the 'oz experience' - to canberra, nsw

The 'Oz Experience'

Alright! So I begin my mini adventure to Melbourne via bus trip with the Oz Experience (www.ozexperience.com), which is a hop-on-hop-off type bus tour.  I booked the 3-day bus trip (The Matey Pass) from Sydney to Melbourne so I could see more of Australia and meet some people along the way (rather than a quick hour flight - sometimes its about the journey)!

I decided to stay a night in a hostel in Sydney since the bus pick up time was 6:45am the next day at that hostel (aka backpackers). Saved me a bit of commute so early in the morning. I stayed at Base Backpackers and it is one of the backpackers partnered with the Oz Experience. It was a decent hostel, I booked an all girls room, to kind of ease into the backpacking experience haha, and met some nice girls from the UK and we went down to the pub Scary Canary that is connected to the hostel. I got a voucher for free champagne (cheap and not so good but can't complain if it's free) for booking the girls room. There were people at the pub trying to get people playing drinking games and games to win free drinks which was pretty entertaining.

Then George, who is a good friend of Yanny and Sonia, came and met up with me at the pub. He just moved to Sydney a week before so it was nice to see a familiar face. We had a couple of drinks and shared some travel stories and called it night because I had a really early start to the next day.

Got up bright and early and waited outside the backpackers for the bus along with 2 other girls on the same trip. Made our way to the Oz Experience office to check-in and pick up some more passengers. It was a small group of seven - five females in their 20's, including myself, and an older couple.

Our young Australian bus driver/tour guide, Woody at 24, was very knowledgable and helped us break the ice and so we all started to get acquainted and found out that 2 girls are from London, another girl from Germany, one from Holland and the couple is from the UK somewhere.

Our first stop was at a small town (can't remember the name) for a toilet break and to grab some breakfast. Then we made our way to Canberra, NSW, the capital of Australia.

The view of Canberra, the Old and New Parliament Buildings, and the Australian War Memorial building. Taken from along the parliamentary axis

 

The Australian War Memorial
When we got to Canberra, our first attraction was the Australian War Memorial (www.awm.gov.au).

Commorative Courtyard and Pool of Reflection and the Eternal Flame

The Hall of Memory and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier behind the tomb are the "Four Pillars"

The walls of the Hall of Memory covered with one of the world's largest mosaics.

14 beautiful large stained glass windows.

The Roll of Honour surrounding the courtyard. Here are inscribed, in bronze, the names of virtually every Australian who has died in war since 1885.

The Parliament House
Then we were off to visit the new parliament building where we had a quick guided tour around the place (www.aph.gov.au).

There are about 2,500 clocks throughout the building.

Below is The Great Hall where it features one of the world's largest tapestry based on a painting by Authur Boyd showing a dense forest of eucalypts - measuring 20m wide by 9m high

The House of Representatives 

The Senate

At the top of the parliament building

At the top of the parliament building - the view from the this side, the city and looking at the War Memorial

The Old Parliament House

Just a little ways down away from the new Parliament House. We didn't get to go inside so we just took a few minutes to look around here.

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy
On the front lawn of the Old Parliament House, a large group of activists reside, calling it the Aboriginal Tent Embassy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_Tent_Embassy).

So that was our morning in Canberra! Now we are off to Thredbo, where our accommodation is for the night. Passing through Cooma, then stopping at the Snow Hydro information centre - detailing the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric scheme that is one of the most complex water and electricity projects in the world. We pass through the Snowy Mountains and also through Jindabyne along the way to Threadbo.

Next post: our night in Thredbo and our hike up Mount Kosciusko

The view of Lake Jindabyne

sydney for easter long & anzac day

My Red Tulip bunny & bilby

For Easter Long weekend, we headed down to Sydney for some fun and also to celebrate Anzac Day there. Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating again so it was cloudy and rainy. Aussies have an extra day off this weekend because Anzac Day fell on Easter Monday so they had the Tuesday off as well! I noticed that Easter is a pretty big deal here in Australia. When I went to the shops, there were aisles and aisles filled with Easter chocolate eggs, bunnies and everything Easter! I also heard that Easter is celebrated more than Christmas.

We stayed with Kristy and Jarrod for the weekend, thanks again guys!

Shane and I went for some Dim Sum (they call it Yum Cha in Australia), Saturday morning, at Kam Fook in Chatswood. It was really good dim sum but pretty pricey. Then in the afternoon we went to Paddington Market with Jarrod and Kristy.

We went to some pubs on the weekend, which was pretty fun! We stumbled upon a nice pub in Glebe, AB Hotel, on the way to the race and stopped there for some dinner and drinks. Hotels are pubs here, some hotels have accommodation as well, but almost everywhere you go you will see "Blah blah Hotel." It was hard to get around the idea at first, like when someone would say lets go to this hotel, I would be like why are we going to a hotel?? haha..

Paddington Market www.paddingtonmarkets.com.au

AB Hotel, www.abhotel.com.au in Glebe

  

Ainoya, www.ainoya.com.au

At The Oaks Pub

We also went to a pub in Kirribilli, on another night, to meet up with some friends. Then Shane and I went to a really nice Japanese restaurant a couple blocks from the pub called Ainoya Japanese Restaurant. The sushi and food was soo delicious. I would say it is one of the best places I've been to for sushi, every bite would be savoured and would be just as delicious as the first bite! I was enjoying the food too much to take photos. After dinner, we back up with everyone at the pub and had a fun night out.



Greyhound Races

Greyhound Race at Wentworth Park

Went to the Greyhound Race, the Golden Easter Egg Race, at Wentworth Park. Quoted: "Australia's richest greyhound event! Winner of final $250,000" Kristy's cousin had a greyhound in that Golden Easter Egg Race, and there was a busload of supporters that came to race. We put some bets on their dog, "Adam Meway." It was a pretty close race, but they came in third place with winnings of $30,000.

Adam Meway wins 3rd place in the big race! I win some money as well!.... like $10? haha

Sydney Harbour as 'Japanese Tourists'
On Saturday afternoon, we got lucky and the sun came out, so Kristy and I went out to the Sydney Harbour to take some photos and do some touristy stuff.. as Kristy would say "Let's be Japanese tourists today and take lots of photos!" ... for the sake of the post, I'll only show a few photos haha.

Anzac Day
On Anzac day, April 25, we went to Hardboard Diggers in Manly around 11am, but the weather was crappy and rainy so they had to hold the Two-Up game inside and the place was packed!

Anzac Day is an Australian War Memorial day (http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac/) and Two-Up is a traditional Australian gambling game played on Anzac day. It's a coin spinning game where your odds are pretty much 50/50 betting on the coins landing on either heads or tails. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-up). The spinner gets a chance to win a lot of money if they keep spinning heads because the pot doubles each time!

1. Hardboard Diggers, Two Up Ring   2. Buena Vista Pub,  Jarrod spinning   3. Buena Vista Pub with the girls

We stayed at Hardboard Diggers for a couple of hours and then decided to go back to town where some other friends were. We ended up at the Buena Vista Pub in Mosman. It was less busy, so we got a chance to place some bets on two-up. I won some and lost some. It's a really easy and fun gambling game to get into.

The Royal Easter Show

Can't remember what the ducks are called but the last one is an alpaca

Went to Sydney's Royal Easter Show the next day, it's kind of like the Calgary Stampede, but all things Australian plus Easter stuff. It was more of a kids & family event though. I was supposed to meet up with my friend Kiet there but he had some car troubles and couldn't make it until later but we had to go.

Shane left to head back to Old Bar and I went to my hostel (backpackers) for the night to start my trip to Melbourne early next morning!

Next post: my bus trip to Melbourne

driving on the beach!

This was in April, when we went to The Entrance at Old Bar beach but the cool thing is that we are allowed to drive on this part of the beach! You have to have a permit to drive on the beach though. It was soo much fun! It's a really nice area too and you see other vehicles parked on the beach and people going fishing, surfing and all sorts.

We found a spot on along the water to hang out, made ourselves a little seat and just chilled out there with an ice cold beer and some snacks. It was so relaxing... soaking up some sun.. *aaah*

Then it was my turn to drive on the beach! Definitely a first for me.. right hand driving, driving a manual, and driving on sand! It can get really tricky because it's so easy to get stuck in the sand, but I learned with some finesse you can usually get unstuck. It was so exciting for me that I did it.. and did pretty well too! =D it was a lot of fun!

victory!