Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Never say no to a mint.

Wages in Sydney are exceptionally high. The average hourly pay for someone my age doing mundane work is about $20 an hour. This is great if you're working, but to match high wages is an equally high cost of living. As my wallet has been losing weight, I decided to work for a weekend at the Masset Mega Market (nauseating and unnecessary alliteration) passing out balloons and flyers for the Oncology Children's Foundation, and Academic Solutions. Sounds dry, but it wasn't so bad- I met some pretty old school Slovenian riggers that were making jewelry by splicing steel cable and attaching the ends so that you couldn't actually see the joint. Very cool. Not as cool as a surfing trip up the east coast though! Nice segue right?

I went surfing. I LOVE surfing. More than surfing, I love the surfer dude lifestyle. I got on a Mojo Surf bus with 34 fellow travellers, and set off up the east coast for a hilarious week of surfing and partying by the beach. The only people to rival Australian surfer dudes at a party are Swedish boys. At least you expect it with the surfers- when we were picked up, our bus driver/surf instructor/legend was an obvious life-of-the-party type. The Swedes (all 9 of them) however, were polite, reserved, and generally blended in...until their first beer and the first 3 chords of any song by Kings of Leon. We'd get up early (6 ish) to surf, sleep/read/play guitars through the hottest part of the day, then surf again for a few hours before dinner. After dinner good friends became great friends, and we'd wake up and do it all again. I survived surfing reasonably well, but I managed to sprain my ankle running on the beach on the last day. By the end of the week we had arrived in Byron Bay with sun burns, board rashes, and a pile of dirty laundry. I stayed there for a few days with the crew from the bus, and now I'm back in Sydney. Laura from Scottland is here as well, and we're just waiting on Charlotte from New Zealand to get here before Big Day Out in Sydney (big festival with lots of bands), and our own little UN convention.

rippin'

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

...and then I found $10

I've developed a new love for all things 2-wheeled. I've always enjoyed a bicycle- it is a quick and effective mode of transportation. But a motorcycle!! They're way too much fun. There is no more enjoyable way to explore Sydney's northern beaches in the summer time than on the back of a bike with a friendly local as your tour guide.

I haven't ventured too far away from Sydney yet. There's lots to do in this fine city. Since I've last written we've been mountain biking and motor biking, rock climbing, beach bumming, dinner partying, and hiking in the blue mountains. The blue mountains are actually mildly blue in color thanks to a fine mist of eucalyptus oil. They also smell fantastically of eucalyptus (how do you smell a mountain??). I won't fill this with exhausting details, but I will say that in the small town of Katoomba (the access point to the blue mountains about 2 hours by train away from Sydney) there is a food co-op. At this co-op they make peanut butter right in front of you with a peanut grinding machine. 50 cents gets you a small tub of freshly ground peanut butter. Needless to say I was amazed. And never hungry.

Tonight Bianca and I are heading into Coogee beach because it is rumored that there is a restaurant that gives you a free steak with every beer you buy. It'll be a red-neckin' good time!

mooo.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Second Time's a Charm


Happy new year!

I am now in Sydney. Note to self or anyone else that wishes to travel: book for ANY day but Sunday. Sunday travel agencies are not open (or don't open until noon), and so no matter how much money you forked over for insurance, your policy means nothing.

Dec. 27th My flight was canceled thanks to fog. Blessing in disguise actually, I wasn't in much shape to fly.

4 flights, 3 stopovers, and 2 days later I landed in the heat of the Australian summer.
My new itinerary had me flying first to Winnipeg, then on to Denver, Los Angeles, and Sydney. In Winnipeg I met Janelle Fletcher who danced with Deanne Magnus. Small world! She was on her way to Melbourne, so we killed some time in LAX airport together.

So what is a 15 hour flight like? Firstly the plane is a flying double decker bus on steroids. How it got off the ground I don't know, but I've never felt so light and so heavy at the same time. I had a window seat, and managed to get 2 or 3 hours of sleep between dinner and lunch. They served the meals backwards on the flight- we had dinner at 10:30 pm (LA time), lunch about 6 hours later, and breakfast just before we landed at 8:05 am local time. It was genius. The first 10 hours flew by, but by hour 12 my legs were freezing and my upper body was boiling from lack of circulation. I consequently toured the bus a lot in the last few hours. I thought that my journey had been long until I met the couple from Belfast that had come the long way around the globe simply to avoid the airports in Thailand and Singapore. Silly.

Jet lag passed by the next day, but I still woke up earlier than the house so I took their dog for a jog around the neighbourhood. We got lost. SO lost. There is no grid system in Sydney. So we ran and ran until I saw the water, and finally the beach near Bianca's house. The dog and I went for a swim in the ocean beside a beautiful golf course, and got back just in time for breakfast. I think the 2 of us will become good friends!

New Year's Eve in Sydney involves Pink champagne, prawns, and a 5 MILLION dollar fireworks display. holy explosions batman. The best fireworks I've ever seen ever. We saw the 9:00 display from the balcony of an office building on the south side of the city with Bianca's family, then went to a house party and saw the midnight display from Lavender bay on the north side of the bridge. Fantastic view. On the way home we danced under the bridge with a couple hundred of our closest friends while a few drummers jammed. We walked across the bridge and all around the city in search of a bus, and 3.5 hours later got home. Great night.

Notes:
- Driving on the wrong side of the road is terrifying. Also, the left lane applies to walking too! Keep left. Left, left, left.
- A liquor store is called a bottle-o
- You can't eat wild kangaroo, only farmed. Go figure.