Bondi con't

A few more things learned:

1)I should have brought dress shoes with me. I was unaware that every bar in Australia requires you to wear pants and loafers. WTF. Even some by the beach do this.

2)Bondi beach may have a city mandate requiring you to be attractive to go on the beach. Luckily, I was able to sneak on without notice.

3)Jetlag is an old wives' tale. I felt fine the first day, and have been sleeping in till 10-11 which, I know what you're thinking, is pretty early for me.

4)Everything costs more here. My coke was $4. My beer $6 and so on. I'm no financial analyst, but this is not good for my budget.

5)I should have brought flip-flops. What idiot comes to Australia without flipflops. This guy. Instead, I've gotten to look really cool wearing running shoes to the beach. I might as well be from New Jersey and have jeans on as well (my apologies to anyone from new jersey....not for my statement but for the fact that you are from new jersey.....j/k).

Anyway, guess that's enough for now. Traveling to NZ tomorrow. Guess I should probably start looking into where I'm going to stay that first night. Ohhh procrastination. Wouldn't be a vacation without last second planning.

Pictures will be up on facebook once I get a wifi connection somewhere. Pics are up on my facebook page if you haven't checked yet: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2702981&id=5704569

Later everybody.

Bondi Beach

Sydney or the place with the opera house

Just a quick update with the few minutes I have access to the internet.

Things learned in Sydney/Bondi Beach:

1)Beers are indeed very expensive here (though still delicious and thirst quenching)
2)83 degree weather and 79 degree water in February is the way to be
3)Cockatoos are a normal bird here and not just an expensive, exotic pet bird
4)Flat whites are the greatest drink ever invented (I already know it's what I'm going to miss the most)
5)Bondi beach is pretty awesome
6)The ozone apparently does help stop sunburns because they seem to have a shortage on O3 and indeed you burn easily (I loaded up on sunscreen and still am kinda burnt)
7)Flying foxes take over Sydney botanical gardens past 5pm and are quite annoying and supposedly carry some weird rabies (go figure).

Sidenote: Special thanks to Dramamine for making the flight much shorter (oh and the podcast Radiolab)

addendum: actually, only my legs got burnt because I, being the genius I am, didn't put sunscreen on them. So I'm not gonna give the ozone that much credit though it may be the first time my legs have gotten burnt. Tou che, radiation, tou che.

Sydney Harbor

Mark's Tips for Enjoyable Transcontinental Travel

Well, tomorrow I leave for Australia (hopefully I didn't just jinx myself). In honor of that fact, here are a few tips I've been practicing to make such flights more enjoyable:

1) Remember: Leave your packing till the day of the flight. This will give you some excitement and exercise prior to racing to the airport to catch your flight. Everyone loves practicing grace under pressure; it brings the best out of all of us. And remember people, it's illegal for a cop to pull you over if you are late for a flight, so just ignore those sirens.

2)Play a vigorous sport the night before your flight. This will prepare your body for the 25 hours of not moving it is about to undergo. You can even hyper-extend your knee during the activity, because nothing makes a cramped 13 hour flight more pleasurable than agonizing knee pain.

3)Drink heavily with your friends the night before a flight. This will supply your body with the nutrients it needs during the flight. It will also act as a sleep aid to help you get those much needed 5 hours of sleep before a long flight. And also, dehydration is a must for those long humid flights.

4) Last much not least: plan as little as possible. Finding places to sleep is part of the fun of going on a vacation. And having a flight booked to a city that is currently under extreme distress will just make finding a rental car that much easier.

Well I guess that's enough for now. Just follow these simple steps, like I have, and I'm sure will make your journey as enjoyable as mine will be.

But seriously, so long to everyone in the states. Try to keep the country in tact without me. Everyone will be sorely missed and I'll do my best to prevent all of the 900 deadly Australian animals from getting me. See ya in July!

Australia, prepare to get a new convict

Well, I finally booked my flight. Not as last minute as I would have liked but ahh well. Flying into Sydney on the 25th (i.e. leaving on the 23rd, since traveling to Australia is really time travel; when I come back in 4 months, I'll actually be 25 years old. It's science; look it up). I'm looking  forward to hanging out in Bondi for a weekend before a roadtrip around the south island of New Zealand. While in NZ I just have two simple goals: to walk on a glacier (pronounced in the proper British manner: glass-e-er, thank you very much) and footrace a penguin. As long as one happens, I'll be happy.

Post NZ, I'll be in Melbourne for about 4 days. Perhaps I'll go to Rod Laver arena to see where I could have watched the Aussie Open....damnit. I'm quite sure there's a lot to do in Melbourne, and if not, I'm sure there are plenty of pubs. Maybe I can meet up with my crazy winemaker from a couple harvests back who lives there now. I think I'll be staying with some friends of my fam who live just outside the city. Either way I aspect fun times.

After that, it's off to Mount Gambier to get picked up by my wine-master and sold into slavery in the cellar and lab; But seriously, I have no idea what I'll be doing there; Harvest winemaker? wtf, mate? I'm assuming it'll be a lot of everything since it's a relatively small winery. I'll be living in the boisterous metropolis of Penola; population appox. 1300. So essentially a little bit bigger than my graduating highschool class. I guess I'll just be "the american" in town, and/or the "distasteful american" in town (I'll try my best not to be the latter, but that's basically what I already am in the US anyway).  Maybe I can join the local footie team cause there's no WAY I'd get injured again in another contact sport. Also, Penola isn't exactly a prime FIOS area, so god knows if I'll even be able to post anything to this blog again (not like anyone other than me knows this exists anyway). I think Penola is only about an hour or so from a beach though, so I got that going for me. Also, the winery is letting me use some old "ute" to cruise to and from work (and possibly else where, though they tell me it's not the most reliable car). Well, cheers to the two/three of you that read this far; no refunds....that's it. Please enjoy this hilarious Australian TV show satire/overdub: