We made it to Australia! After a 2 hour flight to Houston, 15 hour flight to Auckland, and another 3 hour flight to Sydney, we arrived. After about 27 hours of travel, we were expecting to feel… like hell. But it’s a wonder what your body can do with at least a few hours of sleep on the plane, copious amounts of caffeine, and wonderful, beautiful weather.
We were so lucky to have our hotel room ready for us when we arrived for check-in around 9am. That sort of victory can really help set the tone for the day. After we quickly settled in and took a shower (that shower felt glorious!), we took off to explore Sydney by foot.
We stayed at The Capitol Hotel right in the heart of Sydney’s Chinatown, which was an extremely central location to the main sites of Sydney.
We walked through Hyde Park and found plenty of locals and tourists soaking up the sun on Easter Monday. Then we stumbled upon the Botanical Gardens. One of my favorite things about traveling is seeing the difference in ecosystems, the plants, the trees, the birds…which pigeons look much different here….
The Gardens are gorgeous and take you all the way up to the Sydney Opera House, our main destination. Throughout the Gardens, you can walk through palm groves and hear the birds chattering to one another, flying overhead. Or walk along a path lined with beautiful varieties of curated plants and flowers. Or take a seat in the grass and enjoy an Aperol Spritz with a view.
When we arrived at the waterfront and seeing the Sydney Opera House, it was an incredibly surreal feeling. Growing up, this was a building I’ve seen in films (specifically the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen classic Our Lips Are Sealed) and media. It’s an iconic piece of architecture that anyone would recognize, and now, here we were seeing it for ourselves. I become overwhelmed with gratitude, a bit of pride, and pure joy. We have talked about doing this trip for a couple of years now, and here we are…. We made it.
Our first day in Sydney was an incredible way to begin our trip. The first day felt like three, which I’m sure will be a trend. For dinner, we found a killer dumpling spot and made our way back to the hotel to crash.
Now I hope you might feel as magical about our first day as we did. It felt like every bit of planning and prep had paid off. But if an “adventure” follows the exact plan down to the letter, that really isn’t an adventure. So I decided to do something so wild, so crazy, so unbelievable to TRULY make sure Asa and I have a proper adventure.
And just what did I choose to do?
Did I sign us up for a komodo dragon feeding class? No, no, that’s too simple.
A BASE jump off the Sydney Harbour Bridge? Not quite, that does sound fun though…
Decided to start backpacking through the Australian outback? Okay, easy, we don’t have a death wish now..
Nope. None of those.
So right now, we are currently in Cairns, Australia – about a 3 hour flight from Sydney. This has always been on the itinerary, this is where we can go out to see The Great Barrier Reef. And so, to get to Cairns, we had to take a flight. And to get on the flight, we had to get to the airport. And so arriving at the airport, I decided to leave my cell phone (you know – that electronic device that is practically life support to us these days) in the back of the taxi.
Okay I didn’t decide to, I just flat out forgot to grab it and didn’t realize it wasn’t in my bag.
Realizing you don’t have your phone on you, while in a foreign country, and having to watch the taxi that you know it’s in drive away actually sounds like a suitable punishment to wish on your worst enemies. You know you’re going to live through it, BUT MAN, it is not fun.
So we’ve made it to Cairns, safe and sound, and now I get the opportunity of living life for a bit without the modern day conveniences and inconveniences of a cell phone. We’ll report back shortly the results of this social experiment.
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