Old and New Memories

Six years ago, I flew to Sydney all by myself. I arrived in a country where I thought the people spoke English, but I could not understand a word they said. I didn’t know a soul (well, I did, but I didn’t know it then).  I was far from home, far from anything familiar, and I cried myself to sleep that first night thinking “What have I done?” It ended up being one of the best experiences of my life.

This time in Sydney has begun in a completely different way. I arrived with my husband, eager to introduce him to this city. We were met at the airport by familiar faces, Ania and Sam, who took us out for lunch and dropped us off at our hostel. Everything here is so familiar to me that I forget TJ has not experienced it before. As we navigate around the city, I’m full of memories like “That’s where I used to catch the bus to go into the city!” or “That’s where we used to play frisbee after our beach barbecues!” Being here again is just so darn fun.

Yesterday, we did the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk. Our hostel is on the south side of Bondi Beach, so we headed out from there and passed through all the little beaches between there and Coogee. The views were amazing.

Our plan was to walk around Coogee a bit, then catch a bus back home. As we got in sight of the beach, though, we realized we had left our bus passes back in our room! We decided to turn around and walk back, grab lunch at the hostel, and then take a bus back to Coogee later. In all, that walk ended up taking us about three and a half hours. Great exercise! The sun here is punishing, though. Even loading up on sunscreen before and during our outing, we both ended up with sunburns. We’ll have to be even more careful in the future.

We finally made it to Coogee in the afternoon, where I ran around showing TJ everywhere we used to go there. He even stood in line at Chish ‘n’ Fips to get a snack.

From Coogee, we caught a bus to Sydney CBD – downtown. We had reservations on a historic tall ship for dinner, which we enjoyed while sailing through Sydney harbor. They even had live music and an open bar to help us enjoy it, but with the perfect weather and beautiful views, it would be hard to imagine less than an amazing time.

Today, we’re checking out of our hostel and getting ready for our next adventure. Stay tuned!