Beautiful bustling Bowral

Who can resist stopping at this bustling little country down, located in the Southern Highlands, NSW.

Bowral is such a cute town, overflowing with boutique shops, book stores and dainty cafes. Its a great 'refresher' stop for those who are on a road trip. We stopped on our way from Canberra.

Famished, we found this little cafe called Palate Pleasure Cafe. After a few days without good coffee, I was in need of a decent shot of good old espresso. The coffee was perfect! And, the food was yummy, we had...

Spicy Sweet Potato & Lentil Burger (I had this, yummo!)
Without a bun, your lentil burger is served on
fresh salad with avocado, a side of sweet chilli
sauce, minted yoghurt and grilled haloumi cheese
$16.50

The New Yorker
Thinly sliced rare roast beef served on woodfired
ciabatta bread with pickles, tasty cheese and fresh
salad. Topped with caramelised onions and
horseradish cream $17

Chicken, Bacon & Avo Sandwich
Toasted white deli bread filled with chicken
breast, grilled bacon, cheese, avocado and home-
made mayonnaise. Served with Palate Pleasure’s
green salad with added roasted vegetables $15.50

After lunch I popped over to a A Touch of Tea and spoiled myself with some organic tea to take home and brew.

For more information on Bowral visit this website.

Canberra sites - Australian War Memorial

The War memorial in Canberra is such a powerful place, it moved me to tears, I'll just let the images talk in this blog post.

The main reason we went...

The motivation for the impromptu road trip to Canberra was to go to the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) to view the Renaissance exhibition. It was truly beautiful and breath-taking!

I have seen some great art works before in many galleries and museums around the world, but it was nice to see such master pieces in the NGA.

Whilst in Canberra we stayed at the YHA, I'm a big fan of the YHA in Australia. They are cheap, clean, there is one located nearly everywhere, the staff are great and it's a great way to meet new people and fellow travellers!

The YHA in Canberra is located on Akuna Street, which is literally in the heart of the city. If you love food, then there are plenty of restaurants spread around the building. If you love shopping, then Canberra City Centre (the shopping mall) is a 2 min walk. All the major attractions are very close by, and if you feel like it, you can hire a bicycle for the day and ride around (which it appears most people do)!

You can pick up a bed for around $28-$35 a night (depending on the circumstances – dorm, share, twin etc…). There is a bar connected to the YHA, underneath it, called the Transit Bar. Great Cocktails and good shots, both of which are reasonably priced! The bar staff are incredibly friendly and love to have a chat! Ask them to make you a special cocktail – They are great at it!

All the 'big' tourist places are located locally around each other. If you find you can’t find a specific building or venue that you want to visit, I found that... you can just spin around and look down a main road, chances are you will be facing some type of tourist hot spot. Canberra should be called the ‘City of circles and other round things’. The traffic is non-existent, it’s the myriad of round-a-bouts and one way streets the gets me confused!

YES, I FOUND IT DIFFICULT TO DRIVE IN CANBERRA!

Why, GPS...without the GPS I was fine, with it, a nightmare! As mentioned, there are a lot of round-a-bouts in Canberra, which aren't an issue, unless your GPS tells you to go down a 'one-way' street or directs you down the wrong turn off. Turn it off and follow the signs!

The NGA is an amazing place, full of incredible artworks. As mentioned we went for the Renaissance exhibit, which was beautiful. I think we spent a good 2-3 hours wondering through the halls, I could have spent another 3 hours there, but with only 2 days in Canberra, I had to get a move on.

It is also worth noting the Old Bus Depot Markets - These are what markets use to be like in Sydney. Fresh food, artisan produce, craft and home-wares, all made by the vendors. The markets are located in Kingston which is a little drive (5-10min) from the city centre, but worth it. Next door to the markets you will find Canberra Glassworks, so many amazing intricate pieces. There are also free tours that you can join that take you through the workshop and explain all thing 'glass'.

Things to check out...

• National Library of Australia
• Questacon
• Canberra Museum and Gallery
• National Portrait Gallery
• Canberra Glassworks
• Old Bus Depot Markets
• Capital Hill/Parliament House
• Black Mountain Tower (commonly known as Telecom Tower)

 

 

A lot of luck at Au Lac

Five hours with four adults crammed into a two door car and no snacks... makes for hungry ladies! Pre-empting this, I booked ahead a few days early for dinner. I did my research and found a vegan restaurant in Canberra, apparently its quiet popular too, which I was glad to hear from the YHA hostel staff, where we stayed.

Au Lac is located in Dickson, which is on the outskirts of the city and is known to be the 'China Town' of Canberra. Let it be known that Dickson is not a short walk from the city centre, I can vouch for this after making my entourage trek for 45min from the YHA. After a 5 hours cramped car ride and empty bellies - they were not happy with this distance :-).

Au Lac is very relaxed with its decor, nothing fancy, but it is presentable and clean. The staff are amazingly friendly and willing to share their 'favourite dish suggestions' with you!

Let me also add that I took 3 non-vegetarian/vegans here, and they loved every bit of it!

What did we have?

Spring Rolls
Roast Soy Duck Wraps
Steamed Wontons
Dau Hu Xao Rau (Braised tofu and vegetables)
Banh Xeo (Vietnamese crepe)
Au Lac Eight Treasures - Bat Buu (Combination Hot Pot)
1 Carmel Flan (Egg free) and soy ice cream
3 Deep fried ice cream

Yum! And yes, everyone thanked me for making them walk there... Although, when we finished however, we were so full we had to catch a taxi cab home!

As we walked through Dickson, we saw so many amazing places to eat, I wish we had more time to try them all. Au Lac was amazing and worth a visit! Bring an empty tummy!

*Guest Blog* Flying high and dropping fast

What a way to celebrate your 1st wedding anniversary, it was suppose to be a surprise, but, its in my nature to guess these things...

I had all week to contemplate what we were about to do. I went through a ray of different emotions leading up to the jump - nervous, excited and anxiety kicked in at one stage... but when we woke on the day of the jump, I was pumped!

We drove out to the Warnervale airport at 8am to be ready for a 9am jump. We skydived with Skydive the Central Coast. They also have a few different locations throughout Sydney. Our instructors were Mikey and Brian, these guys Love what they do for a living and have been skydiving for ages!

We suited up and they ran through the safety instructions, thank god they were light-hearted through this process and joked with us... it really put us at ease and calmed the nerves. We made our way to the plane (which was only big enough to fit 5 adults).

On the way up the butterflies started, I began to get a dry mouth and the shakes, I didn't feel like talking to anyone and concentrated on what was ahead of me. After a 15min plane ride around and around, I guess the pilot found a good spot for us to jump. My instructor grabbed my hand and said "the only thing you need to worry about is trusting me. Kisani, do you trust me?" With hesitation... I replied yes.

Everything I was taught back on land had completely left my mind, although Mikey was slowly stepping me through everything once again. I put my feet out onto the platform, crossed my arms across my chest... and the rest... is a blur. I just remember screaming and laughing. We were going at such a rapid speed that I was having trouble breathing, so I held my breath, for a few seconds, as advised by Mikey earlier.

Once the parachute opened, I felt like time had stopped. and we were just gliding slowing, but it felt like were were hovering in the one spot and not moving anywhere.

I got to steer the parachute for a few moments before we landed. When Mikey told me to lift my legs high, I knew it was time to land. We landed at an incredible speed, on our backsides. All I could hear behind me was Dean screaming like a girl with a big smile on his face. When I got to my feet the adrenalin was rushing through my body and I felt like I could run a marathon.

What an amazing experience. Ready to go again.

Kisani



These photos were taken by the instructors from Skydive the Central Coast

At that time of writing this blog post - these prices were current...

Tandem Skydive Individual Prices	Saturday & Sunday
1-3 people	$319
Students, Backpackers and Seniors	$299*

*To receive the student / backpacker discount, student I.D./passport must be presented.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If music be the food of.....

Recently, Hamilton in Newcastle, played host to the Hamilton Food and Music Festival. After dropping by the Newcastle Caravan and Camping show, we headed off to Beaumont street to check out what was going on!

It was packed full of people, enjoying the lovely summer rays and browsing the market stalls. The fragrances that drifted in the air, of all the different food stalls, made your mouth water and pulled you in the direction to each food stall. Salivating at the goodies on offer, it was challenging not to try everything - will power kicked in, although I did nibble at a few taste testings on offer. 

Although it was a 'food and music' festival, we didn't eat here (it was too noisy for me to hear anything and I couldn't communicate with the people I was with) ...so, a quick car ride down to Darby street and we were feasting at Frankie's Place... who have CAMPOS coffee! Frankie's Place has amazing food, great - that's GREAT - coffee, and amazing friendly staff! My Gluten free, veggie diet was catered for and I left with a full belly, and a caffeine hit that saw me buzz the afternoon away.