I Don't Think We're In Kansas Anymore!

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It has been five long years, but I am finally back down under, like Dorothy I fell asleep one day (I happened to do it on an airplane) and arrived the next day in Oz. We spent the first week or so of our trip in Wollongong, a beach community about 1 1/2 hours drive south of Sydney. After a small bump in the road getting here (our plane was delayed 1 1/2 hours), we finally arrived to one customs official and a huge line of people, but managed to finally make it out of the airport and in to the fresh air by 11am (we were suppose to be out and about by 9am). We were immediately greeted by my good friend Matty G. Many of you will remember him from his trip to California about two years ago- I know many of you took him in or spent a fair bit of time with him while he was traveling, so now it was our turn to invade his little city. Matty and I met in 2003 when I studied abroad in Canberra and have kept in touch since then. After his trip to California two years ago, I decided to kindly invite us all in for Christmas with him and his family in Australia. Of course, he said ok and so here we were. We did not immediately head off to the Sydney Opera House once we arrived, but spent our first week and a few days in his small city of Wollongong.

Matty has been asking me for a while what we wanted to do when we arrived and the easiest answer to give him was that we just wanted to chill out and hang out for a few weeks, which is exactly what we needed after leaving the crazy continent of Asia. So for the first few days we were here we did nothing but cook taco, play Wii and hang out at the beach with Matty, his brother Ben, their girlfriends and friends. The weather was not cooperating at first, there was plenty of "June gloom" and thunderstorms, but the weather did clear up for a few good beach days. I have exposed Jeff to mostly everything I loved from Australia the first time around: Fruity Lexia wine, Passion pop champagne, VB and Tooey's beer, an Aussie BBQ complete with snags (sausages), Turkish kebabs, Crunchies (my favorite chocolate) and of course Vegemite!

A few nights after we arrived in Wollongong, Matty's friends' band was playing at a bar called Beaches so we headed down and had a great night. They were a decent punk band (probably better than any of my friends' bands- no offense of course) and it was really fun to chill out with some cool people. Jeff is having a blast here because there is a casino within walking distance from Matty's apartment so we have also spent a few nights watching Jeff actually win money on the virtual roulette game.

Christmas Eve we had a fun little party over at Matty's apartment. There was Matt, Ben, Steph (Ben's girlfriend), Lisa (Matty's girlfriend), and the trio so it made for a fun night. We made a feast of chicken and salads and desserts and we definitely stuffed ourselves before the night was over. Everyone exchanged presents and Matty and Steph got the three of us these "London, Paris, Rome, Wollongong, New York" shirts. Because, of course, you would have to put Wollongong up there as one of those top international cities. 😊 We also did these things called bon bons (no not the chocolate ice cream balls) and everyone pulls an end and whoever has the largest end gets the prize inside. Like a wishbone, but with gun powder so it pops. Inside they all had plastic crowns and stickers so we put them all on and all looked amazing and we continued to celebrate Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning, Matty's parents came down with his younger sister from Sydney and we all drove down to Nowra another hour down the coast to his grandparent's house. His grandparents have an amazing house with a great ocean view and the weather was absolutely perfect! This was definitely the Aussie Christmas I wanted. We celebrated Christmas with Matty, Ben, his sis Amy, his parents, his two aunts, his uncle and his grandparents. We had a great lunch with chicken and ham, much like we have at home. The only exception is they have a lot of cold salads and trimmings instead of mashed potatoes and gravy, which of course would be way to hot for the summer weather. After stuffing ourselves, we opened pressies (that's what they are called here) and then headed down to the beach for a good ole Christmas game of cricket. Yep- the Americans played cricket on Christmas. We actually didn't do too badly and I think we represented our country fairly well, especially since no one in America actually plays or watches cricket. It was awesome to spend Christmas on the beach with gorgeous weather and although it wasn't home with our families, the Gallan family made us feel right at home. We had a wonderful time and absolutely loved everyone in Matty's family.

The 26th of December is Boxing Day. Boxing Day dates back to past centuries when it was the custom for the wealthy to give gifts to employees or to people in a lower social class, most especially to household servants and other service personnel. However, in Australia it is mostly associated with cheap after Christmas sales (like our black Friday) and for going to the beach or pub. We watched the cricket match between Australia and South Africa and then took a small walk along the boardwalk to the north Wollongong beaches. Once again it was a beautiful day and we were so lucky to have sunshine.

Matty did a great job showing us around the coast. We went to so many view points, walked across an amazing bridge that reminded me of Highway 1, and took us 2 hours down the coast to Jervis Bay. Jervis Bay claims that they have the whitest sand in the world and being an expert on different beaches recently, I would say that Jervis Bay's white sand was pretty white. I'm not going as far as to say it is the whitest, but it is definitely white! The beaches down there were gorgeous. Just as pretty as any exotic beach in Thailand or Indonesia. The water was super blue, but the water here is freezing compared to what we are used to in Asia. I think we have been a bit spoiled. We spent the day lounging on the sand and walking around the area. What I love about Australia is that you can drive from one major city to another and there is nothing but green hills and bush along the way. Unlike in southern California, where our entire coastline is populated. Australia is like California many years ago and I think that is part of its charm. It still has small beach communities and everything is laid back, but you have all the comforts of a So Cal lifestyle. I guess I just forgot why I love it here so much!

The next day was Jeff's 27th birthday and seeing as I wasn't quite sure what to do for him in Wollongong, I decided we would spend the day acting like kids and head up to the Jamberoo water park just up the road from Wollongong. The morning of his birthday I woke up early and made breakfast burritos and mimosas. Yes- I cooked and they actually turned out good. Well, good enough- we did only have Australian ingredients to work with here! After a delicious breakfast at Matty's house, we gathered a group of six people (Matty, Lisa, the trio, and Lisa's friend Mel) and headed off to Jamberoo. We arrived at Jamberoo a little after 10am to beautiful weather and plenty of water slides. We spent the day jumping off rocks, swimming in the wave pool, riding the Taipan (the premier ride at Jamberoo) and just generally hanging out and having a great day riding the rides. I think Jeff had a fun time even if it wasn't a hot air balloon ride or skydiving like his past birthdays. I had limited means and limited funds to work with this year! We arrived back at Matty's with enough time to rest up and have a few drinks before heading off to Jeff's birthday dinner. Dean and Claire (Matty's friends) joined us for dinner at Hogsbreath Cafe and we had a really fun night. The place was super Americanized so it made it fun for Jeff's birthday. He was able to order a huge burger with avocado and ranch dressing and have a yummy free birthday shot the restaurant gave him. He ended up spitting it out and taking it again just so I could get the photo I missed the first time he took his free birthday shot. I brought a cake to dinner and the restaurant brought it out all lit up and everything. After dinner, Jeff wanted to head back to Matty's for a quiet night of playing Wii and watching family guy. Overall, I think he had a good birthday on the other side of the world, but I know he was missing his family a bit.

After about 10 days in Wollongong, we decided it was time to explore the bigger city. The next morning, we got up, cleaned up Matty and Benny's house and decided to take the train into Sydney. Matty's parents have a house in Bondi Beach (the beach just outside the city) and were nice enough to house swap with us for a few days. Matty drove up all of our bags and we took the train and made it up to Bondi in time for lunch with Matty's parents. We had BBQ steak and wine and it was so nice of them to have us. Then they took off to Wollongong and their adorable 2 bedroom beach house was ours! We spent our time in Bondi shopping and going to the beach. It was amazingly crowded, but this is the busiest time of year in Sydney so I guess it explains the crowds. Paris Hilton was in Sydney for the New Year so one day while me and the girls were off shopping the boys saw her down at the beach. Apparently she was just walking along Bondi Beach with a huge crowd behind her and paparazzi in front of her. As the boys were walking up to their towels from the ocean she was walking all over their towels. So they were pretty close to her. Nothing like a celebrity sighting in Australia!

That night was NYE and we were really excited for the celebrations. Dean and Claire came up from Wollongong and the seven of us had tickets to a party up on this hill in Bondi. We all chilled out here for a while, having some drinks in the backyard here and then took off for the party around 8pm. We finally arrived at 9:30pm to the party (the walk was a lot longer than expected). When we arrived to the park, it was a very family friendly atmosphere, but as the night went on, more people were dancing to the DJ and drinking champagne. The park overlooks the entire city of Sydney and you had perfect views of the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. At 11:30pm we found our spot amongst the crowd so we can see the amazing fireworks display they put on in the harbour for the New Year. At midnight we had a perfect view of the fireworks, which were absolutely amazing. The promoters said they were trying to make it the biggest fireworks display in the world! There were tons of fireworks over the harbour and our view was perfect. I couldn't have asked for anything better. We avoided the huge crowds in the city, but still saw the awesome display. It was a perfect new year's and I had to keep pinching myself to remind me I was in Sydney on NYE!

While we were staying at Matty's parent's house in Bondi my friends from the University of Canberra through a New Year's Eve Recovery BBQ so that I could see all my old friends from Uni. They were all there: Kate and Mike, Suse, Nez, Cath, Holly and Tan, Grant and Amanda! We were only missing a few of our old UV 2 crew and it was so great to see them after five years. Kate and Mike through the BBQ. They live in Sydney just a few blocks from Central Station in an adorable house complete with a spiral staircase and an automatic rubbish bin! They made some great food on the BBQ, amazing salads and of course we drank some good ole Aussie beer. It was so weird to be with all these people again after five years and seem as if nothing had changed. Some of us are just grown up now (apparently I'm not one of them!). I cannot thank them enough for letting us come invade their house and for throwing this awesome BBQ. Jeff and I ended up staying until 2am before catching the bus back to Bondi that night. I guess after five years you have a lot to catch up on!

We stayed in Bondi until the 3rd of January, right up until my parents arrived in Sydney. I really like Bondi Beach. The beach is gorgeous (but crowded) and the little town is super fun. There are stores and restaurants and bars and cute little sidewalk cafes. It's just a really fun vibe and I am so happy we got to stay there for a while. Matty's parents’ house was a perfect way to spend the last few days with my friend. It's good to be back in Oz!

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Photos

Our Christmas Eve feast
From Left to Right: Lisa, Steph, Ben and Me

The whole crew on Christmas Eve
Benny, Matty, Steph, Lisa and the trio

In front of Aussie Pipeline
The surf was not very pipe like