sunny sydney lovely vaca

Getting there

The flight had been booked weeks in advance, but paul and i just kept forgetting to figure out where we were staying. He has heaps of friends in Sydney(Paul is an actor, he went to Western Australian Acadamy of Performing Arts, his class of 20 or so were very close and still remain great friends no matter how much time they spend apart, im quite envious) so we both just relied on one of them donating a couch to us at the last minute. We waited until two days before the trip, and our first person fell through - which worked out for the best. Paul rang his friend Simon(waapa), it turned out he was going to be in melbourne the same time we would be in sydney, so hey why not just swap houses for the week. And let's just say, Simon got the shit end of the deal...i'll talk about why later.
I was getting so giddy on the way to the airport, and fearful because the last time i flew i was seriously nauseous and sick during take off and landing; coldsweats, trembling, getting sick in the flimsy paper bag.
I had a window seat and a tv in front to take my mind off things, so no - i didnt puke on paul. Instead i lived it up with a glass of red wine, flight of the concords, and some cheese and crackers. I know, who do i think i am?
Flying into Sydney we could see the harbour and opera house from the window. It was surreal.

yeah - i took out my camera in-flight, touuur
i did actually take this picture

I tried not to act like an overexcited tourist as the taxi wove through the large spread-out city between the many grassy parks, much reminding me of toronto.
We arrived in Paddington ( about a 30 minute walk from the CBD ) where we would be living for the next few days. You could immediatly tell this place was ritzy, with the lack of cigarette butts and tidy front yards - and about 3 different locks on the front doors.
Simons place was beautiful. Wood floors. Old creeking shallow stairs. Skylights. A sexy kitchen. And an almost erotic bathroom. I felt like i was staying in a hotel. But we were greeted with a very sweet note from Sarah ( the roomate ) and fresh towels that smelt of lilac...mmm.
Anxiously i searched the upstairs for our room. With two floor to ceiling french doors leading out to our private balcony. A queen bed overflowing with pillows and an excessive duvet.

livin' room


kitchen and skylight

sexy sexy bathtub
hotel like shower
birds!
backyardshot through the fence on our balcony

paul probably snooping through simons stuff

After finding and gorging on a very large pub meal, we hopped bars and pubs for the remainder of the night with easy conversation. We cabbed to Surrey Hills to meet up with Alex, Scottys girlfriend, who had just finished a show - which we saw later in the week and i'll get back to that too. She was lovely,radiant and dominated the conversation.Sydney bars seem to close early, even on saturdays! So we went to a couple places for last drinks until me and Alex stood outside lecturing the boys about hospitality work until a cab pulled up and i was whisked away.

Hello harbour!

We woke up to a overcast morning and had breakfast on oxford street, which we were living parallel to. Had a quick meet and greet with Sarah in her room and flagged down a bus to circular quay. I was so lame and nerdy about seeing the opera house, when i finally saw it, it was exactly how i imagined it and magnificent.
We sat on the grass in the harbour and watched a funny contortionist lady get into a this raised glass box, taking quick glimpses at the harbour. I was just laid back and relaxed, but Paul was busy on the phone organizing plans and getting people together. If we were in entourage, i would be vinny and he would be e. Mmhmm.

if you click on this picture youll be able to see the hundreds of jelly fish in the water, its for sio

paul has great directing skills!
i think im artsy

We got lost in the rocks, which was nice because we wound through the notorious markets ( even though i was getting tired and cranky that paul wouldnt just ask someone where the cafe was ) finally ending up at the The Australian Hotel, or something that specialized in pizza and beer. One by one his friends arrived and we sat at a table outside in the sun drinking beer and swallowing bowls of wedges.

me looking cute while scotty
john, sarah, paul, scotty, tim

Tim, before he ate the napkin and spit it

After we grew tired of that place, and the sun began to set, we went to another place with a rooftop bar to which i discovered overlooked the bridge and opera house. I whipped out my geeky, big camera and snapped shakey shots. Torquel from Hell's Gates ( the feature film Paul did ) and his girlfriend Jo, joined us. Drinks went well into the night, until, like the way it started, one by one everyone left. We took a romantic stroll through the city and caught a cab halfway home.

view from the rocks
paul directing me to eat the opera house
love love love this photo of scotty, looks like an album cover - i reckon

i could put this above my bed?

alex, scotty, tim

"We should have asked someone!"

The first night, the one we spent with Scotty and Alex, they recommended we walk from Bronte to Bondi - there wasnt much detail on where we were going, talk of coogie and not enough time and ask someone. We took a quick bus there, and had breakfast in bronte. We had the overcast morning again, which turned into a beautiful sunny day. We stood on the beach and assumed the way we were to walk was to the right - we didn't ask anyone. And of course, we were supposed to go to our left. We went the wrong way but we still got to see many beaches and bays, but unfortunately we didnt bring our bathers and it would have been lovely to take a dip in one of the many beaches.
Paul and I hadnt realized we had gone in the wrong direction until we walked 2 and a half hours, where our 'path' ( that started and stopped many times ) ended and we asked a gentleman outside that told us we had gone in the wrong direction. Sweaty and tired we caught the nearest bus to the city and back to the harbour. Where we snuck a starbucks ( its so embarrassing to be caught with a starbucks and having someone hear my accent, they think its all north americans drink ). But i didnt feel so bad, since it was the second time i'd had it in OZ.

beach in bronte, where i text all of you
ohhh yeahhh
all the old people were doing laps in the pool thing
these rocks look fake in real life too

i know, they look huge
weird cemetery
another beach


i was totally snooping and taking photos of this couple and their happy dog

Anyway - we caught a ferrie to Manly and i frantically snapped away as sydney got farther and smaller. Manly was touristy, rich, and reminded me of st kilda. But had a beautiful beach and nice restaurants lining the boardwalk, where we sat and had dinner. I popped into a surf shop and picked up this bathing suit that fit like a glove, which is rare with my proportions, and that i had to have.
Our ferrie was being a pain in the ass and late, so they loaded us onto this jet ferrie and we arrived in half the time - which saved our butts because we had to be at Paul's friend, Tim's (waapa) play in 15 minutes from when we docked.
It was anatomy titus fall of rome, it was very very bloody ( of course ) and actually quite funny - which i think it needed with a set drenched in blood. Tim was great, he played Aaron. And best of all, the play was in the opera house!

view from ferrie


manly beach


inside the ferrie waiting area
right before we went into the opera house

After it finished, Paul and I grabbed a seat outside at the opera bar and a bottle of wine as we waited for Tim to wash all the blood off of him and join us. We got through some more wine, and surprisingly, it went straight to all of our heads - we couldnt figure it out. So Paul and I quickly caught the next bus home and i crawled in bed while i was telling Paul how drunk i was. It was pretty horrid.

this is the view from where we were sitting at the bar. I kept taking peaks between talking to paul and tim at everything

Tequila takes you down

The next morning i felt shockingly well and we got up early ( like 10 ) and put on our bathers, this time, preparing for a nice time in the world famous Bondi beach. So touristy, everyone there had an accent of some sort. We walked along the beach, passing the surfer section, to the designated topless tanning area [ not really, it just seemed that they all grouped in the same area] to the family area where you could swim between the flags - paul scared me and told me that i could get pulled under and people die in bondi. I dont know why he scares me. There were four thousand lifegaurds.
We parked ourselves in a nice sandy spot away from obnoxious surfer dudes and backpackers. It was a beautiful day, not too hot with a little wind. After getting a bit sweaty i went into the pacific ocean, eee! The waves were a bit intimidating, and everyone seemed to know exactly how to handle them. I think the biggest waves i've experienced were at Wasaga - at their peak. And these were bigger. I just looked around and copied what other people were doing and tried not to drown. I timed a dive under a wave perfectly and was really impressed with myself, then i tried doing it again and my bathing suit fell down and when the wave passed i was caught choking on sea water and pulling up my breasts...i wasnt even in the topless area!
Hoping that no one saw my failure of a dive, my breasts, or my subtle chokes on sea water, i tried to make my way back towards the sand as cool as possible. I was only in the water for a bit catching the waves, but i already felt so exhausted. I played it cool, again, when i got back to paul and he went in for his turn. Being a Perth boy, and experiencing killer waves, he did all this fancy shit. Hopefully i'll learn from him when we go for christmas.
We dried off and had a cheeky drink at a beach side bar, where i caught quick glimpses of some NHL clips which took me back. Ahh canada. And people watched.

bondi beach!
paul waking into the water
my new bathing suit, im in love with it - wearing pauls hat

little cat nap

After showering the sand off and getting dressed, saying a quick hello to Simon ( who just returned from melbourne ) and tidying the house. We walked to Kings Cross( the sketchy prostitution, drugs, and overall fun place) and checked out the area, took some photos, and then made our way to Surrey Hills where we had a tea at a cafe and relaxed after walking all day. My feet were so sore because i brought one pair of shoes, that were new and unforgiving. And im a moron and only packed my left runner. So i was forced to bandage my foot and suffer the pain.

After tea we head towards the theatre where Alex was performing that night, A View of Concrete. We met some more of Pauls friends, and after getting tight-ass-tuesday tickets, we ate another huge pub meal and raced our way to the theatre, just catching the door before it closed.
I really enjoyed it, it was a black comedy. Had another one of pauls friend in it. But alex was great - she had this scene where she was freaking out and ranting after taking speed and it was absolutely hilarious.
We waited in the lounge afterwards and torquel and scotty arrived, and alex came out. We searched around for a bar open on a tuesday in surrey hills, which was proving to be difficult. Finally found one that was pretty grungy and famous for its all night service. Simon joined us and the drinks kept going later and later, until it was getting too late for some and simon paul and i took a cab back home. I thought the night was over until Simon busted out tequila, we started with the good stuff. And switched to the cheap tequila i had my first drunk on, mom, dad, sue, im sure you remember that. Ahh...
Things got ridiculous and i went to bed before it got too out of hand.

umm... it was hot-badass-cop-grabs-fellon type adyeah, we were really drunk - tequila!

A hot & sticky return

The previous day we spoke of waking up early and going to darling habour, but when we snoozed two hours past our alarm clock, that option was out of the question. Instead we tidied, did breakfast, and packed in slow motion.
I was fearful on the way to the airport for the plane ride, i already get quite queasy and i was hungover. I stuffed my face with subway and prayed for the best. It seemed like it was going to be a really bad flight, with the threatening-to-cry toddler behind me and aisle seat ( i need to be able to look out a window when im in a moving object ). I focused all my attention on the tv infront of me and did really well. After that everything was fine.
Melbourne was 33 degrees when we landed. Paul and i were exhausted, hot, and hungover and spent the night in bed eating icecubes and watching Ten Empty (aussie film, not great) and lars and the real girl ( which i thought was great ).

I woke up this morning at 9 and it was already 28 out. Im too canadian for this weather!
I have a few days to rest and find a job so i can start saving for perth and other little trips to make.

So that was my trip to sydney! I had a really great time, but its never fun coming back from a vacation but atleast i still have a few days off - compared to paul being thrown back in to work again today, Muahaha.