Blue Mountains in search of Christmas in July!

Dreaming of a White Christmas?! Well, sort of.

I went in search of "Yulefest" which is Australia's celebration of all things Christmas in winter (their July and August). Because their Christmases are anything but white, (its usually 100 degrees out when the holiday rolls around) they like to celebrate when its cold--enter Christmas in July.

The Blue Mountains are known for far more than just Yulefest, although admittedly that is what I was most excited about. Blue Mountains are probably best known for well, the "Blue Mountains", a range of mountains covered in slightly blue eucalyptus trees, and the Three Sisters at Echo Point. These "sisters" are three stone peaks (about 900 meters high each) and are thought to have been turned to stone by their witch-doctor father to protect them from an evil beast! And Katoomba (the city where the peaks are), previously a mining town, is also a Guinness World Record holder for the steepest railway at 52 degrees (doesn't sound like much but when you are 415 meters up in a rail car you would think otherwise).

Before we could hunt for our traditional Yulefest lunch, we went to see the Sisters and took the ever so steep ride down the canyon on the railway and gratefully came back up in a monorail overlooking the Mountains and the Sisters. Excited from all the site-seeing, I was eager to find my traditional Christmas lunch (pretty much what you think it would be: turkey with cranberry, roasted veggies, and some sort of bread pudding type dessert!)

But after finding out that the traditional menu is only served for dinner at all the restaurants I was a bit bah-hum-bug about this whole Christmas in July thing. Luckily, I was easily momentarily distracted by a pub lunch of Guinness Beef Pie! Then just when I thought I had lost all of my holiday spirit, Alex surprised me with ice skating! How festive! Although we were shown up by an 8-year-old with pink skates, we still gave that rink the best 10 minutes of our day.

I left Katoomba happy that I got to experience so much but also with the knowledge that I will return in search of my traditional Yulefest dinner....Bah-Hum-Bug!