Adelaide

We stayed in Sydney a little under a week, and then caught a train to Adelaide to stay with two people I had known from the internet (eerie sound) and they showed us around, gave us some Vegemite, Milo (chocolate vitamin drink), meat pies, and other weird Australian food. We saw an "authentic Australian stand up comedy night" at a casino too. They call slot machines 'pokies'. I also started watching House on DVD at night, and became addicted. I tried to watch a British comedy they recommended too, but I think I'm too uneducated to enjoy it (it was full of history references I think I was supposed to find entertaining). Oh, and I had a musical jam session with two grizzled aussie hippies.

We took a two day journey to Glenelg beach, which was covered in white sand, and gave me wanderlust against (because it's the Australian Winter and too cold to go swimming in South Australia.) I have come up with a solution to that though: we are heading further west, to the west coast, and then north into the tropical regions which are warm all year long.


Glenelg beach at sunset.

We weren't going to see the west coast before, but I surveyed the guidebooks and have discovered that there is quite a lot to do on the west that I didn't know about, including several coral reefs, caves, a place called the 'Eighty Mile Beach', and some other weird stuff. I can't wait for it to be warm enough to go swimming/snorkeling. The new travel plan is to make a full circle around all of Australia, rather than focus on the east coast. On Sunday we began a 1 1/2 day train from the southern middle of the continent to the southwestern corner of it.

I hope I can squeeze everything in that I want to do in the time left here (I leave Oct. 7th). A lot of people, before I left the U.S., thought two months was a long time, but out here we have met many people from the UK who have been here for 5 months or more and they think nothing of it.

Lastly, an important notice that may very well SAVE YOUR LIFE:

Sydney II

It's been a while since I've been able to update, due to camera-linkage problems and lack of net access and such.

To recap a few of the things we saw and did in Sydney:


A giant stingray at the glass walkway in the Sydney Aquarium. This was probably the best part of the aquarium. There were large sharks swimming around in this area as well. Other than that, the rest of the place wasn't much different than the aquarium they had at Disney World. It was good, but I was kind of expecting an aquarium so good it would blow away any aquarium I had ever seen before.

Sydney has a lot of bizarre water monuments/art pieces and statues decorating it, including:

Spiraling water staircase whirlpool thingy. . .


. . .and sphere of water-spraying thingy-mo-bob.


A truly strange tree with tentacle-like roots at the Royal Botanic Gardens.


(You knew it was coming) The "sails" of the famous Sydney Opera House. We took an hour and a half coffee & cake yacht tour around the harbor. When we walked over to it on foot later, the opera house itself was swarming with Japanese tourists.


View of one of the harbors. There were a lot of boat cruises competing for tourist's money, including the red speed boat shown on the bottom right.


The "Chinese Garden Of Friendship."


Another picture of the garden.

And finally, to cap off our Sydney adventures..

The Soggy Mattress Tale

In our hostel in Sydney, on the second night, some guy woke us up at roughly 4 A.M. yelling about someone peeing in his bed. Allow me to recreate the audio: "He PISSED in my BED! NO- I WON'T BE QUIET!!" After 15 minutes of him shouting and his friends trying to calm him down, someone convinced the guy to go grab a beer and he left. Apparently one of his co-workers who was in the hostel dorm with him took a leak on his mattress or something, probably while drunk. Anyway, the next morning there was a mattress laying in the hallway and the hostel imposed a new noise curfew due to "recent complaints."

Sydney

So, to continue. We arrived at the Sydney airport at around 6 AM. First thing noticed off the plane was that the place was very cold. I have always thought of Australia as a warm place, but I guess we are here during their "worst Winter in a long time," which isn't saying too much. It gets to be between 60 and 70 F, but during the morning it can be a bit chilly. The main problem though is that they don't seem to heat their buildings, including the airport and the hostel we stayed in. Restaurants are almost always open, with no doors and no inside heating, and plenty of outdoor seating. First thing I did after freezing all morning of the 9th was to head to Sydney's Chinatown in search of a coat. Unable to find any store in Chinatown that sold clothing for men, I bought a touristy coat at a shop where a taped voice on a loudspeaker announced exciting deals over and over. Also, there's no central heating in the hostel so after the first night of trying to make due with the flimsy wool blanket they gave me, I started using my sleeping bag which I fortunately brought along.

The city is gorgeous, with all of the major sights in walkable distance from the hostel.


The fountain in Hyde Park. Stone turtles spit water, Brenda on bottom right. Hyde Park is basically the center of the downtown area, and we ended up walking through it every night on our way back to the hostel.


A restaurant menu sign in Sydney's Chinatown. "Pig's Trotters & Jelly Fish," "Cuttle Fish & Jelly Fish," "Chicken Feet In Black Bean Sauce" and other delicious treats.



The entrance to Sydney's Chinatown. Things were a lot more expensive in Sydney's Chinatown compared to L.A.'s Chinatown. Seems like the Aussie Chinese have sold out! I really like visiting Chinatown's though, so I'll probably check out others in major cities we visit.


We stopped in a McDonald's (before we were brave enough to start eating unfamiliar food) and found a strange item on the menu, the McOz. Oz is the name of either Sydney or this area of the country. Anyway, I ordered it and it turned out to be a quarter pounder w/ cheese + a long slice of beet. It was weird.


Since the McDonald's was "open" like most places in Sydney, birds kept flying in and hopping around the place, trying to eat food people had dropped. Until the workers would get up and chase them away.

Another thing: having been addicted to caffeine before I came here, I was saddened when the oriental lady behind the counter said "re fill?" after I asked for one. Apparently they don't know what those are here! Plus, when you order a coke it is almost always bottled and between $3-$4 (about $2.50-$3 american). The food we have had at Australian restaurants has been very good, however, and reasonably priced. Plus, one of the desserts we had recently was amazing. It was called "Rocky Road," and was some squishy pink marshmallow thing wrapped in dark chocolate. Hard to describe, but much better than it sounds.

The Trip To Australia

We made it to L. A. Airport on time and I have been in Sydney for three days. To recap: we ended up driving to Las Vegas, spending a day there (I broke even, thanks to the Monopoly slot machine and no thanks to the Routlette wheel), sleeping in the car, and then driving to L.A. and spending a day at Brenda's old friend's house. We then parked the car in the townhouse garage of some guy from craigslist, and he and his Japanese wife drove us to the airport. We saw L.A's Chinatown and Santa Monica pier before we left, which were both really cool.


A town called "No Name" seen as we drive to Vegas.


A sunset over the hills of Utah as we drive.


One of the many wonderful products of Chinatown!


Me sitting outside of the Chinatown entrance.


Santa Monica beach.


One of Santa Monica's glorious attractions!


Rocky was OKAY, but I mean, he only really dove like 80 feet.

L.A. was really a lot of fun, moreso than I was expecting. Santa Monica had a boardwalk, carnival rides, and crazy hobos playing music. Some fisher even caught a stringray and was showing it to awestruck little kids. It'd been about 10 years since I'd swam in an ocean last. Being knocked over by waves is fun. Sure does suck to have salt water in your nostrils though.

The flight to Australia was at night so I was able to sleep through much of it. The onboard T.V. had some interesting UK/Aussie shows, and I listened to Australian music while I watched the text-only news channel. Fourteen hours later we touched down at 6 AM in Sydney, and stepped off into a freezing airport and a city where they dress in all black and don't believe in central heating. More on that later.