Excellent Adventures

Photos: The Great Ocean Road!

ramsaym — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:56:00 GMT

Brittany, Vic, and I touring around the Great Ocean Road.

Ollie the Ford Falcon

ramsaym — Mon, 1 Mar 2010 00:05:00 GMT

Tina, Constanza, and I bought a car.

We had been talking about it for a while, and wanted it for a number of reasons. I had visions of myself with wavy surfer’s hair, hucking my board in the back of my jeep, and cruising off to the beach every weekend. Tina and Costanza had a visions of not lugging all her groceries and furniture back to the residence by bus. Whatever.

The day that clinched it for us was the day we tried to get to Brighton Beach. We had heard it was much better than our familiar St. Kilda beach, and it looked like it was right next to the university on the map, so we decided to try to see if it was worth the hype. Unluckily, we didn’t work out a transit plan before we left. Now, usually, the bus drivers are extremely helpful. And indeed, they did their best this day as well, but apparently Brighton is especially hard to get to. It seems that Melbourne transit (as far as we understand it--which, admittedly, is not very well) requires you to go into the city centre to get anywhere. It’s kind of an “All roads lead to Rome” thing. Anyways, after two and a half hours on the bus, we gave up and ended up at St. Kilda anyway. And then, because it takes so long to get back to the university, we left after only an hour. It felt like quite a waste of time, and we realized that since we have a very limited time here, we should really try to make the best of it.

And what is more time efficient than a new car! Or at least a used white ’95 Ford Falcon. We bought it off this Dutch couple that had finished traveling in Australia, and were heading off to Thailand. They had named the car “Ollie” short for Oliver, which I love. Our little Ollie.

 We checked out a couple cars before we decided on Ollie, but he seemed the best for several reasons. He is big enough to hold all of us and any stuff we would need for road trips. The trunk is big enough that if you fold down the back seat, you can fit three people in the back to sleep. And, because it was travelers that were selling it, they also needed to get rid of all their camping stuff. So we got mattresses, a three person tend (so, sleeping room for 6 in total), a stove, cutlery and dishes, a bunch of maps, and an Esky (cooler) thrown in for free. It was a pretty sweet deal. We’re still happy with it.

We were pleased with ourselves when we decided on Ollie, and I was pleased with myself the day I went to pick it up, and managed to find the roads office, and properly get through all the legal paperwork. The couple were very nice, and explained all the things that needed to happen, as well as all the things I would need to do to sell it again in a year’s time. They were great. The only thing was, on the way back to their place, they informed me that they had not filled up the gas tank. The light was on, but they assured me they had gone almost 40 K with it on before, and it should be fine to get me to the next gas station. No worries.

They pulled over, handed me the keys, wished me good luck, and left. I got into the drivers seat, and prepared myself mentally for driving in downtown Melbourne, on the opposite side of the road. I had driven about 3 times before on the opposite side of the road, once to test drive this very car. But, that had been on the roads around the university, the majority of which had a speed limit of 20 Km an hour. So I was nervous.

As soon as I tried to pull out into the lane, I demonstrated my inexperience by turning on windshield wipers instead of signaling. This happened several more times in the 15 minutes that I drove before the engine started to feel like it was going to stall. And it’s an automatic, so stalling is kind of an issue. I remembered that it’s low on gas. Great. I pulled over onto a side street to park (hello again, windshield wipers!) and found myself wandering around outside of Melbourne university.

Now remember, I attend Monash university, not Melbourne. This is the equivalent to going to SFU and finding myself on the outskirts of UBC. Melbourne Uni turns out to be just as much of a maze as UBC (although, it’s a prettier campus). I wandered around through it asking various people for directions to a petrol station, getting various responses, and following most of them until I found myself again lost in the campus. I passed by the same volunteers for Amnesty International three times (“No, I’m not interested--I’m only here for a year, and I’m a member at home. Could you point me in the direction of the nearest gas--uhh, petrol station? You’re not from around here either? Shit…”) but eventually found myself at the visitor’s information booth for the university. This time I acquired a map in addition to verbal instructions, and with that I managed to find my way to the elusive shell station on Lygon street.

I asked the man at the window for a gas can because my car had run out of gas. He gave a sigh, and said they were expensive--$20. He said that a funnel was an extra $14. I declined the funnel, filled the tank, and made my way back to the car.

Almost immediately I regretted not buying the funnel (stop shaking your head, Dad). The gas can was bulky and it was difficult to pour the gas into the opening on the side of the car. Also, the opening in the car had a flap that I guess is to keep gas from coming up out of the tank. It would not let fluid down unless it was propped open. The flap was approximately the diameter of the funnel the guy had shown me... In the end, I managed to use a cooking spoon from the camping gear to prop it open so that the fuel would stop spilling on my foot, and I managed to get about three litres in. At this point, not even the three-lane round-a-bout nor the no-right-turns-on-this-street sign (“Oh shit, sorry! Sorry!”) could keep me from returning to the shell station to completely re-fuel.

I was ready, once again, to take our new car home. The only trouble now was driving through Melbourne. I don’t particularly like driving through any city, but Melbourne was especially challenging. It’s the other side of the road of course, but it also one of those cities with trams that run on the road. I know there are others (San Francisco, for instance) but I have never had experience driving in one. Maybe every place that has a tram has similar rules, or maybe it’s just Melbourne, but they have a seriously messed up turning system. In some intersections, indicated by signs that are definitely not big enough, if you want to turn right (the “hard” turn… it would be like turning left at home), you have to make your way all the way over to past the left lane, sit there in the middle of the intersection, and then, when it’s clear, make your way across both sides of traffic. Like, you have to shoulder check, and watch out for everyone driving the same way as you AND everyone on the other side of the street driving the opposite way. And the trams. It was wild. Needless to say, I just made three left turns instead of one right, and it was fine. But I still remember trying to comprehend it the first time I saw the sign, and how it completely blew my mind. Ridiculous.

In the end, I made it home safely. We all took turns looking through the camping gear, sitting in the driver seat, and playing with the glove compartment. And that night, the dinner conversation was centred around all the places we could go with our new friend Ollie the Ford Falcon.

Monash Abroad Orientation

ramsaym — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:42:00 GMT

Melbourne is a very cool city. It is a city of about 3.9 million people, that started when John Batman (yes, Batman) sailed up the Yarra river, got stuck on a sand bank, and decided to justify the mistake by claiming that it was the perfect spot to build a city. And, no joke, it was originally named, “Batmania.” Then there was a gold rush, a couple of world events, and Melbourne became an international city. And a beautiful one. It’s also Australia’s second biggest city, but it’s actually projected to pass Sydney by 2020.

My first day in Melbourne was me getting off the greyhound bus into southern cross station, and, being the intrepid (read: cheap) adventurer that I am, I decided that rather than take the taxi with my year’s worth of possessions, I would attempt the transit system. This of course after my 12 hours on a bus overnight. I actually managed to do it, with the worst part being the walk from the Monash University bus stop to the residences on the complete opposite side of campus. And because I didn’t know the campus, it ended up being a 45 minute walk. By the time I found the office, I was sweating and sore. But home!

Monash asked us to get to camps about two weeks before class started for Orientation. Or actually, three orientations. The first was an Abroad orientation, where we got to meet the other abroad students. The second day at the campus, Brittany and I went on this campus tour and met a couple people including Costanza, a girl from the north of Italy (Parma! Like, where parmesan cheese comes from!) and Tina, a girl from Germany. The four of us decided to go into the city together to do some exploring, and basically became instant friends. Tina and Costanza are pretty much the people I hang out with the most here.

The Abroad orientation was really awesome for showing us around the city too. Every night we did a bunch of things that were the sort of things you know about as a local, but don’t really get into as a tourist. So the first night we did this “Melbourne Laneways” tour. Melbourne is renowned for it’s nightlife which is amazing, but also very unique in that all the good bars are found in these tiny laneways, and are easy to miss if you’re not a local. The general rule is the harder it is to find, the better it is. We had a tour of a couple of these bars, as well as this amazing dumpling house that is super cheap and good (well, I thought so. Many of the people in my group didn’t agree).

Another night we did this free African Drumming workshop, that apparently happens every week, followed by a picnic on the banks of the river. Another, we were introduced to this restaurant called “Lentil as Anything” which is ANOTHER of these vegetarian places that is based on the “pay what you can” thing. I love those! And this place has three locations in Melbourne. So I’m in love. And then after that we did this salsa lesson thing, which was very cool.

The last day of the orientation we did this Do it yourself tour thing, which was basically a scavenger hunt around the campus for various services. It was very much like any other scavenger hunt, except the prize was a weekend getaway to a beach house on the great ocean road, and surfing lessons for 10 people. So we totally got together a team and gave it our all! We ended up losing, but still won tickets to a play by the Melbourne Theatre Company, (I think twelfth night?), so that’s pretty sweet. I was super impressed by the prizes… And then the orientation wrapped up with a huge formal dinner dance and then clubbing thing which was very fun. At the end of the night, Brittany ended up spotting a possum with a baby on a tree, and petting it’s tail. Probably not a good idea, but Brittany was a little inebriated, and luckily emerged unscathed. Just another encounter with Australian wildlife.

Photos: Monash Orientation

ramsaym — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:23:00 GMT

Photos: Adventures in Perth

ramsaym — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:03:00 GMT

These photos are from Perth and surrounds

Checking out the West Coast: Perth

ramsaym — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:57:00 GMT

Next I went to Perth. Again the actual travelling went well. no plane delays or anything. I ended up getting to Perth and realized that I hadn’t booked a hostel though, so I had to carry my bags to the closest one I could find and hope they had a room available. And when I got there they had an opening but I couldn’t find my passport (stop wincing, dad), so I had about half an hour of frenzied unpacking of all my stuff. It turned out it was in my backpack where it should have been, I just hadn’t seen it. So I ended up with a room and not having lost anything. whoo!

Perth was great because it has amazing beaches and weather (like lots of Australia). But even Australians say that Perth has the best Beaches. And there is no one on them! well, on the ones a bit out of the city. So I spent a lot of my time in Perth wandering or on the beach. The city itself is actually on the swan river, but about 15 minutes west you get the beach suburbs, and the really nice beaches. I spent about a week in the city of Perth itself, and then another 4 or so days at a hostel right by the coast.

The first night I found this amazing indian food place right on the water that I guess was started by this Bhuddist monk guy. Anyways, the slogan is, “Eat what you want, pay what you want.” It was kind of buffet style, all vegetarian, and all amazing. And the restaurant spaced so that you had an amazing view across the water. It was really amazing. I sat at this big table and these two Indian guys came and joined me, and we spent the next two hours eating and chatting about school and stuff. I talked to other backpackers later and they had also found this place, but I think they sort of saw it as a way to get really cheap food, where I sort of thought of it more as a way of equilizing wealth… so I think I ended up actually paying more than I would have for a regular meal. But then I found out everyone working there was volunteer, and like people’s grandmas, and I felt really good about it. I really like that idea: a restaurant that is partly for wealthy tourists, and also partly for people who can’t afford good food. I think it might be my favourite restaurant.

When I was in the city, much of the day I spent wandering. I got lost in the big park (Kings park, probably named the same way mattresses are) off to the south. I got lost because the park started out like a park should, with great big-trunked deciduous trees and lots of lawns, and a plot of flowers here and there, but then somehow I found my way into this bush area. And instead of turning around I kept going straight. And then it didn’t end, and I realized that “park” was now being used in the “conservation/national park kind of way, and not the, “please mom, let’s go play at the park” kind of way. Three hours later, I found my way out. At least I had sunscreen and water I guess. And bread, cheese, and fruit were a constant in my bag too, so it was fine. I was tired though.

I also rented a bike one day and biked around. They have these things I really like: they look like playgrounds, but they’re actually gym machines right on the banks of the river. So you can like go for a run outside, and then stop and work-out, and then keep going. I was thinking they should get those in vancouver, and then I remembered Vancouver isn’t as permanently nice-weathered as Perth. Never-mind.

I tried do a tour, I really did. I went online and found a good one: cheap, but interesting, and you get to see a lot. I got it all ready, I printed out my ticket from the library, I woke up like 2 hours before I had to get there, double check-ed that I had everything, and got to the meeting place like 40 minutes before I needed to. I asked four people where the “tourist coach” stand was, and found it, and stood there. And then sat. With ten minutes to go, I made sure again with the tourist information lady, and she said I was in the right spot. The tour bus never came, which I partly expected, because that would happen to me. I went back to the tourist lady (so nice) and she looked again at my ticket, and discovered it was supposed to be given by a company that had gone out of business a month ago. I guess I booked with a company online, adn they book with the company, and they didn’t know it didn’t exist anymore. Anyways, I got my money back, but it was funny because that totally would happen to me. I ended up doing part of the tour by myself, by train, and I ended up finding these really awesome hemp shorts that I love, so it turned out fine.

For three days I also did this volunteering thing, where we were putting these plastic guards around native plants in a park. Part of a “revegitation” project. We also put down a bunch of mulch, and were taking out some other invasive species. It was pretty fun, but also pretty hot, and I didn’t bring a hat, so I got a bit of a sunburn (yes mom, even with the sunscreen I was very careful to apply every couple hours. Yes, also on my nose and ears.) At the volunteering thing I met my first local australian who I did not know before. HIs name was Jesse, and he was cool. The rest of our group was from Korea except for these two Japanese girls. The leader was this lady from France (but not mainland France, from Reunion Island, an island owned by France about two hours east of Madagascar.) So ya, we did a bunch of mulching, mostly. It was good to get to know people. I later met up with one of the Korean guys, his name was Bolt, and we did a day tour around Freemantle, one of the beach towns close to Perth.

My roommates in the hostel were pretty cool. There was this group of British guys who went out practically every night, and they invited me all the time, and so I went out with them to the pub a couple of times. They were great too because even if they would come back to the dorm room drunk and loud it was always at like 5 in the morning, and so I was well asleep by then and never noticed. I also spent a lot of time with this girl Jenny (also from England), and we played a lot of cards. We also entered into this video game contest, Wii tennis, and I actually did pretty well. The prize was a $20 bar tab, so it got pretty serious… And there was a $10 runner up prize. I only made it to the round before the final though, which I thought was pretty good for my first time ever playing it.

Eventually, I moved to the coast, and spent a lot of time at the beach. I made friends with my new roommates, Kustav a guy from Estonia, Alex and Hannah, from Sweden, Rory, from England, and Henrike from Germany. Henrike and I especially hit it off, and we ended up doing surfing lessons together. She was way better than I, but I defintitely got up a few times, and one time I stayed on for the entire wave (which sounds much less impressive if I say, “about 14 seconds”). Very very fun though. We also went bodyboarding together. Most of the time though, we were on the beach. Oh, there is this island we went to as well on the ferry, and rented a bike and biked around it. That sort of was really the whole travelling thing I did: Walking around, making food, laying on the beach. It was great though.

Photos: Tassie

ramsaym — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:25:00 GMT

Photos from Around Tasmania

Tassie

ramsaym — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:16:00 GMT

January 28 - 31

I left Sydney for Tasmania (or “Tassie” as he locals call it) on the 28th. The two and a bit hour flight was much nicer than the one to Sydney from Vancouver, that’s for sure. Except I accidentally booked a ticket that didn’t allow me to check luggage… so I had to pay a bunch of money to bring my bags. It’s good though--now I know what to look for when I book tickets!

Hobart is the main city in Tasmania, and it’s about 200,000 people, so it’s roughly the size of Halifax (I think?). It’s nice: clean, well-manicured, has nice parks and fountains and things. But it’s very quiet. After 6:30, there aren’t any shops open, and there is no one on the street. I found it almost eerie when I first got there and had to find a grocery store. The closest one was a 25 minute walk, and in that 25 minutes I didn’t see a single other person on the streets. It was weird coming from Sydney.

Hobart was one of the first settlements in australia ( I think second after Sydney), and was definitely a place convicts went. But since it was kind of a prison in itself (you couldn’t go anywhere because it’s an island) they let them all walk around freely. So I think it was kind of like convicts in England went to Sydney or Hobart. And then the bad ones of those (aggressive or whatever) went to Port Arthur, this place near Hobart, which is another island and was a pretty brutal place I think. Actually, Tasmania used to be called Van Damien’s Land (named after the first british explorer I think?) but it got such a bad reputation as a terrible place to live, that eventually they changed the name to Tasmania (after Tasman, an important Dutch explorer I think). I guess it worked: people generally consider Tasmania a nice place to live now.

At the hostel I met this Italian guy, Antonio, who had been around Tasmania a bit, and we ended up doing a bit of sight-seeing for the next couple days. He had already scoped some stuff out, so it was cool because he knew where to go, and had good suggestions for stuff to see.

I liked Touring Tasmania, because it seemed like everything was free. The Botanical Gardens free. And they were massive. Most of it was like a big park, but with sections that had very different plants. The big museum was free, and it had this amazing free tour everyday. Our guide was this fantastic elderly british woman, who I wish had taught me history in school. She spoke about tasmania in the way that a librarian might read to four year-olds… kind of slowly and enunciating, with wide eyes and slow hand gestures. And when people (me) weren’t listening or talking, she would wait smiling politely but with a slightly firm gaze. I really liked her.

I also hiked up Mount Wellington, the mountain that Hobart sits under. Antonio had booked a tour, so I started the hike by myself. But at the bottom I ran into these twin girls from France who were there vacationing, and so we hiked together. It was cool because they had done some WWOOF ing (WWOOF stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms) and I was really interested in doing it as well, and so we talked a lot about that. They were cool, and I was glad to have the company. We might meet up again in Melbourne.

It was only about two hours to the top, but the view was amazing. And it’s fun because I have a picture of the mountain from the streets and it looks really high. And then I have a picture of me at the top looking down at the city. The bus must have taken me up half-way because it doesn’t seem like I hiked that far, but the pictures look pretty impressive, so I am totally going to go with it. Apparently I’m a mountaineer.

Around Sydney

ramsaym — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:33:00 GMT

January 16 - 28

I’m finally sitting down to write a little update about my Australia trip! It has been a blast so far.

The plane trip was very long. It was 14 hours from Vancouver to Hong Kong, and then another 9 and a half to Sydney. I left at about noon from Vancouver and got to Sydney at the same time, but two days later. Weird! Anyways, the flight was mostly good. I sat beside Loling, this really nice lady from Taiwan who is living in Burnaby. She and I chatted for hours (literally, except for two bathroom breaks, I didn’t do anything for the first 9 hours of the first flight except talk with Loling). We talked all about our personal and professional lives. I learned a lot about her mother in law (of whom Loling is not particularly fond). She also gave me a bunch of great advice on things like the cheapest ways to transfer money abroad, and where to travel to in Asia. She even taught me how to play Majong (a game with tiles) that we played on the in-flight entertainment system. And at the end, she invited me to come visit her when we’re both back in Canada. So that’s fun--I made my first travel friend on the plane! She also turned out to be a life-saver. Because she travels so much through Hong Kong, she new her way around the airport, and so she was able to show me to my gate. Hong Kong is so big that without her I probably would have gotten lost.

The flight to sydney was fine too, except that I was a bit sick. This meant that my ears when we were landing didn’t “pop” as easily as they normally do, and so I had a major headache when we landed (and couldn’t hear that well that day and the next). All in all it was a very long flight. It occurred to me that perhaps part of the reason that everyone says they like Australia is because after spending 30 hours traveling, you’ll be in love with anywhere that isn’t a plane.

I met my friend Joni, Luke (her boyfriend), and Jeremy (their friend and roommate) immediately after getting through customs and quarantine. It was so nice to be welcomed! After the flight I felt so out of it, that it would have been brutal to find my way to a hostel, navigate the train system, and all that. Having people meet me at the airport was amazing. And they even had flowers for me! We went home, and I had my first meal in Australia, Vegemite on toast. Very Appropriate. That night we didn’t do much… we made dinner from a recipe book I brought (Thanks Cara-Lee!) and played taboo. I never really felt jet lagged, and I think it might be because I stayed awake for the rest of the day here, and went to bed at a normal time.

The next day we got all packed up and went on a mini road-trip to Jeremy’s family cabin in the Blue Mountains. The Blue mountains are west of Sydney, and I think they are a popular vacationing place for residents of Sydney. They also get snow in the winter, and so people go there to snowboard sometimes (one of the few places in Australia). Last time I was in Sydney we went to Katoomba, and did a bunch of hiking there. Anyways, Jeremy’s Cabin was close to a town called Oberon, and it was about a 3 hour drive. It was really nice. They have a bit of a hobby farm, so they had some cattle and horses and things. They’re situated sort of in rolling hills with gum tree forests bordering their land. It’s probably as far into the wilderness as I’ll go. On the way up Jeremy warned us that snakes were quite a real threat, and what to do if we see one. Basically they have a garden hoe that they take with them when they walk places, and bang it on the ground. The snakes can feel the vibrations, and so they stay away. I was a little concerned that our lives depended on banging garden tools on the ground, but no one else seemed worried. And then because all the snakes are poisonous, we were given instructions on what to do if we’re bitten. I sort of forget now, but I remember you aren’t supposed to suck out the poison (that only works in City Slickers apparently). Instead you are supposed to tie something below the bite and then above the bite (I think so that you still allow blood to the wound, but slow it from coming back from the wound? I can’t remember). It was when Joni and I started showing each other where our travel insurance cards were that I became worried. And then I met Jeremy’s mother, and one of the first things she said was how big of a worry snakes are up in the mountains. But of course the warnings are classically australian; they’re nonchalant and yet very graphic all at the same time. They’ll say, “No, don’t worry about it. You’ll probably never see them. But if you do, and they bite you, remember to look at the colour of the snake, so that you know if you’ll die right away or not.” Or, my favourite, “They usually leave people alone. They’re afraid of you. Except the black ones--they’ll go after you. But you probably won’t die from those ones. You’ll just get really sick and be in a lot of pain. Not to worry.” Anyways I was freaked the whole time. It’s a good thing you don’t have to worry about them in the city!

The other wildlife was quite cool though. There is a river (it’s actually a creek) that runs through their land, and they call part of it that’s quite accessible from their house the Platypus Pool, because there is a Platypus there. We didn’t see one this time (it’s very unusual to see them in the wild) but Joni said she saw one last time. Just as a side-note, platypuses are also poisonous. They have spurs on their back feet that have enough venom to kill several people. It seems like everything here is deadly. We saw an Echidna which was quite cool. Echidna’s are kind of like Hedgehogs except bigger. We actually went and petted it, because when they get scared of something they try to burrow, and then stay still. I must say that of the Australian wildlife that I’ve been told about, that is the defense Mechanism that I like the best. And of course we saw lots of Kangaroos (which are not poisonous. Instead they have massive claws on their incredibly powerful back legs. So one should still be careful, “They’re usually quite harmless, but don’t make any sudden moves. They could gut you in one swipe! Here is some bread, would you like to feed one?”)

Besides exploring the Wilderness, we didn’t do a whole lot. It was kind of like camping: or days mostly revolved around food. And wine (Joni and Jeremy introduced me to the 4 dollar box of wine). We lounged in the sun quite a bit, watched some Australian television, played a lot of Settlers of Catan (a board Game), monopoly, lots of cards, read, and so on. Took rides on the dirt bike. Fed the cows. Took lots of naps. It was a real vacation. We were up at Oberon for about 5 days.

I’ve also spent some time hanging around Sydney. Luke, Joni, and Jeremy live in a suburb called Alexandria, three train stops from the downtown. They also live right beside the University of Sydney campus. I’ve explored around their house quite a bit (mostly as a result of trying to find this market thing one morning, getting lost, and then spending about 3 hours trying to get back to somewhere I knew). Joni and I also have taken a few trips into the city, seeing the opera house, the Harbour bridge, and the other really touristy stuff. We also found this company that does bridge climbs, where you can take a tour up to the top of the harbour bridge. It was a great idea until we found out that it costs between 200 and 400 dollars for one person to go up. Crazy! Anyway, we probably won’t do that.

I also have met Luke’s family here. His sister’s husband’s birthday was a couple days ago, and he had a big James Bond themed party which I went to. It was pretty fun, and I was glad I brought my dress clothes (though I hadn’t brought my shoes, and so I ended up wearing flip flops with dress pants. Stuff like that goes over in Australia.). The next day I helped Luke’s same sister and husband move. It was actually pretty fun. Luke’s Dad is very cool (he was a professor of economics at Sydney University, but has moved into working more with the education system itself, trying to make it better) and we had lots of good chats. I think that is sort of the secret to good traveling: meeting the locals. The moving was also really good exercise, and so I was glad for that. And there was free food! Win.

The 26th was Australia day! we spent it at the beach (like pretty much everyone else in the city), which was fantastic. It was super hot (like 43 degrees or something). Luckily it was also dry. Apparently when it’s humid it’s unbearable, and you pretty much have to stay inside. As it was, it was alright, although I’ve never just sweat while lying in one place before. That’s a first for me I guess. The water was amazing too--warm but still refreshing. The highlight was probably lunch--fresh bread with avocado and brie, olives, crackers, and wine. It was amazing! After the beach we went back to the house and met up with some friends, and had a bit of a party. And a bit too much to drink. It was a good first Australia day.

And now I’m getting ready to do some traveling! I’m going first to Tasmania (the little Island at the bottom). I should be there for about 3 days. I’ll then go to Perth (the westernmost city) where I’ll spend about a week. I’ve organized this like day volunteering thing doing something with wetlands for three of the days I am there. We’ll see what happens. And then after that I’ll go to Adelaide for a bit (it’s in southern Australia on the coast). After that I’ll pass through Sydney again for one night to get my stuff, and then head to Melbourne to get ready for Orientation!

Photos: Around Sydney

ramsaym — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:39:00 GMT

Photos taken at Joni, Luke, and Jeremy's house, as well as around Sydnay

Gallery: Katimavik -- Inverness house

ramsaym — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 11:32:00 GMT

Our group around the house

Gallery: Florence (May 19-21)

ramsaym — Sat, 19 May 2007 07:26:00 GMT

Gallery: Venice (May 17-19)

ramsaym — Thu, 17 May 2007 07:18:00 GMT

Gallery: Madrid (May 13-16)

ramsaym — Wed, 16 May 2007 07:08:00 GMT

Gallery: Sevilla (May 11-13)

ramsaym — Sun, 13 May 2007 07:02:00 GMT

Gallery: Cordoba (May 10-11)

ramsaym — Thu, 10 May 2007 06:59:00 GMT

Gallery: Grenada (May 8-10)

ramsaym — Tue, 8 May 2007 06:53:00 GMT

Gallery: Valencia (May 7-8)

ramsaym — Mon, 7 May 2007 06:46:00 GMT

Gallery: Barcelona (May 4-6)

ramsaym — Fri, 4 May 2007 06:37:00 GMT

Gallery: Paris (May 3, Disneyland)

ramsaym — Thu, 3 May 2007 06:25:00 GMT