I just got up from a nap and I'm sitting at my desk now having a cup of peppermint tea thinking back over the last few days. I feel like I'm living somebody else's life. Some really cool person that lives in Sydney and hangs out with cool Aussies in all the amazing neighborhoods that are full of so much character. I had such a fabulous weekend, check it out.
Thursday is University of New South Whales' Oktoberfest which is supposedly their party of the year. I have class until 6 but hear there's no chance of getting in if I leave that late, so my friend Maya talks me into leaving at 4. We meet at the uni bus stop, except she's across the street from me when the bus pulls up and is like,"Hurry up! Get over here." Well, the day before I was talking it over with a local friend, Tom, over chicken schnitzel at the Lansdowne Hotel and he said to make sure I catch a bus headed towards Broadway. So I was like,"No, its okay, we have to get the bus going this way." So she's like, oh, and comes over to my side and we continue to wait for a 370 that's headed towards Broadway. One finally shows up and I punch my travel ten (bus card w/10 rides on it) and then ask the bus driver where the stop is for UNSW. He says,"Wrong bus. Catch it on the other side." WHAT?! I already punched my card! Oh, and then I look at it and see that I wasted my LAST trip on the card. Crap, Tom! Naturally I have a fit for a few minutes as we get off the bus and head across the street. Maya has an extra card with a trip left on it and kindly lets me use that. Finally a 370 comes that is heading in the real correct direction and we're on our way. In Newtown Tim, Noah, and Codey happen to catch the same bus we're on, so that's cool.
Its a REALLY long trip out into weirdo Sydney suburbia and we finally get to this place that looks like a large high school complete with one of those scrolling marque sign boards out front. Yep, that's UNSW. We go around the corner to the entrance and there I behold the longest, hugest line I have ever seen in my entire life. It was like 20 yards wide and went back for at least 100 yards, probably more. We are all feeling very intimidated. Maya has housemates that left a little earlier than us, so she gives them a ring. Somehow they have managed to weasel their way up to towards the front of this massive queue and so Maya and I decide it would be in our best interest to join them. Once we squeeze into line, its like a giant mosh pit. I'm squashed into all sorts of people, some of which have intense body odor. I talk a bit with some people that are pinned on my shoulder that go to University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and a girl was like,"Oh, you go to Sydney. That's a really proper school." Or something to that effect. That comment in addition to the marque sign in front of UNSW confirm for me that I'm going to the Yale of Australia. (UTS and UNSW are the two other big schools in Sydney.) After a very intense half hour or so in line we make it in the gate and proceed to drink lots of beer. Oktoberfest at UNSW is comprised of lots of food and beer stands and then several stages with DJs and dance floors; good times. Maya's roommate tells Maya he will buy her a beer if she snaps this guy's suspenders who's standing behind us in line. I decide to up the anti and ask if he'll buy me a beer if I snap the guy's suspenders with my teeth. Of course he will. And so begins me getting free drinks and food for the rest of the night, aw yea.
The security people end up shutting it down at midnight and we have to figure out how to get home since the buses have stopped running. Luckily, they've chartered buses to get people back to Central so we get on one of those. I realize I really don't want to walk or get cab home from Central so I get brilliant and call Liam and ask him to come get me. He's sweet and drops Maya and one of her remaining roommates off at their place and then we go back to his where he's having a get together. I end up hanging out there the rest of the night. Around 4, I get really hungry for some ice cream and get his roommate, Chris, to walk with me to the nearest gas station (he promptly corrected me, its a petrol station). I get a hazelnut vanilla swirl drumstick (my new obsession) and we proceed to make up a quasi-rap about it the entire walk home. I end up crashing on the couch. This ends up being convenient for a few reasons. The first is Liam and I are planning on going kayaking in the harbour today anyway. The second is Liam cooked me a steak for breakfast, "Walt Whitman style." I'm pretty sure he made that up.
After breakfast and stuff we drive to a very swanky neighborhood on the harbour called Rose Bay. After stopping at a petrol station for some juice and lollies we get to the beach where the kayaking guy has his rental stand. The bay is terrifically gorgeous. However, the rental guy is nowhere to be found. We wait around awhile on the beach before giving up and heading to Watson's Bay. There's some national park land there as its at the mouth of the harbour that offers amazing views of the skyline and harbour bridge from across the bay. We scramble around some of the rocks over the bay and walk to some of the harbour-side beaches. One of which is a nude beach where a bunch of old dudes hang out all day. It is the most ridiculous thing; some of them are sunbathing, but most of them are just up walking around, poking rocks with sticks and stuff. Needless to say, we don't stick around there long. We end our walk there at the lighthouse at the mouth of the harbour looking out over the Pacific. The whole thing is so surreal and gorgeous. I'm a little ticked I don't have my camera.
After that we head to the gap which are these giant cliffs over the Pacific. Apparently this is the site of the most suicides in Australia; people hurl themselves over the edge with relative frequency. Subsequently, there is a large fence separating the road and the cliff edge. We jump it and lay down to gaze over the edge. The surf is magnificent and we spend at least half and hour staring at the delightful patterns it makes swirling over the rocks. Then a trip to Harry's Cafe de Wheels in Woolloomooloo is in order to have the best meat pies in Australia. Liam orders a massive hot dog de wheels for himself and a tiger for me. The tiger turns out to be triple decker: a beef pie on the bottom, a layer of mashed green peas in the middle, then mash potatoes and gravy on top. I have no idea how to eat this, but figure it out somehow. Decadent. I have to head back to the village after the pie as I'm meeting Amber at Hoochie's before we go to a party at Koko's. Incase you can't tell, I had a really stinkin' wonderful day.
On Saturday, I wake up, run some errands, and go grocery shopping before meeting up with ArinMichelle (friend from Tulane) to go on our adventure quest for Italian food. We catch a bus to Circular Quay (the harbour hub) and then buy tickets for the ferry to Balmain where one of her friends who studied here a few years ago suggested we go for good Italian. While waiting for the ferry we go shop for a didgeridoo for her little brother and I spot a Royal Caribbean cruise ship docked in the harbour. Upon closer inspection I discover its THE RHAPSODY OF THE SEAS!!! The very first cruise ship I have ever been on! It sailed all the way to Sydney to come see me!! I get Arin to take several pictures of me in front of it. Then the ferry comes and we're sailing past the cruise ship doing their muster (thanks for the correction Scrobert :) station drills, the opera house, and right under the harbour bridge. I want to explode because my life is that incredible.
We get off the ferry in Balmain and after asking several people for directions, we happen upon a very promising Italian place. We have the best time doodling on the white paper table cover and catching up on each others lives. Then my lasagna and her cannelloni come out and they are SO divine. For dessert, Arin insisted I buy a Tim Tam (which I did before we left) so I could do the Tim Tam slam. By the way, Tim Tams are these amazing cookies adored by all Aussies. So I got myself a flat white (coffee) and bit off two cattycorner ends of the Tim Tam which I then used like a straw to suck the coffee up into the biscuit. Then I turned it around and bit off the coffee saturated end before it crumble/melted into my coffee. It was so mindblowing. Don't take my word for it, you must try this. I'm bringing Tim Tams home, you must try this.
Arin and I end up having lots of lovely adventures in Balmain before getting a bus back to Glebe, which is the neighborhood across campus from Newtown, where I live. We have big designs on going out in the Rocks once we get home and change, but it starts to rain while we're on the bus. Our ambition fades and we end up just hanging out at a cafe in Glebe having more dessert (cannoli and apple strudel). Another amazing, mindblowing, Sydney-rific day if I do say so myself. I really have the best life ever.
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