Australian Favorites

-Per Shelly’s request. My mom and I share our favorites in several categories at the end of each trip we take. Like a said in a previous post, we can (and did!) make this game go on for a while, so I apologize in advance for the length of this post.

Favorite place we went = Vasse Felix winery in Margaret River. If I lived in Western Australia, I would want to have my wedding reception there. The restaurant is sort of like a tree house, nestled in the trees overlooking the gorgeous green of the yard and vineyard. It’s also incredibly quiet and relaxing. The Blue Mountains are my second choice. I’d love to go back there someday to hike and explore some more.

Favorite activity = Biking on Rottnest Island. Peaceful. Hair blowing in the wind. Scenic. Uncrowded. Mom conquered a fear she’s had for 30 years. Good stuff!

Favorite restaurant = Vasse Felix winery, for the overall combination of a beautiful setting, friendly people, and great food.

Favorite food (main course)= The tuna steak I had at Vasse Felix winery.

Favorite food (dessert) = Rosemary ice cream at Vasse Felix winery. Okay, I know that sounds like a very strange type of ice cream, but it was GREAT!! I don’t even know how to describe it, but it was probably the best ice cream I’ve ever had.

Favorite meal that wasn’t Vasse Felix = Tea at the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney. Fancy setting. Orange Pekoe tea that was really good. And, I discovered that milk and sugar in tea is a good thing! (I felt so British!!). Flaky pastries. Fabulous preserves for an incredibly moist scone. Tasty finger sandwiches. A time to just sit and relax and enjoy a rare treat.

Favorite shopping = Fremantle Markets. For the variety of items available there, for the cool things we found (and bought!), for the great prices, for the time that we walked from stall to stall and bought food for dinner.

Favorite beach = One of the bays on Rottnest Island. For the seclusion, sunshine, white sand, and blue, blue water.

Favorite animal = Kangaroo!!! So sweet and gentle!

Biggest Surprise = Snow in the Blue Mountains? Rain in Perth? Not having to show an ID at any point on our domestic flight from Perth to Sydney?

Favorite Sign = “Don’t be a tosser”. What’s your first thought at what this means? Well, when I first saw it, I thought it meant, “Don’t puke”. (Eloquent, I know.) Turns out it actually means don’t litter. My second favorite sign, which I unfortunately don’t have a picture of, is “Dangerous Goods Not Allowed in Tunnel”. Are they allowed other places?

Favorite Spoken Australian phrase = “They’re having a good tustle, yes quite a good tustle indeed”. The announcer at the swim meet said this during every close race between a couple of swimmers in a heat. I love it! I think I might start using it at home. My mom’s favorite is “No drama”. It means pretty much the same thing as “No worries”. I also might have to throw that in to some future conversations.

Favorite Australian spelling = Gaol. Despite reading several books using this word and knowing the meaning of it, I always thought it was pronounced “Gay-ol”. Little did I know it’s actually pronounced “jail”. Very strange. I like most of the Australian spellings for things (cheque, organisation, etc) but this just seems very odd to me.

Favorite Coin or Currency = The bills are kind of interesting because they have a little clear see-through spot in them. But, my favorite item of currency is the 2 dollar coin. It’s about the same size and weight as a British pound, so I kept thinking of it as a “two-pounder”. We’d be getting money out for a bus and I’d say “Oh, I have a two-pounder”.

Favorite thing they have that we don’t = There’s a tie in this category for me. The toilets have the ability to do a half flush or a full flush. I think that’s cool and quite practical. My other favorite invention is that each outlet has the ability to be turned on or off. This is cool because it’s a good way to get rid of all that “phantom power” that is used when items are plugged in to an outlet but not turned on. There, rather than having to unplug everything, you could just turn the outlet to off and voila, power saved!

Favorite wine = 2002 Shiraz at the Sandalford winery. We got to taste a special vintage that normal tasters don’t get to try. It was flavorful and super smooth. It’s not possible to ship wine to the US (well, I guess it is but it’s crazy expensive), so we contemplated trying to take a couple bottles home with us but decided not to risk them getting broken. We have the name of a distributer in the US, so we will definitely be looking it up now that we're home. So good!!

Favorite walk = Down 200+ steps (and then back up!) to the Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains. The good exercise resulted in breathtaking views!

Favorite method of transportation = Mine was driving on the left hand side of the road. I pretty much got the hang of it after a couple of days. I even stopped turning on the wind shield wipers instead of the turn signal and figured out the roundabouts. My mom’s favorite method was all the buses we took in Sydney because she was quite proud of us that we figured out how to get where we wanted to go on them.

Favorite toilet = Queen Victoria Building. Hands down! A sliding door to gain access to the restrooms, granite countertops with basin-less sinks, stained glass windows in the actual stalls. High class!! Especially for a shopping mall!

Favorite items that I’m glad I brought: Laptop and fleece. Would have been uninformed and cold without them.

Favorite tour guide = Definitely Krissy from the Bridge Climb! She was cheery, encouraging, knowledgeable and fun! AnnaLea at the Opera House would be my second choice because of her great accent and resemblance to Julianna Margulies.

Worst restaurant = The Globe, next to the Hilton in Perth. Snooty people, bad food, and way too expensive

Most uncomfortable moment(s) = Walking down a very, very, very crowded street in Sydney our first night here. It was dark, we didn’t know where we were going, and I just really hate crowds. I was afraid I’d get mugged (irrational, I’m sure) so was very glad to eat dinner and get back to the hotel safe and sound.