Happy Birthday!

…Sesame Street! So great.

Spells

Happy Halloween, everyone! To celebrate, here are a few of the best versions of one of the greatest spooky/cool songs of all time.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ version is of course the definitive one, and also the craziest:

Nina Simone does a super atmospheric and awesome version:

I think my favorite version is by Creedence Clearwater Revival:

The version we all remember from childhood:

Of course there are many other versions. Which is your favorite?

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So, it looks like I won’t be doing any sort of trip recap post after all. Strangely enough, I feel so far away from it all already. Bottom line: It was a really, really great and I’m so glad I decided to go. Not only was it a good time to see a part of the world that I’ve always wanted to see, but it also gave me time to be on my own for a while and to do exactly what I wanted to be doing. As selfish as this all sounds, it was pretty great.

It’s been a long and slow three weeks since I’ve home. It’s been really great to see everybody again, but boy, real life seems a little bit boring after such a fantastic trip. I’ve been filling my time with lots of job searching, school researching, and GRE preparing. It’s weird having nothing going on, but at the same time feeling busy.

There have also been good things, though! It’s so nice to be able to cook again. And to sleep in a comfortable, warm bed every night. Friends are the best. And, of course, Washington is still one of the most beautiful places in the world (see evidence below).

Beautiful Washington--Mt. Forgotten hike

Back to reality.

I’m still planning on doing a trip recap post, but I’ve just got to get these recommendations off my chest! I’ve been listening to these two albums non-stop since I got back. Nina Simone has the coolest goddamn voice ever. And her music…man, it’s really magnificent.

I know I already posted about these guys, but Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ new album, White Lunar, is SO AMAZING. There’s some old stuff on there, but the new stuff (including music from The Road) is just as beautiful. I just want their songs playing as the soundtrack to my life all the time.

Have a listen to The Water Song, which is not on White Lunar, but which you should listen to anyway, because it will make you feel good. Also listen to Mississippi Goddam and wish you had her talent, style, and confidence.

On another note, I saw Bob at The Moore last night and he was pretty great! He seemed to be having a good time up there, and his dance moves are really improving!

Fare-thee-well

UGHHHHH IT’S OVER. So sad.

Melbourne was great. People were right…it IS a cool city. I was there for four days and I had no trouble filling them up with lots of museum visits and walking around. I have to say, the city has a bit more character than Sydney. It’s probably the one city where you SHOULD walk down dark alleys…because there’s probably a really cool café down at the end!

Other than Museums, I spent some time going around a few of the neighborhoods…Especially St. Kilda (which houses the historic–and creepy–Luna Park) and Fitzroy (SO many cool cafes and shops!).

For my last night in Melbourne, I went out for a delicious dinner at a vegetarian restaurant (can’t remember the name, but it was some pun on the word “tofu”), and saw Melbourne Theater Company’s production of God of Carnage, with this guy. It was VERY entertaining, and a perfectly nice way to spend my last night in Australia.

So…home I went. I had to fly through Auckland and the weather was SO gorgeous there that I had half a mind to skip my flight home and start the trip all over again! Really, I wasn’t ready to come home. I’ll write again about some last minute impressions of Australia and the trip. I think I’ll definitely need some time to process everything that’s happened! Even though I’m really not looking forward to getting back into a boring routine (and job hunting…shudder), I’m so happy to be able to hang out with all my wonderful friends once again!! I missed you guys a lot!!

The EXTREMELY CREEPY entrance to Luna Park

Bye bye, Australia...sniff.

Speeding through the cities

Ok, here’s the recap: After Brisbane, I went down to Byron Bay for one night. I had a pretty uneventful time there–just one hike up to a lighthouse, from which we could see a ton of whales jumping around not too far from shore! Cool. Relaxing.

After that, I went to Sydney, where I only spent 3 nights (a short time for such a big city!). It was very rushed. Even though I was exhausted from my overnight bus ride, I walked down to Sydney Harbor to see the Opera House on my first day there. It’s one of the first times on this trip where I’ve seen an icon that I’ve had a picture of in my head for years (Uluru being the other one). It was very surreal as I approached it and started seeing features that I had never seen before in pictures (such as the surface, which is made of tile). Very cool. Those Danes sure do know how to design well.

The next two nights were spent with some friends from Sydney who I met in Rotorua. They were nice enough to show me around town and take me out with their friends, which was great. It was a wonderful way to see the city, and I definitely learned a lot that I would never have found out were I on my own! Thanks, guys!

Sydney is a very pretty city–especially from the water. I took the ferry to Manly Beach one day, which provided me an excellent opportunity to get the best views of both the harbor and the city. Very nice!

Sydney was followed with one night in Canberra. Many a-folk asked me why in the world I was spending any time there, but I figured out that the country’s capital must have some value.  I have to admit, half the reason I made sure that Canberra was on my itinerary was this, which turned out to be awesome and totally worth the visit. What a crazy person he is! There were just pages and pages and pages of handwritten lyrics, novels, and screenplays. When does he ever sleep? No time to sleep when you’re looking that good in a three-piece suit, I guess.

Canberra itself is…strange. It was built specifically to be the capital of Australia, so everything is perfectly (weirdly) laid out around a man-made lake. It’s also super quiet. I would never expect a capital city to feel so deserted, but that was the way Canberra appeared. There are lots of free museums, though. I have to say, the National Museum didn’t live up to the standard set by New Zealand’s, but it was interesting in it’s own way, I guess. Plenty to fill my time up with! I also met another great new Aussie friend on the bus ride from Sydney, which meant that there wasn’t a dull moment in my short two day stay in Canberra!

Now I’m in Melbourne, which is THE LAST STOP OF MY TRIP! More to come on that later, but, boy…I can hardly believe it’s almost over!

Pretty pretty

Sunset over Sydney Harbor Bridge

<3

Such a sunny, friendly city.

I’m leaving Brisbane tomorrow after just two and a half short days in this great city. I really wasn’t sure what to expect from Brisbane. Lots of people skip it altogether when they’re traveling down the East Coast, which is strange since it’s the third largest city in Australia. It’s not really known for anything though. There’s no famous landmarks or attractions–no opera house or anything.

First of all, I didn’t expect Brisbane to be this big! Like Darwin, Brisbane is the capital of its state, but the city center of Darwin consists of about a six by three block grid. It definitely would not be classified as a big city. But Brisbane actually IS a big city! Big enough to warrant its own train system. To top it all off, the Brisbane Festival began on the day I arrived here, which meant that everyone who lives in or near the city was walking around the city center. This meant that there were lots of bustling crowds–which I’m definitely not used to anymore! Brisbane is the first proper city I’ve been in since Auckland (I didn’t spend any time in Denpasar, and Wellington and Christchurch definitely didn’t feel like big cities). A little overwhelming! After I got used to it, I was able to immensely enjoy the lively environment of the festival.

The festival was kicked off with the annual Riverfire event, which is a night of fireworks over the river. I watched them from one of the bridges and had a nice little conversation with an Aussie couple, where I got good tips about spots to check out on the East coast! I love it when that happens.

I spent quite a bit of time on the South Bank of the river, where there are lovely parklands, cafes and restaurants, swimming pools, and museums. The Queensland Gallery of Modern Art was especially GREAT!

I also went rock climbing yesterday! It was SO MUCH FUN! The Kangaroo Point Cliffs are just across the river from the city center, and it’s full of rock climbers all day and night (flood lights light up the cliffs at night). Before this, I had only ever tried indoor rock climbing, and I always wanted to get more into it, but never did. Maybe this was the push I needed, because it really was a blast. I made it to the almost-top–farther than any of the other five people I was with! Yay me.  My shoulders and fingers, and just about everything else are pretty sore right now, though.

So in conclusion: Brisbane is a pretty great city. Be sure not to miss it when you come to Australia. There aren’t any major tourist attractions, but there is actually quite a bit to occupy your time, and you will probably leave feeling like you want to live here.

Tomorrow I’m off to Byron Bay, where I’m only spending one night. Then it’s another long busride to Sydney!

Riverfire

Queensland Gallery of Modern Art

Animals, animals, animals

Phew. I feel like starting every blog entry with “phew.” I’ve been going way too long between posts and there is TOO MUCH to talk about!

Cairns was nice. It wasn’t as hot as Darwin, but it did seem a bit more humid. The highlight of my time there was definitely snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. This turned out to be one of, if not the coolest thing I’ve ever done!! I really wasn’t sure what to expect. I mean, I know it’s THE GREAT BARRIER REEF, but I thought that maybe the places where you can snorkel weren’t so spectacular, or that they had already suffered a lot of damage due to tourism. But guess what? IT IS THE COOLEST PLACE EVER! I’ve really only ever snorkeled in Hawaii, Mexico, and in the Gili Islands a couple of weeks ago, so that’s all I have to compare it to, but it definitely blew all those sites out of the water (so to speak…heh heh)! The coral came in so many amazing colors and shapes and there were so many fish. There were times that I looked up and saw four or five huge schools of fish swimming around me! And some of those fish were HUGE. I dove down and swam next to one that was easily over 3 feet long (it was one of these). I didn’t see any sharks or turtles, but it was impossible to come away from this day disappointed.

I took a fast boat out to the outer reef, which was possibly a lapse in judgment, as it was the choppiest ride I’ve ever had. I’d say about 80% of people on the boat ended up out back sick. I felt pretty sick myself, but I did make it there without getting sick. I also got a really sad loner sunburn (you know when you just get burnt in patches on your back that you can’t reach when you’re putting sunblock on yourself?)….so sad.

While in Cairns also made a trip to Daintree National Park and Cape Tribulation, which was full of cool rainforest, mangroves, and more crocs. I also went to Mossman gorge, which is a pretty little river filled with boulders and fish!

In Cairns, I realized that I am quickly running out of both time and money, so I decided to hightail it down the coast, skipping the Whitsundays (sort of a mandatory backpacker stop on the East Coast) and take a 25 hour bus ride straight to Hervey Bay. Another possible lapse in judgment? It turned out to be fine, though I was a bit of a wreck by the time I arrived.

From Hervey Bay, I went to Fraser Island for two days, which earned a spot on my “most unique/amazing places” list. It’s the largest sand island in the world, but it’s covered in vegetation, wildlife, and freshwater lakes and streams.  So strange! My two days there were spent swimming and hiking with great company. We swam in two of the freshwater lakes on the island: Lake McKenzie and Lake Wabby. They were both pretty much the best swimming lakes that you could ever imagine, but  they were very different from each other! Lake McKenzie is a large lake with crystal clear water (REALLY) and beautiful white sands. Lake Wabby has  lovely green colored water and lies between dramatic sand dunes and rainforest. It was so nice swimming in fresh water for a change! We also waded up Eli Creek and floated back down, laughing like idiots the whole way down at how stupid we looked. Really, we looked stupid.

The past two days have been spent in Noosa, which is a really nice little resort town on the coast north of Brisbane. Yesterday evening was filled with walking and boating, and today I spent at Australia Zoo. It definitely lived up to my expectations and is certainly the best zoo I’ve ever visited. There was a great variety of animals and the habitats seemed really well done. There were also lots of chances to interact with the animals. I got to feed an elephant, pet kangaroos, and hug a koala. SO CUTE. I’m pretty sure that those sleepy koalas are the cutest animals on the planet. There’s also lots of sentimental waxing about Steve going on in those parts. Aww.

Only two weeks left! Sooooooooooo crazy! Can’t wait to see all you guys back home!!

Imagine what it looks like below the surface!

Mossman Gorge

Swimming in Lake McKenzie

Hammerstone Sandblow, near Lake Wabby

National Park Madness!

Phew. This week has been so busy, but SO fun at the same time!

Last week, I got to leave Darwin for a long day in Kakadu National Park. I have to say that Kakadu was prettier (and greener) than I was expecting! The sky was also a beautiful shade of blue. It was very hot and there were lots of flies, but it was definitely a sight to see. We went to the Nourlangie rock art site, where the aboriginal rock art ranged from 20,000 years old to present day (one of them was commissioned by David Attenborough!). It was all very cool. We also did a walk to a lookout and a boat ride through the Yellow Water Billabong and East Alligator river, where we saw TONS of crocs. It was pretty cool to see them in the wild!

[Side note: Darwin can be 40 degrees (c) with 99% humidity during the wet season. Just thought you should know.]

For the past three days, I’ve been on a tour around central Australia. On the first day, we had a very long drive to King’s Canyon, where we did a really nice hike around the rim. It was pretty spectacular, and the hike was great. We also did a nice little walk around part of Uluru, which was very cool!!

The difference in weather that happened between our first and second day was crazy. It went from about 30 degrees (C) to about 10. Thankfully, we managed to stay pretty warm in our swags, but we missed out on the brilliant stars since it was cloudy. SAD. The second night was a bit more uncomfortably cold, though.

On the second day, we drove into the national park, where our first stop was Kata Tjuta– a large formation of 36 dome-shaped rocks. It was a really spectacular place. We took another beautiful hike through the rocks, which was so much fun.

After being in the cloudy weather all day, we were all pretty disappointed that the sunset on Uluru that night was going to be less than spectacular. We drove to the sunset viewing point anyway (which was relatively empty, due to the weather) and started our dinner. Then just as we began eating, it started sprinkling a little bit, but AMAZINGLY, a little while before the sunset, the clouds began to clear RIGHT where the sun would be setting! It was still raining and cloudy over the rock, but that spot was miraculously clear! As a result, we got THE BEST SUNSET EVER. Seriously. The rock turned bright orange, while the sky was a dark purple color, and a GIANT rainbow appeared over it! It was so beautiful and none of us could really believe it as we snapped as many photos as we could take before it all ended.

The next day we got up early to watch the sunrise, which was a bit more of a freakshow as far as the amount of tourists. Nevertheless, it was a very pretty sunrise!  After that, I did the 9.4 km base walk, which was really nice. The rock looks  lot different up close than you might expect based on the iconic sunset/sunrise photos. It’s definitely not as smooth as it looks! There are lots of caves, waterholes, and boulders around the base. Uluru really is an absolutely amazing place. Geologically, it’s pretty crazy. It’s 350 meters tall, but it goes underground for 6 kilometers! Our guide, Dan, was so knowledgeable and told us lots of dreamtime stories about the different features of the rock, which was really interesting! Every distinctive feature has a story about how it got there. Really, really cool.

We ended our trip with a quick camel ride (did you know that they had camels here? Wild ones? Me neither.) and a dinner when we got back to Alice Springs. My group for this tour was just the best, and we all had a lot of fun singing around the fire, hiking, and seeing all these beautiful sites together! I have to say, these were three of the best days of my trip so far!

Trees in Kakadu

Kings Canyon

Hiking through Kata Tjuta

The AMAZING Uluru sunset!