Notebook of a Nomad

1/31/25

Well my last post was light on pictures and heavy on reflection. This post is pretty much the opposite. It was a few days filled with activities that didn’t leave much time to journal. But I’ll piece together something, mostly by looking through the photos.  

I met Nikki in junior high and we lost touch after high school, as so many do. She is a flight attendant and enjoys exploring cities where she has layovers. Sometimes she can convince a friend to tag along, as she did on this occasion. I suppose Laura should get credit for our reunion. Laura and I reconnected a few years ago and she and Nikki have been best friends since junior high.

We decided to start our time in Sydney with brunch at Social Brew Cafe. I had already been there twice but it was delicious and nearby so it made the most sense. I remembered to pay this time, a mistake I nearly made on my previous visit. Nikki and I hadn’t seen each other for years so we were kind of feeling each other out. We had great rapport in our group chat with Laura but sometimes it’s different in person. It didn’t take long to realize that Nikki is a great hang and the rapport wasn’t limited to text messages.

Once we had sustenance, it was time to hop on a ferry and head to the Opera House where we found a spot to cheers to our reunion.

And of course an obligatory selfie of the Herscher Dragon/Tiger crew. Dragons in junior high and Tigers in high school.

Take 2:

After a drink, we walked through the botanical garden where Laura picked up some gifts for her daughter, Mia. Then it was time to head back to the hotel where Laura and I played a round of tennis. We played until she beat me, which took a few games.

2/1/25

Today’s adventure was the 6 kilometer walk along the coast from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach. It was a beautiful walk with a lot of picturesque stops. And a few “DANGER” *Falling Man* signs.

You might notice that I found a beard trimmer. We stopped at the grocery store this morning because Nikki needed her fix of the local chips and candies and I needed to look less like a homeless person.

Once I saw the beach gym, I thought I better get a few chin-ups in. I regretted not doing it when I visited Bondi with my NYE crew.

We found some seats at North Bondi Fish and decided we needed a couple more Dragon/Tiger selfies. They didn’t approve of my picture taking technique. “Landscape, you freakin idiot.” – their (mostly) inner monologue.

One round of drinks at Bondi Beach and it was time to head back to our hotel. Where we found some espresso martinis before changing and heading to dinner at CIRQ.

Note that this selfie is landscape.

After dinner we unexpectedly ran into a Lunar New Year celebration.

The crowd was shoulder to shoulder and difficult to navigate. We were scrambling to find a spot to watch the fireworks show that started in ten minutes. We landed on a crowded staircase.

There were a couple of jetpack dudes doing flips and shit.

After all that excitement, we headed back to our hotel. We all grew up watching The Simpsons so we had to watch the episode when Bart is forced to go to Australia in order to apologize for a collect call that he made in order to see if the toilets in the southern hemisphere rotated in the opposite direction. Two of us were able to watch the entire episode. The third fell asleep pretty quickly. Lol.

2/2/25

For our last day in Sydney, we hopped on a ferry and headed to Manly where we found a great pool on Shelly Beach.  

Nikki and Laura headed back home that afternoon and that was pretty much a wrap on Sydney. That evening, I had dinner with Paul and we hit a couple of pubs. Then headed back to my hotel room and watched an episode or two of Brooklyn 99 before he crashed in my spare bed. He drove me to the airport the next morning, his final taxi of his American Bergan family.

Addendum

After reading, Nikki informed me that I left out a few details (mostly food related). Our first night, we enjoyed the hotel happy hour, complete with 2 dozen oysters (not pictured). We enjoyed breakfast at Quick Brown Fox (not pictured) and Wild Sage (not pictured). After CIRQ, we hit a delicious sushi hub (not pictured) and then LeTAO for some Japanese cheesecake (pictured below).

She also noted that Laura and I were being “weenies” about getting into the pool at Shelly Beach.