Going to Panama!!!!!!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Thursday, August 20, 2009
...observations
Aussies don't chew a lot of gum. There are only about 4 flavor choices at any given convenience store. It does not get much better at grocery stores. A popular flavor here is blueberry, which I am eager to try.
Seriously, everyone is white. White with blue eyes and blondish hair. There are very few people with black hair, and even fewer black or brown people. In Sydney, there were many Asians, but up north not so much beyond the tourists.
They do not use paper towels here, unless you are in a really fancy establishment. Most bathrooms use air dryers. This is only useful if you don't want to waste paper or if your jeans and tennis shoes are soaked from the rain. Otherwise, it dries out your hands and takes a lot of time.
The canned tuna selection at the grocery store is incredible. They sell as much tuna here as we do chips in the US. Tuna comes already flavored in little pop top cans, so you can take a piece of bread and a can for lunch and be all set to go. Some flavors include: sun dried tomato and onion, lemon pepper, thai red curry, sweet corn and mayonnaise.
Seriously, everyone is white. White with blue eyes and blondish hair. There are very few people with black hair, and even fewer black or brown people. In Sydney, there were many Asians, but up north not so much beyond the tourists.
They do not use paper towels here, unless you are in a really fancy establishment. Most bathrooms use air dryers. This is only useful if you don't want to waste paper or if your jeans and tennis shoes are soaked from the rain. Otherwise, it dries out your hands and takes a lot of time.
The canned tuna selection at the grocery store is incredible. They sell as much tuna here as we do chips in the US. Tuna comes already flavored in little pop top cans, so you can take a piece of bread and a can for lunch and be all set to go. Some flavors include: sun dried tomato and onion, lemon pepper, thai red curry, sweet corn and mayonnaise.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
last set of pics
Adina and Gavi in Melbourne, at St. Kilda pier
Bronte/Bondi beach walk.
SELF PORTRAIT JUMPING PICTURES!!! In the Blue Mountains. The peak of my photographing career.
In the Blue Mountains, looking very blue.
In the Blue Mountains.
august 5: last day
I'm pretty ready to leave. I can't wait to take a looooong shower, to hang out in my apartment naked, to leave dishes in the sink, to put food in the fridge without labeling it name/room/date of departure, and to freaking BRUSH MY TEETH AND LEAVE MY TOOTHBRUSH IN THE BATHROOM.
I've already done all the shopping I need to -- and "need" is pretty liberal here since what I purchased was $50 worth of junk food -- but I have a few extra hours to wander around and maybe buy some real souvenirs. But really the best stuff is at the grocery store, so this time I go to Woolworths and buy stuff. Exciting.
I'm already packed, all my food is hidden away, my airport shuttle is booked, and I'm ready to go! See you on the other side!
I've already done all the shopping I need to -- and "need" is pretty liberal here since what I purchased was $50 worth of junk food -- but I have a few extra hours to wander around and maybe buy some real souvenirs. But really the best stuff is at the grocery store, so this time I go to Woolworths and buy stuff. Exciting.
I'm already packed, all my food is hidden away, my airport shuttle is booked, and I'm ready to go! See you on the other side!
august 4: blue mountains
Today I wake up at an ungodly hour so that I can get an early train to Katoomba. I am going to spend the day in the Heritage listed Blue Mountains. At this point, I have been to more UNESCO sites in Australia than I have been to at home.
I'm not sure what to expect in Katoomba, since I didn't book a tour or a bus, but it turns out to be surprisingly easy. I tear a map out of one of those free regional magazines next to the train station, and walk into town. At the tourist information office at The Echo Point, the guide tells me I can do the cliff walk from Katoomba to Leura and it will take a few hours. I hadn't planned on hiking because my legs were so knackered yesterday on my walk, but I'm feeling good now, and plus, I have a nice size food bag that is filled with bread and peas and chocolate.
The Blue Mountains are spectacular. The cliff walk follows the edge of one mountain as it curls around and winds its way to the other side of a huge valley. Every lookout is stunning and it reminds me of the Grand Canyon. The mountains are heavily forested and looking down is like looking at a thick, green, carpet. Several faces of the surrounding cliffs are free of vegetation and the exposed red, striped rock shines in the sun. I take about seven hundred pictures. There are waterfalls, and eroded rocks, and dripping vines, and hollowed out cave-like curves. The mountains are steep and the lookouts are scarily perched on overhanging rocks. On my last hurrah, I climb 388 steps from Siloam's Pool to the cliff top in Leura. Yes, I counted.
I walk from 10am to 4pm and am utterly exhausted by the end. I sleep the whole train ride back.
On my last Australian evening, I shower, pack, make noodles, and read Seven Years in Tibet, which is FANTASTIC. It is the first real book I have read in a month (the rest have been total crap writing), and I can't put it down.
This is when I notice that my watch has broken. On my LAST NIGHT, the screen is mysteriously blank. Not so mysterious when I consider that I accidentally showered with it earlier, but it claims to be water resistant up to 30 meters, and a few minutes of shower sprinkle is less than 30 meters, right? WRONG. I can't bring myself to buy another one for twenty bucks for just one fucking morning. I walk around the neighborhood checking the 7-11s, but none of them sell cheapo alarm clocks. I ask two separate roommates to wake me up in the morning and go to sleep.
(I woke up at 5:45, in case you were wondering.)
Australian thing of the day: Nothing. There is nothing left in Australia that I haven't eaten. It is time to go home.
I'm not sure what to expect in Katoomba, since I didn't book a tour or a bus, but it turns out to be surprisingly easy. I tear a map out of one of those free regional magazines next to the train station, and walk into town. At the tourist information office at The Echo Point, the guide tells me I can do the cliff walk from Katoomba to Leura and it will take a few hours. I hadn't planned on hiking because my legs were so knackered yesterday on my walk, but I'm feeling good now, and plus, I have a nice size food bag that is filled with bread and peas and chocolate.
The Blue Mountains are spectacular. The cliff walk follows the edge of one mountain as it curls around and winds its way to the other side of a huge valley. Every lookout is stunning and it reminds me of the Grand Canyon. The mountains are heavily forested and looking down is like looking at a thick, green, carpet. Several faces of the surrounding cliffs are free of vegetation and the exposed red, striped rock shines in the sun. I take about seven hundred pictures. There are waterfalls, and eroded rocks, and dripping vines, and hollowed out cave-like curves. The mountains are steep and the lookouts are scarily perched on overhanging rocks. On my last hurrah, I climb 388 steps from Siloam's Pool to the cliff top in Leura. Yes, I counted.
I walk from 10am to 4pm and am utterly exhausted by the end. I sleep the whole train ride back.
On my last Australian evening, I shower, pack, make noodles, and read Seven Years in Tibet, which is FANTASTIC. It is the first real book I have read in a month (the rest have been total crap writing), and I can't put it down.
This is when I notice that my watch has broken. On my LAST NIGHT, the screen is mysteriously blank. Not so mysterious when I consider that I accidentally showered with it earlier, but it claims to be water resistant up to 30 meters, and a few minutes of shower sprinkle is less than 30 meters, right? WRONG. I can't bring myself to buy another one for twenty bucks for just one fucking morning. I walk around the neighborhood checking the 7-11s, but none of them sell cheapo alarm clocks. I ask two separate roommates to wake me up in the morning and go to sleep.
(I woke up at 5:45, in case you were wondering.)
Australian thing of the day: Nothing. There is nothing left in Australia that I haven't eaten. It is time to go home.
august 3: bron-tee, bon-dee, and coo-gee
So my mom does this Kabbalah stuff and met this Australian woman who also does Kabbalah stuff and then they emailed each other and my mom told her that I would be in Australia and she emailed me back and invited me over for lunch. Only it was really difficult to arrange the actual lunch, because I don't have a cell phone here, and my schedule has never been totally set, and she only checks her email once a day. So finally, in my second-to-last day, we meet at a cafe in Bronte under her flat.
The bus ride is uneventful until the bus rounds a curve and tops over a hill to give a glorious view of Bronte, a little beachside suburb of colored buildings and a rocky peninsula and white sand, and it is just PERFECT. I feel like I'm in Europe. I'm early for our lunch, so I actually walk back up the hill to where the bus turned so I can take some shots of the picturesque area. I can't believe I haven't been here sooner.
I meet Orna, and she tells me that we are having lunch with a visiting Kabbalah scholar, which I find weird. I'm pretty sure that she knows that I don't study Kabbalah and I would hope that she knows that I didn't come to Australia to meet any visiting scholars of anything, but I don't say anything. We take a gorgeous walk along the beach to get to Bondi, and meet Zohar. He is actually quite funny and I'm glad he's there because Orna turns out to be not that talkative. When we get to the cafe, his friend Shuli meets us, and she is even cooler. We talk about crazy southern Christian Fundamentalists, and Aboriginal cultures, and the ultra orthodox guy that was just caught selling body parts on the black market. Shuli and Zohar are quite interesting and I'm actually enjoying myself. The highlight of the month comes when Zohar asks me where I'm from because HE THOUGHT I WAS AUSTRALIAN. AN AMERICAN GUY THOUGHT I WAS AUSTRALIAN. I can't help but adopt the accent when I hear it all around me, and I'm THAT GOOD. He doesn't believe me when I say I'm from LA until I list some streets in Beverlywood that he is familiar with.
After lunch – a very delicious spinach/pumpkin/feta/tomato/pine nut salad, we part ways and I take the cliff walk all the way to Coogee. It starts out well, with the brilliant ocean on one side and the eroded sandstone ledges on the other – all of Australia is made of sandstone, basically – but I get tired quickly and Coogee turns out to be MUCH farther than the 5k that Lonely Planet promised. By the time I get there I have only the strength to buy a frozen coke and plunk my tired ass onto a bus.
Back in Sydney, I have a long time with the check in guy about the best junk foods here. He has some very strong opinions. He also has a routine in which he eats strictly healthy 6 days a week and then on his day off from work he pigs out on junk food. The other workers sitting at check-in nod and shake their heads to let me know that he actually DOES consume junk food all day long Sunday. He shows me some of his favorites online. We agree that Tim Tams are amazing and then I go off to Coles to buy about 15 packs of them. For you. All of you. (And some for me.)
I meet Georgina the Irish and Hannah the Finnish back in my room, eat dinner, and finish my ninth book of the trip. Luckily, this YHA is stocked and so I load up on 5 more books, just in case.
Australian thing of the day: ME. (almost)
The bus ride is uneventful until the bus rounds a curve and tops over a hill to give a glorious view of Bronte, a little beachside suburb of colored buildings and a rocky peninsula and white sand, and it is just PERFECT. I feel like I'm in Europe. I'm early for our lunch, so I actually walk back up the hill to where the bus turned so I can take some shots of the picturesque area. I can't believe I haven't been here sooner.
I meet Orna, and she tells me that we are having lunch with a visiting Kabbalah scholar, which I find weird. I'm pretty sure that she knows that I don't study Kabbalah and I would hope that she knows that I didn't come to Australia to meet any visiting scholars of anything, but I don't say anything. We take a gorgeous walk along the beach to get to Bondi, and meet Zohar. He is actually quite funny and I'm glad he's there because Orna turns out to be not that talkative. When we get to the cafe, his friend Shuli meets us, and she is even cooler. We talk about crazy southern Christian Fundamentalists, and Aboriginal cultures, and the ultra orthodox guy that was just caught selling body parts on the black market. Shuli and Zohar are quite interesting and I'm actually enjoying myself. The highlight of the month comes when Zohar asks me where I'm from because HE THOUGHT I WAS AUSTRALIAN. AN AMERICAN GUY THOUGHT I WAS AUSTRALIAN. I can't help but adopt the accent when I hear it all around me, and I'm THAT GOOD. He doesn't believe me when I say I'm from LA until I list some streets in Beverlywood that he is familiar with.
After lunch – a very delicious spinach/pumpkin/feta/tomato/pine nut salad, we part ways and I take the cliff walk all the way to Coogee. It starts out well, with the brilliant ocean on one side and the eroded sandstone ledges on the other – all of Australia is made of sandstone, basically – but I get tired quickly and Coogee turns out to be MUCH farther than the 5k that Lonely Planet promised. By the time I get there I have only the strength to buy a frozen coke and plunk my tired ass onto a bus.
Back in Sydney, I have a long time with the check in guy about the best junk foods here. He has some very strong opinions. He also has a routine in which he eats strictly healthy 6 days a week and then on his day off from work he pigs out on junk food. The other workers sitting at check-in nod and shake their heads to let me know that he actually DOES consume junk food all day long Sunday. He shows me some of his favorites online. We agree that Tim Tams are amazing and then I go off to Coles to buy about 15 packs of them. For you. All of you. (And some for me.)
I meet Georgina the Irish and Hannah the Finnish back in my room, eat dinner, and finish my ninth book of the trip. Luckily, this YHA is stocked and so I load up on 5 more books, just in case.
Australian thing of the day: ME. (almost)
august 2: back to sid-nee
My overnight bus landed in Sydney at 8 in the morning and I was ZONKED. The YHA didn't check in people until noon, so I took all my crap up to the lounge and had a nap. When I could finally check in, I had a much needed shower. THEN I WENT SHOPPING!!!!!!!
Well, I kind of walked around the historically important Rocks area, but mostly I was shopping. I bought a big, cozy, gray sweatshirt/sweater that I will not wear for several months in LA. I walked across the Harbor Bridge and it was cool to see the whole city of Sydney below me. I went shopping at Coles supermarket and bought what I thought was enough food to last for the next few days.
In the evening, I watched Milk at the hostel. It was incredibly moving and reminded me of all the protests that went on this year against Prop 8 and the gay marriage ban. I felt like I really had to discuss that with someone but absolutely no one in the room (or in my hostel room) was American. It was pretty frustrating.
Australian thing of the day: My new fleece sweatshirt! Or the eighth McDonalds soft serve of the month!
Well, I kind of walked around the historically important Rocks area, but mostly I was shopping. I bought a big, cozy, gray sweatshirt/sweater that I will not wear for several months in LA. I walked across the Harbor Bridge and it was cool to see the whole city of Sydney below me. I went shopping at Coles supermarket and bought what I thought was enough food to last for the next few days.
In the evening, I watched Milk at the hostel. It was incredibly moving and reminded me of all the protests that went on this year against Prop 8 and the gay marriage ban. I felt like I really had to discuss that with someone but absolutely no one in the room (or in my hostel room) was American. It was pretty frustrating.
Australian thing of the day: My new fleece sweatshirt! Or the eighth McDonalds soft serve of the month!
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