Mr. and Mrs. Cool

This will be our shortest post yet.  We bought new sunglasses.  Needless to say, they only make us cooler.  Enjoy!

Blue Mountains & Katoomba

The Blue Mountains in Katoomba just west of Sydney are beautiful!  We took a relaxing three day break from the city and hopped on a tour bus that brought us all the way up here for some outrageous views.  Looking at the pictures we posted you can see the blueish haze that comes off of these mountains.  This is created because of so much eucalyptus in the air from the 250 different kinds of eucalyptus trees in the rain forest at the base of the mountains.  We saw the Three Sisters which comes with an aboriginal folk tale.  In short, the three sisters were frozen in stone and the mean man hasn't been able to find his magic stick to turn them back since.  Now, that's a LOT shorter of a story than the the one we got....   Anyways, The three sisters is a sight to see and we were able to get many pictures from different angles traveling on three kinds of transportation at Scenic World.  Yes, we too think that name is silly.  It reminds of of Wally World.

At Scenic World we rode the skyway across the steepest part of the canyon and got a good shot of Katoomba Falls.  We then journeyed a 50something degree railway down to the forest floor.  Supposedly, it's the world's steepest railway.  (Who keeps track of this stuff?)  At the bottom of the forest floor we got to explore a bit and then head up a gondola-ish cableway back to the top.  Overall, it was pretty cool, and we had great/clear weather to take in the sights all day long.

After our fun at Wally World, er Scenic World was over, our bus dropped us off at the Katoomba YHA where we have stayed for the past 2 nights.  It's been great - it's an old hotel complete with big dance floor that's been transformed into a hostel up in the mountains.  We explored the small town for a bit, stopped off at the chocolate shop, ate our best dinner yet at a little Italian place and spent some time relaxing in the hostel too (to escape the 10 degree (C) difference up here compared to Sydney.  Yesterday we established camp in the TV room and watched 3 movies back to back: Princess Bride, Lost in Translation, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  Funny people those Greeks.  

Oh!  almost forgot - we visited the local church yesterday and experienced a unique Mass to say the least.  The church had no heat, they ran out of the host so they started breaking pieces in half to give out (that, of course, was after the spent time rooting around the back of the church for the missing tabernacle key).  The music was...interesting...but the hightlight was the priest...  Towards the end he said "forever and ever" but said it a la the Princess Bride priest - which hurled Kristen into an almost uncontrollable laughing fit.  Hence us starting with that movie.

Last - Matt bought a new gift for himself (not electronic) - and we posted a picture that gives it away partially - you'll have to wait to see it in action later though.

We're off for now though - waiting for the bus that brings us back into Sydney for a couple nights - before we start our 2 weeks trip with the group we have yet to meet up to Cairns.

Talk to you later, cheers!

Featherdale Wildlife Park

Featherdale Wildlife Reservation was awesome.  Looking at the pictures we posted you can see that Matt and I got to touch the Kangaroos, Wallabies (these are the smaller ones) and we fed the Momma Kanga and her Roo that was snoozing in her pouch.  THAT was the wildest thing to see!  We got up close with the koalas and Matt even held a native Australian bird (I forget the name but it was a type of owl).  We heard loud and clear the Kookaburra birds..  The birds down here make so much noise, it must be mating season!

What in the world is Kristen eating? – eating in other countries when you are “picky”.

Australia Part 2

This will be short - my second rant update about the food here in Australia and my appetite.  The successful cooking continues and breakfast keeps tasting better - yum..  Matt's scrambled eggs.  I tried Ceaser Salad, I was THAT hungry. It came with ceaser dressing so I couldn't scrape it off and I actually liked it a lot.  Their croutons down here are so cute.  They're like little puffy bread balls.  I've eaten rice almost every day.  White with nothing else.  But, hey - Sarah, now we can have it together!  And, just a taste of how outrageous the prices are down here...  Coke $3 bucks and the beer down here is nuts - $26 bucks for a 4 pack of Sam Adams..  Guess we'll be drinking Tooheys which Matt called out in public, "Can I have a Tootheys?"  Hah..  Cheers!

YHAs

Hello from the future - TGIF

We have arrived at our third youth hostel.  Each one has been different so far.  We stayed at the Bondi Beach Youth Hostel, Glebe Youth Hostel, and now the Sydney Central Youth Hostel..  This one is huge - it's like ten floors with it's own bar and restaurant.

Hosteling is so popular down here..   We are making are own food most of the time  as each of the hostels has their own public kitchen with cupboards and fridges and based on our cooking skills Matt did a fine job making stir fry yesterday and Kristen still makes a mean peanut butter sandwich.

At the mall in Glebe we rode on their escalators for a while because they were cool.  It's like the straight ones at the airports but go up and down.  We saw a movie at the theatre in the mall.  Get Smart was really funny with Steve Carrell.  Frannie/Lorraine...    Keep on watch for him at the beach house!

We're enjoying the lingo down here.  Matt's favorite is when an Australian woman is pregnant she is "up the duff."  Also, when someone is "on the phone" they are "on the blower."  

In other Laurence news:  Walking through a mall we passed a store called David Lawrence.  While this initially threw us because of the wrong spelling we're now on to cousin Dave's fashionista side down under.

We're still waiting to arrive at a place that isn't filled with World Youth Day pilgrims because none of them speak English.  We've also decided Italians speak louder than anyone on the planet.  Just now a big Italian guy started bellowing some tune right in front of us.  Weird.

Anywho, that's all for now and tomorrow is our trip to the Blue Mountains so stay tuned!

Cheers Mate!

K and M 

Bondi Beach

G'Day!

Just a reminder that we have posted a couple times on the site.

Bondi Beach is beautiful.  We woke up this morning and the waves were huge.  We posted some photos of our day.

With the different pollens around Kristen is sniffling big time.  Looking for a pharmacy was tricky because they don't call it a pharmacy.  At the Chemist we met a nice lady who gave Kristen some meds and told us to take a bus to the South Head of Bondi to Watson's Bay.  We did and spent the afternoon here.

Watson's Bay had a cliff walk where we saw the fist light house built in Sydney Harbour.  It was built because of a famous shipwreck hundreds of years ago.  The only survivor was the first light house attendant.  We saw The Gap which is the spot where the ship wrecked and unfortunately where many people go to commit suicide.  It was pretty steep!

On a happier note, walking along beautiful Watson's Bay we saw these tall trees with orangish flowers and heard these loud birds.  When we looked up we saw the most colorful little parrot-like birds.  They were everywhere.  It was like being in the rainforest.  We added a pic of these birds on the site as well!

We are heading back into the city now to stay in Glebe and today is the first day it looks like it might rain.  We have our rain gear ready!  Pray for sunshine becauase in a few days we want some good kangaroo and koala pictures!  We might get to feed them!

Everywhere we go people say "Cheers"...  It's fun.

Cheers!

Matt and Kristen

Mass with Pope Benedict XVI

The evening prior to the Mass was beautiful.  An aboriginie girl had Pope Benedict light a candle and it eventually spread to each of the 500,000 + people in the crowd.  The candle lit vigil was a cool sight to witness.  The music was loud and uplifting.  We heard concerts from artists like Father Stan Furtuna who is from the Bronx and raps and Matt Maher, a favorite of ours.  Actually, Matt and I chose Matt Maher’s Litany of Saints to be played at our wedding when the moms came down the aisle. 

The slumber party under the stars was interesting. We stayed very warm and dry thank goodness.  Matt slept a ton and I hardly did.  Those Brazillians sure do know how to celebrate (all night long singing and dancing…)

In the morning the Pope flew over the crowds blessing everyone.  It must have been cool to be up there with so many people waving up at you.

Benedict made his way to the stage for Mass.  24 lucky people were confirmed by the Pope.  The music and cantors were out of this world.  However, the opera singer who cantored was not as great as cousin Erin Laurence who sang “The Prayer” at our wedding.

We received Communion via Pope which is so special.  We heard the Australian Idol sing our World Youth Day theme song “Alleluia, Receive the Power of the Holy Spirit”.  We’ve heard it so much from artists and groups singing it in different languages that we’re singing it in our sleep.

Matt and I were soo antsy to hear Pope Benedict at the VERY END of the ceremony share WHERE he will see us again for the 2011 WYD….

Madrid, Spain!!   We’ll be there so if you are reading this and want to go start planning now!

Our walk back from Randwick was hot and heavy.  We slept a lot and saw our group off to the airport at 2:45 in the morning.

Our next stop..   Bondi Beach!

What in the world is Kristen eating? – eating in other countries when you are “picky”.

Australia – part 1

G’day mate!  On our flight down to Sydney, I was so hungry I tried scrambled eggs, yogurt, and granola. Matt’s long term goal was for me to eat eggs, rice, and pasta.  I’ve mastered two of the three.

When we arrived in Sydney our hotel happened to be on the edge of their Chinatown which explains why for the breakfast buffet there was always the option of lo mein.  Yuk.  Matt actually liked this.  Walking around, Matt and I feel that most of the food and restaurants are very similar to America.

You can find Subway, Baskin Robbins, McDonalds, and 7 – Elevens in Sydney.  We’ve decided that Burger King has changed its’ name to Hungry Jacks down here since the logo is the same.  Other popular places to eat are Oportos – a chicken place, and in the café of Woolworths, the convenience store on almost every corner.

Since being in Australia for a week already, Matt and I have had to pick up some lingo to be able to understand some of the menus even though we are in an English speaking country.  For example, French fries are called “chips” and ketchup is “tomato sauce”.   With Matt trying to pick up the Australia accent, it’s pretty funny to listen to him order when we sit down at a restaurant.  We ordered a slice of pizza the other night and the man behind the counter said, “take away?”  Matt looked at me for a second unsure of how to respond.  We realized that Australians say “take away” instead of “take out”.

The people of Sydney did a fantastic job setting up World Youth Day with the exception of food.  It was the same every day.  I ended up eating rolls and drinking this bubbly orange, lemon and lime juice that they gave us.   My saving grace were Tim Tams.  This is similar to a kit kat bar.

Now that World Youth Day is over we are experiencing hostelling which is really fun.  The hostel we are in right now is on Bondi Beach just outside of Sydney.  At hostels we can buy food, store it, and cook it in their kitchen.  So Matt and I may try out cooking before we get back to the States afterall!  However, today I ate a comforting peanut butter sandwich and I found my diet Pepsi.  It is disguised here as Pepsi Lite.

Cheers!

Pictures & More!

Hey all,

First off - check out the link to the right - we posted some pictures to Flickr and you should check them out.

Anyways...we're packing up to go over to Randwick racetrack where the massive number of pilgrims will be sleeping overnight and where the Pope will be tonight and then tomorrow to finish up WYD.  Sydney has been pretty great so far.  Lots of people around because of WYD...but we've met a lot of cool people along the way.

We got to see some animals at the Zoo, the Opera House inside and out, and figured out public transportation in Sydney.  Check out the pictures...

Gotta run, we're leaving in 10!

Matt & Kristen

First Day in Sydney

Hey everyone!

 

Well we just finished up our first day in Sydney after a long flight and jetlag.  It's just after 6am right now on Thursday.  Kristen survived the flight thanks to our new friend Didi - whose accent and humor kept Kristen distracted and Matt amused.  Interestingly, he's going to be in Barcelona in a few months at the same time we will, so maybe we'll see him again.

 

Also - back in San Francisco on our 1 day delay, we were able to rent a car (thanks Kate for the sister discount!) and drive over the Golden Gate bridge, the Pacific Coast highway, Chinatown in SF, and see Fishermans Wharf and Pier 39 Sea Lions.  The 1 day delay worked out great...

 

Yesterday, we explored Darling Harbor, the Royal Palms, and the cool water fountains downtown.  World Youth Day was neat for our first day, but our lack of energy made the end of the day tough.  We got 10 hours of sleep last night, so I think today will be much better.  Kristen is also on a flag challenge trying to take as many pictures with flags from around the world as possible, I think she's at 12 so far - we'll see how many more we can get today.

 

On an important sidenote (or perhaps a Food Alert!) -- I'm not sure what's gotten into Kristen but she's now eating yogurt, granola, and scrambled eggs!  Which for everyone that's familiar with her normal (abnormal rather) eating habits, this is a breakthrough!

Last, Sydney in the winter feels like April in New England - it's georgeous and we love it so far!  We'll see the pope come into town today on his boat and see a Matt Maher concert.

 

We'll post some pictures and maybe a video tonight our time...it's been surprisingly hard to find internet...

 

Take Care!

Matt & Kristen

Welcome to the blog!

Sorry it took so long to setup the blog - we've been busy being delayed on our flight from JFK to SF and then being delayed a whole day in San Francisco...  Which brings me to where we are right now.  San Francisco International Airport Gate A9.  If all goes well we will board Qantas flight 74 to Sydney in about 10-15 minutes.  Then, 18 hours in an airplane seat and we're there!

More updates to come from Sydney - we'll write some new entries mid-flight and go through our pictures from today - Kristen got to see SF today!

One last note, Sydney will be a 10 hour time difference, so don't be alarmed by bizzare times in these posts...

Take care!