Throwback Thursday: Australia 2014

I know, I’m not smiling in the photo, it was hot (January in Aus is Summer), plus I didn’t want to damn smile so heh.

I worked at SmithBucklin from 2011- 2015. I was broke as all hell, but I got a wealth of experience, a whole gang of airline miles, and a bunch of stamps on my passport.

I got to go to Australia for a week. Longest flights of my life up to that point; 4 hours from Chicago to LA, 14 hours from LA to Sydney, 2 hours from Sydney to Melbourne (or Mel-bin as the locals pronounce it).

I drank on the flights, and in between the flights. In fact, my coworkers and I all brought as much alcohol as we could TSA-Legally bring in our carry on’s. Have you ever been on a plane long enough to be drunk, sober and then drunk again? I have, and its exhausting as shit.

We finally got to Melbourne and really wanted to explore the city that same day. But when you leave Chicago on Saturday afternoon, and arrive at your destination and its Monday afternoon, shits a little weird. Fortunately, someone was smart enough to tell us to build in a rest day before having to work. ALWAYS BUILD IN A REST DAY!

We stayed at the Park Hyatt in Melboure which back in 2014 was beautiful, so I can only imagine its even nicer 4 years later. We got some food, had our conference the next day and flew to Sydney.

By now we’re all nice and acclimated to the 17 hour time change.

Since this is a throwback post, and I’m going to keep with the spirit of brevity here is my brief list of Things to do in Sydney, Australia.

1. Walk around. Like for real walk around. It’s a beautiful city. In certain places it feels like home, in others it feels very British. Like the driving on the other side and this shit right here..

   

2. Go to the marina, take the ferry to Manly Bay. It’s pretty cheap, and you get awesome views of the bridge, skyline, and famous Opera House. I spent the whole day on the island, by myself, watching the surfers, eating some non GMO food, and just breathing.
3. Y’all know I love double decker, Hop-on-Hop-off, bus tours. I did one mostly because I was tired of walking, but I also learned ton of Australian history just riding around and listening to the recording.
4. Eat some Tim Tam’s– cuz they’re delicious
5. And of course, walk around the Opera House, see a show if you’re feeling frisky

Apparently Australia is one of those countries where they value their service people, so I was pleased when I found out: 1. You don’t have to tip and 2. The servers make like 20$ an hour.

I wish i’d had time to go to the zoo and see some Koala’s in person, but time was limited.

K bye!