I just thought I'd share this because it's funny. Lauren discovered if you accidentally miss a letter in the url for my site, you get a bible prohecy site:
wheresmara.blogpot.com
Monday, October 27, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Whales! And why there are no pictures.....
Hello again! I apologize for not writing for a little bit, although I guess it's a good thing to realize I haven't been on the internet in a few days as a result of actually doing things. Its been a little over a week total that I've been in Byron Bay. So let's see...
Lauren and I have actually (believe it or not!) made some friends at the hostel we've been staying at, in addition to the people we met through Liat, so it's been really nice to have other people to hang out with and do stuff with. I sort of feel like during this time in Byron Bay is when I really started to feel in the traveling groove, so to speak. When we first got to Byron I was so overwhelmed because it was a Friday and the hostels get packed with people coming to party for the weekend, but its much more chill during the week. And it's easy to start conversations with people at a hostel, because everyone is doing the same thing and just looking for people to hang out with. It's pretty cool.
Anyways, last week we went on a day tour to Nimbin with some friends from the hostel. Nimbin is known as the marijuana capital of Australia, basically there are tours you can take to the town (population 400) to buy weed cookies or whatever and the guide plays trippy music and talks about the counterculture history of the area. Before you get too concerned--I didn't take anything! It turns out that Nimbin and Byron Bay kind of became known as a hotspot for alternative lifestyles when loads of American draft-dodgers came in the 60's. They have this hilarious "museum" that has a few rooms just filled with random stuff, Aboriginal artefacts and quotes about spirituality. I actually wish we had more time in the town because they have some good agricultural and alternative energy initiatives going on, but it seems to get lost in the tourist hordes who come to just get high. The bus driver told some awesome stories about people who went overboard on the "space cakes" and totally freaked out on the tour, but fortunately everyone was pretty mellow, except for some guys who couldn't stop laughing while they cracked macadamia nuts. Ha. And there were some really annoying California boys who got really high and were just generally kind of asses, the kind that give Yankees abroad a bad name. One of them started talking to me at the hostel and revealed how he tricks other people into buying him drinks at the bar, despite the fact that he has his own business and is still getting paid while he's away. Not quality people.
The next day I went bodyboarding with an Irish guy I met on the Nimbin tour, it was really scary! The ocean is so strong, and we kept getting swept to the next beach over. The day after that Lauren and I actually managed to get up before noon and we went on a kayak trip at 8:30 in the morning. I thought it was a little expensive but it turned out to be more than worth it--we saw 3 humpback whales! Up close! I was in the kayak with one of the guides and at one point we were seriously like 10 meters away from them--two were swimming around and the third was a huge one (roughly the length of four of the kayaks put together) that was on it's back and slapping its fins around. It was truly amazing, to think that we were so close to one of the biggest animals in the world, and something that I'll probably never experience again. I think on the tours the whales don't usually get that close, so even the guides were in awe. I don't want to sell Lauren out, but she might have been moved to tears..... After the amazing whales, the guide with me goes "Let's go see some gay little dolphins!" Normally I would object to the use of gay to describe something but it was true, after the whales the dolphins were significantly less impressive. Though very cute.
Let's see...what else? Lauren is known as the reigning Connect Four champ in the hostel (despite the fact that our friend James has beat her a number of times while intoxicated, but no one remembers that), I've given away a significant amount of money to the local pie shop in late night runs, I burnt my back at the beach (and my bum), and we continue to offend Israeli backpackers with our atrocious Hebrew.
Last night, we planned on going out dancing with James (English) and our Canadian friend Manessa, and accordingly bought a box of "goon:" cheap terrible wine. Unfortunately once everyone was ready we discovered that all the bars had closed so we got some pie and I came up with a crackpot idea to take our sleeping bags up to the lighthouse (one of the only still funtional lighthouses in the southern hemisphere, in case you cared) and wake up for the sunrise. The lighthouse is located just above a point that is the farthest east you can get on the Australian mainland. So if you watch the sunrise there you're one of the first on the mainland to see the sun come up. Pretty cool. You have to walk along the beach for a while to get to the stairs up to the lighthouse, and we did this at like, 2 in the morning (thanks for the headlamp Shana and Daniel!). We saw lots of little sand crabs scurry away from the light. The lighthouse itself is really beautiful, it just seems kind of magical in the night. I was entranced by it. I'm adding it to my list of things that really excite me: lighthouses and koalas in the wild. Anyways, we slept for about 3 hours on a little patch of grass (I don't think you're really supposed to sleep there) and watched a beautiful sunrise.
Oh! and the reason that there haven't been any pictures is because I pulled another Mara and didn't seal my water bottle properly in my backpack and it leaked all over my camera. So when we get to Brisbane (we're leaving Byron in 2 days) I'll try to get it fixed. So that's all for now, this is the longest post I've ever written I think! Lots of love to all.....
Lauren and I have actually (believe it or not!) made some friends at the hostel we've been staying at, in addition to the people we met through Liat, so it's been really nice to have other people to hang out with and do stuff with. I sort of feel like during this time in Byron Bay is when I really started to feel in the traveling groove, so to speak. When we first got to Byron I was so overwhelmed because it was a Friday and the hostels get packed with people coming to party for the weekend, but its much more chill during the week. And it's easy to start conversations with people at a hostel, because everyone is doing the same thing and just looking for people to hang out with. It's pretty cool.
Anyways, last week we went on a day tour to Nimbin with some friends from the hostel. Nimbin is known as the marijuana capital of Australia, basically there are tours you can take to the town (population 400) to buy weed cookies or whatever and the guide plays trippy music and talks about the counterculture history of the area. Before you get too concerned--I didn't take anything! It turns out that Nimbin and Byron Bay kind of became known as a hotspot for alternative lifestyles when loads of American draft-dodgers came in the 60's. They have this hilarious "museum" that has a few rooms just filled with random stuff, Aboriginal artefacts and quotes about spirituality. I actually wish we had more time in the town because they have some good agricultural and alternative energy initiatives going on, but it seems to get lost in the tourist hordes who come to just get high. The bus driver told some awesome stories about people who went overboard on the "space cakes" and totally freaked out on the tour, but fortunately everyone was pretty mellow, except for some guys who couldn't stop laughing while they cracked macadamia nuts. Ha. And there were some really annoying California boys who got really high and were just generally kind of asses, the kind that give Yankees abroad a bad name. One of them started talking to me at the hostel and revealed how he tricks other people into buying him drinks at the bar, despite the fact that he has his own business and is still getting paid while he's away. Not quality people.
The next day I went bodyboarding with an Irish guy I met on the Nimbin tour, it was really scary! The ocean is so strong, and we kept getting swept to the next beach over. The day after that Lauren and I actually managed to get up before noon and we went on a kayak trip at 8:30 in the morning. I thought it was a little expensive but it turned out to be more than worth it--we saw 3 humpback whales! Up close! I was in the kayak with one of the guides and at one point we were seriously like 10 meters away from them--two were swimming around and the third was a huge one (roughly the length of four of the kayaks put together) that was on it's back and slapping its fins around. It was truly amazing, to think that we were so close to one of the biggest animals in the world, and something that I'll probably never experience again. I think on the tours the whales don't usually get that close, so even the guides were in awe. I don't want to sell Lauren out, but she might have been moved to tears..... After the amazing whales, the guide with me goes "Let's go see some gay little dolphins!" Normally I would object to the use of gay to describe something but it was true, after the whales the dolphins were significantly less impressive. Though very cute.
Let's see...what else? Lauren is known as the reigning Connect Four champ in the hostel (despite the fact that our friend James has beat her a number of times while intoxicated, but no one remembers that), I've given away a significant amount of money to the local pie shop in late night runs, I burnt my back at the beach (and my bum), and we continue to offend Israeli backpackers with our atrocious Hebrew.
Last night, we planned on going out dancing with James (English) and our Canadian friend Manessa, and accordingly bought a box of "goon:" cheap terrible wine. Unfortunately once everyone was ready we discovered that all the bars had closed so we got some pie and I came up with a crackpot idea to take our sleeping bags up to the lighthouse (one of the only still funtional lighthouses in the southern hemisphere, in case you cared) and wake up for the sunrise. The lighthouse is located just above a point that is the farthest east you can get on the Australian mainland. So if you watch the sunrise there you're one of the first on the mainland to see the sun come up. Pretty cool. You have to walk along the beach for a while to get to the stairs up to the lighthouse, and we did this at like, 2 in the morning (thanks for the headlamp Shana and Daniel!). We saw lots of little sand crabs scurry away from the light. The lighthouse itself is really beautiful, it just seems kind of magical in the night. I was entranced by it. I'm adding it to my list of things that really excite me: lighthouses and koalas in the wild. Anyways, we slept for about 3 hours on a little patch of grass (I don't think you're really supposed to sleep there) and watched a beautiful sunrise.
Oh! and the reason that there haven't been any pictures is because I pulled another Mara and didn't seal my water bottle properly in my backpack and it leaked all over my camera. So when we get to Brisbane (we're leaving Byron in 2 days) I'll try to get it fixed. So that's all for now, this is the longest post I've ever written I think! Lots of love to all.....
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Byron Bay
Hello faithful readers! I'm in Byron Bay. Its a small city on the east coast, a 13 hour greyhound ride north from Sydney and just below Brisbane. Its known as a hippie/surfer town, although the locals would say it's changed over the years. There's only a few streets in the main section of town, its very cute. We got here last Friday on an overnight bus and have just been hanging out since. We met this girl Liat through the Chabad here and had Saturday lunch with her and her Israeli friend, who then invited us to a birthday bonfire on the beach. It was lovely to hang with people who actually live here, and it was so much fun. Mostly what there is to do here is drink, go to the beach, surf, and I'm going to try to sign up for either a kayak or mountain bike tour. I feel like this is a really boring post! Oh well, just know that I'm good, a little burnt, I now have fresh laundry and all is right in the world. Lot's of love to all, and I'll write another post later when I've regained my creativity!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
I think we're IN a cloud!
First I'd like to say thank you to the fam for calling me! That was so sweet and I apologize for only being semi-coherent. It's pretty awesome you thought I would be out partying when really I was curled up in a bunk bed snoring. Figures. Anyways, I miss you all very very much and would it kill you to write? Ha.
So now I'm writing to you from a hostel in Katoomba, a small city about 2 hours west of Sydney. Yesterday we went to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney before leaving and got pretty close to some wallabies, including one with a baby in its pouch. Wallabies are pretty much like mini-kangaroos. The zoo is on the northern shores so one takes a ferry to get there, it's very beautiful. After we got back from the zoo, something funny happened. We were cooking dinner in the hostel before going to the train station and there was a guy from LA in the kitchen. We were excited to speak to him, but he didn't seem so into us. Then, just as we were leaving, he says slyly, "So, I hear you thought our room smelled like an Istanbul toilet?" My first thought was, "Hey, how'd you know we went to Istanbul?" Actually what he meant was that word got around that we were blabbing about how filthy the 10 person dorm was! So then I realized that for like the week that we stayed there, we were known as those girls who kept talking about how gross the room was! I felt momentarily bad that we had been talking about them, and that they had found out.....but seriously, they should be ashamed of themselves. That room was FILTHY. And we got our Manchester buddies to swear they would take our side if there was a rumble....
Okay anyways, then we left and came to Katoomba, which is the largest town in the Blue Mountains region. They're called the Blue Mountains because oil from eucalyptus trees in the air makes a kind of blueish haze. Its beautiful here. The hostel we're at is really adorable, it's like staying at someone's house. Someone's house with velvet wallpaper in the dining room. I love it. It's much cooler here (mountains, duh). Anyways, the things you do here are pretty much admiring the beauty. There's trails all over the place; after it finally stopped raining today we walked down to Echo Point which overlooks a valley and the mountains, and you can see the Three Sisters, three huge jutting rocks that aboriginal legend says were sisters turned into rock....and something else. I don't know, I can't remember. We stayed to watch the sunset and like a minute after the sun disappeared the whole area was enveloped in fog. It was crazy, one minute I was looking into this beautiful valley and then there was just white. Lauren kept insisting "We're IN the clouds!" Pretty amazing. So that's all for now, sorry if that was rambly. Lauren said it was rambly. I said it was detailed. Thoughts?
PS. you can leave comments if you use Gmail...just saying
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Mara and Lauren become Australian tv stars
Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. But we were on tv. And Lauren sat next to a famous Australian comedian and didn't even know!
So last week we were at the mall in Bondi Junction when we were approached by a woman who asked us if we would like to be on a show where young adults discuss issues important to them. We said sure! Why? Cause it's funny. Anyways, we almost missed it as we had been wandering through the King's Cross neighborhood in Sydney and decided to use a drink ticket. We lost track of time and had to book it to the Australian Broadcasting Company. As a side note, if you live with your parents for several months and cease drinking socially for an extended amount of time, one drink alone can make you fairly tipsy! Anyways, the way the show works is that there is a host who interviews a few preselected people and then they get fillers to sit in and chime in with comments if they have them. The topic for this episode was "Sex and Religion;" the preselected people included an 18-year old Christian who has decided to stay a virgin till marriage, a young Christian couple who are also saving themselves, a gay Pentecostal who had gone through 3 gay-to-straight classes before accepting himself, a Catholic gay man who alluded to the fact that he is celibate because he believes it's wrong (but wouldn't really confirm or deny) and a man who has been dating his girlfriend for 7 years (!) without sex, oh and a young married couple who also waited. There was also a token Buddhist, Muslim and Hindu but basically it became a show about really Christian people who think sex before marriage is really evil. It was VERY strange. I was sitting in the front row so I think I show up a lot on the tape, but Lauren is for sure on camera a lot since she was sitting next to the comedian Chris Taylor who provided a heathen voice. Apparently he's really big here and we had no idea!
The filler people were invited to comment but I didn't because I have terrible stage fright. Honestly though, I wish I had made a comment because the discussion was so intense. Since they were interviewing a lot of young religious people the main message that was being conveyed was that basically your options are that you absolutely abstain from any kind of physicality before marriage or that you are a total slut. For a show that is supposed to present the opinions of average Australian young people, I felt it was totally off. But I guess that's what makes for interesting television. There were a few moderate voices but the discussion was dominated by people talking about sacrifice and suffering in the name of love. I just wanted to shout out "Everybody needs to chill out!"
Anyways, I didn't mean to ramble about it but it was a truly fascinating experience. And just really funny, cause we were on tv! You can watch the video online probably in November after it airs here. After the taping Luaren and I snuck into the crew after-party (it was their last show of the season) and got to speak to some of the people interviewed. We also STUFFED our faces with the free food that was there because we are shameless and cheap. They kept telling us we had to go, and then we were basically (nicely) escorted out of the building. Ha.
This is the website for the show if you want to see what it's like: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hackhalfhour/default.htm
So last week we were at the mall in Bondi Junction when we were approached by a woman who asked us if we would like to be on a show where young adults discuss issues important to them. We said sure! Why? Cause it's funny. Anyways, we almost missed it as we had been wandering through the King's Cross neighborhood in Sydney and decided to use a drink ticket. We lost track of time and had to book it to the Australian Broadcasting Company. As a side note, if you live with your parents for several months and cease drinking socially for an extended amount of time, one drink alone can make you fairly tipsy! Anyways, the way the show works is that there is a host who interviews a few preselected people and then they get fillers to sit in and chime in with comments if they have them. The topic for this episode was "Sex and Religion;" the preselected people included an 18-year old Christian who has decided to stay a virgin till marriage, a young Christian couple who are also saving themselves, a gay Pentecostal who had gone through 3 gay-to-straight classes before accepting himself, a Catholic gay man who alluded to the fact that he is celibate because he believes it's wrong (but wouldn't really confirm or deny) and a man who has been dating his girlfriend for 7 years (!) without sex, oh and a young married couple who also waited. There was also a token Buddhist, Muslim and Hindu but basically it became a show about really Christian people who think sex before marriage is really evil. It was VERY strange. I was sitting in the front row so I think I show up a lot on the tape, but Lauren is for sure on camera a lot since she was sitting next to the comedian Chris Taylor who provided a heathen voice. Apparently he's really big here and we had no idea!
The filler people were invited to comment but I didn't because I have terrible stage fright. Honestly though, I wish I had made a comment because the discussion was so intense. Since they were interviewing a lot of young religious people the main message that was being conveyed was that basically your options are that you absolutely abstain from any kind of physicality before marriage or that you are a total slut. For a show that is supposed to present the opinions of average Australian young people, I felt it was totally off. But I guess that's what makes for interesting television. There were a few moderate voices but the discussion was dominated by people talking about sacrifice and suffering in the name of love. I just wanted to shout out "Everybody needs to chill out!"
Anyways, I didn't mean to ramble about it but it was a truly fascinating experience. And just really funny, cause we were on tv! You can watch the video online probably in November after it airs here. After the taping Luaren and I snuck into the crew after-party (it was their last show of the season) and got to speak to some of the people interviewed. We also STUFFED our faces with the free food that was there because we are shameless and cheap. They kept telling us we had to go, and then we were basically (nicely) escorted out of the building. Ha.
This is the website for the show if you want to see what it's like: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hackhalfhour/default.htm
Monday, October 6, 2008
Addendum to yesterday's post....
We spoke to a reliable witness last night that there is but one housecleaner for the entirety of the hostel. If there is still a person in the room, it does not get cleaned, only receives new sheets when a guest leaves. So it is entirely plausible that the 10 bed dorm has NEVER been cleaned. Ew.
In other news, we're staying in a different room which is much better. Latest highlights of Sydney have included the Hyde Park Barracks Museum, originally built in the early 1800's as a place to house convicts in the new Sydney settlement and later used as a holding place for newly arrived single women immigrants. It was very cool. Yesterday was the Manly Jazz Festival which was really nice, today we are aiming for the Sydney Jewish Museum, and perhaps use of a few more of our free drink tickets?
Oh, and yesterday a total stranger shoved Lauren aside on the street. And no one cared. She kept shouting back at him "That man pushed me!!" And no one even acknowledged it...it was kind of funny. Oh, and a man waiting in line for the ferry dropped his sleeping bag on her head. It was also kind of funny. That's all!
In other news, we're staying in a different room which is much better. Latest highlights of Sydney have included the Hyde Park Barracks Museum, originally built in the early 1800's as a place to house convicts in the new Sydney settlement and later used as a holding place for newly arrived single women immigrants. It was very cool. Yesterday was the Manly Jazz Festival which was really nice, today we are aiming for the Sydney Jewish Museum, and perhaps use of a few more of our free drink tickets?
Oh, and yesterday a total stranger shoved Lauren aside on the street. And no one cared. She kept shouting back at him "That man pushed me!!" And no one even acknowledged it...it was kind of funny. Oh, and a man waiting in line for the ferry dropped his sleeping bag on her head. It was also kind of funny. That's all!
And now a word on public sanitation from Lauren and Mara
G'day mates!
This is Lauren, here to assist Mara in accurately describing some pretty horrific events that happened to us today.
It all happened when we saw a sign advertising a new "boutique" hotel, with beds starting as cheap as 20 dollars. That was enough to send us running! Sign us up!
We enter the "hotel" wide-eyed and eager. Innocent, if you will. We soon lost our innocense.
20 dollars a night, a dorm of 10. We should have known something was fishy when the receptionist refused to show the room to us before we paid.
We climb up the rickity stairs. We are used to dorms. We do not have high expectations. But we were not prepared for dorm room 204. It is 10 am.
Mara enters first. Lauren quickly follows suit. People are still sleeping, so the room is dimly lit and it is hard to see. Once the door closed behind us with a bang, we recognize the stench. Mara's nose hairs stand on end. It smells as if 10 boys have been locked in this room for weeks on end-- eating, sleeping, sweating, belching, farting. Our eyes finally adjust to the dark, and we begin to see where we are. Our eyes frantically look around the tiny room, crammed with 5 bunk beds. The only available bed for Mara has complimentary two half filled soda bottles and suspicious looking sheets. We see every manner of refuse. The trash overflows. Ramen noodles crunch underfoot. Mara keeps tripping on someone's plate, whilst groggy backpackers, wasted from the night before, roll over, groan, and go back into their smelly stupor of sleep. What looks like weeks of dirty laundry carpets the floor, leaving only a small circle upon which we dump our bags. We realize, with horror, that there are no windows to be found, and it is likely that the last time this room received fresh air was somewhere around 1905. We just may suffocate. At this point, we are focused on survival. We need to leave the room as soon as possible. We bolt, abandoning our packs like downed men in a battlefield, taking only the necessities. Money, passport, hand sanitizer. We gasp for air in the hallway, not sure where to begin, how to describe our experience. What to do next.
Mara: (look of utter horror)
Lauren: (Shock. Confusion.)
Mara:...So.
Lauren:...Yeah.
Mara: That place smells like dirty ass.
Lauren: (laughter)...I am in shock. Still.
Mara: Ass. It smells like ass.
Lauren: Focus. What are our options?
Mara: Ass.
Lauren: Get yourself together! We can't stay in there.
Mara: I feel so bad for our bags. We just abandoned them in there. How can we be so cruel?
Lauren: You have a ramen noodle stuck in your hair.
After a few moments of somewhat less-toxic air filling our lungs, we were able to rally together to demand a change of room. A man who escaped from the Room Where Cleanliness Goes to Die sees us changing rooms, and whispers to the receptionist about us: "They were terrified."
When we went back to retreive our bags, we hold our noses before entering the heart of darkness once more. Mara whispers: "I feel like we are on a rescue mission."
We are currently working on our expose of this hostel, working on backpacker unionizing and rights, and worrying that we still retain remnents of dirty ass smell on our clothes. Pictures soon to follow.
The moral of this story is that if you find a hostel that is suspiciously cheap, it is because it is a public sanitation nightmare. Backpackers--UNITE!
This is Lauren, here to assist Mara in accurately describing some pretty horrific events that happened to us today.
It all happened when we saw a sign advertising a new "boutique" hotel, with beds starting as cheap as 20 dollars. That was enough to send us running! Sign us up!
We enter the "hotel" wide-eyed and eager. Innocent, if you will. We soon lost our innocense.
20 dollars a night, a dorm of 10. We should have known something was fishy when the receptionist refused to show the room to us before we paid.
We climb up the rickity stairs. We are used to dorms. We do not have high expectations. But we were not prepared for dorm room 204. It is 10 am.
Mara enters first. Lauren quickly follows suit. People are still sleeping, so the room is dimly lit and it is hard to see. Once the door closed behind us with a bang, we recognize the stench. Mara's nose hairs stand on end. It smells as if 10 boys have been locked in this room for weeks on end-- eating, sleeping, sweating, belching, farting. Our eyes finally adjust to the dark, and we begin to see where we are. Our eyes frantically look around the tiny room, crammed with 5 bunk beds. The only available bed for Mara has complimentary two half filled soda bottles and suspicious looking sheets. We see every manner of refuse. The trash overflows. Ramen noodles crunch underfoot. Mara keeps tripping on someone's plate, whilst groggy backpackers, wasted from the night before, roll over, groan, and go back into their smelly stupor of sleep. What looks like weeks of dirty laundry carpets the floor, leaving only a small circle upon which we dump our bags. We realize, with horror, that there are no windows to be found, and it is likely that the last time this room received fresh air was somewhere around 1905. We just may suffocate. At this point, we are focused on survival. We need to leave the room as soon as possible. We bolt, abandoning our packs like downed men in a battlefield, taking only the necessities. Money, passport, hand sanitizer. We gasp for air in the hallway, not sure where to begin, how to describe our experience. What to do next.
Mara: (look of utter horror)
Lauren: (Shock. Confusion.)
Mara:...So.
Lauren:...Yeah.
Mara: That place smells like dirty ass.
Lauren: (laughter)...I am in shock. Still.
Mara: Ass. It smells like ass.
Lauren: Focus. What are our options?
Mara: Ass.
Lauren: Get yourself together! We can't stay in there.
Mara: I feel so bad for our bags. We just abandoned them in there. How can we be so cruel?
Lauren: You have a ramen noodle stuck in your hair.
After a few moments of somewhat less-toxic air filling our lungs, we were able to rally together to demand a change of room. A man who escaped from the Room Where Cleanliness Goes to Die sees us changing rooms, and whispers to the receptionist about us: "They were terrified."
When we went back to retreive our bags, we hold our noses before entering the heart of darkness once more. Mara whispers: "I feel like we are on a rescue mission."
We are currently working on our expose of this hostel, working on backpacker unionizing and rights, and worrying that we still retain remnents of dirty ass smell on our clothes. Pictures soon to follow.
The moral of this story is that if you find a hostel that is suspiciously cheap, it is because it is a public sanitation nightmare. Backpackers--UNITE!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
A Sydney Update
New photos from Fiji here (go to the 3rd page)
Photos from the first few days in Australia here
Photos from the first few days in Australia here
I'll try to write this post with better punctuation (MOM) but no promises! I'm worried my internet card is about to run out. So Kran and I are now in Central Sydney, kind of like the downtown. It looks so much like Toronto, it's crazy, Sydney Tower looks like the CN tower, the streets and architecture are very similar. I guess it makes sense. Bondi Beach was very different, it kind of reminded me of Tel Aviv, very beach culture. Bondi is Sydney's most famous beach but as we learned on the walk south from Bondi (which is one of the eastern suburbs) to Coogee beach, there are lots of little beaches that are just as lovely. Unfortunately it was really windy when we were there so we didn't swim but did find time to go to synagogue twice for the holidays, eat good food, walk a lot and leave my wallet on the bus. HA! You knew it would only be a matter of time before I did something that could be classified as "pulling a Mara." Fortunately Syndey society seems to be functioning well, Lauren called the bus company for me immediately after (I was too pissed off and whiny to deal with my own mess), someone found it and I picked it up the next morning. What will I do next???
Anyways, so now we're sharing a room with a French dude and a guy from Manchester who I CANNOT understand. We've been to the lovely Art Gallery of New South Wales, Hyde Park, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Harborfront (going back when it's sunnier for better pics), and a nutty enormous market in Chinatown. Tommorrow we're going to one of the northern suburbs, Manly, for the Jazz Festival. We'll take a ferry to get there, yay! Anyways, thats the update for now, I'm sitting in the lobby of our hostel on the internet, they are constantly blasting music, I suppose to give a "party air" but it's really annoying when you're trying to write! Speaking of partying though, we got 15 drink tickets each in a little packet when we came to the hostel--seriously--so we're going out to redeem some of them tonight. Although in actuality Lauren and I are kind of like old ladies, we're going to pretend for now that we are WILD party animals!!!!
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