Wedding of Wonders – The Blog

Once the weather finally broke, Katie and I were ready to go take on Sydney. It really is a beautiful city – very clean, very organized, very walkable – overall, an extremely livable place. People here seem very nice and the diverse makeup of the population results in a great array of different restaurants. Having such great food options at our fingertips, Katie and I just can’t resist. We had been on the wait list for Tetsuya’s for quite some time (we had just missed their 2 calendar month reservation date) but we were able to secure a reservation at Quay, a beautiful restaurant literally on Circular Quay. We were seated in a circular glass room on the top floor of the building overlooking the Sydney Harbour, and were dazzled by the chef’s signature degustation menu. He had gracefully incorporated everything from ‘pearls of the ocean’ (various seafood in spherical shape) to an incredible mud crab soup to seared pork belly that would just about make anyone’s mouth water. It was an excellent dinner to start our experience in Sydney.

The next morning, we were ready to get our signature Sydney wedding pictures in front of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. We scouted out a few great locations but found eventually that Mrs. Macquarie’s Point (named after Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair) was the perfect destination. At each location we take a few different shots, some conventional, some kissing and some just being silly. At this location, we were going for a jumping photo. Being that Katie has a broken toe (and has been limping like a poor crippled old lady), she would not be doing much jumping so it was left to me to do enough jumping for both of us. Now I know what you’re thinking, why would they chose a jumping picture if Katie has a broken toe? Great question, I was wondering the same myself but it was Katie’s idea, and I’ll never turn down an opportunity to be ridiculous, so I was in. Again, after some ill-timed jumps on our own (and again causing a complete scene), a friendly Aussie offered to take a photo of us and things turned out perfectly.

We then took a drive to nearby Sydney Harbour National Park and checked out the view from Bluefin Lookout Point. It’s a great spot to look back at all of Sydney from afar and see the entire harbor. There were sailing classes in the foreground, cruise ships in the background, and a beautiful scene for a picnic (of course, the eco-friendly Aussies even had a special trash can entitled ‘Picnic Rubbish’ to accompany the usual glass, plastic, cans, paper and trash receptacles). There were also about a million signs informing us that going any faster than 10 kmph would result in the unsightly and untimely death of bandicoots. As a point of reference, only 1 bandicoot has succumed to the perils of the road in 2009. Yosemite, on the other hand, puts up a sign in the park for each bear killed by a car – in 2008 there were 24.

As the evening drew nearer, we thought it would be grand to cruise through the Harbour around sunset and have a look at the sights all lit up. Accompanied by a group of about 25 Japanese tourists, we set out on a ‘cocktail cruise’. It was a very pleasant route through the harbor and truly a great way to see Sydney at night (since it’s winter, the sun set sometime around 5:00 PM).

So it is after a great overall experience that we say goodbye to Sydney. We’ll certainly be back to Australia soon, but staying much longer and exploring the entire country (hopefully when Katie doesn’t have a broken toe). We’re off to China on a flight much longer than I had thought (12 hours of flying from Sydney to Beijing). Talk to you all then!

We’ve made it to Sydney! Normally the biggest challenge crossing the Pacific Ocean and the Equator simultaneously is simply the flight time, but in true Katie and Mike fashion, we decided to make it a little more difficult on ourselves. For those of you wanting to travel to Australia from the US, you do, in fact, need a visa. In all of the planning and preparation, I had thought I had everything under control and we were completely prepared to enter every country on the list — but apparently I hadn’t been completely thorough. I had entirely forgotten to get Katie and I Australian visas and there we were, standing at the United check-in line without permission to enter the country we had tickets to fly to… yep, really smart of me…

Fortunately for us, we had the most helpful airline attendant EVER, Colette Wallace (if you’re reading this, thank you so much!), who quickly managed to get us visas as we were standing there about to check in. We then realized that US Airways (again, the worst airline ever) booked Katie’s entire ticket (all 16 flights) under the wrong name. Needless to say, without Colette’s help, we probably would not have made it.

But we’re here, and extremely excited for our first international destination of this trip! The flight (albeit long) was actually quite pleasant and relaxing, and everyone we have met here have been tremendously kind. My only complaint thus far has been the weather — it is pretty rainy — but we have a fabulous room that overlooks the Opera House and every once and again a break in the weather gives way to a beautiful rainbow.

Regrettably, we have suffered our second injury on this trip: Katie’s left foot. After traversing the treacherous Yosemite trails completely unscathed, the perils of a suitcase holder in our hotel room got the best of Katie. She accidentally kicked the luggage holder when walking and as a result, has a broken and bruised pinkie-toe. Fortunately we still have the ace bandages from my arm wrap so we’re prepared, and we’ll use this rainy weather as an excuse to rest, recover and for me to take my finals for this term at Duke.

We’ll keep you updated once the weather clears and we make our way out to see what Sydney has to offer. Until then I’m off to bog in some brekkie, drink a tinny with the flies and just be a tall poppy. God, I’m such a figjam. Cheers mates!