Kanga-Route: Happy Holidays!

My apologies for the time between the posts -

I have been trying to figure out a better way to load the photos because I am still having some internet issues when trying to upload - so I will do what I can and probably post a few at a time and hopefully I can get them all up for you to see!

I hope you all had a wonderful turkey day. Besides missing out on seeing friends and family, I would have to say I missed my mashed potatoes the most. But I am handling it all okay.

And I shouldn't make a habit of going this long between blogging, because I am sure I am bound to forget some of the wonderful things I have done and seen in the last 6 days.

For starters....

On Thursday there was a big Christmas Tree Lighting going on - just a few blocks from our place, at Martin Pl. (Think NYC Rockefeller, minus the ice skating rink). Before the actual lighting we hopped around to a few of the local pubs; The Republic (which rivaled the wedges from the Customs House), next we wandered up Pitt St. a bit further and found a strange hole in the wall, known as St. James Hotel - a place we decided we won't be going back too. So very bizarre, really bright lighting, tile everywhere, it almost felt a bit like we were drinking in a school cafeteria. And then lastly we went to PJ O'Briens - which felt a lot like Malone's, now 808 (for you Iowa City buffs out there) it might have been my favorite stop of the night. Then we headed over to Martin St. to see the massive tree (pictures to be posted soon.)

Friday we enjoyed after work drinks at the Quay Bar with several of Chris's coworkers who are always down for introducing us to new spots in Sydney and showing us a good time - it was another successful Friday evening.

We visited a new suburb on Saturday, Chatswood - a 20min train ride just a bit north from our place, and the train actually took us straight across the Harbour Bridge.

While in Chatswood we found ourselves a lovely little Christmas tree...its not much, but its from Kmart - one can't be too choosy when looking for a fake evergreen at the local Kmart. And for the record, they made the aisles at the Kmart in Chatswood entirely too small, especially in the Christmas lanes - where nearly everyone in the store was slammed into a 30 foot radius- amongst the fake trees, lights, Santa hats, and ornaments I wasn't sure if I was going to come out of there in the holiday spirit...carts crashing into one another - it was sheer chaos, we are lucky we got out of there alive.

On Sunday we headed across the harbour via ferry to Manly. Another suburb, but most famous for Manly Beach - which in my opinion gave Bondi a run for its money. We spent a few hours on the beach, and although I took proper sun precaution - I still ended up with a nice burn around my swim suit line - yes, it is as painful as it sounds. It is safe to say the southern hemisphere sun is as powerful as they say it is...they aren't messing around with their sunshine here. There happened to be an arts festival going on, there was live music, plenty of restaurants and rooftop bars with the view of the ocean -- Manly is my new favorite place in Australia (so far).