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Published: February 20th 2007
Melbourne After I returned to Melbourne I spent another few days in the city, catching up on doing some of things that I didn't have time to do before I went to Adelaide (the tennis pretty much took up most of my time while I was there the first time!). I only stayed at Stuart's flat another couple of nights, before I moved to stay with a lovely, friendly, upbeat guy called Kim that I had met at a party the previous week. He lives with his good friend Yvonne, who I liked straight away, in a gorgeous city centre apartment, and from then on my time in Melbourne became much more enjoyable and sociable, and they really made me feel so welcome. It was a great feeling being with people who I felt genuinely enjoyed my company and liked having me around - I hadn't experienced such hospitality since I spent Christmas with Kathy and her family in Auckland. After the previous weeks, it really felt like something akin to coming home. I began to relax and unwind a lot more, and Kim and I had a couple of great evenings out. One evening we went to the Melbourne
Botanical Gardens and watched an outdoor production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which was really good and very funny. I have always wanted to see an outdoor production of this play, so it was a really fantastic experience for me. The second great night out we had was another outdoor one - this time, we went to the Outdoor Cinema in Birrarung Marr, next to the Yarra River. We saw the premiere of a French film called 'Paris, Je T'Aime', a collection of several short films, all set in Paris and dealing with many different aspects of love. It featured a stellar cast, and each film was directed by a world famous director. The film was great, the setting was beautiful, and it was a lovely night - in fact, my last night in Melbourne as I had decided to finally leave for Sydney the next day (as I was becoming way too comfortable in Kim's apartment!) . . .
Sydney After a horrible overnight journey in a packed bus, I finally arrived in Sydney on 9th February and was met at the bus station by my friends and next hosts, Paul and Bruce (whom I had met
all that time ago in Rio). They have just moved into a lovely apartment in Redfern, a up-and-coming suburb just outside the city centre, and one train stop away from Central Station. Because they moved in literally days before I arrived, the apartment is still pretty empty and such luxuries as crockery, saucepans, sofa and a fridge are yet to be moved in, so it has been a minimalist experience! Thankfully Bruce managed to retrieve his television from his friends' house, otherwise I think I may have felt like I was in some kind of asylum, sitting on my inflatable mattress staring at the empty walls of an evening . . . It has been great fun though, and highly entertaining as every time I returned home from a hard day's sightseeing, I would discover that one of them had added another item of furniture to the flat. One day an armchair, the next a footstool, then a TV stand, closely followed by a dining room table . . .
Paul: This table's great. All we need now are some chairs and we can sit down at a table for dinner.
Me: Yeah. That's when you get the plates
to eat off and the pans to cook in.
Both: *laugh at absurdity of situation*
Sydney is a great, vibrant city with lots to do, and indeed I have done some fantastic things since I got here. I have visited the Art Gallery of NSW (another gallery!), which has some great permanent exhibitions (but not much else as I managed to visit it while it was 'between' temporary exhibitions!). I also spent some time walking round the Botanical Gardens, which must have the most spectacular views of any in the world, as they overlook Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. My camera got well-utilised that day, I can tell you. I went on a highly-recommended Opera House tour and totally fell in love with the space and the way it is managed. It is a fantastically-run performing arts centre, with something for everyone. While I was there, there was a performance in one of the spaces for babies and toddlers, known as the Babies' Proms. While sitting in and gaping in awe at the stunning Concert Hall, our guide explained to us that in one week last season they had a full orchestral performance in the Hall on
the Monday and a Foo Fighters gig in the same Hall on the Wednesday. Sydney does not fall prey to snobbery or elitism about what performances it holds in the Opera House and believes that the performing arts should be accessible to all - something that is also reflected in the reasonable ticket prices as well as the schedule. And try as hard as I might, I just cannot imagine this concept working
quite as well in London (although I could be being grossly unfair - indeed I hope I am). On the same day as my tour, I took advantage of the aforementioned reasonable ticket prices and attended a matinee performance of Sondheim's 'Sweeney Todd', in the Opera Theatre. I had seen the set during the tour and thought it looked great, so it was too much to resist! The performance was fantastic and it was money well spent.
While in town I also went to the lovely Belvoir Theatre to see a production of 'The Gates of Egypt' by Stephen Sewell, a play I hadn't heard of before but really enjoyed. The theatre has apparently been recently refurbished and looked great, and the cast were all excellent
- there was not a weak performance in the whole play. And a great bonus was the fact that I got a cheaper ticket because I was under 27 (for a few days longer, at least!). If I'd decided to go and see it on the other side of my birthday, I wouldn't have been so lucky.
The Blue Mountains Halfway into my time in Sydney, I decided that it was time I escaped the city and went to the mountains for a couple of days. The town of Katoomba and the Blue Mountains are an easy two hours away from the city by train, but they feel like they are a whole world away. The temperature is cooler (a welcome break from the heat!) and the scenery is beautiful. So why are they called the Blue Mountains? I hear you ask. Well, the Blue Mountains are densely populated by oil bearing Eucalyptus trees. The atmosphere is filled with finely dispersed droplets of this Eucalyptus oil, which, in combination with dust particles and water vapour, scatter short-wave length rays of light which are predominantly blue in colour. So there you go!
While I was there I stayed
Sydney Opera House #2
I never realised that the entire exterior was tiled . . .in a really lovely, chilled out hostel, and participated in a free daily yoga session, which was the first time I had ever done it. I have quickly become a convert and have vowed to take it up when I get home. I also did some bushwalking, from Echo Point and the Three Sisters* along the clifftop pathway and down into the rainforest valley to see the lovely Katoomba Cascades and Falls. On my final day in Katoomba, I booked a tour to see the Jenolan Caves, a spectacular site of over 300 caves about 70km from Katoomba. While there I visited two of the caves, the large Lucas Cave and the stunning smaller Orient Cave. It was a great experience and enabled me to see another, underground side of the area which, combined with the great scenery above-ground, makes the Blue Mountains region a beautiful one to visit.
* The story of the Three Sisters . . . The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, Meehni, Wimlah and Gunnedoo, lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe,
yet tribal law forbade them to marry.
The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle. As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come.
*****
Yesterday was my birthday (and a HUGE thank you to everyone who sent me an email to wish me well - I felt the love!) and I was really worried that I would be on my own for the whole day, as Bruce and Paul had made plans to be away (before they knew it was my birthday) so neither of them were going to be around. However, along came salvation in the form of a stranger called Laura,
an English girl living in Sydney. . .
Laura emailed me a couple of weeks ago to say that she had found my journal while doing a search for information about New Zealand, as she was going there on holiday. She had also been to South America a few years ago, and she said that reading my journals had brought back to her the fantastic time she had had there, and she told me how much she enjoyed reading my writing. As you can imagine, that was a really lovely email to get as it's always great to know that people are enjoying reading my journal (always good for the ego!). I emailed her back and asked if she would like to meet up for a cuppa or a drink at some point and we tried to make a plan to meet up, but unfortunately it fell through. I then went to the Blue Mountains, she went away for the weekend, and I thought we wouldn't get a chance to meet up.
Then, yesterday morning I received a text from her asking if I was free to meet up for a drink that evening, and I was so
happy that I wouldn't have to spend my birthday alone! So during the day I did a bit of shopping and went to the cinema, and then walked to meet Laura at Darling Harbour, where we shared a bottle of wine and went for some food. It was a lovely evening, a really random event, and reminded me that meeting and spending time with random strangers is one of my favourite things about travelling! So a big thanks to Laura for making my birthday evening a fun one, and for buying the wine!
Finally, I have had a few emails from people asking where I'm off to next, so I thought I would list the remaining countries in my trip, to remind you what you still have to look forward to:
Philippines (Fly to Manila on 10th March)
China (Fly to Hong Kong on 31st March - and meet up with Antony and Richard)
Vietnam (And hopefully meet up with Mum and Keith)
Cambodia
Laos
Thailand
Anyway, back to Australia for now . . . I'm now about to get an overnight train to Byron Bay, to hang out with the hippies for a couple of days,
before I head on up to the Sunshine Coast. That's enough cities for me for now, and it's time to hit some beaches and some Outback . . . Australia proper.
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Keith
non-member comment
Blue Mountain Knes
Hi Em Blue Mountains brings back memories. My knees have only just recovered from the descent to the valley floor! I cheated and got the steep train back up. Hope VietNam comes off. Give my love to Byron's Bay. Love Keith