Blue Water, White Death

Well, I suppose that where I left off is a good place to pick up. I jumped out of a plane. And the parachute didn’t open. No, I’m just kidding, it opened. Everything was fine. It went sort of like this. I got picked up from my hostel and realized I was the only white guy there. Everyone else on the bus was Asian. Why are 90% of all tourists Asian? Anyway, we were told we’d have a 10 minute drive to the location. More like an hour later, we arrived at a house in the middle of basically nowhere with a plane and a big grass field. They took about six or seven people at a time and I went up on the last flight. We had about a 20 minute taxi up and then it was just…down. We scooted out the plane and away we went. It was cold, and fast, really fast. Oh, and really fun. And that’s really all I have to say about that. It was fast and fun. For about ten minutes after we were back on the ground I just shook because I still had so much adrenaline and nothing to do with it. So thumbs up for that.

I got to Sydney just fine and landed about 6:00 pm and texted Mauro to see if he was still in Sydney because I knew he was spending most of his holiday there. You guys remember Mauro right? My friend from Netherlands who I ran around with the first week I was in AU? Well, anyway, he’s a real fun, real easy going, real nice guy. Well, it turns out he was still in Sydney. Actually, he was staying in the same hostel as me! It was his last night, which was a bummer, but he walked me around the city and gave me a crash course on where to go for what and how to get where. Then we grabbed some street food (yom!) and headed back to Elephant (the backpackers I’m staying at). Mauro told me to meet him in thirty minutes to go back out for the night. I figured why not. Thirty minutes later I met Mauro and we went into a room on my floor where a handful of people were hanging out and getting ready for the evening. I met some British girls—Meg and Natalie—and some Swedish girls—Agnes and a girl who I can’t remember/pronounce her name—and off we went to Darling Harbor. The British girls were broke, like had two dollars in their account, and were severely inebriated upon leaving Elephant. That aside, they taught me a great philosophy for going out:  if you don’t have money with you, you won’t spend it. So simple, but so brilliant. Anyway, I kept them from running into light poles and traffic on our way to Darling Harbor and promptly lost them upon getting into the club, which was fine with me. I spent the rest of the night with Mauro and the Swedish girls—there were five of them total and Mauro apparently had been hanging out with them all week. We called it a night early and came back around midnight and spent the next few hours talking with the girls while they tried to teach us Swedish phrases. I was actually amazed that our conversation lasted that long. Usually, my small talk goes something like this:  “What’s your name? Where are you from? What’re you doing in Australia? So…tattoos?” and if they don’t have anything to say about tattoos I’m kind of out of things to say. But I asked what the Swedish stereotype is and they said “Ikea and meatballs.” So there you have it. Sweden in a nutshell. Ikea. Meatballs.

Today I didn’t have a plan. I woke up around 9:00 and just started walking. I grabbed a Starbucks (I know, I couldn’t believe me either) and walked down to Darling Harbor and went into the Sydney Aquarium. Wow. Just wow. It was amazing and now the idea I had for a thigh sleeve has been completely revamped. I am now armed with hundreds of new sea creatures and ideas to get put on me. If you ever make it to Sydney, go to the aquarium. I then got lunch at a café on the harbor and grabbed dessert from the Lindt restaurant. Yes, it’s an entire chocolate restaurant. I walked for a good while down to the opera house, saw that, and then realized I’d left my sun glasses on the table at the restaurant. So I walked back and miraculously found them! Win! Since I was back at Darling, I walked across the way to the Hard Rock Café, had a pint, and spent an hour reading music magazines and looking at the memorabilia.

I then returned to my hostel and found that my computer won’t connect to the internet here, so I went to Starbucks to use theirs. So that’s cool.  After that I went to China town and had dinner. It started pouring while I was eating and after dinner I went across the street into a little Asian mall. I got a bubble tea—boba tea—pearl drink—whatever you want to call it. But it was great! I hadn’t had one since I was in NYC with Tyler and Chris two years ago! It was still raining, so I ran from awning to awning with the rest of Sydney until I got back to Elephant. I was quite moist when I got back. So I typed this and I’ll post it tomorrow at Starbucks.

I do have a plan for tomorrow though! It goes something like this:  breakfast at Lindt, then the art museum for their contemporary art gallery, hopefully to the Sydney Tower for a fancy lunch, then up to Kings Cross for a look about, then look for a good place to get a photo of the opera house and the harbor bridge in one shot. If I can’t get lunch at the Tower, I’ll have lunch in Kings Cross and go to the Tower (which is the tallest building in Sydney) for the sunset and get dessert and a drink. Yes, I’m going to do it like my mother would, I’m going to have my dessert BEFORE I go out for dinner. So hopefully that all goes smashingly.

 A blurry picture of Darling at night

 Moon jellyfish 

 Blue water, white death 

 Been there. Done that. 

 Nearly seven months ago, on a crazy night, Alison Jenkins tied this on me and it hasn't let go yet. 

Some side notes:  Since I wasn’t in town for my mom’s birthday, I know where I’m going to take her out to when she comes to Sydney in July, but shhhhhh! It’s a secret. I talk about my brother to nearly everyone I meet because he’s way cooler and more interesting than I am. Sydney reminds me of a cleaner NYC. Also, I’ve seen doppelgängers of loads of my friends here. The other week, I saw a blond Bradlee Merideth. Yeah. I also have seen/heard of so many cool ideas that I want to try and get started in Springfield when I get back.  Finally, I’ve got HEAPS of videos to upload once I’m back in Ballarat, yes, including my skydive. Get excited.

Happy Easter y’all

~’Merica

P.S. 

Lindt wasn't open so I had breakfast at a place called Blackbird. Cappuccino, omelet and, of course, a side of bacon. 

Take care