Hailey Goes To Oz: How The Aforementioned Itinerary Played Out

Rob arrived in town a little later than expected, but we still got him checked into the hotel and headed out for my friend Adrian's 24th Birthday party at a bar called Dome in the Crown Hotel in Surry Hills. We got there a little after midnight, so I think my birthday wishes were lost on Adrian but I'm glad that we made an appearance anyway. A bit after we got there, the group left and went to Stonewall: a gay club on Oxford street. I told them we'd catch up with them, but I got us lost on the way so we went and had a drink at the hotel bar, split a kebab (the Australian form of a gyro and SO delicious) and called it a night.

At Dome

Saturday morning I had to open the gym at 8:00 and work until 2pm, so Rob had to fend for himself. I gave him my free pass to the aquarium and Wildlife World so he did some touristy stuff while I worked. After I got off and got cleaned up, we started walking towards Centennial Park to see the JACK JOHNSON CONCERT!!!!!!!!! We ate some Thai food along the way and grabbed a drink or 2 at a bar in Surry Hills then followed the crowd towards the park. It was a GORGEOUS day and the park was HUGE and starting to get pretty busy. Eventually the opening act started. I don't remember the first guy's name but next was Matt Costa and then G-Love came out and played a few songs! We didn't even know he was going to be there so that was cool. Jack was AWESOME and besides Mr. Elbow Thrower beside me the entire day was perfect; weather included. We walked back with sore feet and grabbed some pizza in Surry Hills to end the night.

Centennial Park

Upon Arrival

Matt Costa

G. Love

Jack Johnson

On Sunday Funday we were supposed to check out the St. Patty's Day parade but we weren't able to find it. Instead we walked around Darling Harbor and had a nice lunch at the Blackbird Cafe where Rob tried his first Kangaroo Filet. It was a gorgeous day and we sat outdoors most of the day drinking at various hot spots in Darling Harbor (Pontoon Bar, Baia, Tokio Hotel, Ice Cube...). Later in the day we took a little sunset cruise (well...a water taxi) over to Circular Quay and walked around perusing the shops and restaurants and taking in the views. We stopped at a little place called Minus 15 and had oysters at a little waterside restaurant.

Near Blackbird Cafe on Darling Harbour

Monday was the Hunter Valley Wine tour and it was AWE-SOME! The chatty tour guide took us and about 9 others to a few wineries. Rob and I split off and went to one on our own: McWilliams. Only because we both love their wine. The rest of the places we went (Iron Gate, Brokenwood, Audrey Wilkinson, McGuigan, Earnest Hill...) were little boutique wineries so you can't buy most of their wines outside of there, which was cool. At the end of the day we bought 2 bottles of wine. One was a delicious Merlot from the McGuigan winery and the other was a sweet shiraz from Iron Gate. I also got this cute little pink wine bottle holder with wine tools in it from the McGuigan winery. I'd have to say that the best part of the tour was when the guide set us loose for lunch and to explore 4 wineries on our own and Rob and I (quite tipsy at this point) got lost and were running around in circles trying to find the bus.

Outside at the Audrey Wilkinson Winery

Outside of the McGuigan Winery (obvi)

On our own at McWilliams

Earnest Hill Winery

Iron Gate-our favorite winery!

Tuesday we had planned on hitting up Manly Beach but we did Bondi Beach instead. We had some oysters in the middle of the day at Iceberg-this nice little spot on the edge of the beach with an awesome breeze and a really neat atmosphere. I'd been meaning to check it out for awhile, so I'm glad we went there. Before we caught the train back we stopped at Ravesi's for a quick drink. We got quite a bit of sun during the day then I headed off to work for a few hours where I got progressively red as the day went on. Not fun. That night we out in Kings Cross and met some interesting characters. We didn't head back to Surry Hills until around 4:30am!

Bondi Beach

Wednesday was a big day. We tried to wake up early for the zoo but we were both moving pretty slow from the previous night. We got to the zoo mid-day (partly due to our slowness, partly due to how ridiculously long it took us to get some of Rob's $$ converted). The zoo was great. We got to see kangaroos, gorillas, lions, zebras (Rob even jumped the fence to get a good picture of them), seals, platapi (just guessing at the plural of platypus), giraffes, and lots of cool animals. Lots of good pictures from that day. Not of us though. Just the animals. After we rushed back from the zoo and got changed we made our way to Oxford St. for the Sugarland concert. We grabbed a quick bite to eat first next door at the Gaff ($5 steak night). The venue where the show was at only held 600 people (country music may not be as popular here as back home in the south) so we were really close to them. It was a great show; MUCH better than the time we saw them in Charleston-even though Jennifer Nettles wore the same outfit as she did then.... After the concert we wandered around trying to find a couple of spots that Rob had picked out to see but to no avail. We ended up hitting up a couple of gay bars on Oxford Street then heading home.

Taronga Zoo with the Kangaroos

Sugarland

Jennifer Nettles

The somewhat obnoxious Kristian Bush

Thursday we spent a good part of the day in The Rocks. We stopped at Jackson's on the way (below) and in The Rocks we hit up G'day Cafe for lunch. There are so many cute cafes around there and the weather was gorgeous so lingered around there for a bit. We walked around the Opera House and got some good pictures of that and the Harbor Bridge from Mrs. Macquerie's point. At night we finally got Katie and Gracie to come out with us. We hit up the AWFUL Sidebar and then Scruffy Murphy's to take in the nightlife.

Jacksons on the way to The Rocks

Gorgeous View

Sidebar with the Roomies (Rob-Deer in Headlights-Emory)

Taking a break from bustin' our moves

Friday: We were lucky that the Waves Surf Camp was open because being Good Friday pretty much everything else was shut down. Surfing conditions weren't perfect for us. The weather was chilly (understatement) and there were only good waves for the first part of the trip, but we got to learn the basics anyway and Rob and I were probably the best 2 beginners out there. We were both able to ride a few waves in. Once the waves died down the group unanimously agreed to call it quits and hit the pub. We had some good laughs-mainly at the Irish girl in the group- and a couple of drinks before heading back to Sydney. Friday night Rob had made reservations for us at Wildfire Grill in Circular Quay. It was a really nice restaurant that was supposed to have a gorgeous view of the Opera house, but the restaurant e-mailed Rob to tell him that there would be a cruise ship blocking the view until 9:00. When we were walking up to the restaurant we realized WHY they called to tell us. This ship-The Sapphire Princess-could have CRUSHED the Opera House. It was absolutely ENORMOUS!!!!! We lingered through the first half of dinner so that by the time our entrees came the ship was taking off. It was neat to see such a beautiful, HUGE ship but I'm glad it left before we finished our meal.

Gnarly, Dude!

The tiny Sapphire Princess. Note the size compared to Opera House

Great Restaurant

At Wildfire with a little vino

Ditto

Saturday I was supposed to work but I ended up taking the day off since it was Rob's last full day. In the morning we walked through Paddy's Market for awhile and then wandered around Darling Harbour drinking coffee and watching some live shows that were going on. Part of the Easter weekend celebration. There was a little break dancing, a little "flying orchestra" and some crazy Canadian lady doing God knows what... We had a morning cocktail at Cohi bar-a cigar bar-grabbed some sushi at Narita, and shot some pool at Docks. It was a nice relaxing "take it easy" kind of day.

Our sushi boat at Narito

Flying Orchestra

Sunday was Easter so we attended at a large traditional service in a gorgeous church building right next to Town Hall. Surprisingly, there was a SMALL crowd. I want to do some research on Christianity in Australia now, because I was dumbfounded at the small turnout on Easter Sunday! After church we grabbed brunch at a place called Adria on Darling Harbour and then it was time to head to the airport and say our goodbyes.