The End of Australia...

So sorry that this is so late in getting posted – Argentina has been full of adventures so we’ve been getting back pretty tired. Also – I know blogging is going to take a lot of time and effort, so I avoid getting around to it when I can. These next blogs WILL be split into parts – I have a journal entry written on the plane ride from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia that covers up to that point, but after that there is no journaling. So up to that point will be a nice meaty full blog and after that point will be a starved blog. Sorry.

Tuesday was spent in Brisbane again, this time visiting the museums and art galleries, thought the most fun was the art museum. The regular museum had an anthology of swimsuits which was pretty amazing, and the art museum had an anthology of hats. After seeing all the hats there was an opportunity to make your own out of construction paper and tissue paper. Which we of course did. And then wore while walking around the area. We got a few odd looks, but we’re used to that. We ended up leaving them in a bathroom in one of the museum-y places. After that, we walked around the area of Brisbane that houses the Cultural Center and museums/art gallery and found a bookstore that Sarah had wanted to check out (this was achieved by asking people if they knew where the “warehouse type store with ‘art sale’ and ‘book sale’ signs in the windows” was).

The night was spent at the Englishes again, and in the morning we took the train up to the Gold Coast. Jana picked us up and we met Trudy (one of the girls that lives in the area) for brunch. We ended up going to the beach but not going in the water, then walking down to Surfers’ Paradise from wherever we were, and deciding that we didn’t want to try surfing because the waves looked pathetic and it was chilly. Also it would involve renting wetsuits and boards which seemed just a little too involved at the time. We eventually wandered into a bookstore and wound up asking for a used bookstore, after which we were directed to Broad Beach – another lengthy walk. We found the bookstore by asking random strangers where the used bookstore was. Everyone knew what we were talking about… Dan (one of the guys who lives in the area) came to pick us up and bring us back to Jana – he was the one that was supposed to give us surfing lessons until we changed our minds, though he decided to come and surf anyways – eventually agreeing that the waves were pathetic to nonexistent.

The next morning we flew out to Sydney and got day passes for public transportation around Sydney. The YHA that we stayed in wound up being right in the harbour area which is AWESOME. The YHA was built in an area called “the Rocks” apparently? -and wound up being right on top of an excavation site for the area originally settled by the first people that arrived in Australia – convicts, I think, from England. I should really pay more attention to the history aspect of things when I’m learning about them, so that when I actually attempt to use the information I’m not all, “I think” and “supposedly, I guess?” so yeah. Anyways, the area has a lot of stairs hidden randomly between buildings that you have to use to get places quickly, and some places seem to be only accessible by using the stairs. We were quite confused at first. After getting rid of our bags, we wound up getting food at a little French café (amazing!) and crossing the bridge. It’s big and kind of ugly, but the engineering/architecture seem to be pretty interesting, so of course we enjoyed that. Then we used our transportation passes to take a ferry back across the harbour and see the opera house that way. I’m unsure of how many miles we’d put in by this point that day and over the course of the trip, but my feet were hurting, and my Toms have a hole worn in the toe (now patched with electrical tape). We went back to the French café to have more food and read our books till after dark, then went to see the opera house again at night, this time up close. All in all, the last day in Australia was quite enjoyable and rewarding.