Adventures of Curl (Week One - Australia)

My family, and Andrew (who might as well be family now, considering we broke him in pretty well), spent seven days driving up the east coast of Australia from Sydney to Brisbane. And ok, lemme tell you, a week in Australia flies by when you’re constantly on the go. We did a lot, but at the same time it felt like we hardly did anything, and then all of a sudden it was time to go to New Zealand!

But anyways, here’s a short little rundown of each of our days in Australia –

Day 1: Lindsay and Andrew’s plane landed in Sydney at 8:40am. I woke up about 5:30am, got ready, double checked my bags, then headed to the Maitland train station to catch a 6:30am train to Paddington where our AirBnB loft was for the night. I arrived in Paddington just before 11am, had no clue where our house was exactly, but Lindsay had mentioned a coffee shop nearby that I could go to if I beat them there, so I stopped in and ordered myself a coffee and just waited, hoping I would spot them at some point since they didn’t have a phone I could call. Sure enough, about two minutes later I see two people with luggage walking up to a house right across the street trying to get into a locked gate. It was them! I grabbed my coffee, walked over, gave them both a big hug and then watched as Andrew struggled to open the gate. He finally got it open, and they had two dogs, which we weren’t to let out. We got in the gate and it turned out Andrew had left the keys in the door, locking us in. Next thing I know he’s climbing up the fence and hanging over trying to reach…it was going to be a good two weeks!

            After we settled in we decided to take a stroll to the nearby suburbs. First stop, a bite to eat! We found a coffee shop/pub on the corner of a busy intersection; prime real estate for Aussie people watching J We ordered hamburgers and sangria, enjoyed our meal, then explored the rest of the nearby suburbs, seeing everything from the Botanical Gardens, to Hyde Park, to St. Mary's Cathedral, to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. We ended up at the Glenmore Hotel for a rooftop terrace view of the Opera House and a few drinks, and there we met the McArthur brothers…three brothers from Canada, who bought us our drinks the rest of the night (from about 5-11pm…we weren’t complaining). 

Day 2: Mom, Dad, and Caitlin’s flight arrived in Sydney at 6:30am. They had told us it would be about 8/8:30am when they would pick us up in the rental van so we could get on our way to Smiths Lake. Well, around 11am we see them FINALLY drive by the place we were staying…apparently it was a nightmare driving with my dad in the car (being on the opposite side of the road and all). I think they said they almost had two wrecks? All I know is, my dad was stressed out from the driving, and my mom and sister were scared to death. So we opted for me to drive the rest of the trip…seeing as I’m an expert now J The only downside was having my dad as a “backseat (passenger side) driver” the whole time! We had a GPS, which, you know, is generally for whoever is driving to look at, but my dad seemed to think he needed to have it faced towards him. And then, when he got hold of a map he seemed to think he knew better than the GPS so we were all sorts of lost…all the time.

        Our first stop was Maitland. I wanted my family to meet Mitch and Snoop, and see where I have been living the past six months. We chatted for a bit, gave Snoop plenty of kisses and belly rubs, then headed downtown for a quick lunch at The Belmore; it was their first experience having a chicken schnitzel. 

After lunch we hit the road, 3ish hours later we made it to our AirBnB place in Smiths Lake. We met our hosts Rob and Marzena, unpacked our things, took a tour around the property and down to the water, then went on a hike. After our hike we drove down to Hamilton’s Oyster House for dinner, which was surprisingly average at best.

             

Day 3: Well, everyone else was still on American time so they were all waking up anywhere between 4am and 6am. With all that shuffling and moving around going on I couldn’t sleep in (which was fine, I didn’t mind). There were kayaks for hire at the place we were staying, so we decided to kayak “around the bend” to the Frothy Coffee Café. Around the bend was more like around three different bends; by the time we were halfway I thought my arms were going to fall off…Caitlin and I fortunately found our rhythm on the return and kicked everyone’s tail back to the house.

            After our morning caffeine fix, we headed to the beach. There were plenty to choose from, but we settled on Boomerang Beach mostly because we missed the turn off to Bluey’s Beach. We were told this would be one of the calmer beaches, but man, it was windy and the waves were big! We still had plenty of fun, there was body surfing, lots of frisbee, and plenty of sun…too much sun for the five coming from winter wonderlands…they were all lobster red the next day!

            Dinner was at a place called Huey’s at Bluey’s. It was a pizza parlor; with some of the best pizza I’ve had while living in Australia (but still not as good at 575* in Amarillo). After dinner we went to find the Green Cathedral. Lemme tell ya, this place was pretty cool! It was basically an outdoor church...absolutely beautiful!

Day 4: We woke up, packed our things out of our AirBnB place, and drove to our next destination, Bellingen. When we got there we stopped for lunch at a little café called 5 Church Street (delicious, by the way). We had plans to go bushwalking in Dorrigo National Rainforest, and as we were leaving, an old couple from California (originally New Zealand and England) stopped us to give us direction to the site. The old man also told us to “be sure and stop in the old funky junk store on the way, where [his] his ex-wife could probably be found, too.”

We checked in to the YHA hostel after lunch, then headed out to find the Dorrigo National Rainforest. We went on a 6.6km/2.5hour hike through the rainforest, seeing lots of waterfalls, and even baby bats! Maf, the guy working at the front desk of the YHA, had told us we HAD TO SEE the “big fig tree” and another “majestic” area in Bellingen, so we went on a little scavenger hunt…I was expecting a much bigger “big fig tree.” It was big, just wasn’t what I had pictured in my mind; there was a waterhole there too though, with a rope swing, which Lindsay, Caitlin, and Lindsay all enjoyed swinging from while it was raining. The “majestic” place that we finally found wasn’t so majestic to any of us, so that kinda became the running joke/word of the trip.

It was a rainy night, so we stayed up late talking on the covered patio of the YHA. My dad likes to blast the air-conditioned, which hostels generally don’t have, so he thought it would be a good idea to sleep with the double doors open. Mmmm, no! When I got out of the shower and headed out to the patio, there was already a big green tree frog inside the room! Not even ten minutes later we saw a opossum (which we thought was the hostel’s cat) jump up on one of the patio tables. We decided to close the doors…haha. As we were sitting in a corner table the opossum jumped up onto the rafters across the room, and eventually made his way closer and closer to us until he was right above us! It was pretty entertaining to watch, but we all ran as soon as he got above us.

Day 5: Our next destination was Main Arm. First we made a breakfast/coffee stop at The Galley in Coff’s Harbour. We walked around the bay then hopped back in the car and drove to Byron Bay, which was also on the way.

            Once we got to Byron Bay we changed into our swimsuits in the car, Andrew decided to go to the side of someone’s house across the street and got caught by the owner who said, “I hope you weren’t taking a pee in my backyard!”  After we changed out of our clothes, the kids headed down to the beach while my parents made a quick trip to get ice for the cooler and a couple of snacks. More frisbee was played, and Caitlin and Andrew became experts at body boarding (watching my dad must’ve helped…he’s surprisingly good). We were at the beach swimming in the water for around two hours before we were told by a surfer to get out of the water because a shark was nearby. A SHARK, PEOPLE!!! And the guy said it was “only six feet long.” Only!? Holy moly, you don’t have to tell me twice.

            We walked up to the Cape Byron Lighthouse after the shark warning, spent about an hour ‘n a half there taking in the scenery and even stood on the Eastern Most Point in Australia. From there we drove to meet our AirBnB host and check out our next place. It was waaayyyy out in the boonies, but it was a neat little country home. Only two baby huntsman spiders were there to greet us…

  

Day 6: Our final destination was Brisbane. We were supposed to be returning the car that afternoon, and we had finally made it to Avis then realized we forgot to fill up the car with gas. Who knew a petrol station would be so hard to find!? It took us about forty-five minutes to find a shell station, by this point we all needed a beer. So after we dropped the car off, this time with a full tank of gas, we walked over to a nearby pub. It just so happen to be the weekend of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, so we chose Gilhooley’s Irish Pub, complete with bag pipes, cloggers, and lots of green!

            After leaving there we checked into the Brisbane YHA hostel, then started walking to find somewhere to eat. We were in the mood for margaritas, so we stopped at a Mexican food place (but not the one with the handsome waiter standing at the door to greet people, who literally made Lindsay walk in slow motion). We ordered nachos as an appetizer, and let’s just say it wasn’t what we were expecting…nothing like the nachos you’d get in Texas! The margarita was good though J After dinner it was time to bar hop, first to Brisbane Brewing Company which was a pretty hip spot with a nice vibe. When my parents decided to turn in, we headed to the next place called Lock and Loaded. This place had live music and lots of hippies with dreadlocks; it was rockin’ and it was fun. We closed that bar down then asked the bartender if there was anywhere that had karaoke. He gave us directions to Casablanca, which just so happen to be right down the street from our hostel. When we arrived there, the bouncer let Andrew and Caitlin right in, but stopped Lindsay and I for ID. Lindsay asked why we needed to show ID but Caitlin and Andrew didn’t, and he said “when people look too young we have to check their IDs.” So I start pulling mine out and go to show him, but the bouncer says,  “No, I don’t need to see yours, only hers.” That made Lindsay’s night. I on the other hand, was a little offended…I’m nine years younger than my sister! Hahaha.

Day 7: We woke up (too early I might add), checked out of the hostel, and walked to the ferry for our trip to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. It was about an hour’s ride to the sanctuary and we were a tad bit too late for all of us to get a good seat outside the boat…so Caitlin, Andrew, and I sat inside and played cards – a made up way of “War,” Jacks and Fives, and Speed – while Mom, Dad, and Lindsay squeezed in outside to look at the waterfront views.

We got to the koala sanctuary around 11:30am. We got to see ALL the typical Australian animals: kangaroos, koalas, emus, dingos, wombats, flying foxes, tasmanian devils, snakes, lizards, and all the different birds (and a bunch of other things I can’t remember the proper name of). From there we took a taxi to the airport for our 5:30pm flight to Christchurch, NZ. We got there wayyy early, like three hours, because the guy at the YHA front desk had us nervous about not allowing enough time since it was an international flight. So we sat down, had a nice lunch, then boarded our three hour flight to New Zealand. Since there was a three hour time change, we arrived in Christchurch at 11:45pm. We got a taxi and went straight to the motel and then to bed.

**For a more complete and hilarious recount of all the events which happened in Australia, try and convince Andrew Arnold to email me his day-by-day notes!

XO - Cristin

Adventures of Curl

MY FAMILY IS HERE! MY FAMILY IS HERE!!! Well, almost…

My sister Lindsay and her friend Andrew will be landing in Sydney in twelve hours. My dad, mom, and sister Caitlin will be landing in Sydney just twenty-two short hours later! Everyone but my brother Charlie will in Australia for the next two weeks. He’s got a big boy job now, and too much responsibility to take time away from :( To say I’m excited would be a HUGE understatement.

We’re going to be spending one week in Australia and one week in New Zealand – and let my just give a quick shout out to my sister Lindsay for being the bomb.com at planning this thing (saved me the stress of it all). She found cheap flights, cheaper accommodations, rental cars (with wifi…HUGE), and heaps of adventure activities for us to do along the way. – The first week in Australia we’ll be road tripping from Sydney to Brisbane, stopping at all the beaches along the way. No more winter weather for them…they’re in for a treat! The second week is all about the South Island of New Zealand; it's a good thing we all love each other, because there will be a lot of driving and close quarters this trip!

So here’s our itinerary :

March 9: Lindsay and Andrew arrive in Sydney at 8:40am. We’re staying at an AriBnB* loft in the nearby suburb of Paddington.

*AirBnB is this awesome website where you can find local people with houses/spare bedrooms to rent. Lindsay used it quite a few times to find accommodations for us along the way.

March 10: Mom, Dad, and Caitlin arrive in Sydney at 6:30am. They’ll pick up the rental car then pick up Lindsay, Arnold, and I in Paddington…then our road trip begins! We’ll stop in Maitland so that they can meet my flatmates, Mitch and Phil, and of course Snoop[dog]! We’ll continue our drive to Smith Lake, passing through Port Stephens on the way. I’m sure I’ll be driving this first leg…my dad won’t quite be “un-jetlagged” and he may still need a little time adjusting to the thought of driving on the left side of the road.

March 11: Smith Lake – full day of relaxation

March 12: Bellingen (near Durrago National Park, and Coffs Harbour)

March 13: Main Arm (near Byron Bay, and Yamba)

March 14: Brisbane! Back in my old stomping grounds ;) – boat ride AND koala cuddling AND kangaroo feeding

March 15: Fly to Christchurch, New Zealand

March 16: Kaikoura – hiking and looking for baby seal pups

March 17: Punakaiki - tubing adventure, and hiking (Panckake Rocks and blow holes)

March 18: Fox Glacier – glacier hike

March 19: Lake Wanaka

March 20: Queenstown – Fergburgers: the mother of all burger joints! And I don’t even like burgers…

March 21: Sydney Harbour - we’ll probably go to Maitland and watch Mitch’s basketball game. He can try and show off…

March 22: Sydney - Lindsay and Andrew’s flight back to America departs at 11:25am.

March 23: Sydney - Mom, Dad, and Caitlin’s flight back to America departs at 11am.

So there you have it. The next two weeks are going to be legen…wait, for it…dary! Stay tuned for pictures.

“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

– Psalm 37:4

XO – Cristin

Kelley Comes To Visit! (Week 1 - Sydney/Blue Mountains)

I finally had a familiar face come visit me in Australia. One of my old softball teammates from UCA decided to take a vacation and come hang out with me for two whole weeks! It was the best vacation, from my already vacation :)

Day 1 (December 30): Kelley’s plane landed in Sydney at 10am. I worked the night before in Wyong  (an hour away from the airport) and didn’t get off ‘til 9am, so I was a bit late picking her up. I would’ve been on time had I not taken two wrong turns on the way…oops! Once I found Kelley, we left the airport and headed to a nearby suburb in Pott’s Point to check into the hostel we’d be staying at for the next four nights. Upon arrival we found out that a mistake had been made and we were put in separate rooms. Fortunately they said they could put us in the same rooms the following night. I don’t know if you’ve ever stayed in a hostel, but this was my first time; it was an eight-bed, co-ed room, with a community toilet and shower. Oh, and the only fan in the room happen to be broken. It was cool, but it was dirty; there’s no room service in hostels. Haha.

Prior to Kelley arriving I had just finished the book Wild by Cheryl Strayed. I can’t tell you how many times I referenced this book over the next two weeks with Kelley, but when I was in the hostel meeting some of the people who were backpacking across Australia I couldn’t help but want to ask them all these questions about their adventures (while pretending I was an expert, because I just read this book).  I was such a “poser” though, because I’m sure they could tell that I wasn’t actually backpacking by all the cute clothes I wore each day…

            After we checked in we headed off to Bondi Beach, one of Australia’s “most iconic beaches.” I personally hate this beach because it’s always packed with tourists, and today wasn’t any different…in fact, it was worse because it was New Year’s. It took us an hour ‘n a half just to find a car park, which we had to pay for (as you do everywhere in Sydney), and by the time we walked to the beach and found a decent spot, it was basically time to go pay the meter again. I think we only stayed at the beach for an hour after paying the meter twice. Paying for parking over the next week would not have been ideal. At the end of the day we decided to park my car on a random side street near Bondi Junction, for free, and buy an unlimited train, bus, ferry, and light rail pass to use for the next seven days. It was the best $63 I have ever spent!

Day 2 (December 31): It’s New Year’s Eve. Kelley and I woke up around 8am to go find a spot to watch the New Year’s fireworks. Yesterday we got some advice about “the best” vantage points where we would be able to see both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. We decided to check out two different spots, one with a capacity of 13,000 and the other with a capacity of 3,000. Both were in the Botanical Gardens, too, about a thirty-minute walk from the hostel we were staying in.

The first spot we walked to opened at 10am, but by the time we had gotten there it already had thousands of people lined up in long winding lines just waiting for the gates to open.  Kelley and I didn’t want none of that, so we decided to try our second option. This one only had about one hundred to two hundred people lined up waiting, so we figured it wouldn’t be too long before the gates opened and we could find a decent spot to set up camp. Once the gates opened it only took about twenty minutes to go through security and find a good spot to sit. We picked a shaded spot, since it was only 10am, about ninety-five degrees, and we still had THIRTEEN HOURS ‘til the fireworks. The shade didn’t last long, but fortunately I had randomly packed an umbrella just in case (this was my first ever time to use an umbrella to protect me from the shade…I love the sun, and getting tan, but lemme tell ya, it. was. hot).

There were a few other festivities going on throughout the evening; these started around 6pm: tugboat spray wars, Australian anthem, family fireworks (which we couldn’t see at all, so we thought we had wasted ten hours of our lives and were going to miss the best fireworks so ever), LED shows, sailboats lit up in lights, etc. Most of these we couldn’t see without getting up, so Kelley and I just hung out talking, alternating turns on taking walks to feel even the slightest breeze. There were clear lines drawn in the grass so that walkways could be kept clear, security was strict too, you could not stand in these walkways during any of the festivities. However, just like at any concert, once the show starts, everyone rushes to the front. So obviously, once the midnight fireworks were set to begin, Kelley and I made our way to the front and had THE BEST VIEW of the Harbour Bridge to our left, and the Opera House to our right! 

 

Day 3 (January 1): We spent the day with Kelley’s family friend Scott, and his daughter. We rode the ferry to Manly, and walked along the beach, and went for a little hike along the coastline. We planned to eat dinner at a nearby pub, and watch the ball drop in New York (4pm Sydney time), but nobody was advertising anything but sports on their TV. We ate dinner, and celebrated anyway…and we celebrated again when it was midnight in Chicago, IL (where Scott and his daughter are from), Amarillo, TX (where I’m from), and Cupertino, CA (where Kelley’s from). Basically we celebrated the New Year three different times; there are just so many time zones!

After spending time at Manly Beach we all rode the ferry back to Sydney, explored the harbour area for a bit, went back to Scott’s hotel for a snack and a drink, and then took a walk across the Harbour Bridge. I bought myself a Jawbone UP band for Christmas (which tracks things like steps, calories burned, sleep, etc.) and when I synced it to my phone to see how many steps I had taken that day, it showed just over 30,000 steps! Kelley and I had walked the equivalent of a half marathon! And our feet could tell.

Day 4 (January 2): One of Kelley’s goals while in Australia was to get a picture with a koala. So today we went to Toronga Zoo, the biggest zoo in Sydney (I think). She bought a ticket to get a picture with Charlie the koala, but that wasn’t until 1:30pm. We spent approximately three hours walking around, looking at all the different animals. And obviously, there were heaps of different kinds: kangaroos, koalas, elephants, giraffes, zebras, reptiles, spiders, lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my! There was everything you could imagine! By the time it was our turn to take a picture with Charlie, it was so hot, we were so tired, and had walked so much; we were just ready to go eat and sit still for the rest of the day. So we opted to go back to Pott’s Point and bar hop around the area until bedtime.

Day 5 (January 3): Today was filled with even more walking. Kelley and I spent the day exploring the nearby suburbs of Glebe and Newtown (apparently these were more like 

"college towns" with the University of Sydney being just around the corner. We walked to the Glebe markets, only getting lost/turned around twice on the way. While scanning through the markets I found myself a black felt hat (which is all the rage now), and Kelley bought a couple of headbands. After the markets we headed back towards Darlinghurst. One of our little obsessions over the week was finding random graffiti on the streets, well, walls of Sydney. It's amazing the talent people have! 

Our final adventure on the day was all about relaxation, and air conditioning (since we hadn't had any up to this point). We popped in a cinema to watch the movie Imitation Game. It. was. fantastic. And also one of the only movies Kelley hadn't seen since everything in the Aussie cinemas has already been out for at least a month in American cinemas...I highly recommend this movie though!

Day 6 (January 4): We woke up at 9:30am, checked out of the hostel at 10am, and were on the train headed to the Blue Mountains by 10:30am. It was a three-hour train ride to the Blackheath (the suburb our hotel was in), and fortunately since we got on at Pott’s Point there were plenty of open seats, which wasn’t the case when the train stopped to pick everyone else up at the more popular junctions (not many people got to sit down the whole ride like we did). Kelley and I were very lucky, as were our feet. Surprisingly nobody got upset that our luggage was taking up two perfectly good seats; it literally couldn't fit anywhere else.

I sat and read Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Denham on the way there. Kelley slept for most of the first half. We arrived in Blackheath around 2:15pm. Our hotel was only about a hundred yards from the train station (which we were ecstatic about because we didn’t have to lug our heavy luggage very far). We checked in, and then decided to see what the town had to offer. We stopped for lunch first, at a place called Pancakes on the Mountain. I had salted caramel pecan pancakes (more like dessert really) and they. were. delicious. We walked in a couple shops and spoke to some locals about what we should do with the rest of our day. One shop owner said Blackheath had the best scenic views around, if we didn’t mind walking.  The place we were hiking to was called Pulpit’s Rock, and it was over five kilometers away!

It had started to get cloudy, so Kelley and I were expecting some rain (at least on the way back), but we didn’t mind because we had nothing better to do. I think it took us almost two hours to walk there, and by the time we were walking up to the lookout it started to sprinkle and we could see lightning in the distance. It’s funny because, as we were walking to the lookout I noticed two other cars there to see the views; I was secretly hoping they would offer us a ride back into town. But as we got near the people, I did the math and noticed that both cars would be full and wouldn’t have room for two more. Bummer.

 Kelley and I spent about fifteen/twenty minutes taking in the views and snapping some pictures. I went to snap a selfie and I noticed that my hair was sticking straight up, which I thought was hilarious! On our way back up we passed three people on a tour walking down to the scenic lookout. We all said our friendly hellos, talked about the weather coming, and then went our separate ways. As we passed their vehicle I noticed it was at least a six-seater, and there were only three of them, which left plenty of room for me and Kelley! I was secretly hoping, once again, that they might offer us a ride when they passed us walking back to town in the rain. Guess what? The did! About 20 minutes into our walk, with rain pouring down on us, those same three people pulled over and asked if we wanted a ride!

We hopped right in and started making new friends, the girl in the group just so happened to be a photographer for Vogue on a tour of Australia. She had mentioned to us how her hair started sticking up, and how it was the weirdest thing she ever felt, so she googled what it meant. Apparently, according to National Geographic, when your hair sticks up like that “positive charges are going through your body and “ which means you are a couple minutes from getting struck by lightning…we could have died out there! I showed our new friends my selfie, and we all had a laugh, secretly relieved that none of us were electrocuted.

The day was almost over, but Kelley and I were hungry. It was just past 7pm and everywhere but one pizza place was closed already. We walked into the restaurant, sat down, put our order in, and then the lights went out and all power was out! The waitress came back and told us that our order wasn’t put in in time so our food couldn’t be made. We were on our way to starving until the power came back on forty-five minutes later and we walked back to that same pizza place and had the tastiest meal ever :)

Day 7 (January 5): Kelley and I had planned on today being the day we spent all day hiking in and around the Blue Mountains, and enjoying Scenic World while we were there. Well, it turned out to be a foggy day...like, so foggy you couldn't even see ten feet in front of you. So seeing the Three Sisters rock formation, and especially Scenic World, was out of the question because, why waste thirty-five dollars on a view you can't even see!? However, we knew we would be checking out of our hotel tomorrow morning so we still decided to do all the hiking. We hiked for hours, and even did this one thing called "The Giant Staircase." And it was GIANT! Basically nine hundred steps at a pretty steep incline; and we made the mistake of getting lost on the way and having to climb UP the stairs instead of walk down them...rookies...

My favorite meal from the entire two weeks came at lunch on this day, and we had definitely worked up an appetite on our never-ending hike! The restaurant we ate at was called The Yellow Deli; it was the cutest most crammed deli I have ever been to. The little booth we sat at was called Japan (I guess they named all their booths something different). I had a “Green Drink” healthy smoothie, potato soup, and a vegetarian sandwich. It. was. bomb.

Day 8 (January 6): Saving Scenic World for today was perfect. We woke up early, stopped at a cafe for coffee, and even found a shop called The Hattery, which sold all kinds of authentic Australian Akubra hats; which of course I had to have one... There were about fifty different styles and shades of color to choose from, I narrowed it down to three different styles then had Kelly help me pick the winner. I've never had a hat fitted to my head before this. It's literally perfect. And I love it. (Yes, I know it's just a hat...) 

So Kelley and I walked to Scenic World after coffee and finding the perfect hat, and we got there before it opened at 9am. We were the first people in line for the railway, and didn’t have to wait in any lines for the skyway, walkway, or cableway, either! And, to top it off, there was NO fog! We were in and out of there by about 10:45am. 

We knew our train from Blackheath back to Sydney was set to depart at 12:02pm and we couldn’t be late; the next train didn’t leave for another two hours! We wanted to grab lunch before our three-hour train ride and Kelley was looking to try this gourmet sandwich shop we’d seen in town. We had thirty minutes from the time we hopped off the train from Katoomba to grab lunch and our luggage and be back at the platform before it left.

The woman at the sandwich shop was so nice, and wanted to chat all about our travels (Australians love Americans). Unfortunately, that’s the worst thing when you’re in a hurry and don’t want to be rude. It took her about twenty minutes to make both our sandwiches. But, I will say, when we ate them one the train a while later they were delicious (mine was a vegetarian falafel one). Anyways, we booked it to the hotel to gather our things and race to the train station across the street. We made it just in time, with two minutes to spare :)

The last thing on our list to do in Sydney was the bridge climb. Yes, you heard me right, we were going to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge! Kelley and been to Sydney once before when she was ten, and her family had told her she was too young to do the climb, so she vowed that if she ever came back, climbing the bridge was the one thing she had to do...so we did!

 "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to pick him up." 

- Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

XO - Cristin