Australian for Auld Lang Syne
Trip Start
Aug 30, 2006
1
25
33
Trip End
Jun 11, 2007
Melbourne,
Australia
Sunday, December 31, 2006
I arrived in Sydney on Christmas morning, wrapped up in luggage like a bow, having made friends on the plane with a woman from Denmark who happened to be staying quite close to the Backpackers (they call hostels "Backpackers" here, no idea why) my friend Cassidy from UW had booked. Cassidy graduated with me last spring and came to Australia to study film in Perth, and, now on holiday, she and I decided to meet up. So I arrived at the hostel at about 8 to greet a sign on the door saying that reception would be closed on Christmas. I had only a moment to panic a little bit--accomodation between Christmas and the week after New Year's Eve is pretty much booked in Sydney--before who should stumble down the stairs but the desk guy and some friends, beers in hand, all sweaty and smelly from the previous night, still awake
Darling Harbour in Sydney, Christmas
. Between yells of "Merry Christmas!" he managed to pull it together enough to give me a key and some sheets. (It turned out this was unnecessary, but that's a later story.)I spent the next four days with Cassidy and Tina, the Danish woman, traipsing around Sydney with a moderately large dose of the holiday/winder doldrums, even though it was about 70, windy, and sunny the whole time. We took a tour of the Sydney Opera House (designed by a Danish architect, at least on the outside), which was worth the price of admission; hung out on the Harbour Bridge and in Darling Harbour, which are beautiful, both; saw the Australian Maritime Museum, which waxed on about Australia's strong bond with the sea, and was a really interesting experience; and went to the Sydney Aquarium--did you know that there are about 1 million species native to Australia, and something like 70 percent are found nowhere else on Earth? True, as Mustafa my Moroccan tour guide would have said--which was astonishing and really indescribable, even for an aquarium.
After a small mix-up with buses, I got on the 12-hour bus to Melbourne, where Cassidy had flown to meet friends. The plan was, we would stay with these friends through the New Year. The scenery on the way was amazing--rocky, rolling hills, pale green grass that looked as if it had simply been gnawed away by cattle, sheep, and the like. Enormous blue skies, dusty-feeling winds
Darling Harbour, opposite view
. Really only the best scenery on any U.S. roadtrip could compare with this, and it wasn't nearly as exotic-looking.In Melbourne, we spent one day just bumming around the neighborhood, North Fitzroy, a place that resembles River West in Milwaukee with its appealing, trendy-looking rundown-ness. Very cool. We spent another day on a wild goose chase. You see, there's a big music festival this weekend a couple hours away and someone knew someone who had free passes to give away. So we drove down there, along the Great Ocean Road at dusk, a fabled road to be sure, whose greatness might have come from its distinct and astonishingly good smell of eucalyptus trees. We ended up at a rendezvous point of sorts, Lorne, which is the sort of summer town that rich high school kids go to, dress up, spend their parents' money, light fireworks on the beach, experiment with alcohol and drugs (and parental coverups), and fornicate. Needless to say we didn't fit in, and at about 3 AM we just turned around and went home. Which brings us to today, where nothing really has been done except sleeping and waiting for tonight, which is of course New Year's Eve 2006.
Speaking of which, I wish all of you a prosperous and joyful new year, and I hope to see all of you at some point (although of course this will prove difficult for a variety of now-unknown reasons). When I next write, it will be 2007, you or I may have wonderful NYE hijinx to share, and I'll be in New Zealand! Love to all.
Comments
a fairyland called Oz
It's a huge mistake that you're leaving this coutry so fast, but at least you've got to know (more or less :) 1/50 of the reason, why I would love to see it. Take care!
And a Happy New Year of course!