall asleep, I couldn’t sleep myself. After breakfast and a really large coffee, I took over for a couple hours, while he had a good sleep. It was going to be a long day…

As we were driving, we came across a small town, and I noticed that all of the homes were on stilts. At first I assumed it was because of flooding, and then realized that we were inland with no body of water anywhere. It must be the critters! I’m thinking snakes, but that’s just my mind wandering. Why else would a home be built on stilts if it isn’t because of flooding?? Creepy…

Jackie road tripin’

It took us 15 hours to arrive at our destination. of those 15 hours, we drove about 14. Considering we had only slept for 4 hours the night before (if you could even call it sleep), been up since 3am, and been refueling with coffee all day long, we were ready to sleep. We wanted to get an early start in the morning, but after dinner and a much needed shower…we were wide awake. We didn’t get to sleep until 11pm. We decided to forego the alarm and wake up whenever. We slept like rocks, awoke at 7am, and were on the road by 8. Not too shabby.

…TO BE CONTINUED…

To see more pictures of Australia, click HERE.