Australia: Sydney and Goldcoast

So my dear friend bea "tricked" me into this runaway trip :P
here's my lil notes along the way...

Day 1: Feb 20 - Melbourne
Arrived in Melbourne airport around 9 am local time. The time difference with Indo is 4hours prior. Funny, i didn't really feel like i'm abroad. My first impression about the airport is even funnier, i felt like i'm in Kupang... with it's deserted bushes etc. The only difference is that the air is fresher and cooler compared to Jakarta.

Nothing special about the city, too. With its high way, and metropolis look of high rise buildings and towers, i feel like i'm still driving trough the SBD area of Sudirman and Kuningan. Weird, huh? I suddenly feel something i've never really experience before.. homesick about Jakarta. only a little dose of it.

Soon after we arrived at Raymond's apartment. That so called homesick feeling is gone and replaced by Kruidenhof-homesick as the apartment resembles the one we used to live in Diemen.

Day 2: Feb 21 - Melbourne & Sdyney
Woke up at 11 something after a very deep sleep! After a brief breakfast and a refreshing shower, we started packing for Sydney and Goldcoast. Our 6 pm flight was quite rock n roll hahaha as well as our taxi ride to Westend backpacker hostel by Pitt and Campbell street.

I fell in love at the first sight with Sydney. The city in general reminded me of Madrid :) in some ways. After dropping our luggage we started walking (in the rain, good that we brought umbrellas) for about 30-45 minutes towards The Rock area. Pancakes on The Rock was our ultimate destination that night. What a bliss.. the food was delicious and worth queuing for. With our belly full of fruit pancakes, tandori pizza, and mexican rolls we strolled to the harbour to witness the famous opera house and harbour bridge (plus the ever grand arcadia cruise ship) in the glimmering night. It's actually nice to talk and to greet random people we bumped into. Realizing that it's midnite already we walked back to the hostel.

2 am and it's time for us to crash.

yes, i heart sydney.

Day 3: Feb 22 - Sydney
We started the day at 10 something by walking to the Chinatown to have our big breakfast... a gigantic portion of fried rice ala something. There on we entered Paddy market, Sydney's traditional market, just for window shopping. Our walk got us into Hyde park and St. Mary's Cathedral in the heart of the city. Considering it's Sunday, we walked towards the church just to find that the Eucharist was just over. However, i had a picture with the bishop! This is me being religious :P

We strolled down to Circular Quay to enjoy the day view of the Opera house etc. It was freaking hot! PFFFF... So we decided to catch the bus to get to Darling harbour. With big and small boats spread across the area, the place was awesome. Our booked dinner at Hurricane grill restaurant was gigantic and full of meat! well, at least for me. Suffering from over eating, we enjoyed the night scenery of Darling harbour.

The headache i got from hot-cold temperature that day was killing me so i skipped late Starbucks and preferred to swallowed my medicine and sleep as soon as we got to our room.

Day 4: Feb 23 - Sydney & Gold Coast
My headache seemed to ease this morning. We actually ate our yesterday's takeaway breakfast :P With fulfilled belly, we walked to Hyde park to catch bus 380 to get to Bondi beach. Good thing that we're blessed with sunny sky and good weather (not too hot, not too cold, perfect for beach-walking).

The beach itself was pretty: cool water, high tide. Suitable for surfers and wave-catchers. Phew I instantly imagined my friends running happily catching tides in this very beach. or maybe they would prefer to watch them girls with bikinis instead hahaha

Our big fat lunch was a large pack of fish and chips, Aussie's style, accompanied with the interestingly sweet and sour taste of seafood sauce. Next in line was our dessert: the infamous deep fried mars bars - the one and only! even i, a non mars bar lover, have to say that this food is brilliant!! They had the mars bars covered in batter. As the bar was fried, the choc and caramel inside melted while the outside looked shinny in oil. When one crunched the bar, the melted choc and caramel touched the taste buds and brought one the ultimate pleasure.

After another dip in the water, we went back to the city... getting ready to got in to the plane to gold coast.

The time difference between Sydney and Gold coast was quite funny/disturbing. 1,5hours since Gold Coast does not apply the daily saving time thingy. Quite exhausted from our little trip to Bondi, we got ourselves to our next accommodation: Islander hotel. oh, btw thirza did not join us to Goldcoast. Leaving bea, raymond, olaf, and me wandered around in Surfer's Paradise that night. After a not-so-decent-pizza at La Porchetta that evening, we headed to the beach (of course!) to feel the extra smooth sands slipping through our toes. Clear sky, too.

Day 5: Feb 24 - Gold Coast
It's DREAMWORLD!!! and it's not crowded at all :P

We dragged out sleepyhead and rode Cyclone (roller-coaster) first. Ouw the thrills and drills, my head hurted even more. Feeling a little sick, we continued to Wipe out located next to Cyclone. Wipe out resembles Tornado in Dufan (or, apparently... vice versa).

to be written...

Day 6: Feb 25 - Gold Coast
It's MOVIEWORLD!!!

to be written...