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
3 Comments
September 23, 2009 at 3:45 pm
congrats on the nick cave exhibit! hahaha and manly bay…please tell me you made a whole bunch of jokes about that.
it always bothers me when people say things like, “why the f would you go THERE?” about a place you are GOING to go. it just makes me want to go there more and give the place a real chance and maybe find something about it that those people didn’t…so perhaps it’s a good thing in the end! ha! so good work!
September 23, 2009 at 11:33 pm
So cool, you are so darn cool. I cannot wait to see you. Have I mentioned that you’re my hero? And I’m amazed at your traveling skills? And that I’m really sorry your trip is ending but I’m really selfishly happy that it is because I can’t survive much longer without seeing you in person? Because all of those things are very true.
Have SO MUCH FUN your last couple days!!!!! See you soooooooon!
September 27, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Hey Kendra,
I couldn’t help but notice in you Brisbane post your comments about climbing. I feel as an officer in the UW climbing club, I might just be your guy to get you into that more. We should climb sometime–that would be fun!
Looks like your having a phenomenal time traveling! Fantastic pictures and blog. Enjoy what’s left.
PS Since I am no longer subletting, I will thus call myself rentor Lucas