Saturday 21/8/10

With the window closed last night, the room was just a bit warmer than it was the night before. Unfortunately, I woke up at 7AM which was a little early but I did have like, 11 hours of sleep that night. From the grocery store yesterday, we had breakfast purchased. It was the Muesli and Yogurt which tasted fantastic. Muesli is this sort of granola/oatmeal but it doesn’t need to be cooked and goes awesomely over yogurt. It had fruits and nuts in it and I don’t know what name brand tastes like but the home brand from Woolworths was pretty awesome and half the price. The yogurt was peaches and mangoes so I was sold on that.
After breakfast we got together and went to McDonalds to get the free WIFI to facebook and Skype. It is seeming, for right now at least, I spend the morning checking up on my updates back from home and talk to everyone who is available. I’m glad that the McDonalds has it simply because I don’t feel stupid sitting in McDonalds talking on my head set but places like the library that has internet is not really appropriate to do. I also noticed that McDonalds over here has a dinner package, 4 burgers, 4 fries, and 4 cokes for 20 bucks. I think, though it is a good marketing and money saver idea, it is kind of gross to think of a whole family bonding around the dinner table with McDonalds.
Leaving McDonalds, David and I walked back to the hostel, which is right around the corner, and talked to Forrest about an AFL match. It’s a football league that is kind of like rugby but kind of different. It was at the Sydney Cricket Garden and we looked at a map that would take us there. After putting our stuff away and getting situated, we left to get some lunch since it was around, 1:15pm.
We ended up at Coles. The fresh bread there is so cheap (45 cents a piece) that David and I each picked up one of those, expecting to make a sandwich. Looking around, the deli meat is really expensive. Most are around 18 dollars a kg, so that would be 36 dollars a pound. However, there was a whole roasted chicken for $10.80. I can’t seem to understand how prices for meat get figured. Three tiny chicken breasts are around 20 bucks a piece, but a whole chicken is only 10.80? And chicken prepared on a stick is only maybe a dollar and a half for one. But at any rate, David and I got fresh bread and a chicken for lunch. It came out to be around 13 dollars which is awesome. We sat inside the building of the store by the “burger joint” and ate our food. The chicken, to our surprise, even had stuffing in it. Score.
After lunch, David and I started walking towards the Sydney Cricket Gardens. On our walk, we stopped into the chocolate place because knowing me, I cannot live without chocolate. =) It was simply amazing. The people there decorated them in like intricate flower patterns and everything you can think of. Not decorated with icing but almost like screen printed this stuff on. If it weren’t 13 dollars for 5 pieces I would have totally gotten some. But as David described, we are trying at some points to live as “punk rock” as possible, and today we totally did that.
The walk to the SCG was not as far as anticipated. Talking to Forrest he said that the Aboriginals were playing at 10 to 5 and the Australian team was playing after that. David and I got to the SCG around 3:00 pm and saw this beautiful pond right beside it and since we thought we were early, we went and walked around. It was incredible, and we saw this awesome looking black swan. David also spotted what seemed to be a dead bird in the water, and had to take a picture of it because it is an experience…yeah. After our little walk around the beautiful pond we decided to look into times and prices for the AFL game. The gentleman working the ticket booth informed us that the Aboriginals had already started playing around 2:50. Unfortunately, tickets were $39 which was a little bit out of my price range considering I’ve got no idea what AFL actually is and I had no idea if I would like it or not.
So off we went, to do more exploring and walking around. Right past the SCG was fox studios Australia! Woooo. If only Heath Ledger was alive I’d be all up on that. It was amazing to me though how much trust Australia puts in itself and its people. My example being that two of the gates to fox studios were not for public access, and it clearly stated so. But the gates to the studios were wide open. No one tries to get into those gates, they know it is off limits. I think that incredibly awesome. In the US we would have those gates closed and locked with security guards at all times. I love that the people really are trusting.
Next on our walk we saw a ton of tennis courts and a big open field for cricket. I thought it was really awesome, and I even stopped to watch for a bit, but I have now realized that I don’t know anything about cricket. Watching, I saw a group of people in white standing on what seems to be a small field. Someone pitches, something? Maybe a ball, I’m not really sure, and another person takes a cricket bat which looks like a flattened wooden bat at the top, and tries to hit whatever the pitcher is throwing. Very confused, David and I took pictures of this event (because who doesn’t need a picture of a game they’ve got no idea how to play?) and continued our walk. Without knowing where we were going, we just walked. And since we did not want to walk down a street we had already been down, we decided to walk down a different street and cut over eventually. We walked longer than we thought we would, and at some point ended up in Surry Hills, from what I have heard is a nice neighborhood surrounding Sydney’s Central Business District. It was a cute neighborhood from what I saw and I really liked it. The houses around this area are just simply beautiful architecture. They are just incredible to look at, and I will have pictures posted on facebook of them soon.
We then were not in Surry Hills anymore, but in a really poppin’ place. I can’t tell you specifically where we were because I sincerely don’t know, but I could take a wild guess. While Australia is full of Asian people because they are so close, the town I was in had a ratio of probably 95% Asians to 5% everyone else. I believe I was in China town. Now, for the ignorant like me, I thought once in my life that there was only a china town in New York City. Not true. There are China towns in almost every major city, including Sydney. There were also stores that I had never heard of around, but when David saw Footlocker, he was in to see how shoe prices compare.
Now first, I’d like to say that while prices here I assumed were more expensive because I wasn’t really sure how to convert KG to pounds, but going into the footlocker they are about twice as much. A $40 pair of converse back in the US is $99 here. $100 Nikes are on sale for $199. Absolutely crazy.
The next thing I want to mention about the footlocker is something off the wall that I noticed. It wasn’t until our third day in Australia that we saw a black person. I say black because when having this conversation with David, he asked me what the politically correct term for them was, considering they are not African Americans. African Australians? I’m not sure. It seems a little weird to notice that, or count them, but trust me, there is a reason. On our walks yesterday David and I saw two black people. Walking into the footlocker, there were three more. I don’t mean to be stereotypical, but really?
As we continued walking towards Kings Cross without a map, we just imagined where our hostel was as compared to where we were. We walked around through a busy place, and around the city are always random people around doing something musical for money. An emo looking young man was singing under the bridge we walked into. He had an acoustic guitar and an amplifier, along with a microphone. No, he was not singing anything we knew like every other song we have heard here so far. Everything so far that we have heard on the radio, or even seen on TV has been American. I can’t count how many times I have heard Eminem, from his old school stuff to the newest song to date, Eminem with Rhianna. No, it was a song that this young man had written. While I applaud anyone who has the creativity to write music and is willing to play it in front of people, he maybe should have rethought his decision to do so. Just while walking by his lyrics were this, “woman like a man, woman like a man, woman like a man but I need you like a woman.” After the shock of hearing this, and the half terrified looks David and I gave each other, we both burst into full laughter. That was one of the most bizarre, amazing, hilarious, and ridiculous things we had heard so far.
Just a bit later on the same walk, there was a man who was playing music from a CD player for money. I do not think that deserves money, especially because I could do the exact same thing. While I feel bad seeing homeless people on the streets with cardboard signs, David pointed out that we cannot afford to give them anything, since we are in fact, homeless too.
One of the last amazing things we saw on our walk back was the Lamborghini, Ferrari, Mazarati, and Bently stores all in close proximity. I am not in any means a car person, nor would I ever claim to be able to identify the simplest cars like a Honda or Ford, but those cars are really nice. And the only way to get them out of the store? Drive them out the front door. They were incredible to see especially because it may have been the first time in my life seeing any one of those really expensive cars.
The second most amazing car I have never seen in my life passed right before me this day as well. While marveling at the “futuristic monorail,” there was not one, not two, but three Rolls Royces right in a row. Two regulars, one a limo. Now, I remember seeing a Rolls on the TV before, and I’ve got no idea how much it costs, but I’m pretty sure it was past a million. They were white and marvelous.
We finally got back to the hostel around 530, and David and I were both feeling a bit tired. We decided to take a power nap, and I set my mobile phone alarm for 30 minutes from the time we laid down. To my surprise (and I’m not sure why) the alarm either didn’t go off, or I didn’t put the sound on my phone like I thought I did, and slept through the vibration. The only reason I woke up was because one of our new roommates came into the room. We had seen 4 bags when we walked in, but no sightings before then. One of our new roommates was the French guy we had briefly seen when he was checking in. I definitely slept too long, and that nap put me in a daze for the rest of the evening. It was now 7:30 pm, and David and I walked to Coles again for some dinner. Since the food that we have been eating has been delicious but not exactly nutritious, we decided to get some salad. Instead of getting a prepared salad which wasn’t very big and didn’t have much in it, we picked up things to make our own. Lettuce, carrots, cucumber, red pepper, cauliflower, bacon, and cheese all for 14 dollars. We added a chocolate cake which looked absolutely delicious for another 5. The bill ended up being less than 20 bucks which means that both of our meals all together today were around 39 dollars, or 20 dollars a person. Suck it Rachel Ray and $40 a day, we did it in half that!
Coming back to the hostel with all of our goods, we took them into the kitchen. I didn’t realize until that moment that the people here, who are really nice, don’t give two bits about cleaning up after themselves. I would kill to find clean silverware, or bowls, or plates, or really anything. Thank goodness we’re not doing any heavy cooking yet, because finding clean pots and pans could be a nightmare. I would say that is the only complaint that I have about the hostel. David and I use something and we automatically wash it and put it to dry for other people to use. We walked in to a really full industrial sized sink. It wasn’t full of pots and pans, it was full of dirty nasty water and all of the pots and pans were sitting around the sink. With that said, we made due getting our salads together which were pretty delicious. The lettuce was weird to me, but I don’t know if that’s because my head was groggy or what. David thought it tasted fine, so I’ll have to trust him and try it again. We then ate a piece of our 5 dollar 8 inch round chocolate mud pie cake which was absolutely delicious and I know will give me many more happy times before we finish it all. During our dinner we sat in the lounge with a few other backpackers and finished up “I Love You, Man” with Paul Rudd. Part of me loves that I know everything these people want to watch, and part of me wants to see new and exciting Australian TV.
After the movie ended, David and I walked our food upstairs to the fridge in the room so we could go explore the night life. Our new roommates were in the room when we got back. Three German kids, just graduated from Gymnasium (high school) planning on backpacking the east coast of Australia from 3 days ago when the arrived through May or June. I never wondered where Europeans went to back pack. Americans go to Europe to backpack, but rightfully so, no one wants to come to the US to backpack. Why? Because there isn’t a really good path to do it, plus we don’t have hostels anywhere. So I found out that the 19 year old Germans were doing their backpacking in Australia which is pretty sweet. When we got in the room they were playing cards and drinking. I asked them if that was what they were going to do all night, and their reply was no, that they were just pregaming to go to the pub. That indeed. They asked us if we were going out and we talked a little about it, and it came up that David does not drink. While I thought the conversation was normal, David actually thought it was pretty uncomfortable because people from other cultures don’t really understand the hardcore/straight edge scene that can be very popular in the US. The first question they had was if he had a bad experience with alcohol. No, not that. The second was if it was a religious thing... not that either. I don’t think they understood but they accepted it and moved on.
David and I left to go enjoy night life because we were both feeling up to it. We didn’t find a pub to go to, I think that we need to be led to the right one with a group of kids. Most of the pubs seem to be too loud to actually enjoy anyone else’s company. I enjoy drinking, but have not had a drink here so far. The biggest reason is that drinking is expensive, probably around $8 a pint of beer, and with such little finances I don’t want to have to come home because a lack of money and say, “I could have potentially stayed longer if I hadn’t gotten drunk so often.” Kings Cross definitely is the party town of Sydney. I can tell not only because of the people, but the vomit all over the sidewalks once 10pm hits. Once off the one block of Darlinghurst st., everything got quiet. The night life dress is in a league of its own. All the women wear the tiniest things they own with the biggest heels they own. If they are wearing skirts as big as band aids in 40 degree F weather, I can’t wait to see what they wear in the summer, or maybe I can. If it is not a tiny skirt, it is the tightest pair of jeans or pants they own, still with the heels. My favorite of all of the attire so far for the night life is the sequins. I’m sure that soon in the US sequin dresses will be in because Australia is so closely linked to England who is a leader in fashion, but right now I am in shock. So much sequin. Most outfits were all sequins. The women don’t wear coats either, and high heel boots are very big. Even manly looking boots are in style.
Another thing that I have noticed is how green Australia is. Green as in environmental. The first thing I noticed was that some places have pre-measured toilet paper. It is probably two sheets of toilet paper, but never enough in my opinion. I always need to take two. I have also noticed one other major thing. Getting off the plane and every other toilet there has always been two buttons on the top. For no logical reason at all, David and I had always pushed the button on the right. One toilet I saw had a half full circle on the left button and a completely filled in circle on the right. Naturally, I pushed right, and watched the toilet water go in straight but ever so slightly spin in the opposite direction. It is not fake my friends, the Simpsons were correct, the toilets DO spin the opposite way down under. David finally asked one of the guys working in the hostel what the two buttons were. The left button was for a half flush, or for when you pee, and the right was a full flush, for pooping. Who would have thought to only half flush a toilet? The Aussies, that’s who. How awesome.
I still can’t figure out the temperature either. It said today was 19 degrees C which is 66 degrees F but I was freezing. Explain that.
Around 12 midnight David and I both hit the beds, with our new French roommate on his computer doing who knows what since we don’t get the internet. At 4 in the morning, two of our German friends arrived, so very drunk. One must have lost their step on the way in and wracked our bed. They tried to do that drunk quietness which never works. One even turned the light on even though we had left the bathroom light on for them. It only bothered me in the moment, but I quickly went back to sleep. The last German came in at 8 in the morning.
The sleep was good and it prepared me for day 4, which will be coming soon.