International Apartment Hunters

Day 24 (Monday Oct 29t)

So, I decided to take the easy way out and take over my friend's apartment in Manly Beach when she leaves to head back to the States the end of November. I would have been the most boring episode of House Hunters. When it got to the part before the commercial break where the narrator rhetorically asks the audience "Will they take house #1, the single family detached just outside their dream neighborhood but close to his work? Will they take House # 2, the..." This is where I would just cut her off and tell her we took #1.

It is a little pricey, but everything is over here and we are in a great location:

Our apartment is the marker below. Slumming it!

The worst part of the location is now it will be increasingly harder to convince Mere to get a job while she is here and not just lie on the beach everyday.


Here are some pictures of the apartment:

One of the reasons we decided to take the Sydney opportunity was because of the beautiful weather. Who knew it was also to escape Massachusetts hurricane season. Good luck to those weathering hurricane Sandy back home, stay safe. Mere, good luck w/ taking Jax out to pee

For those Elon Alums reading the blog, when I hear 'hurricane Sandy' it makes me think of the after effects the next day after a night of Drink Til You Drown at Lighthouse and hitting up Sandy's for some beer-batterd fries and and a chicken-cheese bomb. (not pleasant)

Days until Mote's arrives countdown: Officially 1 week!

Young Henry's and Newtown

3 Weeks in (Sat Oct 27th)

I promise will try to keep this the last beer related blog entry for a while.

I closed out Sydney Craft Beer week with a couple of mates from work Friday night by heading over to Surry Hills to the Young Henry's tap takeover at the Royal Albert Hotel (bar).

Young Henry's is a small brewery that opened up about 6 months ago and is getting a lot of press for their good beer. Last night they brought 10 kegs (5 of which are beers that they are retiring and brought the last kegs of), and I was lucky enough to try most of their beers and met some of the guys that work over there. Tap list below:

My favorites were the Newtown Brown, the Yippie IA, and the Night Nurse (which they call a white stout, but turns out to be a wordplay on the definition of 'stout' and is an IPA)

Afterwards we tried to go to Bar Reggios (the restaurant I went to with colleagues the first weekend I was here) but it was packed, so we went to Trovata, a Mediterranean place that did wood-fire pizzas.

On Saturday, I decided to check out Young Henry's brewery which is located in Newtown, a suburb of Sydney's inner west. Newtown is known as a very diverse, progressive, and bohemian suburb with heaps of ethnic restaurants and cafes as well as every store you can think of along King St - the main road which spans about 4-5km.

Newtown has some great street art as well, most famous is the Martin Luther King mural on King St. The Aboriginal flag is painted as the base of the mural but is hard to see in the below picture I took:

The below is a mural of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo (tv show), some peasant women, and of course...Mr. Spock

Young Henry's is located just off King St, so I hopped in to fill up a growler and chat with some of the guys from the night before...as well as some free samples.

In the photo below you can see my beer-pong game with one of the workers.
I won, so feel free to take this moment to start chanting 'USA, USA!'

 And we're back. I'm excited to see what this brewery does during the time that I am here. Good beers, great guys.

The blog will probably get a little more 'cultured' and less beer-themed once Mere gets here.

Official Countdown til Mote's gets here......1 week!!!!!!!! (at least she departs in 1 week, arrives in about 9 days)

Cockatoo Island

Day 20 (Thurs Oct 25th)

Just got back from the Cockatoo Island Film Fest where I saw the film 360. This was a much needed break from beer during Sydney Craft Beer Week to give my palate a rest. (Plus I'm sure some of you are probably thinking 'less beer, more kangaroos please!')

Cockatoo Island is one of the Sydney Harbor Islands, a 10 minute ferry ride from downtown which started as a penal establishment (shocking, I know) to solve overcrowding in the other prisons. The prisoners built the barracks, guard towers, and dock. After relocating the prisoners, Cockatoo Island became the hub for shipbuilding. It is a very small island with big warehouses and old machinery, very cool. I felt like I was on the set of some movie.

Pulling up to Cockatoo Island on the Ferry:

View of the warehouses - they set up movie theaters inside the warehouses for the film festival. Outside were some food and beer stands...and literally a million seagulls

...?

Inside of one of the warehouses

They tunneled through the rockface to get from one side to the other

View from atop the prison barracks of Sydney Harbor (you can see the bridge over on the left)

The prison yard. No sign of Andy or Red

As for the film, I'll spare you the details, but it was like a boring version of Crash and you had to sit in crappy plastic deck chairs for 2 and a half hours.

The island itself is heaps (wicked) awesome

Countdown til Mote's comes:10!

But shhhhhh! Don't wake her!

BeerGustation

Day 19 (Wed Oct 24th)

Hump day of Sydney Craft beer week I attended a BeerGustation (wordplay on degustation) with some friends from work. We went to Harts Pub, home of Rocks Brewing where they teamed up with craft brewer Thirsty Crow from Wagga Wagga. Got to talk to owner Craig Wealands about his brewery and beers. Great guy, and I will somehow convince Mote's to make the 4 hr drive from Sydney to visit his brewery.

The 8 course, 8 beer menu was pretty ridiculous and had some great pairings like the Thirsty Crow Vanilla Milk Stout w/ Tumut Smoked Trout Salad with Lemon Aioli, the Thirsty Crow Raven's Thong with Quail cured in Batlow Pink Lady Cider and hung, house-made Chicken Liver Pate, Beer Braised Pork Belly, Fresh Bread, Chutney, and Wollundry Olives:

My favorite pairing beer was the Thirsty Crow Road 2 Ruin Imperial Long Black (Imperial Coffee Stout) which was paired with Chocolate Chili Mousse w/ Growley's "Flamin Bacon" Sauce, Vanilla Fairy Floss (Cotton Candy) and Pistachio Praline:

After a quick stop for some beers and Pacman on Atari at a nearby bar, I came home to Hundreds and Thousands, another cookie (biscuit) my aunt recommended:

So I had a couple of beers and didn't feel like rotating the picture:

  

Also, my new favorite is Tim Tams and peanut butter:

Starting to get used to some of the food differences, but some things just continue to confound me, like:

Really? Why couldn't they just use Krispies?

Official Days until Motes gets here Countdown: 11 days!

 

A Cure for a case of the Mondays

Day 16 (Monday Oct 22nd)

Sydney Craft Beer Week officially started on Sunday, so great timing on my part. I've put a schedule together of events to attend during the week, with an off day on Thursday to check out the Cockatoo Island Film Festival.

Monday (Today): Head to Yulli's (a vegetarian joint) in Surry Hills which is south of the CBD (Central Business District) where I live for Thirsty Crow Tap Takeover a beer. Turns out there was a "delay" in the Tap Takeover and it won't start until tomorrow. Thanks for the heads up. Surry Hills is an artsy, hipstery, vegetarian village with a reputation of good cafe's and restaurants. I will definitely come back to check out the scene, and may return to Yulli's if they do indeed have the Thirsty Crow tap-takeover.

Yulli's; womp, womp

The rest of the weekly schedule if nothing fails:

Tuesday: Stone & Wood & Vinyl @ Mojo Record Bar, CBD - Let's hope I don't add to my collection  the waste of $ that is the Pearl Jam holiday singles and the Beauty Feast (much to the dismay of Robby, I purchased their single at the now defunct Alchemist in Jamaica Plain after about 3 Pabst tall boys) 45's. I don't even own a record player to listen to them. Or possibly a return to those lying vegans at Yulli's.

Wednesday: Beergustation @ Hart's Pub, the Rocks - this is an 8 course beer pairing dinner. Fingers crossed I can function on Thursday.

Thurs: Cockatoo Island Film Festival to see 360 starring Jude Law, Rachael Weisz, Anthony Hopkins, and Ben Foster and directed by the dude who did City of God. If you haven't seen City of God, watch/rent/steal it now. Cockatoo Island is one of the Sydney Harbor Islands, and has been recommended as a great day trip:

Friday:  Young Henry's Tap Takeover @ Royal Albert Hotel, Hyde Park area.

Walking through Hyde Park on my way home tonight, I took a picture of the Archibald Fountain built by a French Artist François-Léon Sicard at the request of J.F. Archibald, owner/editor of the Bulletin Magazine, to commemorate the association between France and Australia in World War I (as long as wikipedia isn't lying). It is a pretty amazing piece of art:

Official Days until Mote's comes countdown: Fortnightly! (this is a widely used way to express 2 weeks).

Manly Part 2

Day 14 (Sat Oct 20th)

Officially 2 weeks in, I headed back out to Manly beach to look at apartments and meet up with my co-worker and get in some beach time. I walked to nearby Shelley Beach (10 mins along the coast) where there is great snorkeling and public gas barbecues making this a big family destination.

I walked back to Manly Beach to meet up with my friend and along the way, I saw a couple of girls lying out topless. There aren't any signs designating the beach as a topless or non-topless beach, and from what I hear, people don't make a big deal about it, unlike in the states. The biggest difference b/w topless in Manly and topless in the European pool at the Wynn Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, is that the people topless in Vegas aren't the people you usually want to see topless. In Manly however...well, see for your self:


(Just kidding! Let's try and keep this blog classy)

We then walked north from Manly Beach (which was too windy) through some neighborhoods to Freshwater Beach, the 1st of the northern beaches. There were some bloke's throwing their rugby ball around and kept hitting people sitting nearby. Translation: There were d-bags throwing their football around and kept hitting people sitting nearby. But as most of the beaches I've seen so far, this was beautiful with a huge cliff face enclosing one end of the beach.

From Freshwater, we walked further north to Curl Curl, which is known for the best waves of the northern beaches. Another big thing I've seen so far, is swimming pools along the Ocean. Practically every beach has them:



Curl Curl

We returned to Manly and grabbed a few beers at another craft brewery brewpub - 4 Pines, where we grabbed food, beers, and chatted with this older British couple. British people are nice, but they always have the cheesiest jokes/responses to everything you say.


Picture of Manly boardwalk:

Picture looking at the Corso (walkway with shops on both sides connecting Manly Wharf to Manly Beach

Days until Mote's Comes Countdown: 16!

A little taste of home

Day 12 (10/18):

Just got back from seeing Bill Burr live at the Opera House as part of the Just for Laughs Festival. I've seen Bill perform before and just watched his latest special on Netflix last month at home, but he was hilarious and had all new material.

Great show, still wished he had talked about Cleo his dog:

 


!

Days until Mote's Comes Countdown: 18!

Morning Gangnam Style

Day 11 (Wed Oct 17th)

I woke up this morning to what I thought was another Occupy Sydney rally just outside my apartment. Turns out I was wrong. After I finished getting dressed and was heading out the door, the beginning of Gangnam Style starting blasting out of speakers. Figured it was probably a flash mob so I went to check it out. Turns out they were filming the Australia version of the Today show with PSY performing Gangnam Style live...at 7:30 in the morning. Best alarm clock ever?

Mote's you must be so jealous:

For those of you who have been living under a rock or don't have the internet, I have posted the video at the bottom. Watch it, which will explain the following picture from my brother's wedding:

Which reminds me....

Official Days until Mote's Comes Countdown: 19 days!!!!

Opposite of a Lazy Sunday

Day 8 (Sunday Oct 14th)

Days until Motes comes countdown: 21 days!

Where to begin...I started the morning with a run through the Royal Botanical Gardens which are east of Circular Quay and the Opera House along the harbor. They remind me of a cross between Boston Common (city location) and the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain (size and layout, minus Jax running around off leash rolling in horse poop).

 This is Mrs. Macquarie's Chair in the Gardens...apparently this is a big deal

 I next set out to find a basketball court to shoot some hoops, which led me to Pyrmont, an inner-city suburb of Sydney located in the Darling Harbor area. Below is the Pyrmont bridge to cross Darling Harbor:

And I eventually came upon the court, only to find it locked and closed on Sundays:

I backtracked west across the city to an outdoor court in Woolloomoolo (yes, that is the actual name of the area) and found a court in a project-like area where I passed some not so nice areas and seedy looking mates. On purpose, I did not take any photos.

On my return, I walked through Hyde Park which is located just south of the Center city and is like a smaller version of Central Park. The main path is tee-lined and was showcasing some local art along the way:

I found a great craft beer bar - The Local Taphouse in Darlinghurst (the same area where I went to the American themed bar and then dinner the other night). Great beer selection w/ 20 taps. The bartender wasn't too knowledgeable about the beer a she was a filmmaker/actress looking to move to L.A. in a year as there isn't much actress work in Australia. I told her I thought it was a great idea since there is a shortage of waitresses/bartenders looking to be actresses in L.A. (Not sure if they get American sarcasm over here. But one of my colleagues, Norm from the depressing Cheers episode, said Aussies are big on irony.

Just an FYI to anyone thinking of visiting, the burgers here are different than American burgers. The ones here are more of a meatloaf sandwich as the patties are mixed w/ eggs, breadcrumbs, seasonings. Rumor has it there are some joints that do serve American burgers, which I will have to seek out. I guess I can always head to the McDonalds and their 99 cent 2 dollar menu.

Bondi

Day 7 (Saturday Oct 13th)

Official Days until Mote's comes countdown: 22 days!

Kicked off the end of my 1st official week in Sydney by heading to Bondi Beach, perhaps Australia's most famous beach. Not sure what I was expecting, but Bondi was pleasantly a lot less commercially/crowded than I would have thought and much more beautiful. Maybe it was because it was a tad cool to be a complete beach day or maybe because I had Hampton Beach, NH in my mind for some reason:

Great scenery, but no Blinks Fried Dough :(

Along the boardwalk of Bondi are graffiti murals, one of my favorites:

I walked the cliffwalk to Bronte Beach from Bondi which is a 3.5km walk/climb along the cliffs bordering the ocean. There were some absolutely stunning views and some aboriginal carvings in the rocks beside the path. Below is the view of Bronte beach straight ahead from atop the cliffwalk.

Unlike my twin brother John when he visited Australia a few years back, I did not get on the wrong bus on my way back from Bondi. Mark 1, John 0.

Still too early to decide b/w Bondi and Manly if we do want the beach lifestyle as there is plenty left to explore in both places.

So far the only nuisance living downtown was listening to the Occupy Wall Street Sydney outside my apartment after returning from Bondi. More like Occupy Mark's Nap Time.

Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dingos

Hey Mates,

Sorry for the delay, this entry will mostly be about food.

So Australia does not run on Dunkin. In fact, besides Starbucks, its hard to find drip coffee anywhere. Everyone drinks espresso and call it a short black. A long black is the equivalent of our Americano. I couldn't see Gronk doing commercials for the coffee over here. Just as Boston has a Dunkin Donuts on every corner, Sydney has Pie Face, which serves meat pies. I'm a little skeptical of what type of meat is in the pies...but they are good, especially after a few beers.

Asian food is big here, and there are sushi restaurants all over the place, so Mere will get along no problem. My friend from work who was in Sydney last year kept talking about Laksa soup, which is a Malaysian dish - curry/chili based broth w/ tofu, sprouts, rice noodles, and usually a meat or seafood. I have to say, it lived up to her hype and will be a staple in my diet:

My aunt kept telling me about Tim-Tams before I arrived. They are a chocolate cookie sandwich with chocolate cream filling, coverd in chocolate....and I believe laced with crack:

Tim Tams day 1:

Tim Tams day 2:

 Also, someone told me all biscuits (cookies) are packaged w/ an odd number of cookies as you are not supposed to share them.

Met up with some co-workers and their significant others for dinner last night in Darlinghurst, which is southeast of the city center. We went out to an Italian place, but first had drinks at Shady Pines. Sounds like a nursing home, but it is actually an American themed bar, big on imported American beers and whiskey and country music I've never heard before. Also the decor on the wall would put Applebees, Bennigans, Shenanigans, etc... to shame. Nothing like staring at a life-size Smokey the bear statue while taking a leak.

The restaurant we went to was BYO so we bought some wine at the bottle shop before, which is significantly cheaper than any 6 pack of beer:

($22 for a sixer of Sam. Robby, do you handle the inventory in Australia?) 

On Thursday night I met up with some co-workers for some pints and pool and when everyone left, I remained out with the oldest member of the team who lives 350 miles away and works from home every other week. Needless to say, he spends a lot of his time drinking when working in the city and he took me to his local watering hole, The Grand, where he knew everyone. Let's just say it was like a very depressing episode of Cheers.


I have yet to have Kangaroo yet, but everyone tells me its delicious and you see it a lot on pizza here.

I'll post some more soon as I hope to get out to Bondi beach this weekend and will take pictures.

Official Days til Mote's Comes Countdown: 23 days!