Australia, Part 5

Hooray, we are at the last and final post of Australia, meaning I can get on with my (blog) life and bring us into the new year.

I was met at the airport by Nick, a good friend of my friend Yogi's, and he took me into Melbourne, where we discovered the hostel reservation I'd made had never been recognised. So I took a nap at his parents' house for a bit, then we headed to the Espy Lounge for Eat the Beat 2008.




Me and Nick.





It was an awesome line-up -- Logistics was playing when we got there, followed by Commix, some Melbourne deejays, and then Noisia -- which I was sad to leave but struggling around 2 am to drink/keep my eyes open.

The next day after a nice lunch in St Yarra, I took the tram into Melbourne and hobbled around a bit.










Cricket broadcast on a big screen in the centre.
































Then Nick met me and we checked out a couple of galleries.




And after we had a sausage and some wine near the river, and then headed back to his house for a bit to chill and watch TV, then went for a bit of Thai food and a couple beers. Nice, mellow evening, which was really needed after two nights of decadent craziness.

On my last and final day in Melbourne, we woke up late and then went for lunch at the pier in St Kilda.





And then headed to the beach!







Then I did some walking around Windsor checking out the various boutiques, and met Nick and his friend, Mark, at a nearby bar. Nick headed off to work, so Mark and I continued having a few beers til his other friends arrived and we headed to Fitzroy to see a band play.

On a side note, one interesting thing about Melbourne is the abundance of quality graffiti everywhere. According to Nick, the city recognised that graffiti would happen anyway, so it was better to support the creation of really nice graffiti that would be respected (and not tagged over) by other artists.




Also, Burger King is called Hungry Jack's.





Anyway, it was a fantastic and way-too-short visit to a great city, and a too-short visit to a great country. One day, I'll be back. 'Til then I'll just have to keep enjoying the rhythm of NYC ...

PEACE! xx

Australia, Part 4

Trying to get these pictures up finally, so I'm going to breeze through the descriptions and just post away. The day after hurting my foot, I met the family for lunch at a swank portside restaurant. Met? I should say hobbled towards them and tried explain my new injury.





After a fancy lunch, I hobbled back towards my sister's apartment in Potts Point for an afternoon of ice packs.



Then I hobbled back down to a hotel near the restaurant and had some pints with my friend Scott, who I met a number of years ago when he was backpacking through Madrid with a friend. No photos of Scott, but this one that shows not only the lovely hotel but the general loveliness of the Australian people.


Turns out this girl was American, and from LA, which was quite redeeming. Yay California.

The next day, I met Janet for a mushy pie and had a couple of glasses of wine with her and my family. Then we set off for the city centre ... which took a long time when you are hindered by a foot injury.




We set off for the Lindt café and had some chocolate.


The perfect way to end 2007!

Then it was back to my sister's to prepare for our harbour cruise that evening. We boarded perhaps the oldest boat still operating in the Sydney Harbour and I immediately felt ill – perhaps it was the combination of deep fried calamari, a rocking boat, and copious amount of musky cologne emanating from the chests of the Egyptians running the ship. Who knows. My dad suggested I go outside for some air, where he joined me and we promptly met some very nice British people who happened to also like drum & bass and be heading to a big party later on that night. Who hoo, fate!


Me and my dad.


A slightly less awkward photo.

At midnight there was the most spectacular display of fireworks I've ever seen.









Followed by photographic evidence that an open bar is good for family togetherness.










We attempt to get Mom into the act.


She smiles, but is hesitant to participate in such silliness.


We keep trying ...


... and finally we prevail! Hooray, 2008 will have a Christmas card!!


After so much excitement, the family headed home and I headed (hobbled?) off with my new British friends.


Konkrete Jungle Sydney! I was ecstatic -- one of the very first jungle parties I ever went to was a Konkrete Jungle party at Wetlands in NYC back in 1998. Whoot!




My new British friends, enjoying themselves.




A new friend.





Anyway we partied til the sun was up, then I slept, and then met the family for lunch before my mom, dad, and I headed to the airport. They went back to San Francisco, and I headed on my way to Melbourne. While waiting in the Sydney Airport I snapped this photo of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Store ... random!

Australia, Part 4

So, after we returned to Sydney, the next day we were up bright and early and set off for the zoo.




Since returning from Australia, I've waxed poetic on several occasions to most of my girlfriends about the abundance of extremely good-looking men in that part of the world. Thus, the close-up.






To get to the zoo, you have to take a ferry, then a gondola to the top.












Give wombats a brake? Give Jenne a PUN!!!!!!!!






*sexy*














OK, they have koalas at the San Francisco Zoo, but the only time I've ever seen them, they were hidden and sleeping in the eucalyptus trees. This was extremely exciting as this koala actually climbed out of the tree and into another one! Amazing!







































Then we went back to my sisters and I was picked up by Janet and taken to Glebe, where her boyfriend lives to feast on hors d'oeurves and lots of wine.


Janet and Wayne, her boyfriend's friend.


Wayne, Janet, Maria, Gaby, and me.



Then we went out on the town -- with me managing to fall down some stairs leaving the apartment building, spraining the top part of my foot, and reducing me to a hobbling mess for the rest of the trip.


















All in all, it was a super fun night, culminating in a late night trip to McDonald's and a very painful wake-up the next morning realising that I'd hurt my foot a great deal more than I'd thought.

Australia, Pt 3

Posting these photos has turned out to be a rather slow, arduous task but thankfully today I have a day off work (thanks, MLK, Jr.!) and a bit of energy for slogging through some more.

So, after our day driving around Hunter Valley, we spent another day at the beach in Terrigal and then piled into the rental car and returned to Sydney that evening. We ventured into Newtown for a bite to eat at this Thai restaurant. There was a wait, so we all got beers.


My mother.









After a great meal, my parents returned to their hotel and my sister and I went for a couple of beers with one of her workmates at a bar in another part of town.


My sister's friend demonstrated that he could lift three pints at the same time ...


... while my sister texted her friends. We went home by midnight, which was fine since we had big things planned for the next day.

Australia, Pt II

It's 10:30 pm and I haven't yet run out of steam to continue on with this grand posting of my trip. All rightie, where were we? Oh yes, day two.

Let's see ... well, if I was with my family, we must have woken up somewhere near the crack of dawn. This would have been to "get a move on", which we did, in a rental car, in the direction of Terrigal.


Some little town we drove through.


There were two things that really impressed me in Australia. The first was that I've never seen so much eucalyptus in my entire life. We have some eucalpytus in Northern California (maybe in Souther California too; I think I remember it from my days at UCSB), but typically it's planted in neat little rows, usually to suggest some kind of border. Australia was like one big eucalyptus forest that sprawled on and on forever. It's not exactly a beautiful tree. In fact, in California, it seemed like the big issue was always that some neighbour's annoying eucalpytus tree was about to fall on their house. Never, like, something that you marvelled at and set up preservation foundations for. But in Australia, it was everywhere. I think it might drive me a little mad. Anyway, the second thing that really struck me was the broad, huge awnings on all the buildings. So smart because of all the strong sun! And since they aren't living in a hurricane zone (*cough* MIAMI *cough*), I guess there's the sense of designing a city in a smart and savvy manner, rather than just creating the equivalent of baking in hell on earth in broad patches of sweltering sunlight like SOME "American" cities in the South. But I digress. The awnings are very smart, Australia. Good work.




OMG OMG OMG, kangaroos!!!!!

We arrived at the little resort in Wamberal, then set off for a few hours of sunning at the beach. Then it was back to the hotel for showering, and then back to Terrigal for a delicious Italian dinner near the waterfront. And then back to the hotel, where I passed out around 10 pm.

The next day we woke up and set off for the Hunter Valley.


We finally had our first kangaroo sighting. Apparently they're considered pests in Australia, but I don't care. They're cutesy, damn it!


Aw, it wants a CUDDLE!


Lovely road in the Hunter Valley.








I demonstrate my best "Price is Right" stance and show off a kangaroo in the distance.








We went to Bimbagen for some wine tasting.










I challenged my sister to drink every single wine on the tasting menu. Here we are after our fifth glass.


My sister after her eighth ...


... and her twelfth ...


Then we had a sumptuous lunch at the restaurant.












Kangaroos galore.

Then we piled back in the car and set off for the tiny town of Wollombi.




My sister, thrilled to be there!


My dad, thrilled as well!




























At this point, it was suggested we go to the nearest tavern and have a pint. I looked around in shock, wondered where my real family had been dragged off to, and where this new fun group had come from.




My mother, showing us how it's done. Good work, mum!


My dad, learning her ways.




Then my mother did what everyone does at the pub and pulled out her knitting. Seriously, how much more fun would it be to knit when you're out? Or, how much more often could we justify going to the pub if we had baby's sweaters to knit?!


I enjoyed the moment by taking photos of myself. Maybe not as productive as knitting, but important nonetheless.





Then we drove back to Terrigal for some dinner. My sister demonstrated what she's been learning in Arabic class.


If we were in New York, we'd have been arrested by now!


Was she using the world's smallest pen, or does she have the world's largest hands?! Oh, the questions.

More to come ... my bed beckons ...

Australia, Pt. I

As usual, it's taken me far too long to even begin posting about my recent journey down under over the Christmas holiday. In part because it's taken me far too long to deal with the gazillion photos I thought it necessary to shoot. All in all, it was a fantastic vacation and I was sad to come home. But let's get down to what everyone cares about -- the photos, avec recap.

I arrived Christmas morning and my dad met me at the airport (his flight from San Francisco got in a few hours before mine). My mom had flown out a week early so she and my sister could do a jaunt around Tasmania (lucky!!), so the four of us met up at the Swisshotel in downtown Sydney and before I could drag a comb across my head, we jetted down to the Harbour for a bite to eat and a cruise of the bay.


The family. Did the pale, North American skin give it away?


Australia is such a nice place they name their boats things like "Friendship." Unlike in New York, where they name boats things like "Ghetto Diva" and "Mo' Money, Mo' Boats".


My sister.


My mom, filled with vacationing glee.


My father, taking a rather dainty sip of his ale. Before he knew it, the brawn of Australia would overcome him and he'd be knocking back pints like the best of 'em.


After a nice lunch (I had a grilled octopus salad atop greens, roasted pumpkin, and roasted potatoes ... mmm!), we had a few minutes to kill before the cruise, so we set off to look at the Sydney Opera House up close.










can't ... stop ... taking ... photos






Finally, we boarded the board.


Proof of my pallid, New York complexion.




Christmas day ... or a rare Jughead sighting???? You decide.






Blah blah blah, Sydney Opera House, blah blah blah.




After the cruise, it was back to the hotel for a mere second (I checked my watch), then we all headed to my sister's fancy schmancy apartment in Potts Point for some Christmas dinner.






Did I say fancy schmancy? Well, the cockroaches like it too! Mwahahahahahha


Lovely view.


The stair railing decorated with fuzzy clip art, to give the chic and Wallpaper aesthetic a slightly more human feel.


My mom, because she is adorable, packed up all our hand-knit stockings (yes, she knit each one) and stuffed them full of goodies, like loads of mini boardgames, because as we all know when I am not at my bingo matches or bridge club, I am organising tea parties for my other ladies-who-lunch. Thanks, Mom, I'll put them next to the 17 whisks you gave me last Christmas!


Pretty facade of a neighbouring apartment.


My mother in her favourite room in the house and my dad's arm.


We feasted on barbequed salmon and veggies and it was a very nice night. Then I went back to the hotel and was just about to turn out the light when Janet, my friend from so many years ago backpacking in Istanbul, texted me that she could meet up! She arrived at the hotel in, like, two minutes, and we set off for Darling Harbour for a couple beers. But that was all I could handle -- at this point I was a sleepy girl and needed to go to bed as soon as possible.

Part II is on its way. Don't hold your breath.