2-11-10

2-11-10

On Monday night I checked my email in between flights to Sydney and got a message from my WWOOF host stating that she had been flooded in to the valley where she lives in Hawkesbury, and would not be able to get to the station to get my until the water went down low enough to cross a bridge that was a meter underwater. I had planned to spend the night in a hostel in Sydney anyhow, so I rolled with it.

I arrived in Sydney at about 7am and looked online for cheap hostels. I was led to the Kings Cross area of town where there are backpacker’s lodges all over. I took the shuttle in and booked a night at the first one that was available, because apparently they were very busy in the district due to the Chinese New Year celebrations that start this week.

The place was a total shithole and when I got to my dorm I discovered 3 smelly men were my roommates and it was filthy! There were pictures of naked women cut out from magazines all over the walls, holes in the ceilings, and a layer of grime covering everything. The shower had about 8 used razors on the floor amidst piles of hair and mildew. Eeew! I locked up my stuff and got the hell out of there- set off to explore the city, which ended up being really fun.

I walked about an hour from Kings Cross to the Opera House and Harbor Bridge, through the royal Botanical Gardens which were knockout. The gardens are divided into different themes and had incredible landscaping, wildlife, sculptures and statues, and lovely trees and ponds etc. I saw the Govt. Building as well which looks like a little castle. The Opera House is really beautiful, and I had a few moments where I was really wishing I was with someone to share it with.

I cheered up a lot though because on my way back through the park towards the city I put down my towel under a tree to read for a bit. I looked up into the trees and there were HUNDREDS of bats hanging from them! They were bigger bats than I have ever seen, the kind you see on Halloween paraphernalia. The size of cats I’m guessing. They looked like little fox heads with giant wings! That entertained my for about an hour or so because they change branches and fly about, and stretch their wings while they are hanging upside down.

There were also some really interesting black and white birds walking around in the park that were quite big and brave, with long curved beaks. One of the workers told me they are actually not native to Sydney but have migrated here for some weather-related reason and are considered a pest.

The city itself is very charming and there are a lot of beautiful buildings. Parts of it reminded me of San Francisco. There were loose dogs everywhere, but the funniest thing was that they definitely are not strays, but fancy little dogs with haircuts and everything just walking around like they are on an errand. The city is chock full of joggers that are in perfect shape. There are several places where you must take some seriously long and steep stairs in order to walk from one part of the city to another and the runners were going up and down them repeatedly which was amazing, because when you get to the top just walking you just about pass out from the heat and your butt cheeks are on fire.

I am experiencing a little culture shock just from the Fiji/Sydney transition. The city is very fancy and everyone is impossibly beautiful, ripped, tan, manicured, pedicured, blond, coifed and dressed to the nines. A bit intimidating for me after spending weeks in nothing but a bathing suit and sarong with flip flops. There are lots of really nice restaurants with great atmosphere and adorable coffee and ice cream shops. Most of the shops are very boutique-ey and expensive, but a lot of them have really neat handmade things like paper, candles, and jewelry that were fun to look at.

Unfortunately, the strip where my hostel is happens to be in the red light district which is only about a 3 minute walk from the areas I was describing but is entirely composed of strip clubs, pawn shops, convenience stores and hookers. Hence the cheap rates and horrid conditions. I resolved that I could make it through one night there since had already paid and figure the rest out in the morn.

One of the roommates was a young British guy of about 20 years old that I was friendly to and turned out to be a STAGE 5 CLINGER. Very nice but madly obnoxious and veryyyy immature. Before dinner I braved the dorm for a shower and when I left he was apparently accompanying me where ever I was going. I sat at a nearby hotel bar for dinner and he was just slamming down beers and chatty chatty chatty. I felt a little strange having drinks with him as he’s barely older than a lot of my clients haha.

I (by I, I mean we. Uggh.) later joined bunch of people from the hostel that were taking a shuttle about 15 minutes into the city to go to a bar called The Gaff which is allied with the hostel (meaning free beer for hostel guests). The scene was a little on the young side for me and I left right before the wet T shirt contest started and walked back to Kings Cross which took about 30 minutes.

As soon as I woke up on Wednesday I had big plans to get a train to Bondi Beach and see if it was more my scene. The clinger was clinging and seemed to be following as if he were coming on the train with me to Bondi. Luckily on my way to the train I happened by a really cool thrift/vintage clothing outdoor flea market and browsed endlessly until he began to get ants in his pants. Brilliant. He told me to meet him back in town and he would join me to Bondi so this is how I was able to lose him. I got some really good stuff for pocket change. Sydney has to be the best city ever to get second hand clothing… I got a pair of Diesel boots for 5$ and picked through a hundred other things that I wanted (but everything was a size 4) blahhh! I did get a few cute things though for 50 cents a piece.

As soon as I got to Bondi I knew it was more my speed. If I couldn’t be on the horse farm I prefer to be in a place like Bondi that has beach options during the day and right along the beach there is a skate park, shops, restaurants and bars and everything is much cheaper (except for the hostels). I spent all day yesterday on the beach which is really busy but is also huge so you don’t feel too crowded in. I went onto a really cool gallery that exhibits and sells all aboriginal artwork which is beautiful! So colorful and interesting designs, but totally unaffordable. I really wish I could have bought a piece because the money goes to the artists and the aboriginal people are in such a bad way here in Australia.

I have had several conversations about the “Aboriginal problems” with Australians. I am still learning the history but in brief, not too long after the European arrived in Australia the determined that the Aboriginals were an inferior group and set out to dissolve the race. This involved removing ALL OF THEIR CHILDREN and putting them in missionary schools in order to assimilate them.

Aboriginals have not been able to assimilate to the Western culture or cope with the introduction of alcohol and have therefore dropped to the bottom of the social food chain, and have a reputation as notorious alcoholics. Many that do live in environments that are conducive to the culture of hunting and gathering have lost the ability to do so. There is now a generation missing as well due to the prior offense of removing children from their families, so the passing down of skills and traditions has been interrupted.

Many of the aboriginals that do live in remote Western areas of Australia rely on food deliveries for sustenance which consist of primarily junk food non perishables. Their health outcomes are atrocious and they tend to die very young (in rural and metropolitan areas). This type of problem I find very interesting as it is still in the beginning stages of figuring, and there has been very little success in finding ways to create and facilitate reparation that is effective and realistic. It is, however, clearly necessary for efforts to be made as the damage has been done and done directly. It’s painful really to think about the realities of this problem and how a culture can be victimized to this point.

I find these issues really interesting but don’t know enough to say much more until I do some reading.

Xoxox -K