On my way...

Well, I have a lot to say, and almost no time to say it. Today is my last full day here, and I am definitely sad. I miss Los Angeles a lot a lot a lot, but it is almost impossible to say goodbye to Sydney. This morning I got up early, drank a flat white, and walked from Martin Place to Paddy's Market. I did a little souvenir shopping and got a cheap-o chair massage at Market City in anticipation of the long day of traveling I'll be doing tomorrow. I had some tasty phở for lunch and then strolled around Circular Quay and the Botanic Gardens before coming home in the afternoon to finish packing. It was way too hot to stay out in the intense sun.

This evening I'm going to have the only acceptable last dinner one can get before leaving Sydney, a hot dog with mashed peas and potatoes at Harry's Café de Wheels. A little more strolling around some of the lovely city sights and then, alas, I will have to go to sleep and end this lovely day. I fly out tomorrow afternoon (Sydney time) and arrive tomorrow morning (L.A. time) thanks to the creepiness of the international date line. Friends and family in California, I can't wait to see you.

I will be keeping up the blog for a little while. There are a few more things about the last days of the journey that I want to share when I have the time, such as a review of the concert I saw at the Opera House the other night (The Swell Season is such a great band), and some ruminations about the whole trip. Also, I imagine there might be some interesting tidbits about life back at home, and the reverse culture shock that students are warned about when they go abroad. Since my gap year is continuing for a couple of months into a little more traveling on the East Coast and in Europe, I may well blog about those adventures on this site, also, because a walkabout doesn't have to be limited to one continent, now does it?

All my love, Australia. There are too many good things about you that I will miss, and I can't type about them right now because I'll get emotional and a girl's got to keep herself together. Not saying goodbye, because you all know I'll "smell ya later."

creepy-faced carny fun

It's 102 degrees Fahrenheit today! Plus some steamy humidity! So, I'm going to go jump in the pool in a few minutes. Last night Jono agreed to go to Luna Park with me, despite years of regarding it as a less-than-worthwhile way to spend an evening, but we ended up having a delightful time. I've seen it sitting on the edge of North Sydney for as long as I've been visiting Sydney, and it was never open for business when I was a kid, so I decided I wanted to go, once and for all.

Jono and I met at Circular Quay and took the ferry just across the Harbour to the familiar creepy smiling face. It was your pretty typical carnival/fair type of attractions, but we got unlimited passes (which are cost effective if you go on at least three rides) and had a delightful couple of hours. I suppose if we'd gotten there a little earlier we could have gone on some more rides (because there were some annoying queues, but nooothing like at amusement parks in L.A.). We went on the Rotor (one of those cling to the wall using centrifugal force rides) and the merry-go-round, then went into the "Coney Island" area to ride the giant slides. We went on the tango twirl (just a spinny rollercoaster thing), but the park was closing as we got off of that ride, so there was no time to go on the Ferris wheel. Here are many photos (this was kind of a coupley photo-shoot, so brace yourself -- click to view full size):

birthday cake

Yesterday was Jono's birthday, so while he was at work I used his mom's kitchen to bake a cake. I found a recipe that integrated his two favorite flavors (he hasn't got much of a sweet tooth), and even though they're not my two favorite flavors, it was absolutely the tastiest cake I've ever made. I really look forward to using this basic recipe and switching up the components a little to suit different peoples' tastes.

White Chocolate Cake with Fresh Fig Filling and White Chocolate Ganache, Garnished with Dried Wild Figs

Ingredients for Cake:
-Melted butter (to grease, unless using a silicon pan)
-180 g butter, chopped
-185 mL (3/4 cup) cold water
-2 eggs (room temperature), lightly whisked
-115 g (3/4 cup) self-raising flour, sifted
-150 g (1 cup) plain flour, sifted
-155 g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
-220 g white chocolate, chopped

Ingredients for Filling:
-1/2 lb fresh figs
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-juice of half a lemon
-2 tbsp sherry

Ingredients for Ganache:
-375 g white chocolate, chopped
-125 mL (1/2 cup) thickened cream

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 160º C. Brush 20cm cake pan (if metal) with melted butter. Line base and sides with non-stick baking paper.
2. Place chocolate, butter, and water in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until chocolate melts. Remove from heat and set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly.
3. Add sugar and egg and stir until just combined. Add flours and stir until well combined. Pour mixture into lined pan and bake for one hour or until moist crumbs cling to a toothpick inserted into center. Set aside for 30 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4. To make ganache, place chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan half0filled with simmering water (make sure bowl doesn't touch water) and stir with a metal spoon until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour or until mixture is thick and spreadable.
5. To make fig sauce, chop the figs finely. Boil until tender (DO NOT ADD WATER), then add the sugar and lemon juice. Cook until smooth. Remove from the fire and add sherry. It should have the consistency of jam.
6. Use a serrated knife to cut cake into 2 layers. Place bottom layer on a serving plate. Spread with half of the ganache, and top with fig filling (see below). Replace top half of cake, and spread with remaining ganache. Decorate with dried figs.

It was nummylicious and I am glad it turned out so well! I gotta give a shout out to Arielle, whose advice about the flour-siftage helped immeasurably!

true love and corsets

Last weekend, Jono, Jo, and I drove to Jenolan Caves to attend the wedding of our friends Sam and Marnie. Shara was a bridesmaid, Andrew was a cool guy, and perennial fun gal Lyndal was there to bring the parta-ay. The drive to Jenolan was long and pastoral, and once we got within an hour of the caves, the perilous windy road was a little bit nervewracking.

Jenolan Caves House has a monopoly on caves tourism, and it's necessary to drive over an hour away to get to a motel, café, supermarket, or any fast food. As a result, the food and lodging available there were nothing to write home about. But, it was such an enjoyable weekend with friends, and the caves and the wedding were so beautiful that it was worth the trip.

We stayed in the Gate House, which is a backpacker style accomodation just a minute's walk from the main Caves House lodging, and much more affordable. We had our own bathroom, bedrooms, and a little sitting room, which was perfect for us all to bounce around in while waiting for the main event. Some of the photos I'm going to post are mine, some are Jo's, and some are from the official photographer. (Click to view full size.)


So, as you can tell, the wedding itself was awesome. Shara baked the cake, too! We were in the caves from Friday night through Sunday afternoon. On Saturday most of us had a bunch of time to kill while the wedding party was getting ready, so we drove to the "nearest" "city" of Lithgow, which was...a special place. We got some brunch and some snacks and experienced all the joys that small town Australia has to offer. [/deadpan]

On Sunday, Jono, Jo, and I took advantage of having come all the way out to the caves to actually...see the caves. Of course, the wedding ceremony itself had been inside the caves (imagine all those high heels and corseted ladies making their way to the ceremony up all the narrow stone stairs with very little lighting!), but we wanted to take an official tour and see a little more of the varied features within the caves. None of my photos came out that well, but enjoy a little blurriness:

If you'd like to learn more about the Jenolan Caves, please visit these links. All my best to Sam and Marnie for the future!

Now that's a knife!

I am eating the touristiest, Aussiest meal ever right now: kanga banga sanga! That's kangaroo sausages in "outback grains & spices" bread with "tomato sauce."


I've enjoyed eating kangaroo meat a few times in the past, and it is a good meat to eat. Kangaroos are pesty here (read: sustainable), and it's a very low-fat meat, high in protein. Since it's a bit gamey, it's not the be-all and end-all of delicious meats, but it's definitely good to try. The wikipedia article for kangaroo meat is mildly interesting if you're a nerd like me.

"are those people or am i hallucinating?"

A couple of weeks ago, while I was quite sick with the flu (or whatever) which I came down with when I was at the Blue Mountains, I took a day trip to Canberra to see the Degas exhibit at the National Art Gallery. I went to Canberra for a couple of days when I was a teenager with my parents, and it was a pleasant couple of days walking around the water, listening to the chiming carillon, and visiting Parliament. However, even as a young teenager I was aware of something which most Australians are exceedingly familiar with, and which I saw even clearer on this recent trip. Canberra is a ghost town.

The suspicion is that the population of Canberra increases greatly when there's an exciting exhibit on at one of the museums, and that's certainly the only reason I felt the need to revisit the nation's capital, which is about a four hour drive southwest of Sydney.

The Degas exhibit was definitely worth the trip. It was very well organized into a chronological display of Degas' work, and was complemented by a worthwhile audio tour which helped explain the links between Degas' early paintings and those of his influences, and the transitions between his experimental monotypes and his more famous portraits. I was of course quite familiar with his paintings of opera rats, laundresses, and horses, but developed a new found appreciation for a work which I believe I've seen before, but never gave as much attention as when looking at it while listening to the audio tour (click to view full-size):

The New Orleans Cotton Exchange, 1873

With my constant nose-blowing and hydrating to get myself through the low point of my cold or flu or whatever I had, I forgot to take any photos while I was in Canberra. But worry not, I did take a photo of the Big Merino in Goulburn while stopping for petrol on the way back to Sydney:

Also in Goulburn, I bought a nifty new novelty ice cream which I hadn't seen before: a Smarties push pop! It was vanilla ice cream with Smarties mixed in, and the handle was filled entirely with Smarties! One of my favo(u)rite things about traveling has always been the different types of candy and ice creams that are available around the world.

Oh, I just dug up a photo scan of a picture that I took in Canberra when I was there a few years back:
I know, it's really high quality photo taking that I do! Marvel at my mad skillz!

nom nom nom

I have to post about some of the cool things I've done in Sydney lately, but right now I am starving and wanted to post a list of the foods I am going to eat as soon as I get back to Los Angeles (preferably all in one sitting):

In-N-Out cheeseburger animal style plus fries and a Neapolitan shake
cheeseburger from Fuddrucker's
menudo
spicy chicken sandwich from Jack in the Box
carnitas burrito
Jack in the Box 99 cent tacos
French dip sandwich from Phillipe's
Korean frozen yogurt with fruit and mochi
pozole
shrimp Po' boy from the L.A. Farmers' Market
fish tacos
matzo ball soup from Canter's Deli
decent bagel with cream cheese and lox
freshly baked Krispy Kreme donut that melts in your mouth
gallon of horchata
dad's penne bolognese
decent BBQ ribs
cubano AND medianoche from Porto's (with platano chips!)
Pirate's Booty and other treats from Trader Joe's
pita pocket with chicken, rice, tomatoes, and garlic sauce from Zankou
stuffed jalapeños


There are a million reasons why I'm not ready to leave Sydney. But I am really missing L.A. I know it'll be winter when I get home, which is a downer, but it will be refreshing to get behind the wheel again, to eat the foods whose absence in my life is driving me mad, and to see the places and people that I love. When I was living in Claremont, I took the 10 freeway into Los Angeles a number of times, and each time that I would round the bend where the skyline of Downtown L.A. would be revealed, I would get a swell of pride. I can't imagine what it's going to feel like to smell the Armenian bread baking in Jon's market, to revisit my former daily commute down Riverside Drive, or to do myriad other things I've taken for granted in L.A.

The only question is, how long after I'm home will I find myself doubled over with a craving for a hot dog from Harry's Cafe, my feet twitching with the muscle memory of walking from Darlinghurst to the Rocks for dance class, and my hand accidentally writing the word "colourful" or the date as "18 Jan 2009"?

hahaha

So, every time I start writing a new blog post, I try to think of a mildly clever post title that has something to do with the subject...usually involving wordplay. Since this post is going to be about my trip to the Blue Mountains, I was thinking, "blue...blue...velvet!" But then all the Blue Velvet quotations I could think of were obscenity-laden. I'm sure this was of a lot of interest to you.

A little over a week ago I took the train to Katoomba and then connected to the Blue Mountains explorer bus. The train took a couple of hours, but was a fairly pleasant ride. It was, however, pretty unfortunate that the day ticket was so expensive. The train was only $17, but since the bus company is privately owned and has a monopoly on convenient mountains transport, they charge almost $40 for a bus ride which you only get to use a couple of times in between short hikes. Typical penny-pinching aside, the only other qualm with the day was that I was coming down with some kind of demon flu which plagued me all of last week.

But on to the good stuff! I'd been to the lookout point at the Three Sisters a couple of times in my youth, but I was eager to see a little more of the surrounding mountains, so it was cool to do a couple of the short hikes that were available to tourists. Because I was under the weather, I only had the energy for a little low-impact walking, but here are some of the photos I took:

These are the gorgeous flowers I had in my apartment last week:

So, it was a good day spent in the mountains. If I were to do it again, I might study the map of the hiking trails first, take the train out, and then plan to skip the bus. I'd also be sure to spend some time in Leura, where we picked up the train to come back into the city. It's got a handful of adorable cafés and restaurants, and a lolly shop full of candies both delicious (fizzy cherry coke bottle gummies) and devastating (anything Norwegian).

so this is the new year

So, 11 days too late, how about a little recap of my New Year's Eve? I believe this is the third or fourth NYE that I've spent in Sydney, and what an incredible place to ring in the new year. It's the middle of summer, and the Sydney Harbour becomes the cent(re) of attention for fireworks. During the afternoon, Jono and I met up at Circular Quay to take the ferry to Manly. We thought it would be a great day for a ferry ride and a trip to the beach, and we were right. Of course, Circular Quay was packed full of tourists trying to find a spot to stand for eight hours and get a bit of a view of the fireworks above the Harbour Bridge.

On 31 December, the Botanic Gardens are shut down so that only ticketholders can camp out and get a good view of the harbour. Here's a couple of shots of the crowds, at about 4pm, at the Botanic Gardens and at the base of the Sydney Opera House:

When we got to Manly, there were more people around than I would usually see there on a weekday afternoon, but of course all the kids are off of school, and it's a holiday for most people. Nonetheless, the beach and the corso were very nicely populated, and it was not uncomfortable to find a spot on the beach at all. We had some mediocre fish 'n chips, splashed around in the ocean for a little while, then took our sandy butts back to the ferry to make it to the city in time for our fireworks plans.

We met up with Jono's sister Jo and another friend, packed a snack bag, and headed out. We knew that the trains and buses would be miserable on NYE, with all the revelers, so we just went one stop to Martin Place, where I took a belated photo with the giant Christmas tree in the center of the CBD:

We walked from there to Observatory Hill, where Jono and Jo's folks were camped out after watching the 9pm family fireworks. They were awesome enough to relinquish their excellent spot on the hill for us youngsters, so we only had to wait for about two hours before the midnight fireworks. Armed with beers, glow sticks (to find each other in the crowd...of people wearing glow sticks), chips, salsa, and sparklers, we had a great time chatting and scanning the cityscape of North Sydney (from the lit-up ships in the water to the eerie grin of Luna Park), waiting for 2009. This was the view we had:

Here's where we were camped out, facing North:

View Larger Map

And at midnight:

The bridge looked AWESOME after all the fireworks were done:

And now it's 2009 and there's a lot of mystery in store for me this year. If I continue to be some amount as happy throughout the year as I was ringing it in, then I will be very lucky.