Oz, Day 2

1.20.07

Today we went to Manly Beach, which was nice, except the water was much colder than we expected (and hoped) it would be. Some of the girls were sunning themselves despite the fact that they were pretty burned after yesterday.

Right now I feel like I’m on a ship that’s swaying side to side. I can’t pinpoint a reason for this. We are spending a good amount of time on ferries and such, but most of them don’t rock back and forth. I think the sun does extraordinary things to mess with your head. Yesterday, I felt drained once we finally got back from our excursions. Even though I don’t think I slept that much on the plane, I was still ready to go—but after we got back I was wiped, aside from the fact that I was very sunburned (hopefully it didn’t get any worse today—I wore my hat and put on sunscreen).

We really enjoyed the place we went to lunch. Five of us ate there while another friend took surfing lessons at Manly Surf School. It was only $55 for two hours, and she really enjoyed it—in fact, she said she thought she enjoyed it more because she was so bad at it than she would have had she been decent. The food was good, and the wine we had was good too, although the quality wasn’t on par with what we’d been drinking in this winemaking class that we’re here for. I drank two glasses of wine but I ate the entire chicken sandwich and all the fries (known here in Oz as “chips,” much like in England), so to me there was no reason why I should have felt like I had been drinking much more. I told this to one of the guys with us and he said it was probably the sun. There are few times in my life where I have been so cognizant of how exposure to the sun for long periods of time drains you. While we were waiting for our table at dinner last night, I could feel myself nodding off every so often. The other girls asked me if I was all right, but I was just so tired. Other than that, I was okay, even though I hadn’t eaten real food all day. I could easily have skipped the post-dinner bar visit, although we weren’t there that long either, fortunately.

The weather is really good despite the cold water at Manly Beach and the sun beating us into submission. I think the hotel where we stay in Melbourne has a rooftop pool, and I am rather excited about this.

Another thing that excites me is that Sydney seems to have an abundance of places that sell gelato. It’s not the same as it is eating it in Italy, but seeing as there are so few places outside Italy that seem to have the real thing, this excites me greatly.

Australia, Day 1

1.19.07

So far, I seem to be doing rather well, unsure of how long I actually slept on the ages-long flight last night (which was Wednesday, because for us Thursday never existed).

I am beginning to recall why I fell in love with Sydney when I was here the first time. It’s European almost, but still is its own place, with some American touches (3 McDonald’s in one block).

But the water taxis and cruises are amazing and I highly recommend them. However, sunscreen should be worn at all times. I really think someone could have informed us all beforehand that the Ozone layer was thinner at this time of year and thus within hours we would all be burned to a crisp. Well, that’s a slight exaggeration. But it does hurt. I was hoping to get my legs tanned because they’re so pale, but of course that’s the only part of me that didn’t change color. I’m glad they didn’t burn too though—my arms and face look bad enough.

So far, among my purchases I have bought $15 sunglasses with a lot of bling on them (they were the only ones I liked that I thought looked good on me), some $5.50 ice cream (very tasty—it was $5 for one scoop, so I figured I would splurge for 50 cents more and get the second), and a $2.20 bottle of water. I have yet to eat real food since I’ve been here (I’m not counting what little of the breakfast I ate on the plane this morning). I forgot to declare the cookies Mom sent with me from home when I went through customs, and since they have nuts and such in them, I doubt the Aussies would like that too much. What they don’t know won’t hurt them I hope, and anyway all the evidence has been destroyed, save for a ton of crumbs at the bottom of the bag. I also snuck a bag of peanuts from one of yesterday’s flights. Oops. The Aussies I think are very touchy about that kind of thing; they don’t want you bringing any potentially harmful non-native thing into the country. I can understand, I guess.

I saw a painting of the harbor that I really liked, but it was $385. And how would I have gotten it home? I guess I could have shipped it. I like it, but that is a lot for one painting, and it wasn’t even that big.

I have yet to decide whether or not I will go on the Bridge Climb. The people who went last time I was here loved it, but one girl on this trip who did it said she would not do it again. It sounds really cool, but at the same time, it sounds like it could be Duomo redux--I practically had a panic attack climbing up to the dome of that in Florence, so do I really need to be climbing 400 feet above the water in Sydney? Plus, it costs a lot of money and you can’t even take your own pictures or anything.

So, so far we have learned that:

• Food is ridiculously expensive
• January in Australia is AWESOME, except you need gallons of sunscreen per week
• My rechargeable batteries aren’t worth crap
• Bring lots of conditioner for when your hair gets tangled from standing outside on the harbor cruises/water taxis (which are amazing, by the way)

Some things you can expect of me while I’m here: visit at least one Italian restaurant (there are quite a number of them here, surprisingly) and the Hard Rock Café. I would also like to visit the Lindt Chocolate Café. Also, to market tomorrow morning. It’s right down the street, as is the monorail, which I fully intend to take advantage of. I really like this hotel; it’s pretty close to all the action, and it’s nice for a Holiday Inn. The internet is not free like I thought it was going to be though. Grr.

On the list of things you must see while you are here: Take the harbor ferry to Watsons Bay. It doesn’t look all that great at first. But I was really glad the announcer guy said it had great views. He wasn’t kidding. They’re stellar.

There are so many cool things to do here, and I seem to be accidentally stumbling upon some of them. I wish all cities were this amazing.