Driving on the Left

Our holiday was a success. We spent Sunday through Wednesday at a hostel in Kings Cross, the backpacker central of Sydney. The hostel wasn’t the cleanest place that I’ve stayed, meaning there were roaches, flies in the fridge, the showers smelled like sewage, but the stay only cost me $22/night and breakfast was included, so I didn’t really care. At least we were able to meet a lot of nice people in our twelve share bedroom! But seriously, we met a lot of nice Europeans. In Kings Cross there were supposedly 1,500 other backpackers, so both the day and night life was lively. Monday night we were invited by a few other flatmates to a barbie at a bar across the street. We received free food after we purchased a beer, so we jumped right on that deal. Two Aussies from the bar joined us for dinner, one old retired navy vet and a guy in his thirties, so we had fun listening to them tell stories about Oz as we watched the rugby league game that was on tv. After dinner we entered in a pool competition of 20 people or so. Ian and Todd were eliminated right away, and I only made it to the last six people, so we didn’t win any of the prize bar vouchers.  During these three days we spent most of our days walking around the city and exploring the botanical gardens in the park adjacent to the opera house and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We really just bummed around and relaxed, which was exactly what our holiday was supposed to be.

We bussed to Botany, a nearby city, around noon on Wed to pick up our campervan, the Jucy Grande.  It came with its own fridge, stove, sink, dvd player, and water pump in the trunk, and was big enough to seat four. Up top there was a pop-up “penthouse” that could sleep two, but only one of us and some gear slept up there. We departed the rental shop and headed to the Blue Mountains, which are just west of Sydney. I made sure that I drove in the city, as I didn’t trust the other two’s capabilities to navigate traffic on the left, and found it pretty easy. It was a little nerve wracking at first, but as I got more comfortable with right turns and merging right into the fast lane on the highway it was fun. We spent the afternoon literally in the rain and clouds up in the mountains and found a nice lookout pull-off to spend the night. We cook a mean stir-fry in the back and watched a movie in the back of the van. During the whole night only two other vehicles drove by us, so I guess our spot was pristine. We got up Thurs morning and the rain had stopped. It was still a little cloudy, but we cooked breakfast and brought our tea out to the edge of the lookout. We visited a variety of waterfalls and lookouts during this day and found a campervan park nestled in a valley of the mountains. Here we met a few other travelers like us, and enjoyed talking to them at the dinner table. One guy was traveling across Oz in his van for a year, and was only three months into his trip. He normally would have been with his wife, but she had to go home for a wedding, so we kept him company this night. After talking to him it hit me how Australian he was and that Australia is not the US. We had to explain to him what college was, and he was amazed that kids leave their parents at 18 and decided what they’re going to do the rest of their lives. Here most people keep living at home and travel to “Uni” any time after their secondary school. We were going to go south of Sydney for Fri, but Dean convinced us to go north instead. We headed off to Terrigal Fri morning, and spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach. We found a coffee shop with free WiFi afterwards and booked our bus tickets to travel to Canberra the next day, which is where we were supposed to meet up with the group. We found a nice car park near a Little Beach in Boudi Ntl. Park south of Terrigal and spent the night there. We feasted this night, finishing off all the food that we had purchased for our car trip. Sat morning the cockatoos woke us up bright and early, and I drove us again back through Sydney and dropped Ian and Todd off by the train/bus station in the heart of the CBD. I then drove the car back to the Jucy Rental shop and bussed back to them. We rode a greyhound bus five hours down to Canberra and moved into our last hostel of the eight day vaca, which was much nicer than the one in Kings Cross.

We are spending this week in Canberra, which is comparable to D.C., visiting museums and lecturing a little on environmental policy. Then on Fri we are making our way back to Sydney to have our midterm exams… yay! Those will be on Fri and Sun, so this week is going to be a pretty laid back and studious week. On a different note, I received my first haircut of the trip today from Dr. Skiba. It took me a few nights to think it over, but I finally decided that different can be good. The mohawk will be gone in the next day or two so don’t worry, but for now the rest of my hair is at 3/10 of an inch.   

Resting on our way up to Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mtns 

Dinner in the Jucy Crib

One of many falls that we visited. 

We had our cuppa out on the rocks before taking off Thurs Morning

On top of the parliament building with my new hairdo.