As I said last night I missed out on a week of posting due to some internet woes and scheduling issues so I'm trying to detail all that's happened, as a more productive form of procrastination.
Sunday I took a short walk towards the harbor to voluntarily visit a museum on the trip. While I don't dislike museums I prefer being outdoors and getting to meet people rather than traditional stuffy museums. Thus far I'd only visited three museums in Canberra and found it to be a much for one day so I was hoping for better results at the Powerhouse Museum. The Powerhouse was described as a museum focusing on inventions with some really odd but interesting exhibitions. There couldn't be a better description. It is a nice combination of really impressive older stuff-the first coal train in Australia, what a typical country store would be, space history (all Russian and American-no mention of Australia) and then some more modern exhibits. We traveled back to the 80's through five rooms filled with pop music, posters, newspaper clippings and souvenirs from the 80's in a really well-done exhibit. On the floor below they had exhibits of fantastic photographs of trains from a contest the museum had run and then an interactive exhibition on sustainability that taught me a few things. My favorite part of the whole museum was their replica of the Strasburg Clock. Made in 1890 the clock is absolutely immense and the most intricate clocks you could ever imagine. On the hour the museums does a showing about the clock including a moving display with the 12 apostles and a description of how the clock calculates the time, date, tide, sun location, moon location, and several other ridiculous categories. The clock was absolutely immense and had so many different odd characteristics that I could only really stare in wonder-I definitely couldn't do it justice in photographs. The real clock is in the Church of Notre Dame in Strasbourg France. Here are the pictures:
Powerhouse Museum
Outside of the weekend trips I just finished a fantastic book by Bill Bryson, Sunburned Country. Bryson describes his travels through Australia and how he came to love the nation that I'm slowly falling for myself. If you're interested in history, traveling, Australia, being a writer or even fantastic creatures you have to read the book. I've never read a travel book before but I could hardly put it down and found myself laughing and trying to do everything he did just because it all sounded so amazing. His humor was a real suprise and his knack for remembering small details was incredible-must read for anyone who makes the trip down under.
Outside of that I'm looking forward to a rather rough next few days with so much work for school being scheduled around tomorrow's Germany-Spain matchup at 4Am and my first AFL game. AFL is a combination of American football, soccer, lacrosse and a half-dozen other sports and is really entertaining. The players take some ridiculous blindside hits but rarely stay on the ground like American athletes are so prone to do. With the abuse they take you would expect them to all be huge but these guys are pretty normal sized in comparison to players in the NFL. I'll make sure to get a ton of photos and hopefully some video for the blog. I have been taking video just haven't had a good chance/place to load it onto the internet.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Everything's Moving At A Frantic Pace: Still Living the Life
I was on a roll, four blog posts in a week and even a new follower (thanks Steph) and then my internet failed. Five days without internet really killed my roll and a busy weekend followed by class all Monday didn't help either. The past week has been really busy though filled with another trip to the beach, my best week at my internship yet, a sweet visit to a museum, more world cup and a new book that I can't put down plus plenty of planning for traveling. I won't bore you with all the details but I'll give you some of the highlights plus more photos.
Saturday my friend Dan and I headed to Manly Beach, one of Sydney's two famous beaches instead of going on a group wining tasting tour. Maybe it's me but I'll take a beautiful trip to the beach with a ferry ride each way over a 90 dollar wine tasting tour any day. To get to the beach we took a ferry across Sydney Harbor for 7 dollars each way. I ended up taking 138 pictures Saturday and as you'll see the majority were of the harbor which never ceases to amaze. When we arrived in Manly it was a bustling little tourist beach town with a main strip with lots of food and tourist boutiques. We grabbed sandwiches from a chicken place and then rushed down to the beach: there were the surfers we had heard so much about, riding really tiny waves. Maybe it was just a bad day, or the wrong tide but the main beach at Manly is not a surfers paradise.
The unique thing about Manly is it combines the pristine beaches of Bondi and the wildness of a national park, Royal National Park. While neither aspect was quite as jaw dropping, Manly had plenty to offer. We began the leisurely 10K walk and immediately began second guessing where we were going. The trail was poorly marked and there always seemed to multiple paths that could not be ruled out but never looked altogether promising. After an hour of wandering around the cliffs and light bush that included a run in with an Australian Mets fan we found ourselves in the middle of the national park. In its midst we stopped at the visitor centre that was based in an old military base. An old couple manned the fort and told us that we had to visit Fairway Lookout where we could "see whales on the surfer's side." To me that was pure gold: whales and potentially real surf with experienced surfers, how can you beat it?
Unfortunately as we followed the map and her directions we got lost. We recognized a point on the map and realized we had gone way too far and missed our turn. To our right lay a sign that said no humans past this point but also led in the direction we needed to go. Instead of trying to double back and circle the active Aussie military base in the middle of the park we decided to try to follow a small little path at the last point on the map we recognized that ran paralled to the path that was clearly off limits. Unfortunately as Dan led us farther down the path it became narrower and narrower and turned into a true Australian bush walk. All around us was thick vegetation, with prickly needles digging into our shoes and hands and no end in site. The only reason we knew we were still going in the right direction was the six foot stone wall that we had passed on our original walk still lay to our right and glass bottles shard still laid strewn around us (as we went on we figured out they were probably from drunken escapades inside the base rather than stupid tourists wandering down it like ourselves). Finally we pushed through truimphant out of the shady bush and straight into the edge of the base, we knew it was the base because we had been looking at the same tank covered in camouflage gear only 25 minutes before just from the other side of the wall 250 feet away. Quickly we decided to skiddadle and took the first path we saw-Memorial Drive. Memorial Drive turned out to be a pretty historical, sacred path and after taking a few pictures along the empty path we decided that we really did need to get out of there. Halfway down the path we saw a little path with the wall leading to the end of it and traffic on the other side and ran down to it. As I began climbing it, Dan said to check out the top of the wall first. At first I thought he was joking but sure enough at the top of the wall cemented into it were shards of green glass beer bottles to keep people out. After a few cautious moments of maneuvering and a jump we were finally out of the empty but active military base. Considering we were yelled at at the US consulate for trying to take pictures of the buildings, I really don't want to think about what would've happened if we had been caught inside an active Australian base.
After all that trouble Fairway Lookout wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. It's not that it wasn't pretty and had amazing views it was just that it didn't have that awe factor that so many of the other places we've traveled have specialized in. With Bondi Beach, Royal National Park and the Blue Mountains already clouding our judgment it seemed slightly more commonplace in contrast. None the less the ferry ride home at sunset was well worth the trip and I don't want you to believe I didn't love Manly I just wasn't as impressed as I was with some of the other natural beauties of Australia. The pictures are below:
Manly Beach
In other news, I had a ridiculously busy week at my internship last week. I was out on shoots all day Tuesday-Thursday and even got to see Toy Story 3 in 3D for a story that we were originally going to air. Wednesday and Thursday I got to go out on shoots for the same story with the same reporter and camera man and soundo for the first time in my six weeks thus far at A Current Affair. Getting to spend two full days and really getting to talk and see the way they think was amazing and when the story airs tomorrow it will be the first story I followed and worked on from start (shooting) to finish (shotlisting and editing). I had a great time, felt like I actually was providing some real help and today got to help out in the editing process because I knew everything about the story.
The World Cup provided another fantastic weekend of games and although I didn't have the energy to go out, I did get the results I wanted. Upsets by Germany and the Netherlands over Argentina and Brazil, makes it even more likely that one of the two teams I came into the WC rooting for will win it. While I won't be waking up at 4 tonight to watch the Uruguay-Netherlands game, Thursday I will be to see Germany conquer another giant (Spain) and take me one step closer to winning 60 dollars in our BU Sydney pool. By the way this week is also our second to last week of classes so I have a 2000 word paper due Saturday, 1500 word due Monday, hour long group presentation Monday and a 500 word due Monday. Normally that would seem like a lot but this is Australia I'm living in and there's better stuff to think about.
I want to post again tomorrow or Thursday-about my trip to the powerhouse museum, a really cool history of inventions museum with some some really cool more modern exhibits. And Sunday I head to my first Aussie Rules Football game before I go to my first National Rugby League next Friday at the biggest stadium at Sydney (this place rocks).
Saturday my friend Dan and I headed to Manly Beach, one of Sydney's two famous beaches instead of going on a group wining tasting tour. Maybe it's me but I'll take a beautiful trip to the beach with a ferry ride each way over a 90 dollar wine tasting tour any day. To get to the beach we took a ferry across Sydney Harbor for 7 dollars each way. I ended up taking 138 pictures Saturday and as you'll see the majority were of the harbor which never ceases to amaze. When we arrived in Manly it was a bustling little tourist beach town with a main strip with lots of food and tourist boutiques. We grabbed sandwiches from a chicken place and then rushed down to the beach: there were the surfers we had heard so much about, riding really tiny waves. Maybe it was just a bad day, or the wrong tide but the main beach at Manly is not a surfers paradise.
The unique thing about Manly is it combines the pristine beaches of Bondi and the wildness of a national park, Royal National Park. While neither aspect was quite as jaw dropping, Manly had plenty to offer. We began the leisurely 10K walk and immediately began second guessing where we were going. The trail was poorly marked and there always seemed to multiple paths that could not be ruled out but never looked altogether promising. After an hour of wandering around the cliffs and light bush that included a run in with an Australian Mets fan we found ourselves in the middle of the national park. In its midst we stopped at the visitor centre that was based in an old military base. An old couple manned the fort and told us that we had to visit Fairway Lookout where we could "see whales on the surfer's side." To me that was pure gold: whales and potentially real surf with experienced surfers, how can you beat it?
Unfortunately as we followed the map and her directions we got lost. We recognized a point on the map and realized we had gone way too far and missed our turn. To our right lay a sign that said no humans past this point but also led in the direction we needed to go. Instead of trying to double back and circle the active Aussie military base in the middle of the park we decided to try to follow a small little path at the last point on the map we recognized that ran paralled to the path that was clearly off limits. Unfortunately as Dan led us farther down the path it became narrower and narrower and turned into a true Australian bush walk. All around us was thick vegetation, with prickly needles digging into our shoes and hands and no end in site. The only reason we knew we were still going in the right direction was the six foot stone wall that we had passed on our original walk still lay to our right and glass bottles shard still laid strewn around us (as we went on we figured out they were probably from drunken escapades inside the base rather than stupid tourists wandering down it like ourselves). Finally we pushed through truimphant out of the shady bush and straight into the edge of the base, we knew it was the base because we had been looking at the same tank covered in camouflage gear only 25 minutes before just from the other side of the wall 250 feet away. Quickly we decided to skiddadle and took the first path we saw-Memorial Drive. Memorial Drive turned out to be a pretty historical, sacred path and after taking a few pictures along the empty path we decided that we really did need to get out of there. Halfway down the path we saw a little path with the wall leading to the end of it and traffic on the other side and ran down to it. As I began climbing it, Dan said to check out the top of the wall first. At first I thought he was joking but sure enough at the top of the wall cemented into it were shards of green glass beer bottles to keep people out. After a few cautious moments of maneuvering and a jump we were finally out of the empty but active military base. Considering we were yelled at at the US consulate for trying to take pictures of the buildings, I really don't want to think about what would've happened if we had been caught inside an active Australian base.
After all that trouble Fairway Lookout wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. It's not that it wasn't pretty and had amazing views it was just that it didn't have that awe factor that so many of the other places we've traveled have specialized in. With Bondi Beach, Royal National Park and the Blue Mountains already clouding our judgment it seemed slightly more commonplace in contrast. None the less the ferry ride home at sunset was well worth the trip and I don't want you to believe I didn't love Manly I just wasn't as impressed as I was with some of the other natural beauties of Australia. The pictures are below:
Manly Beach
In other news, I had a ridiculously busy week at my internship last week. I was out on shoots all day Tuesday-Thursday and even got to see Toy Story 3 in 3D for a story that we were originally going to air. Wednesday and Thursday I got to go out on shoots for the same story with the same reporter and camera man and soundo for the first time in my six weeks thus far at A Current Affair. Getting to spend two full days and really getting to talk and see the way they think was amazing and when the story airs tomorrow it will be the first story I followed and worked on from start (shooting) to finish (shotlisting and editing). I had a great time, felt like I actually was providing some real help and today got to help out in the editing process because I knew everything about the story.
The World Cup provided another fantastic weekend of games and although I didn't have the energy to go out, I did get the results I wanted. Upsets by Germany and the Netherlands over Argentina and Brazil, makes it even more likely that one of the two teams I came into the WC rooting for will win it. While I won't be waking up at 4 tonight to watch the Uruguay-Netherlands game, Thursday I will be to see Germany conquer another giant (Spain) and take me one step closer to winning 60 dollars in our BU Sydney pool. By the way this week is also our second to last week of classes so I have a 2000 word paper due Saturday, 1500 word due Monday, hour long group presentation Monday and a 500 word due Monday. Normally that would seem like a lot but this is Australia I'm living in and there's better stuff to think about.
I want to post again tomorrow or Thursday-about my trip to the powerhouse museum, a really cool history of inventions museum with some some really cool more modern exhibits. And Sunday I head to my first Aussie Rules Football game before I go to my first National Rugby League next Friday at the biggest stadium at Sydney (this place rocks).
Monday, June 28, 2010
Life In Sydney
We decided to have a slow weekend in Sydney this weekend, which of course entailed more exploring. Sydney has a huge art festival every other year called the Biennale. The Biennale literally has exhibits at every large museum and has taken over some areas so we decided that we would finally check it out. Instead of going to a museum though we took a free ferry out to Cockatoo Island where the entire museum was adorned in mostly socialist art. There was an even an exhibit with life sized replicas of Mao, Stalin and a breathing Castro (it was a little much). Most of the exhibits were not what I'd define as artsy but their were a couple of huge displays that I liked, including a set of exploding cars, and getting to explore the island and taking two free trips across the harbor made it well worth it. The best part was there were zero cockatoos on the island just a ridiculous amount of seagulls.
Earlier this weekend we decided to go to the racetrack because my friend Kelsey had gone before back in the states and said it was a ton of fun. A company was offering a package deal but we just decided to do it on our own-skipped the champagne breakfast and advice from the expert and see what it was like. It was a pretty big racetrack, it least I think it was I'd never been to one before, but extremely empty when we got there just after the first race. We all decided to place a dollar bet down on the next race and waited eagerly. When my bet paid off I was extremely happy and proceeded to bet on the the last six races and win 12 dollars (despite never betting more than a 1.50 on any race). I would never want to go every weekend but its definitely something to try, especially when horses like AlittlebitofMonica, Shaketheground and OurBillyDaKid come through.
The rest of the pictures that this post/photo album revolve around are my walking trips through Sydney. Sydney has a remarkably effective public transportation system that is always on time but we still prefer to walk it because from where we live we can reach most of the city within an hour. Plus when you're walking you just get to see more things. For instance we went to Hyde Park, in downtown Sydney, and visited a World War I Memorial and what was supposed to be a life-sized chess board (turned out the pieces were only about 2.5 feet high).
Random Sydney Photos
Earlier this weekend we decided to go to the racetrack because my friend Kelsey had gone before back in the states and said it was a ton of fun. A company was offering a package deal but we just decided to do it on our own-skipped the champagne breakfast and advice from the expert and see what it was like. It was a pretty big racetrack, it least I think it was I'd never been to one before, but extremely empty when we got there just after the first race. We all decided to place a dollar bet down on the next race and waited eagerly. When my bet paid off I was extremely happy and proceeded to bet on the the last six races and win 12 dollars (despite never betting more than a 1.50 on any race). I would never want to go every weekend but its definitely something to try, especially when horses like AlittlebitofMonica, Shaketheground and OurBillyDaKid come through.
The rest of the pictures that this post/photo album revolve around are my walking trips through Sydney. Sydney has a remarkably effective public transportation system that is always on time but we still prefer to walk it because from where we live we can reach most of the city within an hour. Plus when you're walking you just get to see more things. For instance we went to Hyde Park, in downtown Sydney, and visited a World War I Memorial and what was supposed to be a life-sized chess board (turned out the pieces were only about 2.5 feet high).
Random Sydney Photos
Saturday, June 26, 2010
The Emerald City! or their equivalent
Monday our entire group took a trip to Canberra, the capital city of Australia. I was psyched for it, we hadn't been told we were going to go originally as part of the trip and BU paid to fly us there and back and take us to four museums. But when we woke up at 5AM two-thirds of the group was complaining, whining and being generally intolerable because they thought it was a waste of time. That's why I really hate with traveling with large groups of people; most people are too concerned with their personal comfort and not what's being done for them or the beauty of things around them.
The actual trip was really cool. Canberra was designed by Burley Griffin, an American, who won an international design competition to come up with a design for the new Australian capital. Griffin decided to dam the local river and put a lake in the middle of the city with the city built in a triangle around it. It's a little odd but for a city that is only now eclipsing 400,000 people it works.
We went to the Old Parliament House first and it was pretty unique. In our two hours there I got to see their old version of the Oval Office, the room where the cabinet met and where both houses of Congress had sessions. Their congress is interesting because it took bits and pieces from both the US and UK. They named their two houses the Senate and House of Representatives but the color scheme is the same as the Brits with one of the chambers being red and the other green (and other influences). The coolest part for me was checking out the press gallery and seeing where the journalists sat in both houses.
Next we traveled to two rather boring museums. The National Australian Museum was a bit too much on an empty stomach and little sleep. It was smaller than the Smithsonian but was just as comprehensive in describing Australian history. The National Film and Sound Museum wasn't great either but I stumbled across an archive of old film and television and clips and came out extremely happy. They had clips of Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee) as a comedian, classic Australian commercials and old sports clips along with historical pieces that made the stay well worth it.
The best part of the trip by far though was the ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) War Memorial and Museum. Despite the fact Australia has only been a nation since 1901 and has not fought in nearly as many wars as the European nations they have great pride in the fighting tradition. The museum was tied for the world's largest war memorial and museum with one in England and was a place they said every Australian should visit. The museum was massive and detailed all of Australia's campaigns in WWI, WWII, the Korean War and Afghanistan and Iraq among others. But the memorial was what made it worth coming. Outside they had walls adorned with flowers and the names of every Aussie who had died in combat or because of their war wounds. In the middle of the monument they had a long pool with a undying flame at the end and inside they had the tomb of an unknown soldier underneath a spectacular dome. The whole thing was very solemn but inspiring at the same time. At the end of each day they have a bagpipe player close the museum with an ode as the sun sets-pretty unique and amazing.
I loved my time in Canberra despite the time it was so much smaller than our nation's capital. I hope you can see some similarities when you look through the pictures-the long grass fields between monuments, the terrific use of water and the overall beauty. The pictures are below:
Canberra
O ya and three days later the Labor party (the party in control) basically overthrew their leader (the prime minister) and replaced him with the deputy prime minister (2nd in command). Three years after winning a landslide victory and after being one of the most popular Prime Ministers in history Kevin Rudd lost his role to Julia Gillard (the first female PM in Australia). Three days after we left. My entire office was glued to the television all day Thursday watching this unfold after it had been first announced as a rumor Wednesday night. While I don't enjoy politics generally-the entire thing was fascinating and I couldn't help but watch. This was only the second time in history a PM had been replaced outside of elections. Now if only the US can continue their glorious run in the World Cup-gametime for today's Ghana game: 4:30 AM.
The actual trip was really cool. Canberra was designed by Burley Griffin, an American, who won an international design competition to come up with a design for the new Australian capital. Griffin decided to dam the local river and put a lake in the middle of the city with the city built in a triangle around it. It's a little odd but for a city that is only now eclipsing 400,000 people it works.
We went to the Old Parliament House first and it was pretty unique. In our two hours there I got to see their old version of the Oval Office, the room where the cabinet met and where both houses of Congress had sessions. Their congress is interesting because it took bits and pieces from both the US and UK. They named their two houses the Senate and House of Representatives but the color scheme is the same as the Brits with one of the chambers being red and the other green (and other influences). The coolest part for me was checking out the press gallery and seeing where the journalists sat in both houses.
Next we traveled to two rather boring museums. The National Australian Museum was a bit too much on an empty stomach and little sleep. It was smaller than the Smithsonian but was just as comprehensive in describing Australian history. The National Film and Sound Museum wasn't great either but I stumbled across an archive of old film and television and clips and came out extremely happy. They had clips of Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee) as a comedian, classic Australian commercials and old sports clips along with historical pieces that made the stay well worth it.
The best part of the trip by far though was the ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) War Memorial and Museum. Despite the fact Australia has only been a nation since 1901 and has not fought in nearly as many wars as the European nations they have great pride in the fighting tradition. The museum was tied for the world's largest war memorial and museum with one in England and was a place they said every Australian should visit. The museum was massive and detailed all of Australia's campaigns in WWI, WWII, the Korean War and Afghanistan and Iraq among others. But the memorial was what made it worth coming. Outside they had walls adorned with flowers and the names of every Aussie who had died in combat or because of their war wounds. In the middle of the monument they had a long pool with a undying flame at the end and inside they had the tomb of an unknown soldier underneath a spectacular dome. The whole thing was very solemn but inspiring at the same time. At the end of each day they have a bagpipe player close the museum with an ode as the sun sets-pretty unique and amazing.
I loved my time in Canberra despite the time it was so much smaller than our nation's capital. I hope you can see some similarities when you look through the pictures-the long grass fields between monuments, the terrific use of water and the overall beauty. The pictures are below:
Canberra
O ya and three days later the Labor party (the party in control) basically overthrew their leader (the prime minister) and replaced him with the deputy prime minister (2nd in command). Three years after winning a landslide victory and after being one of the most popular Prime Ministers in history Kevin Rudd lost his role to Julia Gillard (the first female PM in Australia). Three days after we left. My entire office was glued to the television all day Thursday watching this unfold after it had been first announced as a rumor Wednesday night. While I don't enjoy politics generally-the entire thing was fascinating and I couldn't help but watch. This was only the second time in history a PM had been replaced outside of elections. Now if only the US can continue their glorious run in the World Cup-gametime for today's Ghana game: 4:30 AM.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
It's Winter. So What? We're Going to the Beach
It is technically winter here in Sydney which means two things: average temperatures of about 17-21 degrees Celsius (50-70) and more rain than usual. So you would think that it is not quite beach weather but in our month stay I've been to three different beaches and look forward to making it to my fourth this weekend or next. Australia's beaches are numerous (it is an island) and pretty famous- not just for their beauty but for their surfing. So we've made it a point to travel and check out some of the more popular/most breathtaking ones.
The first weekend we went to Bondi Beach-its a surfers' paradise. There are great waves with several beaches making up the larger Bondi area and the surfers looked like they were having a great time. Seeing as it was before surf camp we just decided to take the scenic 3K walk along the cliffs. All of the views were amazing as the shoreline was dotted with little towns, great vegetation and some astounding views of the ocean. The highlight of the day for me was definitely seeing a small whale just off the beach. I was under a part of the cliff in a little cover probably 60-70 feet above the ocean when this older couple said they saw a whale. At first I didn't believe them but sure enough the 10-15 foot whale came up and submerged a good three or four times before we lost sight of it. The whale had to be within 250-300 feet from shore and it was just amazing to me that this was a beach that was within 30 minutes of town by bus. I got one good photo of the backside of the whale as he's going back beneath the waves. The other cool part of the beach was that they had several swimming pools on the edge of the rocks that were being filled up by the surf. I had never seen anything like it but want to try it while I'm here. Pictures are below:
Bondi Beach
Our second trip was to Surf Camp but we couldn't bring our cameras down to the beach and the photographs taken by one of the surf instructors cost 50 bucks for all of your photos from the weekend. That's fine but I only had 12 where as one of my friends had 54-wasn't quite worth it. I'll delve into the great experience of surf camp this weekend I promise.
Two weekends ago we went to Royal National Park. New South Wales, one of the six states of Australia (where Sydney is located), has a ton of national parks but this is the only one locals recommend. We took the train for an hour and then a ferry another 25 minutes out to what turned out to be a park of 100+KM that was landlocked. As we took the ferry over we noticed how beautiful the water was with lots of extremely clear blue patches that you wouldn't see in the States. We took off on a 10K hike that day that was at times brutal but also ridiculously beautiful. The beaches were really nice and we even went wading a bit, although not on purpose. The trail took us along the coastline and through some trees and shrubs that gave us a very small dose of what the Australian bush is like. In the end we were extremely relieved when we got off the path that we were praying was the right one to see the Sydney skyline far off in the distance. The little town we took the ferry too was pretty cool as there were parrots roosting in a lot of the trees in people's backyards. They also had a WWI monument along the trail-a trend that I'll explain more about when I do a post about my trip to Canberra that I took Monday.
Royal National Park
As for what I'm up to currently and the future: tomorrow I'm going out solo for the first time with a camera crew to do interviews for a story that's airing next week. Everyone in my office now trusts me and constantly are finding more and more things to have me do which is making life a lot easier.
Today was a really unique experience as the Prime Minister (their version of the president) was replaced by his party in favor of his Deputy minister (VP). The new Prime Minister is Julia Gillard the first woman Prime Minister in Australian history (they've only had 22). It was pretty cool to get caught up in the history and I definitely enjoyed being part of such a historical event. It was only the second time in Aussie history a PM had been displaced by his party in favor of another person during their term.
This weekend hopefully I'm going to the horse racetrack, just to say that I've experienced it. We're also planning on visiting a few museums, maybe going to another beach and definitely going to the USA-GHANA game which is at 4:30AM here in Sydney. It's not easy following the World Cup down under but it hasn't stopped me yet.
The first weekend we went to Bondi Beach-its a surfers' paradise. There are great waves with several beaches making up the larger Bondi area and the surfers looked like they were having a great time. Seeing as it was before surf camp we just decided to take the scenic 3K walk along the cliffs. All of the views were amazing as the shoreline was dotted with little towns, great vegetation and some astounding views of the ocean. The highlight of the day for me was definitely seeing a small whale just off the beach. I was under a part of the cliff in a little cover probably 60-70 feet above the ocean when this older couple said they saw a whale. At first I didn't believe them but sure enough the 10-15 foot whale came up and submerged a good three or four times before we lost sight of it. The whale had to be within 250-300 feet from shore and it was just amazing to me that this was a beach that was within 30 minutes of town by bus. I got one good photo of the backside of the whale as he's going back beneath the waves. The other cool part of the beach was that they had several swimming pools on the edge of the rocks that were being filled up by the surf. I had never seen anything like it but want to try it while I'm here. Pictures are below:
Bondi Beach
Our second trip was to Surf Camp but we couldn't bring our cameras down to the beach and the photographs taken by one of the surf instructors cost 50 bucks for all of your photos from the weekend. That's fine but I only had 12 where as one of my friends had 54-wasn't quite worth it. I'll delve into the great experience of surf camp this weekend I promise.
Two weekends ago we went to Royal National Park. New South Wales, one of the six states of Australia (where Sydney is located), has a ton of national parks but this is the only one locals recommend. We took the train for an hour and then a ferry another 25 minutes out to what turned out to be a park of 100+KM that was landlocked. As we took the ferry over we noticed how beautiful the water was with lots of extremely clear blue patches that you wouldn't see in the States. We took off on a 10K hike that day that was at times brutal but also ridiculously beautiful. The beaches were really nice and we even went wading a bit, although not on purpose. The trail took us along the coastline and through some trees and shrubs that gave us a very small dose of what the Australian bush is like. In the end we were extremely relieved when we got off the path that we were praying was the right one to see the Sydney skyline far off in the distance. The little town we took the ferry too was pretty cool as there were parrots roosting in a lot of the trees in people's backyards. They also had a WWI monument along the trail-a trend that I'll explain more about when I do a post about my trip to Canberra that I took Monday.
Royal National Park
As for what I'm up to currently and the future: tomorrow I'm going out solo for the first time with a camera crew to do interviews for a story that's airing next week. Everyone in my office now trusts me and constantly are finding more and more things to have me do which is making life a lot easier.
Today was a really unique experience as the Prime Minister (their version of the president) was replaced by his party in favor of his Deputy minister (VP). The new Prime Minister is Julia Gillard the first woman Prime Minister in Australian history (they've only had 22). It was pretty cool to get caught up in the history and I definitely enjoyed being part of such a historical event. It was only the second time in Aussie history a PM had been displaced by his party in favor of another person during their term.
This weekend hopefully I'm going to the horse racetrack, just to say that I've experienced it. We're also planning on visiting a few museums, maybe going to another beach and definitely going to the USA-GHANA game which is at 4:30AM here in Sydney. It's not easy following the World Cup down under but it hasn't stopped me yet.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Way Too Long
Just got back from another exhausting, eventful and overall fantastic weekend. We went to the Blue Mountains this weekend-a small mountain range about two hours away from Sydney by train. While we expected some ridiculous views and intense hiking we didn't quite know what we we're getting into with the town we were staying in.Katoomba is the main town in the tourist attraction that is the Blue Mountains, so we found a cheap hostel there because it's centrally located. But by the end of the night one of our group members described it as "small town Australia on acid." I wouldn't go that far but because this weekend was there winter solstice they had a huge magic festival-go figure. Within fifteen minutes of getting into town we were watching an extremely long magic parade with a few thousand people in costumes walking by. Some were celebrating the magical theme with witches and wizard costumes, but others were dressed as snowmen, caterpillars or even dragons. There were also a large contigent of people supporting causes-including the Green Party-which is still the third party here but has a lot more support (between 15 and 20% in the polls). The magic crowd stayed in town till late at night taking in the liveshows and fireworks which we appreciated.
The actual hiking and scenery was amazing. We probably hiked/walked a good 25-30 km this weekend and went up or down it least 2500 stairs on the paths. On Saturday we walked on the only path/trail I've ever seen that has said for strong walkers only. The path took us down 900 stairs at some ridiculous angles that left all of our legs in atrophy and quivering by the time we reached the bottom. Fortunately the way up only included 780 stairs. My entire body is sore as I type this.
It was all worth it though. Katoomba is known for these three large rocks known as the Three Sisters that are sacred to the Aboriginal people. What was even cooler was the wide array of waterfalls and the fact that the entire valley was a temperate rainforest. I had never seen one before and it was fascinating. While there weren't a ton of animals, the vegetation was extremely thick away from the paths and being down in the valley was really eerie. I forgot to charge my camera before I left so I couldn't take as many photos as I would have liked and they certainly don't do justice to what I saw this weekend. I would say this was definitely the most beautiful place we've been which is saying something (the beaches may look better in photographs but this was just awe inspiring). A link to the photos is below.
Blue Mountains
I know I'm getting behind and I have so many stories I want to tell and photos and even some videos I want to post. Last week I was sick and had a paper so I couldn't do much but I'll try to upload all my photos and break down my adventures at some of the beaches, surf camp and the world cup thus far. Watching the World Cup at 4AM abroad is definitely a different experience-I've been drenched by English fans, sat in a pansy patch to watch a game and been given serious props by random Australian fans for being a Yankee who actually watches the sport.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
World Cup Madness
So I still have pictures to post and stories to tell about past experiences but right now it's all about the World Cup. Last night we went down to the Harbor at 9PM to watch the opening ceremonies and we're there till 2:30 watching the opening game between Mexico and South Africa. Sydney is one of seven cities that are sponsoring official FIFA World Cup Festivals and it puts the U.S. to such shame. There were 20,000 people there last night for a game that didn't involve Australia and it was a huge party. The games were broadcast on three or four big-screens floating out on the water and at a park close to the harbor. Only four of us stayed for the game but the atmosphere and tension was great. There was a large Mexico contigent and a fair amount of actual South Africa fans along with a lot of us who just rooted for them because they were the underdogs. It was a first class job by FIFA and all the volunteers and workers and the goals brought even greater joy than usual because huge flames came out from the top of the screens (a welcome treat on a 40 degree night).
Tonight/tomorrow morning the US plays England in their first game. It's 9:30 and I'll be asleep by 10 so I can wake up at 2:30 to get ready for the US game at 4AM. A group of us are going to Cheers, not the original, to watch the game on the big screen and go nuts. Although I'm highly excited for this game I don't have the highest hopes. Two mornings from now will be even crazier when the Socceroos (Australia) take on Germany. It's another 4AM game but we will be at the harbor probably by 2AM to find seats and just soak in the atmosphere. There is Aussie gear everywhere and there are some high hopes for this team. I'll post pictures and hopefully video tomorrow or Monday of our World Cup endeavors and hopefully another post about my earlier adventures.
Tonight/tomorrow morning the US plays England in their first game. It's 9:30 and I'll be asleep by 10 so I can wake up at 2:30 to get ready for the US game at 4AM. A group of us are going to Cheers, not the original, to watch the game on the big screen and go nuts. Although I'm highly excited for this game I don't have the highest hopes. Two mornings from now will be even crazier when the Socceroos (Australia) take on Germany. It's another 4AM game but we will be at the harbor probably by 2AM to find seats and just soak in the atmosphere. There is Aussie gear everywhere and there are some high hopes for this team. I'll post pictures and hopefully video tomorrow or Monday of our World Cup endeavors and hopefully another post about my earlier adventures.
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