Day 1

Our first stop was Newcastle, 2 hours north of Sydney. We loaded up the caravan and headed out. Halley was our pilot for the day, and after a few minutes of adjusting to driving on the other side of the road she did an excellent job. Newcastle was more of a pit stop than a destination. Some interesting things to see, but nothing special. We only took photos from the peninsula town called Pickton, from where we could get great shots of Newcastle across the bay. In fact we decided to push forward and spend the night elsewhere. Nelson Bay was the place. We found this caravan park and just set up there. There was a beautiful beach just 40 feet ahead of us. We even had neighbors for the night: Ryan and Katie from England, who also happened to be caravanning from Sydney to Brisbane. They were to spend a couple weeks here and would take their time to get there. I’m sure we won’t run into them again, but nonetheless they were great companions for the evening. We also had some visitors drop by (Australians are so friendly). First up was the drunk bogan (Aussie for “redneck”) named Scott. After talking to us for half an hour about what life in Nelson Bay is like, he decided to head home, shower and eat. He did, however, promise that he would return with some more drink. We thought he would pass out without remembering anything, but unfortunately he kept his word, showing up an hour later even more tanked than before.
For the most part he just hung around our fire, listening to his MP3 player and singing along (loudly and obnoxiously). Two other locals also paid us a visit. They were T.J. and Tyler, 16 and 14 years old respectively. They even brought their own booze, each a bottle of Kilkenny Irish cream which they polished off by the end of the night (Australians also like to drink). Mostly they were harmless, annoying little shits whom we tolerated because they kept our fire going. We sent them home when the young one smashed his empty bottle on the pavement near our camper. They happily obliged, being the polite young boys they are (Note: that last line is sarcasm). Scott gave us more trouble, as he had to be escorted at least a quarter of the way home to make sure he wasn’t coming back. By that time he was completely loaded had already reverted to insulting us, punching our trailer and rambling meaningless sentences punctuated by “f*ck” every second word. I’m sure he slept well that night and doesn’t remember a thing. This is good because he left his cell phone on the ground. We didn’t know where he lived and we weren’t about to wait around the next day until he woke up and called for us to return it. We had a schedule, a deadline and no pity for drunken bogans. The battery was dead anyway. Time for us to hit the sack then. Day one was over and already our trip had been eventful. We said goodnight to Katie and Ryan and closed down shop, tired but excited about what awaited us tomorrow.

Going to pick up the caravan

Waiting for our caravan

Ryan, Marco, Judith, Me, Nils, Halley, and Big Bertha!

(yes, we christened our caravan "Bertha")

Newcastle as seen from Stockton

Judith playing the guee-tar

Ryan, one of our English neighbors at Nelson Bay

View from our camp spot (really, a parkng lot) at Nelson Bay

Road trip!

Well, it's been 20 days since my last update. I know you've all been waiting patiently and anxiously, and you won't be disappointed. The reason the latest update has been so long in coming is that I took a week long road trip to Brisbane with some friends: Marco Rothaufe, Nils Jacholke, Judith Hermetter, Halley Dunn and Ryan Ballingal (from Ottawa!). On Monday the 16th we hired a caravan, loaded her up and hit the road. The exploits of this trip have been recorded in written and photographic format, in a project entitled, aptly, Australia Road Trip 2007. The daily entries, coupled with accompanying photos, will now be published individually and a daily (or bi-weekly, depending) basis for your reading and viewing pleasure. The other reason I waited a week after returning from the road trip to post was that the project needed to be finalized, and this would've taken time I didn't have this last week. Upon my return I hit the ground running, so to speak, to motor through several assignments which were/are due (I still have a few to go, but I'm making good time and now have some breathing space). With half of my assigments out of the way, I feel I now have time to work on and post my adventure in a multi-part mini-series. The first part, detailing the first day of our trip, I will post today immediately following this post. The next will come tomorrow or the day after. And this will continue until my entire trip is posted, so within a week to a week and a half the entire saga will be unveiled! These may be punctuated by regular posts that have nothing to do with the road trip, but the road trip posts themselves will be in order. And now our feature presentation.

Illness # 3

We can now add some kind of funky skin rash to my list of minor illnesses I've had since I got here. I was playing basketball with Nils and Marco today and I started to feel as if I had a sunburn on the back of my neck. I didn't think much of it until it started to sting a little more, and then the sensation spread to the soft part of my shoulders near the neck. I had Nils take a look at it and he said "That's not a sunburn. It's on your shoulders and back too." Coincidentally, there was a chemist (pharmacy) immediately beside the basketball court. I went in and consulted the pharmacist. He suggested it may be a chemical burn or an infection. I told him I had been sick last week but that the symptoms were almost completely gone. He said that when we are sick with a virus and continue to do sport or go to the gym, as I did, it may get rid of the common symptoms faster by relocalising the infection in the skin through our sweat. In other words, I chased the infection out of my system but some of it stayed in my skin. He said I should consult a doctor or dermatologist, and that's what I'll do tomorrow. I would post some pictures, but I'm sure nobody wants to see that and it doesn't really show up in photos. Until next post...

Old Sydney, New Grounds

On Saturday Marco, Nils, Judith, Anisha and I went to Paddy's Market and then decided to walk to the Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney. It's a quaint, European style quarter directly under the Harbour bridge in the city. I've added more pictures of Paddy's Market and Chinatown to the previous post. Here I've put some pictures of the Rocks area and Millers Point, below the bridge just West of the Rocks. For lunch we decided to have some saltwater crocodile and Emu pizzas at the Australian Hotel on Cumberland Street, washing it down with some Outback beer. It was a great afternoon overall and it felt like walking in a Parisian neighbourhood. Except all the signs were in English. And it didn't smell like sewage. Check out the photos!

Under the bridge, Dawes Point

Judith and Marco taking pictures of the North shore

North shore from Dawes Point.What do you think the rent is on those apartments?

Prosit! Marco enjoying a pint at the Australian Hotel

Susannah Place, est. 1844.

One of the oldest shops in Sydney (maybe the oldest), now a museum.

I'll post even more photos once I get the ones Judith took. She's a natural photographer so I'm sure they'll be really great! Look for my post on the Toronga Zoo later in the day. I have to get Nils' and Marco's photos since I was not there to take any (being sick sucks!)

Speaking of which, I've been sick twice since I got to Australia, once with a head cold and another time with a regular cold. What the hell?!? I don't get sick for years living in a country
where the temperature falls below -20C, but when I get to a subtropical climate where the locals complain if it hits 10C, I catch a cold. A cold? In such a hot country? Malaria or something would be understandable, but a cold? I suppose I would prefer a cold over malaria though...

Anyway, that's why I didn't go to the zoo last week and couldn't take pictures. My flatmates, however, got a few good photos and I'll post them later in the day (tomorrow for me). Soon after expect a post on the Sydney Aquarium and the long, long overdue post on Mardis Gras.

I'm on vacation for two weeks and thus have more time to devote to the blog. After these next few posts, you can expect that not all updates will feature photos. As I've been here almost two months I've settled into a rhythm and what was once strange is now becoming more and more familiar. From this perspective I can begin to sort through and digest my early experiences and adventures. Naturally, I will want to externalise my reflections, thoughts and feelings on the last few weeks, and what better place to exercise this reflection than a public website that anyone can read?

This blog will move from the vacation slide-show format you see now into a more personal journal, because that was its intended purpose since the beginning. It's also a natural progression, as I'm no longer a tourist, I'm now a student and a resident. In fact I have been for almost 6 weeks but was too busy being a student and resident (or learning how to, since I've never lived on my own and had been out of school for a year) to actually change gears and make the transition on my blog. Now that I'm on break, I have a chance to bring the blog, and myself, properly into this new phase. This is not to say I won't be having anymore adventures. To the contrary, I will simply be more knowledgeable about my world here and be able to explore more effectively. There are still plenty of things to see and to do, plenty of "new". It's just that I feel that I can now embark on these exploits like man learning about his new home instead of fish out of water. New grounds, change of pace, whole different ball game...