THE FINAL POST

we have reached our last few hours in the southern hemisphere. it's early morning and still dark. our apartment is packed up. it's exciting and sad at the same time. we had a lovely last night visiting the OPERA BAR and PHAMISH, respectively the best view in sydney and the (second) best vietnamese restaurant in sydney - the latter being (appropriately) the first restaurant we ate at when we first arrived here.

the funny thing about leaving a place is how do you say goodbye? i had a moment where i wanted to hug the opera house. or the entire neighborhood of paddington and in a drunkish minute i did get down on the ground with my arms stretched. and i know everyone says that it's not about the place it's about the people who make the place blah blah. in this instance it's truly about the place. sydney itself was our adventure and defined our life for the past 9 months. sure we made friends and became part of little communities here and we cherish that. but the city was our best friend (and sometimes worst enemy here).

so now we are off to the northernest of the northern hemishphere: sweden.

BANANAS I TELL YOU

i've been meaning to discuss this for months. banana bread. it's a very big thing here. every cafe offers toasted banana bread with butter. delicious. but today i paid $5 for a slice of banana bread. i've also paid $6 and upwards of $7.50.

on average and comparably, everything is expensive in australia. but if i'm paying $7.50 for a slice and let's say you get 6-8 slices per loaf, that's roughly a $50 banana bread. which is crazy. and i know food prices have gone up lately, but this all started before that. i think there must be gold in australian bananas.

(not my photo)

IT'S SETTLED

i think it's safe to say that the reason we don't post so eagerly on this blog anymore is because we've settled into life in the southern hemisphere and aren't as bewildered by things enough to write about them. that isn't to say we don't still find sydney and its nature breathtakingly beautiful, that we aren't still drooling over a delicious brunch every weekend, or that we aren't still photographing cute milk froth illustrations in our coffees. we are. but it's become familiar to us. which is nice to finally feel settled in a new place. unfortunately, now that we feel this way, it's time to go. the countdown has begun and we are down to 3 weeks.

since we've last been in touch, we had another northerner make her way down under and we got to see this place again with new eyes through her. she was also impressed with sydney's loveliness and australian coffee. and equally annoyed at the amount of time sydney pedestrians are forced to spend everyday waiting at traffic lights - this city is badly in need of a danish urban planner. as well as how expensive everything is here, particularly australia's bread and butter: wine.

we also hit up another state with our visitor: quaint and rugged tasmania. and since we're coming down to our final days here, our last blog posts will probably serve as an homage to the place we've called home over the last nine months. in this installment, i leave you with a scenes from the 4 out of 7 states we managed to visit in this vast country.

in order: the mountains of new south wales, victoria's coastline, tropical queensland, a tasmanian lake, oh and a quintessential shot of bondi.

EDIT: there are 8 states and we've visited 5. i left off home of the capital itself - ACT. how could i? photo is forthcoming.

SEE THAT

it's fall.

ROAD TRIP

over easter weekend, we headed out of sydney along with thousands of sydneysiders, hitting the open road for the snowy mountains of new south wales (thankfully everyone else was headed to the blue mountains). although we've traveled a bit since we've been here, not having a car has limited our weekend adventures to the sydney area. so, jumping in a car and taking off for the country was really liberating for us.

since we were camping and didn't have to stick to any sort of schedule, we took our time getting down to the mountains. our first stop was at a little roadside rest area. to our pleasant surprise, an older mother and her son had set up a van in the parking lot equipped with an espresso machine in the back. they sold coffees, homemade sandwiches and baked goods to passing drivers. having skipped breakfast, this was a much welcomed sight - far more appealing than mcdonald's or the petrol station down the road. in fact, we thought it was such a genius idea, we are considering it as a future weekend career at home (maybe).

further on, almost to canberra, we stopped for lunch in the lovely city of goulburn. it was a cold day for australia and because it was good friday, there was a peaceful pre-holiday feel in the city. people were walking around bundled up in coats and scarves (a wonderful sight for our winter-starved eyes) and were shopping and lunching in the 1940's style cafes. we grabbed some savory pies and hot cross buns (an australian easter tradition apparently) and ate our lunch in the park. on the way out of goulburn we stopped for a fabulous photo opportunity with the world's largest sheep.

after 6 hours of driving (with a few more stops for free coffee and biscuits courtesy of organizations who were on a mission to keep holiday drivers awake and alert) we made it to the mountains. the snowy mountains are the tallest range in australia and are also considered to be an alpine range. but they don't actually seem that tall and look more like the green mountains than the swiss alps. still they were pretty. we found a great camping spot by a creek just outside the cozy ski resort town of thredbo. it was cold (our 55 degree sleeping bags barely cut it) but the air was crisp and fresh and the night so quiet, we slept well.

the next day we bundled up in long underwear and rain gear - since we don't have any other winter things - and headed up the tallest mountain in australia, mt. kosciuszko. we tackled the first third of the mountain via ski lift and then finished off the rest on our own two legs. there were massive rock formations all around and we were sometimes covered with a fog so thick we could barely see the hikers in front of us. but there were a lot of people - including little grannies and toddlers (it may be the tallest mountain in australia but it definitely wasn't mt everest or anything). so after reaching the summit we set off on another, less traveled trail down to a beautiful alpine lake where we had lunch. this extra bit really wore us out. but it was a beautiful hike along the barren alpine ridge. back down in thredbo we found a lively lodge to warm up with wine and hot food, readying ourselves for another night of cold camping.

the next morning we decided to pack up our things, jump in the car and head to warmer climes on the south coast. this is a story for another day, and almost felt like another whole weekend in itself. more to come...