The Catch-Up: Part One

Hello hello,

Truthfully, I have been in Sydney for a month now.  In true Amanda fashion, I took my sweet time in creating this blog.  I may have done the same thing when I went on exchange to Barcelona for a year.  But, my procrastination got so bad when I went there that I just never got around to making one... Mom will certainly be relieved that she doesn't have to nag me anymore to write this.  It is my goal to have at least one interesting thing to share each week with you readers, a.k.a. my family and friends and the few lost souls who happened to stumble across this blog.  That being said, I guess that step one is to catch you up on what I have done this past month. I am going to break the catch up into segments, because I am supposed to be working on an essay for class.  Did I mention that I like to procrastinate?

Part one: My Flights Over

Obviously, to start my Australian adventure, I kind of needed to fly to Sydney first.  But, let's face it, as much as I like flying (and I totally love it!), I wasn't about to spend more than an entire day or more in a metal tube.  So, I broke it up.  I flew to Vancouver, then Honolulu, then Sydney and spent at least a day at each place.

Let's take it back to February 23... The first leg of my trip was to fly to Vancouver to visit my baby brother, Andrew, who studies at UBC.  I spent less than a full day there, but it was a lovely little visit.  And, as luck would have it, my cousin Sarah flew from Ottawa to Vancouver on the exact same day I did.  She moved there that day to pursue her acting career.  So, we got to hang with her too.  We spent the whole time on Granville Island.  We had crepes for brunch, then a half hour later did a 'tasting map' at Granville Island Brewery. Some photos to prove it:

Here we are having crepes at the Granville Island Public Market. 

We also arrived at the Brewery before it opened, if only 10 minutes early.  But, so as to not look like total crazies waiting for the second the doors opened so we could have some beer, we went to the kids play area across the street.  For those of you curious, Sarah is much better at using the claw machine...  And back to the brewery we went.  Some of the flavours we tried were banana and coffee among others.  I was also given the challenging task of picking which route we took on the map.  So I hopped across the map.  And speaking of hop, I do not like a hoppy beer.  I was super excited about a beer that was brewed at the same time that the Arkells played at the brewery, so naturally I left it for the very end.  But, it was the hoppiest beer I have ever tasted. I was so disappointed, but I now understand just how important checking the IBU rating is.

For those who were confused about what a 'tasting map' is, you try ten flavours.

It was so nice to hang with those two and get a chance to say goodbye before I travel across the world.  I packed up my things again at Andrew's house because my suitcase may have been overweight on the first leg. So I was that girl at the airport rearranging her bag for everyone to see so that I didn't have to pay extra.  Despite this, I still was overweight, but this time it was just a matter of me changing shoes because it turns out my hiking boots are two pounds on their own.  My flight to Honolulu from Vancouver was about 6 hours.

I arrived at about 11pm and headed straight to the Waikiki Beachside Hostel, where I stayed for two nights.  It was a pretty nice place and was only about a five minute walk from Waikiki beach.  I like hostels because you can meet really nice people.  There was a Japanese woman who stayed in my room who had to be in her sixties who had already been there for three weeks by the time I got there. She had all but taken over the room with her clothes hanging up.  But, she was so nice and acted like the welcoming committee as soon as I burst through the door, panting.  There was no elevator and I had to haul my heavy three bags up three flights.

Breakfast view - watching the waves crash

I had a full day in Honolulu to explore. I started with the obvious, get to the beach.  I grabbed a coffee and had it next to the water.  Then I dove into one of the top tourist attractions: Pearl Harbour.  I tried taking the bus there, which was an utter disaster because I spent upwards of two hours waiting for and riding the bus.  Should any of you care to go to Honolulu in the future, I would highly recommend that you organize shuttle services! Luckily on the way back, a shuttle stopped pulled over at the bus stop I was waiting at and I took it back.

There is a lot to see at Pearl Harbour - several different museums and plaques that took you through the day's events. As weird as this may sound, but it strikes me a s quite a nice place to have a picnic and a think.  The highlight of the park was seeing the USS Arizona Memorial.  First they show documentary about Pearl Harbour, Then, they usher you to a boat which takes you to the Memorial which is on the ocean on top of the remnants of the ship.  You are able to get off and see all of the names of the soldiers who were on the ship that day.

USS Arizona Memorial

After Pearl Harbour, I headed to Diamond Head State Monument.  Essentially, this was dormant crater with a historic trail to the summit.  It is meant to be a two hour hike to the top, but the great planner that I am showed up just an hour and a half before the park was supposed to close and I decided to carry my very heavy backpack all day. The hike was not easy as it is a very steep climb.  But, I did not have any time to waste.  So I just powered through, with only one or two moments of thinking I should just give up and turn around.  But, let me tell you, the view was well worth all of the sweat and back pain. See for yourself in this panorama:

I walked back along the beach completely exhausted and was about to call it a day and just grab some fast food for dinner to eat at the hostel and go to bed early.  But, then this happened...

An absolutely glorious sunset

I was somewhat saddened by the fact that the whole day was completely overcast.  But, that sunset made up for it and then some.  It was gorgeous.  I grabbed dinner and ate it while trying to capture the sunset.  The photos don't even compare.  I would go back to Honolulu just to get a glimpse of another sunset like that.  Haha, not that I need an excuse to go back to Hawaii.  I loved everything I saw and I wish I could have stayed longer.  But, I headed back to my room because I was headed out early the next day.

From Honolulu, Sydney is only about 10 hours. I would definitely recommend breaking up a long trip.  I got to see a lot of cool things.  As you can guess, I made it safely to Sydney.  But, I will let you know what I got up to in my first days in Sydney in the next instalment of the Catch Up.  Here's a bonus photo for making it through my first blog post!

Super cute fountain

Until next time :)