Helllloooo Manly.... We have arrived!!

Day 1 - Manly:

To our surprise despite the fore warnings of the strict immigration officers, we flew through customs via the express lane food in tow and all! Greeting us right outside of customs was none other than the one and only... drum roll please... Jimmy White!!! We hopped into the car and ventured our way through Sydney towards Jimmy's house in Manly as he pointed out landmarks and historical sites along the way. Dropping off our bags, we walked the boardwalk on the beach and Jimmy showed us the location of all of the best restaurants and cafes in town so that we could continue our feasting from New Zealand during our time in Australia. The sun was shining although the forecast had calling for consistent rain... we seem to be having good luck in bringing the sun with us during our travels! The afternoon began with a rooftop beer at Shark Bar on the Corso and ended with a brief trip to the beach and a dip in the ocean.

At 5:30pm on the dot, Jaclyn burst through the doors welcoming us both with big hugs and a screech of joy! We reminisced for a bit about our travels and decided upon India food for dinner since Alison doesn't get enough of it during her travel there :). We walked to Jimmy and Jaclyn's favorite Indian restaurant, Ashanias, stopping along the way for a couple bottles of wine for the B.Y.O. Wine service. Once the food arrived we were all famished so we dug in right away. Before we realized that we had ordered the hottest items on the menu we all had beads of sweat pouring from out of every crevasse of our bodies (okay, I know it sounds gross but it is pretty much the truth considering it was 85 degrees outside with about 100% humidity and no air conditioning or even fans in the restaurant)! Don't get us wrong, the food was EXCELLENT... we basically licked all the plates clean and were all delirious from the natural curry high and wine.

As we got up to leave the restaurant, Melanie mentioned her feet hurt and felt stiff. We laughed it off until we got outside and took a good look at her feet and realized they were triple in size, no lie! To give you a visual... they look as puffy as a doctor's latex glove blown up. We were in hysterics and Alison, Jaclyn, and Jimmy almost peed their pants. But our night didn't end there, we grabbed some more wine and headed home for some late night TV.


Day 2 - Sydney:

The next morning Jimmy and Jaclyn headed to work, and Alison and Melanie hopped on the Manly ferry to Sydney to do a little sightseeing for the day. Don't worry, Melanie's feet were back to normal by this time after she elevated them overnight and drank a gallon of water. Our "walking tour" of the city started at the Opera House and a great views of Harbor Bridge for a photo op. We proceeded to the Botanical Gardens. Although we were warned about the things that we were about to see... we had NO idea what was really in store for us that day! After seeing some odd birds species (no, Rob we don't know the names of them... if you're even reading this, hahaha!), like parrots that sounded like monkeys and duck/anteater combo bird and BATS!!! Holy shit, these bats were huge... I'm talking what seemed like a size of a little child. Hundreds of them.. no thousands of them, hanging from the trees above and swooping back and forth above our heads as we maneuvered through the path avoiding the bat droppings as they fell. Talk about gross... and a bit frightening. We felt like we were in the movie Birds except they were bats. We hightailed it out of there after taking some pictures to Pitt Street in the Business District for some window shopping and lunch.

It was a really cool area with lots of great stores and restaurants, but there were business people everywhere! Although it was nice, it reminded us of the hustle and bustle of Boston and being back at work, which we're both not quite ready for yet as the trip is only half over... so we cruised back over to Manly on the ferry and planted ourselves at the beach for the rest of the afternoon as the sun had finally come out. That evening we had our first home cooked meal in just under 2 weeks, care of Jaclyn. Veal Tortellini with a pesto sauce, garlic bread, salad, and of course more wine... yum! We had a family style dinner with Anne and Steve (Jimmy's parents), Jimmy and Jaclyn, and of course us. And finally had a relaxing evening watching TV and joking around and a good night's sleep which we would soon to find out that we would be very thankful for the next night. ahhhh!

Day 3 - Manly:

Again Jaclyn and Jimmy were off to work so we were on our own to entertain ourselves. We had breakfast with Anne while we waited for the rain to stop and then we were immediately out the door for our 3 mile walk along the scenic boardwalk. Yes, we are actually exercising although the calorie intake is so obscene it seem to be balancing out! By the end of the walking we were sweltering because it was now a perfect beach day. So once again we headed back to the beach where we stayed for the entire day, swimming and bronzing ourselves in the strong Australian sun (don't worry moms... we're wearing SPF 30 and haven't burnt yet). We met Jimmy at the ferry, grabbed an ice cream and went back to the house to get ready for our night our with Jaclyn and Jimmy's friends in Manly.

Our night started off at The Diggers on the Park (aka The Elks of Australia). What better than cheap beer, tons of blue hair, Keno, Pokies (that is electronic poker machines), and "bowling"... that's lawn bowling which is basically a combination of American bowling and Italian bocce.






After endless "jugs"... that's a pitcher... of beer and some good laughs with our new friends we headed out to Shark Bar for some more drinks and dancing. By this time our group had dwindled from 15 to 7 because although we never know what day it is they all knew it was a work night. We realized it was time to go when someone "chucked a nani" (aka threw a fit). Names have been removed to protect the person's identity. Before we all got outside Jimmy had already made a friend who barely English from the Cech Republic. After posing for a few pictures, we said our goodbyes and since we were all a bit hungry, Melanie and Nick went off for a meat pie while Jaclyn, Jimmy, and Alison went off for a Kebab. Alison enjoyed the best Kebab Manly has to offer (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4857133486) and Melanie enjoyed her first Australian meat pie. We all stumbled home and put ourselves to bed!






Day 4 - Bondi:

Holy Hangover! Wait did you hear me... HOLY BLOODY HANGOVER!!! If you don't remember what we wrote about we got "fully pissed" last night(translation wasted, drunk, off our rockers, smashed, boomed, cocked, bamboozled, you get the picture). A gallon of water and a couple of panadol (aussie advil) later, we were on the road to do a little more sightseeing... we which we later regretted. First stop, the best meat pie place in Sydney, Harry's Cafe de Wheels, as Melanie had thoroughly enjoyed her pie the night before and left her wanting more! After stuffing our faces with Tiger Pies - ground meat, pureed peas, mash potatoes, pie crust, and chili sauce - we headed to Bondi Beach. Immediately regretted our decision as laying in the sun with a raging hangover is not the best idea... we took a swim and stayed for less than hour. Alison got her first driving experience in Australia as she took wheel after Jimmy was no longer in driving condition as he was fading quickly.

Back to the house for a swim in the pool and some more goofy around and good laughs on Jimmy's computer. Then we made our way back down the Corso for what else but a couple of Ser Bar Kebabs... we are now on a first name basis with Fared the Kebab King, the Michelangelo of Turkish streetmeat. We made it back to the house just before the hurricane like storm hit that lasted for a mere ten minutes but made us soil our pants as we watched from the front porch with the lightening and thunder shaking the house after hearing that 15 people die a year from lightening strikes in Australia!




Now its time to relax and pack up for our big trip to Brisbane and the New South Wales coast with Jimmy and Jaclyn. Pray for sun!

P.S. For those of you that shared it was too hard to comment because you had to setup a "login", we found the feature to shut that off... so it should be easier to comment if you want to!