After our buds seeing us off in Auburn, and then an amazing family and friends party in L.A. (thank God for those tacos) we were off! Sort of. We had a great heart felt goodbye to family and friends the morning of Saturday Jan. 19th. Hilary and I had previously purchased standby tickets with thanks to Marsha and her many years at Delta. The hope is enough people don't make it on the plane to open up spots for us on the standby list. You sit there watching your name on a screen with all the standbys getting on one by one while seats open up. Sitting there clutching your boarding passes shouting out your own names like a horse race; come on Vedder! come on Worland! Get yer asses to the finish line! My name is up, I made it on! Just one more for Hilary. But it doesnt come. I have to forfeit my seat to someone traveling alone. We make friends with some other passangers who didnt make it on, one who works with Delta. She shows us the inside scoop online and it looks like tomorrow's a winner. Brandon picks us up for one last night in L.A. The next night things run smoothly and we're on our 15 hour flight to Syndey and we just happened to snag seats next to each other for the flight. Free booze and cartoons! Seriously. We watched "Despicable Me 2" and drank complimentary Jack Daniels.
After arriving in Sydney, we set up on Wifi and book a great little hotel in the city center. We strap on our backpacks (ridiculously heavy, we may need to lose some weight later on) and get a shuttle out. Its pouring in Sydney, but the rain abruptly stops once we hit our hotel. Our hotel room is about a foot bigger than the actual bed on all sides but its clean and cheap. Heading out to the city we stop to get some beers. Holy Shit these prices! $25 A SIX PACK, $20 cigarettes, $40 for cheap vodka. We settle on some wine, which seems to have the best bang for the buck. I was starting to wonder how hobos survived in this city. We make our way through the gorgoues Hyde park which contains the stunning St. Mary's cathedral. Hilary's Catholic upbringing came out full force as she went running in and started lighting candles like we were in a black out. After some prayers and sneaky photos (NO Photos allowed Sir!) we continued on foot to the Sydney Opera House. The walk and the city is beautiful. Everything seems to have been carefully designed (besides the street circulation) and constructed to impress.
The Opera house was fantastic, a real architectual work of art. After finishing our bottle we found a recently deserted wedding dance floor with the opera house looming over head. We turned on some Beirut and did some drunken swaying (Max's form of dancing). We weren't able to gain entrance into the actual theater (there was a men's flute troupe playing?) but just being inside the building was spectacular.
The next day we took a bus out to the world famous Bondi Beach. Its insanely gorgeous beach matches its insanely gorgeous people. It almost makes you mad how fit and tan every person on this beach is. Even the tanned speedo guy with a gut and a Syslvester Sam Mustache is breaking hearts out here. We get our tan on, go for a swim and do some exploring.
Final day in Syndey: Our flight out isn't until 4pm so we head out to the Royal Botanical Gardens. The garden is one of the best we've ever seen, and I do my thing Hilary hates so much and tell her every species name I recognize. As we are headed through the rain forest section, Hilary jumps back screaming, "Komodo Dragon!" A 3 foot lizard goes running across the path while I supress my laughter. It may have been the biggest lizard either of us has seen in the wild, but it might also be the smallest komodo dragon anyone has seen. Thats it for Syndey! We had a wonderful few days but it's time to see our friend's in Melbourne!!!
