I guess we'll start with Thursday. Thursday I took a walk around Sydney city with prima Ale and her baby Daniel. We started off with a quick lunch at the Sydney Fish Market, a series of warehouses with all the fresh daily catches overlooking a harbor. We bought a dozen fresh Pacific rock oysters (raw, with lime of course), fried calamari, and some fish Kebabs (dipped in sweet chili sauces.) I'm pretty sure this was the first time I have eaten raw oysters, and I loved it!
The sky was bright blue with big puffy white clouds, the weather was warm and all the sail boats were anchored in the harbor...it was just a fantastic outdoors meal! (Fighting the sea gulls for my calamari was a pain... geez they really are obnoxious out here!) After that we wandered around Darling Harbor and snuck a peek past the Sydney aquarium and wildlife world, then took a ferry from Darling to the Circular Quay harbor (home of the famous Opera House.) The ferry was fantastic (even better than the sunset harbor cruise last week because the views of the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge in the sun were just incredible!) At Circular Quay we hopped on the trains back to Ale's house and I packed a rushed bag for a weekend in the bush!
Two trains later and nearly a 2 hour journey, I arrived in Windsor to start my weekend reunion with the high school group I led in Thailand last winter. Of course, the 18 year old boys wanted to meet up and go straight to the pub. And that we did, drinks on them the whole night and some embarrassing videos of me singing Karaoke to Ace of Base's "All that she wants." All in all they were very well behaved :)
I am seriously impressed with Aussie hospitality...I have never felt so welcome as a foreigner before! The boys (Brendan, Gilly and Pat) & their families have opened up their homes, become tour guides/chauffeurs, offered me food and drink for free. It's just incredible how polite everyone has been! Anyways, Thursday night ended without drama and Friday morning the boys took me to the Blue Mountains world heritage parks. The mountains and the valleys turn blue because the oil from all the Eucalyptus trees mixes with the mist and creates a blue tint. They boys taught me everything they knew about Aborignial myths and folklore surrounding the mountains and told me great legends of the Rainbow Serpent who carved the Australian landscape that Aboriginals still believe today. We took hikes, scenic railway cars, gondolas and drives through the parks and it was massive! We stopped for lunch in a local park and took a break from all the sightseeing to teach me rugby...and I'm pretty good at it too!
They also took me off the beaten path to a local spot, where we hiked through massive bush to a look out point called Glenbrook, and watched the sunset mix with the blue mist...we told ghost stories and scared ourselves to death as we hiked out of the bush in near dark back to the car! **I keep forgetting---all of the world's deadliest animals live here...gotta be more careful and stop letting high schoolers make all the decisions!**
Today (Saturday) I've moved in with Margie, one of the high school teachers who came on the trip. She's taken me in and showed me around her village, Hawkesbury. It's all farmland out here and she took me to her dad's farm (45 acres!) who raises all sorts of strange animals: chinese silky chickens and alpacas to name the strangest. I got chased by a herd of alpacas today since he thought it would be funny to hand me the food bucket (city slicker that I am and all that!)
Margie's an artist, so her home is filled with antiques, paintings and sculptures. She's taken me to a few local art galleries, mostly Aboriginal, and also took me to the oldest church in Australia for Devonshire 'High' Tea: scones, teas and biscuits. It's all farmland out here, but it's got the flavor of English countryside...and culture, definitely! It's strange though, because the oldest church in Australia was built, by and for, the first generation of convicts who were kicked out of England and sent overseas to serve their sentences...these Aussies are so proud of their convict heritage it's hilarious!
Margie's partner, Peter is a great character too. He's a Vietnam war vet who lost his leg. He's into model building, so the house is decorated with model sail boats, air craft carriers, planes and trains he's been building for years. His latest project is a massive life-size replica of a Super Marine S-5 plane built in 1927 (a forerunner for Bristish Spit Fire which they say won the Great War.) In his garage (between the two antique Jags) he's got the guts of a plane being built and I keep thinking...this is Peter and Dad's idea of a playground! His friend helps him build it, and he's another vet (Navy) and once they got wind of our family and the military background they couldn't get enough story sharing out of their systems. Hopefully in two years time they'll finish the plane and have it ready for displays in museums or air shows.
I must have said something right, because Mom and Dad you're invited to stay here with Margie and Peter if you ever come to visit me in August. You would LOVE it out here! They have a huge property, overlooking the valley and the lowlands, and in the early am you can see wallabies hopping around their back yards foraging for foods...so cute! Tomorrow is the high school BBQ. All the kids and Margie have put together this Thailand reunion tomorrow, and the kids are great...they're all so excited about introducing me to their parents! It'll be great to see them and spend the day with them and for some reason they're insisting on me sticking around until Monday morning to visit them at school. Monday afternoon I will be back in Sydney city and back with prime Ale where she's promised a visit to the famous Taronga Zoo, and pancakes in the oldest district known as the Rocks overlooking the Sydney harbor...yumm.
Happy as here in Sunny OZ!
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