Sunday 3/2/2008- Wednesday 3/5/2008:
Back in Sydney, we decided to take a tour of the Sydney Fish Market. We woke up at around 5:30 a.m., took a bus into the city and then walked to the Market. The tour was about 2 hours and brought us around the entire market. There were more fish than either of us had ever seen before…. and watching the restaurateurs bid in the Dutch-style auction was very interesting. We couldn’t bid on fish ourselves (you need a license to do that), but and we didn’t feel like buying hundreds of kilos of fish.
After the market we walked back to Google to meet Sandra on her way to work. Sitting on the steps we managed to run in to our friend Jeanne (remember our friend from our Turkey travels). She was traveling for work and only had a chance for a quick hello, because she needed to get to a meeting. We had plans to see her for dinner the next night. When Sandra arrived, we borrowed the car and headed off into the city to get some errands done, as our time in Sydney was ticking down….That night, Matt, Sandra and Katie went out for an absolutely incredible Italian dinner at Il Barreto while Dermot played poker at his favorite haunt the Las Vegas hotel.
To our dismay our last full day in Australia had arrived. Dermot started the day with an EARLY morning surf session at Bondi Beach with Matt. We beat the sun to the beach and had to wait for some light before getting in the water. It was not our best surf session ever, but the backdrop was a good way to start Dermot’s last full day in Australia. We started packing up our stuff and getting everything organized for our departure. We made a trip to the post office to mail out a slew of postcards and gifts, went shopping for some thank your gifts for Sandra, Matt, Scout and their future baby who we affectionately call Matilda. We stopped in at the Belgian Brewery in the Fox Studios complex for lunch. They had a schnitzel special on Tuesdays-- if you could eat the entire “1 kilo” schnitzel (it covered the oversized plate) you received a shot of schnapps on the house (to help with digestion). Dermot used all the room in his stomach to complete the challenge and had a shot of sour apple schnapps for a reward…Katie could only finish half of her schnitzel sandwich.
We then picked up Sandra from work (Dermot stayed to play poker in the Google tournament) before heading to Bugalow 8 for the all you can eat mussels special. Dermot ended up coming in 3rd in the tournament, but managed to get out in time to join the crew for dinner and say his farewells to his Google Poker Clan. We aren’t sure, but Dermot may have even made it in a Google recruiting video filming the poker match!
Large schnitzel and all you can eat mussels are not a good combination, but Dermot did his best to enjoy the lovely mussels at Bugalow 8. Jeanne, a friend of hers from work, Matt’s friend Nicolai, Matt, Sandra, Katie and Dermot all enjoyed our last night in Sydney.
A very uninviting alarm clock rang at 6 a.m. waking up Katie and Dermot, reminding them that their Aussie adventure was over. Being such incredible hosts and friends both Matt and Sandra (and Scout and Matilda) woke up and drove us to the airport at 7 a.m. for our 9:30 flight to Guam. We said our goodbyes, thanked them immensely for their hospitality, wished them luck on their future addition to the family and then before we knew it…. we were up in the air and on our way to Guam (via Korea of course).