So things have finally started to settle down around here and we are done moving about. Ari came back to Sydney and we spent two nights hanging out with him and then he left back for the U S and A. We went to see Bruno, which was highly praised for shock value, but other than that we were slightly disapointed. Still funny, but no Ali G show bruno.
We finally got a place! We found this sweet little apartment tucked away on a street down from the beach for the same price as all the other places we looked, which is awesome!!! The only bad part is that every place we found, including this one was unfurnished :( So we spent our first night of ground sleeping last night, but hopefully the craigslist will grace us with more free mattresses and furniture soon.
The neighborhood we live in reminds me of a very toned down California. The people still have the rich, cali style, but they seem to have less money or maybe just want to flaunt it less. We were talking about how we kind of looked like homeless people beacause we were walking around in hoodies and jeans, while everyone else we saw was dressed a little more lavishly. Then I bought a bottle of beer and was drinking it from the bag and we laughed about how our homeless appeal had increased. On our walk home we saw that a bed and mattress had been set on the sidewalk to be thrown away and as we picked it up we made the final decision that although we have a sweet apartment, we are homeless. (Joke). We didn't take the mattress though because then we would be a little too homeless for our own good. Wish us luck in the craigslist gods granting us mattresses by the weekend.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Two nights in Alice Springs
We returned from our outback trip all in one piece and went to a pub to party it up with our tour group for the evening. The pub was really cool and dinner was cheap finally so that was good, there was live music for a little while and a really nice atmosphere. Then we said our goodbyes and in the morning moved hostels for our last two nights.
We went golfing at one of the top 10 desert golf courses in the world and decided just to play the front nine. To say the least we're not the best golfers ever and when you mix that with not getting a cart "moseying" along the course might have been an understatement. Funnily on the first hole we met two older guys, one who graduated from University of Houston, and one was an Aggie. Small world. Anyway, we really took our time and had people passing us the whole time and I think people were getting a little testy. An Austrian guy playing with his kids even caught us and let us know how slow we were. But as my friend Trace's dad says: If you don't have the time to enjoy a round of golf, maybe you shouldn't be out there. We enjoyed every penny and even got better than 3 over on some holes.
We had dinner at a famous outback steakhouse called Overlanders where we ate family style dining on different Kangaroo steak dinners. Kangaroo is awesome!!! You have to order it medium rare or less or it gets too tough, but it is great. We got a bottle of wine and had a riot of a time, but for some reason they placed us in the corner... After our 2.5 hour dinner we went to a popular bar there called Bojangles, which was kind of quiet. Then we realized it was because it was only 9:30, but we were tired so we crashed for the night.
We got up the next morning and hired some bikes and rode them about 15kms out to "Desert Park." It was a really nice little park, the birds were beautiful and I got some good pictures. We went to a bird's of prey show which was pretty cool and then went and saw some Kangaroos. The cool thing about the park was that there were little stop sections when certain animals were caged in, still in their natural state so you could go in and get up close and personal with them. A pretty wild experience.
We rode back stopping every 5 minutes the same as we did on the way up because one of the bikes had a chain that came off on every other bump. Luckily Derek is bicycle savvy and fixed it up real quick every time. We got a shower and went to this restaurant we had been to on one other night called Oscar's. If you ever go to Alice Springs GO TO OSCAR'S!!!! It is awesome. The food is presented stylishly and is absolutely delicious. I had chicken stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes the first time we went and a porterhouse the next time. Total the meals were a little less than $20 American, which is crazy for the quality and style of the meals. My porterhouse was a little overcooked and they happily took it back and then rushed out another one, which was perfect. Good stuff, happy people, great service, and you don't even tip in Australia!
After dinner we headed to Bojangles again and it was a little dead at first again. We stayed for about 30 minutes and had a pitcher of this cider they have on tap at all the bars, which is delicious and the next the we new the place was crazy. The dance floor was packed, the tables were packed, the standing room was packed. People were going nuts. You can watch the bar on streaming webcam actually at Bossaloon.com.au We drank quite a bit and had a good time and still got back at around 11 to crash and get up for our planes the next day. Little bit of some lingering headaches, but they were cured by some food, coffee and Advil.
We arrived back in Sydney at our hostel today (Sunday) at 6 PM and found that there was only one bed in our room open. After a little talking and pain in the bum waiting we figured it all out and both got beds. We have orientation for school starting tomorrow. So far: Success! Pictures will be up when I get to my computer hopefully tomorrow or the next day.
We went golfing at one of the top 10 desert golf courses in the world and decided just to play the front nine. To say the least we're not the best golfers ever and when you mix that with not getting a cart "moseying" along the course might have been an understatement. Funnily on the first hole we met two older guys, one who graduated from University of Houston, and one was an Aggie. Small world. Anyway, we really took our time and had people passing us the whole time and I think people were getting a little testy. An Austrian guy playing with his kids even caught us and let us know how slow we were. But as my friend Trace's dad says: If you don't have the time to enjoy a round of golf, maybe you shouldn't be out there. We enjoyed every penny and even got better than 3 over on some holes.
We had dinner at a famous outback steakhouse called Overlanders where we ate family style dining on different Kangaroo steak dinners. Kangaroo is awesome!!! You have to order it medium rare or less or it gets too tough, but it is great. We got a bottle of wine and had a riot of a time, but for some reason they placed us in the corner... After our 2.5 hour dinner we went to a popular bar there called Bojangles, which was kind of quiet. Then we realized it was because it was only 9:30, but we were tired so we crashed for the night.
We got up the next morning and hired some bikes and rode them about 15kms out to "Desert Park." It was a really nice little park, the birds were beautiful and I got some good pictures. We went to a bird's of prey show which was pretty cool and then went and saw some Kangaroos. The cool thing about the park was that there were little stop sections when certain animals were caged in, still in their natural state so you could go in and get up close and personal with them. A pretty wild experience.
We rode back stopping every 5 minutes the same as we did on the way up because one of the bikes had a chain that came off on every other bump. Luckily Derek is bicycle savvy and fixed it up real quick every time. We got a shower and went to this restaurant we had been to on one other night called Oscar's. If you ever go to Alice Springs GO TO OSCAR'S!!!! It is awesome. The food is presented stylishly and is absolutely delicious. I had chicken stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes the first time we went and a porterhouse the next time. Total the meals were a little less than $20 American, which is crazy for the quality and style of the meals. My porterhouse was a little overcooked and they happily took it back and then rushed out another one, which was perfect. Good stuff, happy people, great service, and you don't even tip in Australia!
After dinner we headed to Bojangles again and it was a little dead at first again. We stayed for about 30 minutes and had a pitcher of this cider they have on tap at all the bars, which is delicious and the next the we new the place was crazy. The dance floor was packed, the tables were packed, the standing room was packed. People were going nuts. You can watch the bar on streaming webcam actually at Bossaloon.com.au We drank quite a bit and had a good time and still got back at around 11 to crash and get up for our planes the next day. Little bit of some lingering headaches, but they were cured by some food, coffee and Advil.
We arrived back in Sydney at our hostel today (Sunday) at 6 PM and found that there was only one bed in our room open. After a little talking and pain in the bum waiting we figured it all out and both got beds. We have orientation for school starting tomorrow. So far: Success! Pictures will be up when I get to my computer hopefully tomorrow or the next day.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The Outback!
Finding out we couldn't hire a small car and the price for a 4WD vehicle was out of our pockets range, we were a little startled, but ended up finding a nice looking semi-cheap 3 day tour to Ayer's Rock and King's Canyon. We spent the night in Alice Springs first, bought shoes for the hike, took a hike down a dry river to a watering hole, and spent the night in the hostel awaiting our 5:30 wake up for the bus. So far we havn't gotten to aclimate to the time change because we've been getting up super early to do stuff every day and been exhaustedly crashing at 7-8ish every night.
Anyway Alice Springs is crazy. People are very racist toward the Aboriginal people and their culture makes no sense. They look like primitive folks wearing Hip-Hop attire and are primarly drunk when we see them. We walked back late at night to the hostel and could hear them yelling around at eachother, it was pretty wild. Kind of like being in the woods. But the concrete jungle I suppose. We later found out thyat aborignies in the cities are those who have been kicked out of their tribes for being wickity wackity shaw.
So our bus arrives and this crazy Aussie guy jumps out, we throw our bags in this trailer attached to the back of a bus and are on our way. The trip was awesome!!!! But it was freeeeeeezing. We ate camel burgers, saw some kangaroos, they are wicked sweet. We hiked the Devil's Marbles, then watched the sunset on Ayer's Rock. It is enormous and beautiful. When I upload the pictures you will see.
We went back to camp when it got dark and slept in our sleeping bags and things called "swags" which are like over cover sleeping bags with a built mattress pretty much, very comfortable. The temperatue both nights was below freezing and we woke up with ice on our swags. Luckily Derek bought us 0 degree sleeping bags, so we were quite toasty.
The stars were absolutely phenomenal. The constilations are different because we are in the Southern Hemisphere, so unfortunately I couldn't use my infamous stars move on this cute girl I met from Canada. Maybe I'll learn some others quickly.....
Uluru was awesome, we didn't climb it because apparently it is extremely disrespectful, but we hiked around it which was still really sweet. We also hiked in King's Canyon, which was awesome as well. Everything has been a humbling, awesome, non-stop, great experience. We are meeting crazy people from everywhere and I wish I could put all the goofy stories that are going on on here, but I'm spending enough money on internet cards as it is for these less than eventful posts. They'll get better when I get to settle down though. We're alive for all those worried (mom and Bebe) so cheers for now.
Anyway Alice Springs is crazy. People are very racist toward the Aboriginal people and their culture makes no sense. They look like primitive folks wearing Hip-Hop attire and are primarly drunk when we see them. We walked back late at night to the hostel and could hear them yelling around at eachother, it was pretty wild. Kind of like being in the woods. But the concrete jungle I suppose. We later found out thyat aborignies in the cities are those who have been kicked out of their tribes for being wickity wackity shaw.
So our bus arrives and this crazy Aussie guy jumps out, we throw our bags in this trailer attached to the back of a bus and are on our way. The trip was awesome!!!! But it was freeeeeeezing. We ate camel burgers, saw some kangaroos, they are wicked sweet. We hiked the Devil's Marbles, then watched the sunset on Ayer's Rock. It is enormous and beautiful. When I upload the pictures you will see.
We went back to camp when it got dark and slept in our sleeping bags and things called "swags" which are like over cover sleeping bags with a built mattress pretty much, very comfortable. The temperatue both nights was below freezing and we woke up with ice on our swags. Luckily Derek bought us 0 degree sleeping bags, so we were quite toasty.
The stars were absolutely phenomenal. The constilations are different because we are in the Southern Hemisphere, so unfortunately I couldn't use my infamous stars move on this cute girl I met from Canada. Maybe I'll learn some others quickly.....
Uluru was awesome, we didn't climb it because apparently it is extremely disrespectful, but we hiked around it which was still really sweet. We also hiked in King's Canyon, which was awesome as well. Everything has been a humbling, awesome, non-stop, great experience. We are meeting crazy people from everywhere and I wish I could put all the goofy stories that are going on on here, but I'm spending enough money on internet cards as it is for these less than eventful posts. They'll get better when I get to settle down though. We're alive for all those worried (mom and Bebe) so cheers for now.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Day 2 - Whales and Da Beach
So we crashed last night in the early evening and after about 12 full hours of sleep awoke to go see the whales at 9 AM only to find the boat had been fully booked. Luckily lots of people like to see the whales so we jumped on a 10 AM cruise whale watching experience. We rode out into the middle of the ocean and walked up onto the deck with the boating throwing us around like crazy. We stood around for a bit listening to a guy on a speaker trying to waste time hoping whales arose. And arise they did!! At first it seemed that we would have to view the whales from afar and in small spurts. Soon though we had a spectacular show of these ginormous humpback whales flailing about in the water. They were huge! Pictures will be up in a week or so, but since we are going to the outback tomorrow for a week I wont have my computer or anything.
Not only were the whales awesome, but the horizon and multiple skylines of Sydney were absolutely breathtaking. We rode back, Derek talked about architecture, we all talked about weird shit, it was good.
When we got back we took a train and bus to the most popular beach in Australia, Bondi Beach. It was gorgeous and looked like a sweet place to surf though I don't surf (yet). It looks like the waves are just generated perfectly into this little culdesac like beach front. Using public transportation is extremely easy and extraordinarily clean. However, we have found getting directions to be a quirky challenge.
Us: How do we get down to central station?
Lady in a cafe we asked: Well you get on the bus, 1, 2, Gloria Jeans, 3, 4. (We were stumped)
Us: Which stop do we take for Bondi Beach?
Guy on bus: Well it's not 1, but the 2nd or 3rd. There is the beginning, middle, and end. So the middle or end. (stumped again)
Anyway we made it everywhere, we climbed a cliff at Bondi Beach, which had a magnificent view over the water out into nothingness. We met some girls on the beach and told them our next stop was "King's Cross." Everytime we mention this to someone we got the reply its swanky. We looked it up in a guide and in the "describing words" section it said: naked, naughty, swanky, etc. We got off the bus there and walked down the streeet....
Strip club, massage parlor, dancing girls, massage parlor, strip club, v.i.p. club, MCDONALD's CAFE, strip club, resturant, etc. It got nicer down the way so we stopped and got dinner, which was good and watched Aussie Rule Football on TV. It is a crazy game played on a circular field where you have to punch of kick a rugby type ball. We'll learn more on that later. I'll put up whale pictures when I get time to sit down.
Not only were the whales awesome, but the horizon and multiple skylines of Sydney were absolutely breathtaking. We rode back, Derek talked about architecture, we all talked about weird shit, it was good.
When we got back we took a train and bus to the most popular beach in Australia, Bondi Beach. It was gorgeous and looked like a sweet place to surf though I don't surf (yet). It looks like the waves are just generated perfectly into this little culdesac like beach front. Using public transportation is extremely easy and extraordinarily clean. However, we have found getting directions to be a quirky challenge.
Us: How do we get down to central station?
Lady in a cafe we asked: Well you get on the bus, 1, 2, Gloria Jeans, 3, 4. (We were stumped)
Us: Which stop do we take for Bondi Beach?
Guy on bus: Well it's not 1, but the 2nd or 3rd. There is the beginning, middle, and end. So the middle or end. (stumped again)
Anyway we made it everywhere, we climbed a cliff at Bondi Beach, which had a magnificent view over the water out into nothingness. We met some girls on the beach and told them our next stop was "King's Cross." Everytime we mention this to someone we got the reply its swanky. We looked it up in a guide and in the "describing words" section it said: naked, naughty, swanky, etc. We got off the bus there and walked down the streeet....
Strip club, massage parlor, dancing girls, massage parlor, strip club, v.i.p. club, MCDONALD's CAFE, strip club, resturant, etc. It got nicer down the way so we stopped and got dinner, which was good and watched Aussie Rule Football on TV. It is a crazy game played on a circular field where you have to punch of kick a rugby type ball. We'll learn more on that later. I'll put up whale pictures when I get time to sit down.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
L.A. to Sydney and Day 1
After spending a day in the city of angels we arrived at the airport to depart following a full cuban garlic chicken meal. Delicious. Our full bellies entered the airport line with approximately an hour and a half to spare. Derek and my tickets, passports, and e-visas cleared immediately, but Ari had to purchase one there. After waiting about an hour at the desk Derek and I made a dash to the gate while Ari waited staring at the lady with the red phone in her hand. His business finally cleared and he made it about five minutes before we departed.
15 hours, I Love you man, The Express, Yes man, and an episode of Family Guy later we arrived in Sydney at 6 AM with the sun rising behind us. After waddling through customs we exited the airport with only trail mix as a customs casualty. We grabbed a taxi and rode to our hostel. As we left the airport there were giant billboards EVERYWHERE. They were extremely numerous so I just stopped looking after a little while.
We arrived in the CBD and started our crazy day one excursion. We heard there was a place down the street where we could store a few bags since we're going on a week vacation to the outback. We finally found the place only to find from a receptionist across the hall that many places are closed on Saturday due to the current economic downturn. So we walked in a circle, grabbed a free bus to take us 10 blocks down to another locations for bag storage only to find that it would cost us $350.... so we continued on. We found a storage center for much cheaper and quickly ran to the nearest bank before in closed. Then after an hour of signing up we finally finished all the important things we needed.
Sydney is a gorgeous large metropolitan center. I would describe it as an extremely clean, nice, New York. The Darling Harbour is magnificent and the multiple skylines are ravishing. There are plenty of East Asians here and due to my yellow feverish plague predicament caused by my Judaic upbringing I have been quite enthused by the aesthetically pleasing women.
We bounced around chinatown for a bit then headed down to The Rocks for a little wine tasting and market viewing and checked out The Sydney Opera House, which is an amazing monument. The outside of the building is composed entirely of tile and is amazing. We began to get weary even though it was only 5 in the PM so we grabbed some grub at a local pub with live Irish music. An English guy came up to me and commented on Gerrard's new $50 million, 3 year contract, but was sad to find I didn't think the contract was as outlandish as he did. He said "O you're American. You all do not have the same commentary that us English folk do." He was correct. We showered and crashed in our hostel at around 6:30-7 for to awake for 9 AM whale watching. Happy reading, I'll be updating soon.
15 hours, I Love you man, The Express, Yes man, and an episode of Family Guy later we arrived in Sydney at 6 AM with the sun rising behind us. After waddling through customs we exited the airport with only trail mix as a customs casualty. We grabbed a taxi and rode to our hostel. As we left the airport there were giant billboards EVERYWHERE. They were extremely numerous so I just stopped looking after a little while.
We arrived in the CBD and started our crazy day one excursion. We heard there was a place down the street where we could store a few bags since we're going on a week vacation to the outback. We finally found the place only to find from a receptionist across the hall that many places are closed on Saturday due to the current economic downturn. So we walked in a circle, grabbed a free bus to take us 10 blocks down to another locations for bag storage only to find that it would cost us $350.... so we continued on. We found a storage center for much cheaper and quickly ran to the nearest bank before in closed. Then after an hour of signing up we finally finished all the important things we needed.
Sydney is a gorgeous large metropolitan center. I would describe it as an extremely clean, nice, New York. The Darling Harbour is magnificent and the multiple skylines are ravishing. There are plenty of East Asians here and due to my yellow feverish plague predicament caused by my Judaic upbringing I have been quite enthused by the aesthetically pleasing women.
We bounced around chinatown for a bit then headed down to The Rocks for a little wine tasting and market viewing and checked out The Sydney Opera House, which is an amazing monument. The outside of the building is composed entirely of tile and is amazing. We began to get weary even though it was only 5 in the PM so we grabbed some grub at a local pub with live Irish music. An English guy came up to me and commented on Gerrard's new $50 million, 3 year contract, but was sad to find I didn't think the contract was as outlandish as he did. He said "O you're American. You all do not have the same commentary that us English folk do." He was correct. We showered and crashed in our hostel at around 6:30-7 for to awake for 9 AM whale watching. Happy reading, I'll be updating soon.
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