I decided to post some photos from 4 great years of traveling in no particular order and for no particular reason other than to remind me why I’m sitting here at this computer. The harder we work, the closer we get to doing this all over again!
Coming at you three at a time over the next few weeks/months!
Bora Bora, French Polynesia
Boca Chica, Dominican Republic
Queenstown, New Zealand
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Hmm. Two full months since our last blog post. That’s not good. Not good at all. Let’s see, what happened in the last 60 or so days that took up all our time and kept us from our precious blog? We went from Melbourne back to NZ where we rented a car and toured the South Island. We spent 4+ days in Queenstown with our friends Allan and Rina from Follow You Follow Me hurling ourselves off cliffs, platforms, and out of planes. We visited Milford Sound and the thoroughly unexciting town of Dunedin before driving back to Christchurch where we flew off to Hong Kong via Singapore. Four days later we were shopping the Champs Elysees in Paris after lunching in Beijing. Four days after that we grabbed some fish and chips in Dublin before landing in Raleigh to see my family. Four days after that we were knee deep in caulk and paint at our current location…Greensboro, Georgia. And after all that; four years of traveling and sailing, one full revolution of the earth, countless long-haul flights, twenty-five countries, weeks at sea, and tens of thousands of nautical miles I can conclude just one thing: Not living on a boat in the South Pacific islands sucks ass.
Seriously. Who came up with this “real life” crap? I went from sitting on a sandbar drinking Hinanos to sitting in the drive-thru at Wendy’s waiting on my Bacon-ator. The transition has been hard. We’ve moved onto much larger, much more stressful projects. Within the next couple of weeks, Marge and I will have ownership in three separate businesses between the two of us. One of those businesses I’m starting with my entire life savings and therefore committing myself for quite some time to this very small town. We could take that same money and settle on a beach in the islands somewhere; open up a dive shop, sell rum drinks to tourists. It’d be interesting to reach the point where “going to bed” means the limbo pole gets so low you fall over backwards and pass out. Why, you ask, are we not doing that? Simple. We want to go back out there again. And to do it the way we want to do it takes a lot of hard work here in the real world. No, it won’t be any time soon but we’re already talking about it. We talk about where we want to go (Marge-Caribbean, Drew-Med), how big a boat we’d like (Marge-big catamaran, Drew- huge catamaran), and how we’ll achieve that goal (Marge-win the lottery, Drew-build the exit strategy before you build the business). We’ll make it out there again. I’m sure of it.
Until then we have our memories and our photos, our travel buddies, and blog to keep us in the spirit. Currently I’m unable to read any travel/sailing blogs due to an unresolved anger-jealously issue but whenever I reach that point we’ll have all the experiences of others to live through as well. If you’re traveling through Georgia between Augusta and Atlanta anytime soon, stop in and see us. Maybe by then I’ll have the billboard up. She doesn’t believe me, but keep an eye out for a twelve foot tall Marge on the side of I-20 advertising one of our businesses. It’s coming. It really is.
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I’ve always enjoyed the occasional shopping excursion as much as the next gal but as of summer last year I’ve been forced into having to basically replace a wardrobe. While gone for our trip, somewhere in the mix of things, miscommunication between my mom and I led to ALL of my spring/summer clothes…ALL of them other than the few things I had on the boat…being given away to our church. When my mom told me that my mouth dropped to my feet. Ten years of clothes…gone. What could I do? Be mad…no. They went to a good cause and I hope someone who really needed it is enjoying my all time favorite black dress. We are returning to the States as spring arrives and so Drew and I have both been aware of my need for some new clothes. While I was excited to look around when we got to Australia I wouldn’t exactly say I was looking forward to it. Over the years I’ve seen too many cute dresses in the window only to go in to try it on and it fit everywhere on me but up top. And swimsuits…FORGET ABOUT IT! Much to my surprise though the stores in Australia were unbelievable and shopping there became my best friend for a couple of weeks. The stores were any girls paradise as there were LOTS of them whether they were lining the streets or neatly stacked inside of what on the outside looks like a run down building. There were price ranges for any budget as well as opposed to some places we’ve been where all I could do was laugh at some of the things I found. Not there though… I was in shopping heaven!
Poor Drew…he was such the trooper! I offered many times to go by myself but whether it was fear of me roaming the city alone or fear of me having money in my hands without his supervision, he chose to stick by me and for days on end he was in and out, in and out of store, after store, after store. Going home to run a bed and breakfast I knew I would need some nice stuff and was definitely able to get a good head start with what I was able to find in Australia. I highly recommend it to any gal out there that doesn’t sport a stick figure.
Looking back on it I enjoyed Australia for many reasons other than those most people normally peg it for. The coastal drive was fun and offered us a great view of some of Australia’s beaches but I most enjoyed the shopping, the casino in Sydney which was good to us so that probably put it on my list, and the larger city feel of Sydney & Melbourne was a warm welcome for Drew and myself as well. I know he mentioned in a previous post that we like big cities…the noise, the people watching, the shopping, the FOOD!!! Melbourne probably is at the top of my list as one of my all time favorite cities ever as it was a perfect melting pot!
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Coming down to the last few weeks of “The Big Trip,” I was wondering if we’d end up in a any places that would end up one of our favorites of the entire trip. The problem is that as you come to the end of of four years of traveling in 20 or so countries, you become increasingly difficult to impress. As we near the end of our time in Australia, with New Zealand’s South Island, Hong Kong, and Paris to go, I realize it had been quite a while since we visited a place that I left thinking “damn, I could live here…” Enter Melbourne, Australia.
We arrived at the end of almost 4 days of rain, somehow navigating our way to our rented apartment downtown. Princes Highway, the coastal tourist route from Sydney to Melbourne, was officially shut down on many of the sections we were driving through. Mudslides washed away parts of the road and bridges were washed over. The radio announcements were continuous that any unnecessary travel should be avoided and as Marge and I continued on through police barricades, past fallen trees, and over swollen rivers we discussed our options. We had shopping and eating to do and we weren’t interested in wasting any money in some podunk town in the rain so our travel was necessary, at least in our eyes. Weary from the road we arrived in Melbourne and quickly found that any flooding we navigated through to get here was child’s play compared to the hell that is driving in Melbourne. There’s tiny streets, trams, trains, buses, cars, motocycles, walkers, bikers, bridges, one-ways, no-right-turns, and strictly-enforced, expensive parking. I never want to drive in this city again. But what I do want to do in this city again is eat, walk, shop, and maybe one day live! I say shop, but honestly I haven’t purchased one thing for myself. Someone else, however, is having the time of her life.
Our apartment, in the CBD (Central Business District), allows us to walk to anywhere in the area. Where we can’t walk, public transport is easy to catch. Stepping out for our first night in the city, I looked up a couple of Melbourne food blogs for hints on where to eat. Melbourne is a foodie city. Within a six block radius of our hotel we can get Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Greek, Turkish, Halal, Lebanese, and a plethora of other types of cuisine. And these are your typically American version of “foreign food” where you go to a famous French restaurant in New York only to have the majority of the kitchen staffed with Mexicans. This is the real deal. Melbourne is filled with first, second, third, and fourth generation immigrants from all over the world. As a matter of fact, on our first night we ended up in a gourmet Mexican restaurant hidden up a skinny staircase on a quiet block of Collins Ave. Mamacita’s had been open only four days and had received great reviews on a local foodie blog. Had we not found the blog, we certainly wouldn’t have found the restaurant. It was the best Ceviche I’d had since leaving Ecuador almost two years ago and if it weren’t for the high prices we might still be sitting there eating it. From the bartender at Mamacita’s we were schooled on a few cool bars in the area and ended up at Cookies, whose fifty-page cocktail menu had us in stitches. The next night we ended up there again, this time for dinner, enjoying their huge Tapas menu after finally finding a seat. This place is apparently packed EVERY night of the week and the two we’ve visited so far were no different. Our third night in Melbourne we found Sichuan and to me, Chinese food will never be the same. Those little Sichuan peppers are the stuff of heaven and I can’t wait to get to Hong Kong to eat it again. After dinner we visited a bar next door called Fad and through the bartender, found our way to a Melbourne secret called “Siglo.” It’s a high class, cigar bar on a rooftop of the Melbourne Supper Club overlooking the parliament building in the theater district. This is the “it” place in Melbourne. By the end of the night we were sharing a table with a Russian fashion mogul from NYC, a retired-at-forty investment banker and his wife, and two well-known Australian financial writers. Life is good here in Melbourne.
Our days were spent wondering the streets. We did none of the usual tourist stuff short of visiting the central market for a brat. We lived by the motto “be a traveler, not a tourist.” Doing so certainly influenced our opinion. The city felt more like a home than a destination and one day, I wouldn’t mind making it a home…at least for a couple of years. Tonight we visited Chapel Rd. It’s a pricey area outside of downtown centered around the South Yarra and Toorak neighborhoods. We chose a boutique hotel and even though our room is the size of walnut and there is an odd window looking from the main part of the room directly onto the toilet, there is a great rooftop pool overlooking the city.
Tomorrow we head back to New Zealand for a visit to the South Island. Although I’m sad to leave Melbourne knowing we’ve barely scratched the surface of this great city, I can leave knowing for a fact we will visit again one day. As far as cities go, this has been one of my favorite all time, ranking right up there with NYC…if not higher. People can tell you all day long to concentrate your travels on a particular place but until you’ve gone there and seen it for yourself, their opinions mean nothing (sorry Dad!). Melbourne was a highlight in four years of travel. Take note and give it a visit. You’ll be glad you did.
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