Westbound Boarder

This is another one of my favorite photos from the trip.

Look closely…

Remember when you were 16, and you were just learning how to drive?  Do you remember the moment you walked away from the DMV, permit in hand and huge smile on face, and begged your mom to let you at least drive up the street? (I do, I nearly drove my mom and I into a ditch).  Well, imagine learning how to drive all over again.  But on the other side of the road.  In a foreign country.  With a “110” speed limit (so, that’s miles per hour, right?)

After (reluctantly) leaving the Whitsundays, Drew and I boarded a flight back to Brisbane to complete the final week of our journey through Australia.  We arrived at our terminal (we were, again, very early, especially considering that check in took all of five minutes since there were only two gates at the Whitsundays airport) and soon we were back on our way to Brisbane.  Since we were headed to a few different places in Brisbane and the surrounding areas, though, we had decided to rent a car once we arrived.  So when we finally arrived on Friday around 2pm, we went straight to Hertz, filled out our paperwork, and hopped in our tiny car to continue down to Byron Bay.  As soon as we got in the car, we kind of paused and thought, “wow, it is so easy to rent a car here.  They didn’t even ask us if we knew how to drive on the wrong side of the road!”  We pondered this thought for a millisecond, and then Drew started the engine and we were off.  Of course, Drew hit a few cars in the parking lot on the way, but at least he got the hang of it before we got on the highway (Oh wait a minute, that’s what would have happened had I been driving).

When we were originally planning our trip to Australia, trying to decide which cities to visit (because we did only have a limited amount of time) nearly everyone I spoke to told us, “you must go to Byron Bay!”  So naturally, we decided to go to Byron Bay (we had to cut out Frasier Island to make room in our agenda), and throughout our trip whenever we told someone we were headed to Byron Bay, the typical response we received was, “Oh I LOVE Byron Bay!”  Somewhat off the beaten path, the small town is most well-known for being a laid-back “hippie town,” though we were also told that it has become somewhat touristy as of late.

But back to driving.  One of the things that really frustrated us about driving in Australia (especially through the small towns) is that street signs are rare to find.  However, fortunately for us, signs saying, “hostel this way” are not, so once we finally stopped looking for the street signs and started looking for the hostel signs, our accommodations were much easier to find.  We pulled into the parking lot at Nomads Byron Bay, and walked on in.  When I had registered for this hostel initially, there were no private rooms available (except for the very expensive private king suite) so we were all set to stay in a four person dorm (which we weren’t too thrilled about, but whatev; it would do for two nights), however, when we checked in the receptionist told us, “Oh hey, we’ve upgraded you to the king suite for the first night!”  So, like any normal person would say, my response was, “Oh no, you know, I think we’d rather not have to switch rooms after the first night of our stay, thanks though.”  About the same time I was nudged by Drew in the stomach, a different receptionist turned around and said, “Hey, this is a free upgrade, I’m staying in an 8 man right now, I’ll take it!”  and then the other receptionist said, “yeah, this is a $260 a night room!” at which point I gave in to the free upgrade (while also thinking, who on earth would spend $260 to stay in a hostel when you could buy a room at a nice hotel at that price!)  Anyway, our room was pretty sweet.  We had towels laid out, a coffee pot, and even little mini shampoos and soaps (ah, the things we had taken for granted while traveling through Australia on a budget!)

After getting ourselves situated, we took a quick stroll through the city (emphasis on the word “quick,” as the city was only a few blocks long) but we admired the diverse restaurants and laid-back, hippie vibe.  Then, in traditional Andrea and Drew fashion, we walked around looking at the menus at all the different restaurants, trying to decide on a place to eat.  We eventually decided on a place called Asia Joe’s (“healthy” Asian food, as the menu proclaimed) and it was delicious (and budget-friendly, too!  Which is not easy to find in Australia…)  Oh, and it was also BYO, which was even better.  We ended our night at an outdoor lounge called The Beach Hotel (named as such for its location right next to the beach), and we really liked this place as well.  It was definitely one of the most happening places in Byron that evening.

The next day (Saturday, 1/14), we had fully planned on doing absolutely nothing but sunbathe on the beach, but we woke to dark clouds and a breezy mist, which only got worse as the day went on.  So instead we enjoyed a nice, long breakfast at a place called The Byron Orion Curry House (I loved this place; I ordered a huge plate of mushrooms on toast, although the dish was a lot more glamorous then I just made it sound. In fact, I think on the menu it was even titled “fungus on toast;” with a name like that how could I pass it up?)  It was still raining when we were finished with our meal, but we were determined to not let a little rain ruin our one day in Byron Bay, so we did the “lighthouse walk,” a 2.5 or so hour round trip walk to the lighthouse.  The walk took us right along the bay, which was beautiful.  We walked past the most easterly point in Australia, and eventually came to a point where you could apparently see dolphins.  We dolphin-watched for a while, and sure enough, we saw about three of them off in the distance.  We walked a bit further, though, and noticed a small crowd of people excitedly gawking over the side of the ledge, so we peered over to see what they were looking at and saw an amazing thing – a school of about 30 baby dolphins were swimming along the side of the bay.  We watched them for a while, and it was so cool!  Definitely one of the coolest things I’ve seen all trip (but apparently, if you visit Byron Bay in bla, you’ll see tons and tons of whales in place of dolphins, which would also be very cool to see).

By the time we arrived back to our hostel, exhausted and wet, it was time to check into our new room (a slight downgrade from the king suite we stayed in the prior evening).  We had intended on taking a quick nap before going back outside, but the slight drizzle had already turned into a quick downpour, which made it tough to really do anything.  So, instead, we decided to revisit our undergraduate college days and participate in the hostel’s “beer pong tournament.”  The tournament commenced at 4pm, which gave us just enough time to clean up real quick and head downstairs to join the fun.

Of course, we had at least a good 5 or 10 years on everyone else hanging out and participating in the tournament, so like any sociable adult would do, we broke out our books while we patiently waited on the couch for our turn.  We did look up and watch the other teams compete during the intense moments, though.  For example, there was one team of two girls playing, and at one point one of the girls knocked her cup of beer over.  But before anyone had the opportunity to have the bright idea of grabbing a napkin to wipe up the mess, the girl who had knocked the cup over proceeded to use her hand to wipe the spilled beer from the incredibly gross and disgusting table back into her cup and put it back into play.  It was right around that point that Drew and I decided we were just too old to play pong at Nomads, so we went back to our room to finish our books in peace.

For dinner, we had already planned on doing something a bit nicer (I wanted to go to a place called The Balcony, but upon a second glance we decided that the place just looked a bit too overrated and touristy for our liking), so we headed to a small wine bar and café across the street called Mokha.  At Mokha, there was primarily outdoor seating, and there was a lovely slow rock band playing right outside (and as an added bonus, every entrée order came with a complimentary glass of wine!)  We ordered the pumpkin risotto and the fillet sandwich, and after the conclusion of our meal we decided that it was one of the best we had had all trip.  If you ever get out to Byron Bay, I highly recommend this place (and make sure you order the risotto!)

In the morning (Sunday, 1/15) we went to a casual breakfast joint called The Rocks (again, very good) and then we began our four-hour drive to the Sunshine Coast.  Overall, we enjoyed Byron Bay (although I think I liked it a lot more than Drew did).  There are a lot of great boutiques and restaurants, it has a fun vibe and atmosphere, it is beautiful and different, and I thought that, in general, it has something for everyone – a great beach for the kiddos, a fun bar scene for the youngsters, and elegant shopping for the adults.

In a few hours, Drew and I will be headed out on a cruise through the Whitsundays.  We arrived at our new hotel in Airle Beach yesterday afternoon, and the beach is just gorgeous.  The town is really cute as well (I snapped the below photo of Drew hanging out in front of our new, waterfront hotel).  I’ll write a longer post later, but for now we’re off to enjoy the Whitsunday Islands on the Anaconda III sailboat operated by Oz Magic Tours.  We’ll be back Friday!

Good morning, blog.  First things first – Happy New Year!  As you Americans are still enjoying New Year’s Day Parades and Sunday football extravaganzas, our New Year’s here in Melbourne has already come and gone.  It’s now the 2^nd, and while Danielle is off playing in the snow (wow, that sounds pretty amazing right now!), Drew and I are slapping on our 50+ sunscreen and getting ready for a long day at the beach (it’s supposed to get up into the high-90’s today!)

New Year’s Eve in Melbourne was quite entertaining.  Obviously, not being locals, Drew and I spent some time researching things to do in Melbourne on this holiday, and one thing everyone told us to do was go to Federation Square.  Federation Square is this huge square in the center of the city, and they have a big New Year’s Eve party every year, so we had decided early on that this is where we’d go.  After lounging around the whole day (we went to the park and read our books for a few hours, sat at a coffee shop called Drugstore Espresso for another few hours – we really just needed to relax after the past few busy days we had) we went to a beer garden near our hostel to grab a few brews before our big night out.

Federation Square was nothing short of crazy.  There were tons of people, a big concert, and fireworks at midnight (when we first heard the firework show was at midnight, we thought the city must be joking!) but we had a lot of fun.  After the show we crammed back into the metro, along with the rest of Melbourne, and headed home.

Now, most of you who know me, even the slightest way, know that there’s one thing I love (almost) more than anything in the world – coffee.  I love my coffee, and obviously since Drew is dating me, he’s learned to love it just as much as I do.  We’ve tried several different coffee shops in the few days we’ve been staying in Melbourne, but we were particularly attracted to a small chain that we stumbled across while walking around the Melbourne City Center a few days ago – Pie Face.  This chain boasts an edgy menu with uniquely-named coffee blends such as “Still Asleep!” (that’s decaf), “Open My Eyes!” (soft blend), and “Kick My Arse!”  Ever since we first walked past this coffee chain, Drew’s been dying to go, so we decided we’d go on New Year’s Day… to start of 2012 with a kick in the pants, of course.  Drew even said, after I suggested we go to a local spot one day earlier, “I don’t want a baby coffee! I want pie face!”  Clever marketing, Pie Face.  Anyway, Drew rang in the New Year with a “Kick My Arse” latte, while I opted for the one degree lighter “Start My Heart” white coffee.  Now, in Australia, as in many other countries, you really can’t find just a simple “black coffee” that is most common in the US.

After Pie Face, we hopped on the train and headed to the Melbourne zoo (it came highly recommended to us by Drew’s grandmother).  My mom did tell me that the one thing she wants me to bring back from my trip is a picture of a kangaroo (I think when she said this, though, she was envisioning kangaroos running around like dogs in the wild, which isn’t really the case, so I had to cheat just a little).  Anyway, the zoo was pretty cool, and I did get just the photo my mom requested (see below!)

After the zoo, we went to Fitzroy street for dinner.  According to the bit of research we did, the Fitzroy corridor is supposed to have the best Italian food in town, and our guide books really weren’t kidding!  As soon as we hopped off the bus, we were instantly greeted by a long row of Italian restaurants, so we proceeded to walk up and down the entire few blocks to look at the menus at each place to ultimately select our final destination (Drew and I do have a habit of taking at least an hour to decide on which place we’ll eat, and Italian row was no exception).  After looking each menu and narrowing down our choices to our top 3, we walked by a restaurant toward the end of our route, and the owner standing outside tried to persuade us to come to his restaurant.  As we were looking at the menu, he then adds, “come here and I’ll throw in complimentary bruschetta, garlic bread, and two free drinks each!  New year’s special, just for you!”  Not one, but two free drinks?  Each?  Okay, sold.  Melbourne isn’t really known for its cuisine (to be completely honest, we haven’t really had a great meal yet) but I think out of every place we’ve gone so far, Fitzroy street was my favorite.  Not necessarily for the food, but the experience was fun.

Anyway, this morning we switched hostels to The Ritz for Backpackers in St. Kilda, a beach suburb just outside of Melbourne, and good timing because we’re expecting a heat wave coming on soon!  Now to go find a place that serves good coffee…

Well, its official – Drew and I are here in Australia!  We arrived the day before yesterday (which, because of the time difference, was really two days after we left, so as my friends on the East Coast are probably getting ready to pack up their laptops and hit up the nearest happy hour hot spot, Drew and I are just awaking to enjoy our New Year’s Eve day.  Correction – I am up getting ready to enjoy my day, while Drew is still asleep.)

We had a relatively easy and uneventful flight over here, which is a bit abnormal, considering my track record of international flight mishaps.  Super Shuttle picked us up from my Grammy Dot’s house around 7pm (and our driver was awesome – he was a Starbucks International executive who handles their site checks and consumer marketing strategies in the APAC region 6 months out of the year, and he just thought it would be “fun” to be a shuttle driver in OC the other 6 months).  We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, so naturally, we visited the one bar in the international terminal and watched basketball while enjoying extremely generous (and expensive) pours of beer and red wine.  Soon enough, we heard the loud speaker announce our flight number, we boarded our Virgin Australia plane, and we were off!  I don’t remember much else past that point, because pretty much as soon as I sat down in my seat I passed out and didn’t wake up again until about 11am (PST) the next morning.  That was 6am Australia time – we only had about 3.5 hours left to go!  Psh, easy flight…

After deboarding and grabbing our luggage, we hopped on the StarBus that we had reserved through our hostel and enjoyed the 30-minute scenic drive to our hostel.  We arrived just before 11am, and since our room wasn’t quite ready (they told us to come back at 1) we left our luggage and went to find a coffee shop.  Our hostel, Claremont Guesthouse (which is quite nice and pleasant) is located in the South Yarra area of Melbourne, just 2 metro stops South East of the City Center.  I really like the area – it kind of reminds me of the more upscale Georgetown of DC, as opposed to the crazy downtown area.  There are many nice restaurants and coffee shops, and, of course, tons of great shopping.

We finally found a restaurant that looked like a nice place to sit and enjoy a latte, so Drew ordered an Americano and I ordered a “regular coffee.”  “Okay, you don’t have that? How about a drip coffee? Not that either?  Hm… I’ll just have what he had.”  We sat outside for about an hour and a half and watched a couple break up a few tables down (it was a long, drawn out, and quite entertaining break up) and finally when we realized no waiter was ever going to bring our check, we asked for it.  A few minutes later, she brought us water.  Hm… ok, totally makes sense?  After waiting a few checkless minutes longer, I finally got up and paid inside (and later we learned that paying inside is the norm in Australia, at least in Melbourne).  We walked around for another hour and finally headed back to our hostel to check into our room.  We did pass by the coffee shop again on our way back, and the couple was still breaking up (or perhaps they were making up, as the girl had now moved from sitting across from her beau to next to him).

After checking into our hotel and getting situated, we walked down to the Royal Botanic Gardens, which were so beautiful and reminded us a bit of New York’s Central Park.  We then went (after trying for a while to figure out how to use public transport – Drew wanted to cab but I was determined to travel like a local) to Victoria Street for dinner upon the recommendation of someone from our hostel – apparently this street has the best authentic Vietnamese food in town.  After walking past several of the restaurants, we selected the one that we thought had the best ambiance and largest crowd (which, coincidentally, we noticed after we had sat down was also the one with all the white people).  The food was delicious, but my favorite part of the meal was the bottle of wine we purchased at the tiny liquor store next door.  Since the place was BYOB, we opted for a mid-range 2001 malbec, cab, shiraz mix, and it was soooo good – definitely one of the best bottles I’ve had in a while.  And after that fabulous meal (and long day), it was time for bed.

The next day, we went wine tasting.  The previous day, after we had arrived to our hostel, we had decided that this day – the 30^th of December – would be our best opportunity to go, since it would likely be tough to go on New Year’s Eve or Day.  However, when we looked into booking a wine tour, the prices were quite high (at least $110 per head for the most basic options).  So, we decided to try and find our way to wine country on our own.  Now, not having a car or any other sort of reliable transport, this proved quite difficult, however we did eventually come across a train that could take us from the Melbourne City Center to Lilysdale, which is very close to Yarra Valley, the heart of wine country in the Melbourne region.  The Yarra Valley website said we could get off at this stop and easily take a bus to many different wineries, all for the price of a $11 round trip metro ticket.  Sold.

Hargreaves Hill Brewery, Yarra Glen

We woke up, bought a couple coffees at this trendy little coffee shop across the street from our hostel, and set out to Lilysdale.  The entire trip took us less than an hour, however, when I had previously envisioned us stepping off the train at Lilysdale, I had imagined a large sign that read “wine country, this way.”  In reality, there was nothing of the sort.  So I walked up to the info. booth and asked, “which way to the wineries?” and he responded, “well, which one you trying to get to?” at which point I responded, “I don’t know, any winery.”  He said he didn’t know the area well, but he recommended I go ask the bus drivers.  So I went and asked the bus drivers, “Excuse me, but which bus goes to wine country?” and after going back and forth a bit, one bus driver piped in, “you can take the 685 to Yarra Glen, he can take you to a winery.”  Okay, perfect!  We waited about 45 minutes for the 685, and after telling the bus driver what we were looking for he said, “I go right by a winery on my route, it’s a really popular one too.  I’ll drop you there.”  Ten minutes later, the bus driver dropped us off at the Yering Station winery. We walked around a bit (the property was beautiful) and then headed to the tasting room to try some of the wines.  That’s when we met Chris.  Chris led our tasting and told us all about the wonderful wines, and he even gave us a long list of things to do in Melbourne and restaurants to try.  We tried all the wines on the tasting menu (my favorite by far was the Shiraz, and Drew’s was the Merlot) and Chris even had us try a few wines that weren’t on the tasting menu, such as the way-out-of-our-price-range Cabernet Reserve (it was delicious).  Chris also recommended a brewery right up the road, which of course piqued Drew’s interest (I think he was over wine at that point and wanted a big, manly brew) so after lunch we attempted to walk to the brewery.  By “just up the road,” I think Chris really meant “just up the road if you have a car and you’re not walking,” but after about a 20-minute walk in the smoldering heat (there were no cabs to be found, either) we finally arrived at the town of Yarra Glen and our sought-after brewery.  Conveniently, the route 685 bus stop was right across the street from the brewery, so after making our way through the tasting menu we stumbled over to the stop and made our way back home.