Song: "Ain't No Other Man (remix)" by Christina Aguilera
May 9th
I woke up in Bondi Junction and watched Disney's Alice in Wonderland and part of a Penguins vs. Capitals game. Great morning. Oh and I was still in my clothes from last night. As I sent thank you texts to my host on the way out the door, I wondered if it could still be called a "walk of shame" if nothing incredibly shameful happened. I decided it's pretty shameful that I was wearing the same outfit from last night, which looks fine in the evening and all, but not especially in the daylight. Regardless, I got home but not until about 2pm due to some lovely public transportation issues.
I decided I needed to go to Trafalgar to get salsa and god knows what else, and while talking with Justin online decided that I wanted to see Star Trek in IMAX in Darling Harbour. I'd walked past it last night in the course of the evening, and the idea was in my head, so I was going to see it. We tried to get more people to come with us, but weren't very successful, so the two of us went to see it around 7pm. I had heard earlier that people were going to Lowenbrau, the German pub in the rocks, and so had Justin, so we decided to meet them afterward.
The movie was mind-blowing. Oh, J.J. Abrams, I love you and everything you touch. Aside from the fairly blatant physics errors, the movie was incredibly entertaining. I knew enough about Star Trek (thanks to Dad) to know a bit about what was going on, so that was fun. The space fight scenes were brilliant in IMAX. Seeing Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine in IMAX wasn't so bad either...
Justin and I left the theater way before the rest of the folks from Macquarie made it into the city, so we went to KFC to kill some time and eat some dinner. The bathrooms were locked up due to vandalism, and there were a group of about 7 guys who came in wearing togas. So confused. Anyway, we left there and headed to Lowenbrau to wait for everyone else. Eventually they showed up, and we all danced and drank and had a good time. Oh and the bar above Lowenbrau is called Über Bar. Sweet, right?
Anyway, out of nowhere, Greg pulls me aside and asks if I want to go with him and Justin to Argyle. So we go. We stayed there for a bit, until we realized the bar was closed (not that I was buying anything there anyway, it's way too expensive) and headed back to go home.
We got back on the bus, and I wasn't sure if it went back to Culloden Rd. or not, so I convinced Justin to get off with me at Macquarie Centre and walk home from there. Greg stayed on the bus, which took him directly to Culloden, while Justin and I walked home freezing. Greg was right and I was cold.
Showing posts with label public transportation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label public transportation. Show all posts
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Too many legs under the table, too many reasons for trouble..
Song: "Let's Make Out" by Does It Offend You, Yeah?
May 3rd
So strangely enough after going to sleep at 7pm, you wake up relatively early the next day. Surprise. Well, I had seen through some email that Kings Cross was having a food festival today and I decided that since I was awake, I should go.
I walked to the bus stop, and on the way I actually saw the equestrian park being used. There were a ton of horses.
The bus ride was smooth. On the bus I ran into Lisa from my aesthetics class and her friend who were going to the opera house and pancakes on the rocks. They were fun ride companions. After I got off the bus, I saw a sign for a festival going on in Darling Harbour, and since I had nothing better to do, I went to check it out. Most of the stuff happening was in the evening, but it was fun to stroll through anyway. After that, I got to the cross without any difficulties and I found that it was much nicer in the day time.
Fountain:
I thought it was interesting that we were essentially equidistant from Germany in both directions. The numbers are cut off, but it's about 16,000 km each way to Berlin and Frankfurt.
rainbow in the fountain:
The festival was vibrant, and had lots of interesting things to eat. I had some butter chicken, chocolate mousse and a cheese plate. Delicious.
I stayed for a bit and then meandered back to QVB to catch the bus home. The walk was refreshing.
Then I went home, and at 3pm (1am, EST) I met up with my lovely roommate from back home and celebrated her birthday with a glass of wine "at" her birthday party. Like usual, my video crapped out in 30 seconds, but it was fun.
I then pretended to work on my lab report briefly. Good times. I passed out early and decided to save it for Monday morning.
May 3rd
So strangely enough after going to sleep at 7pm, you wake up relatively early the next day. Surprise. Well, I had seen through some email that Kings Cross was having a food festival today and I decided that since I was awake, I should go.
I walked to the bus stop, and on the way I actually saw the equestrian park being used. There were a ton of horses.
The bus ride was smooth. On the bus I ran into Lisa from my aesthetics class and her friend who were going to the opera house and pancakes on the rocks. They were fun ride companions. After I got off the bus, I saw a sign for a festival going on in Darling Harbour, and since I had nothing better to do, I went to check it out. Most of the stuff happening was in the evening, but it was fun to stroll through anyway. After that, I got to the cross without any difficulties and I found that it was much nicer in the day time.
Fountain:
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| From Kings Cross Food Festival |
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| From Kings Cross Food Festival |
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| From Kings Cross Food Festival |
The festival was vibrant, and had lots of interesting things to eat. I had some butter chicken, chocolate mousse and a cheese plate. Delicious.
I stayed for a bit and then meandered back to QVB to catch the bus home. The walk was refreshing.
 |
| From Kings Cross Food Festival |
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| From Kings Cross Food Festival |
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| From Kings Cross Food Festival |
I then pretended to work on my lab report briefly. Good times. I passed out early and decided to save it for Monday morning.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Bottle of red, bottle of white...
Song: "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" by Billy Joel
May 2nd
So I slept for one and a half hours, then woke up, got showered and dressed and ran out the door at 6am. I was supposed to meet the bus in St. Leonard's, and I was early so I bought some chocolate mud pie at 6:30am (I eat dessert for breakfast. Get over it.).
Anyway, from there I found the bus, and essentially passed out on the 1-2 hour drive to the Hunter Valley wine country. My iPod was my best buddy for the long drives. The people on the bus didn't really start talking to each other until we started our first wine tasting.
The group was a lot of fun. We had a hen's party (bachelorette party), a guy from California on business, me, a couple from Ireland who had just established residency in Australia, another couple, and a group of three folks who knew each other (I think a couple and a sister/friend). And our tour guide. It was a good group.
We went to about 5 wineries. I drank a lot of wine. You're supposed to dump out what you don't want into a bucket, but the hen's party was not having it, and kept encouraging me to drink all the wine because I paid for it, and it was wasteful, etc. They were hysterical.
We went to wine school to learn about how wine is made and how to properly taste it. Something about washing it around in your mouth. I wasn't really paying attention. 1.5 hours of sleep does that.
We also went to a cheese shop. Definitely a highlight for a cheese addict like myself.
Next door was more wine tasting:
Cute couple and me (I think the bartender took this.)
More wine at the last winery. We were all at our finest.
Gorgeous:
The girls of the hen's party. They were a blast.
Here I saw my first, live kangaroo in the wild. It was awesome.
So cool. My Australian life is pretty complete now.
After our last winery we hit up a chocolate shop, which while a bit of a disappointment, was ok. They had some pretty humorously packaged chocolates:
I got some chocolate caramels, which were not very impressive.
On the way home, we played a celebrity game with the drunk bus full of winos. I found out that I know nothing about Australian pop culture compared to how much Australians know about American pop culture. I'm ok with this.
The bus eventually dropped me at Circular Quay and I grabbed a bus back to Macquarie. I was all pumped to go out again because it was Saturday night, but I slept through my alarm and into the next day. It was probably for the best. :)
May 2nd
So I slept for one and a half hours, then woke up, got showered and dressed and ran out the door at 6am. I was supposed to meet the bus in St. Leonard's, and I was early so I bought some chocolate mud pie at 6:30am (I eat dessert for breakfast. Get over it.).
Anyway, from there I found the bus, and essentially passed out on the 1-2 hour drive to the Hunter Valley wine country. My iPod was my best buddy for the long drives. The people on the bus didn't really start talking to each other until we started our first wine tasting.
 |
| From Hunter Valley |
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| From |
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| From Hunter Valley |
The group was a lot of fun. We had a hen's party (bachelorette party), a guy from California on business, me, a couple from Ireland who had just established residency in Australia, another couple, and a group of three folks who knew each other (I think a couple and a sister/friend). And our tour guide. It was a good group.
We went to about 5 wineries. I drank a lot of wine. You're supposed to dump out what you don't want into a bucket, but the hen's party was not having it, and kept encouraging me to drink all the wine because I paid for it, and it was wasteful, etc. They were hysterical.
We went to wine school to learn about how wine is made and how to properly taste it. Something about washing it around in your mouth. I wasn't really paying attention. 1.5 hours of sleep does that.
 |
| From Hunter Valley |
We also went to a cheese shop. Definitely a highlight for a cheese addict like myself.
 |
| From Hunter Valley |
Next door was more wine tasting:
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| From Hunter Valley |
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| From Hunter Valley |
More wine at the last winery. We were all at our finest.
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| From Hunter Valley |
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| From Hunter Valley |
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| From Hunter Valley |
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| From Hunter Valley |
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| From Hunter Valley |
Here I saw my first, live kangaroo in the wild. It was awesome.
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| From Hunter Valley |
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| From Hunter Valley |
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| From Hunter Valley |
After our last winery we hit up a chocolate shop, which while a bit of a disappointment, was ok. They had some pretty humorously packaged chocolates:
 |
| From Hunter Valley |
On the way home, we played a celebrity game with the drunk bus full of winos. I found out that I know nothing about Australian pop culture compared to how much Australians know about American pop culture. I'm ok with this.
The bus eventually dropped me at Circular Quay and I grabbed a bus back to Macquarie. I was all pumped to go out again because it was Saturday night, but I slept through my alarm and into the next day. It was probably for the best. :)
Friday, April 10, 2009
These adventures in solitude never done...
Song: "Adventures in Solitude" by The New Pornographers
April 3rd
I woke up this morning and decided I was going to go to Melbourne this weekend. It wasn't planned out exactly; I had bought a $300 unlimited train pass to Melbourne, Canberra, Broken Hill, and Brisbane from Sydney for the next three months the day before, and I woke up itching to try it out. So I booked a train.
Melbourne is in Victoria. I was so glad to be getting out of New South Wales. I've loved NSW so far, but I had to leave. Plus, I heard Melbourne was great. I contemplated asking people to come with me, but the tickets without the pass were a little steep ($180 round trip), so I decided to go it alone.
But first I had to go to class, then I came home. I also had decided that I needed a sweatshirt with things starting to get chilly around here, so I headed into the city to the store I wanted to buy it from.
My sweatshirt essentially looks like this, but as a sweatshirt:
The store was gorgeous and I loved the designs. I wanted to stay longer, but I decided instead to go run through the Museum of Contemporary Art. I saw a really cool exhibit on Yayoi Kusama. I briefly wanted to title this entry as "Modern Art Gallery" by Cheese on Bread, but I'll save that for the next time I visit since this trip was about a 10 minute walk through with periodic glances to the side. I took the train home and got back in time for my class at the gym. I'm that good.
After the gym, I went home, packed up my suitcase and new sweatshirt and headed down to Central Station in Sydney to catch my train. It was pretty exhilarating.
I picked up my ticket, after a decently long talk with the guy in the booth about how he was understaffed and I should have come earlier and blah blah whatever until I got my pass and my ticket. We ended on good terms, mainly because he got to go home I think. He was fairly understanding about my situation (that I didn't bring my passport because the lady on the phone told me I didn't need it) and I got ready to go on the train.
I had decided that this weekend would be one of catching up on Aesthetics. I wanted to get material for my Aesthetics journal that I'm keeping. I also wanted to finish my readings. And of course, I wanted to see Melbourne. My train left Central Station at 8:40 pm and was due to arrive in Melbourne around 7 am the next day. I read for awhile, but then decided I needed to sleep. The train was freezing and I had a really hard time finding a comfortable position. Eventually, I became so exhausted that I was able to sleep for about 2 hours, then I woke up and slept two more hours, etc.
The train!
I was doing a lot of pondering on the trip, like about how insane I was for doing it, how proud I was of myself for doing it, and how alone I was. I had my iPod on shuffle while attempting to sleep when "Adventures in Solitude" came on as either the first or second song. I teared up a bit. Thank you higher powers behind shuffle. After this, I constructed a beautiful playlist which had "Stars" by The Weepies which was another strong contender for the award of "title of this entry." The stars were gorgeous from the train.
Here's me, looking ridiculous in the bathroom of the train:
:)
April 3rd
I woke up this morning and decided I was going to go to Melbourne this weekend. It wasn't planned out exactly; I had bought a $300 unlimited train pass to Melbourne, Canberra, Broken Hill, and Brisbane from Sydney for the next three months the day before, and I woke up itching to try it out. So I booked a train.
Melbourne is in Victoria. I was so glad to be getting out of New South Wales. I've loved NSW so far, but I had to leave. Plus, I heard Melbourne was great. I contemplated asking people to come with me, but the tickets without the pass were a little steep ($180 round trip), so I decided to go it alone.
But first I had to go to class, then I came home. I also had decided that I needed a sweatshirt with things starting to get chilly around here, so I headed into the city to the store I wanted to buy it from.
My sweatshirt essentially looks like this, but as a sweatshirt:
The store was gorgeous and I loved the designs. I wanted to stay longer, but I decided instead to go run through the Museum of Contemporary Art. I saw a really cool exhibit on Yayoi Kusama. I briefly wanted to title this entry as "Modern Art Gallery" by Cheese on Bread, but I'll save that for the next time I visit since this trip was about a 10 minute walk through with periodic glances to the side. I took the train home and got back in time for my class at the gym. I'm that good.
After the gym, I went home, packed up my suitcase and new sweatshirt and headed down to Central Station in Sydney to catch my train. It was pretty exhilarating.
 |
| From Melbourne Excursion |
I picked up my ticket, after a decently long talk with the guy in the booth about how he was understaffed and I should have come earlier and blah blah whatever until I got my pass and my ticket. We ended on good terms, mainly because he got to go home I think. He was fairly understanding about my situation (that I didn't bring my passport because the lady on the phone told me I didn't need it) and I got ready to go on the train.
I had decided that this weekend would be one of catching up on Aesthetics. I wanted to get material for my Aesthetics journal that I'm keeping. I also wanted to finish my readings. And of course, I wanted to see Melbourne. My train left Central Station at 8:40 pm and was due to arrive in Melbourne around 7 am the next day. I read for awhile, but then decided I needed to sleep. The train was freezing and I had a really hard time finding a comfortable position. Eventually, I became so exhausted that I was able to sleep for about 2 hours, then I woke up and slept two more hours, etc.
The train!
 |
| From Melbourne Excursion |
I was doing a lot of pondering on the trip, like about how insane I was for doing it, how proud I was of myself for doing it, and how alone I was. I had my iPod on shuffle while attempting to sleep when "Adventures in Solitude" came on as either the first or second song. I teared up a bit. Thank you higher powers behind shuffle. After this, I constructed a beautiful playlist which had "Stars" by The Weepies which was another strong contender for the award of "title of this entry." The stars were gorgeous from the train.
Here's me, looking ridiculous in the bathroom of the train:
 |
| From Melbourne Excursion |
:)
Every day it comes to this, catch the things you might have missed...
Song: "Catch the Sun" by Doves
April 2nd
Sweet Thursday. Optics class in the morning and then day to myself. Today I decided I was going to the place on the train map that sounded the silliest. The winner: Woy Woy, NSW.
I hopped a train with my backpack full of a large bottle of water and swim stuff and attempted to make my way there. I however had to stop for about 45 minutes in Berowra. Rather than sit and do nothing while waiting, I decided to explore Berowra. I have come to the conclusion that there is NOTHING to do in Berowra. I got a meat pie at a local bakery. I wanted Chicken Curry; they were out. I asked for a veggie pie, I got steak and mushroom. Whatever. As always, the meat pie was delicious and artery clogging.
I found a bathroom in this sketchy strip mall which was only sketchy because it looked so abandoned for 2pm on a Thursday. I went to investigate the quiche shop only to find they only sold whole quiches, which would have been a little strange to carry around all day.
Berowra, at its finest:
So many things wrong with this:
Finally, I caught the train to Woy Woy and arrived at Woy Woy station. I hadn't exactly planned what I wanted to do once I got there, so I attempted to find a map of where I was. I stumbled across their mall and went inside asking different retailers if they could point me toward a map or tourism center or something. I eventually was directed to the travel agency in the mall, where I found a woman who actually cared about helping me and printed me out a map of Woy Woy, Umina and Ettalong, all areas around where I was. I cannot thank her enough. She then told me to catch the bus from the station to Ettalong, where there was a beach and shops and such. I went back to the station and started my bus adventure.
I got on the bus with my handy dandy map and rode along, following the map to see where I was. I eventually got close to my destination, but assumed the bus might stop a little closer. I was so wrong. The bus kept going, and going, and it's next stop was across a river and past a mountain, and in my brain, I just kept whispering "shit, shit, shit, shit, shit" repeatedly to myself. I was kind of freaking out.
I asked a nice lady next to me how to get back to Ettalong and she looked at me worriedly and started to explain how to do it. We stopped the bus driver and she pointed me in the direction of the bus stand going toward Ettalong. She shouted at me "just flag down whatever bus stops there first." ok...
The view from the bus stop:
So I sat at the bus stop, waiting for any bus to come by, and the first one to do so was a school bus full of primary school students. The driver first tried to tell me that this wasn't a public bus, but I think he saw my general distress and terror at being lost and caved and let me on. Then I rode the school bus for the first time in probably five years.
When I got on, every single kid on the bus just stared at me for about 20 minutes until they forgot I existed and played like they were before. The school buses in Australia are just normal public transportation buses, except they hold children and act as a jungle gym on wheels. The seven year old boys in front of me were passing the time by playing with crumpled pieces of construction paper and trying to throw them out the window. I enjoyed watching them.
Eventually I got to the beach, by this time it was about 4pm, and most of the sun had set. I didn't care. Damnit, I got there and I was going to lay on the beach. I didn't really want to touch the water because it was pretty full of seaweed, but whatever. I enjoyed myself.
It started getting chilly, so I packed up and caught the bus back from Ettalong to Woy Woy station. I hopped on the train back and while I was waiting some rebellious kids were jamming to "A-Punk" by Vampire Weekend. I smiled.
Pretty sunset at the station:
I spent the train ride home listening to the soothing sounds of Robert Sinnerbrink's Wednesday Lecture (my aesthetics class) like I do every Thursday and read a little more of my Aesthetics material.
View from the train (Subtitle: "Experiments in Sepia"):
I thought my train was going to stop at Epping, where I could transfer back to Macquarie Uni, but this was untrue. The map just looks that way. I ended up riding all the way to Central in downtown Sydney. Blergh. I caught the yellow line train to Chatswood and made my way all the way around to Macquarie again. I took a very long round trip.
I got home later than I intended (**shakes fists at gods of public transportation**) but it didn't really matter. I didn't have anything to do the next day, so I called my friend Tara and inquired as to her plans for the evening when I got off at the station. We decided to go to Uni Bar for their bad taste party. I bought some $5 clothes at the Australian Wal-Mart (The Big W) and ran home to get clean and changed. The outfit was ridiculous. Here's me and Tara looking fine in our mismatched prints (me) and brown with black (Tara):
We had a blast there, which was surprising considering my last few times there weren't so fun. We met a bunch of people there, a few we already knew, and then a few we'd never met. One guy bought both Tara and me drinks which was pretty cool. I like freebies. He also then told us that his mother was psychic and that in Australia, plumbers make as much as doctors. I lost interest, but he seemed nice enough and Tara talked to him for awhile.
We ran into Greg, Janaki and Lindsey and a few others, and since I had been doing work for so long, it had been awhile since I'd seen them. It felt so good to get out and be social. Also, the bar there closes at some strange hour like 12:30am, or 11:30pm, either way, we left soon after that happened, which was probably a smooth move since I had class the next day. I came home, got changed and went to bed.
April 2nd
Sweet Thursday. Optics class in the morning and then day to myself. Today I decided I was going to the place on the train map that sounded the silliest. The winner: Woy Woy, NSW.
I hopped a train with my backpack full of a large bottle of water and swim stuff and attempted to make my way there. I however had to stop for about 45 minutes in Berowra. Rather than sit and do nothing while waiting, I decided to explore Berowra. I have come to the conclusion that there is NOTHING to do in Berowra. I got a meat pie at a local bakery. I wanted Chicken Curry; they were out. I asked for a veggie pie, I got steak and mushroom. Whatever. As always, the meat pie was delicious and artery clogging.
I found a bathroom in this sketchy strip mall which was only sketchy because it looked so abandoned for 2pm on a Thursday. I went to investigate the quiche shop only to find they only sold whole quiches, which would have been a little strange to carry around all day.
Berowra, at its finest:
 |
| From Woy Woy and Ettalong Beach Adventure |
So many things wrong with this:
 |
| From Woy Woy and Ettalong Beach Adventure |
Finally, I caught the train to Woy Woy and arrived at Woy Woy station. I hadn't exactly planned what I wanted to do once I got there, so I attempted to find a map of where I was. I stumbled across their mall and went inside asking different retailers if they could point me toward a map or tourism center or something. I eventually was directed to the travel agency in the mall, where I found a woman who actually cared about helping me and printed me out a map of Woy Woy, Umina and Ettalong, all areas around where I was. I cannot thank her enough. She then told me to catch the bus from the station to Ettalong, where there was a beach and shops and such. I went back to the station and started my bus adventure.
I got on the bus with my handy dandy map and rode along, following the map to see where I was. I eventually got close to my destination, but assumed the bus might stop a little closer. I was so wrong. The bus kept going, and going, and it's next stop was across a river and past a mountain, and in my brain, I just kept whispering "shit, shit, shit, shit, shit" repeatedly to myself. I was kind of freaking out.
I asked a nice lady next to me how to get back to Ettalong and she looked at me worriedly and started to explain how to do it. We stopped the bus driver and she pointed me in the direction of the bus stand going toward Ettalong. She shouted at me "just flag down whatever bus stops there first." ok...
The view from the bus stop:
 |
| From Woy Woy and Ettalong Beach Adventure |
So I sat at the bus stop, waiting for any bus to come by, and the first one to do so was a school bus full of primary school students. The driver first tried to tell me that this wasn't a public bus, but I think he saw my general distress and terror at being lost and caved and let me on. Then I rode the school bus for the first time in probably five years.
When I got on, every single kid on the bus just stared at me for about 20 minutes until they forgot I existed and played like they were before. The school buses in Australia are just normal public transportation buses, except they hold children and act as a jungle gym on wheels. The seven year old boys in front of me were passing the time by playing with crumpled pieces of construction paper and trying to throw them out the window. I enjoyed watching them.
 |
| From Woy Woy and Ettalong Beach Adventure |
Eventually I got to the beach, by this time it was about 4pm, and most of the sun had set. I didn't care. Damnit, I got there and I was going to lay on the beach. I didn't really want to touch the water because it was pretty full of seaweed, but whatever. I enjoyed myself.
 |
| From Woy Woy and Ettalong Beach Adventure |
It started getting chilly, so I packed up and caught the bus back from Ettalong to Woy Woy station. I hopped on the train back and while I was waiting some rebellious kids were jamming to "A-Punk" by Vampire Weekend. I smiled.
Pretty sunset at the station:
 |
| From Woy Woy and Ettalong Beach Adventure |
 |
| From Woy Woy and Ettalong Beach Adventure |
 |
| From Woy Woy and Ettalong Beach Adventure |
I spent the train ride home listening to the soothing sounds of Robert Sinnerbrink's Wednesday Lecture (my aesthetics class) like I do every Thursday and read a little more of my Aesthetics material.
View from the train (Subtitle: "Experiments in Sepia"):
 |
| From Woy Woy and Ettalong Beach Adventure |
I got home later than I intended (**shakes fists at gods of public transportation**) but it didn't really matter. I didn't have anything to do the next day, so I called my friend Tara and inquired as to her plans for the evening when I got off at the station. We decided to go to Uni Bar for their bad taste party. I bought some $5 clothes at the Australian Wal-Mart (The Big W) and ran home to get clean and changed. The outfit was ridiculous. Here's me and Tara looking fine in our mismatched prints (me) and brown with black (Tara):
We had a blast there, which was surprising considering my last few times there weren't so fun. We met a bunch of people there, a few we already knew, and then a few we'd never met. One guy bought both Tara and me drinks which was pretty cool. I like freebies. He also then told us that his mother was psychic and that in Australia, plumbers make as much as doctors. I lost interest, but he seemed nice enough and Tara talked to him for awhile.
We ran into Greg, Janaki and Lindsey and a few others, and since I had been doing work for so long, it had been awhile since I'd seen them. It felt so good to get out and be social. Also, the bar there closes at some strange hour like 12:30am, or 11:30pm, either way, we left soon after that happened, which was probably a smooth move since I had class the next day. I came home, got changed and went to bed.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Well the landslide will bring it down...
Song: "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac (no cover versions accepted)
March 29th
Today, Hilde and I decided that we would go on our first bushwalk through the university's bushwalking club. What is bushwalking you ask? Well maybe I should tell you what the bush is.
The Bush, according to Wikipedia's definition: A term that describes any wooded area, generally where eucalypts are present. Honestly, I'm not sure what eucalypts look like, but I can normally smell them.
So let's do some song translation:
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, (Awesome bird (see zoo entry) sits in eucalyptus tree)
Merry, merry king of the bush is he, (King of the forest)
Laugh, Kookaburra, Laugh, Kookaburra, (Laugh, awesome bird, laugh)
Gay your life must be. (Your life is happy.)
Congratulations! You now know some of the meaning behind an Australian song for kids.
Anyway, to go on the bushwalk we had to be at the bus station by the train at 7:30am. After last night's adventures, this was difficult, but we made it.
We met our trip leader, Matt, who is insane. In a good way though, I guess. We made it to Katoomba, which is the train stop closest to the Three Sisters section of the Blue Mountains where we were going to be walking. We hopped on a bus and went to Scenic World. I enjoyed this title.
Once we got there, we checked when the last railway from the bottom of the hills was so we wouldn't miss it and have to climb all the stairs. This was very useful information. For the first part of the walk, I was really confused. I thought we would be bushwalking, like in the bush. We were hiking up a road. We even stopped at the scenic lookouts along the road.
The Blue Mountains look blue if you're far enough away from them.
(I think this is a eucalyptus tree.)
I took much better pictures of the Three Sisters (a rock formation with an aboriginal history) later so I'll just put those up later. One of the lookout points was called Hilda's Point. Hilde was excited about this. Here's Hilde on the lookout at Hilda's point. (Pronounced the same, but Hilda is the more German spelling.)
We finally made it to the Golden Stairs, which actually was in the bush. Yay!
We went to all the places on this sign. It was quite a hike.
Hilde walking in front of me:
The Golden Stairs were a lot longer than this (all the way down the mountain) but here's a section:
Going down.
Big cliffs, tiny Hilde.
Giant termite mound
After the Golden Staircase we made our way to the Ruined Castle climb. It was crazy steep.
Here's the hole we climbed through to get to the top. I did not think I would make it, but I did.
This part of the trip was totally worth it. It also was where we ate lunch where I had the best sandwich of my life, only because I had worked so hard to get it. I went to the top of the "castle," which the Germans noted was definitely not a real castle, and found this little guy on the way. I think this lizard was about 4 inches long.
This bird also stared at me while I walked up.
The view from the top was phenomenal.
Right below the tallest point, sneaker shot:
I switched rocks halfway.
By the time I got to the second rock, I was really tired. I actually took a little nap on the rock.
We finally dismounted from the castle and made our way to the foot of the golden staircase again and then back down a path we hadn't traveled before through the Landslide area. Apparently, there had been a landslide which hit the mountains in this area awhile back throwing the rocks at the bottom into a configuration that was hard to walk through. The cliffs were gorgeous. I'm beginning to think I have a thing for cliffs.
From below the cliffs we could also see where we had walked earlier in the day at Ruined Castle. Yeah, wayyyyyy over there in the middle of the right hand side. I felt pretty proud of myself.
Here's a picture of Matt (far right) our fearless trip leader (not tour guide, as he would mention many times). Matt liked to tell us stories of things that aren't real like Drop Bears, a terrible creature that looks just like a koala but jumps down from trees and kills people. It is fictional, very very fictional and despite us knowing that, it did not stop Matt from retelling us of the perils of any encounter with a drop bear. Matt also knew a lot about D.C. from playing the video game Fallout 3. Like, he knew the entire layout of the National Mall essentially. This was eerie, but it was fun to test my memory of the city against his Fallout 3 knowledge. I missed D.C. a lot then.
Also, the Blue Mountains have a lot of coal in them but it can't be dug up any longer because it's a National Park. There was some coal in our trail.
Ok, back to the Three Sisters. My first pictures were too sunny and didn't turn out well. I think this one's my favorite:
We luckily did not miss the last railway up to the top, and it was totally worth the $10 to ride up the hill instead of having to climb the stairs. Matt wouldn't stop telling us that this was the steepest railway in the world. He wasn't joking.
Don't leave your infants loose, people.
Hilde on the rail:
It was incredibly steep.
When we finally left scenic world, we ended up missing the train back to Sydney by about 5 minutes, so we had to wait another hour. Hilde and I decided to go get some food. We went to a little Greek place and had tzatziki and spanakopita. Delicious.
We boarded the train with the rest of the crew in Katoomba. I liked their signs.
Why this sign is in feet instead of meters, I may never know.
We caught the train and rode for 2 hours or so and through a series of misguided suggestions, made it home to Macquarie. Essentially, Matt told us to catch a bus in Paramatta and it would take us to the mall near campus. We missed the last bus so we had to get back on the train and get to campus that way. Then when we got to Epping station, we missed the last train to campus, and luckily, oh so luckily, we caught a bus from Epping back to uni.
We initially thought the bus wasn't in service, but we were hopeful it would turn into the bus we wanted. The driver was laughing a little at us as he turned the sign on.
Public transportation home was exhausting, especially considering we were already incredibly exhausted, but we made it home, and I went straight to sleep, despite having a lab report due the next day.
March 29th
Today, Hilde and I decided that we would go on our first bushwalk through the university's bushwalking club. What is bushwalking you ask? Well maybe I should tell you what the bush is.
The Bush, according to Wikipedia's definition: A term that describes any wooded area, generally where eucalypts are present. Honestly, I'm not sure what eucalypts look like, but I can normally smell them.
So let's do some song translation:
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, (Awesome bird (see zoo entry) sits in eucalyptus tree)
Merry, merry king of the bush is he, (King of the forest)
Laugh, Kookaburra, Laugh, Kookaburra, (Laugh, awesome bird, laugh)
Gay your life must be. (Your life is happy.)
Congratulations! You now know some of the meaning behind an Australian song for kids.
Anyway, to go on the bushwalk we had to be at the bus station by the train at 7:30am. After last night's adventures, this was difficult, but we made it.
We met our trip leader, Matt, who is insane. In a good way though, I guess. We made it to Katoomba, which is the train stop closest to the Three Sisters section of the Blue Mountains where we were going to be walking. We hopped on a bus and went to Scenic World. I enjoyed this title.
Once we got there, we checked when the last railway from the bottom of the hills was so we wouldn't miss it and have to climb all the stairs. This was very useful information. For the first part of the walk, I was really confused. I thought we would be bushwalking, like in the bush. We were hiking up a road. We even stopped at the scenic lookouts along the road.
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
I took much better pictures of the Three Sisters (a rock formation with an aboriginal history) later so I'll just put those up later. One of the lookout points was called Hilda's Point. Hilde was excited about this. Here's Hilde on the lookout at Hilda's point. (Pronounced the same, but Hilda is the more German spelling.)
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
Hilde walking in front of me:
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
Also, the Blue Mountains have a lot of coal in them but it can't be dug up any longer because it's a National Park. There was some coal in our trail.
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
Ok, back to the Three Sisters. My first pictures were too sunny and didn't turn out well. I think this one's my favorite:
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
Hilde on the rail:
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
We boarded the train with the rest of the crew in Katoomba. I liked their signs.
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
We initially thought the bus wasn't in service, but we were hopeful it would turn into the bus we wanted. The driver was laughing a little at us as he turned the sign on.
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| From Blue Mountains Bushwalk |
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