When I flew in from Christchurch, NZ to Sydney, Australia (OZ) last Monday, I didn't have a plan or a guidebook. (Now's when you gasp in disbelief) When I lived in Spain for a year, my friends affectionately knick-named me the Map Nazi, or Map Queen, depending on how effective I was at getting us lost or found. It's a big step for me to be flexible during my 8-month-trip, and I'm psyched that my open-mindedness paid off big in OZ. After 2 mediocre days in Sydney, I decided to bus 12 hours to Melbourne, and am in love with the city!
I'm not knocking Sydney, nor the great time I ended up having with my new friends Alex (Alejandra) from LA and Mathias from Germany, respectively. But it just wasn't my cup of tea. Or I guess you could say it wasn't my vegemite sandwhich. :) I arrived at my 790 on George Hostel late Monday night and loved the lcoation and friendly staff, but crashed due to the 3 hour flight. Tuesday I woke up at 8am and went for a long 2-3 hour run in which I essentially saw all the sights-- the ANZAC Memorial to WWII soldiers, the Royal Botanic Gardens, a beautiful running trail along the harbor, the Sydney Opera House, the Harbor Bridge, the Circular Quay docks and the Central City. I have to say my favorite part, and the only time when I actually felt that I was in Sydney, was the Opera House. I'm currently reading a hysterical book about Australia called Down Under by Bill Bryson, and I couldn't stop thinking about his passage on the Opera House when I saw it for the first time:
It is the Opera House that gets all the attention (in Sydney), and you can understand why. It's so startlingly familiar, so hey-I'm-in-Sydney, that you can't stop looking at it. Clive James once likened the Opera House to 'a portable typewriter full of oyster shells', which is perhaps a tad severe. In any case, the Opera House is not about aesthetics. It's about being an icon (p. 83).
After snapping a few photos, I spent the rest of my lazy day similarly to my first day in Auckland-- getting oriented to the city. I traded in my NZ guidebook for an OZ book (here's where you sigh in relief), shopped for groceries, clothes and a replacement camera cord since I lost mine in NZ, and hatched out my OZ plan for hitting up the local beaches with my new friends, who I planned on meeting the next day.
Growing up as a So Cal beach bum, and after my unbeatable Fiji beach time, I wasn't completely psyched for Aussie beaches. My skin's already adequately brown for my tastes, and I'm much more interested in cultural and environmental aspects of world travel than increasing my chances for skin cancer. Mostly I really like the names of Aussie beaches-- Bondi, Coogee, and my personal favorite, Manly, where I was psyched about seeing manly bars, manly shops, and let's face it, manly men. ;) So that night before dozing off, I realized-- what I really want to see in Australia next time is Melbourne, the artsy/cultural capital of OZ, and the Great Barrier Reef. Since the Reef was out of the question-- not only is now the rainy season in Cairnes, but it's a $300 flight away-- that's when I decided that I should just go to Melbourne NOW! Who knows when I'm coming back, and I might as well make the most of my short week here and just GO!
Enboldened by a new sense of the adventure that was to come, I actually enjoyed my remaining day and a half in Sydney much more while I expectantly waited for Melbourne, and an opportunity to see a teensier bit more of the ginormous continent. Wednesday Alex and Mathias and I took the ferry to Manly and enjoyed a beautiful sunny day. Although there were many manly men to oggle at, my favorite part was when we'd just lied down on our sarongs, and an Aussie voice boomed out to us over the loudspeaker: "ATTENTION beach-goers! A HUGE number of blue-bottle jellyfish are in the water! If you get stung, you will be in SUPREME AGONY for 45 minutes to 1 hour! Swim at your own risk, but we ADVISE that you get out of the water!" I pretty much hugged my sarong for the next few hours, only once tip-toing down to the surf to check out the blue-bottles, meanwhile virtually every Aussie in the water continued to frolick, swim and surf. You gotta love freakin' Australia!
That night we stuffed ourselves on an all-you-can-eat $5 buffet, before going out on the town, first to our hostel bar for a "flourescent party" of $3.50 beers, and then the seedy Kings Cross area for dancing and fantastic people-watching. Alex and Mathias were HILARIOUS to dance and goof around with-- it was a blast! I'll keep it at that since this is a public site, and besides I don't remember that much, haha. :)
Thursday we rolled out of the city at 1pm to Bondi Beach, where again the people-watching made the journey totally worth it. Pardon my generalizations, but I decided that Aussie women are gorgeous in a So Cal way-- tan, blonde and strikingly similar to melting plastic in the sun. Meanwhile, Aussie guys have the rock-hard surfer body thing going for them, but their stunned facial expressions just crack me up, like they've been smashed against the surf too hard a few too many times. Not unlike Venice beach! :) We left at around 5pm so I could catch my bus to Melbourne, and took a final "LA Represent!" photo to commemorate our few days of friendship. Hopefully we'll meet up at the Brass Monkey Bar in Koreatown when Alex and I will be back in September and Mathias comes out to visit!
Fortunately, I was able to sleep on the bus to Melbourne, which drove from 7pm to 7am. After splashing some water on my face and brushing my teeth in the train station bathroom, I was ready to hit the town! Again I was glad to not have a plan, since I walked to the cheapest hostel in town and scored free breakfast. Then I hit up the Queen Victoria Market-- the best and biggest outdoor market in the Southern Hemisphere! They had an amazing array of souveniers, clothes, fruits and veg, and I had to seriously restrain myself from all the cute dresses, meditating on all the cheap clothes I can't wait to stuff my bag with in Thailand. $5 and 5 pounds of apples, veg and sweet juicy delicious mangos later, I decided to explore the city.
Apparently just this week, Melbourne was voted the third most liveable city in the world after Vancouver and Vienna, and although I don't know why they picked such cold cities, I can totally see why Melbourne was at the top of the list! I've been to lots of big international cities-- Paris, Rome, London and Athens-- but none compare to how easy it is for a newcomer to get to know Melbourne. They have both a free circular tram and a hop-on-hop-off tourist shuttle that goes through the whole city, plus free informational booths on nearly every corner. I got to see quite a bit of the city's European and modern architecture on the bus, before jumping off at the National Gallery of Victoria-- the best museum in the Southern Hemisphere, I guess measured in how many billions of dollars its collection is worth. Like the huge nerd I am, I signed up for a free 2pm guided tour, and despite being the only one, my Melbourne-born-and-raised guide Jan speedily zoomed me around and told me terrific stories of the museum's best pieces. Again like the huge nerd I am, I loved it!
After that, I strolled around the rest of the city, booked a tour for the next day in an attempt to see even more of OZ, and ended up in the Fitzroy suburb on Brunswick Street, Bohemian capital of Melbourne. The atmosphere felt just like Haight street or Berkeley in San Francisco, with tons of funky clothes shops and cafes. I really dug it! So much so that I decided if I ever have the opportunity to live in OZ, I'd pick the Brunswick area in Melbourne, hands-down. Granted, I haven't seen much of OZ to make that as an informed decision... but it would at least be an excellent base camp from which to explore the vast continent!
That night I again crashed after such a long day of walking around, and awoke at 10am Saturday for my day-trip out to The Great Ocean Road. It basically consisted of driving out on a beautiful coastal road along the South of Australia for 10 hours, stopping every 15-30 minutes for scenic views and bushwalks. Apparently it's the most beautiful drive in OZ, and although it was a wonderful sunny day, I have to say that I found it just okay. It felt identical to driving the 101 freeway in Cali, with the exception that the water I was looking at stretched to Antartica instead of Hawaii, which I admit is pretty sweet. But frankly, the scenic beauty of OZ doesn't stand a chance compared to other-worldly NZ, at least in my opinion. For those reading this who wish to go to OZ, I definitely recommend Melbourne, but you should probably save your "scenic day trips" for the Great Barrier Reef as opposed to that part of the south, unless you have loads of time and a car to drive it yourself. At least, that's what I plan on doing the next time I'm down under.
That being said, my all-time-FAVORITE moment in OZ happened along the Great Ocean Road, when we stopped in a eucalyptus tree area and I found myself arms-length from the most adorable cuddly wild animal I've ever seen-- a koala! He was awake, which was amazing because they sleep 20 hours a day, and perched on an extremely low branch perfect for picture-taking. He looked at us with a sleepy expression while I madly snapped photos and cooed at him, before climbing up a bit farther up and lazily eating more eucalyptus leaves. He was HUGE compared to what I expected-- probably two feet tall as opposed to the one foot tall ones I've seen in the zoo-- apparently because it gets so cold in the south that they need to pack on extra weight and fur. I thanked my lucky stars that of all the crazy deadly animals I could have seen in OZ, I saw the cutest and least harmful one! Maybe now I'll have more courage to explore the Outback next time I'm here... though it's still doubtful. :)
The rest of the drive and the sunset at the Twelve Apostles rock formation was great, but I most enjoyed talking to our Aussie driver Clancy who is by far the best-travleed person I've ever met. She told me incredible stories of overland trekking in Eastern Africa, Nepal and India (where she met her current boyfriend), and hopefully we'll meet up when she makes it to LA, literally the only place she hasn't been, haha. I really don't blame her, to be honest. ;)
Today I'm checking out the St. Kilda music and arts festival in a southern suburb, before catching my 7pm overnight bus back to Sydney. I can't believe that I'll fly to Thailand tomorrow evening to begin my adventure in developing countries, where I'll be for the remaining of my trip. I'm so excited for tasty food and cheap clothes, and most importantly, I can't wait to be "the other" in terms of my skin color, language and culture. The past 6 weeks have been happy and beautiful, but they've essentially been a vacation. And in case you haven't noticed, ultimately I'm a nerd who is traveling to learn about the world, its amazing people and myself. I don't doubt that the next 6 1/2 months will be challenging, but I believe that only challenge and conflict lead to personal and spiritual growth. So here's to Thailand and developing countries! I can't wait! :)
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