How to attend a party in style

Friday night was a somewhat quiet night. A girl I met here invited me out to dinner with her and her girlfriends (that SO would not happen in NY) and we hung out at the bar for awhile before I went out to a housewarming party a few suburbs away. On my way home form the party, the smelliest man on planet earth planted himself next to me on the bus. Of couse he did. He was an Egyptian student here, and his English was very poor. Naturally, he thought I would be the perfect person upon whom to afflict both is broken English and his indescribable BO. He talked my ear off for the length of the bus ride, and before the trip was over, had asked me if I would like to marry him and take him back to the US. I was literally holding my nose as I gave him my answer- an unequivocal NO. That did not deter him. This guy needed a little work in the social cues dept. I felt like Borat himself was sitting next to me and that I must be the subject of some hidden camera joke. It was almost as ridiculous as the other day when I was sitting on the beach minding my own business, and the hairiest, flabbiest man on Bondi asked me if I’d like some company. Oh, please! Make yourself comfortable! Who needs a towel when one can simply sprawl out on that glorious carpet on your chest! Of all the beautiful men within spitting distance, these are the winners drawn to me like white on rice.

Anyway, enough of that. Saturday turned out to be one of the most random, awesome days I think I’ve ever had. The people in whose house I’m living were throwing a beach party during the day, but the weather was supposed to be atrocious so we figured we’d just take the party to the bar. Well, the sun came out and it turned into an incredibly beautiful day, so the barbecue went on as planned. In the afternoon, some other people arrived and one of the guys in the group asked us if we’d like to go out on his boat to a huge island party. Um…yes?!?! Weirdly enough, I was the only one of the ten of us that were there to accept the invite, the rest were just feeling lazy. So he picked me up at a wharf about 5 minutes away after having gathered a few more of his friends, and off we went to Shark Island, a cool little island in the middle of Sydney harbor. Our kayaking guide had told us that they have parties on that island, but I was not prepared for the ridiculousness that awaited us.





First of all, we arrived at the party on a private boat. Cha ching! Next, we avoided the $75 entrance fee by bypassing the front gate all together and swimming out to the party. Cha ching! Then, we got there and everyone was running around, dancing, swimming, drinking, wearing everything from 80’s clothes (it was a theme party, apparently) to virtually nothing. I was sold.
We partied at the island for a few hours, then when it was dying down, the guy we came out with got about 10 more people together and we swam out to his boat for a sunset cruise around Sydney harbor. What?? I couldn’t believe where I was. We all ended up back at his place for a massive pizza pig-out session in a hot tub the size of my old apt in NY. I somehow managed to go out for a bit afterwards, but I was too exhausted form the days activities... my stomach too leaden with pizza and wine to go on much longer.




So that was my Saturday. Today is rainy and gross again, but that’s ok…I think I put in my party time. In other fun news, I found someone willing to take me out on his ferry at 5:30 am this Wednesday to this abandoned, decrepit island in the harbor so I can take sunrise shots of the run-down weirdness there. This guy, Will, is really into the place and has been wanting to get someone out there to get good shots of it before they start to revitalize the area. He works on the ferry really early and can make a special trip for me before he starts his shift. The best part is that it’s not publicly accessible, so no one really even knows about it or can get out there. If I finally get my sunrise shots, especially at a place like that, I might never want for anything else in this world again.

One hell of a walk

Yesterday I woke up early and decided I needed to engage in some kind of hardcore physical activity. I was feeling a bit lazy from the past few days of doing virtually nothing, and had heard about this 10K walk you could do from a a bridge near the city all around the cliffs eventually landing you in Manly Beach (which takes about 30 min to get there by ferry ride). I started my walk at around 12:30 and finished at 4:30. They say the walk takes 3 hours, but I had to stop and take pictures of everything along the way, so it took me closer to 4 hours to complete. It was a long, arduous, gorgeous walk through ever-changing landscapes. One moment you're hiking though a rainforest, the next you're walking along strips of deserted beach, the next, finding yourself on cliff tops with spectacular views of the harbor and surrounding islands. I had no idea the walk would be so beautiful, and I'm glad I did it yesterday because the rain is coming in sideways today and it's hard to even set foot outside. I fear we're in for another 5 days of torrential nastiness... Anyway, here is a sampling of the pics I took along the way:

How did this even happen?

Ok, something is bound to go desperately wrong soon, because, um, can we please take a look at where I'm staying? For FREE!



In all honesty, I was perfectly content to stay in the smelly, crowded hostel. I was totally ok with the fact that I was sharing a room with 6 girls, 2 of whom had guys over and kept us up half the night with their, um, talking? I was cool with the fire alarm that went off at 7am and forced us all out of our sweaty, sandy beds and into the streets yesterday morning. I really was! But as awesome as all that all must sound...I'm REALLY content with this new situation. I don't know how it happened, I wasn't even really looking, but I was checking out of my hostel this morning and had been procrastinating figuring out where I'd be off to next. Before I could even figure out my next steps, a girl I met here called me to tell me that her friend whom I'd met the night before at a dinner party had a roommate that was going out of town for 2 weeks, and that I could use the empty room. They live in a huge loft apartment on the north end of Bondi Beach. There's TV, FREE internet (I found a tiny spot on my bed where I can get a signal- a veritable gold mine for me), and a room all to myself!! It's almost too good to be true... but I'm here so it must be true. I would probably go so far as to say I'm giddy right now.

I also figured out my travel plans for the next few months, so that was very productive on my part. Next week, I'm off to Melbourne to tour the Great Ocean Road which is supposed to boast one of the most spectacular views in the world. After that, it's down to New Zealand for a month of canyoning, white water rafting, climbing volcanoes, swimming with dolphins, etc. Here's the tour I'm going on (sorry, I know this is cruel):

http://www.kiwiexperience.com/kitchen-sink-bus-pass.aspx

I'm so excited I can barely stand it. After that, it's back to Sydney to start a surfing trip that takes you up the coast to all these deserted beaches where they teach you how to surf for 5 days. At the end of that week, I'll be up in Byron Bay (a paradise, basically) right in time for the annual Blues and Jazz festival there. After that, I'll be heading up north into the tropics for a crazy 3 day sailing trip to what are supposed to be the most beautiful islands in the world. Then after that...well, I haven't gotten that far. Hopefully I won't be broke and living on the streets by that point, because at the rate I'm going, that's a distinct possibility. Good thing I have a work visa, cause I'm gonna need to use it. And soon.

Oh and one more thing...this is where I went swimming yesterday... pretty awesome.

My first roo

Yesterday, I woke up at dawn (ouch) to take a trip into the blue mountains. These mountains are actually green, but the leaves on the trees emit an oil that creates a bluish haze when they sun reflects off it, hence the "blue" mountains. It's supposed to be very beautiful. Well, it was a pretty day when I woke up, but the weather took a nasty turn the higher we climbed into the mountains. What I saw were actually more like grey mountains. Fabulous. So it rained and rained and this is the only decent shot I got. You can see the smallest trace of blue in the background.



The best part of the day was seeing kangaroos! Nope, that isn't a dog in the background...this one was so lazy; just chilin in the grass. Nice life.



So that was quite a long day and I was so beat that I stayed in and went to sleep instead of going out on Fri night. I couldn't have felt more lame. Then Saturday was Australia day. It was really amazing...bands playing everywhere, sailboat races, barbecues, and the best weather imaginable. I met up with a girl from my first hostel and we hung out in the botanical gardens for the better part of the day. That night I went to a few house parties around the beach, and once again, kicked myself for not going out in the city. Apparently, one of the girls I had hung out with at the botanical gardens won the Miss Backpacker '08 competition, and all the girls had one hell of a time. I on the other hand was doing this:



Yes, that's a karaoke competition. In someone's apartment. I could have been killing off as many brain cells as possible at the dirty backpacker bar, but instead chose to kill off my vocal chords singing Son of a Preacher Man. It was pretty fun though.

I made up for my lack of drunkeness on Saturday the next night at a barbecue on the rocks of Bondi beach. What a blast. The guy who owns the apartment is paid to have models live in his place. Yes, you read that correctly. Paid. To have models. Living with him. The place is right on the beach, and I was just psyched to be meeting so many Australians (it's easy to spend a year here and never even talk to a local). This is a few of us on the balcony at sunset. Not bad at all!

Caption this photo...

Last night, I went to a very strange, very disturbing party. It was a cross dressing party, and apparently, they are really into that here. A bunch of painfully straight men run around in dresses, all in the name of free drinks. I was totally confused, and figured only alcohol would set things right in the world. (It didn't.)


So I went kayaking in the harbor today on a little tour with the hostel to burn off the hangover... it was a perfectly beautiful day. We stopped at this little island in the harbor halfway through the trip and the following picture was taken. I won't even try to explain what is going on in this scene for fear of ruining the effect, so maybe you can take a shot...caption this photo, in all its strangness/gayness/baldness:



This one below is just a view of the harbor. Such a nice day. The rest of the afternoon was spent baking in the sun and then taking a nice long nap. Ugh, this is all such hard work. Waaaah...

Now this is a storm

Two nights ago, I went to a low-key aussie house party. And by low key, I mean, not low key at all. In the main part of the house, there was a serious dance party going on. Everyone was really dressed up...apparently that's how they roll around here. Some were in costume for no reason I can decipher other than, why not? I looked a bit out of place in my shorts and flip flops, but no one seemed to mind. In the shed, they had set up blank canvases on the walls and people were drunkenly painting on them. Some of the stuff actually turned out pretty cool. 



I also met this great American girl named Katie. Funny how we three americans had found eachother in a party full of aussies! Kinda sad actaully, but I guess it makes sense. One very interesting thing I have noticed so far about the women here is that are very friendly, not nearly as catty and competitive as they generally are in NY. It's a nice change. They might still be judging you, but at least they are nice about it! 

So yesterday was a miracle of a day. The sun came out for the first time in 5 days, and the view absolutely took my breath away. I went jogging on a path around the cliffs and it's a good thing I didn't bring my ipod, cause my brain probably would have exploded from sheer sensory overload. It was a hard run and I had to limit my distance because I hadn't worked out in a week, but it was REALLY hard to make myself turn back. 

Here is a pic of my jogging path, although this really doesn't do the view justice.



After my run, I baked myself on the beach for much of the day, and after we came in, another storm came through the area. This one was spectacular... if we're gonna have rain, please let it be like this from now on! I ran outside with my camera and lenses (trying my best to keep them dry) and finally was able to get the kind of shots I came here for. I still have to learn my camera settings better so I can work faster and get better exposures, but here's what I got of the storm. I waited it out on the roof while it poured cause I had a feeling the sky would be spectacular when the rain had moved out of the area, and I'm glad I did cause I was the only one up there who got shots of the double rainbow that appeared when the sun came back out. I was so excited, I was squealing like a little girl (or like a pig, take your choice).







The contrast and colors are way better when they are not compressed for web, but you get the idea.

After the storm, I got myself together quickly to head out to the salsa congress. It took me 2+ hours to get there, and I had to take a combination of 4 busses and trains. By the time I got there, I had missed all but one performance, and although I didn't come specifically for the show, it would have been nice to see, especially after paying $45! At 10:30, the dancing started and it was REALLY fun. Truly one of the most amazing dance parties I've ever been to. I'm posting a video I took. The first half of the first video is of the kids that were there as a hint to you men reading this–start learning how to dance!! The women will LOVE YOU. Just look at them go! So cute, and already so successful with the ladies. The second half shows you what these parties are like and the kind of dancers that attend. Crazy outfits, nice people, all ages, races, etc. Now, getting home from the event was a nightmare. Sydney is not NY, and the trains all close down at midnight. Yikes. I had to take a $40 cab from the event which was at the Sydney Olympic Park (amazing place, but freaking HUGE) to the city, then find a way back to Bondi beach at 2 in the morning. I hiked the streets until I finally found a bus going back to the beach, but that taught me a lesson. Never venture into the Sydney suburbs after midnight ever again. It's just not worth the pain.

And the lord said...

I am hesitant to believe it, but the forecast actually looks promising. Really promising. At least after tuesday...and there may be a sliver of sun tomorrow with which to re-burn my nose. I have unfortunately, been feeling a little under the weather (sorry, had to go there). Jet lag only just now setting in + a stomach bug that seems to be picking up in intensity + miserable weather = one heaping dose of awesome. But all that aside, I'm still managing to have fun. I played poker last night in the hostel with a bunch of people from every end of the earth. I did rather well, though we weren't playing for money. Today, I ran some errands and got a mani/pedi and a 10 minute massage with my new friend Liat who will be in Sydney for a good while. Then, I had some tea! I know, it's almost too exciting to even write. But I mention the tea because a funny incident did occur mid-sip. This aussie guy came over to me and said I looked interesting, then asked me if I thought his shoes looked cheap. I told him they did, in fact, look pretty awful. So he sat down and inquired about the book I was reading and then asked what I did. I told him I was an art director back in NY, and he looked surprised. He then proceeded to tell me that he thought I was a carpenter. Um... really? I look like I might be a carpenter? Jesus (sorry, had to go there again). I mean, either he is not very smooth with ladies or this weather must really be wreaking havoc on my appearance. Probably a little bit of both.

So tonight, I can either go out to some Bondi parties, go to the salsa convention, or sleep. If my stomach continues on its rampant path of destruction, I think the salsa convention will be out. And if I don't make it over there, I will be SO MAD at myself.