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).
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