TRAVEL TALES

Young Chang

In Australia, the Cowles met a waitress atop the Sydney Tower, which

is 324.8 meters high, who said she never ate kangaroos because her

childhood pet was Joey -- a baby ‘roo.

But this didn’t stop Peter and Eniko Cowles of Newport Beach from

tasting not only kangaroo, but emu and crocodile meat as well. Fine

dining was a large part of their vacation to Sydney and Melbourne in

March, and sharp memories of their three weeks abroad reflect this.

Crocodile tasted like chicken, as did the emu. The kangaroo tasted

like beef, they recall. Doyles, a restaurant located at The Rocks, one

of Sydney’s oldest marketplaces, had excellent seafood. The Melbourne

Hilton had an unbeatable dinner buffet.

Peter Cowles said he had the best Caesar salad ever at the Blue Train

Cafe in Melbourne, where they dined for both breakfast and dinner.

Their “super beer selection, generous portions and low prices made

this place a real winner,” said the former Hunt Wesson employee. “It’s

busy. Breakfast is excellent.”

Culinary delights aside, the couple also visited Eniko Cowles’

stepmother, Gizella Matskassy, who lives in Melbourne, and took in the

sights. Historic shopping centers, mountainous areas, rain forests,

waterfalls and animals carrying about in their natural habitat were

exciting to be a part of, they said.

In Sydney, Eniko Cowles couldn’t get enough of the harbors and

botanical gardens located on the bay, where visitors were encouraged to

walk on the grass and in the herb gardens.

“And you could see the whole harbor,” she said. “The Opera House, the

coast of the bay, the homes, the bridges. It was a beautiful view.”

They caught Mozart’s “Cosi fan Tutte” and Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana”

at the Sydney Opera House. At the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Cowles

saw Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” and an operetta titled “The Gypsy

Princess.”

“We had excellent seats and because of the exchange rate, we [were]

paid $2 to the U.S. dollar, so the costs when you get there are obscenely

good in our favor,” Peter Cowles said.

Also in Melbourne, Eniko Cowles sat on three benches which still held

the historic “Ladies Only” mark -- back from when men and women had to

sit in segregated areas. On this particular afternoon, a drunk man slept

on the bench beside hers.

But the most thought-provoking attraction was probably a day-long tour

to the 12 Apostles in Melbourne, a shoreline attraction of rock

formations.

“It makes me feel good about the natural wonder of it, and it just

makes you feel small and it makes you feel that your time on this earth

is not as long as you think it is,” Peter Cowles said. “It just makes you

feel that you’ve seen something very very beautiful.”

On the shopping front -- at both upscale shopping venues and

bargain-priced marketplaces -- the couple scoped out lambskin rugs,

kangaroos and koala bear dolls for the grandkids, sarongs for their

daughter and purses, scarves and a cricket set just for fun.

“We did not encounter a single person who was short with us or rude in

any way,” Peter Cowles said. “The bus drivers, cab drivers, bartenders --

they don’t seem to be as uptight as people in the U.S.”

Eniko added, “The people are so kind and friendly and they make you

feel like they really want you to come.”

* Have you, or someone you know, gone on an interesting vacation

recently? Tell us your adventures. Drop us a line to Travel Tales, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627; e-mail young.chang@latimes.com; or fax to

(949) 646-4170.