Sasha’s Aunt and Uncle picked us up from the airport. And we slept all the way through the night for the fist time in over a week. The next day was dedicated to half hearted packing, a walk around the gorgeous neighborhood and just general relaxation and appreciation of modern plumbing. Aunt Jenny made us a wonderful curry dinner and we finished the day off with a trip to the award winning Gelato place.
The next day we decided that it was time to see a doctor about our stomach issues. Sasha was feeling great, but Ryan was still not getting much better. We called around and made an appointment a nice linic just up the road from Coogee Beach. A bit nervous to get medical care in a foriegn country we waited for our names to be called.
We explained our symptoms to the doctor and clarified that we were under a 24 hour time crunch he asked a few follow up questions and said that normally he would wait for a stool sample to come back, but he would go ahead and write a prescription for us now. We should call him while we are at the airport and he will give us the lab results, and as for paying “Its alright if this one falls through the cracks- we send em enough business. You can check in a month or so and pay if your conscious demands it”. He assumed we had the same thing and just wrote a prescription for both of us. We clarified that there would be no ill effects if we didn’t have the illness he had in mind and he sent us on our way. It turns out, after college he had also volunteered in Malawi! Later turns out we had “Campylobacter” and no need for meds, and it also affects men far more.
Now came the scary part. Settling the bill. The receptionist asked for my medical number. I explained that we were American and didn’t have one. She apologized and said she would have to charge us the full amount. We braced for the worst. A whopping $95!
We headed to the beach, Sasha got her pants wet in the beautiful crashing waves. It was the first sunny day in a long time so many people had called out of work and the beach was teeming. Once back at the flat we had a fantastic last steak dinner, played some cards, and showed each other new and very amusing songs.
Our last day in Sydney was a lot of last minute shopping, packing and maybe our last shower for sometime. Thank you again to those that hosted us and helped us, you have set us up for a far more relaxing trip and we hope to come again soon.
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