Tasmania!

     So I have been gone from Sydney for the last week but before I began traveling, I had a few things going on.  I was able to use a sweet coupon from this company called Jump On It which is the same as GroupOn back in Virginia at least. My dear friend who I am actually going with to Ayers Rock and Darwin with, Katie, and I were able to get a coupon for $29 for an hour scenic horseback ride along the beaches surrounding Sydney.  It was really awesome and I was able to go somewhat fast at least for me..  It was so much fun and I absolutely loved it!!! This past week I was also able to rally up eight of my housemates to head out to downtown Sydney to do some of the things we have yet to do.  We headed through Chinatown and got 4 fresh-out-of-the-oven-and-into-your-hands-in-three-seconds cream puffs for $1 and I was able to try dumplings for the first time.  Charlottesville has a great dumpling place but no vegetarian dumplings so this was my opportunity and I "capitalized" (as Sally likes to say during sports games).  I must say that they weren't bad but I probably wouldn't go back for seconds.   We also went to the Powerhouse Museum which had a "Back to the 80s" section, a "Tribute to ACDC" section, a chemistry section in which experiments were performed with liquid nitrogen- very exciting for me because I love that stuff; it is sad to say  but I honestly miss chemistry.  Basically the place was amazing.  In the 80s section, they had the real glove and jacket that Michael Jackson (rest in peace) wore to the Grammys when he won one one year.  They also had a party box which played music and flashed movies and beams of light onto the wall making it an awesome dance party.  We were planning on going to Luna Park but it was raining so we had to postpone (if you have seen Our Lips Are Sealed you will know what park I am talking about).  That week I was finishing up some school work and prepared for my journey to Tasmania.

     I flew into Tasmania to meet up with two girls from my house, Anat and Karen.  We picked up our campervan and proceeded to drive all throughout Tasmania, eventually driving 1315 km.  I had to drive the whole time since I was the only one over 21 with a license. We named the campervan Star and she really did become a guiding, shining light during our trip.  Basically Tasmania is a land of rolling green hills.  We got cell phone service about three times throughout the whole country and we passed through probably six or so cities which shows you just how small of a place this is.  All the roads were surrounded by sheep and cows and we drove up and over mountains, curving in and out as we made our way up to the east coast and then inward.  We went to Wineglass Bay which can only be accessed by a 6 km hike up a very very very steep mountain.  Of course I still have the whooping cough which made hiking a bit more difficult than it would have been and Karen had just gotten strep throat two days before and was taking antibiotics making it challenging as well.  But the beach was worth it.  The sand was a perfect white and very fine and the beach was a clear turquoise.  But that is not enough to say it was one of the prettiest beaches I've ever seen.  In the background there are huge mountains that cover the landscape giving such a variety of scenery for one look.  We were also the only ones on the beach and I was able to pet a wild wallaby (which is similar to a kangaroo kind of).  Since there is not much light after the sun goes down, we would head to bed around 10:30 each night and the first night we camped near the beach and woke up to the sunrise over the ocean and the sand.  It was spectacular! 

     We then proceeded to head up to what is called Bay of Fires.  It has be given this name because there is some chemical mixture either from the ocean water or from the air that causes the rocks to be speckled in redish orangish dots.  It is considered the number one prettiest beach in Australia and I think it deserves the title but decide for yourself.  This night we were able to camp literally on the beach pretty much.  We were about 20 feet from the ocean water.  It was incredible to be so close and fall asleep to the sound of the ocean and we could see Bay of Fires from our campervan. 
     Our next destination was Cradle Mountain which is labeled as a World Heritage site which from what I hear is very prestigious.  We did a 6 km hike around the main lake which is next to the Cradle Mountain.  It was quite stunning because the mountains had snow on the tops and the clouds and mountain reflected so beautifully off the water.  After the hike we headed back toward Hobart where the airport is and where we would spend our last and very uneventful day in Tasmania.  We arrived back in Sydney and back at the house around 10:30 and I had to plan for Ayers Rock and Darwin with Katie before completely beginning my paper that I had due the next day at 5 pm.  I had to write 8 pages but conquered knowing that it was my final assignment of the semester.  I am officially done and only have one more semester of my career as a student.  Crazy stuff, huh? 
    You will not be hearing from me for two weeks because in about 5 hours I leave to go to Ayers Rock (Uluru) which is the dead center of the Outback and very very famous and most iconic part of Australia.  I will also be traveling to Darwin which is top north of Australia but dead center between east and west.  Katie and I will be camping it "Into the Wild" style with a tent, sleeping bags, fires, lakes for showers, etc.  It will be life at it simplest just as Thoreau encourages people to do in Walden.  I began reading Walden a few months ago but forgot about it when school work began picking up but recently started it again and recommended it to Katie who also began reading it.  We basically want to live like Christoper McCandless by experiencing nature fully.  Pray for safety as we are two girls traveling through national parks on our own.  There is a lot of documentation that the park requires in order to keep safe but you can never be too careful.  Also pray that my cough subsides once and for all as I stayed up for an hour coughing so hard that I threw up about fifteen times.  So it seems that the cough will never be gone.  But I will tell of my adventures in the Outback and in Darwin when I return.  That's all folks!!

It's Been Way Way Way Too Long!!!

I'm so sorry I haven't posted in so long which means that this might be a long post.  And unfortunately I have done a ton since the last post which is why I also haven't posted in so long because I have been so busy.  So lets start with my time since September 19th- my last post.  That week my camera broke completely which really was unfortunate because I had one week to use a pass I bought three months ago that let me go to the Aquarium, Manly Oceanworld, Sydney Wildlife Park, and the Sydney Tower.  I was able to borrow a camera from a friend but I still don't have all the pictures I would have liked.  I really enjoyed all those places and got some amazing photos from the top of the Sydney Tower which offers a 360 degree view of all of Sydney. The other amusement places were also pretty sweet and I'm really glad I did them even though they are very touristy.
     The next weekend (last weekend) I went to Melbourne which is in another state, Victoria with two girls Ellena and Alex. We flew down there for only $90 round-trip and instead of paying for accommodation, we did couchsurfing.  Basically it is like a facebook page of sorts in which people have profiles that say that they have a couch available for people to sleep on while traveling.  So we found these two guys and one girl who were 19 and who lived in a really lively part of town. Don't worry it isn't as sketchy as it sounds.  They have people who have stayed with them and written reviews and it's a pretty legit thing because there are couches literally all over the world which allows students who can't even afford hostels to travel on a decent budget.  Now to be very gracious, the house was a wreck with holes in the walls and floors (a possum even fell through the ceiling wall and was running around the house).  But they were seriously the most amazing hosts ever and I seriously want to be best friends with them.  We saw a lot of the city, went to the Tim Burton Exhibit (which had the actual clothes that Johnny Depp wore in a lot of the movies), went to an aerial circus show, saw alleyways full of professional graffiti artists, and went on a road trip down the Great Ocean Road.
     The Great Ocean Road is a really long road that literally leads right along the ocean.  This was scary for the fact that we rented a car and I had to drive being the only one over 21.  Yes I had to drive on the left side of the road and yes I was on the right side of the car making it a little more tricky but overall not too hard.  The views were spectacular and since we were on our own, we were able to stop at all the places we wanted to to take pictures.  Literally we saw everything from flower fields, farms, grassy hills, ocean views, and rain forests (with wild koalas!).  After six hours of driving, we finally reached the Twelve Apostles which started out as a huge rock formation that eventually crumbled apart leaving 12 rocks out on the ocean shore.  Currently, only seven or eight are left standing due to weather corrosion.  But these rocks were INSANELY beautiful and truly spectacular.  The picture at the very very bottom is of the Twelve Apostles but the one to the left/above is just a picture that was taken along the road.
     As my facebook status says right now: "What causes one to get dirty looks at the Sydney Opera House Symphony performance, asked to move seats or leave entirely, and not sleep for hours until given Codeine? Oh that's right, my COUGH!!!!!"  So last week my cough was so so so much better and I only coughed about 50 times a day which is really really little compared to the last few months.  However, this past week I got a cough and this time it is a different kind where it is more my throat than my lungs.  So I went to a Beethoven music performance by the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House.  It was fabulous and only $25 for students if there are seats remaining the day of.  So we got amazing seats and I was literally in the dead center of the row.  I started coughing but only a few coughs every few minutes.  People around me started glaring at me, a random woman gave me her already half drunk water (which I drank because it was better than having people attempt to kill me during the performance- Sally I know you disapprove), and during intermission was told to "get my cough under control" and to "leave the concert completely and go home."  Then the man who told me to leave went up to my friends and said "if you were good mates, you would send her home."  Then the usher came up to me and said that "we have had a lot of complaints, even the stage manager said something."  Now I realize my cough was kind of loud but I was not the only one continually coughing.  He told me to go home basically and when I refused he said he would put me by a seat near the door and give my throat lozenges.  The whole second half I only coughed about twice and made sure to do it only during the really loud parts of the song as to not bother anyone.  Then two rows in front of me a fight broke out during the clapping at the end of the performance between two men until finally the man said "let's take this outside" and they left together.  I didn't even know that phrase "let's take this outside" was actually used; I always thought it was a joke saying, but clearly not.  Also, I never knew that symphonies and Beethoven drew such a rough crowd.  I mean these people are listening to classical music so I thought they would be classy people.  Clearly I was mislead by this word "classical."  Then last night I laid awake for five hours until 7 am due to coughing and finally watched a movie and was given cough syrup with codeine in it (which is served over the counter in Australia so don't worry I'm not some drug fiend) and slept til 3:30 pm.  So basically, the cough is back.  Although during my whooping cough research they said lot of people get it back for about two weeks or so and then it goes away completely.  In other words, my entire time in Australia will be infused with the whooping cough.  Awesome!

     This last week and this upcoming week will and have been all about school work. Basically my last class is on Thursday and I'll be done with work completely by November 1.  I have an exam coming up on Thursday for my International Relations class and I'm really really really really worried about it so if you think of it, send up a prayer for me and yes, I do mean this in all seriousness.  I have two 10 page papers to do as well but fortunately I'm half way done with one of them.  I leave October 24 for Tasmania and get back the 28th.  Then on the 30th I leave for Ayer's Rock and Darwin and get back the 11th.  So again, I will not be able to write much because I'll be gone for so long but I'll a post in in between my two trips so that it won't be as long as this one.