Melbourne, Sydney, next stop Delhi

The last time you heard from us we were wandering around paradise. From paradise we flew directly to Melbourne. There, we were warmly taken in by Liz’s Aunt, Pip, and her five cousins. Their home just outside the city felt like an oasis for us after weeks of roughing it around the east coast of Australia, travelling with only our Jansports and eating meals of budget pasta and canned beans. After making certain compromises during our impromptu Aussie tour (not to mention the bites Liz had from our most recent hostel that looked suspiciously like the work of bed bugs!!) we all appreciated feeling at home for a week.

As much as I’d appreciated the natural beauty of the Gold Coast and Cairns, I couldn’t help but feel relieved to be in the middle of people, buildings and urban life again; it’s my nature, I’m from New York! The three of us happily explored the myriad neighborhoods Melbourne has to offer. We visited the Greek quarter, where we stopped form some friendly conversation, spanakopita, and frappethes. We got an even better sense of the prominent Greek population in Melbourne at the Australian Open, where we spent the day watching the Greek Cypriot Bagdhatis play against a Swede (and win, to the excitement of many rowdy Greek fans). We spent a day wandering through the Queen Victoria Market, and each bought a new article of clothing to add to the wardrobes we’re all getting very tired of. To celebrate Australia Day we visited the Immigration Museum on a whim. Not the most Australian way to spend the day but probably the most appropriate given the occasion.

Leaving Melbourne we learned Travelling Lesson #84: ALWAYS verify which airport you’re flying out of before checking in at the wrong one. We failed to do this before arriving at one of Melbourne’s (apparently) two airports an hour before our flight to Sydney; we couldn’t figure out why our boarding passes weren’t printing out at the “easy check-in” station. When the Jetstar employee kindly explained to us that our plane was taking off an hour away from where we were located, at a different airport, we laughed the whole thing off and moved ourselves to a later flight. Ultimately more good than bad came from the blunder: we gained an extra day in Melbourne, learned an important lesson, and I now have the opportunity to share this valuable insight, saving you from making the same mistake.

I can’t remember if this is something I read somewhere, or maybe Liz said it when we were going from one place to the next (or was it my mom?) but Lesson #85 would have to be: Travelling is leaving. We’ve been back in Sydney for over a week now and we’re already leaving for New Delhi (via Abu Dhabi, because it’s on the way) in four days. All I can do is take in what’s left of my time in Australia. The other day we took a trip to the Blue Mountains. I’m convinced you can’t find a similar phenomenon anywhere else in the world. The idea of a blue mountain range seemed to me fantastical at first, like something someone could only dream of or paint or write a poem about. But these mountains are actually blue! I wasn’t thrilled about going to see them at first. The day before the trip I was tired from spending all day at the beach (it’s hard, I know) and waking up the next day at 6 am only to travel three hours on trains only to walk around some mountains all day did not sound appealing. But Liz insisted and luckily I gave in. We saw the “Three Sisters”–an incredible sandstone formation, hiked around the area all day, rode on the Katoomba Scenic Railway (the steepest railway in the world), and admired the greyish-blue tinge the mountains take on from a distance. The unique color has something to do with the oil released from all the eucalyptus trees…but don’t ask me why.

As our time in Aus comes to an end, I’m finding it harder to deny the daunting landmark that lies before us: the halfway point of our gap year. Our perfectly proportioned itinerary of 3-2-3-2 months, with the larger portions of time spent on the more trying parts of the globe, indicates that we have now survived 20 weeks together and have another 20 ahead of us. Liz reminds me everyday, making good use of her cell phone’s “count down” application: 192 days until my birthday, 4 days until India, 83 days until Israel, 201 days before I go to University, 1070 days until the end of the world (according to the Mayan calendar), and, all the more daunting, 144 days until the end of our gap year. I refuse to dwell on the inevitable end of what we believe to be the best year out of our current 18/19 years; the glass is still half full. India here we come!

Sunny Melbourne

Learning Cricket

The Blue Mountains

The Three Sisters

Returning home

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