We left Sydney early this morning and headed to the Whitsunday Islands in Queensland. These tiny islands are right next to the Great Barrier Reef and surrounded by impossibly blue water as far as the eye can see. It’s truly paradise on Earth. We are blessed to be able to wake up to this view for the next few days.
If you’ve ever watched Masterchef Australia then you should be familiar with the ‘Snow Egg’ created by Peter Gilmore. On our last day in Sydney, we splurged and went to Quay to experience this signature dish first hand. The meal built crescendo as each course out-performed the last, ending with this memorable dessert.
Today we headed out of the city to Bondi, famous for it’s crystal blue water and white sand beach. We spent the morning soaking up the sun and jumping waves. Bondi is also the perfect place to people watch. The beach is filled with surfers, sunbathers, and people frolicking in the water taking advantage of the beautiful Australian weather.
On the third day, we drove to the Blue Mountains and hiked on one of Australia’s finest bush walking trails. We descended vertically down the rock face into a valley where we were surrounded by lush greenery. Looking up we saw a stunning view of the cascading waterfalls.
This picture was taken in an alleyway in Newtown/Enmore, a suburb 15 minutes outside of downtown Sidney. This hip area is full of eclectic shops, small sidewalk cafes, and lots of graffiti. The relief sculpture of the skull with an acronym edged in was found all over town, this particular black skull against the flower petals is unique because it creates an interesting juxtaposition.
After 26 long hours of flying, we finally made it to Sydney. The weather is beautiful, but that seems to be the norm here. This picture was taken from the back of the Manly Beach ferry. You can see the Sydney opera house and the bridge in the distance as the boat pulled out of Circular Quay.
I am so excited that Australia is finally here! This will be our first long vacation in two years, so instead of running around like crazy for a weekend, this will actually feel like a vacation. But before the fun vacation part, we’ll have to do the not so fun packing part. I’ve gotten so used to packing for weekend trips, that I don’t know what to do when I have to plan out what to pack for 2 weeks in advance. You’d think after all traveling we do that I’ve got this packing thing down, but no, Fausto is the packer in our relationship. He just has a way with fitting everything nice and perfectly into the suitcase (must be all the Tetris he played as a kid). My problem is I can never decide what to wear and it varies depending on the weather, where I am going, and my mood; so planning ahead of time is impossible.
As you may know, we’re traveling to Australia in a few weeks. Three weeks out, it finally dawned on us that we still haven’t gotten our travel visa yet and we need to get on it ASAP. Since we have passports from one of the few countries that are allowed to apply for an electronic visitor visa to Australia, we thought it would be quite simple: fill out the form online, pay the $20AUD fee, and and be on our way. The whole electronic visa process is supposed to be hassle free with a high acceptance rate of 99.8%. But nothing is ever easy or hassle free when I travel, and it turns out that I am in that special 0.2% that got rejected – with no explanation and also no refund for the $20AUD fee. So this post is not so much about travel tips as it is things you should not do from my personal experience.
A few weeks ago we had a big burst of energy and made some serious progress on planning our itinerary for Australia. In this post I’ll try to cover some of the main planning considerations and tools we used to make our itinerary.
life after 9to5 