Sydney cont...

The last few days since New Year's Day have been quite eventful. We finally got of our bums and played tourists for a few days. It rained almost everyday this week however, which gave us a good excuse to sit around and read at The Wedge. Since I haven't introduced the characters/residence of The Wedge yet, they are: Nadine, Emily, Marcus, and Greg (and sometimes Ken)...4 (and sometimes 5) ultimate players who live in a three story triangle and have more than graciously allowed 4 more of us (Whit, Claire, Mike, and I) to take over their very triangular living room. I've had a hard time not overeating here, and I am blaming that on the fact that I'm always subliminally reminded of some kind of delicious triangular food (pie, pizza, cheese, gelato cone, croissants, etc.) while staying here. Can you blame me, really?

So anyway, The Wedge and its inhabitants have been good to us, and are pretty much the reason that we are able to stay in Sydney and explore, or just sit around and read, since we don't have to pay the outrageous hostel fees. We love The Wedge! I've been running around the city to stay in shape and have gotten to explore some pretty cool areas. I convinced Whit and Mike to run with me on Tuesday to the Harbor Bridge and Sydney's oldest neighborhood, The Rocks. We met up with Claire (who doesn't have running shoes) and walked around The Rocks before walking across the Harbor Bridge. It's very high, quite long, and the views are superb. We then walked around Circular Quay and the Opera House since Claire and Whit hadn't seen it up close yet. We hit up Chinatown and immediately lamented the fact that we had just eaten lunch, so vowed to come back another day to do nothing but eat.

Mike and I spent Thursday in the beach side suburb of Manly. My brother Andy's girlfriend Nadine has friends in Manly, and she was kind enough to give us their contact info and introduce us via email. Natalie and Daniel both work for Dell International and lived in Austin for 5 years...it was so nice to be able to talk about Austin with people who know it since we miss a lot of things there. They were amazing hosts. They allowed us to use their mountain bikes during the day and Natalie suggested a really beautiful bike ride that took us to a cliff side vista, Northhead Point. From there you could see the entrance to the Harbor, hundreds of sailboats, the city, Manly and other northern beaches, and the cliffs of the Pacific to the south. It was an incredible view, and a nice bike ride as well. The weather was perfect, so we spent the rest of the day sitting on the beach reading, throwing, and trying avoid man eating sharks in the crystal clear water. We then went back to Natalie and Daniel's house, an amazing condo right on the Harbor side beach. We showered, sat out on their balcony, and played cards until they got home. They made us a delicious dinner and filled our belly's with amazing wines and desserts. Their roommate Frederick is from Sweden, and Mike enjoyed talking with him about the possibility of getting a visa and living in this amazing city forever. They then walked us to the Ferry and showed us their local wildlife, a family of penguins that hang out in the wharf area! It was an incredible day and night...thanks to Natalie, Daniel, and Frederick for having us over and being so accommodating and fun!

The view from their deck in Manly...ridiculous!

The local wildlife...two baby penguins off the Manly Wharf.













The view from Northhead Point facing west towards the Harbor and city.









On a different note: Mike and I have been conducting a self funded study on whether a person can live healthily eating solely Thai and Indian food. While our mental state is good because delicious and spicy foods release dopamine and generally make us happy, the results on our intestinal tracks have been devastating. Today we searched far and wide to find some Mexican food, as we have both been going through some very nasty withdrawl. It wasn't Trudy's, but it did the job.



Yumm...queso!








We finally fulfilled our vow and went to Chinatown for lunch, and dessert, and another dessert today. =) Tomorrow morning, I head back to Canberra to play in the Discos Kalientes Hat Tournament with some local Sydney players. I'm meeting Claire and Whit there. Mike is planning on staying here in Sydney for the weekend and walking the 26 km. beach trail tomorrow that follows the east coast and being a beach bum.

We've planned out the next month until we leave for New Zealand and it's going to be an exciting 4 weeks! More details later.

Hope 2oo7 is treating you all well,
Cara