Blue Mountains

The closest nature escape from Sydney is the famous Blue Mountains and it was here we planned our first practice run with the car before the real adventure starts. The Blue Mountains are about one and a half hours away from Sydney CBD. The big tourist attraction is the amazing views from the cliffs into the valley below. It's hard to describe or to really show in photos how amazing the views are! In addition the tree sisters, which is a stone formation along the cliffs, is a must see sight. The first day we went on a really nice hike. First along the top of the cliff edge, then down along a waterfall to the bottom where the rainforest is. From there we walked trough the rainforst back the same way and then up the cliff to the top. The way up was incredible with stone steps carved into the cliff wall. I have no idea how they even found out where to put the steps or that no one died while making it. In total there was 894 steps. Along the way we had lunch at a nice yet very expensive cafe.

Since we didn't want to pay for a camping site we decided to try and wild camp. We found a nice resting area in town and parked the car, but not long after a grumpy old man came driving and threatened to call he police if we didn't move. Wild camping is illegal in Australia and apparently he was the local old man that likes to drive around and chase people off. We had to pack up our stuff and look for another good place. Luckily we found a small dirt road that just went into the bushes out of site from the main road. There we parked the car, ate dinner and slept. It turned out we parked less than a meter from a small pool of water filled with frogs that were quacking loudly. In addition the next morning unknown birds were "singing", although it sounded more like somebody laughing insanely. Even with the charm of the nature I had a good nights sleep and I felt refreshed the next day.

The next day we went for another hike. This time we went down the steps we came up the previous day, then we walked further in the rainforst and back up another place in the cliffs. It was another stream that came down from the top, but instead of a big waterfall, there were many small ones along the trail. It was not as steep as the previous decent. but equally fascinating. On the way back we drove along a scenic highway that went trough the mountains. It had some amazing views and crazy twists and turns. It reminded me of the roads in western Norway. We took tons of photos and I have included some of the best ones, but there are so many more that I can't show.

Big Update!

Finally I have time to update my blog again. I know I said I would do it like a week ago, but time flies past to fast and I have had so much to do. Anyways, here is some news about me from Australia.

Its now a while ago, but I didn't find time to write about it before now. As the school summer vacation came to an end so did my time at Luna Park. Luna Park was a great place to work thanks to all the wonderful people working there. What I really liked was the combination of locals and backpackers, student and travelers. I got to know so many people from different cultures and countries. As a thank you for our help in the school holidays, the management put on a barbecue/party for all the employees. There was free food and drinks and the best party game ever! They had a big water tank filled with ice water, above the tank was a seat and next to it was a aiming board. If you hit the middle of the board, the seat was released and the person sitting there fell into the icy water. The best thing about this was that all our bosses were the people that had to sit on the seat, and all us normal employees could try and hit the board so they fell into the water. It has been a long while since I had that much fun! After the barbecue we went to a nightclub called Star Bar. I had a great night, but ended up a bit to drunk, as this picture shows :P (under the stairs at McDonalds + Tired)

Another thing me and a group of other rides workers did one of the last days at Luna Park was get our faces drawn by the parks cartoonist. He was once a normal worker like us, but his drawing talent was discovered and he got the job as a cartoonist instead. He told us that in the 2 years he had worked as the cartoonist we where the first people from the rides department (100+ employees) that got their face drawn. Anyways, his pictures made us all laugh and the resemblance on the pictures were fantastic. I have included the one he made of me. Its up to you readers to decide if you see the resemblance. :)

Moving on to about a week ago. We have been slowly planning our trip around the country and to do that we need a car. So after looking at some campervans on the internet we went out to have a real look at one. It turned out to be a piece of crap, but while walking back a group of 3 girls stopped us and asked if we were looking for a car. They had a 4x4 for sale and we soon realized that it would be the perfect match for us. They were Dutch and had traveled around the country with it just like we also want to do. The same day we took it out for a test drive and decided to buy it the very next day. The car is a Holden (known as Opel in the rest of the world) Jackaroo Deluxe 4x4. Hopefully it will get us safely and without trouble around Australia.  Stay tuned for another update coming today about our first trip with the car!

After Luna Park I have had a few random jobs to keep the money supply from diminishing completely. I have waitered on the Captain Cook cruises, the biggest cruise company in Sydney that does daily lunch, dinner and sightseeing cruises of the Sydney harbour and surroundings. I have worked in the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Center serving drinks to 2800 dentists and I have packed TV's in plastic bags for 8 hours. There are so many ways to see Sydney and working is a great way to do so. There are also jobs I never even considered existed, like the TV packing job :P Thanks to all who read and comment on the blog! You are the reason I keep writing!

Taronga Zoo & Australian National Maritime Museum

Last Wednesday me, Annina with Angus and Sigrun with Lilja all went to the Taronga Zoo. Angus (2) is the smallest child in the family that Annina is an au pair in and likewise Lilja (1) is the smallest child in the family Sigrun is an au pair in. Taronga Zoo is a 15 minute ferry ride away from Sydney CBD located in a hillside with a view of the ocean. From the dock there is a gondola that goes over the whole Zoo and puts you on the topmost point and from there you can slowly work your way down towards the docks again.

Comparing Taronga Zoo and Melbourne Zoo they have almost the same animals although I like the layout and design of Taronga Zoo better. However Melbourne Zoo also has some very nice walks and all in all they are very equal. The kids loved the animals and had a really good time. Angus was especially enjoying the monkeys and elephants. I had a really good time as well!

Last Friday I went with Annina to the Australian National Maritime Museum. Normally you have to pay to get in, but in cooperation with the Chinese New Year celebrations the museum has a special exhibition that's for free. It is called Mythic Creatures and is a collaboration with many other museums, among them the American Museum of Natural History. We saw an add on the back of a bus and decided to check it out. I thought it was a very cool exhibition with a lot of interesting stuff to read and watch. It took mythical creatures and tried to explain how they where created, and why they can be important to people. Linking myth with reality in a very easy to understand way. One example was the griffin. The theory was that long ago humans found skeletons of flying dinosaurs. And since they did not have the technology that we have today, they had to dream up what this creature might have looked like. The skeleton of a griffin would look very similar to that of a flying dinosaur!

As some may have noticed, I changed my relationship status on facebook. I wont go into details on this blog. What I will say is that I have known Annina for close to 3 months and that we will travel together with Matthias and Kristin. Also, there is a big update coming soon, probably tomorrow or the day after!

Week 3, 2010

Luna Park

On Monday me, Matthias, Annina and Dunja went to Luna Park as normal guests. Me, Matthias and Dunja get free wristbands since we work there. Annina got a free wristband from a friend of us. He has worked in the park longer than us and can give a free wristband to friends, something we cant do since we are only summer casuals. We got there around 4pm and had 5 hours to have fun before the park closed. The park is right next to the ocean and there is a great view of the sunset, so at 8pm when the sun was going down we were watching it! It was so beautiful. Even with 5 hours we only managed to do most of the rides once and to eat dinner. But it was a wonderful afternoon!

Dalrymple-Hay Nature Reserve

Wednesday morning me and Annina went for breakfast to the Dalrymple-Hay Nature Reserve. It is a patch of old blue gum forest in the middle of the North Sydney population. All around are normal housing that you will find in any Sydney suburb, but as soon as you got into the reserve it felt like being in the middle of a big old forest. The whole reserve took only around 15-20 minutes to walk trough so it was not very big. Before entering we had breakfast on benches made from large tree trunks. She had baked bagels and we had Philadelphia and peanut butter and jam on top! We saw the biggest ant I have ever seen! It must have been 2.5 cm long and you could see the fangs. Also an enormous insect was sitting on my leg. I took a photo while it was crawling upwards. :P

Avatar 3D IMAX (Again!)

On Thursday I went to see Avatar again! This time I went with Matthias, Kristin and Annina. After my first viewing I convinced them that they also had to see it. However the IMAX has been sold out for over a month and it was also hard to make it fit with everybody's timetable. As a bonus we got tickets for half price because there is an universal Australian movie voucher that can be bought on eBay for 15 dollars and this can also be used in the IMAX! As far as I understood from what they told me after the movie, they all loved it and were impressed by the technical level. As for me, it was just as good the second time around!

Days Like This!

Just as in Norway, with summer comes the festival season and Australia is no different. There are several music festivals to choose from, from one day events too weekly ones. The problem is that they are fairly expensive. However after looking on eBay I found some tickets for the "Days Like This!" festival that were cheaper than normal. "Days Like This!" is a one day event from 12:00 to 22:00. Me and Annina both wanted to go because she wanted to see one of her favorite bands called "The Cat Empire" and I wanted to see "Method Man and Redman". In addition there was a ton of other bands that are lesser known that we could explore.

Sadly I had to work the same day, so I could not go to the beginning of the festival. Luckily the artists I wanted to see and hear were playing in the end anyways so it was not a big problem. When I got there Annina had already been there a while and she showed me around the different stages. We listened to some of the different bands, DJ's and solo artists while waiting for the main events. From everything I heard so far I liked a hip hop group called "Ugly Duckling" the most.

At 19:10 "The Cat Empire" entered the main stage. I am a little bit familiar with them from before because Annina had played it for me in advance and I also copied it from her iPod and listened to it. They are very interesting to listen too because the style of music changes from song to song and I was looking forward to seeing  if they were good live as well. After they were finished I was very happy with what I had seen and heard. They played a great selection of songs and what was even more impressive was that it seemed like every member of the band knew how to play at least 3-4 different instruments. They even switched main singers! All in all it was a great concert and a band I think will become very big in the future.

After "The Cat Empire" it was time for the main event, which was "Method Man and Redman". My only connection to them from before is from the movie How High and listening to a few of their songs. I was wondering what kind of show it would be and if it would be really good, really bad or somewhere in between. My experience was very unique. Their style is interesting, from the clothes to the music and the talking in between. One thing was certain, they knew how to get the crowd to respond. It was a fair mix between tracks I had never heard about and well known songs, tributes to dead rappers and random weed jokes. All in all a very different experience, but not negative in any way.

Here are some more photos :)

New Years Eve!

Sydney is supposed to be one of the best places to celebrate new years eve. People have told me this since the first day I landed in Australia. It was therefore an easy choice where I wanted to celebrate. However with over 1.5 million people all wanting the best spots to see the harbor bridge fireworks the question was where we should go.

The best spots had people camping out from the night before putting up tents and then sitting and waiting the whole day. Then the next best places had queues from 7-8 in the morning. We ended up going to a place called Bulls Head Reserve. It was a little bit away from the bridge, but still had a great view and a plus was that you could bring your own alcohol. We went there around 3 pm and had a picnic and drinks while waiting. There was a lot of people gathered and more where coming the whole time. It was also clear that the place we choose was the teenage party place, but that didn't bother us as they were all friendly, and we were not that much older than them.

At 9 pm was the first fireworks and everybody gathered at the viewing spots to get a good look. It was a good show, then at 12 was the "real" fireworks. It was magnificent. The fireworks lasted for 12 minutes and was synchronized to music if you had a radio turned on the right station. In addition they had all different kinds of effects on the harbor bridge, including lights and special fireworks and a big ball changing colors. It is hard to describe. I think it was the best fireworks I have seen. I was surprised that there was no countdown, but after the fireworks everyone was saying happy new year to each other.

At this point everyone was getting pretty drunk and it was a bit of a challenge to get back across the bridge to the apartment. I think the trip took about 2-2.5 hours. It felt good to get back after a long day, but it was worth every second of it! Now I can brag that I celebrated new years eve in Sydney! :P

Christmas

23. December

I had to work at Luna Park this day so I did not do anything special.

24. December

Our plan was to go to the beach in the day, but the weather was gray and cold. In stead we went to the park and relaxed. My mother called me and that was nice! Thanks mom! I have to admit I did not have much Christmas feeling even though we had a Christmas tree and everything. But it was very sweet when we opened our packages from each other. Our polish flatmate is a great cook and had made some wonderful food for us. And me, Matthias and Kristin made potato salad for everyone. We had no recipe and I was surprised at how good it turned out to be. Our plan was to go out to a disco after dinner, but we never got that far due to feeling way to full of food plus to much beer :). It was a very different Christmas eve, but I had a good time.

25. December

Again the plan was to go to the beach, but the weather was still shit so I was just chilling in the apartment. In the evening we went out to a restaurant to eat dinner. It was very nice to do something a little bit special. The plan was to go out since we never got that far the day before, but apparently nothing can be open on the 25th in Australia. We had to go disappointed back home.

The rest of Christmas was pretty much normal. I had to work the 26th and 27th, but I went out and partied with my friends and had a good time. Sadly the weather has been like crap from Christmas eve until now so, there hasn't been a lot of beach time :P As promised I have included a photo of me in my working uniform.