As detailed here: http://theshaolindownunder.blogspot.com/2008/08/trips-trips-and-more-trips.html I am leaving for spring break today!
We depart tonight at 9PM. I'm flying back on Sunday, October 5th, and will likely be out of internet connection until then.
I'm hoping I can at least sit down here and there and upload pictures, or my 4gb card is going to fill up awfully fast!
See you guys in 17 days!
26 September 2008
21 September 2008
Weekend in the Blue Mountains
First, for any interested parties out there, an update on the wallet situation. I am okay! I've been borrowing money from my roommate, who has been gracious enough to float me some bucks until my debit card arrives this week. I've replaced my student ID card (fo free!), my train pass (for $25), my wallet (with a cheap leather wallet for $15, score!) I'm going to be getting a NSW proof of age card (for $42) so I don't have to take my passport with me.
Anyways, on to important business. I spent Thursday-Saturday this week in the Blue Mountains (which, by the way, are blue because of the sunlight reflecting off the oil released by the eucalyptus trees, or something). I took over 400 pictures and was very happy with so many of them, however, going through and picking out the good ones, I am never happy with the selection I pick out. I need an editor! Haha.
We departed on Thursday, expecting a 5 hour train ride. However, due to some track work, we were forced to depart the train and take a bus for a stretch of track, stretching our trip to nearly 6 hours. Katoomba is only 239km from Newcastle, meaning we averaged about 25 MPH the whole trip. Kinda depressing once I put it that way.
Upon arrival, we checked into a youth hostel and went for a walk. Katoomba is a tiny, sleepy town tucked into the mountains, and even on a Thursday evening, there was really nothing happening. It actually reminded me a lot of Platteville, especially main street, which had the same look and feel. We got some supper and then called it an early night.
We met Catherine at 9 the next morning. There is a trolley that runs between all the tourist attractions. $20 of your Australian dollars will not only offer you unlimited travel on said trolley, but also a day's worth of travel on the expansive Katoomba city bus system! First scheduled stop was a local wildlife preserve. We were given a tour of the grounds by an Aboriginal guide and showed plants, tools and rocks and how the Aboriginal people used them. After the tour, we were allowed to take pictures and wander around the trails. The scenery was absolutely stunning. Nate and I picked the most challenging trail, going straight down the side of the mountain.
We began the descent down the trail, stopping to take pictures when appropriate. You'll have to excuse the dark photos, those definitely came from his camera!
After this, we hopped on the city trolley and rode the circuit until we got to Echo Point and the Three Sisters, probably the most iconic point of the blue mountains. We watched a rather disappointing sunset and started walking back.
The Aboriginal story of the three sisters is basically that three sisters were being chased by a fearsome mythical creature. The witch doctor turned them to stone to save them, and then turned himself into a bird to save himself. He was unable to find his magic bone afterwards and can't turn the sisters back to girls. The end.
Again, some absolutely stunning scenery.
Telephoto of the valley floor. I liked this alot.
There was a very, very expensive looking hotel set back from the road a ways in town. Catherine had mentioned that there was a bar inside that was probably open to the public. In the interests of being thrown out due to dress code, we wandered inside, to the cocktail lounge. Upon arrival, my first words to the bartender were "Are you wearing a pocketwatch?" He pulled it out by the chain and said "Yes?" "My goodness, we are underdressed".
The girls all ordered $14 fruity, icecreamy dessert alcohol things...I just stuck with a $6 bottle of beer. The girls chatted with the bartenders for a bit. It turns out they had "met" the night before, due to the four of them letting out an unrelenting roaring wall of noise wherever they go. One of the barkeeps was standing outside and heard childish yelling and giggling from blocks away.
I finished my beer and was about to order another one when a funny thought crossed my mind. I realized that this is A) Probably the only bar I've ever been in that would serve Martinis, and B) Quite possibly the only time in my life I will ever have the opportunity to drink a Martini wearing a dirty t-shirt and jeans. I strolled up to the bar, casually leaned on it, and said "Two vodka martinis" in the snobbiest way possible. "Why, certainly, sir!" said the bartender. Everybody laughed.
Final day. We met at 8:30 for an abseiling (rappelling) trip. The normal abseiling site that past groups went to was under maintenance, so we went to an alternate site. The drops were larger, the views were better, and more importantly, the "exposure" was greater. The best way to explain exposure is that rapelling down a 15 meter wall is not daunting in the least, but when you're walking up to the edge of a 15 meter cliff and you can't see the bottom, except for the valley floor, several HUNDRED meters below, you nearly crap your pants. Great times.
Nate and I and two of the girls did four drops, a 7 meter training one, a 15 meter challenging one that was a lot of fun, and then a 45 meter one twice.(yooowwwzzaa) One of the girls did all three drops, the last one is deathly afraid of heights and only did the first two, crying and cursing the whole way down, going down with an instructor. (which we all had a laugh about afterwards, and were actually very impressed she came back for more after the little one). It was an absolute rush and a really great time! I got more comfortable after the first two and learned how to hop down difficult spots in the rock face rather than walking. On my last trip down the 45 meter drop, I tried to go as fast as I could, resulting in a LOT of friction and a neat burn on my side (through the harness and my t-shirt!)
All of these are either the 15 or 45 meter drops.
The view from the top.
For the rest of the day, we wandered over to Scenic world, which was near the three sisters again, but was a delicious tourist trap. I wouldn't have paid the $19 to get in and ride down to the bottom of the valley and back up again, but since it was paid for in the program fees, I'm glad we went. We went down on the world's steepest railway. You practically lay down in this train, and then it goes forward, down at a 52* angle, and suddenly you are sitting up again! The ride to the bottom takes about 30 seconds, you are let to wander around on some trails, and free to choose your own transportation back to the top, foot, railway, or skyway. We took the cable car back to the top.
Finally, they had a bird feeder nearby and I grabbed some nifty shots of the local population.
Now that I've done an absolutely phenomenal job of procrastinating one of my three large assignments due this week, I think I should probably get started on that!
Anyways, on to important business. I spent Thursday-Saturday this week in the Blue Mountains (which, by the way, are blue because of the sunlight reflecting off the oil released by the eucalyptus trees, or something). I took over 400 pictures and was very happy with so many of them, however, going through and picking out the good ones, I am never happy with the selection I pick out. I need an editor! Haha.
We departed on Thursday, expecting a 5 hour train ride. However, due to some track work, we were forced to depart the train and take a bus for a stretch of track, stretching our trip to nearly 6 hours. Katoomba is only 239km from Newcastle, meaning we averaged about 25 MPH the whole trip. Kinda depressing once I put it that way.
Upon arrival, we checked into a youth hostel and went for a walk. Katoomba is a tiny, sleepy town tucked into the mountains, and even on a Thursday evening, there was really nothing happening. It actually reminded me a lot of Platteville, especially main street, which had the same look and feel. We got some supper and then called it an early night.
We met Catherine at 9 the next morning. There is a trolley that runs between all the tourist attractions. $20 of your Australian dollars will not only offer you unlimited travel on said trolley, but also a day's worth of travel on the expansive Katoomba city bus system! First scheduled stop was a local wildlife preserve. We were given a tour of the grounds by an Aboriginal guide and showed plants, tools and rocks and how the Aboriginal people used them. After the tour, we were allowed to take pictures and wander around the trails. The scenery was absolutely stunning. Nate and I picked the most challenging trail, going straight down the side of the mountain.
We began the descent down the trail, stopping to take pictures when appropriate. You'll have to excuse the dark photos, those definitely came from his camera!
After this, we hopped on the city trolley and rode the circuit until we got to Echo Point and the Three Sisters, probably the most iconic point of the blue mountains. We watched a rather disappointing sunset and started walking back.
The Aboriginal story of the three sisters is basically that three sisters were being chased by a fearsome mythical creature. The witch doctor turned them to stone to save them, and then turned himself into a bird to save himself. He was unable to find his magic bone afterwards and can't turn the sisters back to girls. The end.
Again, some absolutely stunning scenery.
Telephoto of the valley floor. I liked this alot.
There was a very, very expensive looking hotel set back from the road a ways in town. Catherine had mentioned that there was a bar inside that was probably open to the public. In the interests of being thrown out due to dress code, we wandered inside, to the cocktail lounge. Upon arrival, my first words to the bartender were "Are you wearing a pocketwatch?" He pulled it out by the chain and said "Yes?" "My goodness, we are underdressed".
The girls all ordered $14 fruity, icecreamy dessert alcohol things...I just stuck with a $6 bottle of beer. The girls chatted with the bartenders for a bit. It turns out they had "met" the night before, due to the four of them letting out an unrelenting roaring wall of noise wherever they go. One of the barkeeps was standing outside and heard childish yelling and giggling from blocks away.
I finished my beer and was about to order another one when a funny thought crossed my mind. I realized that this is A) Probably the only bar I've ever been in that would serve Martinis, and B) Quite possibly the only time in my life I will ever have the opportunity to drink a Martini wearing a dirty t-shirt and jeans. I strolled up to the bar, casually leaned on it, and said "Two vodka martinis" in the snobbiest way possible. "Why, certainly, sir!" said the bartender. Everybody laughed.
Final day. We met at 8:30 for an abseiling (rappelling) trip. The normal abseiling site that past groups went to was under maintenance, so we went to an alternate site. The drops were larger, the views were better, and more importantly, the "exposure" was greater. The best way to explain exposure is that rapelling down a 15 meter wall is not daunting in the least, but when you're walking up to the edge of a 15 meter cliff and you can't see the bottom, except for the valley floor, several HUNDRED meters below, you nearly crap your pants. Great times.
Nate and I and two of the girls did four drops, a 7 meter training one, a 15 meter challenging one that was a lot of fun, and then a 45 meter one twice.(yooowwwzzaa) One of the girls did all three drops, the last one is deathly afraid of heights and only did the first two, crying and cursing the whole way down, going down with an instructor. (which we all had a laugh about afterwards, and were actually very impressed she came back for more after the little one). It was an absolute rush and a really great time! I got more comfortable after the first two and learned how to hop down difficult spots in the rock face rather than walking. On my last trip down the 45 meter drop, I tried to go as fast as I could, resulting in a LOT of friction and a neat burn on my side (through the harness and my t-shirt!)
All of these are either the 15 or 45 meter drops.
The view from the top.
For the rest of the day, we wandered over to Scenic world, which was near the three sisters again, but was a delicious tourist trap. I wouldn't have paid the $19 to get in and ride down to the bottom of the valley and back up again, but since it was paid for in the program fees, I'm glad we went. We went down on the world's steepest railway. You practically lay down in this train, and then it goes forward, down at a 52* angle, and suddenly you are sitting up again! The ride to the bottom takes about 30 seconds, you are let to wander around on some trails, and free to choose your own transportation back to the top, foot, railway, or skyway. We took the cable car back to the top.
Finally, they had a bird feeder nearby and I grabbed some nifty shots of the local population.
Now that I've done an absolutely phenomenal job of procrastinating one of my three large assignments due this week, I think I should probably get started on that!
13 September 2008
The weather gods smile upon me. The gods of surfing and wallet possession do not.
It's really getting nice outside! Today was in the 80's! I think it's fair to say we have finally surpassed Wisconsin in terms of heat!
Now that the weather has been so wonderful, I've been to the beach every day possible. I'd like to say that I'm building up a nifty tan, but you can't tan through a wetsuit! My hair, however, gets noticeably blonder every day I spend outside.
The water is still pretty cold. I picked up a board locally and I'm really happy with it. I think I'd be making a lot more progress if the weather would cooperate, but the surf's been choppy, really bad to learn on...it's been stormy, doesn't make for good surfing!
Surf injuries so far: Stepped on dried seaweed, ribs are very sore from rubbing on surfboard, rash on left knee from dragging on sea bed, floor burn? from wax on right knee, and a shark wound on left forearm. (or a gash from a surf fin, whichever story you prefer)
Yesterday, I went to the beach and removed my shorts with my wallet inside. I put the whole lot into my backpack. I put on my wetsuit, spent two hours playing "let's see who can hit each other hardest" with the ocean (guess who won that one?) and then walked home. I prepared to head over to a friend's house and noticed that I didn't have my wallet. I tore apart my room twice, my bag, and all my surf stuff. No bueno. I walked back to the beach, called the police and checked with the lifeguards...I have absolutely no idea where it went.
As a result of not knowing that it is gone for sure, I keep ocd-tearing up my room looking for it. None of my cards were used either, so I'm really wondering if I have it somewhere. I don't know how it would have left my backpack and still be mine, though.
Here's a list of things that are no longer in my possesion:
$40 dollars or so in Monopoly money.
Two credit cards
One debit card
Two Platteville student IDs
One University of Newcastle student ID
Two Wisconsin driver's licenses
One open water diver PADI card
One University of Newcastle discount card.
One semester train pass (valued at $450)
One magnetic key card to get into my building
One third of one receipt from the last time I saw Joel and Steve
Miscellaneous Burger King and Walmart gift cards of unknown value
At this point, I have absolutely no money and no way to get more money. I managed to scrape together $7 in funny shaped coins that I found in my room. What would you do with your last $7?
I went to KFC and bought a "favourites" bowl, leaving me with $.55. Awesome.
I'm entering the acceptance stage...I've started calling my credit card companies and trying to plan how I can function without all that crap.
You call that a burger?
THIS is a burger! (pronounced "burh-gah")
Big patty, fried onions, fried pineapple, fried bacon, fried egg, lettuce, tomato, beetroot and barbecue. om nom nom! That, a big bag of chips and a 375ml can of Mt. Dew for the low price of $8!
Here's billy on a train.
Now that the weather has been so wonderful, I've been to the beach every day possible. I'd like to say that I'm building up a nifty tan, but you can't tan through a wetsuit! My hair, however, gets noticeably blonder every day I spend outside.
The water is still pretty cold. I picked up a board locally and I'm really happy with it. I think I'd be making a lot more progress if the weather would cooperate, but the surf's been choppy, really bad to learn on...it's been stormy, doesn't make for good surfing!
Surf injuries so far: Stepped on dried seaweed, ribs are very sore from rubbing on surfboard, rash on left knee from dragging on sea bed, floor burn? from wax on right knee, and a shark wound on left forearm. (or a gash from a surf fin, whichever story you prefer)
Yesterday, I went to the beach and removed my shorts with my wallet inside. I put the whole lot into my backpack. I put on my wetsuit, spent two hours playing "let's see who can hit each other hardest" with the ocean (guess who won that one?) and then walked home. I prepared to head over to a friend's house and noticed that I didn't have my wallet. I tore apart my room twice, my bag, and all my surf stuff. No bueno. I walked back to the beach, called the police and checked with the lifeguards...I have absolutely no idea where it went.
As a result of not knowing that it is gone for sure, I keep ocd-tearing up my room looking for it. None of my cards were used either, so I'm really wondering if I have it somewhere. I don't know how it would have left my backpack and still be mine, though.
Here's a list of things that are no longer in my possesion:
$40 dollars or so in Monopoly money.
Two credit cards
One debit card
Two Platteville student IDs
One University of Newcastle student ID
Two Wisconsin driver's licenses
One open water diver PADI card
One University of Newcastle discount card.
One semester train pass (valued at $450)
One magnetic key card to get into my building
One third of one receipt from the last time I saw Joel and Steve
Miscellaneous Burger King and Walmart gift cards of unknown value
At this point, I have absolutely no money and no way to get more money. I managed to scrape together $7 in funny shaped coins that I found in my room. What would you do with your last $7?
I went to KFC and bought a "favourites" bowl, leaving me with $.55. Awesome.
I'm entering the acceptance stage...I've started calling my credit card companies and trying to plan how I can function without all that crap.
You call that a burger?
THIS is a burger! (pronounced "burh-gah")
Big patty, fried onions, fried pineapple, fried bacon, fried egg, lettuce, tomato, beetroot and barbecue. om nom nom! That, a big bag of chips and a 375ml can of Mt. Dew for the low price of $8!
Here's billy on a train.
01 September 2008
Sydney...Round Two
We had a "field trip" scheduled for Sydney this weekend. I was a little concerned because I had been sick all week with a cold and sinus infection. On the plus side, I had the most fantastic colors of green coming from my nose. I bought a box of cold and flu stuff and ended up going through the whole box in the 3 days I was there...it helped a lot though, I felt fine for the most part.
We took the 8:22 train out of Newcastle, which put us in Sydney at 11:30 or so. We caught a train/bus combination to Bondi Beach. (Apparently, there is a popular Aussie TV show called "Bondi Rescue" that takes place on this beach. I've seen commercials for it, and from everything I can discern, it's a real-life Baywatch, only with much less slow motion running.) We had lunch and walked around and took in the sights...I thought it was absolutely gorgeous.
We wandered into a surf shop to discover a 30% off of everything sale. Nate bought a wetsuit top, and I bought a wetsuit and board shorts (The swimsuit I bought was a little large...not really an issue in the treacherous waters of Wisconsin, but in the ocean waves, I've found my suit around my knees more than once.)
We headed back and checked into our hostel around 6PM. The girls took a while getting ready, and then we met Catherine to buy her dinner. (Catherine is our program director...we meet with her once a week, she arranged our housing and the field trip and she takes care of lots of little issues that we run into along the way.) We wandered around Circular Quay for awhile before settling on the Opera House Bar and Grill, which is on the concourse in the shadows of Australia's two most famous landmarks. The downside to this is that my 12oz steak and 4 onion rings cost me $29. (I resisted the urge to tell the staff that they can tell "their so-called 'chef' that I have personally grilled better sirloin than this...and I am an idiot!" We were all very tired from a long day, and I was not feeling great and we ended up going back to the hostel early and falling asleep early.
We met Catherine at Pier 6 in the harbour early the next morning to tackle the next big thing.
We had a Harbour Bridgeclimb scheduled. Ordinarily, it will cost you around $200 to climb it, it was included in our program costs.
The climb itself was pretty cool. The entryway was lined with autographed celebrity photos of those who climbed before...Robert DeNiro, Matt Damon, Will Smith, lots of American actors. The whole affair took about three hours. Upon arriving, you are breathalyzed and release forms are signed. Then, you are outfitted in a one piece jumpsuit. You are not allowed to bring anything up....no hair ties, bobby-pins, watches, cameras, wallets, nothing. Anything they give you to bring up is tethered to your suit. Handkerchief attached to right wrist. Fleece sewed into a bag attached to left hip. Headset attached to back of neck leading to radio attached to back of belt. Had it been raining, there would have been a rain shell attached to the right hip. Sunglasses were clipped into holders and attached to the back of the neck as well. They had hats and gloves available if you wanted them. The headsets were interesting...rather than projecting into the ears, they sat on the bones between the temple and ears. When the climb leader spoke, it sounded like the voice was in your head. It got LOUDER if you covered your ears. Also, it's very difficult to talk to someone else with a voice in your head. (I know some people who have perfected this, my brother comes to mind)
Finally, it was time to go. We were attached to the bridge by means of short bungie harness, running from the front of the belt to a cable that started on one side of the bridge, went all the way up to the top along walkways, across the top, and back down. (All of this was only bracketed onto the bridge...one of the conditions that bridge climb be allowed to open is that they didn't modify the bridge at all. If they were to go broke, the climb cables could be removed and the HQ they drilled out re-filled with concrete and it would be like they were never there)
The climb was not very stressful, gentle slope for the most part with ladders interspersed. These were originally maintenance pathways, and as such were rickety in places, or a tight squeeze with low headroom in other places. We were under the bridge for awhile, then went over the water with nothing but mesh and several hundred feet of air between us and the ocean, and then came up between lanes of traffic and climbed the lower arch all the way to the peak, where ladders took us to the upper arch.
The view was spectacular, but, of course, we were not allowed cameras. They were happy to take my picture with their camera, however, and sell it to me later. How nice of them!
We crossed the top and went down the opposite leg, going down between train tracks this time. Several trains rumbled by while we were either between the tracks or directly underneath...pretty cool.
After we got off the bridge I snapped some pictures of downtown Sydney from the road deck.
After this, we got lunch at The Australian Hotel. They had over 100 different Australian beers. I sampled three different tasty stouts and had a Peppered Kangaroo pizza...mmmm. We then walked to the Opera House for our 4pm tour.
Here's the bridge from the Opera House...seems like a very daunting task to walk all the way around the harbour and up to the top! Little did I know that was only a fraction of the dozens of miles I'm sure I walked this weekend...
The tour itself...was worthwhile, because we got to see inside. I was dissappointed because it was mostly just watching different videos and we didn't get to see all the chambers, and the cool looking ones were photography prohibited inside. This is my favorite room, I wasn't allowed to photograph it myself :(
I did get some nifty shots of the hallways and lounges though. It was definitely worth going. (I also learned a lot :))
Even the parking garage was pretty!
After this, we walked BACK across the harbour to the rocks to go to a pub for a bit. I took a second out of my walk to take the prettiest picture I have ever taken in my life.
We went to a German pub that had all German beers on tap...and different glasses for every beer! I thought all the glasses looked cool.
It was still early in the evening. We walked back home, I had a kangaroo kebab on the way (vowing to start a kangaroo diet). We got ready and headed out to have a couple drinks. We ended up walking BACK to the rocks. On the way, we debated entering a nightclub, but decided against it because of the $15 cover. Later that night, somebody would get stabbed on the sidewalk very near where we decided to keep walking. Makes you think.
After a few drinks we walked BACK home...witnessing a taxi getting rear ended on the way. I was waiting to cross the street and some idiot slides into this cab. That was kinda cool, actually.
Sunday, the girls headed home. Three of our friends came up from Newcastle for the day. Nate and I stayed with them all day...we walked around some of the shops, had some pretty shady, authentic chinese food, and then went to the pylon lookout museum, which is part of the bridge. The top of the pylon is not as tall as the bridge, but still very tall, and you can take your cameras up here. It's 9.50 to get in, unless you have a bridge climb receipt, in which case it's free.
Here are some more nifty pictures I took from the bridge.
Here's Billy, checking out the view.
We are high up.
On my first trip to Sydney, I took a picture of the Harbour Bridge from Olympic park. This is Olympic park from the Harbour bridge!
That's...a rock...with a face on it...on a car...in the middle of a roundabout. I wouldn't have noticed it without the telephoto.
Traffic on the bridge. It is the busiest stretch of road in the world, something like 200,000 cars, buses and trains a DAY! It used to be four lanes in the middle, and they were repainted to six...very narrow. Take notice of the bus on the right side of the picture...busses are only allowed in that lane because if two busses were in adjacent lanes, their mirrors would touch! The two leftmost lanes were formerly tram lanes and then were converted to traffic lanes.
We walked to Darling Harbour and watched the sun set while eating at a pub and drinking Guinness. It was a very good weekend. I walked back to Central and hopped on a train home.
I mentioned ALL THAT walking? Every time we left the hostel, it was 1.8 miles to the harbour. That's 3.6 miles round trip, two trips per day, walking around at the harbour....I wouldn't be surprised if I walked over 35 miles the three days I was there.
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