Manly Beach & The End

So I'm finishing this up after a 2 month procrastination break....

My last weekend in Australia was spent in Sydney. We took the train in another day, visited the Rocks Market and went over the Manly Beach. If you thought that beaches in Australia were different from beaches in the US, you'd be wrong. They even look at the same ocean, just from different sides.
One quick story about Manly: I had decided to wear my glasses, and that I would change into contacts and sunglasses if I wanted to. It turns out that Manly has the most disgusting bathrooms I have ever been in- the sink is basically in a large trough standing in for a urinal. Back spray was landing on the sink I was about to use to put my contacts in. There wasn't even a counter, just ceramic. No way am I doing this, so I went outside and decided to put my contacts in on the sidewalk. I had the thought inside my head that it may be a bad idea, that the wind would just sweep the tiny speck of plastic away into the breeze. I disregarded the thought in favor of using my body as a break for the wind. This was not a good idea. As soon as I placed the lens on my finger, it was gone, never to be seen again. I realized later that my sunglasses weren't even in my backpack- they were left at Jaimie's house an hour away. Whoops.

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The flight back was uneventful and cramped and it took me 2 weeks to readjust to normal time. The whole trip I was planning this entry, where I would write about what I learned from the trip and how it changed me as a person. Two months later, the experience is more than slightly dulled in my memory. What really sticks by me, I guess, those are the important parts.

Friendship and Memories that will last a lifetime.

SYDNEY!

Today we went into downtown Sydney, and I was very impressed. The city is absolutely gorgeous, for the most part clean, and pretty easy to get around. Jaimie lives a short train ride away, so we saved on petrol(gas) and parking by hopping on a mid-morning train. The train was pretty peaceful, I threw on my iPod and zoned out, although I did want to kill the guy on the other side of the train having a cell phone conversation. I'm sorry sir, but the rest of the car doesn't need to hear you doing business, that is what offices, cubicles, and phone booths are for.

Our first stop in the city was Darling Harbor. Darling is the smaller of Sydney's two main harbors, the other one being home to the bridge and Sydney Opera House. It reminds me a lot of Baltimore's Inner Harbor, very family oriented. They have an aquarium, a museum, some rides and arcades and a Chinese Garden. We spent a few minutes in the National Maritime Museum, I got bored pretty quickly. They have a photography/journal entry exhibit on the travels of a young American from NY to Fremantle, but there no danger or excitement to his trip. Just some rough seas and catching an Albatross. They also had the Endeavor on display here. It is the ship that Captain Cook sailed on to discover Australia hundreds of years ago. You could take tours of it for $15, I was fine just looking from the outside. The ship itself is beautiful, they don't make 'em like they used to. Everything from the rigging lines to port windows has been incredibly well cared for and restored by the government here. Imagine what it would be like to board one of Christopher Columbus' ships that he sailed on in 1492. The Endeavor doesn't hold quite the promise because I'm not Australian, but it is still a hugely important piece of history and art.


I also ate my first ever Meat Pie in Darling Harbor. Its much like Beef Stew inside a pie crust. Not bad, but pretty close to one of the most unhealthy foods ever. At least they bake and don't deep fry the crust.

From there we walked down George St, one of Sydney's main roads. It is full of office buildings, shops, and the sorts of things you would except from a city street. We stopped in a small cafe for lunch and some other smaller stores. One of the coolest ones was an Aboriginal art gallery. They had paintings, jewelry, boomerangs and even didgeridoos. One of the employees at the store played the didg a little- its a pretty cool instrument. Jon was looking at a pair of clap sticks for his Jazz band at home in Rhode Island, something to add a little flavor in the rhythm section.

We also stopped at another location of Jaimie's store to shop around a bit. I picked out a nice pair of black boots and a pair of jeans. We planned to stop by another location elsewhere in Sydney later that day so I put the clothes on hold.

From there we walked down to The Rocks, one of Sydney's cooler neighborhoods. It borders the harbor and is anchor to one end of the Sydney Harbor bridge. On Sunday nights there is an open air market that we may visit if we go back in to Sydney again. I bought a long sleeve shirt at Jaimie's store here.

By now we were only a few blocks from the Harbor Bridge, so we decided to visit that. It is absolutely massive. While the bridge is only the third largest steel span, because of its combination of width and weigh capacity it is often considered the world's largest steel bridge. As you walk out across it, the safety railing changes from tall stone walls to razor-wire topped chain-link. Its sad that they have to ruin the views and feeling of the bridge with intense safety measures. Partway across the bridge we arrived at the first pylon. I climbed the stairs here up to an observation deck on the top. The views of Sydney and the surrounding areas are absolutely incredible. Luckily the weather was dry and the sky was clear at this point, so you could see for miles.

At this point it was nearly 5PM and all the shops in Sydney close at 6 so we had to hurry back to the first R.M. Williams for me to pick up the boots and jeans I wanted to buy. I tried the shoes on again and decided I liked Chestnut more than Black. Jaimie got me a some leather conditioner and polish for me to take care of the boots with. If it sounds like I'm making a big deal about these boots, you should hear Jaimie and Jon talk about them. Jaimie is borderline obsessed and was pretty excited that I got a pair. I'm looking forward to wearing them around more, I needed some new work shoes.

With my boot purchase out of the way, we started walking down towards the Opera House. The most scenic way to get there is through Sydney's Botanic Garden. Much much larger than Brisbane's, we spent a few hours in here and only saw a tiny portion. I really wish Boston had a garden like this, its a great place to relax and just enjoy nature. We saw a small family of ducks just walking around, the three children in front followed by two parents at the rear. There was also this gorgeous tree with huge drooping flowers. The flowers were large, at least five or six inches long and hung down like bells.

The edge of the Botanic Gardens runs right along the Sydney Opera House. I'll say right up front that this is officially one of my favorite building ever. I'm pretty sure I could sit in front of it for hours, just looking at all the small details and watching the people walk by. I took probably 20 or 30 pictures of the building. I would hate to get home only to realize I didn't have any good shots of it. I really would have liked to take a tour of the building or see a show, but that wasn't really in the budget for this trip. The best view of the Harbor Bridge comes from the Opera House as well. I was pretty pumped when I noticed a building with a huge "Cisco Systems" logo visible just underneath the roadway of the bridge.


It was getting late now so we picked a restaurant on the harbor for dinner. Unfortunately they messed up my order pretty badly, but the food was still tasty. They brought wrong bottle of wine to start, that is the only item I have ever sent back at a restaurant. Then, I ordered the catch of the day which the waitress described as a "prawn fillet with gazpacho and asparagus". I had been wanting to try prawns since I arrive and this was a perfect opportunity. Even though Jon and I wondered what a prawn fillet was, this sounded good. Something was mixed up along the way because I ended up with kingfish fillet instead. I was a little cranky not to have gotten my taste of prawns yet. We got some coffee and hot chocolate for me to finish off the meal and then bought ice cream for dessert from a little stand down the road.

The trip home was pretty painful, we walked back across the city in the rain to the train city. The streets were full of drunk people, mostly dressed up Asians with cigarettes burning. Secondhand smoke is Gross. The train wasn't much better. An express back to Penrith wasn't coming for 45 minutes so we hopped on a slower train that we only had to wait 7 minutes for. Instead of taking 50 minutes to get home, it took almost an hour and a half- it probably would have been faster to wait. The urban assault on my nose continued from cigarettes on the street to awful BO on the train. I won't make any comments about a specific group's cleanliness, just to say that some have lower standards than others. I don't think just one person was responsible, I'm pretty sure that several people were responsible. I was looking at a customs page earlier in the week and found a whole essay on the "Great American Nose" that was pretty funny.

In all, I really like Sydney as a city. There are plenty of things to do- I could easily spend a whole week just visiting all the attractions. The people there are friendly and the entire place has a nice laid back vibe to it. Things are very expensive here, but that is a general trend among goods in Australia. Electronics especially have a 100%-200% markup over American prices. Add on the "city premium" to that and you get the idea. The only consolation is that despite its current weakness, one US dollar is still worth 1.12 Australian dollars. Thats almost a 10% discount on everything I buy. My favorite part of Sydney was definitely the Opera House. I really liked the Botanic Gardens too. Time and weather permitting we will hopefully get back down there on Sunday for one last look before I leave.

Penrith

After spending the last 10 days full of adventure and intrigue, it was time for a day off. Nothing big would be planned today, just some souvenir shopping in Penrith and a visit to Windsor. We started at a large shopping center in Penrith, this is where Jaimie works everyday. It was a pretty good sized mall, many of the clothing stores were familiar to me. They even had several grocery stores, a bunch of meat counters, and a liquor store firmly in the mall. I don't see how anyone would ever need to go somewhere else for their shopping. I bought a few things from Australian Geographic as gifts and also from a candy company here named Darrel Lea. They claim to have the world's softest licorice and I must admit, it is the softest licorice I have ever tasted.

Our next stop was the Olympic rowing venue. It's also in Penrith, but it was raining and not all that exciting. Basically it is a big man made lake with some rowing lanes down the middle. This area has gotten so much rain that the ramp out to the medal platform was almost totally submerged. As a side note, dam levels here are at their highest levels in 5 years. They are sitting around 60%, up from 35% when I arrived here. Much of the country is on very tough water restrictions, although this much needed rain probably will not do much to loosen things up.

From the lake we went on to Windsor, one of Australia's original towns. It's claim to fame is "Australia's Oldest Pub", the Macquarie Arms hotel. Jon and I ordered a beer here and got ourselves carded. That's pretty sad in a country where the drinking age is 18. The rest of Windsor is mixed between restaurants, little souvenir and crafts shops, and boarded up storefronts. Its saddening to see such a historic town like this dying, one of the many expenses of the Penrith shopping center.

The (Australian) Grand Canyon

Today was spent in the local Blue Mountains. They are most well known for The Three Sisters, a set of rocks that each stand several hundred meters tall. Its a popular tourist spot and by the time we showed up was already full of families and bus groups. Its really not much more than a picture, but one I had to take just to say , "I've been there. " From there we headed to somewhere a little more peaceful, The Grand Canyon. While not quite as big or impressive as the American version, it was gorgeous nonetheless. We parked at a lookout and enjoyed the view along with a small lunch. Our plan was to follow a path down to the bottom of the canyon and then back up to Neates Glen on the other side. We would get back to our car following a road that links the two parking areas. The canyon trip is about 5km and should take 3-4 hours. Somehow, the three of us finished it in just over two hours including a few stops for water.
The variety of terrain was incredible, we walked through bush, grassy meadows, and rainforest. Most of the walk was spent following a small river that ran through the canyon. There were some spots where it formed beautiful waterfalls falling into shallow pools. About 20 minutes in, Jaimie slipped on a rock and fell into a stream. She was fine, except for a few scratches and a bruise or two, but not very happy about the whole episode. Her shorts, socks, and shoes had gotten completely saturated. She wanted to turn around and wait in the car for us, but we wouldn't hear of it. It didn't take much convincing for her to keep going and honestly, she probably whined less than I would have if I fell in.
Along the way were more sights than I can mention, one of the things that struck me most was the signs of fire. A little research showed that a huge bush fire burned through the area a few years ago closing the trail and damaging some of the safety railings. It took almost a year for the trail to be reopened. Five years later there are still burnt logs and charred seedlings scattered along the path. At one point, you cross underneath a large waterfall. A bit later you need to duck through a small cave. I took a lot more pictures than what I had a chance to post. When I get back home I'll be putting up a gallery with all the ones I think are worthy of other people looking at. The differences between shady and sunny areas made it pretty difficult to get good pictures, hopefully a few come out well.
Not sure on plans tomorrow, maybe caving or spending the day around the local Penrith area.

Making our way home

I didn't get a chance to write an entry yesterday because I was too excited about the Giants winning the Superbowl! I wish that I could have been back in the US to see the game, although I imagine my excitement would be equally as alone in Boston as it was in Australia. The rains kept up and so did our our drive south. Around 4 o'clock or so we started looking for places to stop for the night. Despite the rain Jon and I really wanted to camp for the night. We drove by a few caravan parks but decided to pass on all of them- they were pretty crappy accommodations. Taking a look at the list of national parks we had picked up at the visitor center yesterday, we realized that we weren't far from Yuragir National Park- where we had wanted to camp earlier in the week before ending up at the first tourist park in Yamba. The only problem- access was through a 10km dirt unsealed road. The going was a bit rough at first, deep potholes had been filled with water and our trusty steed, the Daihatsu Charade, was no match for them. We plowed through however, until our way was blocked by a completely flooded road. We decided not to risk the crossing and headed back to the main road.
We ended up spending the night camped in a trailer park. I'll spare the description and leave you with just 2 words- shitty and wet. The only good part was its closeness to the beach. We were only a five minute walk from the water and could hear the crashing of the waves from our tent when the rain wasn't too loud.

We are now on the final leg of our drive back to Castlereagh. Tempers are a bit short, the car is filled with more than wet clothes and is more than a bit stinky. It will be good to be back at Jaimie's house- I should have some pictures up from our trip shortly. Unfortunately I will also have to start work on my current comp sci project due in only four days. In six, I'll return to the US. Until then we have plans to spend a few days in Sydney, visit some caves around the area and also do a short hike or two in the local Blue Mountains.

This rain is making me wet

Today is a nasty rainy day. The JJ's and I had been planning to drive down to Ballina or farther Soiuth and then camp at a National Park along the coast there. The weather quickly put a stop to that. We stopped by a visitor's center to get info on local campsites and were informed that severe weather was expected to continue for the next two days. Had Jaimie not been with us, Jon and I probably would have made the bad decision to camp out in the rain somwhere, but it wasn't really worth it to argue on this one. As I write this in my notebook, I am sitting in a motel room in Evan's Head a small coastal town with one grocery store, one pub, and more than their share of bare footed hicks.
The rain is still going strong, but that didn't stop us from taking a walk down to the beach for a swim. The waves were pretty rough and a few surfers were out trying to catch some breakers. The heavy surf had churned up the seas; coral and seaweed caught on my leg each time the water flowed back out. The first time it happened it scared the crap out of me, nearly causing me to jump out of the water. Jaimie thought this was pretty funny, but I was reminded of the large jellyfish we had seen earlier washed up on the beach. We stopped our walking to poke it with a stick a few times before losing interest. On the walk back to the motel, a good number of the blue bottle jellyfish lined the beach. After a shower, I'm writing this in front of a TV with the Australia v. India cricket match about to start. Luckily this is only a one day game, it will be over later tonight (Edit: The game was later rained out and declared a draw- what a terrible sport)

Eearlier in the day on the drive down to Evan's Head we crossed off one of the things on my "Things to do in Australia" List. Amy had suggested yesterday that we visit the Sirromet winery, about 40 minutes outside Brisbane. They offered hourly tours of the vineyard, but weren't running them today because of the rain. While we waited to see if the rain would let up we opted for a tasing of several fine vintages. Although Sirromet produces a wide variety of wines, our tasting stayed mostly to the red wines. I bought a few bottles of some of the above to bring back to the US. My parents will get one bottle, which one they get is a surprise.
Tomorrow morning at 10AM is the Superbowl here. Evan's Head only pub, the Hotel Illawong will have the game on. We will all be there watching. The Jusczyk's are both Patriot fans, Jaimie by marriage only. I am rooting for the underdogs, Eli Manning and the Cinderella story NY Giants. If the rain doesn't let up by the time the game is over, we may decide to cut the trip short and make the long drive back to Castlereagh. This will give us an extra day to do something cool around Sidney later in the week.

Brisbane, Day Two

Today Jaimie's high school friend Amy came in to Brisbane to show us around the city. She works in one of the skyscrapers downtown and lives only a half hour outside the side so she is pretty familiar with it. Our first stop was actually outside the city at Mt Coot-tha. It's a 15 minute drive from Bribane and is the prime lookout point over the city. It was mostly tourists and families while we were there, but at night it is rumored to turn into quite the lovers spot. The weather was a bit cloudy, you could just make out the Pacific coastline beyond the city. While we were watching, a rain storm started dumping on the downtown area. You could see the rain trails streaking down.


From there were drove to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Finally, I would get to see of these infamous koalas. My entire trip, every had been calling them drop bears, a name used to scare tourists. The koalas would apparently drop out of trees and attack, preferring to claw at their victims thoats. This was usually followed by a descripion of a wombat and how they preferred to break people's kneecaps with their thick bony skulls. Lone Pine was also home to wombats, in addition to a host of other species, dingoes, kangaroos, emus are only a few. They even have a Tasmanian Devil, but it wasn't on display. The koalas are pretty cute animals, they mostly sit in trees and munch on eucaplytus. We saw a few of them jump around around from limb to limb and even two younger boys fighting with each other. They bit each other, trying to knock the other one onto the ground. After a few minutes, a larger Koala, probably the dad slothed over to stare at the two frisky ones. The fight ended quickly. We spent a few more hours at the animal park before the rains forced us back to the car.


We headed into the city for lunch, choosing a pub in the center of one of Brisbane's downtown malls. After an entirely massive meal (I had a double quarter pounder w/ bacon) we saw an RM Williams store acoss the street. This is the same chain Jaimie works at as an assistant manager. Seeing as how I had never been in one, we had to take a little trip. The clothes they sell are pretty nice, carry a western Texas cowboy-ish theme, but are extremely expensive. They had one pair of boots made with crocodile and kangaroo leather that retailed for 8000 dollars. I saw a pair of moleskin pants I liked that are pretty unique, I might buy them later if we have time to stop by Jaimie's store.

From there we walked over to Brisbane's Botanic Gardens. Its a large park like area with gardens ranging from a subtropical rainforest to water-dwelling mangroves. These trees are pretty cool, growing up straight out of the water. Even the branches have roots and I suspect that all the different trees are joined together as part of the same underwater organism. I couldn't help but be reminded of Harry Potter's screaming mandrake plants. There were plenty of people strolling around the park, including a game of soccer- something you would sadly never see in the US.

Sadly there isn't more much to do in Brisbane. The city doesn't really have an iconic tourist spot like Sydney's Opera House. at least none we could think of. The four of us spent a few more hours walking around the city before finishing the night off with some beers at a bar down the street from our hotel.

Byron's Bay and South Bank, Brisbane

On the drive up we stopped off in Byron's Bay, the easterly most point of Aussie mainland. Marked by a lighthouse and an incredible number of tourists, we spent a few minutes here taking photos and walking down the path out to the point below. Jaimie was hot, so she stayed at the top while Jon and I went on ahead.




We arrived in Brisbane yesterday afternoon and after a bit work finding "accommodations", ended up in hostel. Nicer than I imagined, we had a room with a twin bed and single bunked above it. We even had an in room toilet and shower- all for 100 bucks a night, a pretty good deal.

After getting the room squared away, we went to find some food and walk around Brisbane. None of us had any clue what to do in this city, but Jaimie saw a green area labeled "South Bank" along the Brisbane River that was a short walk from our room. The South Bank is a great area, with sidewalks along the river, restaurants, open air markets, and even a Nepalese Pagoda. It was still early, all of Queensland doesn't do daylight savings time, so although we were ready for dinner it was still only 4:30. We shopped for a while, I picked up some souvenirs and gifts for people, while Jaimie bought a bottle opener attached to a kangaroo scrotum. While I think that it is pretty cool, I really hope I'm not the one to receive that gift. Dinner time rolled around and we settled on a Japanese restaurant with a piano player and sidewalk seating. Our meal was good, I got a spicy fish that was hot enough to make my nose run. I finished the whole thing without needing too much extra water. After dinner we walked down to a pedestrian bridge on the far side of the South Bank and then headed back, stopping for some ice cream on the way.



Although I'd like to spend some more time in Brisbane, it looks like we'll be leaving tomorrow. One of Jaimie's friends Amy lives in the area and has offered to take us down to the Gold Coast, a popular beach destination.

Unfortunately, Jusczyk's laptop couldn't get on wireless at the hostel so I'm not able to post any pics from our trip so far. I promise I'll throw some up as soon as I get a chance.

The Big Banana

On the way up from SW Rocks to Yamba, our destination for the day, all travelers pass "The Big Banana". One of the worst tourist traps I've ever seen, its a moderately sized banana placed along the roadside. Its backed by an ice cream shop that makes a pretty tasty banana split and a way overpriced souvenir store. We stopped for a few pictures here and for some ice cream to help cool off from the heat.

Once we got into Yamba, our plans to stay in the national park were quickly derailed by the "NO CAMPING" sign at the park entrance. We drove around for a few minutes looking for other campsites and ended up at a tourist park on the edge of a bay. It was not one of the nicer places I've stayed in- the term "trailer park" comes to mind. According to the JJ's, it wasn't that bad compared to some other options. I'll give the place this much- they did have clean bathrooms.

The next day I woke up early and went for a walk down to the beach. There was a large breakwater with a walking trail that went out into the ocean. At the entrance was this scary sign warning that waves could crash over the breakwater and sweep you away into the water. There was even an accompanying diagram of what could happen. One of the things I've noticed about this country is the entertaining diagrams on their signs. My favorite is the road sign for "frosty when wet" that shows a car careening off the side of the road. Unfortunately my camera battery died halfway out on my walk and I didn't have a spare with me. It wouldn't have made a difference, because once I got back to camp I discovered that my cheapo third battery spare batteries don't actually fit my camera. They are a tiny bit too thin to engage the battery catch mechanism. When we have some spare time, I'm going to try rigging up a fix so I can actually use these batteries.

Back in the car today: destination Brisbane.

Skywatching

I'm writing this as we are driving from Arakoon up towards Coff's Harbor. Hopefully we'll make it farther than today today as Coff's Harbor is only about 140km(84mi) away. We may spend two nights at our next destination, giving us some more time to do a day hike or some sightseeing.

Before settling down to bed last night, we stepped out of the tent for a walk up to the gaol(read: jail) at the top of the hill. Earlier in the day there was a great view of the sea here. At night, it was breathtaking. I honestly don't think I have ever been so close to speechless before. The night sky was clear, with only a few small clouds. Above us, a field of stars twinkled and shone like no planetarium could ever hope to capture. The Orion constellation stood out brightly, his belt drawing a line across the sky. South of the equator he appears inverted, his sword hangs upward from his belt.

The JJ's are both physics majors and both took some astronomy classes so they were able to point out a few new constellations to me. Living in Boston now, I rarely have a good of of the stars. The blackness goes on forever, filled by more stars than I've ever seen. Some bright, some dim, but all united in their beauty. To think that millions of years ago, my prehistoric ancestor stood in my very spot and shared my vary view truly gives on perspective.

After waking up today, we went for a decent walk down along the beach. Without realizing it we had pretty much walked all the way to the South West Rocks town center. Along the beach were some signs of sea life, alot of coral and seashells. There were also heaps of dried up blue bottles, an Aussie version of jelly fish. They are called blue bottles because they are transparent, but have a slight blue tint, probably to help them blend in better in the water. Some of them were absolutely huge, we saw one that had a stinger that was a full meter long. Luckily, these won't kill you from getting stung. The box jellyfish found along the northern coast is much more deadly.

On reaching the other end of the beach we took a few minutes to take some photos of the rocks and to go for a dip. The water here was deeper and the waves much bigger than where we were camped. A family was also in the water with us, jumping off the rocks into the water. After drying off, we walked back to our campsite and took off for the next leg of our trip.

Going North

Today we headed out from Castlereagh for a week on the road. We didn't do much planning aside from an ultimate destination of Brisbane, about 10 hours north. We also planned to spend the night at a campground in Arakoon National Park, right on the coast.

Jon, Jaimie, and I left about 11 and drove for six or so hours, stopping briefly to pick up a camp stove and to eat lunch. The day went exactly as planned until we reached the campground only to find the office was already closed for the day. Things here in Australia all seem to close early- they had closed at 4:30PM. No worries, we'll just grab an extra camp spot; if a ranger comes by, we can pay then.

The campground was stayed at was one of the better ones I've ever been at. We're about 300 feet from a sandy beach with a great view of some small mountain standing over the water. After pitching our tent, the three of us headed down to the beach for a dip. We waded in up to our knees, but no matter how far out we went, the water didn't get any deeper than thigh high. Jon ended up over 500ft from shore before giving up. Closer in, the water was only a foot deep and incredibly warm. Because it was so shallow, the sun was able to warm the water up close to 80 degrees . We hopped out, dried off, and headed back to the campsite to make dinner.

Right across the path from our campsite was a family of kangaroos munching on a nice dinner of grass and weeds. There were three smaller babies being watched over by a large male roo. A few other surrounded them. Two of these were fighting/playing with each other. These animals are surprisingly tall when they stand straight up on their hind legs. They're also a pretty interesting animal to watch- they normally stand on two legs, but use their tail for balance. To eat, they will bend down to nibble on the grass, but can also pick food up with their fore legs. I still haven't seen a baby in a pouch yet, I'm pretty sure all the kangaroo babies have made it out of the pouches for the year.


Tomorrow will hopefully hold a hike up one of nearby hills and a few more hours in the car onward towards Brisbane.

Road Trip Starts Today

Jaimie, Jon, and I are leaving shortly for our road trip. We don't know much else other than that we're driving up to Brisbane and making a few day stops. Tonight we'll be camping at a tent ground in South West Rocks, NSW and possibly spending the afternoon taking a walk up Smoky Mountain or exploring the state park at Arakoon. Internet access might be a bit spotty over the next week, but I will be taking lots of pictures and writing entries to post when we can get on the web. Until then, here are a few more shots from the wedding to keep you happy. The last one is from Jon & Jaimie's weekend getaway in the Blue Mountains.

Comanche

Another quiet day, but still two firsts of note.

#1 Vegemite
The classic Australian food, mocked by many Americans. I tried it on a piece of toast for breakfast and it wasn't half bad. There's really no way to describe the taste, its just Vegemite. You have to go real easy on it though, anything more than a thin layer and it will be too strong. In case you don't know about Vegemite, it is apparently responsible for the strength of the Australian cricket team. Dave even said that when he had cold sores as a boy his grandmother would feed him a spoon of Vegemite and his mouth would be better the next day. Whether it really has healing powers, I can't say, but I don't think I'll be bringing any back to the U.S.

#2 Comanche
Comanche is one of Jaimie's horses that I went for a ride on today. It was my first time ever riding a horse and I definitely enjoyed it. Obviously I'm a huge beginner, but it was still pretty fun. We spent a few minutes going over some of the basics and walking around in a circle, then took the horses out for a walk in the bush. Jon was on foot and took some pictures of Jaimie and me riding. It was a pretty hot day so we didn't stay out long.



After we showered, we went for a pretty useless drive down to Sydney to attempt dropping off the wedding flowers for a second time. I'll skip the story on this one, but we finally succeeded in getting the flowers out of our hands.

Public Holiday

Today was more of a low key day. Most shops and businesses were closed in observance of Australia Day (which was Saturday). Surprisingly, none of the Australians I talked to could remember exactly what they celebrated the holiday for. Jon claims its the anniversary of the discovery on Australia, but I'll wait for confirmation on that. The one thing everyone agreed on was how Australia Day is celebrated- barbecues, festivals, and fireworks. Much like the American 4th of July. Jon and Jaimie returned from their weekend trip in the afternoon so Skye and Dave dropped me back off at Jaimie's house in Castlereagh. We took a few walks around the horse paddock and down to a nearby river. The house is in a nice quiet area, pretty isolated from anything else nearby. They have neighbors on both sides, but they are both at least 1/4 mile away. Most people here have enough land to keep horses and a few other animals as well.

Earlier in the day Skye and Dave took me over to the local club (think YMCA-ish) to play some cricket. It was a hot day, about 85, but we still stayed out for about an hour. I practiced both my batting and my bowling. I'm not sure why the sport holds so much interest. Its incredibly slow moving and even a good strike only sends the ball about 200 feet. Theres something pretty satisfying about smashing a baseball that you just can't do with a cricket bat.

Tomorrow we'll start planning our roadtrip if the weather is nice. It looks like we'll head north up to Brisbane, making several stops on the way. We also have a few other day trips planned into Sydney and some of the surrounding mountain areas.

Wollongong and Shellcoast Harbor

Sunday was my second full day here in Australia. Since Jon and Jaimie were away for two days after their wedding, I am staying with Jaimie's sister Skye and her boyfriend Dave. Dave is from a town about an hour and a half south of Sydney called Wollongong. We would be driving down along the coast to visit some beaches, stop for lunch and then head over to Dave's parents house for a bit.

The drive down to Wollongong included a brief trip across the Sea Cliff Bridge. Its a newly opened bridge that is elevated and curves to follow the waters edge. The view off the edge is of pure Pacific Ocean. We stopped at a lookout on the other side of the bridge to snap some pictures and enjoy the view. Way off in the distance there is a white smokestack, which Dave explained was Port Kemblah, one of the areas biggest steel mills and shipping ports. The water here is a different color than in the US, near the shores it is almost turquoise colored. I think this is because the beaches stay shallow for about a hundred feet out from the shore, you can just walk right out and only be waist deep.



From there we headed on down to Shellcove harbor, called "The Farm" by Sky and Dave because you used to get to the beach there by crossing a man's farm. It has since been turned into a state park. We walked down a rocky path to the beach. It wasn't too busy, but there were lots of surfers around catching the waves. The weather here always seems to be perfect- I haven't had a bad day yet. We hung out here for a few minutes and then headed off to Dave's for lunch.

On the way we stopped to pick up some fish & chips. Just as I expected, the fish here is way better than it is in the US. There is just something about the batter, I couldn't tell what. THe piece of fish was absolutely huge too, probably a full pound. Once we finished up lunch, we played some pool and watched cricket on the TV. India was about to lose to Australia, which didn't really seem to surprise anyone here.

Then, we headed back to the beach to go play around in the water. We had grabbed some bodyboards from Dave's parents and took them out into the water. I haven't been boarding in years, it is still just as run as I remember. I got tossed around a few times and ended up swallowing a big mouthful of sea water, but still had a great time. We dried off chatting on the beach for a while and then drove back to Dave's for dinner. His dad had fired the grill for us with tons of meat- sausages, chicken kebabs and steaks. There was so much food and all of it good. I hadn't grilled in months in Boston because my porch was being rebuilt. I guarantee you I will be making some burgers on it as soon as I get home. While we were eating dinner the baggage people from Qantas called to arrange a delivery time for my bag, sometime between 9pm and midnight tonight. It was already about 7:30 and we were about 1.5hrs from Skye & Dave's house so we finished up dinner and took off for the drive home so we could be there on time in case they showed up early. We didn't want an earlier repeat of missing the flower store from the day before.

Dave, Skye, and I had some quality time to chat with all this driving around this weekend. We talked mostly about things that were different between Australia and the US. Surprisingly, the answer was not much. Cricket and rugby seem to be the big sports here, some of the cars are different, and obviously they drive on the left. Thats about where it stops- they get all the American TV shows. The writers strike hurts them just as much here. Mostly American songs were on the radio, Kanye West, Timbland, John Mayer, and even Fergie (I apologized for exporting her). Apparently the US even exports our foreign policy. Australia is currently occupying/protecting a small island called East Timor up north- it just happens to have access to a huge oil field. It also seems like most of the laws that are passed in America end up here as well- you can't use a mobile phone will driving here either.

Needless to say, my bag didn't show up until 12:40AM. I had already been sleeping on the couch for 40 minutes after playing Wii with Dave for a few hours. Its so good to actually have a decent set of clothes now. I also have my razor, deodorant, and camera stuff. I should finally be able to post some pictures today if I'm not too busy.

Wedding Day

I finally made it into Sydney at about 11PM on Friday night minus my checked baggage. After making it through customs without a hitch, I met Jon and his fiancee Jaimie for the 90 minute ride back to Jaimie's house in Castlereagh. We arrived just after 1AM and I promptly passed out.
Five hours later I was woken up by a rooster crowing in the yard. Seeing Jaimie's farm for the first time in the light, I take in the whole view. I knew they kept some animals, chicken and horses mostly, but they also have a large pond and lots land around their house. I've never heard a rooster crow before, much less been woken up by one. This reminds me a lot of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer keeps a rooster named Little Jerry. Apparently Jaimie's family keeps an old microwave in the barn to stash the rooster in so that it doesn't crow at daybreak. If that works, I'll take it. I'll try and get some pictures up once my bags arrive- the card reader is packed in there.

So today was it, Jon's wedding day. The drive to the venue was about an hour, but was worth every minute of it. They had chosen an absolutely gorgeous spot in the Mount Tomah Botanical Gardens. It was a small grassy area backed by a gorgeous view of the Gardens and the Blue Mountains. The ceremony was incredible; Jon had done a great job in writing something that Jaimie and he would remember forever. The high point was when Jon presented Jaimie with roses of different colors, each with a unique and special meaning.

After the wedding, we walked around the Garden for some pictures. As the official wedding photographer, I think it is appropriate for me to say that there are some awesome shots of the happy couple. The Gardens were a great backdrop for the photos and contained some of the most incredible foliage I've ever seen. One of the most impressive plants was the Wollemi Pine. Its an endangered species that is incredibly old- sixty millions years ago dinosaurs would munch on the Wollemi's leaves. Its slowly been making a comeback since nearing extiction, but the Garden at one point had to hide the location of their Pine to avoid theft. Now that its larger, its enclosed in a large wire mesh cage to keep the thieves out.


Once done exploring, the entire wedding of 17 people headed off to lunch in a nearby town. The restaurant was pretty good, I ended up with salmon and Moroccan couscous. They menu had some more adventurous items like chevre stuffed zucchini flowers and a charcuterie plate with beef cheek rillettes and duck confit, but I totally chickened out on ordering them.

Jon and Jaimie had plans to go away for two nights to a small cottage nearby, so I left with Skye and David. Skye is Jaimie's sister and lives with her boyfriend Dave. I'm going to be spending the next two days with them until the J.J'.s get back on Monday afternoon.

Why I'm not yet above the Pacfic

Here is the story of my day:

7:00AM- Wake up to a phone call from my mother who warns me that my layover in San Francisco is only 50 minutes. After a phone call to United Reservations, I am assured that 50 minutes is enough time to make the transfer.

3:00PM- Leave apartment for the airport in a taxi. I'm not sure how long it will take to get to Logan and through security, but I should be there in the two hour recommended time.

3:40PM- I'm at the gate & ready for my flight at 6PM. Time to send a text to my mom, bragging about the speed and then to check emails.

3:47PM- Phone call from my mother giving me more unwanted advice about making the international connection in San Francisco.

5:57PM- 1st leg of the trip boarded on time and is taxing towards the runway. The pilot just came on to announce that Boston Central's radar has shutdown and Air Traffic Control is running on a backup. More details in to follow in 12 minutes. Connection window is now only 38 minutes long.

6:23PM- 15 more minutes until another update, now only 25 minutes to make the connection. I've heard San Francisco is a beautiful city, maybe I'll get a chance to see the Golden Gate Bridge when I'm stuck there tomorrow. The next SF - SYD flight doesn't leave until 10:20PM on Thursday night.

6:45PM- Another 10 minutes. Both engines on the plane have been shut down to save on fuel and we are 6th in line for departure. A few people are giving the flight attendants attitude, one thinks they could be more mature. I'm starting to think about a) getting a flight on another airline or b) flying to Sydney via Los Angeles.

7:00PM- The phrase "creeping delay" is mentioned. Cell phones have come back out on the plane and texting has furiously begun. One man behind me is leaving his colleagues voicemails.

7:20PM- Seatbelts back on, the plane is moving, here is takeoff.

The rest of the story is much less detailed. After the hour delay and a 6hr flight, we arrive in San Francisco at 10:20- the departure time of my transcontinental flight. As I step off the gate, I check a departures monitor to see that my connection was delayed due to weather in Chicago and is not scheduled to leave until 10:45. There is still time to make this. I take off in the terminal, speedwalking towards my destination. I get to a TSA security checkpoint and am allowed to skip to the front of the line. Once past, I run down the escalator and up to the gate. Unfortunately the plane had just pulled away. I spoke with some United employees that were able to find me a hotel room for the night and put me on standby for a flight departing Thursday night.

Once I arrived at the hotel, I set to work finding a faster way to Sydney. Some web browsing, three phone calls to United, and one phone call to Qantas later, I was booked on a United flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles and Qantas from L.A. into Sydney. Perfect, finally. A few confusing moments with Qantas regarding my reservation and catching an earlier flight into LA, I am now sitting at my final departure gate. Nothing but 7500 miles separates me from my destination. Compared to the airline bureaucracy, it doesn't seem like that much of an obstacle.

Flight leaves in 24 hours

The first leg of my flight takes off from Logan at 5:45 on Wednesday. This promises to be three weeks full of adventures, memories, and hopefully some incredible photographs. Aside from a wedding, I'm not sure exactly what the journey will hold for me. One of my closest friends will be marrying the woman he loves, and I couldn't be happier for both of them. I'm looking forward to the ceremony to see exactly what Jaimie and Jon have in store. I've heard it will be a unique experience for everyone there. We have a short road trip planned up to Brisbane(no, I'm not going on the honeymoon), and I'm looking forward to taking in a wine tour and maybe some cricket as well. The weather is going to be the most drastic change. A cold(34F) and snowy New England day will give way to an Australia at the peak of summer, hot(27C) and sunny.

This will be my first time abroad, so I'm sure there will be a period of adjustment to being so far away from home. This blog will be a place for me to post thoughts, stories, and images from the trip.

Here I Come.