Australia is weird

Since I have now been here for 7ish weeks, I am learning a lot about how weird Australia is.  Here are some ramblings:

- The doorknobs in our apartment are made for giants.  Seriously.  The knob on the door coming in through the back door of the apartment complex comes almost up to my head.  High doorknobs lead to bruises on my upper arm due to my short stature and clumsiness.  Not cool. 

arvo = afternoon

-At the grocery store, all 4 wheels on the grocery cart turn (in the U.S., only the front wheels turn).  When all 4 turn, it makes it extremely difficult to turn the cart .... especially when it is heavy or full of groceries!  One day I will take a video of how fun it is to push the cart.

- Most escalators are ramps.  Usually there is some type of grocery store or other store requiring a cart so there are ramps instead of steps.  When you push the cart on the escalator, it locks the cart into place so it doesn't get away.

- The all important bar situation:

1. Most places do not allow you to open a tab and/or it is not common practice to open a tab.  This means you have to walk up to the bar every time you would like a beverage.

2. Usually to use your card there is a $10 minimum.  Since you can't open a tab, you have to spend $10 every time you go up to the bar (unless you have cash of course).  Usually this is not a problem because the drinks are ridiculously expensive (my next point) but if you are ordering just one drink, this is usually not enough to cover the minimum.

3. The drinks are expensive!  Thank god we were not here in college ... I wouldn't have money for food!  A typical beer or glass of wine at a bar costs anywhere from $7-10.  A mixed drink costs a couple dollars more.  For a higher end beverage (beer/wine/or liquor), it will definitely cost over $10.  It was a really exciting night when we found margaritas as a Thursday night special for only $5.  Mind you, it was a gay bar but totally worth it.  They also advertise Corona specials sometimes for $5 (at Mexican restaurants, not the gay bar). 

4. There is no tipping (Yeah!) but ... I also thinks that changes the service.  I thought that since tipping was not a common practice that the service would basically still be the same (they still make a decent amount of money.  The minimum wage here is around $16/hr), but I was sort of wrong.  For one, in most places you do not get served, you have to order at the bar.  I have never had a waiter/waitress wait on us at a bar, even if you are at a table.  This also goes for food.  In most places, bars and restaurants (at least everywhere I have been with the exception of a really nice restaurant), you order food at a counter or bar.  They will then bring it to you.  The only wait person is the person that cleans up the table after you. 

5. A bar here is called a hotel.  A hotel as we know it (with rooms) is still called a hotel.  Almost all hotels have a bar but not all hotels have rooms.  There is a hotel in most every little town and from my observations it is usually the nicest and oldest building in the town.  Here is a picture of the oldest hotel in Australia:

6. Cider is a huge thing here.  It seems like this is the drink of choice for most females.

Enough rambling about bars ...

What would you think a "refuge island" is?

 

Just another name for a crosswalk that has an "island" in the middle of the road for walkers ...

 

 

 

- assume sounds like "ashume"

- anything with tu- makes a "ch" sound.  So, Tuesday is "chewsday" and a tune is a "chune"

 

Restaurant Oddities:

 

1. While dining, you will not receive free bread or chips and salsa, etc. at the table.  Such a travesty.

 

2. It helps to ask for water for the table.  Otherwise, they seem to forget I asked for water and never give me a single glass.  The water comes in a big jug (usually like an empty wine glass) and I have never received ice.  I am slightly worried that in the summer it will be 90 degrees out and I will be drinking warm water. 

 

3. At nicer establishments, it is common to tip, but no more than 10%.

 

4. They really do not have a lot of chain/franchised restaurants here (U.S. or Aussie chains).  Most restaurants are independently owned.  The type of food is similar to American. 

 

5. I have seen very little fast food.  The most fast food restaurants I have seen are when we drove 5 hours to Tamworth.  A lot of the rest stops had a McDonalds, Hungry Jack's (Burger King), KFC (I was most shocked at this one), and Subway. 

 

6.  Some of the other "American" chain restaurants I have seen are Starbucks (not huge here), Gloria Jean's, and  Outback (which I find hilarious). 

 

- Australians are big coffee drinkers. Like the restaurants, they typically do not have franchises.  Most are independently owned neighborhood/mom and pop type places.  In our little neighborhood, they have three coffee shops right next to each other.  There is never a lack of places to buy coffee!

 

-Along with the coffee, they usually do not drink their coffee black (or even with sugar/cream).  A coffee as we know it would be called a "tall black."  I think the most popular coffee is a flat white which is basically a latte without all the foam at the top.  I actually like it better than a latte and it is my drink of choice. 

 

- Since I tend to pee (or "wee" as it is said here) more than the average person, I have grown to hate the restroom situation.  Mainly, the situation in bars/restaurants.  I swear, people here do not use the restroom.  I am fairly certain that it is not required to have a restroom on the premises where food is served.  Smaller restaurants and coffee shops, etc. will not have a public restroom.  In restaurants, I have gotten use to the restroom being outside, in alleyways (not actually peeing in the alley but having a legit bathroom in the alley), or in the fire escape stairway.  Not cool. 

 

- No, the toilets do not flush backward.  All the toilets are low flow so they go strait down.  They also do not have automatic flushing toilets.  In fact, I think I saw a sign or advertisement making fun of countries that use automatic toilets (god forbid it flushes on you). 

 

lollies = candy

fairy floss = cotton candy

spiders = coke floats (or according to Adam, any type of float)

 

 

 

There are so many more but all for another post!  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

OMG 5 Years!

This past weekend, Adam and I celebrated 5 years!  We had a nice little weekend.  On Friday night, we went to a wine bar down the street from our house.  We then went on a long walk across the bridge and enjoyed a nice dessert at a chocolate store with a beautiful view of the harbor.  On Saturday, we went for a run and then later went out to dinner at Sean's on Bondi Beach.  The food was fantastic and the dessert even more so.  According to Adam it was one of his favorite desserts ever.  Finally, on Sunday we went on a trail in Garigal National Park.  We saw a natural sandstone bridge that was cool.  The trail was difficult and a week later, my knee still hurts :(  I feel old.  Altogether, I would say it was a great weekend and a wonderful time celebrating 5 years!  Here are some pix from the trail:

This is the natural bridge.

 

Bantry Bay

Looking back 5 years ago, I never would have imagined this is where we would be.  I never thought that life would take us to Australia (at least to live).  I also thought we would have kids by now ... but you never know where life will take you! 

To compare, 5 years ago, I was working on my Masters degree and about to start my first year teaching 6th grade at Harrison Elementary.  Adam was working at Porter paints.  We were living in a crappy apartment in Cheviot.  Since then, we have adopted a dog, bought a house, switched jobs/careers (Adam is a sales rep and I teach special ed), finished school (multiple times for me), and moved across the world. 

In the next 5 years, we hope to be back in the U.S. with hopefully a kid (or 2)!  Adam will hopefully move up in his company and work on the international side of things.  Who knows what I will be doing (probably either teaching or being a stay at home mom).  I'm writing all this down so that in 5 years I can remember what we were thinking and compare it to what actually happens!  Cheers to many more anniversary's to come!

Walk to Manly

On Sunday (July 21), Adam and I walked from our apartment to Manly Beach.  We then took the Ferry back to Circular Quay and then walked back to our apartment from there.  Altogether, we walked about 13 miles. 

The second half of the walk is from the Spit to Manly Beach along the Manly Scenic Walkway. This is suppose to be one of the most beautiful walks in Sydney.  Here are some of the views!

 

Along the walk, there is apparently a cove that often has penguins.  I really wished we saw a penguin but alas we did not.  I did capture this picture though:

When I told my sister, Kelly, that we were walking to Manly, she questioned what type of beach this was so I looked up why they named it "Manly Beach."  Apparently, when Captain Arthur Phillip landed here he commented on the indigenous people stating, "Their confidence and manly behaviour made me give the name of Manly Cove to this place" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manly_beach). Unfortunately, I did not see any "manly" people at the beach.  It was rather crowded though (making us realize it was a good thing we did not move there) and there were plenty of surfers in the water. 

I was looking forward to taking the Ferry back to Circular Quay since I had yet to take a Ferry ride at this point.  Although it was in the high 60s, the Ferry ride was freezing.  I guess it didn't help that we sat out front in the shade.  My non-swimming husband apparently finds it safer outside on the deck of the ferry instead of inside where it was nice and warm.  Go figure. 

Many people say that the best way to see Sydney is from the water.  Although I did think it was beautiful, I didn't really think it was better than some of the other views of the city.  The trip also reminded me of how annoying it is to live in a tourist city (sorry, I am about to go on a rant).  One of the main reasons you couldn't get a good view of the city was all the people standing in the way to snap a picture.  Mainly, one family who thought it was their right to block everyone's view to take literally hundreds of family pictures at the front of the boat (a couple photos would have been acceptable, not hundreds).  Yes, I understand I am sort of a tourist but I live here, so I am going to exempt myself :)  There is also a difference between the types of tourists.  For any future tourists, all I ask is to walk on the correct side of the sidewalk (the left side, something that was difficult for me to get use to!), do not take up the entire path (this happens WAY too often, especially with big tour groups and probably my biggest pet peeve), be respectful of other people and the environment (mainly the animals), and don't be annoying.  That's not too much to ask, is it?  On another note, I do get asked for directions a lot so I guess I look like a local (for the record, I usually have no idea what to tell them)!

Enough with my rant ... here are some picture I was able to snap!

Looking back on Manly Wharf:

 

Heading into the city and Circular Quay:

 

I honestly couldn't imagine having to take the ferry into work everyday (many people do).  Altogether it was about a 30 minute trip. 

 

Overall, we thought the walk was very nice.  I wouldn't say it was my favorite in the city but it was pretty.  The walk from the spit to manly beach was rather rocky and hilly.  There were a lot of steps through this part of the walk.  We passed several runners along the way.  I think this run would be extremely difficult so go them! 

Tamworth

Last week, Adam went to Tamworth for work so I decided to tag along.  Tamworth is about 5 hours away from Sydney to the northwest.  It has a population of 46,000 people.  We stayed there Tuesday-Friday.    I had low expectations about the city and the trip based on what others told us but luckily I was pleasantly surprised! 

Tamworth happens to be the country music capital of Australia and since I enjoy country music, I thought it would be fun to explore this aspect of the city.  Unfortunately for me, Australian country music is not the same as American country music and I had never heard of any of the country music stars that appeared idolized in this city.  Yes, that includes no Keith Urban (which, for the record, I never hear about nor do I hear his music).  Ironic enough, I never heard a single country music song the entire 4 days I was in Tamworth!  So much for being the country music capital of Australia ...

For the majority of the drive to Tamworth, it was dark outside so we could not see any of the landscape.  Australia does not have the highway systems that we are accustomed to in the U.S. so basically the majority of the drive was along 2 lane country roads that drove you through the heart of every little town along the way.  This makes it nice to see all the little towns and the Australian countryside but does not make for a quick ride. 

We stayed at the Edward Perry Motel which was a little motel about 1 km outside the CBD of Tamworth (basically downtown Tamworth).  It was surprisingly very clean, comfortable, and modern inside. 

The first day, Adam had to work in the morning so I decided to take a walk around the town.  I walked through Bicentennial Park and then down Peel Street which is their central business district.  Here is basically what Bicentennial Park looked like (with the mountains in the background):

The Bicentennial Park left a lot to be desired, but Peel st. was nice.  There were a lot of shops and cafes along this strip.  Apparently they have FSW shoe warehouse instead of DSW ...

 

  Sadly, in my 1.5-2 hour walk, I saw the majority of what Tamworth has to offer.  Once Adam finished working, we went out to lunch (also on Peel St.) and then headed to Tamworth Marsupial Park.  This was a free park right outside town.  We were basically the only people inside this little park.  Here are some of the many indigenous birds we saw at the Free Flight Aviary. 

 

 

 

The best part about the park were the Eastern Grey Kangaroos which were allowed to roam around the park for free.  They were accustomed to being around people so they did not hop away when we walked past them.  This allowed us to get the closest I have ever been to a kangaroo and actually snap some decent pix!

 

The best part were the videos I was able to capture of the kangaroos ...

 

 

 

I basically realized kangaroos are a lot like deer.  They are also very lazy and like to lay around all day. 

 

After seeing the kangaroos and birds, we walked to Oxley Lookout. 

 

 

We continued along the trail to the Regional Botanic Gardens.  The only picture I snapped in the gardens were these fish ... there honestly was not much to see and was rather disappointing :(

 

 

From the Botanic gardens, we walked back to Marsupial Park.  Along the trail we were able to see an echidna (which Adam has never even seen!).  They apparently are bashful so this little one refused to show his head.  They reminded me of a porcupine.

 

 

The last stop in the park were the Emus.

 

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the little park.  I would definitely return to see what other animals we come across!

The second day, we went for a little run in the morning.  I have realized through walking/running through the city that Tamworth is not the most athletic city.  The two days out, we only saw a few people walking through the park and zero runners.  At one point, we passed a few women and their kids in the park and they commented "Look, energetic people!"

While running, we stopped along the way for pictures of some of the monuments that I passed the previously morning. 

In the first picture, I am sitting next to Smokey Dawson.  The second statue seriously did not have a name attached to it at all.  They had several statues of other country music stars throughout Bicentennial Park.  They also had a "Country Music Hands of Fame" where famous country music stars basically get their hands printed in concrete.  Again, all of people I never heard of ....

After our run, we went to see one of the main attractions of Tamworth ...

A giant golden guitar!

That evening, we went to Safari Club for dinner.  It was based on a recommendation Adam received at the hospital which ended up being a great recommendation.  It was a really nice steakhouse in Tamworth CBD.  It ended up being the best meal Adam said he has had since coming back to Australia.  Go figure, in a little town of Tamworth there was such a gem! 

We left Tamworth on Friday morning.  It was nice to finally see all the countryside in the daylight.  On the way home we stopped in Hunter Valley.  This is one of Australia's main wine areas.  We were pleasantly surprised at the number of wineries we found (I think I read over 160 wineries and the majority were within a few miles of each other).  We ended up going to Brokenwood winery based on recommendations.  Here is our loot!

We finished out Hunter Valley experience with lunch and then cheese tasting!  I will definitely be spending some more time in Hunter Valley!