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Published: September 25th 2010
9/19
If I ever questioned whether coming home was the right thing or not, now I have no doubt in my mind that it was. I have had the most wonderful, memorable summer, full of long coffee chats, strenuous mountain hiking, delicious foods, and lots of old friends. It seemed to just whiz by, I can't believe its travellin' time again! I was definitely taken off-guard by how quickly September 18th came around, and I'm afraid that the rush will not be slowing anytime soon. My tentative itinerary is Syndey to Perth in under 2 weeks, which is quite an undertaking- a 2700 mile undertaking to be exact! Currently I am enjoying the calm before the storm though; hanging out by the pool at Aunt Kel's, waiting for my toenails to dry (hot pink of course!) after a day of eating food and looking at cars in the sun. Certainly can't complain about that.
For those of you who know me pretty well, you know that puttering about in airplanes is not exactly my favorite passtime, but I have never been so excited to get on a plane in my life. The Sydney Opera House, the Great Barrier Reef, the Whitsundays and the Great Ocean Road all await me on the other side of the Pacific, and I am so excited!* I promised everyone that I would do a much better job of updating my blog this time around, since last year I clearly got a bit distracted by the wonderful verb that is Queenstown. I also promise that there will be much less camera-losing, iPod-failing, and computer-dropping (don't worry kids I've got insurance on this one!) so that when I get back, I can give you an overly in-depth and possibly boring account of every minut detail of my time down under. Thanks for a wonderful summer guys, I will talk to you from Sydney!
Jatpack out.
*If you judged a country/continent based on their chosen attraction names, Australia would certainly be the "Great"est. Seriously, the "Great" section of my guidebook index is about half a page long- Great roads, Great islands, Great mountain ranges, Great parks, maybe the Australian government should invest in a thesaurus. Just sayin.
9/24
As far as plane rides go, the one from LA to Sydney was probably the most turbulent I've been on. Crossing the equator was quite a bumpy endeavour, and at one point the captain came on the intercom and announced that all passengers and crew should be seated and buckle their seatbelts
Immediately
. So when I arrived at the airport, I was tired but really just grateful to be alive. The first thing I did, of course, was walk immediately to the opera house. It is bigger and more beautiful than I had imagined, a structure that defines the skyline. I took a stroll along the waterfront and got aquainted with my temporary city. Busy, multicultural, with lots of public sculptures, parks, and sharply dressed people with briefcases. Later in the afternoon, I joined the rest of my hostel-mates for a BBQ at Coogee beach. We had burgers, explored the coastline a bit, and certainly didn't partake in the illegal practice of drinking beer in public. When we got back to the hostel, I was jetlagged beyond belief and ready for a really long night's sleep in a real bed. Unfortunately, that was definitely not in store for me. If I ever try to stay in a >15 bed dorm again, someone please slap me. "The Church" as it is called, is in fact a 32 bed dorm and it is full of high-strung long termers. I was woken up in the middle of the night by two boys, apparently one of whom only knew one word in English- motherfucker. There was some dispute about whose bed was whose, and then the screaming elevated to punching and all the sudden there were four boys rolling around in the middle of the room, at 2 AM, punching and kicking each other. Awesome. I must be getting old, because most of the people around me didn't seem to notice or care. The next day I asked to be moved to a smaller room, and the staff willingly obliged without any extra charge. Good kids, those. I did a bit more exploring of the Royal Botanic gardens, and took a ferry to Manly beach to do a bit of a hike back into the city. It was a little faster than I had wanted, because I forgot how early the sun starts going down when you are closer to the equator! The last two km were done at about power walk speed. When I got home, sore and tired, I was very happy to get into my bunk in my new 6-bed dorm and enjoy a full night sleep without any fighting boys in my room. No boys in my room at all, in fact. Yesterday I got up early to take a tour into the blue mountains- so named because of the blue aura around them, made by the combination of eucalyptus oil and moisture in the air. There were only about ten people on our tour and our guide was hilarious! I was the only American- as it usually is- and quickly got the name of "Super Badass Cassidy." I'm afraid to say it was not necessarily because of my obviously badass nature, but because of my use of American slang*. We climbed up and down steps for about 6 hours, searching out waterfalls and overlooks, listening to stories and facts spewed to us from our guide, who seemed to have all the answers. He told us about the 7 sisters, a famous rock formation that is often misunderstood as only 3 sisters, about rockclimbing in the blue mountains, skipping school to go walk to the waterfalls, how funnel web spider anti venom is made, mining, bushfires, and the destruction of aboriginal tribes and cultures. Our fun and informative day ended with the steepest railroad in the world, and then more "soda" drinking at the ledge, an overhang with amazing views. When I got home, I went out with one of the girls in my dorm and one of her friends, who she had met on a banana farm in Cairns. It was an amazing time, but today my legs will get a much needed rest from hiking and exploring, since I will be spending 11 hours on the Countrylink train, napping and listening to my ipod while it carries me to my next destination- Melbourne! I loved Sydney, but I can't wait to continue on my mad dash to Perth!
Jetpack out.
*though I am a badass, don't be fooled.
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June Moore
non-member comment
thanks
for the great blogging! Sounds delightful...(except for the fighting boys)The Sydney Opera House pics are beautiful. So sorry that you had a rough crossing..that had to be hard on you. Keep blogging, you ought to think about travel journalism as a carreer, you've got a lovely way with descriptions. I love you so, Mum