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exumenius

170 Blog Entries
2 Trips
477 Photos

Trips:

Down Under trip Preparation
Kiwis and Kangaroos

Shorthand link:

http://blogabond.com/exumenius




A Day at Darling Harbour - Night 44

Sydney, Australia

The weather proved to be dour again today,

The Iceman
as the clouds hung low over the top of the concrete jungle’s canopy. Outdoors the elements were more like a November day in Seattle than Sydney. For lunch we had American cuisine, large juicy burgers from Burgerlicious, a Red Robin-esque chain restaurant here down under. Quite surprisingly, the burger actually tasted as fresh as advertised.

The rest of the group had plans to walk the gardens and peruse the Opera House, activities I had already checked off the list. Thus we agreed to go our separate ways and meet again at the Sydney Aquarium around 3 o’clock. To pass the time I did some preparatory shopping for New Zealand and eventually stumbled down to the free National Maritime Museum. The actual maritime exhibits were less than enthralling, however, the ancillary showings were well worth the price of


My Kind of Boat
admission. A small room on Jellyfish proved informative and interesting, but the real prize was the Iceman exhibit. Otzi, a resident of the Alps was found completely intact and buried in a glacier about 15 years ago by some hikers in Austria. Dated at 5,325 years old, his remains included everything: clothing, weapons, and even the contents of his stomach. Forensic evidence has shown that the cause of death for the man, in his mid 40’s, was from an arrow through the back, shot uphill from approximately 20 meters away. The curators joked that the culprit remains at large. Through pollens found in his stomach the murder likely occurred in the month of June.


The Aquarium
My scientific exploration continued at the aquarium. Although the entire place was an attraction, the underwater walkways taking you beneath sharks and huge manta rays were the clear highlight. The coral exhibits were captivating as well.
After the aquarium Paolo took off to meet some family and Charlie and I headed home for some dinner and beer. Later on we all me up at Jackson’s on George, minus Paolo who was still at dinner and Karen who was on a date with a guy she met the night before. The night ended early again as we were all exhausted from the day.

My time in Sydney was enjoyable but tiring. Being a morning person I can’t help but wake before the 7 am hour, a fact which makes travelling with evening people a bit challenging. After a whole day of activities I am dead tired by 9pm. That combined with the cold I am fighting meant I was a bit of a bore most nights. It seems every time I try to do a short two week type vacation I end up being run down at the end of it. Though I enjoyed the last 10 days with friends I am also most definitely looking forward to a few nights of sound sleep in Auckland.

What I Learned Today: Despite my best efforts, when tired, I can be a horribly impatient bastard.


permalink written by  exumenius on November 23, 2007 from Sydney, Australia
from the travel blog: Down Under trip Preparation
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Manly Museum - Night 43

Sydney, Australia

The weather was as poor as predicted and it rained intermittently throughout the day, so inside activities it was. After lunch at Wrapido, we met the girls at the Marriot and walked a few blocks to the Museum on College Street. Basically a natural history museum, it also had a current exhibit on African impressions which was primarily a collection of aerial photographs from National Geographic; an excellent example of the diversity, both physical and economic, on the continent of Africa. The skeletons room had very interesting exhibits showing just how similar some very common animals are to each other. Once stripped of their skin, Koalas look surprisingly like large possums, likewise, the difference between a wild boar and a dog on a skeletal level is quite minute. Albert Chapman, one of the world’s greatest mineral collectors is a local, so an entire room on the second floor was dedicated to some of his amazing finds, many of which are so colorful and strange that you couldn’t dream a design like that up. It is simply astounding that they came from the same earth that most of us imagine as just brown dirt and grey rock.


Sydney from the Ferry

Post-museum we took a ferry out to


Charlie and I at Manly Beach
Manly Island to watch the surfers and the volleyballers. Manly, though the beach is supposedly polluted, is much larger and more active than Bondi. After nearly blowing the bank at a nice steak house, we settled on fish and chips for dinner. I was not overly impressed with either. Didn’t even compare to a good ole fashioned Wisconsin Friday Night Fish Fry.

The ferry ride back took us past the Opera House and the city skyline at dusk, which was quite beautiful. Upon the return to the mainland we hopped a bus to Charlie’s for an early night of relaxation.

What I Learned Today: “Terra Nullius” is the doctrine that the English used to steal land from the Aborigines. It referred to the fact that the land was not being used in a manner consistent with their religious and political beliefs (farming and private property ownership) thus the British owed it to the Aborigines to fix their ‘poor’ land use practices. While we now realize this was a foolish practice, “Terra Nullius” (or a refined concept thereof) might still have some use as a way to reappropriate land from absentee land owners and destructive corporations back to the public for the public good.


permalink written by  exumenius on November 22, 2007 from Sydney, Australia
from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos
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Bondi Beach - Night 42

Sydney, Australia


Paolo and I on the rocks near Bondi
Paolo and I met the girls at the Town Hall station to catch our train out to the world famous Bondi Beach. About an hour away, Bondi is located on the far eastern reaches of Sydney in a small cove along the Pacific Ocean. The sky was cloudy all morning, but the sun broke through just as we arrived. By 2pm the beach was packed with beautiful people, many of the girls topless. Bondi being the site of the 2000 Olympic Volleyball matches we were expecting nets and pros playing on the beach. We were mightily disappointed as not a net or ball was in sight. The only beach sports going on were some schoolkids playing cricket. Prior to leaving Paolo and I jumped in the ice cold water for a quick swim. Surprising how much colder it was than the water just a few hundred miles north in Noosa.

World Famous Bondi Beach

We managed to return to the city ahead

Jagermeister in Sydney
of the approaching storm, which we watched from the rooftop pool and hot tub of the Marriot. Tonight was Charlie’s big night, his first attempt at standup comedy at the Surf Rock Hotel and Bar. The bus ride out to Collaroy was nearly 45 minutes long and when we arrived found the place to be much bigger and classier than first imagined. Charlie had a late time and everyone before him was a musician, two facts which eventually worked against him. By the time his set came up, most of the decent patrons had gone and all that was left was a younger crowd who by this time was fairly drunk and simply content with nodding their heads to poorly covered 90s American Rock songs. His first few jokes, funny to an American, where simply lost in translation and then the heckling began. He never really had a chance and stepped off stage a few minutes later. A rough first experience.


Charlie on Stage
The bus ride back to town felt much longer than the ride in. To kill the pain we stopped at Jackson’s on George for drinks and a few games of pool. A late night search for food in Crow’s Nest proved unfruitful and we returned to the house with some frozen fish and chips from 7-11.

What I Learned Today: Australians have chicken flavored chips and chicken salt.


permalink written by  exumenius on November 21, 2007 from Sydney, Australia
from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos
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Sydney Walkabout - Night 41

Sydney, Australia

I awoke from my air mattress in the dining room rather late and it was nearly 10:30 by the time Paolo and I had made our way into the city to meet the girls. The others were dead set on seeing the zoo; I was not, so we went our separate ways for the day. For me traveling in groups is difficult at best, so a day alone was much welcome.

The City from the Gardens

My walkabout began by heading north through the massive botanical gardens, which are larger than the town I grew up in. A great place for a walk, the gardens actually encourage tramping on the grass, not the concrete. At the very north end of the green is located the iconic Sydney Opera House. The usual frenzied atmosphere of the place was heightened as work crews were on hand to set up an outdoor stage for an upcoming performance of Australian Idol (just another example of the Aussies borrowing some of America’s worst culture phenomena). The opera house is every bit as beautiful as imagined, but it is strange to finally be standing at a place you have seen in pictures for years. I continued around Little Cove, up to Lady Macquerie’s Chair and back down the east side of the botanical gardens back to Hyde Park.

All my hiking had worked up quite an appetite so I headed to Pitt Street Mall for lunch. Pitt Street is a single block pedestrian mall in the heart of the city, that on a week day lunch hour was absolutely jammed with people. It reminded me slightly of walking through Times Square in New York, though not quite to that level of density, of course. In the food court there was nary a single open seat. Surprisingly, I find the din created by thousands of anonymous conversations (many in another language) very peaceful…almost like a waterfall or the tide crashing on the beach.

After lunch my circuitous path through the city took me down George Street and back up through Chinatown. Sydney wears its multi-cultural hat with pride and the Asian influences in the city are hard to miss, both in the demographics of the population and the face of its commercial districts. I continued up Sussex and then west to Darling Harbor and the Wharf. After a short break on the waterfront I walked back to George Street and turned left toward the area known as the Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney. From here are great views of the underside of the Harbour Bridge and, again, the Opera House. From the Rocks I climbed the Argyle Steps and began the long walk over the bridge. Though cold (as a stiff wind blew in on the harbor) the walk along the bridge is a must for a visitor to Sydney. The views are simply amazing.

Returning to Charlie’s around 6, I met his roommates, Matt, Alex, and Lucy for the first time. We went for a swim in their newly cleaned pool (the sofa and chairs had been removed from the last wild party they threw a few weeks back). After the girls showed up, we went out for Thai food in Crow’s Nest, a small neighborhood nearby. The food was decent, though not nearly as good as Bell Thai in Seattle.

What I Learned Today: I rarely feel overwhelmed when visiting man-made sights (such as the Opera House)…on the other hand, natural places, such as the Grand Canyon, Fraser Island, Mt. Rainier, etc., tend to deliver much more than expected.


permalink written by  exumenius on November 20, 2007 from Sydney, Australia
from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos
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Arrival in Sydney - Night 40

Sydney, Australia


The Apartment
We were all packed up, checked out and in the cab on the way to the airport by 10 am. Our five days in Noosa were enjoyable and relaxing (and fairly cheap), though I wouldn’t want to spend any more than that there.

View from the Apartment
It is slow-paced, family oriented place that doesn’t offer much in the way of adventure or excitement. A good place to catch a tan or catch up on sleep.

In comparison to the Sunshine Coast Airport, Austin Straubel (Green Bay) Airport is massive. The place has two boarding gates and one small restaurant. Our flight was a bit late but once underway was a smooth hour and a half ride into Sydney. After collecting our luggage and taking the train into town we arrived at the girl’s hotel at around 4pm. Sheri is using her accumulated travel points to stay at the Marriot on Hyde Park; Paolo and I will be crashing on Charlie’s floor at his house in North Sydney.

The girls unpacked and we all took a stroll through the idyllic Hyde Park located next door. Charlie and Bea, his girlfriend, showed up at 8 and we took off for dinner in Kirrabilli, a neighborhood on the north side of Sydney. Reputedly the home of the prime minister John Howard, Kirrabilli is a trendy enclave perched on a hill that offers amazing views of the Harbor and the city. We dined at a small Italian restaurant that was fabulous. Many such places in Australia are BYO, which means bring your own alcohol…so we did.


THE Italian Place to eat in Kirrabilli

My first impression of Sydney is that it is a massive city, much more frantic than anywhere else in Australia, but yet a place that still maintains an underlying feeling of the Aussie free spirited culture. Not to mention a genuine natural beauty that is ever-present.

What I Learned Today: I am sure I learned something today but as I write this I can’t help but think: Why don’t you ever see any baby pigeons? For some strange reasons they are always all the exact same size. Are they born that big?


permalink written by  exumenius on November 19, 2007 from Sydney, Australia
from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos
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Rainy Day at the Beach - Night 39

Noosa Heads, Australia

Rolling out of bed I was greeted by the sound of rain pouring down on the terrace. I took my sequestered time to update my journal and go through my photos from the previous days. The rain broke slightly at 8:30 and I went into town to try to steal some wireless. Utterly unsuccessfully, I returned around 10 to find the rest of the house awake and preparing breakfast.

Around 1 pm the clouds finally broke and


Volleyball on the Beach
Paolo and I made a trip to the beach one last time. The morning rains had scared away most of the crowds but had also brought in quite a surf. The waves were much larger and closer to shore than they had been the previous days. Paolo had rented a body board (though never actually paid for it) from the apartment complex so we tooled around with that awhile until it became painfully obviously that we were clueless, even the little kids were kicking our ass at catching waves.


The Last Supper
A proper Australian barbecue was on the menu for the evening but the rain returned so we were forced to grill the sausages inside. Nobody was much for partying tonight so a few games of cards and then the sheets for all of us.

What I Learned Today: Australians make the most awful potato salad.


permalink written by  exumenius on November 18, 2007 from Noosa Heads, Australia
from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos
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Noosa National Park - Night 38

Noosa Heads, Australia


Hell's Gate, Noosa NP
After staying in last night we awoke refreshed and ready to do some hiking in Noosa National Park. Located on a large head that sticks into the sea, the park promised great views and, from what we had heard on the street, a chance at seeing koalas in the wild. Only the boys were up for this adventure (with the exception of Sabine who met us at the park); the girls took to the street for a shopping spree.

The park delivered the promised views;


Noosa National Park
however, the koalas proved elusive. It was a satisfying 5 to 6 mile hike through the jungle, not too difficult, but not exactly wheelchair accessible either. With the questionable weather looming, it was a good change of pace from lying on the beach and frolicking in the surf.

The evening consisted of leftovers, some wine and a card game. Around 10 we hit up the main bars in town (Irish Murphy’s, Koala’s, and the Reef), which at this point have all worn a bit thin on us and we were home by 1:30.

What I Learned Today: My diminishing rate of return from partying is beginning to reach a critical level. Translation: I think I am finally growing up – a process which is not, as some think, the end of fun, but rather a transition to elevated enjoyment in whatever form an individual chooses to pursue.


permalink written by  exumenius on November 17, 2007 from Noosa Heads, Australia
from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos
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Beach, Take Three - Night 37

Noosa Heads, Australia

We awoke slowly and again spent the day at

Catching some Rays
the beach. Daniel and Anna left us this afternoon, reducing our party to six. Sabine joined us in the afternoon for a swim at the apartment. Charlie and Sheri made a great Italian meal for dinner. The boys fell asleep at 10, the girls went out for a glass of wine and were home by 12.

What I Learned Today: Do not let Paolo apply sunscreen (as evidenced by Charlie’s back)


permalink written by  exumenius on November 16, 2007 from Noosa Heads, Australia
from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos
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To The Beach Again - Night 36

Noosa Heads, Australia


The Beach
Anna made a wonderful Irish omelet this morning. Then we went back to sleep until 11 or so. We spent the remainder of the day at the beach trying fairly unsuccessfully to body surf. Sabine, the Danish girl from Brisbane, met us out on the beach as well.

Dinner was Mexican at Montezuma’s on Hastings Street. Though everyone was rightfully knackered after a day of doing nothing we still managed to hit up Irish Murphy’s and Koala’s and made it til bar close. I dropped a glass on the floor at Irish Murphy’s wasting a perfectly good beer and causing a bit of a scene. On the walk home a maroon Eclipse drove by and asked us “how much for your women?” Twice. Added to the time he did this on our way to the bar made thrice. How bored do you have to be to drive around Noosa for three hours yelling this at everyone you pass?

PS. The agreed upon price was four pints, one for each of them.

What I Learned Today: American parents coddle and protect their children to a harrowing degree, much to detriment of both. Nineteen year olds from most countries are allowed, even encouraged, to travel the world freely, to strike off and grab life by the throat, to grow up, whereas, American teens are sent to college like sheep and told to call home every other night to make sure they are ok. Thus our sense of adventure (and maturity level) is stunted before it gets a chance to blossom. Your average teenage Dane or Aussie is more worldly and interesting than your average thirty year old American. (Average being the key word -- for it is undoubtedly true that we live in a Gaussian world)


permalink written by  exumenius on November 15, 2007 from Noosa Heads, Australia
from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos
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To Noosa - Night 35

Noosa Heads, Australia

I awoke at 4 am and snuck out of my hostel without waking any of my roommates, all who had been on the Fraser trip. My bus to Noosa left at 6:50 and was a nice calm ride until Gympie when an old fat guy got on and sat next to me, which is bad enough, but then he proceeded to ask a never ending series of stupid and/or rhetorical questions. Such as every time we went through a roundabout – “Which direction are we going?” How the fuck should I know, he clearly lived here and I clearly did not. Then somehow he got it into his mind that I was going fishing in Noosa so he pestered me at no end about what sort of fishing I was going to do, often asking the same question three or four times. Let’s just say I was overjoyed to get off the bus at the Noosa Heads station.


Me, Daniel and Charlie
Paolo and company where due in around 11. I waited at the bus stop until 12:30 and then gave up and headed to the apartment we had rented for the next five days. They showed up shortly thereafter. After checking out our digs, which are great, we marched down to the beach for a little bit of leisure. Daniel and Anna showed up around 4pm and we all went back to the apartment and began swilling wine. The last member of our group, Charlie, got in from the airport around 8pm.

Boxed wine was the drink of choice due


Drinks at Koala's
to economic concerns. Around 9 we grabbed a cab bound for Koala’s, a backpacker bar in Noosa Junction. A bit cheesy and dirty, the drinks were cheap and the clientele poor travelers like myself; a classy joint, no doubt. By the time the lights came on at midnight, not a soul in our group was threatened by sobriety.

Back at the apartment, Charlie, Daniel, Anna, Sheri, and I skirted the rules and pool wall and hopped in the hot tub for a midnight swim. By some miracle no one complained about the loud noise.

What I Learned Today – Whinge. v. A British term meaning to whine incessantly about nothing at all. Or what a woman does after she has run out of other things to say.


permalink written by  exumenius on November 14, 2007 from Noosa Heads, Australia
from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos
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