G'Day!
It's day 2 of my journey and I haven't wanted to leave since leaving the airport yesterday morning with Katie and Pete. Australia is amazing. I don't even know how to describe it. It's being in a foreign country, yet without all the language barriers, tourist maps, etc. lurking around every corner.
We are staying at Jax and Pete's place which is in Bondi (pronounced bond-eye). They are a short 10 minute walk from the beaches and of course, bars line Hall Street, the main drag where we walk to get to/from their house. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I left Wednesday morning from New Haven via train to Grand Central. From Grand Central, took a bus to JFK. Checked in at JFK around 1:15 p.m. and finally had breakfast. Travel from New Haven was good and on time. Same with the flights that I had. I had finished packing at 4 a.m. on Wednesday morning and only received about 2 hours of sleep before i got back up and went to work before taking off on vacation. I didn't sleep on the train, bus, or first flight. I decided to build it all up for the last flight- all 14 hours of it. At the time, it seemed like a great idea. But by the time I got to LAX, had lunch/dinner and a beer, and then got on the plane that didn't match the accomodations I had built up in my head, I was done. I had a window seat, which I thought was going to be closer than a foot away from the window- no place to prop my head. No outlets to keep my ipod charged, and there were no personal screens to chose what you wanted to watch, it was like watching t.v. on the bus that we used to take in high school to sporting events. I started to panic that I was never going to get to sleep on this plane.
But I did. I finally just put my eye mask on and put a pillow behind my head, and took my jet lag pills. I was out before we even took off. Most of you know that I am a sleeper- i can sleep pretty much anywhere or anytime and for a long period of time. Although a plane isnt the most ideal place to fall asleep, I did it for 12 out of the 14 hours. I woke up around 5 a.m. Australian time on Friday morning (that is 1 p.m. Thursday time in the U.S.)and was fine- no longer grouchy, happy to be 2 hours from the destination, and looking forward to the actual start of vacation.
When i got off the plane, I found out that Katies flight was delayed. Pete, Jax's boyfriend, was picking us up at the airport, but none of us knew what the other person looked like. Pete came to pick me up, even though Katie was 2 hours behind. We grabbed coffee at the airport (unfortunately, no bar was around) and chatted for a few hours. When he saw me at the gate exit, he came over to me and asked if I was Stephanie. I looked up and realized that this was Pete. We kissed and hugged hello, as is customary with everyone you meet here. The next thing he said was "You know, I didn't know what you looked like until this morning when Jackie showed me a picture of you and Katie, but those are always hard to tell what someone really looks like. Her written description was look for the two slutty looking girls, but I have to tell you, Australian slutty and American slutty must be two different things!". All I could do was laugh. I explained that because it is winter in the U.S., the sluts all layer this time of year for air travel.
We went to a breakfast place called "The Book Kitchen" where Annie, Katie's sister works and surprised her. We sampled a strawberry white chocolate muffin and a flat white coffee. Their coffee here is much different than what they serve in the U.S.
We went back to Jax and Petes apartment and Pete poured us our first Australian beer on the mainland: Schooner. We decided around 2:30 that we would head to Bondi beach to walk around and go for a swim since Katie and I were both in need of a shower, but wanted to go outside instead. Pete drove us to the beach and departed for work. Katie and I sat on the beach, walked the beach walk to 3 beaches over, and finally decided we were ready to take a swim. The beaches here all have sandbars about 10 feet out from the waters edge. You can swim for a few feet, get up on the sand bar for about 20-30 feet, and then drop back off into the water. The waves were incredible and the amount of surfers we saw shared that sentiment. It was the best feeling to have been somewhat stationary on a plane for 22 hours total but then to dive into the water and just have waves smash into you and jolt you. There were even sneak attack waves that would come up behind us on the sandbar and at just the right moment, they would collide with the new waves coming into shore and you would be standing in the middle of your own personal wave that is hitting at you from every angle. The waves gave the gift that keep on giving- like the fact that when we got home later that day to shower, sand was EVERYWHERE.
We stayed in the water swimming and jumping into waves for a few hours- we were prunes by the time we got out. We eventually walked back to Jax and Pete's, but not before stopping for a beer and sangria on the way home. When we got to their apartment, it was time to shower, change, and head to dinner at a place called the Rum Diaries. We had great drinks and food. Unfortunately, Kate was not doing well with the jetlag and ended up going home early from dinner. We finished our food and walked back to the apartment. Cotty, Jax and Pete's flat mate, was at the apartment. Jax, Pete, Cotty, and I talked until about 1 a.m., at which time we went to bed.
First impression of Australia is that it's a great place to live. There is so much to do here, people are friendly, weather is great (although my hair is thinking differently), beaches are nearby, as is city life. I'll be lucky if I come back to the states when all is said and done.
104 degree sunny weather? Or snow piles and overcast with a potential mix of sleet and freezing rain? Hm. Not-so-tough choice...
