Australia, Part II - Sydney

The second leg of our trip took us to Sydney, which, along with its beautiful beaches and sights and harbors, is home to an apparently inordinate amount of beautiful people. Seriously, you could turn a corner and fall in love.

Ryan and I met up Casey and Ed there, staying first in a Kings Cross hotel before moving down to an apartment right across the street from Bondi Beach. We ate poorly and drank excessively, which is to say we lived quite well; we climbed rocks, enjoyed long walks on the beach (hand-holding optional, and sometimes not-so-optional), nearly burned a store down, discovered the wonders of Chili Chicken prepackaged sandwiches at the Australian 7-11's, and Ryan and I even squeezed in a rainy hike in the Blue Mountains in between.

Piss take. Let's try again:

Ryan gets in some piano practice at the Queen Victoria Building.

This is Waverley Cemetary, which overlooks the coast along the Beach Walk from Bondi down to Coogee. Not a bad place to be buried.

Ryan and I spent a day up in Katoomba, at the Blue Mountains northwest of Sydney. It was a particularly gloomy day, and here you can see the divide between the forest floor and the fog that's sunk in to the canyon, right at an overlook of the Three Sisters rock formation (only one pictured here).

End of Part II.

Australia, Part I - Terrigal/Wamberal (Central Coast)

I'm back, America. Aussieland was awesome. Here are some of my adventures.

Our first stop was Terrigal, a Central Coast town about an hour and half north of Sydney by train. It's about as picturesque as you can get. The evidence:

It's obscene how beautiful it is.

We're here to meet up with our good friend Alicia. Here she is.

Don't let the smile fool you. She's absolutely mad.

Alicia was wonderful enough to put us up in her home in Wamberal. Reminds me of the Goleta days.

I need me a veranda.

This is Alicia's friend Sarah. She hung out with me and Ryan all day, despite her first hangover after a long spell on the wagon.

What a trooper.

I pulled a rookie move and didn't load my film properly, so I spent the first day shooting half a roll of memories before I realized my goof. These shots are all from the second day, after "brekkie," as they say down under. That's b-fast to the rest of you.

Ryan fulfilling his duties as trip historian.

Sarah and Ryan on our hike up the Skillion, the top of which is where that first shot of Terrigal was taken.

Saturday morning fishing.

Ryan doing his shutterbug thing.

Rugby. Not, as we later learned, nearly as fun as Footy.


Ryan and Sarah take in the game.

Before Ryan and I packed up and headed back down to Sydney, Alicia and Sarah took us down to Alicia's family home for afternoon tea.

That's Paul on the right, Alicia's mom Sherry in the bright blue, little sister Holly behind mum, and in pink, Alicia's nan, Nan. Oh, and there was cake, too!

Sherry saw me rocking the ol' Canon AE-1 I inherited (read: stole) from my dad, and she dug up her not-as-old-but-nearly AE-1P. There was much excitement over this. Even our sweet, sweet straps matched, just hers was a little pinker. Go figure.

I'm pretty sure Alicia's going to "inherit" this from her mom, too.

Paul showing us his classic Australian Holden Torana SLR 5000. She's partly on blocks at the moment as Paul works on her, but the engine still roars.

Vanity shot.

Alicia's brother Harrison tearing it up on his RipStik.

He's a prodigy on this thing. Ryan, not so much.

In retrospect, I would've loved to have stayed longer. That's probably a theme that repeats throughout the trip, but here more than most.

We definitely need to make our way back here someday.

End of Part I.