Darling Harbor

The smell of Sunblock, the screaming children on the playground, and the beautiful backdrop of the city's skyline. I have a love/hate relationship with Darling Harbor. It is always teaming with tourists and it is a major part of my commute to and from work. These two things do not mix well, but once I remind myself that I AM a tourist, I don't get as angry at the woman with her stroller and 6 rugrats that run into me whilst walking.

The Harbor has everything a tourist could need in one place: Starbucks, McDonalds, IMAX, Hard Rock Cafe, and a giant children's play area. Not to mention the huge amount of other cafe's and restaurants that crowd the waters edge. This makes it not only a hot spot for tourists, but a great place to grab an after work drink (it also happens to be the home of the one and only King St Brewhouse) So on a Saturday night as the tourists drag their tired kids off to the hotel, locals come out in droves for bars like Cargo and Bungalow 8.

And its all just a two minute walk from my apartment building. Not a bad place to call my backyard!

My obsession with the Harbour Bridge

I don't know what it is about this bridge, but it seriously gets be EVERY time. I went for my usual extended run yesterday and finally remembered to drag my camera along so that I could add to my already growing portfolio of photos of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Opera House, I could take it or leave it. Darling Harbor is nice, but there are a lot of tourists. But when I turn the corner and the top of this bridge sticks its head out over a building and catches my eye, my heart beats a little bit faster. I am reminded once again that I am in Sydney and I fall in love a little bit more.

It helps that yesterday was an exceptionally beautiful day, but this is seriously my favorite spot in the whole city. I love running around the corner and suddenly there she is! When I discovered this path that goes under the bridge it was like I had found a treasure. Just standing here so small underneath this bridge makes me feel like a little kid at Disney World for the first time.

Oh yea, there's that other monument too. Of course it is made much cooler when the bridge is in the forefront.

It just doesn't get old...

Going Green and Family Dinner

As anyone who lives on earth knows, last weekend was St Patrick's Day. So after much umm and ahhing about whether or not we should go out in the evening and join the already drunk people, we decided that we wouldn't be party poopers and headed to a bar we haven't been to before, the Australian Youth Hotel, for a few drinks. We got dressed in our finest Irish attire

 Gotta love self timer and our living room furniture isn't too bad either...

 

St Patrick himself

On Sunday we nursed our St Paddy's Day wounds with a nice comforting Swiss specialty:  Aelpler Macaroni (have I mentioned one of my roommates is Swiss? see the above less than saintly patrick). This involves all of my favorite things, cheese, pasta, onions, potatoes, and apple sauce. Does life get any better?

 

 Although I wish that was only my bowl, sadly I did have to share that with everyone else :(

 Everyone is really nervous about how famous they will become once I post this photo on my blog. All my readers please don't approach them in public, they are shy.

Now off to enjoy this beautiful weather and Friday happy hour at King St of course!

Taste(y)

Last weekend Luke was given some tickets for the Taste of Sydney Festival. After work on Saturday we headed over to Centennial Park where the festival was taking place and headed into a world of free samples. After the consuming all of the free cheese, yogurt, beer, wine, juice, sausage and tomatoes we could keep down, we used some of our "crowns" which are the currency you use in the festival to pay for the things that aren't free. Popular restaurants owned and operated by some of Sydney's "celebrity" chefs all have tents there selling baby-sized portions of a few of the fantastic meals you would find on their regular menus.

We headed straight for the Four in Hand tent whose Irish chef we came to know on Australian Masterchef (as a guest chef, not a contestant). We had a delectable slow roasted pork with a spicy sauce and some delicious coleslaw on the side. After that we headed over t see Four in Hand's head chef do a cooking demonstration where he proceeded to butcher a pig then show us three ways to cook him up! Unfortunately, there were no free samples there.

The rest of the night was sort of a food coma blur where I ate a lot more cheese, some macaroons, drank some alcoholic ginger beer that went down a TREAT! We finally spent all of our crowns as the last stalls were closing up for the night. It was an overall fantastic evening with lots of amazing food that we will be sure to keep an eye out for the next time we're at the supermarket! It also introduced us to some restaurants around Sydney that we will be sure to try when we come back to Sydney as millionaires.

 Someone needs to cool it with the hair product...

 Yes that is a tub of butter

Then I giggled like a giddy school child when I went up to him at the end to say thanks.

 

 

Solo Touring

Today Luke had to work and I did not (I know that's like a broken record now, but I do have a job now I swear!!), so I decided to do something that I knew he would not be upset about missing. I headed to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. I figured I needed a little culture in my life, so off I went through Hyde Park.

I had this incredible moment while I was there watching these two men play chess on one of those giant chess boards. They were so involved and so was everyone else around them, it was an incredible thing to watch and be apart of. Somewhere nearby someone was playing some classical music and for a split second I couldn't hear the cars flying by and the horns honking. As quickly as it came it went, and the music stopped and was replaced with the city noises once again. But it was a pretty cool moment of peace in this sometimes hectic city.

Once I made my way through the park I walked around St Mary's Cathedral and then to the Art Gallery. I hadn't seen the building before. It is sort of tucked away inside the Botanical Gardens. It's pretty grand actually isn't it?! 

The inside is totallllly different. It's got this downtown open plan warehouse kind of feel. I liked it. This was one of the only photos I took because once I got into the other areas where the paintings were I was promptly (and repeatedly, I know I can't listen well) told not to take any photos, even with the flash off! Anywho, so it is a really great gallery with Australian art, Aboriginal art, Japanese Art and a cafe and restaurant that were overpriced incredible busy!

What is it about museums that makes you sooooo thirsty? Which then makes you think you are famished? That is why those cafe's are so busy. So obviously half way through seeing the gallery my willpower was quickly fading and I went from craving something tasty to NEEDING something tasty. So I powered through the last floor of the gallery and got out before I got sucked in. I quenched my thirst with a DELICIOUS caramel iced coffee Via pack from starbucks. I would have taken a photo, but the glass was empty before I could find my camera. Sorry!



February 22, 2011

A year ago Christchurch, New Zealand had a devastating 6.3 "aftershock" that caused damage to the city, its people, and the country as a whole. Luke and I were living in Christchurch when it happened. When the earthquake hit just after lunch I clutched the desk and watched as the buildings outside swayed left to right. It's hard to say what you think in only moments of sheer terror, but it's safe to say I was concerned. Our office wasted no time heading down the four flights of stairs to the ground floor and out into the street. Up until that point I'd felt a lot of small tremors living in the city. It had been over 5 months since the initial 7.1 earthquake that past September, but this one was different. I immediately called Luke of course thinking the worst and was glad to know that out in the western suburbs all was fine. Not where I was. I looked to my left down towards Cathedral Square as a second large tremor shook those of us that weren't already frightened. I watched as the Square went up into a cloud of dust that I would later find out was the collapse of the Cathedral spire.

I walked towards home in a little bit of a daze. I spoke to a colleague on my walk home and we commented on how we hoped no one was hurt. It was easy to see how much damage had been caused as I walked over newly created speed bumps, jumped over pools of silt, and saw people sitting on the curb in front of their severely damaged buildings. I spoke to Luke just as my phone ran out of credit and his battery was about to die. You're never ready for a crisis and we proved that to be right. He told me traffic was terrible and to just stay in an open and public place until he got closer to the city and we could inspect our house together. So I did what any normal person does after a catastrophe, I sat in the park and read my book.

When Luke finally made it home 3 hours later (its usually a 20 minute ride) we went to our house to find zero damage had occurred. Except for some food that fell out of the fridge and a potted plan that tipped over then back onto its base again spilling no soil, there was no damage. We sat outside with all of our roommates, too stirred to be inside for the small tremors that followed all day. We had no power and no water. We were so incredibly lucky. We regained power at 10 o'clock that night. Although we still had no sewerage, we had cold water running from the taps. We were advised to boil everything for 3 minutes before using it. We did this for a few weeks.

It's much easier to talk about all of this now a year on and on a different land mass, but this event, if not changing my life, at least changed the way I look at life. It's all too easy to forget what we went through and what many people are still going through every day there. When I turn on my faucet I can put a glass under it and drink it. When I use the toilet, I can flush it. When I go to bed I can expect to sleep through the night without being woken up by some angry tectonic plate. But I will never forget what happened and what I experienced. When I turned on the news that night we got our power back I looked at a horrific sight. We spoke for days about how usually you watch the news and see some disaster happening somewhere in the world, but when you turn the tv off you are safe. Well, when we turned the tv off we were still watching the disaster. I cried a lot. I had horrible nightmares about my family. I had one so realistic at one point that in the morning I actually had to call my parents to make sure they were ok. When I finally did go back to work I was struck by how terrible the disaster truly was. The city that only days before was bustling, was completely shut down and deserted. It stayed that way.

This is the first time I have put what happened fully into words. I thought it was appropriate that a year on I should pay tribute to the city then and now, and to the people who lost their lives. I will forever feel a connection with Canterbury and it's people and I look forward to seeing the new Christchurch back to its bustling streets and sitting in Dux De Lux or the Twisted Hop upon my return.

If you're ever interested in following the progress of the city check out:

- http://www.christchurchnz.com/plan-your-visit/earthquake-update.aspx
- http://www.stuff.co.nz/
- Or follow on Twitter @ChristchurchCC

Beer

Luke you should skip reading this blog entry since it may make you sad. I have been meaning to do a post about some of the watering holes we have sampled since we've been in Sydney, but I keep forgetting. Well the other night Luke was making his "I am thirsty for beer" noises while we were eating dinner and it reminded me to write this post. I told him to skip this because due to some recent financial restrictions (me not having a job) we have had to curb our beer outings for the moment.

The Australian Hotel, in my favorite part of the city, The Rocks, is pretty cool. It's sort of like an institution here. We showed up on a Saturday afternoon and it was packed! There were about 3 bachelorette parties going on, all of the outside tables were full and the sun was shining down on us! We managed to scoot into the end of a booth where I mouthwateringly gazed at the other people's pizzas and Luke headed in to get us a drink. I went for the honey beer (obviously the most expensive one on tap, oops!) and Luke got some Ale that is brewed on site (I think?). Mine was honey-licious and although the bartender called Luke's choice an "old man's drink" he thoroughly enjoyed it as well. Overall a good spot and on a sunny day I'd probably go again. Otherwise the inside didn't look like much and everyone that was anyone was sitting outside.

Harts Pub is one of the best we've been to in Sydney in my opinion (Yes, that is the flash from my camera, I am an excellent photographer). The ambiance is spectacular, it is always busy, they have live music, and they have so many craft beers on tap you could go there every weekend and try a different beer. We've been twice now and both times have sampled some incredible beers and ciders. The interior of the place is really cool and old style pub-like. They have a bar upstairs and downstairs for when you just can't stand to stray too far from your coveted outdoor seat. On the walls are tons of quotes about beer and drinking that can keep you entertained when you company doesn't. The beer garden outside is pretty good as well with a shaded spot that's always taken and a spot right in the sun that always seems to be reserved just for us. I would definitely recommend it. It's just on the cusp of The Rocks as well and a slightly closer trek from our apartment than the Australian Hotel.

Our other favorite spot is where we headed on my birthday, King Street Brewhouse. Besides being the best place in the city to watch the Superbowl, they have delectable beers. They also have loads of craft beers on tap, they have a super cheap happy hour from 5-6 every weekday (by Australian standards anyway), and it is the closest of the three to our apartment. Clear winner. They have this ginger beer on tap that makes my heart sing and after drinking them as quickly as if they were ginger ale they make me actually sing as well ;)

Hopefully this is only the beginning of our drinking explorations. May there be many more to write about!!