The Australian adventure begins

After a two day saga of dodging a blizzard and other airport debacles that I'm eager to forget, I finally made it to Australia, only one day later than planned.  Upon deplaning in Sydney, I had the distinct displeasure of having to wait in the passport control line behind Kate Gosselin, her eight children and various other entourage members (who were all on my flight), which took ages longer than I would have expected.

But now that all the craziness is behind me, I am looking forward to a fantastic two month adventure.  After unwinding at the hotel and enjoying a much needed shower and change of clothes, we headed out to explore Sydney Harbour.  Seeing the iconic Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge made me beyond excited to be here.  The Opera House is even more impressive in person than in pictures.

After just one afternoon of walking around, we have realized that the sun here is extremely strong.  Given that I'm already slightly pink, I need to be sure to slather on the sunscreen if I plan to be outside for the next two months...

In the evening, we wandered around the Darling Harbour area, where our hotel is located.  Darling Harbour is an area of docks, factories and warehouses that have been converted into a waterfront park, lined with shops and restaurants.  Based on even just my first dinner here, I already know one thing - the seafood here is amazing and I can't wait to try a lot more of it.

All in all, the epic struggle I went through to get here was entirely worth it.  I even seem to have completely conquered jet lag, although I'm hesitant to speak too soon. 

It is already New Years Eve here in Sydney, and I'm excited to see all the festivities and fireworks tonight.  But first, breakfast...

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

I was supposed to be at JFK right now, waiting for my plane to LA to take off and transfer me to my flight to Sydney.  It seems that mother nature wasn't a fan of this plan.  I took a train in the middle of the night from DC back to New York on Sunday to get back home before the big blizzard hit.  And hit it did.

The snow is pretty, but the downside of the storm is that the airports are crippled.  Even though the snow has stopped and the skies are blue, my flight today was one of hundreds that were cancelled.  Rebooking was a nightmare.  Originally they told me that there was no way they could get me out of New York until Friday, which would mean that I wouldn't get to Sydney until January 2 (which kind of defeats the purpose of booking a New Year's trip to Sydney).

Not ready to give up so easily, I talked to four different people at the airline until I was convinced that they had exhausted all of my possible options.  Finally, the last woman came up with something that works.  So now I am about to get on a train back to DC, where my ever-helpful parents will pick me up and let me crash until they drive me to the airport in the wee hours of the morning for a flight out of DCA tomorrow at 6 am.  From there I will stop over in Chicago and continue on to Orange County, where I will figure out how to get to LAX and then hang out in the airport for about 10 hours until my Sydney flight.  Good times all around.  But in the end I will only be getting to Australia one day late, which at this point seems like a miracle.  Provided everything goes according to plan, that is.

So basically I left DC to come to New York and watch it snow, only to go right back to DC as soon as it stopped.  With my travel luck, I wouldn't expect anything less.

Fingers crossed for a December 30th arrival in Australia...

Christmas in Dyker Heights

For a few years now I've been hearing stories about the outrageous Christmas light displays that are put up in the Dyker Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.  This year a couple friends and I finally decided to hop on the subway to see what the fuss is about and to enjoy some authentic Italian food.

I admit that I wasn't expecting much, but what we found was incredible.  And borderline insane in some cases.  Words can't really do justice to the decorating extravaganza, so I will let the pictures do the talking.  Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Time in the City

The holidays are always my favorite time of year to be in New York.  The weather turns cold and crisp and trees and light displays start appearing everywhere as soon as Thanksgiving is done.  Tonight I headed out for my annual visit to midtown to see the holiday windows and the big tree before the hordes of tourists start descending upon the city.

We started in Bryant Park, where every year they set up a Christmas market selling a variety of crafts.  Unbeknownst to us, tonight was the lighting ceremony for the tree in the park, and we happened to stumble upon the festivities just before they started.  We got to see most of the dress rehearsal and stayed for half of the ceremony, until we couldn't feel our toes any more and had to move on.  The line up included ice skaters, performances by casts of a few Broadway shows and other musical numbers, not the least of which was a random appearance by the 90s group Wilson Phillips.

After leaving Bryant Park, we headed up to see the windows at Saks Fifth Avenue.  Traditionally the windows tell a story and have a cute Christmas theme.  This year, however, they were quite strange.  Apparently the theme was "The Snowflake and the Bubble," but we couldn't ascertain any sort of story line or really anything that had anything to do with Christmas or winter or the holidays.  Each of the windows involved some kind of animal, bubbles, a mannequin and a somewhat creepy child doll.  Also unrelated to Christmas, one of the windows featured a dress worn by Lady Gaga.  It was all very bizarre and left us feeling rather confused.

While the windows were not very satisfying, we did get to see an impressive, huge ice sculpture menorah on our walk up Fifth Avenue.

And unlike the Saks windows, the decorations at Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall were wonderful, as always.

We wrapped up the evening at a cozy little Russian restaurant called Uncle Vanya, one of my favorites in the city.  The restaurant was warm and the food was delicious and we finally regained feeling in our fingers and toes.

And now I officially have the Christmas spirit and am ready for the holiday parties to begin.  Now if only I can channel that spirit into finishing my Christmas shopping....