We’re doing the laundry and packing up after a week in one place. It has been such a luxury to sit in a single place for a week. We worked out at the Gold’s gym every other day, ate microwaved oatmeal every morning in our kitchenette and spread out our clothes instead of keeping everything packed during our stay. We learned the public transportation system and the groceries (which thankfully are much easier to find than in Europe).
We have found Australians to be warm and friendly. Every time we thank someone, we get the very pleasant response of, “no worries”. They are open to conversations about where we are from and curious about our visit. The Australian news is covering the Los Angeles fires as top coverage. Right now I am watching Charlie Wrangel on the news. Can you imagine watching an Australian politician on our news? It seems that more Australians have visited the US than vice versa. As I working out today the woman next to me told me she spent four weeks in LA and New Jersey this summer and was watching the fire news as anxiously as I was. When we say we are from Seattle, they always respond with some knowledge of the area such as, “home of Microsoft and Boeing”, or “are you Supersonics fans?” The US is like a big brother to Australia. They watch our politics and our news with interest.
The owner of the Golds gym told us that with overtime, the guys working the front desk make $30 AUD an hour on Sundays. Assuming that is time and a half or double time pay for working Sundays (can you imagine getting paid more for working on a Sunday?) they make $15-20 an hour the rest of the time. Each of our trips out to dinner cost between $60-100 for the two of us, so the prices here reflect the higher compensation. Our dollar has been falling all over the world, and in our week here has gone from one our dollars to 88 cents Australian to today’s one to 90.5.
One of their local business heroes died a few days ago, just a day after we watched a special on him. 42 years old, this local man from an immigrant Middle Eastern background made millions by founding a cell phone store empire. He was a philanthropist and all around good guy, who dropped dead of a heart attack while taking a walk, and today there is a huge Muslim funeral. The news coverage is similar to what the passing of Bill Gates or Warren Buffet might be like. Most of our business people don’t get this type of news coverage.
It is a rainy, storming day today with lightening and other-non-vacation-happy weather. We are spending our last day relaxing. Last night we had our best dinner here at a small Japanese restaurant around the corner- the Uchi Lounge. Wonderful. We will probably go back again tonight.
Love, Deanne
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
I may have gained a bit of weight….but not that much!
Masters of public transportation…. We have traveled by city train, ferry, taxi and this morning we added the monorail. We rode around the city loop (meeting a two couples traveling together from Dallas for the same cruise that we take on Saturday) to Paddy’s Market, a huge indoor swap meet. Stalls go for miles selling souvenirs, tee shirts and all kinds of can’t-live-without-it junk. We wandered around for as long as we could take the crowds, escaping with one grandchild gift and a few workout tee-shirts (something we should have planned better before leaving home).
After the markets we decided to take the monorail to Darling Harbor for lunch. We found one of the guidebook recommended restaurants, Blackbird and settled in for a chicken sandwich and fish&chips. Both of us were concerned about the slippery floor under our table and asked the waitress to have someone clean it. Someone came over and assured us that the floor was wet from the rain (it was an open restaurant with no walls facing the harbor where we were sitting). After finishing our meal the floor was still slippery even though neither of us had been rained on while eating, so we knew the floor was oily from something else. I decided to clean my shoes with the cleaner that the waitress carried over to use on the floor. While rolled up in my chair cleaning the bottoms of the shoes the chair collapsed! One minute I was sitting up cleaning shoes the next minute I was sitting on the floor with a broken chair beside me. Nothing was hurt but my pride. It was quite embarrassing.
Apparently customer service in Sydney does not include listening to your customers complain about the slippery floor, nor does it include any concession when your chair breaks while a customer is sitting in it. May we suggest you not visit the Blackbird Café.
I am off to edit the zoo photos. I took so many that I need to weed through them or I will kill the internet when I post them. I will write again soon.
Deanne
After the markets we decided to take the monorail to Darling Harbor for lunch. We found one of the guidebook recommended restaurants, Blackbird and settled in for a chicken sandwich and fish&chips. Both of us were concerned about the slippery floor under our table and asked the waitress to have someone clean it. Someone came over and assured us that the floor was wet from the rain (it was an open restaurant with no walls facing the harbor where we were sitting). After finishing our meal the floor was still slippery even though neither of us had been rained on while eating, so we knew the floor was oily from something else. I decided to clean my shoes with the cleaner that the waitress carried over to use on the floor. While rolled up in my chair cleaning the bottoms of the shoes the chair collapsed! One minute I was sitting up cleaning shoes the next minute I was sitting on the floor with a broken chair beside me. Nothing was hurt but my pride. It was quite embarrassing.
Apparently customer service in Sydney does not include listening to your customers complain about the slippery floor, nor does it include any concession when your chair breaks while a customer is sitting in it. May we suggest you not visit the Blackbird Café.
I am off to edit the zoo photos. I took so many that I need to weed through them or I will kill the internet when I post them. I will write again soon.
Deanne
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Settling into Sydney
The zoo was beautiful- just as I remembered. The weather was not nearly as gorgeous as my last trip, but the overcast skies made it cooler. If you look at the photos, you can see the city skyline behind the animals. So impressive. I took pictures of the snakes for Jonny who has a few of his own. We especially enjoyed the Australian animals- the koalas, kangaroos and others.
We are busy staying close to the tv to watch the reports of the horrible fires in California. For all our friends and family nearby- our thoughts are with you. We have heard that the Chopra Center is closed and many of our San Diego friends have been evacuated. We aren’t sure about our former home in Malibu, but once again we are happy to no longer own that home and the vulnerability it had to the weather.
We have been working out at the neighborhood Golds Gym around the corner from our hotel. Just as expensive as everywhere else in Sydney- we have a discounted neighborhood hotel rate of $12 per day to work out (that is each!). We have been there every other day where we feel quite welcomed by the American men that run it. Marc and Steve are quite welcoming and offer us a cappuccino at the end of each work-out as a gift. Marc has been very generous with ideas of places to eat and visit, and we have found commonality in the fact that both of us are graduates of both Cornell and USC.
Last night we took the ferry across the harbor to Darling harbor and Star City where we saw the Sydney performance of Miss Saigon. I had purchased the tickets before we left on this trip. We have seen performances of concerts and plays when we visit new cities and always enjoy the night out. The Lyric theater in Sydney is beautiful and we loved watching the orchestra from our front row seat. It was particularly nice to be able to go out on the town without dressing up- everything goes in Sydney!
Today we walked down to Chinatown for lunch which was wonderful. Our restaurant was quite popular, with room for several hundred people all full. One entire wall of the place was taken up with aquariums full of fish and shellfish where you could select your meal while it was alive. Mike is not a seafood lover even when he hasn’t seen it alive, so we decided to stick with a meal that we didn’t need to apologize to before digging in.
The weatherman anticipates rain this afternoon although it has not begun yet. We are in our room watching the news, working on the internet and thinking of all of you.
Bye for now,
Deanne
We are busy staying close to the tv to watch the reports of the horrible fires in California. For all our friends and family nearby- our thoughts are with you. We have heard that the Chopra Center is closed and many of our San Diego friends have been evacuated. We aren’t sure about our former home in Malibu, but once again we are happy to no longer own that home and the vulnerability it had to the weather.
We have been working out at the neighborhood Golds Gym around the corner from our hotel. Just as expensive as everywhere else in Sydney- we have a discounted neighborhood hotel rate of $12 per day to work out (that is each!). We have been there every other day where we feel quite welcomed by the American men that run it. Marc and Steve are quite welcoming and offer us a cappuccino at the end of each work-out as a gift. Marc has been very generous with ideas of places to eat and visit, and we have found commonality in the fact that both of us are graduates of both Cornell and USC.
Last night we took the ferry across the harbor to Darling harbor and Star City where we saw the Sydney performance of Miss Saigon. I had purchased the tickets before we left on this trip. We have seen performances of concerts and plays when we visit new cities and always enjoy the night out. The Lyric theater in Sydney is beautiful and we loved watching the orchestra from our front row seat. It was particularly nice to be able to go out on the town without dressing up- everything goes in Sydney!
Today we walked down to Chinatown for lunch which was wonderful. Our restaurant was quite popular, with room for several hundred people all full. One entire wall of the place was taken up with aquariums full of fish and shellfish where you could select your meal while it was alive. Mike is not a seafood lover even when he hasn’t seen it alive, so we decided to stick with a meal that we didn’t need to apologize to before digging in.
The weatherman anticipates rain this afternoon although it has not begun yet. We are in our room watching the news, working on the internet and thinking of all of you.
Bye for now,
Deanne
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Sydney- Expensive doesn’t even begin to describe it
We are in Sydney. It is so nice to hear English everywhere you turn. We have TV on right now playing another game show- “The Singing Bee”, but this time we understand the show and the rules. Game shows seem to be popular everywhere. Maybe they are also popular at home but we don’t know because we never tune them in. In Europe we watched them under the pretense of learning the language- here we have them on just to laugh at the silliness.
We are staying in a very nice little boutique hotel- the Best Western Stellar. It sits on the edge of Hyde Park across the street from a Marriott. It is a suite hotel, and in the reservation I asked for a high floor with a view. We ended up on the top floor (sixth) with a view of the park. We have a nice little kitchenette with coffee making equipment, a microwave and a small refrigerator. One of the other luxuries (I wasn’t even going to mention the bathroom in the room rather than in the hall) is a washing machine and drier in the laundry room across the hall. All of that comes at a price- $165 AUD, or about $150. I keep reminding Mike that it is close to our 100 Euro a night budget. But the expensive room pales in comparison to other costs. We went to see our first movie in months (assuming you don’t count the marathon of movies we watched on the plane coming here) for $31 admission for two.
One of my favorite memories of Sydney was visiting the zoo and looking back at the Opera house and the harbor. That is on the agenda for tomorrow. Today we went to the historic area- the Rocks and visited the weekend arts and crafts market. We purchased a week pass for the public transportation so we are taking the subway around town and the ferry to the zoo. The transportation pass was the bargain price of $31.
The Australian people are so easy to like. Two tall, tattooed and wild looking teenagers asked Mike to take their photo today where we were sitting in front of the Opera House. He agreed but pointed them to me, saying that I was the photographer of our team. They whipped out a cardboard covered disposable camera and Mike laughed and said he thought even he could figure out that camera. They got a good laugh over the ribbing about their camera and sat together for a “cheese” and the snap of the camera. That is a little like the other young people we see around town- a little wildly dressed yet good natured and fun loving.
The back to back trips from Italy to Seattle then two days in town and on to Sydney has been hard on the internal clocks. We arrived here early in the morning and slept several hours that first day. Then, we were awake early the next morning (2:00 is very early) so we read for awhile then slept for a little while. We had a similar night last night. Hopefully we will sleep better tonight.
I will write tomorrow and let you know if the zoo lives up to memories.
Deanne
We are staying in a very nice little boutique hotel- the Best Western Stellar. It sits on the edge of Hyde Park across the street from a Marriott. It is a suite hotel, and in the reservation I asked for a high floor with a view. We ended up on the top floor (sixth) with a view of the park. We have a nice little kitchenette with coffee making equipment, a microwave and a small refrigerator. One of the other luxuries (I wasn’t even going to mention the bathroom in the room rather than in the hall) is a washing machine and drier in the laundry room across the hall. All of that comes at a price- $165 AUD, or about $150. I keep reminding Mike that it is close to our 100 Euro a night budget. But the expensive room pales in comparison to other costs. We went to see our first movie in months (assuming you don’t count the marathon of movies we watched on the plane coming here) for $31 admission for two.
One of my favorite memories of Sydney was visiting the zoo and looking back at the Opera house and the harbor. That is on the agenda for tomorrow. Today we went to the historic area- the Rocks and visited the weekend arts and crafts market. We purchased a week pass for the public transportation so we are taking the subway around town and the ferry to the zoo. The transportation pass was the bargain price of $31.
The Australian people are so easy to like. Two tall, tattooed and wild looking teenagers asked Mike to take their photo today where we were sitting in front of the Opera House. He agreed but pointed them to me, saying that I was the photographer of our team. They whipped out a cardboard covered disposable camera and Mike laughed and said he thought even he could figure out that camera. They got a good laugh over the ribbing about their camera and sat together for a “cheese” and the snap of the camera. That is a little like the other young people we see around town- a little wildly dressed yet good natured and fun loving.
The back to back trips from Italy to Seattle then two days in town and on to Sydney has been hard on the internal clocks. We arrived here early in the morning and slept several hours that first day. Then, we were awake early the next morning (2:00 is very early) so we read for awhile then slept for a little while. We had a similar night last night. Hopefully we will sleep better tonight.
I will write tomorrow and let you know if the zoo lives up to memories.
Deanne
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Seattle Whirlwind
We arrived in Seattle on Monday night after two long airport delays- one in Rome and the other on our connecting flight in Cincinnati. Nevertheless, it was nice to get back to cool, wet Seattle. We stayed a Motel 6 in Issaquah in order to be close to the appointments we had lined up for all day Tuesday (doctors, dentists, pharmacy, hair stylist, barber). We also had some shopping to do (new lens for the camera, drugstore supplies, etc.) We didn't sleep all that well Monday night- perhaps jet lag or maybe the sound of cars parking outside our motel window. We were very keyed up about all that we had to do, so it was possibly the excitement of our fast touchdown in Seattle that caused the wakefulness. Nevertheless, we made it through our day of errands and drove our rental Toyota Prius up to Bellingham Tuesday night for dinner with Mike, Dana and Matt. Unfortunately we did not get to see Jonny this trip. Dinner was fun- we celebrated Michael's birthday and listened to some friendly jibes from Matt who responded to his Dad's comment that we loved the nomadic lifestyle and might never come home with a request that we not tease him like that.
Mike and Dana put us up in their home where we got a private bathroom, free internet access, a bottomless cup of coffee at breakfast and English speaking hosts! It was great to sleep well, although once again the excitement of getting ready for the next leg of our journey caused us both to wake up at 3:00 AM, so wide awake that we got out of bed and packed our bags. Crazy!
We spent most of today traveling to the airport from Bellingham. We flew to LA this afternoon and currently sit in LAX waiting for our flight to Sydney. We found a condo to rent in San Miguel de Allende, so we know where we will be in January.
We arrive in Sydney in another day or two after our fourteen hour flight. We will log in then and let you know how these two dead tired travelers are doing. To those of you that we couldn't see this trip- our apologies. One and a half days in Seattle was just not enough to see everyone. We will be back in December though.
Love to you all, Deanne and Mike
Mike and Dana put us up in their home where we got a private bathroom, free internet access, a bottomless cup of coffee at breakfast and English speaking hosts! It was great to sleep well, although once again the excitement of getting ready for the next leg of our journey caused us both to wake up at 3:00 AM, so wide awake that we got out of bed and packed our bags. Crazy!
We spent most of today traveling to the airport from Bellingham. We flew to LA this afternoon and currently sit in LAX waiting for our flight to Sydney. We found a condo to rent in San Miguel de Allende, so we know where we will be in January.
We arrive in Sydney in another day or two after our fourteen hour flight. We will log in then and let you know how these two dead tired travelers are doing. To those of you that we couldn't see this trip- our apologies. One and a half days in Seattle was just not enough to see everyone. We will be back in December though.
Love to you all, Deanne and Mike
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Can you believe it is almost over?
We have been enjoying our last few days in Italy. When we returned to our hotel in Florence we were greeted like returning family. Tonight we took Caitie and her roommates to dinner at a restaraunt that we ate in twice during our last stay and once before this stay and the entire staff treated us like neighborhood friends. It has been great to know our way around this small part of Florence and to have familiar faces to make us feel more welcome.
Tomorrow we leave for Rome. Caitie and her friends are joining us for brunch at a restaurant that reportedly serves an American style breakfast, something we all have done without for months. Then, after our visit, Mike and I board a train for the two hour ride directly to the Rome airport where we are staying at the Airport Hilton (thank you work-earned Hilton points) the night before our morning flight. We fly to Cincinnati then on to Seattle.
We have been thinking and planning our holidays. We expect to spend our time from mid-December to mid-January with family then we think we will head to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico for six weeks for Spanish lessons and holiday. We have located several condos available for rent that allow us to stay downtown near the heart of the city. If any of you have similar experiences and advice please let us know.
We have several busy days ahead, so it may be a few days before you hear from us again.
Love, Deanne
Tomorrow we leave for Rome. Caitie and her friends are joining us for brunch at a restaurant that reportedly serves an American style breakfast, something we all have done without for months. Then, after our visit, Mike and I board a train for the two hour ride directly to the Rome airport where we are staying at the Airport Hilton (thank you work-earned Hilton points) the night before our morning flight. We fly to Cincinnati then on to Seattle.
We have been thinking and planning our holidays. We expect to spend our time from mid-December to mid-January with family then we think we will head to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico for six weeks for Spanish lessons and holiday. We have located several condos available for rent that allow us to stay downtown near the heart of the city. If any of you have similar experiences and advice please let us know.
We have several busy days ahead, so it may be a few days before you hear from us again.
Love, Deanne
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Firenze and wonderful wifi
Final (hopefully) update on the bugs. Mike's invention of the ankle to wrist and neck tin foil suit does the trick. All new bites are limited to my neck, face and hands. Becuase the bugs had a much smaller target area, they were twice as vicious so my hands feel like monster fingers. They hurt to bend. I will be glad when whatever spiders or bugs we have encountered are in our past.
We took the train trip to Florence this morning and checked back in to the wonderful City Hotel where we felt like we were coming home. Francesco, the wonderful man who helped us arrange for crutches had our room ready with the bag he was storing already in our room. We have a room with bathroom for one night, then to get our discount rate we have to move tomorrow to a room with a bathroom outside in the hall. Oh well. We are so happy to be back in Florence. We had lunch at one of our old haunts where the chef came out to greet us again. We sat beside a couple from Ireland and had a wonderful visit.
Caitie just called. She has just finished a test in Italian which she is celebrating with a McDonald's ice cream with her roommates, then she is coming to town to meet us for dinner. She leaves tomorrow morning at 8:00 for Venice so we won't see her again until Sunday morning when we meet for breakfast before heading off to Rome for our final night and flight home.
I have updated the photos now that we are back in a hotel with wifi access. What a pleasure it is not to have to go to an internet cafe to work on the blog and e-mail. We are sitting on the bed side by side both working on our "stuff". Small pleasures.
Later,
Deanne
We took the train trip to Florence this morning and checked back in to the wonderful City Hotel where we felt like we were coming home. Francesco, the wonderful man who helped us arrange for crutches had our room ready with the bag he was storing already in our room. We have a room with bathroom for one night, then to get our discount rate we have to move tomorrow to a room with a bathroom outside in the hall. Oh well. We are so happy to be back in Florence. We had lunch at one of our old haunts where the chef came out to greet us again. We sat beside a couple from Ireland and had a wonderful visit.
Caitie just called. She has just finished a test in Italian which she is celebrating with a McDonald's ice cream with her roommates, then she is coming to town to meet us for dinner. She leaves tomorrow morning at 8:00 for Venice so we won't see her again until Sunday morning when we meet for breakfast before heading off to Rome for our final night and flight home.
I have updated the photos now that we are back in a hotel with wifi access. What a pleasure it is not to have to go to an internet cafe to work on the blog and e-mail. We are sitting on the bed side by side both working on our "stuff". Small pleasures.
Later,
Deanne
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