February 26, 2011
We’re in Bondi Beach today and we’ll be here until we leave for home on Tuesday. We heard that Bondi Beach is famous for its beaches and surfing. We didn’t actually want to stay in this town, but this happens to be a very busy week-end in the Sydney area and “everything” else was booked up. We’re only about 15 minutes out of Sydney so we’ll still go in for the day. Bondi Beach isn’t what I expected. It’s crowded and not very pretty or quaint. I guess you could say this is the first place we have been to that I was not excited about. Maybe it’s all in the plans, so I’m not too sad about leaving!
The kids are at a Rugby game in Sydney tonight. They took the 5:00 train, so I have the night to myself. I bought a nice bottle of red wine, fixed a vegetarian dinner for myself, and am quite enjoying the night.
Before getting here, we spent three nights in the Blue Mountains. Oh! What beauty! The Blue Mountains are two hours west of Sydney and unbelievably beautiful. We spent two days hiking and saw numerous waterfalls and the most wonderful forests. The hike on the second day had 900 steps down into the valley and 1000 back up! It was all worth it and we did it with no problem.
In the Blue Mountains, there were flocks of Cockatoos everywhere. I love watching them in nature and can’t imagine ever caging such a happy, free animal, or any animal for that matter. They were loud and not real serene sounding. There are also Black Cockatoos. I didn’t get to see them but Eliot saw a flock one day while we were driving.
Australia has been a real treat to visit. The people seem to be very relaxed and kind. I guess it’s hard to be in “the fast lane”, here as 95% of the roads are two lanes; including the freeways. The speed limit isn’t very fast and there are reminders everywhere to slow down and take a break. Driving the coast to this area was about a 10 hour drive and it was through little towns and forests. The freeway goes through the towns. It would be the equivalent of driving US1 all the way up the coast vs highway 95. In fact, that is the way my family traveled to Canada for many years before highway 95 was built.
I recommend visiting this country to anyone that has ever wondered about it. There is something for everyone here. It was nice to see that there isn’t as much “fear” of the crocodiles as we heard from the states, or of the great white sharks. Things are always different when you get somewhere. I’m happy that I have been able to see, first hand, what life is like in Australia and New Zealand! If my kids would come, I think Joe and I would try our best to move to one of these two countries.