Ahhh... That was the feeling that came over us as we woke up in the morning on our first Christmas Eve away from home. The summer sun was hardly visible behind the thick curtains in our hotel room. The king-size bed felt like heaven and we simply did not want to leave it. Eventually though, our anxiousness to get out and about in Sydney overpowered our sleeping bodies' inclinations to stay. We got up, took in the amazing view of the city from the window that spanned almost entirely across one wall, and then we were off.
Our first stop was a trendy little coffee shop just around the corner from our hotel. I don't know why, but it seems like coffee shops are a must for travelers. We were no exception to the rule. I noticed that "coffee" was never an option. If I ever asked for coffee, the reply was always, "What kind?" We were to choose between cappuccino, late, mocha, etc... I just found that to be kind of peculiar and this seemed to be the case everywhere in Australia. Anyway, I randomly picked one of the choices and Sarah did the same. It really hit the spot and we were on our way! ...to the women's clothing store about a half block up. Sarah found all kinds of great deals on cheap dresses and I got to hold coffees. Truthfully, I was happy that Sarah was able to find some clothes to her liking. Since the options seem to be a little more limited to her in Japan, because of differences in styles and especially price. It really wasn't so bad anyway. I was still just taking in the vibe of being in Australia!
From there, we began trekking up Oxford Street making our way toward Bondi Beach, by using the handy little street map in our Australia Lonely Planet travel guidebook. We window-shopped most of the way and stopped in a few places. Sarah was immediately drawn into every little souvenir store that we came across. That should be no surprise to anyone who knows Sarah and knows that she in constantly looking for gifts to get for people. An admirable quality for sure, but I'll admit I finally began to resort to trying to distract her as we walked past them. They all seemed to have the same junk...err...I mean souvenirs. I realized the money pits that they were and I just wanted to avoid their quicksand effect. Eventually we made our way up to Bondi Junction; a nice little shopping area where the street turned into a major walkway. We had lunch out on the patio of a little Italian cafe and watched a boy playing guitar for passers-by.
Content and full of pasta, we made our way into the Target store just a short walk from where we ate. We had made an agreement that the trip was our Christmas presents to one another, but we thought it would be fun to at least get some stocking-stuffers to exchange on Christmas morning. So we went in and rummaged around for awhile until we had everything we wanted. We began walking again and knew that Bondi Beach would be just ahead. We walked. ...and walked. ...and walked. It finally begin to dawn on me that the short little line on the map was actually a few miles in reality. Just when we were about to give up hope of ever making it to the beach, it finally appeared in front of us. We snapped several pictures in the seaside park before making our way down the decline to the beach.
Much to our surprise, the beach was nearly deserted. We had heard that every year "thousands of backpackers descend on Bondi Beach at Christmas time." I guess it was the relatively cool weather and the fact that it was getting late in the day, but there was hardly a sole out there. There were some surfers in wet-suits taking on the short waves. And one foot in the cold water made me realize why they were wearing the wet-suits.
At this point, we were beginning to get pretty tired from all of the walking, and hunger was returning. We opted to take the bus back to the hotel this time, which proved to be a wise choice. I'm sure Sarah would have made me carry her back if we would have tried to make the hike again!
In just a short time, we were back at the hotel. Once again, we utilized our never-ending-hot-water-shower! We cleaned up and decided to head out and treat ourselves to a delicious Christmas Eve dinner. We snagged a cab and headed to another popular area of Sydney: Darling Harbor. At the suggestion of the concierge at our hotel, we went to the "I'm Angus Steakhouse". It had been quite awhile since we had this kind of meal, and we were very excited for it. We both got some big, juicy steaks with mashed (that's what they called mashed potatoes in Australia) and a couple of loaves of bread. It was delicious! The atmosphere was terrific also. We were in a perfect location to gaze down onto the rest of the harbor while we ate and enjoyed ourselves. It wasn't home-cooking like we are so used to having for Christmas dinner, but it was definitely okay for us! I'm sure our first Christmas dinner on a warm summer night in Australia will always be memorable for us!
After dinner, we meandered around the harbor and took in the view as we absorbed the cheerful aura from the crowds of people doing the same.
We eventually made our way to a little outside bar and sat down to a couple of drinks. Sarah got a pretty good laugh out of watching me order: I went up to the bar and ordered our drinks. The bartender told me the price, so I pulled out a pocketfull of change which I intended to pay with. As I was trying to discern which coin was worth what, another girl at the bar noticed my distress and came to the rescue. She came over and very politely and very slowly grabbed each coin as she said,"This one is $2....this one is $1..." It looked just like someone helping a small child pay for his candy at a candy store! Even I had to laugh at the whole scenario!
After just one drink each, the place started closing down and the crowds started to dwindle out of the harbor. We decided to grab a cab and head back to the hotel. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were ready to sink into our comfy bet again. In the Christmas spirit, we fell asleep watching "White Christmas" on the laptop. It was my first time to see it and it is Sarah's favorite.
This was certainly a Christmas Eve we won't ever forget!
1 comment:
How far behind are you guys?
(Its Feb. 6th here!)
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