8.2.04 Australia

August 2, 2004

Maintaining a blog is a lot harder than I thought – even on vacation. It’s been almost a week since I’ve come to Australia, and finally I’m sitting in a Sydney café on Glebe Point Road, trying to figure out how to begin. Today was a beautiful day, Robyn and I stayed at a hostel at Bondi Beach, and I woke up at dawn, as I have been doing recently and started my day with a walk along the beach. The water was South Pacific blue and the sand was fittingly white and spotlessly clean. I had great admiration for the surfers that were already well established in the waves, which was only slightly muted when I realized that the water was a warm 65-70°F. I sat on the beach, mocha and sugar-crusted blueberry bagel in hand, and lost myself in the lulling activity of watching surfers wait patiently for the chance to ride a wave for a few seconds. Several hours later, Robyn and I were on the beach again, getting giddy over the fact that we were soon going to head to warmer and even more blue waters.

I’m starting to like Australia. It’s not that I didn’t think that I wouldn’t like it, but I just didn’t think that it would be that much different from home. Other than the white beaches, warm blue waters, and the presence of affordable sushi places every half a block, it really isn’t physically that different. There is however, something subtly different about Australians that I probably wouldn’t have as quickly realized if I hadn’t already heard about it previously. Maybe it’s due to the temperate winters and the beautiful beaches, maybe it’s the low population density or the universal healthcare and longer vacations, or maybe a mixture of all, but people here just seem much more relaxed. Even the baristas rushing around making a “short black” or a “tall white” don’t seem to have stress on their faces or in their shoulders. (Which by the way, makes it even stranger - or maybe not? - that there seem to be affordable massage parlors on every other block here.) Australians are humbly, subtly, but nonetheless absolutely, laid-back and relaxed (while somehow being engaged and active at the same time) and in general, just unassumingly happy. That means of course, that they are a wonderful group of people to vacation among.

(Did I mention the high density of affordable sushi restaurants and massage booths? You can get a 6-inch AUD$2 sushi roll pretty much anywhere and then step in for your one-hour AUD$45 whole-body massage. With US$0.70 = AUD$1.00, I could easily plan my entire vacation in Sydney around sushi and whole-body massages. Yes, I’m definitely warming up to Sydney. )

As everyone will say, it is also very beautiful here. If you look at a map of the area, you will notice that the harbor that Captain Cook so famously stumbled upon is very long and penetrates deep into the continent. The city center is tucked well into a small peninsula surrounded by coves and protected waters. It reminds me a bit of Puget Sound in Seattle. Ferries travel to the surrounding neighborhoods and spectacular views are found everywhere. On my first day, after a full day at work in California and another 20 hours of travel (flight: 15 hours, 5 movies, 7460 miles), Dulcey and Robyn took me down to the architecturally daunting Darling harbor, which had been completely rebuilt for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. We took a ferry out to Circular Quay for spectacular views and an introduction to Sydney proper. It was sunny, 17°C and the middle of winter down here. After I realized that I could not rely on my sense of time, I began to really enjoy my first day in Australia, and I followed my friends around in a dreamy and content state.

The next morning, we took the ferry from Circular Quay to Taronga Zoo, where we seemed to have great timing for experiencing the best that the zoo had to offer.
We started the day off eating lunch with views of Sydney in front of us and Kookaburra birds in the trees, moved on to spend some time staring at some very smelly gorillas - and caught the odd zoo ritual of gorilla feeding - watched a platypus confirm the common suspicion that some Australian animals really had never encountered real evolutionary pressure, arrived at koala area in time to hear a surprisingly engaging talk, and then caught up with tigers right when they were getting antsy enough to roar and stare at us through the glass only inches away from our faces. It was during that first full day in Australia, as I found myself - never one to be that passionate about flora and fauna - examining every other tree and bush we passed and staring in astonishment at all the strange animals that manage to evolve on this unique continent, that this country appropriately nicknamed ”Oz” was starting to grow on me.

The day after the zoo, the three of us took a ferry to Manly (where I found out that if you have AUD$220 to spare, you can get a quick scuba lesson before being placed in a small tank with large sharks and sting rays for an ultimate aquarium underwater adventure). From Manly, which is right next to the harbor entrance, we “bushwalked” 8+km through some of the most beautiful urban “bush”, I’ve ever seen. The hike started at Manly Point and ended at “the Spit” and included beautiful harbor and ocean views, sea cliffs, forests, winding labyrinth-like trails, and gorgeous coves. We managed to finish our hike right after sunset, and as we waited for the bus, we sat next to a small cove lit by the full moon shining off the water.

After trekking around the city for the previous few days, we gave our feet a slight break yesterday and went to the Sydney Opera House for a Mozart Celebration concert. The views from inside the opera house were amazing: tall windows high above the choppy water, with the Sydney Harbor Bridge in the background. Inside, the programs sold for $10, and since we were too cheap at that moment, we were never able to find out what we were listening to, why the symphony didn’t have a conductor (other than the very animated first violinist) and why everyone except the cello and bass players stood while they played. The music was beautiful, nonetheless, and I eased even further into vacation mode.