Last week in Sydney...so long and thanks for having us!

We packed up our rucksacks today and said goodbye to Laura and Katie - next time we'll see those guys will be back home in sunny Scotland! We then headed downtown to pick up our campervan.
After figuring out how to pay for the toll roads (everything is done electronically here, so you have to register a credit card and your vehicle. Your card then gets charged automatically each time you pass over a toll road, which is handy) and stocking up on some camping food, we hit the road. We arrived in the small town of Gosford (50 miles North of Sydney) just in time for lunch.
Sydney has been a blast - it’s such a beautiful city with lots of great sights, but the highlight has definitely been hanging out with some friendly, familiar faces!
 
During our final week our best bits have been:

o    Visiting the Chinese Garden of Friendship – a garden right in the hub of the city near Darling Harbour. Really peaceful spot with the most the impressive bonsai trees.

o    Spending the afternoon in Watsons Bay – we took a short ferry ride over to the bay. Beautiful part of Sydney, with lots of great walks. The main attraction is a cliff face called The Gap – a dramatic looking cliff that was meant to have inspired Alfred Hitchcock when he visited in the 1960s. Great chip shop on the Wharf too!

o    Swimming in the outdoor pool at Luna Park – a really lovely outdoor pool; it’s an amazing experience, to be swimming along while watching a train pass over Sydney Harbour Bridge! Fantastic views of the city to swim by.

o    Watching the new Sherlock Holmes movie at the Moonlight Cinema – based in Centennial Park, the outdoor cinema is set up over the summer months. It was a great atmosphere and BYO food and drink was encouraged, so it felt similar to T in the Park (the toilets were a far sight better though!). Pretty magical experience - watching a movie with the sound of the crickets in the background and flying foxes overhead.

o    Celebrating Laura’s birthday – so pleased we were in Sydney for Laura’s birthday weekend, lots of good food and wine (thanks Katie!).

o    And finally, Katie’s Leek and Chicken Pie – Katie it was one of the best pie’s we’ve ever tasted, we seriously think you should consider a career at Pie Face!

Thanks again to Laura and Katie for letting us stay with them for four weeks, it’s been an amazing help to our travel budget and a great laugh!

Now in Gosford, we plan to spend the day exploring the town before finding a good site to set up camp for the evening.

Week Three in Sydney...the great outdoors

We had a great week, last week, as well as exploring a bit more of the city, we managed to firm up the arrangements for the next part of trip - not long before we pick up our new set of wheels and hit the road again!

We spent Monday booking our campervan for our east coast trip. It’s similar in size to our last camper, but newer and more reliable (so we are pretty confident this camper will not breakdown). We pick up our camper next Monday. Really looking forward to camping again, seeing the beautiful east coast...and having a few BBQs on the beach!
Last week, we spent most of our time outside enjoying the lovely weather. Monday was Sydney’s hottest day so far this summer at a sweltering 36 degrees!

o    Centennial Park
In the funky Surrey Hills part of town, there’s a huge park called Centennial Park. The park houses the Moonlight Cinema, an outdoor cinema screen set up in the park over the summer months. We picked up tickets to see Sherlock Holmes 2 on Friday night. We spent most of Tuesday just chilling out in the park, before grabbing some dinner and a couple of schooners in a pub nearby.

o    Shopping in outdoor mile in Sydney
Thankfully all the outdoor stores are located on the same street. We discovered this street on Wednesday and spent the afternoon stocking up on essentials for our campervan. I also bought a really good pair of walking boots; essential for the last part of trip when we go walking in South East Asia. We spent the morning in the historic Paddy’s Market, a huge indoor market with lots of stalls and the best value fresh fruit and veg we’ve found so far. Sydney is pretty expensive for most things, but out of season fruit and veg is particularly pricey (a bunch of bananas might cost you $12!), so Paddy’s Market is really handy for cheap supplies!

o    Blue Mountains
On Saturday, we hired a car and headed out of town to an area called the Blue Mountains with Laura and Katie. The Mountains are part of a large National Park. We were very lucky with the weather as it had been raining constantly the day before. When we arrived the mist had lifted and the sun was out, it was perfect. We bought a pass to explore the mountain range on the various transport modes – the world’s steepest railway took us down the rainforest track (the train was more like a rollercoaster but without any safety belts. It was a bit of a shock as we plummeted 200 metres into darkness, before reaching the bottom of the cliff! The Indian Jones tune should have been a sign that this was no ordinary train! We took the cable car back up for views of Solitary Mountain, the Orphan Rock and the Three Sisters (three single rock formations) before catching the Skywalk over to the Katoomba waterfall and the Three Sisters walkway. We finished the afternoon off in the local village, with a drink in the local pub, listening to ukuleles! (the ukulele festival was on - how could I forget!).

o    Dragon Boat Race
Sunday was probably just as hot as as Monday, so we were pleased we got our hike around the Blue Mountains out of the way on Saturday! We headed to the harbour in the afternoon to watch the Dragon Boat Races. It’s part of the Chinese New Year Festival and is an annual tradition. We spent the afternoon watching the rest of the races with some cold drinks under the much needed shade of a parasol!

This week is our last week in Sydney and it will be pretty busy as we try to fit in the last few attractions and activities we have planned.

Week two in Sydney – Don’t Rain on our Parades!

Experienced some more temperamental Australian weather last week. Apparently it’s been the worst summer in Sydney for over 50 years. It’s not like Scotland though. Although it rains now and again (mostly intermittent showers, occasionally it can be the ‘take cover’ torrential rain), it doesn’t last long and it’s been so hot recently, you actually welcome it. It did mean, however, that we postponed our out of town trip to the Blue Mountains to next weekend instead. Fingers crossed next Saturday will be lovely and sunny, with beautiful blue clear skies!

Despite the unpredictable weather, we still managed to get up to a lot of fun things last week....

•    Australia Day
Thursday marked Australia Day, a national public holiday. The city was packed with people (a lot were kitted with full outfits donning the Aussie flag) and the pubs were even busier. We spent most of the afternoon in The Rocks (a small historic part of Sydney near the harbour. The cobbled streets give it a real Edinburgh feel), with three stages of live music and lots of stalls. After deciding the Harbour Stage had the best mix of music, we settled there for a while and watched a couple of bands. We ended the day in Darling Harbour, where we joined the masses to watch the boat parade and fireworks.

 
•    Surrey Hills
A really funky part of Sydney; all the streets are named after English streets, such as Oxford St and Crown St and they are packed with interesting restaurants, bars and independent clothes shops. We only really went to the area to use the internet at the public library, but we plan on going back next week to try out some of the bars.

•    Gallery of New South Wales
There’s lots of interesting museums in Sydney, unfortunately the majority are quite expensive, but there are a couple of gems that are free. We spent Sunday afternoon in the Gallery of New South Wales. Amazing building, great contemporary art exhibits and...free Wi-Fi.

•    Chinese Twilight Parade
The Chinese New Year Festival is currently in full swing in Sydney, with lots of events on over the next couple of weeks. Really glad we are in Sydney to experience this. Last night we attended the twilight parade – a parade spanning a couple of miles along the main street, from the town hall to Chinatown. We managed to get a good spot to watch the parade (although, there did seem to an unusually high number of trams going past to block our view every now and then!). It was great seeing the masses of dragons (2012 is the year of the dragon), floats and dancers. Although, I think the best part would have to be the mini panda parade (a mass of children dressed up in panda costumes!).

Today seems to be one of the hottest days in Sydney so far (and there’s no sign of rain), so it seems a pity to waste it in the library. Off to find a beer garden for a couple of schooners (small pints) in the sunshine. 

First week in Sydney...

And I never thought I’d have to put suntan lotion on my toes!

Really enjoying Sydney (and the fantastic sunny weather) but there is a couple of downsides to the beautiful city. Firstly, free Wi-Fi is nearly non-existent (hence the huge gap since our last blog posting) and secondly, it’s a very expensive place (especially in comparison to the States) e.g. pints are around $5/6 and everyday essentials like bottled water are around $3.

We had originally intended to stay in Sydney for around 2.5 months to make use of our working visas, but after looking into apartment rental and hostel prices we decided to cut our stay short, to just one month. Luckily, our friends Laura and Katie (who arrived in Sydney last year and are set up with jobs and  a nice apartment) offered to let us stay at their apartment while we are here, which is an amazing help to our travel budget – thanks guys!

Sydney is a great city, there’s so much to do and there seems to be a different festival or event on every weekend. So far we have...

• Watched live music in the Domain during the Sydney Festival. Was all going well until the torrential rain hit and the whole crowd had to run to the subway station (the only bad weather we’ve experience in Sydney so far).

• Chilled out in Hyde Park. Named after the park in London; it’s a mini replica.

• Walked over Sydney Bridge in the blistering sunshine. Not quite the same as walking over the Forth Road Bridge or Brooklyn Bridge, as the walkway fence is extremely high and covered in mesh and barbed wire! But you can still get some good photos through the slight gap and the views were still good.

• Visited the Botanic Gardens in the Domain. Amazing place, with flying foxes nesting in most of the trees – We’ve never seen such big bats!

But I think our main highlight so far, was riding the ferries over to Cockatoo Island and Manly beach, last weekend.

Cockatoo Island (a former prison, school and shipyard) is a historical site with regular art shows and events. We spent a good few hours walking around the small island and taking in the exhibits. We had a quick drink in the Island Bar, before catching our next ferry.

Manly beach is a lovely bay in Sydney Harbour; lots of funky restaurants and bars and surfer chic shops. We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out on the beach with a couple of beers, watching the surf! Ended the day with fish and chips in the pub overlooking the beach.

Looking forward to celebrating Australia day this Thursday (a national public holiday) and heading to the harbour to watch the ferry races and taking in a band or two.

Melbourne and someone’s Birthday

Had a fantastic few days in Melbourne. Stayed in St Kilda, a small seaside town, really lovely place much like Portobello in Edinburgh and our hostel was just round the corner from the beach.
Great bars and restaurants (especially the “cake street”) and little boutique shops. We spent most of our first few days chilling out on the beach and shopping.

Had mostly beautiful hot weather the whole time we’ve been here...apart from the morning of Arran’s birthday when we woke up to torrential rain! Luckily the rain went off before we departed on our animal expedition. First stop was a small Kangaroo ranch just outside of Melbourne where we spent ages feeding kangaroos, wallabies and wombats. Really nice little ranch and it was amazing being able to pat the tame Kangas!

After a quick bbq at the ranch (we had Kangaroo sausages, sorry guys) we headed over to check out some sleepy koala bears in a sanctuary just up the road. Apparently Koala meat is one of the only meats Aussies don’t eat as its poisonous (they also eat crocodile and camel).

We stopped off for dinner in a small coastal town on Phillip Island called Cowes, before our final (and best) stop – the dusk Penguin Parade.
Part of Phillip Island is a protected conservation site for the penguins as every night at dusk, they waddle out of the sea across the beach, up to their dens to feed their babies. The National Park now protects the area and monitors the penguins, but people are allowed to come down and view the dusk parade within a restricted area. You're not allowed to take photos though, as the flashing lights and clicks disorientate the little penguins. We had a VIP pass to the parade which meant we had an exclusive front row seat on the beach, with a headset to listen to our very own park ranger commentary (it was like something out of a David Attenburgh documentary!). It was fantastic to see the penguins pop up out of the sea and wait for patiently for the rest of their pack to walk across the beach with. It was a lovely night too and great being able to watch all this, by moonlight.
Last day in Melbourne today, so we are going to spend it in the city centre before our overnight train to Sydney this evening.

Last few days in the US

Spent our last couple of days in LA like proper tourists - took in an open top bus tour to see the sights (as LA is sparse and difficult to navigate on foot) and spent yesterday at Universal Studios. Worth every penny and luckily it wasn’t too busy, given the time of year, so we had little to no time to wait for most of the rides and tours.
 

 

The best bits of Universal Studios had to be...

• Seeing the sets on the studio tour - Psycho, Whoville, Wisteria Lane and Jaws.

• The 360 degree 3D King Kong ride.

• The WaterWorld show with full pyrotechnics, full sized crashing planes and hammy American acting. 

 

We are now just getting packed up before heading out for the day in Santa Monica. Later tonight we will leave the States and head to our next continent – Australia!
After an arduous plane journey we will arrive in sunny Melbourne on Friday 6 January.

US Road Trip Video

Finally found enough time to put together some of the video we took from our road trip around California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. So here it is...

Road Trip Video Link

 

Venice Beach

Venice Beach is described as a haven for the artistic and creative...I would tend to agree with this, given some of the amazing street art, murals and musical performances...however i’d probably chuck in “...and for the pot heads and eccentrics!” really lovely vibe to the town, laid back and chilled out people. The promenade feels like how we imagined San Francisco may have been back in the 70s. 

The promenade is bustling with shops, bars and street performers. It’s really good for people watching and entertainment, but it’s a real mixed bag from talented musicians and artists to just a chap walking around in his speedos with a boom box on his shoulder or a chap selling two jokes for a dollar (good value though, it was one joke for dollar in New York). Note to anyone visiting Venice Beach, there’s lots of a street performance to see on the promenade, but if you are going to stop and watch you have to be prepared to pay!

Promenade near the beach

We started this morning by shooting some B-ball on the courts, just past muscle beach (a small caged courtyard with gym equipment and oily swartznigger wannabes)...I have to say Arran was looking like a semi-pro (playing basketball that is) while I tried to profile my best netballing skills! We ate lunch watching a couple of street basketball games. Apparently basketball scouts for the NBA regularly hang out here to spot potential future stars.
A really beautiful part of town is the Venice Canals area. Apparently its one of the most sought after property areas in LA. I’m not surprised, it’s seems like an idyllic setting – just off the main promenade and you receive an optional row boat for commuting to and from your house. A lot of celebrities are meant to own properties around the canal.

Lovely house on the canal

 The murals in Venice beach are pretty spectacular. We walked past one young chap beginning to paint a wall in the morning and by the afternoon it was finished with a queue of people queuing up to take pictures. Apparently the wall changes every day and anyone can go up and have a go.  There’s a massive mural of Jim Morrison just around the corner from his former home.

Jim Morrison, Speedway Street

We’ve spent most of our time so far on the beach – three miles of lovely white sands and blue sunny skies! There’s no better place for chilling out, listening to your iPod and reading a good book. 

Venice Beach

Looking forward to celebrating Hogmany here. It’s early evening now, so we’re just getting ready to go out for something to eat and some drinks before heading over to Marina del Rey to see the New Year in with fireworks and bubbly. Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas at The Biltmore

Had a great three day Christmas break at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, it was great having a little bit of luxury for a little while. It was incredibly strange spending Christmas in a hot, sunny climate, turning the air conditioning on instead of the heating - but a lovely change too!

Was great catching up with our families on Skype...can’t believe we hadn’t tried Skype before this trip, it’s a fantastic way to keep in touch (really cheap for calling landlines and mobiles too from overseas).
Christmas seems to be celebrated very differently over in the states. There doesn’t seem to be the usual back to back Christmas / feature type films on Christmas day or boxing day. Actually,  they don’t have a boxing day here. Most people return to work and it is referred to as “the day after Christmas”. Still, we managed to stay in the Christmas mood with Christmas tunes and movies on our laptop (it really can’t be Christmas until I have watched Elf a few times!).
Spent Christmas day watching Christmas movies and then chilling out in the sunshine in Perishing Square, just across from our hotel. We then had a lovely meal in the hotel’s restaurant (without any Christmas crackers though) followed by some drinks in the Cognac Room, it was very a stylish Christmas (and very filling!).

We checked out of the hotel this morning. We were sad to leave our comfy room, bedside coffee maker and onsite pool but it was time to go on to our next abode – the Venice Beach Hostel.
We took a local bus from Downtown to the beach. It took just over an hour but was dirt cheap at a $1.50 (better than the cab we were originally intending on taking) and dropped us off just outside our hostel. The hostel seems great so far and right around the corner from the beach. We will be calling this place home for the next eight nights. Really looking forward to spending the next few days just soaking up the sun on the white sands of Venice beach!

Oh the weather outside is...lovely!

We got up early today, as I couldn’t contain my excitement about checking into the Millennium Baltimore Hotel for Christmas! Our one true extravagance during our round the world break, I couldn’t wait to see the Christmas tree at the hotel and our hotel room (as lovely as hostel rooms are and sleeping in a van, it is nice to have a bit of comfort now and again!).
Apparently the hotel has been used in lots of films including Ghostbusters (where you first see slimmer) and Vertigo and has housed at some point, celebrities including JFK and The Beatles (apparently the Beatles were flown to the hotel’s roof by helicopter and they stayed there for a few days, in secret).
We checked into the hotel early afternoon and then headed out for the day in downtown LA.

Really looking forward to catching up with our families on Skype tomorrow morning (hope all my little nieces are still up by the time we get to speak!) and then it’s off down to the Biltmore’s restaurant for a semi-traditional Christmas dinner (it’s going to be strange spending Christmas in the sunshine and warmth. Not to make you too jealous, but it’s 23 degrees at the moment!) I’m not sure if I can get away with wearing my elf hat in this establishment, but I will give it try!
Happy Christmas everyone and in the words of Tiny Tim - god bless us, everyone!