Of course, we'd lost several hours and traveled into the future. Despite our exhaustion (why is sitting for hours so tiring?), we rallied to battle our impending jetlag and ventured out to Circular Quay. The weather wast cloudy, windy, and cold, but it was good to go out. Jon neglected to bring anything warm to wear and did his best impression of a manly man bravely defying the elements. Hungry, we looked at a few restaurants and settled quickly on the Eastbank Cafe. They offered gluten-free pizza and pasta! Yay! We shared a good pizza with prosciutto and rocket and drank some Shiraz Cabernet wine, while watching rain move in across the Harbour Bridge and over the water.
It was a nice start to the trip. The food was good – a little spendy, but worth it to eat something bready. The crust reminded me of a thin, soft, focaccia. I've been surprised at how much gluten-free food I've seen so far. At the airport in Auckland, while Jon was buying his favorite soda – which tastes like lemon-scented Dawn dish soap to me, I found a coffee shop selling a gluten-free orange cake. When we passed through quarantine in Australia, they let me keep on my homemade granola bars.
[Jon: The soda is Lemon & Paeroa, named after the flavor and the own where it is made. "World Famous in New Zealand!"]
We spent the rest of the afternoon freezing and wandering around the area, checking out the Opera House and eventually taking a ferry over to Darling Harbour. So far I'm loving the mix of open water, skyscrapers, houses, docks, and paths in Sydney. I'm super excited to go back and take a tour of the Opera House, see the scary face at Luna Park up close, go to the Aquarium and Maritime Museum, and of course, explore the Royal Botanical Garden. After Jon heads back to the states (sadness), one of my goals is to take all the ferries.
While we were at Darling Harbour, we found a military ship named 'Vampire'. I'd love to know the story behind that name.
We also ran into a local Latin festival and saw some tango dancers.
Now we're on the plane to Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) and warmer weather. Apparently Furbies are popular in Australia: this was on the safety card on our Qantas flight:
I'm slightly less happy with Qantas at the moment because they don't have anything I can eat. Oh well. Fortunately I brought some food.
In case you're planning a trip to Australia: We liked our hotel: Travelodge. It's not super expensive and the bed is comfortable. The room came with a tiny mini-kitchen (microwave, fridge, sink, dishes), and it's near the Museum train stop. If you're looking to buy a SIM card while you're there, the International terminal sells Vodafone cards as you're leaving. They seem like a great choice if you'll mostly be in Sydney and other large cities. It's less expensive than most of the other options. Since we're going out to the desert, we got a Telstra card. Telstra has great coverage but is more expensive. They sell them in the Domestic terminal (at least Terminal 3) after you go through security.
I can already see the sunny red desert of the Australian outback through the window.
Post a Comment