The Saga Continues

Great times continue.

Been out here almost three weeks, feels like three years. I find myself saying 'mate' and 'cheers' and wondering which one of my friends from home will punch me first when I do it back in the city.

The weekend was a blast.

Did some sight seeing. Was going to go out to the Zoo but it was raining so me and a friend walked around, checked out the Opera House, the botanical gardens and a decent part of the downtown area.

Imagine if New York was surrounded by beautiful beaches and then the Hudson and East River were clean and nice. Then throw in the weather of Los Angeles and happy people and there you have Sydney. It has definitely lived up to expectations.

If only it had my deli.

Saturday night we did a pub crawl for my friend Annie Pak's bday. Annie went to Penn a year above me and she recently moved to Melbourne for work.

The theme was golf, a back 9 with 9 pubs. Each pub you had a different drink, every sip counted as a stroke. Low score wins. It pretty much turned into a chugging competition, FIERCE, and a pretty big shit show.

Everyone dressed in pretty sleek golf outfits and it was a really great group. Me, with limited wardrobe to get creative looked like a washed up drunk who frequented the local pitch and putt in some really shitty part of Florida.

Great times. Most of her friends were Aussies and British. I normally hate everything about England but these people were all really friendly. Definitely going to steal this idea for my birthday.


Sunday I did the walk from Bondi Beach (Where I live) to Coogee. Its a walk along the coast, something that people do. My mother would have said "gorgeous" about 500 times. I think I dropped it about 15-20. But yeah, It was really beautiful. Kind of like the drive up the PCH to Malibu. Definitely something everyone should do once.

It took about three hours and I ended up with a pretty sweet redneck.

But like my previous 'Momo' highlight, I was once again a pig in shit when I saw a Subway in Coogee. I had said to myself earlier that afternoon that all this place is missing is a Subway/deli that makes sandwiches and then it might as well be heaven on earth. And then there she was.


My time in Sydney is quickly coming to an end.

In about a week Im going to start doing some travelling.

Will do 3-4 days in Melbourne. Most important though is the visit I plan to make to Bells Beach, the sight of the 50 year storm and the last known whereabouts of Bodhi. Apparently its about an hour outside of Melbourne. I think the last time I was this giddy was when me, cousin and J Schubes took the walk to the Lincoln Memorial to re-enact the scene from Wedding Crashers where Owen Wilson says "We're not that young."

Take it or leave guys, I am who I am.


Then, my buddy Mike Needham from home is coming out here to travel with me. It was a pretty pleasant surprise. Travelling alone gets tiring and I wasn't too thrilled about doing any of those Contiki tours so this really worked out.

We're going to do the following:

-1 Week on the south Island New Zealand

-1 week up the east coast of Australia (Cairns, Airli, Byrum Bay)

-5 days in Tokyo/Small village where my buddy from Dublin lives. A bunch of the Irish kids I played basketball with from when I studied abroad will be out there for St Paddy's so it should be a proper laugh.

The last time I saw any of these guys was when my buddy Padraig came to the states, we got stuck in Jersey coming home from Atlantic City on the night of the New York Blackout. He shows me Tokyo. I showed him Jamesburg, New Jersey.

- 3 days in Hong Kong

- 3 days in Kuala Lampur

- 5 days in Thailand


Then back to the good old US & A just in time for Opening Day.

Going to spend a week or so out in SF for the Twins birthday and just to take some time to relax before I head back to the NYC for the home opener at Shea. It's going to be pretty sad to let her go.

My first opening day was when I was in 8th grade. Big ups to my folks for letting me skip school. I think that was the one day where Collegiate taught us about the advantages of Judaism. Sad I missed it.


It was glorious rain-soaked day. It was me and Jawn and then my brother and a bunch of his friends. Rey Ordonez made the throw from his knees up the left field line and we accidentally left Jawn at the subway station on the way home.

13 years and many a trip to Subway later and here I am. Live from Sydney, Australia.

Today I went to a bar where there was trivia night. When the questions turned to American politics, all the Aussies I was with quickly turned to me.

It was one of the most surreal experiences of my life.

Vaya,
Jon

PS- If anyone wants to come join the travels give me a shout and I'll let you know where we'll be.