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2003 june 27 DAY-19the last few days have been great. the new south wales blues beat up the queensland maroons to win the state of origin series. mitch and i headed up to the bar across the street to watch the game. our favorite player andrew johns was man of the match and scored a try.yesterday mitch and i went to the mall to pick up some stuff. i finally bought my copy of the new harry potter book (yes i know i am 22 and buying the harry potter books). i was lucky enough to pick up the last copy at the big w (australia's version of walmart). the lady who worked there gave me the last one which was under 5 other books. she told me not to tell anyone that she gave it to me, and if asked i was told to say i was on the list. thank you very much audrey my big w employee of the year! after getting potter mitch and i went half and half in the purchase of an nrl rugby ball. we headed up to dee why beach to give it a try. it is a lot tougher than it looks on tv. mitch and i also picked up our tickets to our trip to cairns and brisbane. it turns out that our train ride from cairns to brisbane is around 30 hours long. it will be nice to see australia by train. hey sean i hope you are feeling better, and recover quick from your injury. to those who do not know reports from home told me that sean tore some ligaments running. get well soon seany! interesting australian saying: good on ya! it means thanks or good for you. 2003 june 24 DAY-16yesterday c mitch and i took a trip into the city to meet up with powers. we had a great time taking him out to sydney's oldest pub, the fortune of war. his parents were very kind to treat us to dinner, thank you to mr. and mrs. powers. after the bar we spent an hour at the casino. mitch won 29 dollars and i lost a couple of bucks on the slot machines. all in all it was a great night.i am starting to get sick of people thinking just because we are americans that we are marines. they are heading back today to san diego which hopefully will stop people from asking if we are off the boat. 2003 june 22 DAY-14last night was great. tj and renae took us out for a night on the town. we started at the dee why hotel where we watched australia lose their first match against england on australian soil. it was a bummer to watch the lose, i am sure they will beat the all blacks in july.after the game we headed to downtown sydney and went to st. pat's pub. it is a riot seing all the american service people that are doing 4 days of r and r in sydney. i never thought i would see so many americans in sydney. after a couple of drinks there we went to a bar in the rocks area. craig was jealous that i was hit on by some 45 year old woman. i thought it was hysterical. it was either the shirt that renae bought for tj that i wore or it was the new look hair i was sporting, the point we called it. it was a great night. hopefully we will meet up with powers who is now in sydney for a few days. 2003 june 21 DAY-13yesterday mitch and i went up to jetset travel agents to book our trip to cairns and the great barrier reef area. after 3 hours of finding cheap different routes and hotels we finally booked tickets. we are heading to cairns on july 9th for 5 days. then we are taking a train from cairns to brisbane and staying in brisbane for another 2 days. after all that we are flying out of brisbane to sydney on the 16th. it should be a great vacation from the vacation. i want to see a clown fish so i can claim i found nemo.after the travel agent we headed for dee why beach to check out the waves. since tide was coming in they were huge. later we watched some rugby league between penrith and new castle. our favorite player was not playing so the game was a blow out. tonight we are heading into sydney for a couple of drinks and watch australia take on number one ranked england in rugby union. go wallabies! to all the harry potter fans i know the book is already out a day earlier than the states. i am going to pick it sometime this week so i don't have to sit in line all day. i guess they have a different cover out here. 2003 june 19 DAY-11mitch and i decided we would buy a day tripper and head out to olympic park to see it in the daytime. it is an amazing space with about 6 different stadiums all within walking distance. it was about a half hour train ride from sydney to homebush. olympic stadium is massive and outside they have a bunch of flat screen televisions that replay the sydney olympics.after olympic park mitch and i headed to bondi beach to check out the most popular beach in sydney. it was a great time to get there the sun was setting and it made for some great photos. after a long day we headed to the manly ferry to head back home. 2003 june 18 DAY-10today mitch and i took it easy during the daytime. we watched a few movies and wait to head to rib and rump in manly for dinner. tj's old work was taking him out to dinner for his farewell party from howard's. it was great to meet his old coworkers. all of them were really nice people and dinner was great.mitch, renae, and i had ostrich steak for dinner. it is amazing, only problem is it is tough to cut. renae also went and bought us a bottle of wine for dinner. i usually hate wine, but jacob's creek is the greatest stuff on earth. it is nice to have a resturant that lets you byo. after dinner the group moved over to cold rock for some ice cream. 2003 june 17 DAY-9so mitch and i headed to manly yesterday to check out the beach. we ended up climbing some hill next to shelly beach. it was great, plus you get an amazing view from the top of the hill.i also took some time to visit sam and vince. they cut my hair for the wedding the last time i was here in australia. this time vince gave me an old fashion barber cut. it was great and cheap. today we went to the mail with tj to check out some stuff. it is amazing to go to an outdoor mall in winter and not have to worry about the weather. 2003 june 16 DAY-8today mitch and i are heading to the travel agent to check out prices for out other trips within australia. we agreed that we are going to head to the great barrier reef some time after state of the origin 2(which is june 25th). we also saw a great deal to head to the gold coast for pretty cheap.today i am also going to show mitch around the lovely town of manly. it has the best beach in sydney and some great bars. 2003 june 15 DAY-7last night was the best night here so far. tj, mitch and i headed to telstra stadium to see the wallabies take on wales in union rugby. we had great seats just 16 rows of the try line. australia won pretty easily 30-10. the stadium is huge and louder than anything we have in the states. it was amazing to see everyone in their yellow and gold. this was the first sporting event that i have not heard the american national anthem, it was a little wierd. i was able to sing waltzing matilda before the game (its australia's unofficial national anthem). olympic park is amazing and after the game there was a concert in the parking lot. it is a great atmosphere for a sporting event. we are going to try and get tickets to the state of origin game 2 coming up june 25th.this morning mitch and i headed back out to dee why beach for lunch. tonight we are going to have an old fashion australian bbq here at tj and renae's place. i can't wait, i love the food here. to my friend laura back home sydney is the greatest city in the world, you should come out here some time. 2003 june 14 DAY-6yesterday we went for a walking tour of dee why beach. we ended up walking around 5 miles to the neighboring beach to the north of dee why. it was another amazing day here in australia.later that night we headed to renae's sisters house for dinner. i can sum it up in one word, amazing. they had 5 different dishes and some salad. i have not had a meal that good in a real long time. it was nice to see renae's uncle david who was the mc at their wedding. after dinner we came back to the apartment to watch the best rugby league game i have ever seen. it came down to the final kick and my favorite player andrew johns who kicked in the game winner. way to kick st. george's ass new castle! tonight we head to our first rugby union game at telstra stadium (olympic stadium for those in the u.s.). australia will be playing wales tonight at 7:30pm. it should be a blast, we are told rugby union games are crazy. interesting australian fact: we were told they sell mixed drinks inside telstra stadium. this would never happen in the states. rum and coke tonight kids. 2003 june 13 DAY-5good morning from sydney. its another great day with no clouds in the sky. so we have seen little clouds and absolutely no rain. the cold winter weather of sydney stays around 60 degrees. we have been out in shorts a couple of times this week. this could never happen in a chicago winter. today we are planning on heading up to dee why beach to hang out and watch the surfers. then later tonight we are heading to reanae's sisters house for dinner. it will be great to see a lot of people that were at the wedding.interesting australian fact: the sydney opera house was originally going to cost 7 million dollars to be built. after various delays due to engineering problems the finishing cost was 100 million. also the sydney opera house will be turning 30 this october, i will be turning 23. have a g'day mates. 2003 june 12 DAY-4today mitch and i went for a little shopping since the whole downtown went on sale. i picked up a soccer jersey for 6 bucks australian. while we were downtown we went to the autograph session for some of the players on the australian rugby union team. since we didn't know any of them we did not do much talking with them.while we were downtown we also went on a tour of the sydney opera house. it is simply amazing. 2003 june 11 DAY-3tonight we watched the state of origin rugby game. it felt like the super bowl. our team won, the new south whales blues defeating queensland 25-12. it was a great game.during the day time me and mitch headed down to the city to check out the botanical gardens, opera house, and darling harbour. we also headed to hyde park to check out the anzac war memorial. c mitch, tj and i also went to go and check out the aquarium. while we were in darling harbour we meet wally wallabie, the mascot of the australian rugby union team. we will check them out in action this saturday night at telstra stadium. 2003 june 10 DAY-2tj, renae, cmitch and i went to the top of center point for brunch. craig and i had our first taste of roast kangaroo, it is fantastic. we passed up on the roast camel, renae said it tasted like dirt. you get an amazing view from the tallest building in sydney. we also took a little walk around circular quay and the opera house.interesting australian fact: australia pays you to have kids. yup that is right the baby bonus. couples having children get a few thousand from the government. 2003 june 9 DAY-1g'day, so as we hit the airport we saw our first celebrity, famous porn star ron jeremy. he was on our flight from midway to lax. it looks like he is going poor if he was flying southwest. we are now here in sydney after our 18 hours of flying. it was a tough race in auckland to get our bording passes and get to our plane. we had only 15 minutes, but we made it.for our first day tj and renae took us out to breakfast and to the dee why beach. it is nice living only a mile from the ocean. then we took the bus to downtown to catch a fireworks display at darling harbour. it was fantastic. we then made our way down to the sydney opera house and took some pics. today it looks like we will be heading out to center point for brunch. 2003 june 5it is time to leave chicago and head for the land of australia. i cannot wait. c mitch and i will be heading to the airport nice and early in the morning. have a great summer to everyone else i will not see before i leave.2003 june 3my bags are getting ready to be pakced. its time to fly away on lovely air new zealand for a 2 month trip of the lovely oz. starting on june 9th c mitch and i will be updating the site with our words of wisdom from australia. check it out soon. also thank you so much katie adams for your advice on our trip..:. june � 2003 .:. |