Saturday, August 06, 2005

Off We Go, Into the Wild Blue Yonder!




















Awoke this morning for an early departure to the Blue Mountains, about an hour drive due East. Upon recco from my advisor, we headed towards Wentworth Falls. It was about a 5-mile hike altogether, lasting about three hours. We stopped quite a bit for photos, as the elevation changes and the surroundings were dramatic.

On the scale of the Grand Canyon (though not the depth), with the lushness of the Waimea Canyon, but integrate overhanging limestone cliffs. Wasn't hard to take great pics.

We parked by the Conservation Hut, which doubles as a trendy cafe and trailhead. On precarious metal stairs, we descended several hundred feet down into the Valley of the Waters, a lush Eukkies forest. The name Blue Mountains comes from the color of the haze that oils of the acres upon acres of Eukkie (Eucalyptus) Gums give off. After going along the cliff bottom, we came to the falls and climbed a stone staircase back up to the top, earning our lunch in true. There was an impressive 40,000 year-old (give or take a month or two) indigineous cave painting which we were able to go see as well.

We saved the Three Sisters for another day, as Katoomba was packed. The town next door, Larne, was just as charming and had none of the tour buses. Peggy had a freshly backed chicken pie and I, the B.L.T., both were fantastic.





















I'm captively watching day three of The Ashes test (despite our previous post, which ridiculed cricket), finding it a good temporary subsitute for baseball. Still, any sport in which the umpire holds the player's hat and V-neck sweater whilst he's bowling, that act alone just lacks something in the machismo department. Don't even get me started about the two mandatory tea and cucumber sandwich breaks that are imposed to break up play each day. Cucumber sandwiches? Another Cricky caveat - the star Aussie player injured his ankle in pre-match warm ups, playing rugby with his teammates. Any sport in which the team warms up playing an entirely different sport has something fundamentally lacking. Enough Cricky talk.

Going to be trying out for a suburb baseball team in a few weeks, apparently comprised of Venezuelan Sydneysiders. Never mind the baseball - just take me to the Horchata!

Whilst I am rambling (Aussies just knocked another wicket - 75 and 6 - contain your enthusiasm), something is very wrong when you can count 275 Yankees baseball hats to 1 Giants and 1 A's hat. I mean, does the U.S. hand these things out as tourists are leaving La Guardia? I feel like going up to one of these people and saying, 'You know that the Yankees aren't that good anymore, right? You do know your bullpen is shot and there are few Minor league prospects you can call up, right? Then why are you wearing that God forsaken hat???'. Blank looks will inevitably result. I miss baseball soooo much.

posted by ncawthon at 9:12 PM

Friday, August 05, 2005

A Day Without a Back Packah

One aspect of Australian society that we've found interesting has been the whole aspect of a nomadic sub-culture: vagabonds, travelers, backpackers. We're currently in the doldrums of the tourist / traveling season and have already seen such a strong presence in daily life. When the weather starts to heat up a bit, I would expect it to increase fivefold.

They have a pretty strong hold on an entire economic sub-class here by providing cheap, temporary labor to service industry businesses. As we were passing by a car wash, we looked over and saw that all of the 'towel boys' were hippy-looking white kids, including some middle-aged folk as well. It seemed a bit out of place, as we're used to seeing the ethnicity gap exposed in this remedial, low-paying (but low commitment) jobs. The backpackers pour your drinks, bus your table and probably clean your houses; all for the temporary buck in order to get them to the next city.

Businesses target this type of lifestyle as well. When we were looking for a car, there were several 'traveler's lots' that had vans, buses, campers, SUVs that were targeted only towards people needing a cheap, reliable (probably not) car to get them moving again. A parking garage in King's Cross (the red light district here in Sydney, but come for the Baba Ganoush as well) has an auction every Saturday to sell off their three floors of Backpacker mobiles. Some of them looked pre-WWII era and very decrepit.

Cities such as San Francisco and San Diego would collapse without their tourist revenue and have launched several national advertising campaigns promoting their destinations, but I have never seen this kind of informal, targeted marketing before by a city and its' businesses. Auckland, New Zealand does it a bit, with their extreme adventure offerings. Vegas as well, with their 'all you can sin' packages. Perhaps with Australia's massive size, the behavior of the nomadic sightseer is more relevant here than in other places.

Speaking of traveling, we're going to take the Holden out for a run at the end of next month and do the Great Ocean Road, heading through Melbourne on the way. Perhaps Blue Mountains this weekend as well.

posted by ncawthon at 1:29 PM

Thursday, August 04, 2005

It's My Birthday Too, Yeah

The first lady and I met our friends, Greg and Ellen at the Opera House for some drinks at sunset yesterday to celebrate my 30th. Ellen had a local concoction called a Kir Royale (not with Cheese), which was Cherry liquer and champagne. Looked pretty good, compared to our ho-hum Gin and Tonics.

We then sauntered over to the Customs House, one of the oldest buildings in Australia and recently rennovated, for a dinner on the rooftop terrace at Cafe Sydney. Although ineptly named, the restaraunt was very good and we can't wait to take you there.

We started witha bottle of some Australian Shiraz, a half-rack of the local oysters, shared a small lobster salad (they call them 'bugs' and crayfish are 'yagga') which was the highlight of the meal. I had a Wagyu (apparently the next Kobe in Japanese cattle cuisine) steak for the main and Peggy the Barramundi, both of which were about average. Yet, with the great view, ambience and company, the evening was a success.

We move in on Tuesday. Can't wait, as this communal living is a bit cramped.

posted by ncawthon at 10:29 AM

Monday, August 01, 2005

My First Post!

It has been nearly a month since we left the States, and things in Syndey are slowly starting to feel normal. We still have to be extremely careful about crossing the street (you have to look to the right), and we only occasionally drive on the wrong side of the road.

The food here is great, if you can overlook the lack of Mexican food (we did find fresh tortillas, however.) There are approximately 25,000 Thai restaurants, and all have cute names -- thai riffic, thai tanic, thai one on, bow thai. Most restaurants have a BYO policy -- with no corkage fee. Since there is a bottle shop (liquor store) on every corner, a fancy dinner with a bottle of wine for two people can cost as little as $25US.

I would like to clarify the nature of our insect friends that Nick mentioned in our previous post. The number of the bugs was not remarkable, it was the fact that there were three different types of cockroaches that was so interesting. The little cute fast ones, the big fat slow ones, and the in-between sized ones. Not sure if there are three species or what, but wow! Until I went into the communal kitchen, I thought that our temporary housing was very nice ... now, I think that our room is nice and the rest should be entered at your own risk. Oh well, soon we will have our own apartment and no one to blame but ourselves for uninvited pests. (At least these weren't huntsman spiders.)

posted by Peggy C. at 3:57 PM

Sunday, July 31, 2005

Add Roaches for Flavor

As Peggy was preparing a lovely pasta and pesto last night at the Coogee Bay Budget Accomodation, she was greeted by seven of her new friends. Like Snow White, she was teamed up with seven dwarves, this time in the form of significantly sized cockroaches.

Her only comment was (until our meal was finished) that we would no longer be using the communal kitchen, instead using the microwave and doing take away. Eight more days until we move into our place.

Yesterday we met up with our local friends, Greg and Ellen, and did the 5K walk, starting in Manly and ending in The Spit. Not sure what to call residents of The Spit: Spittons, Spittles, Spittish?

We were attempting to also find the habitat for the Ferry Penguins of Darling Harbour, but were unsuccessful in tracking this elusive bird.

posted by ncawthon at 11:41 AM