m@ fredenblog

It’s been a month since we returned from Australia and I finally have a bit of time to write about it.

On the way there, we had a 12-hour layover in LA so Derick’s friend Josh picked us up and drove us around.  I’ve never been to LA so it was definitely a new experience.  I wish we had more time to spend there, with a twelve hour layover we just had time for a whirlwind tour.  We had lunch at Lala’s in West Hollywood.  We then went to the Hollywood and Highland Center where we saw the Chinese Theater and stalked Kathy Griffin for about 2 minutes.  Unfortunately she wasn’t up for seeing fans so she ran into the parking garage. I was all shocked that it was really her so I didn’t really get a good picture and I figured if someone’s running away from you, they probably don’t want to chat.

We drove around the rest of the afternoon.  I took random pictures of what I thought was interesting.  We also went to Pinkberry, which I’ve heard a lot about but never had… it was pretty good.

I finally got to meet Josh’s boyfriend, Patrick, who is a graphic designer and fellow horror film buff.  Nice to have west coast connections!

The flight that night to Melbourne was the longest flight I’ve ever had - fifteen or sixteen hours i believe.  Qantas is a great airline, though.  They had heaps of movies and shows to watch.  I am now an official Kath & Kim fan (AU version, not the US one) and I think Little Britain is the funniest show ever. We left in the evening and arrived in Melbourne at 9:30 am two days (time wise) later.  I don’t think I got more than six hours of sleep in the forty-something hours of traveling.

When the plane was landing, the first thing I noticed were the silhouettes of the gum trees.  They were all twisted and dome-shaped, a bit different from what we see in the US. Elissa and Stan met us at the airport and it was so great to see them after three years. The last time we parted was when we were dropping them off at Logan airport for their return trip to Australia.

We had to go through customs… apparently trail mix is a questionable import.  Once we were done with that, we were in this weird backwards place.  Everyone was driving on the wrong side of the road. the environment was weird, the accents… it was a lot to absorb all at once and while exhausted from the trip.

It was about a forty-five minute trip back to their house in Bacchus Marsh.  This southern bit of Australia has been in drought for 12 years.  They basically live in the country, one of the first towns outside of the Melbourne metropolitan area.  I loved their house… they have tons of space.  I called my home in Australia. Aww…!

When we got out of the car, we heard galahs all around the house. I thought they were parrots or something. Apparently calling someone a “galah” is like calling them an oaf. I can see why, the galahs wouldn’t shut up.

Elissa insisted that we stay awake at least until sunset.  We washed up and unpacked a little and then went right to a mall.  I wanted to make sure my ATM card was working right and we needed to get some groceries for dinner and our little roadtrip the next day.  The mall was just like an American mall, but a little… off. They had the same stores, but with different names.  Donut King (Dunkin Donuts) and Hungry Jacks (Burger King) were really familiar.

I wanted to get an iced coffee since it was warm and I needed to stay awake, but iced coffee there ALL included scoops of ice cream.  After talking to three different coffee shops in the mall I found one who understood what I wanted. We activated a pay cell phone so we wouldn’t be totally cut off from civilization. It seems that people there text more than they talk on cell phones. We just didn’t want to use the iPhones since they would rack up insane roaming charges. We returned to Bacchus Marsh and had dinner, which was excellent, and we both passed out around 9 pm since we were exhausted.

I remember having a little jetlag when we visited Hawaii, but that was nothing compared to this. It was just hard to adjust over the next few days and having so much going on didn’t help.  The next morning we all piled in the car and headed for Porepunkah in Victoria’s Alpine Region.  Mountains in Australia aren’t that big, they’re more like glorified foothills.  Don’t get me wrong, it was very pretty and the farther north we drove, the more lush the landscape became.

The wedding venue was the Buffalo Motel.  It was pretty small and the entire place was booked with wedding guests.  Over the next four days we were able to meet 90% of Elissa and Stan’s family and close friends, which was really great.  It took a few days to adjust to the slang and the surroundings, but by the time we left Porepunkah, we were definitely loving the experience of being in another country.

The wedding was wonderful. Stan and Elissa looked great, it didn’t rain, and it wasn’t too hot. I liked that we had a few days to get to know people. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. The Aussies sure know how to have a wedding.

There was a river near the Buffalo Motel and the town of Bright was only a 10-15 minute drive. We spent a little time in Bright, it was a nice little mountain town. At one point, some of us went to Wandiligong to check out the hedge maze and the mini golf.  The maze was kind of cool, but we finished it within 15 minutes. Derick went [most of the way] up Mount Buffalo with some of Elissa’s family while I tackled the maze with my awesome new Porepunkah gay posse, Jon and Gav.

One thing I don’t miss about the Victoria Alpine Region are the flies… they’re everywhere and so obnoxious! We quickly became accustomed to the Australian Salute.

We took all of Sunday to recover from the wedding festivities, then Elissa, Stan, Derick, and I were off on our road trip.  We drove most of Monday, stopping briefly to take a picture of the Big Cigarette and to have lunch in Wagga Wagga.  We stayed overnight in a weird little caravan park in Bathurst. I had my first experience with the huge Huntsman spiders. I don’t believe they’re poisonous, but they’re huge.  The next day we went to the Jenolan Caves and stayed in a nice little hotel in Katoomba.  The Blue Mountain Region we were in now was really nice and relaxing.  They’re called the Blue Mountains because of the haze around all the gum trees as seen from Sydney is a bluish color.  We had hoped to do some bushwalking around Katoomba to see the Three Sisters, but the weather wasn’t that great so we decided to just go to Sydney.

Sydney was unbelievable.  It had been a week or so since we’d been in a proper urban environment so we were definitely ready for the city.  Sydney was like a combination of New York, San Francisco, and Boston.  It was massive.  We stayed in King’s Cross, which was formerly the red light district, and reminded me a lot of Times Square.  I didn’t find King’s Cross as sketchy as people said it used to be, but there were still 20 or 30 strip clubs, tobacco/bottle shops, and “shooting galleries” for herion addicts. I didn’t actually see see a shooting gallery, but there were used-needle receptacles in every public toilet all over the country.

I really liked King’s Cross.  There was always something going on and thousands of people passing by at all times.  One night the airconditioning in our hotel room wasn’t working and we opened a window… people were still outside partying and doing whatever at 6 am.

While we were in Sydney, we went to the Paddington Markets, walked around Oxford Street, visited the Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife World in Darling Harbor, ate at the Sydney Fish Market, went on a Bridge Climb, waded briefly in the water at Bondi Beach, checked out a few art galleries, and went to a few clubs.  It was nonstop the entire time…

Wildlife World was where we were able to pet and photograph a koala up close and see most of the endemic wildlife. The platypus was hiding in its exhibit area and dingoes aren’t easy to come by, but the koalas, kangaroos, wombats, cassowaries, echidnas, and hundreds of other animals were there. Luckily we didn’t run into any funnel-web spiders outside of the exhibit in Sydney. People had horror stories about them.

After five days in Sydney we were ready to do something more relaxing, so we headed north towards Forster, where Stan’s parents had a carvan in Pacific Palms.  Derick and I stayed in this nice little cabin in the carvan park.  This was, by far, the most relaxing bit of the entire trip.  The beaches there are beautiful.  The scenery was relaxing.  We were lucky to get in two excellent days at the beach before the rain caught up with us again.  Most of the time here was spent eating, reading, shopping, and playing cards.  We also had a make-shift turkey dinner since it was Thanksgiving back in the US.

At one point we encountered a huge bat near the laundry area… it was feeding on palm nuts or something in one of the trees.  I think it was a grey-headed flying fox, but I’m not sure. Freaked us out though! We also awoke every morning to the kookaburras nearby.  Seriously… they sound like laughing monkeys, it’s crazy.

We decided to do the entire 14-hour drive back to Melbourne instead of splitting it up over two days.  At this point we’d been in the car on and off for two weeks and the road trip idea wasn’t as exciting as it was in the beginning.  It took around 15 hours to get all the way back.  We stopped for lunch in Gundagai near the Dog on the Tuckerbox and we passed the landlocked HMAS Otway Submarine in Holbrook. We returned to Bacchus Marsh later that evening after a brief social stop to visit some friends and grab something to eat.

The next day was my birthday.  We went to the Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens and then had Indian food at a restaurant called Gaylord in the downtown area.  Elissa’s sisters and brother-in-law met up with us.  It was really nice.

Elissa took me to the Rose Street market, which was similar to Paddington Market in Sydney, but a lot funkier.  Definitely more my thing.  We ended up walking around all afternoon, meeting up with her sister, Jill, for lunch, and shopping. We found this really cool clothing store called Dangerfield… I picked up a really cool hoodie and a new t-shirt.

The only thing I had left was to purchase some authentic indigenous artwork. The entire trip I had to stop myself from buying cheap knock-off artwork because we were waiting to visit Narana Creations in Geelong.  This place was amazing.  I spent over an hour deciding what all I wanted.  Derick bought me a hand-decorated digeridoo for my birthday. I ended up with five paintings for myself, along with boomerangs, calendars, and many other things to bring back as gifts.  I loved it.  The wait was definitely worth it.  Elissa and Stan bought a huge painting for their dining room - they even met the artist since she worked at the center.  Narana also offers samples of indigenous food, cultural talks, and didgeridoo demonstrations. When we go back, I have to visit this place again… there’s so much more I want to do.

The rest of our trip was spent relaxing and hanging out.  We did so much in the three weeks that we were there and it was time to get ready for the return trip home.  The entire experience was amazing.  I loved being able to spend time with Stan and Elissa… meeting their friends and family was awesome.  I can’t think of how the trip could have been any better.

We’re already making plans for our next trip.  We want to visit Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef (we didn’t do any diving!), I want to visit Uluru for a real outback experience, Perth and the western coast of Australia.  I was reading an article on the way back to the US about an entire abandoned gold mining town on the west coast… I’d love to visit it. 

Since we spent so much time in the car, I ended reading Fate of a Free People by Henry Renolds, which covered the Black War in Tasmania and the genocide of the Tasmanian Aborigines.   Elissa picked this up for herself from a used book store in Katoomba. This book was amazing and Tasmania is a must on the next trip. I also brought back four or five other books to learn more about the history of Australia and its indigenous culture. I’m especially excited about Bush Food: Aboriginal Food and Herbal Medicine by Jennifer Isaacs - it was exactly what I was looking for.

I can’t even begin to describe how amazing our trip to Australia was, so I’m just going to post a picture now of how I feel. Boston… so cold… so wintry. I want to write more when I have time.

Elissa just forwarded me an e-mail from Get Up! Action for Australia:

Last night the Senate passed historic legislation removing outdated discrimination against same sex couples in scores of laws ranging from tax, superannuation and Medicare to social security, health, aged care and employment.

I just signed up to get a free commemorative sticker… I would have signed their petition if I was a citizen!

Erica’s husband, Michael, was featured in io9 today for his City of Work project. How exciting!  Everyone should take the Potentiometer test.  I was just assigned to be a bus driver… but I think I was a waiter before.  Hmm.

Our first assignment this semester was to design a word using only the letters in that word to express it’s meaning.  Seeing that it’s Halloween and I haven’t posted in a while, I might as well post something related to school… and the word “macabre” is halloween-y, right?