The Goldbergs in Sydney, Newcastle, Port Macquarie - Day 3-5

We woke up today knowing that we would be picking up the rental car at noon, so we had a few hours to kill before hitting the road.  We stopped for brunch at a great neighborhood cafe called Fouratefive in the Surrey Hills area of Sydney.  The neighborhood had a great local feel and reminded us of the local scene in San Francisco.   The 50 degree weather was the perfect opportunity for Hannah to shop, new jacket for her and new shirt for me.



The road to Newcastle took us out of Sydney north along the coast.  The coastal road wound through small towns and villages along the way.  The decision to stop in Newcastle for the night will be remembered as one of the poorest decisions of the honeymoon, but also one of the most fun.  We definitely made the most of it.  The Quality Hotel Newcastle isn't exactly what the name would suggest.  Upon arriving in our room Hannah was quick to inform me of what a honeymoon is, apparently the Quality Hotel was not it.  During a night to remember, or forget, we had an amusing time at The Brewery, Newcastle's hot spot.  Here are a few cool locals we met.  Mind you, we gave the camera to them to take our picture.  After we managed to regain control of our own camera, we ate.  At least the bean nachos were good, they were after all on the "lighter menu".

The unpleasant smell which arouse from the bathroom was not due to our bean nachos, but it was the nail in the coffin for the Quality Hotel Newcastle…next honeymoon we may skip Newcastle.  In true Hannah and Jon fashion, we made the most of it, and laughed at ourselves and everyone else.

The next morning we again hit the road, but not before stopping at a local Newcastle cafe.  The cafe was recommended by the hotel and as if by fate, it was Goldbergs' cafe.  We could not have had a more amazing experience then to sit for breakfast at a cafe in Australia named Goldbergs'.  Breakfast was good, but the coincidence was priceless.

Onwards, with Hannah on Kangie watch and Jonathan trying to stay in the lane and on the road on one lane roads through small towns in a country where people drive on the wrong side of the road.  We didn't have a room booked yet for this evening, we assumed we'd ask around and decide on a whim where to stay.  We arrived safely for lunch in the town of Port Macquarie.  The soft-shell crab and bugs (small shellfish) were delicious at the Boardwalk Restaurant, and we enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine. The view was amazing, and we dined.

Sitting at the Boardwalk we became friendly with Nigle and Vanessa.  A delightful couple staying in Port Macquarie for the weekend.  Nigle's mother owned a great condo directly on the beach and Nigel and Vanessa come to visit from their small town in the mountains.  Before they even knew our names they were already inviting us to stay in the spare room.  At first I was of course leery, perhaps of us wanting to do our own thing, perhaps of the fear of being robbed of everything we had.  But as we got to talk to Vanessa and Nigle we were at complete ease.  Its amazing to meet people in another world while traveling and feel such a connection.  First Hannah and I explored the beach in Port and then we headed out to meet Nigle and Vanessa for dinner.

We had a great dinner with Nigel and Vanessa, and slept soundly in Nigel's mother's spare bedroom.  Hannah slept with a phone in her hand to ward off the potential attackers, and periodically turned it on and shined the light in my eyes.  Thankfully we survived and had a nice sendoff brunch with our new Aussie friends.

On the road again, headed for Byron Bay.

We had our first official Kangie siting today!  Definitely the high point of the honeymoon for Hannah thus far, that and maybe the Quality Hotel.  The Kangie's were all that we imagined and when we tried to put one in the car he became very agitated, I think we just picked a bad seed.  We will continue to try to save one from the wild.

The Goldbergs in Sydney and Hunter Valley - Day 2-3

After returning to the hotel for a quick shower and change we decided to paint the town.  We realized its hard to the paint the town when you really have no idea where to go.  We had heard of a few neighborhoods, and popular areas so we figured we'd go try to make our own way.  Anyone that knows Hannah knows that this is not ideal and not how she operates at all, and the miles of walking around desolate streets in uncomfortable shoes was frowned upon.

As we walked around Sydney it became very apparent to us that this is no ordinary city.  Not only is it beautiful, but it is incredibly diverse.  The proximity to SE Asia definitely lends itself to a very Asian flare.  We have seen more Thai, Vietnamese, and Chinese restaurants, and the city has one of the biggest Chinatowns in the world.

We headed directly to a spot recommended by one of her co-workers called Toko for sushi.  We may have gone to the wrong Toko, as this was simply a sushi boat bar.  We had a great time as we don't really go to sushi boat places at home, and its fun to just grab whatever goes by and hope we like it.  We picked a few rolls off the conveyor, were full in about 20 minutes, and realized we needed to get out of there as soon as possible before we ate any more.  We made the experience fun, but we could have done better with more homework.  We walked down Oxford St for another mile or so and realized we were not where we needed to be.  Eventually I broke down and let Hannah ask for direction from a barman about where to go and we were directed to the Kings Cross neighborhood which had a good deal of bars.  We stopped off at a local bar to quench the thirst we had developed after our walk.  Hannah ordered jalapeno drenched calamari, and complained about fire in her chest for the next 12 hours.  This is definitely an area we need to return to, but given our impending jet lag we decided to partake in one cocktail and head back to the hotel.

Day 3

Friday morning we were up at the crack of dawn to catch our bus to the Hunter Valley wine region.  Neither Hannah or I are huge fans of organized tours, but as we know from living in San Francisco, the best way to see Napa is to let someone else do the driving.  We took a tour organized by Boutique Wine Tours, a tour company specializing in smaller wineries, those with more of a family owned feel.  Our guide Rohan was a fantastic dude, and Hannah and I got the pleasure of enjoying lunch with him, not as romantic as a picnic and a bottle of wine, but the company was great and he had a lot to say and a lot of recommendations about our upcoming adventure as we travel up the Gold Coast.  The tour took us to 4 wineries, Iron Gate, Tulloch, Tinkle, and Mount View.  The wineries represented a much quainter style than we are used to in the more exclusive Napa Valley.  The wines offered for sale ranged a very reasonable $15-20 a bottle, and they had a much different taste than those we are used to, much more delicate, with less emphasis on heavy over powering tastes.  They all referred to the wine as the jewelry of the food.  Knowing we had a few days of driving and two more weeks down under we stocked up on some great local wines.

That evening the highlight wasn't dinner, it wasn't drinks, it wasn't the naked man on the unicycle, it was Hannah trying to curl her hair.  Maybe it was the wine we had been drinking all day, but regardless, I commended the effort.

Before dinner we stopped off for a drink at a local pub called Scruffy Murphys which reminded me of every pub I ever visited in Ireland, loud music, rugby jerseys, Carlsberg on tap.  It was the perfect interlude as we waited for our table for dinner.

Our tour guide Rohan recommended we check out a restaurant in Chinatown called Golden Century....this was our first great recommendation of the trip.  The restaurant had that familiar feel of a Chinatown restaurant, the model of chaos and efficiency, where the menu has 30 pages, and 10 items make any sense at all.  We stayed away from anything unfamiliar, which in hindsight was a mistake.  The lobster was fantastic, and we got the opportunity to make its acquaintance before we enjoyed its tasty meat.

Our waitress pictured above was a darling girl, she definitely had our best interests in mind as she carefully picked out Larry the lobster for us.  She picked a golden lobster, as when we got the bill we realized he cost $140.  I guess we should have asked what Market Price really means.  Needless to say, the cost of the meal left us feeling as though we had just been bent over by our lovely waitress.  Don't get us wrong, the Golden Century was amazing, but knowing what we know now we would have ordered differently.

We rolled ourselves back to the hotel, and within 5 minutes I was asleep and Hannah was trying to figure out how to move me into a position where she may also lay down.

Tomorrow we are taking off on our journey up the Gold Coast, first stop Newcastle!

The Goldbergs in Sydney - Day 1-2

Day 1 - The journey and the arrival....

I couldn't keep the surprise upgrade a secret for too long, as even though I have known about it for months, I kept it under wraps as long as I possibly could.  For fear that Hannah may make a scene at the ticket counter while trying in every way possible to prove that she was recently a bride in order to be awarded an upgrade she already owned, I told her en route to SFO.  This was probably a good idea, as I fear for any ticket agent who tried to deny my bride an upgrade on her honeymoon, and I could not imagine the confusion as she tried to argue for something she didn't have to argue for...that sounds a lot like a fight we once had.  The flight was a great and relaxing one, as you will see from the pictures that Hannah took of the menu, her complimentary bathroom kit, her sleeping while eating, watching a movie, and drinking.  I think at one point Hannah said we should skip Australia and just fly back and forth a few times.

We arrived Sydney around 630am, and were greeted by a sweet little dog who worked for Australian customs.  The dog sniffed around our peanut butter pretzels and dried mangoes, but luckily she did not sit down in front of our bags, as that would mean we were smuggling drugs into the country....luckily I did them all on the plane, as that's the best way to smuggle.  We were then escorted to our hotel in a BMW 7-Series, by a nicely dressed but overtly racist driver who was Australian but of Greek descent.  He apparently had been bullied as a child by Muslims, because he held quite a grudge against them.  This was a conversation that no one wants to have at 7am after a 15 hour flight, but that did not stop the racist, Greek, Australian driver.

Our hotel, the Sydney Circular Quay Marriott, is not what one would call the most luxurious Marriott in the world, but after a bit if back and forth we were upgraded to the honeymoon suite, which was really like any other crappy room, but with an extra crappy room attached to it.  All negativity aside, it is doing the trick, and Hannah managed to tell enough people that she was a bride and eventually they waived the upgrade charge....I look forward to a life of getting crappy rooms for less.

In order to avoid the impending sleep deprivation coma that would surely occur if we were to sit for too long, I inhaled several coffees, and we hit the town.  We walked and walked and walked, and managed to find ourselves in only the most touristy of areas, those which you must visit once and never return to.  We took a stroll through The Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney, which is also the most touristy, so much so, that it is the one place in Sydney where tipping is expected.  We ate a Margarita pizza at an Italian restaurant which was staffed mostly by Asian waiters, I figure they were of Italian lineage.  I never knew Margarita pizzas were submerged in cheese, I guess they do things differently down under.  I expect that things will differ outside of The Rocks.

As our cheese induced coma started to come on, we returned to the room to shower and dress, it was 3:30pm.  At 7am we woke up.  No, you haven't missed anything.

Day 2 - Bondi Beach to Coogee

We awoke bright and early at 7am and headed out to catch the bus to Bondi Beach.  The 333 bus took us through some wonderful, local areas of town, ones that we definitely plan to visit over the next couple of days...specifically to drink.  The bus ride took about 30 minutes and dropped us at Bondi Beach.  Beautiful beaches, crashing waves, it was perfect.  It reminded us a lot of California, the weather is dry, when in the sun it's warm, in the shade it's cool, and the water was a perfect temperature to cool us after a walk.

We then walked the coastal trail from Bondi to Coogee Beach, I was very disappointed to learn that it was not called Coochee, as that was a great name and a source of embarrassment as I had been looking for Coochee all day.  We stopped in several towns along the 3 mile walk, having a delightful lunch in the small town of Bronte.  The walk was fabulous, and just when it got too warm to continue we would stumble across another beach and jump in the waves to refresh ourselves.

We are now back at the hotel, and we are enjoying the champagne that came as a surprise gift from Laura and John, thanks guys!!

Tonight the plan is to visit the Sydney Opera House for dinner and drinks, but knowing the Goldbergs anything can happen!!!  

More to come.....