A new kind of guilt trip.

When a friend says she subscribes to my blog and expects to hear more from me, I suppose she thinks I have something to say.  Truth be told, I always have something to say.  I simply don’t believe people want to listen, or read in this case.  The big guilt trip may be over, but there’s a wee trip coming up soon.

That’s right.

I’m hitting the road again.  With a friend this time.  The same friend, in fact, that said I should continue my blogging.  And now that I’m “tripping” again, I have reason to write.

Admittedly, the guilt is starting to creep on my conscience.  Why the guilt?  People go away on short trips all the time!  Yes, but those people have permanent jobs.  I don’t know if I’ll be working in April, and recklessly spending money on another trip may not be such a wise idea.  And in this case, as the title post says, it’s a new kind of guilt trip.  The one where a person can spend more in three days than two weeks.  It’s not a business trip.

Nor a cultural trip, although there will be some culture involved.

It’s more of a cosmopolitan-minded person’s kind of trip.

It’s an urban-activity type of trip.

It’s a big shopping trip.

(Big.  Wide.  Grin.)

It’s all justified, I say!  If I can’t find what I’m looking for here in Toronto–and I have really not been impressed with the poor fashions and quality of merchandise in any of the shops since I’ve been home–then I will have to find it elsewhere.  My wardrobe desperately needs updating.

My mental state and credit cards are ready.  New York City, are you?

m

Vid Clips are posted.

There are a few video clips that I posted on-line. 

Sooooo, if you want to know what it’s like to ride a camel or what happens at a Hindu ritual in Varanasi or what Tasmanian Devils sound like, click on the photoblog link under Media to the right of this page.

m

Five weeks back and counting.

Most of my regular readers have assumed that, because I’m back home, this blog is finished.  Hence, I don’t expect much traffic.  But the travel experience doesn’t end because you’re home.  There are loads of adjustments to make.

I spent that month in Oz adjusting, and I was so angry.  Then I got back to Canada and spent a month being depressed.  Now, I’m feeling a bit better and just enjoying the fact that I have time enjoy the crappy summer we’ve been having.  I think I need to get back into a routine: work, earn money, hobbies, exercise: the daily hum-drum of life that makes a person numb to his or her personality and surroundings.

I quickly got my driver’s licence renewed, health card updated, insurance forms sent in, and other administrative details worked out.  There were other tasks, such as compiling video clips and photos, that had to be put on hold for a while.  We had some visitors over for several weeks and I was in Montreal for a while, so that prevented my being organizationally active.  I am getting back on track…slowly…

The job search is not going as well as I (naively) thought it would.  I was seriously confident that all would be well by September.  And you know what else is not going well, as I knew it wouldn’t?  Facebook.

I ended up joining ‘the club’ only to keep up with travellers I met while abroad.  It really is the easiest way to keep in contact with people around the world.  I did end up adding some family and friends, of course.  Now, my biggest fear about joining this site has come to haunt me: people I have lost contact with for various reasons are now wanting to add me as a ‘friend.’  The very thought makes me so nervous, I get sick.  Is this silly?  I am not angry at anyone I used to know.  I seriously wish everyone well.  But the way I see it, if I haven’t heard from you in 10 years, maybe there’s a reason for it. 

Maybe I just lack the self-confidence to be myself around certain people.

Maybe I just have way too much time to think about ideas that are wasting my time and energy.

m

Moving on…

Part of me wanted to go to Australia to help me re-adjust to life back home.  It’s known as reverse-culture shock.  It hit me pretty hard in Oz.  It was almost depressing, and I almost let the re-entry shock give a bad impression of Australia as a whole.  This would have been wrong.  It’s a really nice country: neat, pristine and relaxed.

But today, this, is absolutely surreal.

Did I invent everything on this blog site, or did I actually visit these far-away places?

Hold on.  Let me pinch myself and ask, “Am I really back home?”  Let’s see what kitty says:

 

Who put my kitty on steroids, by the way?

And el Doktor? 

OMG! You're here! (Interrupting Her Highness at work.)

Yep.  I really was away, since the few people who’ve seen me so far have been shocked to find I’ve sneaked back into the country.

It was really strange flying into LA.  I actually went back in time.  I left on 08 July at 13.50, but arrived on the same day at 10.14!  Mmmhmmm….sooooo tired.

And for the record, I’m not finished with this blog site yet.  Still more things to post, including small movie clips.

Travel bug out of my system yet?  Oh, no.  Let’s say that I’ve already planned my next big trip…

xo

m

Sydney and surroundings.

Why is it said Sydney isn’t that great?

All right, so it’s different living in a place compared to visiting.  Aaaaaand the accommodation hasn’t been great.  I’ve been to three hostels in dodgy Kings Cross so far, because that’s where all the other packpackers seem to stay.  Ugh.  It’s dodgy enough that police roam the streets at night, along with drunk street people mixing with drunk backpackers waltzing in and out of  XXX clubs at all hours, with the noise to prove it.  Why are most young backpackers so grotty and noisy?  Good thing my parents raised me properly to be respectful…

(Nervous laughter.  Then, in a peevish whisper:)  I cannot believe I just wrote that…

Anyway…

This city is a great blend of well preserved heritage buildings and districts, parks and modern architecture.  And it’s so relaxed.  I didn’t even have to wear make-up when I went out.   And guess what I did?  I climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge!  So crazy and so expensive, but so fun!  I would have loved to show you photos of me at the top with the Opera House in the background, but we weren’t allowed to bring our cameras with us–we weren’t allowed to bring anything with us–and I didn’t want to pay $53 AUD for 3 photos.   I’ll try and upload a scan of the group photo.  It took us an hour or more to get geared up with jumpers and clips, beanies and radio equipment, metal detector scans and trial climbs.  And once I got to the top, wow.  You can’t get a better view of the city and the harbour.

Sydney Harbour Bridge. I climbed up to where the flags are.

The Botanical Gardens and Hyde Park were also really lovely to have a walk through.  As was a stretch called The Rocks, which was the old centre of the city.  It’s now a heritage area with all the original buildings still standing, weekend markets, pubs, restaurants and cafés.  As I said before, all really well preserved.  At one of the tea houses, I had the best maple scones with the thickest double cream I’d ever eaten.  Deeee-licious.  I also met up with Z___ from my safari trip, who’s moved back to Sydney after spending two years working in London.  Funny how different people look when they’re not dressed as bummy backpackers. 

Yesterday, I took a two-hour train ride to see the Blue Mountains just outside of Sydney yesterday, named so because the oil from the dense population of eucalyptus treess emits a blue haze when there’s heat.   Obviously, it was not hot enough to see the blue haze, but I did loads of hiking, since the day was so perfect: sunny and around 15°C. 

Blue Mountains

There were so many families about.  That’s something I’ve noticed about Australia: people love to be with their children.  Families do things together here.  I’ve seen them sight-seeing with the tourists, eating together restaurants, playing in parks, taking walks on the beach, and so forth.  I don’t think they complain about it, either.  Parents thoroughly enjoy their free time and their children, and think the two are compatible.  Imagine that…

***

I tend to do loads of sight-seeing.  I have this attitude that I should see as much as I can while I’m wherever I am because I don’t know if I’ll ever be back.  But sometimes, the best days are those where I don’t do much at all.  For instance, one day, I took one of the many ferries from the centre of Syndey across to Manley.  I spent the day just walking around, and for lunch I ate fish and chips on the beach and watched the many surfers trying to catch a wave.  

(Sighs.)

I love the water. 

How can I leave this?  And the $3 teas, and the $15 meals, and the lack of global awareness, and the grubby hostels, etc.

(Grumbles.)

m

Rainforests & Reefs

Before I get to the subject at hand, I would like to take care of some housekeeping items.

First, photos are up.  Link to the right.  Keep in mind that I forgot to bring my camera with me when I was having a look around central Melbourne, so there are no “site” photos.  But there are plenty of photos of the family devouring the pig. 

That’s right.

It was salami-making season.  Note to self: must find out what happened to the pic of the pig hanging from the garage ceiling…

Silly men playing with their food.

Second, I love the idea of being able to sit in a cinema and sip a glass of wine…legally.  Why has this concept not caught on in Canada? 

Anyone?

At the cinema...

And, sadly, there’s an outbreak of chlamydia among the koalas.

I digress.

I spent a day at the rainforest in Daintree, Northern Queensland at Tribulation Point, where the rainforest meets the (Great Barrier) reef.  Did you know that this is the oldest rainforest in the world?  It’s older than the Amazon Rainforest in South America.  Scientists are still discovering new medicinal plants and insect species every day, and there are still parts that are unpenetrable, meaning nothing has ever changed since its first inception (known as ‘virgin’ rainforest).  How amazing is that?  The beach portion is so nice, but isn’t really swimmable.  Salt water crocodiles in winter, jelly fish in summer.  Enough said.

A dear friend...

But various cities and towns, including Townsville, Brisbane and Cairns have implemented lagoons right on their beachfronts to compensate for being unable to swim in the ocean.  They’re like huge waterpark type pools and splash-pads, or in Brisbane, an artificial beach in the middle of the city.  Great idea. 

And how fantastic is it to spend your birthday diving in the Great Barrier Reef?  I hate to say it, but after two days of diving, I was a bit disappointed.  The vastness of this reef is incredible, but so much of it has been destroyed.  The coral is starting to bleach and break apart, so there is a lack of reproduction and no food for fish.  The fish are becoming non-existent.   None-the-less, I saw some great parrot fish, clown fish, unicorn fish, reef sharks, blue star fish, wrasses and sea turtles.  They’re all so cute!  

There was one wrasse fish, in particular, whom I got to touch.  His name is Frank.   He follows you with his eye, then casually floats up to where you are so you can pet him.  Spoiled, or what?

With Frank, the wrasse.

If you thought my regular photos were crap, wait until you see the reef photos, including  more photos of Frank.  I cannot master taking pictures.  What can I say?

m

Note about photos from Oz

FYI

1.  Many internet points will not allow photo uploading onto their computers.  They’ve had problems in the past with other travellers forgetting to delete the photos and taking up hard drive space.   Hence, I’ve been denied access to private folders to store and upload photos onto this blog site and onto my photo site.

2.  I forgot my camera on several occasions when I went out in lovely Melbourne because…

3.  …it’s hard to take pictures when your surroundings feel so normal.

I will be more mindful to take more photos and to try and upload them.

m

Between Coasts

Brisbane is sandwiched between the Gold C0ast and Sunshine Coast.

Gold = Sunshine = Sun

My time spent in these areas to date is as follows:

Day One, Brisbane: Rain all day.

Day Two, Brisbane: Rain all day.

Day Three, Noosa, Sunshine Coast: Rain all day.  Cold and damp.

Day Four, Noosa, Sunshine Coast: Sunshine all day!  Cold, then sunny and warm. 

Day Five, Fraser Island, Sunshine Coast: Sunshine all day!  Warm and sometimes chilly.

Day Six, Noosa & Brisbane: Cloudy and cool.

Starting off with bad weather made me a bit depressed.  I know it’s winter, but I’m told it’s been unseasonably cloudy, rainy and cool.  Plus, there’s not much to do here if you can’t go outside, and I could tell how nice this part of Oz would be with sunshine.  So, when we got nice weather on Day Four I thought, “Hmmm.  I should take advantage of this nice weather…and learn to surf.”

So I did.

AWESOME.

I was able to easily stand after an hour and I am, therefore, fabulous.

That is all. 

m

“…you won’t like it there.”

“Don’t go to Australia.  I know you won’t like it there.” 

“[They're] so racist!”

“It’s so expensive!  [They] planned on going there for 3 weeks, but left after one…”

“There’s no culture, and the news is so insular you feel disconnected from the outside world.”

“You’ll keep thinking, it’s like home, but you won’t be able to pin-point why, at least not right away.”

“Australia is so boring.  Go to New Zealand instead.”

(Sighs.)

Well, Bill Bryson and working holiday-makers under 25 seem to love it here, anyway.

I have met too many individuals on this trip that went to Oz, and they either loved it or hated it.  I seriously considered skipping Oz altogether and heading out to Indonesia instead.  But I knew I’d still be curious about Australia and would regret not having a look around.  I need to figure out for myself whether I like it or not. 

So far, I still have no clue what I think.

***

I landed in Melbourne two weeks ago and spent a week with dad’s family.  The first-meeting story at the airport was pretty funny, but I won’t go into details right now.  I spent a few days wandering around Melbourne and forgot my camera, so I can’t show you how nice it is there.  The war memorial and the botanical gardens are lovely, the streets are clean and the heritage buildings are well preserved.  The Immigration Museum was also very interesting, and showed that although illegal, the “White-Australia” policy still holds dear to a number of people here. 

However, what shocked me the most about Melbourne was the café-culture.  Thanks to those crazy Italian immigrants, everyone drinks properly-made, Italian coffee.  Unbelievable.  Long-coffee (i.e., plain, drip coffee we tend to have regularly in Canada) is not popular here.  Espresso, café latté, cappuccinos: these are all readily available and properly made, and they always are.  There are more cafés on every corner than…I don’t know…street lamps!  And they’re all unique.  They range from swanky, retro, student, Victorian and more.  I only saw one coffee chain downtown.  That’s it; only one. 

It’s amazing to see business people, including those all-important folks from the financial district sipping away at a cappuccino in an actual café during their break.  I am so glad I bought a pair of jeans and a top in Singapore, and that I had make-up on and my hair done.  I felt a bit more in place, as people here tend to dress really well all the time.  But being Aussies, they’re unpretentious, of course. 

(Smiles.)

Several of us went to the famous Queen Victoria Market on Sunday.  I was quite pleased at the quality of goods available.  Actually, this is true of markets and food stalls all over Australia.  The food is wonderful: always freshly prepared with locally grown produce and dairy.  The goods themselves, whether clothing, soaps, decorations, etc., are higher quality than the junk one tends to find at Markets or shops in Canada.  I was, and still am, impressed.

What I did find funny was that market-dwellers in Melbourne seem to leave room for a “hot jam doughnut” on their list of things to do at the market.  I also was looking forward to one of these.  They were good, but (laughing) they’re just like American doughnuts!  I guess they’re not common here, so it’s a big deal.

***

After getting completely stuffed eating lunches and dinners at the homes of several family members, I headed out to Tasmania.  Tassie is beautiful.  I think I could actually live there, if I had children.  Some people call it a miniature New Zealand.  I wondered why Aussies don’t really holid it high on their places to visit.  A Canadian man working there said that Aussies from the mainland think of the island (of “Tassie”) the way we think of Newfoundland. 

Ah.  Enough said. 

But that’s not an excuse.  Tassie’s got lovely scenery, friendly people and the freshest seafood on the planet (and really cheap oysters–mmmm).   I strolled around the Salamanca Market on Saturday morning in Hobart, which was a really nice way to ease into the weekend.  I also spent a day driving up to Wineglass Bay, and another at the famous former convict town of Port Arthur: the worst place to be transported as a criminal in the British Empire.  What a history such a small, abandoned place has! 

Fact: Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world 80 percent of the year.

Fact: Tasmania has the cleanest water in the world. 

And I did see Tasmanian Devils.  Ever wonder why they call it a devil? 

(Shivers.)

When they screach, it sounds like a demon trying to escape from the pit of hell.  That’s why.

I would love to come back to Tassie to go camping on one of the fantastic beaches on the East Coast.  Gorgeous!  Will I be back?  According to dad’s cousins, I will be…and if they find me a boyfriend, I won’t be leaving Australia at all!  (Their words, not mine.) 

***

After all of this, it is a bit chilly in the Aussie winter.  Hats and mittens apply for a good portion of the south.

And it is very, VERY expensive.  More so than home.  Let’s hope that Couchsurfing works out and that I don’t get sick of 7-11 sandwiches…

m

I think I know what cities in heaven will be like…

…Singapore.

m