I’m currently leaving Australia and heading for Bali – I’m coming close to traveling for 3 months now. There are a lot of wierd stages I go through and I spend time in my mind chewing on these stages and try to make sense out of them or figure out how to simply get through them quicker without losing my mind.

As I reflect on my last 3 months I think about all of the stages I’ve gone through in my head. Back in Eastern Africa my head was obsessed with not having a job and not using my brain in any logical, money-producing way. In South Africa I was so worried about traveling on my own once my sister left I was scared that I would be bored and not meet anyone! In New Zealand I was struggling with my budget living and sharing spaces in hostels. In Australia new craziness entered into my head – mainly around spending too much money and generally feeling rather old and boring. During my time in Australia I was living my old life of spending – yet knowing that I didn’t have any money coming in was torturing me. As much as I desparately wanted to live that old life of shopping, having spectacular dinners, taking cabs everywhere, going out clubbing every night – basically spending about $100 on a full night out – I was wracked with guilt. I was painfully aware of the taxi meter, the cost of each bottle of wine, the cost of having an appetizer AND an entree – and I felt myself add it all up oin my head and then be depressed. The wierd thing is that I wasn’t upset about spending the mjoney as much as I was upset about what I was spending it on. I love going out – but I didn’t want to blow through my travel budget on a New York like existance – I wanted to blow it on something different than NY and the life I was so accustomed to. However in all honestly – there wasn’t that much different between Australia and say – California. Maybe that’s why I was on edge a bit. I loved being with Angie, but I was luke-warm on Australia. Sure it was nice, the cities were interesting, beaches were nice – but it was all really expensive there and I didn’t get anything that different for my momey. I didn’t have to struggle through a language barrier, the landscape was like the US and the food was pretty much the same as home. Except for the occasional ‘G’day Mate’ or ‘How you going?’ – I felt like I was at home living my old life. Yet – there was another thing missing in that scenario besides my old salary…my self image. When we would go out on the town I felt rather dowdy and old. Maybe I was just sick and tired of my clothing choices or the fact that I felt like I’ve gained weight or the lack of any male attention/interest for 3 months. I have no idea why I was so bitter about my self image – but I was. This then all mushroomed into me feeling badly that I douldn’t really vacation with Angie the way I used to – I felt like I was letting her down when I declined shopping outing to go to the free museum or go write at an internet cafe.

I have no idea where some of these neurosis come from – but they stick with me for a while and drive me a bit insane to a point where I’m not really happy with my behavior. Sometimes I wonder if I just have too much time to think now so I’m slowly driving my mind to insnaity! Or maybe this extra time is what I needed in order to stop and really think – without work distractions and everday life – maybe I was meant to ponder all of these things. Maybe I’m learning (in a sometimes painful way) what I like and dislike and what I want to get out of this year of travel. Hopefully this process will help me understand what is really important to me. I need to take these learnings and apply them to the next 9 months. The rest of my trip is fairly unstructured so I can contyrol my destiny a bit – which is a great feeling!

Photo: The famous landmark of Sydney

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For all Sydney/Thanksgiving snapshots – click here!

Upon arriving in Sydney I realized that this was really the first big, cosmopolitan city that I had visited since I left NYC. It was a welcome site – however that came with a price…costs like NYC! However – I was willing to try to suck it up for a few days to enjoy city life again – the bustling streets, the hip bars, the high rise buildings…the only thing missing was a Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade! The first day we walked all over Sydney business district – we ended up in an area called Martin Place – a large outdoor mall area surrounded by the tallest business buildings Sydney had to offer. A thought kept popping into – Bizarro.

If you are an avid watcher of Seinfeld then you will know what I mean when I say bizarro…there was a whole episode dedicated to it. The short explanation is when everything in Jerry Seinfeld’s world was opposite in a bizarre way. For example – the character of George was a normal, well-adjusted, responsible citizen with a job…hopefully you now get my drift when I say bizarro. As I looked around Martin Place and saw all of the busy-blackberry-carrying business people (to which I used to be a member) bustling around looking important, a mix of wide-eyed tourists with maps, high end Gucci stores, a fountain, Starbucks, and a large decorated Christmas Tree in the center of the mall area, surrounded by a sweltering 85 degrees temp…I realized that this was Bizarro Rockefeller Center halfway around the world in Sydney! There were big signs up about the big Christmas Tree lighting ceremony coming up on Thursday and they were busy building a stage for the performance. The only thing missing was an ice rink (probably impossible in the heat), the Today show, and the Rainbow room (however they did have a tall business tower with a revolving deck to see ‘fabulous’ views of the city). As I continued to walk around the city – I found more bizarro sites such as Bizarro Times Square, Bizarro Central Park Poet’s Walk, and even a Bizarro Brooklyn Bridge…it was a bit eery to me.

Photo: People climbing on top of the Harbor Bridge

The first day in Sydney I had to actually take care of some business too…I needed more pages added to my passport. I’ve only had my passport for 6 years and I was already out of pages…and none of it was business travel…a fact I’m rather proud of! (pat on the back for me!).

I found the American Consulate in the heart of Martin Place and went through the 3 levels of extensive security to get to the waiting room to request more pages. While I was there – I thought I would ask our friendly American/Australian hosts if they knew of any American Thanksgiving celebrations that were happening the next day that we could partake in.
They provided me a list of names and numbers of various Australian/American groups to contact…good enough…I was on a mission to find pumpkin pie. I started contacting the groups and found that one of them was putting on a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at a place nearby…for a mere $80 a person. This included one drink, turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. I guess turkeys are hard to catch in Oz…as the price was rather steep! However Angie and I were desperate for pumpkin pie so we decided that we would buy the ticket as we had nothing else to do for the holiday. When I called back to the Australian American Association to book it – the woman I talked to on the phone asked where I was from and what I was doing in Australia. I told her that we were just traveling through on holiday and wanted a place to celebrate Thanksgiving since we were both away from our families. She then did something that floored me…she said that the association would pick up our dinner fee and we would could go as their guests. I decided that this was not a good time to tell her that we were staying at the Four Seasons Hotel…instead – I graciously told her that it wasn’t necessary to do such a thing – but we would greatly appreciate it! I was amazed as this woman didn’t even know us and she was being so hospitable…the spirit of Thanksgiving was alive down under!

The next day I spent the day at the museums, and walking around taking photographs while Angie shopped. I found that I had to stay away from shopping temptation in Sydney else I would be coming home in February instead of September! The Sydney Opera House was my favorite site – it was really quite beautiful in the sun! For some reason the roof has always looked like eggshells to me – so the opportunity to photograph it was fantastic. When you look at my link of photography you’ll notice that I loved it considering that I think I took about 50 pictures of the building! I wandered around the Harbor Bridge (Bizarro Brooklyn bridge), and the Rocks neighborhood (bizarro South Street Seaport). Another bizarro siting…the Australian Idol show was prepping for their big finale at the Opera House grounds that coming Sunday night.

Angie and I met back up and I salivated over her great purchases as I told her about my day of bizarro sites and museums. We got all dolled up and went off to the big turkey day banquet! We arrived in time for the cocktail reception and met our host, Anne, and others that would be sitting at our table. The dinner was for about 150 people total and our table had 10 people at it. All of them had some tie back to the US (a husband, step-dad, or just a love of the US) – and none of them really knew what the holiday of Thanksgiving was really about. So Angie and I dusted off that part of our brains that we hadn’t used since 4th grade and tried to recount the story of Thanksgiving…the pilgrims, Indians, corn offering, etc. This was right next to the space in my brain which held the names and order of all of the planets of the solar system…so it was all a bit rusty. We managed to get the point across – and then told them that it was really about family, food, and football….American football that is.

We went to sit down at our table and I was immediately struck by the table centerpiece…a couple of ears of fresh corn (technically it wasn’t really harvest time in Australia) and an American flag! I found it rather cute…and a bit bizarre too. Next Anne, our host, came around and gave us all a little pin to wear (an Australian flag and an American flag next to each other), and she also gave us a patch. The patch was precious…I may have to figure out a way to sew it to my backpack. This picture of a kangaroo and an eagle shaking hands/wings was over the top! We were so thankful to be guests of this group…they were really wonderful!
There were Australian and American speakers that got up to address the eating community and talk about Thanksgiving and the partnership of Australia and America…the whole thing kind of brought tears to my eyes as I really missed being home for the holidays. Angie and I glanced at each other with tears in our eyes and raised our glasses of wine to our families.

Now…bring on the food. Hold on though…there was one more ‘event’ that happened before we could dig into our feast….something VERY bizarro. All of a sudden…a person in a chicken mascot outfit came out of the kitchen – he was running around all of the tables. Everyone seemed happy to see him…Angie and I just looked confused. I thought maybe they were trying to mimic a football mascot or something. However – we came to find out that this chicken was supposed to represent a turkey (I liked to refer to it as a churkey)…ohhhhhh…now do you get it…in a bizarro way. As the churkey was running around, the next thing that emerged from the kitchen was truly stunning…Dolly Parton…no – not the real one – someone dressed up like one. They played Dolly music in the background and Dolly was running around the banquet room trying to catch the churkey. I looked at Angie and wondered just how much wine and champagne we had been drinking…or was this Land of Oz really this strange? The only real explanation we got regarding this whole episode of Dolly and Churkey was that Dolly was the most American person that they could think of for the skit of someone hunting a turkey…or maybe they just had a couple of extra soccer balls laying around and thought they would make good boobs…who knows. So – after that shock…now we were ready to eat.

They paraded out the turkey (real ones)…about 100 of them…it was quite impressive. After the turkey parade they set one at the head of each table…gave the oldest looking man at the table an apron and had him start to carve. The food was good – and they had a bit of everything…turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and veggies. However, I found myself missing my traditional family menu that my mom and dad always cooked up…German stuffing, peas and broccoli, and fresh cranberry sauce. However – mom and dad didn’t have Dolly…so I guess there are trade-offs. Overall – we had a wonderful night and were so thankful of our guests to treat us to this big dinner (and many, many drinks) – the whole night was priceless! Oh yeah….and there was pumpkin pie…at last!

The final days in Sydney, Angie and I toured the opera house, ran around the parks, found great restaurants, took the ferry ride to Manly beach, enjoyed our Sydney accommodation, and soaked up the sun. We also were able to get out and enjoy the local nightlife and dancing when we met up with a friend of Angie’s for Friday and Saturday night. The trip to Sydney was complete with some late night clubbing with our ‘new friends’. Who would have thought that we could find all of these familiar, yet bizarro, things in Sydney…however – I have to say…Dolly still takes the cake…or should I say, takes the churkey.

Photo: Angie and I at pre-dinner cocktails at Thanksgiving dinner

Some information in this post provided by Sydney Accomodations

Travel for Wine

The mission in Melbourne was to eat, party, and shop…never mind that I have no money…I was willing to forget that for a few days. The good news was that I have a friend who lives in Melbourne, PK, and I enlisted him to show us the nightlife. I knew I picked the right man…he was good at finding the nightlife in NYC when I knew him – so I knew he wouldn’t disappoint me!

We joined up with him and his work colleagues the first night. We quickly learned the Melbourne tram system and made our way out to St. Kilda for Mexican food and drinks. Got home at 1:30AM…not bad. The next day we spent the day wandering around little alleys of shops and cafes that make Melbourne such a cute town. This town had character – it was really charming. Every little alley way had a cafe or shop – it reminded me of Europe a bit. In addition – it was a very artsy town – there were great public art displays peppered all over the town. The architecture was a nice mix of old and new – it reminded me of Boston in a way. That night we found some great nightlife and met up with PK and his gang again and danced the night away until 2:30AM…getting better. Day 3 we decided that we spent enough money shopping and we should instead take in the culture in Melbourne. We went to a few art museums. The Museum entry was free…what a great town! The museums there were very impressive – great architecture and nice exhibits. We met up with PK and gang again for dinner that night in another part of town and enjoyed one last night of shak’in our booties until 4:30AM…just like NYC. Yup – I liked this town.

The next morning came way too soon and we had to drag ourselves out of bed to get checked out of our Melbourne hotels and make our way to wine country – Yarra Valley. We had a plan to take a taxi to the train, to the bus, to our Yarra Valley apartment – this should take us about 3 hours…not bad considering if we had just rented a car it would have taken us 1 1/2 hours. So – we loaded up all of our luggage and took off. Things were going really well – we made it onto the train – I was reading a magazine that Angie brought me and she was sleeping.

All of a sudden a train announcement came on and said that the train was stopping at the next station and we would have to take a bus for a few stops and get back on a different train. Now – by this time we had aquired a good amount of luggage – shopping was good in Melbourne – but it was heavy unfortunately. Racing off this train and up and down stairs to a bus was not my idea of fun. It was a really hot, humid day and the flies were out in force.

Side Note – I haven’t told you about the flies yet…but they deserve a side note. The flies in Oz are really one of the most annoying creatures on earth. I equate them with the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz movie…simply annoying and a bit frightening. There are tons of them…more than I’ve ever seen…and they are completely acclimated to humans. Humans to them is just like a cow…they land on your face when you are walking down the sidewalk…they have no fear. They don’t bite or anything…they just frickin’ annoy you until you are ready to tear your hair out. I’ve never seen such bold flies in my life – and don’t want to ever again. I now know why cows have tails.

Ok – back to catching a bus to the next train stop so that we can get back on the train and then get back on another bus and get to our apartment in Yarra valley. It’s even exhausting to read – isn’t it? Now add our 30kg worth of luggage (converts to aprox. 60 lbs) it’s a good thing we are both rather fit. However – by this time – I was hungover, hot, fly-ridden, hungry, and tired…a lethal combination for me. I was so ticked off by this whole ordeal I could hardly think. I call it ‘Traveler’s Rage’ – and I had it.

However while we were waiting on the bus to fill up so we could take off – I had a nice man strike up a conversation with me. He was a local and also a tennis umpire for the Australian Open…very cool guy. We got to the train station and got off the bus – I said goodbye to my new friend and we were trying to figure out what track to go to when 2 teenage punk rockish girls busted out into a fist fight in front of us…no joke. I felt like we were in Detroit or something – but we were in the suburbs of Melbourne…crazy. The train officials had to come over and break it up – I simply tried to avoid it. This was more violence than I had ever even seen in the NYC subway.

We found our track and had to wait for our train in the heat – and the flies. When the train came we lugged everything back on to the train and sat down. Some more kids that looked like they were about 12 and skate boarders were behind us…all of a sudden we smelled smoke and they had lit up and were smoking (something) on the train. My conclusion was that the youth around this suburb were really, really annoying. Great birth control. I didn’t have the energy to say anything…plus – I had been trained that in NYC you just ignore people who are doing illegal things on the subway. So I ignored it. All of a sudden the guy next to Angie got up – walked over to the kids and yelled “What the F##* are you doing – you can’t smoke here – people are around”. He then sat back down next to Angie. I was damn impressed. The kids stopped. I wanted to take this man to NYC and see how he did there…but I was too intimidated to ask him to go – so instead we just said ‘thank you’.

Phone Home - outdoor art in Melbourne

While we were sitting on the train the lady next to me started talking to us. She asked where we were going and we exhaustively said – we are catching the bus from Lilydale to Healesville (Yarra Valley). She said that with all of the delays with the trains/buses that we may no longer be able to catch our bus to Healesville…ugh!!!! When we arrived a the Lilydale train station – it looked like the armpit Australia. More hoodlum kids were walking around causing trouble and our new friend Hennie led us to the bus stop and checked the schedule for us. Unfortunately she was right – we missed our original bus and now had to wait for an hour and a half for the next bus so that we could drive literally 20 minutes to Healesville.

This was infuriating to me…I could walk there faster…but not with this luggage. Hennie seemed to be very concerned about us and the fact that we had to wait around. We said that we’d be ok – no problem – and we bid her goodbye and many thanks for her assistance. We sat down in the hot sun and flies and basically bitched to each other about how this little trip had turned into a nightmare. Pretty soon we hear a beep…beep of a car and turn around and it’s Hennie…in a little white Fiat. She had come to pick us up and take us to Healesville! We were both stunned. We thanked her profusely and crammed all of our stuff in her little car and took off. Along the way we found out that she was 70 years old and loved to travel…my hero. She said that she had a prior engagement at the church but she just couldn’t bare to see us waiting there for a long time so she thought she would do her ‘good deed’ for the day and pick us up. What an angel.

So – 5 hours after we left our hotel in Melbourne – we arrived at our apartment in Healesville and got settled in. The apartment was swank and charming – so we were both finally relieved to be at our destination. We went to the local grocery store to get some food and walked by a local bar at an old hotel. Live music was playing on the veranda so we decided to stop in and take a look – and get a much deserved cold beer!

It was a very small, local joint with about 15 people in the bar altogether. The ‘band’ consisted of 2 young high school boys playing guitars – I think at least 10 of the people there were their family taking pictures of them! The boys kind of looked like a modern day Richie Cunningham and Potsey – dressed in their skateboarder gear and shaggy hair. However – they played some great old rock ‘n roll such as Johnnie be Good, Summer of ’69, some Van Morrison…it was a priceless scene. We got our cold beers – sat at the bar, sang along, read the paper and watched people dance to the music.

Our day from hell had really taken a turn for the better. These are the types of days that I seem to remember the longest and enjoy the most. The ones that take you places where you never expect, and acquaint you with local people.

After we spent the next day in the Yarra Valley tasting wine – we got back to Melbourne (with no delays!) and we hopped a plane to Sydney. Our last stop in Oz was going to be the big city where our adventure will continue!

Some information in this post provided by Melbourne Hotels

Photo: Round mushroom in the Daintree Rain Forest

To view all of my Australia Photography – click here!

For all Australia snapshots – click here!

I followed the yellow brick road to OZ…and finally – I learned why Australia is called Oz. I was expecting some witty reason – something about Dorthy losing Toto and being raised by kangaroos- but unfortunately – it was quite simple. It’s simply a short way to say Australia. One syllable is easier than 3 I guess. However – I asked the locals why they didn’t simply spell it ‘Aus’ instead of ‘Oz’ – they said it’s more recognizable as ‘Oz’ and easier to pronounce (a.k.a better marketing). So – this is how I made my entry into Oz…asking stupid questions to locals.

This is the leg of my around the world journey that I choose to dub “Familiar Faces and Places” (kind of sounds like a Garth Brookes song). In Australia – I met my great girlfriend and frequent travel partner, Angie. For those of you who have followed my travels before – you’ll recognize her from my Italy, France, and Costa Rica photos…and many drunken nights in NYC. The whole time I’ve been in Australia it’s felt like a 2 week vacation as opposed to small part of my trip around the world. I feel like I will be heading home to NYC shortly with my new stash of shopping purchases and a few bottles of wine. I think this is due to the fact that normally when I travel with Angie – it’s for 2 weeks, we eat well, live well, party well, and shop…that’s the norm when I’m with her. So my brain has immediately switched into that mode. The only downside to this is that my travel budget isn’t the same as it used to be when Angie and I normally travel…but the value of having a familiar face with me during my travels – outweighs the cost!

The other familiarity to this part of the trip is that I’ve actually been here in Australia before. This is one of only two places on my big, worldly itinerary that I’m going back to (the other being Italy). I really came back here because the last time I was here 5 years ago I was only able to see one part of Australia…Queensland. I wanted to see the great cities of Australia this time – plus – Angie had never been – so it seemed like a logical place to spend 2 weeks.

I left New Zealand early to fly to Sydney and meet Angie who was flying in from San Francisco. Miraculously we did meet up at our domestic gates just as planned. It was as if I had a muzzle on for the last 2 months – we had so much to talk about – I think I talked her ear off. It was a bit of a strange feeling getting back into my old life routine. We flew directly to Cairnes (in Queensland) and took a shuttle to Port Douglas where we were staying for the next 4 nights. Yup, that’s right – I was going to stay in the same room for 4 nights in a row…wooohoooo!! For the last 3 weeks in New Zealand I have stayed in a new location/hostel/lodge every night. The opportunity to actually unpack my suitcase and see what was on the bottom of it was like heaven to me! I had only been wearing those things that bubbled to the top…I was quite sick of them by now! We were staying at an apartment – so we got settled in and went to the grocery store to get breakfast food and fish for dinner. We had a great little night in our apartment, cooked dinner, rented a movie, and continued to catch up. Finally – I felt like I had a home again for a short moment! It even had a washer and dryer in our apartment…no more washing my panties in the sink – I was back in civilization!

I was also back in the warm weather…this was also a welcome site! The first day we decided to go to the beach and simply relax and work on our tans…or for me – work on my sunburn. I went out and bought the thickest SPF30 I could find – but still got burnt. While we were making our way through town – we heard the rumor that a Hollywood movie was being shot in Port Douglas…the town was all abuzz. This was a small town…maybe 1000 people living there total – then an influx of tourists makes it about 2500 people I suppose. The small town had turned into Hollywood though…it was pretty exciting. The movie was called Fool’s Gold and I’m not sure when it is coming out…but it stars Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. Needless to say – Angie and I were hunting for Matthew the whole time we were there. We came up with things that we would go up and say to him if we met him in a bar…the standard comment was ‘nice abs’ – however I wanted to go with ‘nice knees’…I figured something as absurd as that he would actually remember. Alas…I was never able to use that opening line though as we never saw him! Probably a blessing!

Photo: Mr. Fluffy lecturing us

After our beach day, we decided to go to the Great Barrier Reef. We booked a tour on a dive boat (with about 50 other people – it was a big boat!), took our motion sickness pills, dawned our bikinis and off we went! The advantage to taking one of these large tour boats out to the reef is that they are fast…they get you far out on the reef in a matter of hours. While we motored out to the far reaches of the reef – our Snorkel Guide – Mr. Fluffy (no – I’m not joking) – gave us a refresher course on snorkeling and educated us on the marine biology of the Reef. Honestly – it was the most thorough snorkeling ‘lesson’ I’ve ever had. My normal experience is – “pick out a mask and some fins in that bucket over there and jump in…good luck.” However Mr. Fluffy was really an expert…we learned about getting the right equipment that fit, how to snorkel the correct way, how to see sharks, etc…really amazing. We had a total of 3 snorkeling stops and each one was really beautiful. The fish were amazing and the coral was colorful. The highlight though was the last stop where Mr. Fluffy went down deep and woke up a couple of sleeping sharks…normally I would not stick around to see groggy sharks – especially if they were anything like me when I woke up…BITCHY. However, Mr. Fluffy assured us it would be ok and they would take no interest in us…so I trusted him. The sharks were big…probably about 5 feet – pretty spectacular to have them swimming about 10 feet away from us, it makes your heart stop! We also saw giant barracudas – however they seemed to have no interest in us whatsoever – thank goodness. One last thing – I believe that it’s too bad that Jack Palance (Mr. Ripley’s Believe it or Not) passed away recently as he should have come out and met Mr. Fluffy. The man could hold his breath longer than anyone I’ve ever seen. Honestly – it was like for 4 minutes. I think he was part fish – or at the very least he had to have gills. He definitely could have given David Blaine a run for his money – maybe I should have told him to come to NYC/Lincoln Center and live in a tank for a week.

The last day we were in Port Douglas we went on a day tour Cape Tribulation, the Daintree Rainforest, and the Daintree River. When I was here 5 years ago – I actually went and camped in the Daintree Rainforest for a night – it was a terrifying night for me then as we didn’t even have tents – only a hammock that we tied between a couple of trees – I just prayed all night that a snake wasn’t going to slither down the tree and into my sleeping bag cocoon. So – I was happy to simply go on a walking tour of the rainforest this time around! Our guide Grant was great – he took us to the Cape where we got Kayaks and did a little kayaking, then we went for picnic lunch in the rainforest and visited a swimming hole to cool off. During our rainforest walk – Grant explained to us the ‘Battle for Light’. No – this isn’t a new Star Wars prequel/sequel – this was the battle that every plant/tree/fruit goes through in the rainforest to get above the tree canopy and to the sunlight to be ‘king of the jungle’. The vines were amazing – you could follow them up trees and you knew they had been around for hundreds of years. We also saw a tree that was the same design as Angie’s bikini she was wearing…once you look at all of the pictures you’ll see what I mean.
We saw the rainforest wild life – dragons, and ants…but no cassowary’s (Patty – you are probably the only person who knows what a cassowary is – the rest of you will need to google that). Finally we hopped on an electric river boat and did a river safari of sorts…we were hunting for crocs…and we weren’t disappointed. Sure enough – Scarface made an appearance – and we followed it through the river as far as we could…it was pretty cool to see him swim on the surface.

Photo: Me practicing how I would fight off Scarface

We left Port Douglas without Mathew McConaughey – but at least we had good tans. Well – Angie had a good tan…I had my normal red, German glow. We were headed for the city now…Melbourne!