Friends (good ones)

Two friends of mine came to visit a week ago.
We met at uni and I like to think that we grew up together for a few years.
Last time I met them was two years ago.. may be three.
Nothing has really changed but at the same time a lot has changed.
They have been together for five years now. They are planning of going to live together.
I am so happy for them.
Our friendship is funny as it has always been. I asked them if they thought I had changed in these last couple of years. Both of them said no. It was a bit of a disappointment cos I do believe I have changed quite a few things of my personality and the way I understand the world around me. I suppose they did not have enough time to discover it.
Next time, may be.

People I met while travelling alone in Australia

In Brisbane I met Donna. Born in New Zealand (if I remember well), 27 years old, with a tattoo on her back saying ‘freedom’ in Latin.
She has been incredibly helpful. I met her as soon as I got at the hostel, she was my roommate (better say that I was her roommate since she had been living at the hostel for a few months). An hour later my arrival, we were walking around Brisbane together. She offered to take me around and there we were, walking down the main street, chatting.
After the long day around the city we went to a pub to rest our feet and get a good pint. I came out saying that I wanted to know more about aboriginal people. She kept silent and took a book out of her bag. It was all about the Aboriginals. It turned out that she was studying sociology and anthropology in Sydney! What followed was a good discussion where I was asking her all sorts of things on Aboriginal people and she was trying to feed my curiosity.

On the bus from Brisbane to Byron Bay I met Christine from Switzerland. 38 years old, red long hair, blue eyes, freckles all over her face and body. She was an interesting woman. She made the 6 hours bus drive till Byron Bay a really nice journey.
And then Manuel crossed my way. Another Swiss, very young (20 years old). Young was his tanned body and young was his way of approaching the female sex. He was funny and I had good laughs with him. One morning we got up early and went for a walk along the beach. With my camera he took a picture of his feet on the sand: that’s the only picture that I have of him.

And then Frederik and Ron came along. The first one from Denmark, the second from Holland. Both were in their early twenties, curly hair, tanned body and well defined muscles. We had a really good night out with lots of glasses of Byron Ale.
We went back to the hostel around 2am. The time of a cigarette and both of them were flirting with me. Well, let’s say that they started flirting with me right at the beginning of the night, but once back at the hostel they did their best! I never had such fun. They were so predictable and so sweet at the same time. One paid compliments to my lips, the other one to my feet and my legs. We talked a lot and had a good time. Then, with their great disappointment I went to bed. I said “Sorry, guys no threesome tonight!”. They answered me back with a laugh.

Once in Newcastle I met Lee, better said, he met me. 34 years old, 100% Aussie, he just moved to Newcastle from Sidney. Long curly grey hair, just enrolled to Uni, where he will be studying Psychology.
We were both strolling along the coast under a very hot sun. After an hour of walking and chatting, he invited me to his place for a drink and then with his car we went to a wildlife park. I finally saw koalas, kangaroos and emus! Lee had been working for an environmental agency for almost 10 years and could tell me a lot about the animals in the park. Koalas are stoned most of the time. The leaves of the gum tree contain a small amount of opiates. That’s why koalas are so slow and they seem sleepy all the time. Kangaroos instead can become really violent. With their big legs they can rip off the body of an animal or human being.
We walked around the park, talked about politics, Aboriginal people and our lives.
He then drove me half way back to the hostel and we said goodbye. An unexpected encounter followed by a very interesting afternoon.

Italy

I am freezing.
I never thought I could feel such cold. My body and my skin don’t seem to get used to the winter. I am always cold. It does not matter how many layers of clothes I may wear, I will still shiver.
From 38 Celsius degrees to a couple above zero. Quite a shock for my skin after being spoiled for weeks under the tropical sun.
It took me a few days to recover from the jet lag. Every night waking up at 2 or 4 am feeling completely rested and ready to go. And then at 8pm ready to go to sleep cos I am feeling so tired, unable to keep my eyes open.

It has been raining since I got back.
No more bright colours, just brown, grey, black. Everything is so desolate.
I used to like the cold season. I always thought it had some sort of charm: the naked trees, those sleeping fields, the misty sun.. a sad romance that I admired and that was making me smile.
It will take me such a long time before feeling it familiar again.
When I will be back in the UK it will be even worse.
Better not to think about it.

Way back

Our flight was at 5pm.
I managed to get everything ready in time. Saying goodbye was sad, but you cannot avoid those moments.
We got our seats on the plane, mine was next to the window. And then the plane took off. I stuck my nose on the window and my eyes were filled with the last images of Australia. Sidney first, with its skyscrapers, the harbour, the boats, houses and trees. And then the mountains and vast plains. We flew over the Great Barrier Divide. Our ground speed was 914 km/h.
The landscape changed again. We were over the Australian desert now. There was nothing but plain red land. Only once I saw a road crossing the desert: one straight line, God knows where it was heading.
Not a house, not a hill. The clouds with their shades, stained the surface of the desert. I noticed open air mines, they looked like “holes” on the ground. Four dried up lakes dotted the thirsty soil.
After a while rock formations came along. You could see the paths of rivers running down their side. They reminded me of wrinkles on an old lady’s face.
Once on the Indian Ocean, I started feeling really tired and fell asleep.

I woke up few hours before landing in Singapore. Movie time! Vicky Christina Barcelona, The Duchess and Lemon Tree. The first one a bit of a disappointment, the second had great costumes and that’s about it, the third one was the only one worth watching.
In Singapore I only had the time to stretch my muscles and buy some tobacco and then back on the plane.. 12 hours to Frankfurt.

In Frankfurt we had to wait 5 hours before getting on our last plane to Italy. Again, my seat was next to the window. The Alps were beautiful! I cannot say the same when we approached the airport in Venice: the land was brown and wet, the sky was cloudy and grey.

Leaving

It took me half an hour or so to pack my stuff. I could not fit all in my suitcase. Mom or dad should have some spare kilos on their luggage.
I spent the day sunbathing.. it was so relaxing! On the list of the things that I will miss, that is in my top five. The others are: walking barefoot on the grass/sand, listening to the crickets at night, the sounds of birds: they don’t actually twitter. There is one that is “croaking” right now. The sky is in my top five too. Boundless clear blue above your head.
Saying goodbye to my family is becoming a difficult task. I had such a good time with them. At least I met them. And I may come back to Australia, you never know what life has to offer.

Two to go

I have only two days left and I am not happy about it.
If I could I would stay here for the rest of my life.
The thought of going back to Europe and its winter is not an appealing thought.
I spent my last days doing the most suitable activity to women and tourists: shopping!
I did not buy much for myself, just a couple of scarves and books on Aboriginal culture and history.

The rest of the money went to presents for family and friends. 

I walked a lot around Sydney.. it is such a beautiful place! I visited three museums (all of them free): photography, history of Aboriginal people and early European settlers, contemporary art (interesting and funny). Me and my dad we had a quite heated up discussion on the definition of art.. according to him contemporary art is not art at all.. “Anything can be art.. even a broken pot!” It was not easy trying to make him understand that art is about imagination and interpretation of the world around us. His conception of art stops with Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci or Canova. In the last few weeks I have realised that my dad is developing a conservative view of society. I need to get him back on track.

Last night, while smoking a cigarette, I heard a plane flying above my head... I felt sad and cold inside. I should consider myself lucky cos at least I had the chance to come to and travel around Australia. But it is so unfair having to leave it!
I am not ready for scarves, gloves and heavy jumpers.. I need sun, sand, sea, watermelon, bright colours and light…
I keep on taking pictures.. I suppose that is my way of keeping with me as much as I can of this country.
Leaving Europe was the best thing could happen to me and I don’t want to go back to my old life.
Unfortunately I have to. I will bring a few changes to it.

Alon

I met him in Byron Bay. He is Jewish, in his early twenties. Skinny, dark hair and blue eyes. He wants to fight the Palestinians. When I asked him why he replied: “Because they are fighting us and we have to fight them back”. I tried to understand
his reasons but the only thing that he knew was that “them” (he never called them Palestinians) were fighting Israel and so was his duty to defend his country. “Did you ever fight?” I asked him. And he replied “No, but I want to”.
It’s been weeks now that Israel started what is probably the most ferocious attack into the Gaza Strip. I don’t have much time to follow the news but I know that Israel is calling all of its reserves to support this attack. Alon is one of those. Good luck young man.
By the way: I do find nonsense the 3-hours daily truce to let humanitarian aid into the Gaza strip. Is now Israel a “good boy” because at least it leaves room for some relief?? This is what I call sadism.
Of course Mr Bush did not say much about it. Neither the rest of the world did. The international silence that followed the early attacks, seemed to acknowledge and accept such sudden violence. I was bewildered. Let’s hope the president-elect will put more efforts to solve such miserable and self-destructive situation in the Middle East.
Let's hope Obama really is the change the world needs to believe in.

Victoria State

On the 2nd January at 3am we all left Sidney for a 5 day family trip (16 people altogether) to Melbourne - 12 hours by car. My bottom started complaining after the first 4 hours. It has been a loooooong ride.
I tried to sleep; I woke up right in time for the dawn. And then fell asleep again. I must say that an Australian dawn leaves you speechless.
Panoramas from Sidney to Melbourne did not change much. We went from urban areas (Sidney) to brown, arid land and back to urban areas (when we eventually arrived in Melbourne). Nothing but the long road in front of us and deserted fields around us. Here and there you could see cows black as pitch put to pasture. The same was for sheep and horses. The land once covered with trees, is now flat and solitary. It seemed to me that the hills had been “shaved”: rounded shapes against the blue sky. During the trip I spotted a board on the side of the road that was saying “Land on sale”. As far as I could see nothing was delineating its boundaries. I wondered how big that piece of land was.
A few times I saw a graveyard right in the middle of nowhere. No villages around, any churches, not a single sign of human activity. But there it was, with its withered flowers, standing at the sun.
We had busy days while in the state of Victoria. We went gold hunting!! It was great! That was the funniest day of the whole trip! We even found some gold! I had lot of fun with my cousins’ kids (from 3 to 12 years old). I played a lot with them: running around, shouting, laughing, getting dirty... it was making me feel so free.
Morlington and Philip Island were our next stops. More sea and more sun!
Melbourne is a modern and growing city. I had the feeling that architects did have fun in shaping its buildings.

New Year’s Eve

I could not miss the fireworks from the Sidney Harbour.
Not easy to find a good spot: everywhere around the Harbour was already crowed/packed by 4pm.
We found a place on Balls Head, a promontory on the other side of the Opera House.
I was really pleased with it cos I had a different view of the harbour. I left family and relatives to play cards and I went to take a few pictures. Everywhere I walked there were people waiting for midnight. Music, beers, food, sunglasses, happy mood.
It was quite warm. While walking around I’ve realised that Balls Head is an Aboriginal archaeological site. I tried to imagine the headland and the harbour without skyscrapers, houses and roads. Without boats, planes flying all day long. Without the Bridge and the Opera House. No horns or sirens. Just trees and the sound of the sea and of the birds. It must have been the closest thing to perfection

By the time I got back my family was already having dinner. “We have been waiting for you! Where have you been???” I did not realise I had been walking around for nearly three hours.
At 9pm the first lot of fireworks, those for families with kids. Beautiful.
Having three hours to spend before midnight, I went for another walk. The harbour by night is something amazing! All boats had lights on and were facing the Sidney Harbour Bridge. Most of the boats were moving from one end to the other of the harbour. At some point an ancient vessel made its way into the harbour. The masts were covered with lights and so were its ropes. In the darkness its figure was perfectly delineated. What a show!
The best show of all was, of course, the one at midnight. Surprising, shining, wonderful fireworks. 15 minutes of colours and sparkles on the bridge and all over the bay. It is quite an experience!

Blue Mountains - Three Sisters

Forest, valleys, sandstone cliffs and mountains stretching all the way to the horizon and beyond.
It is an incredible scene.
I tried to breathe in as much air as I could. I wanted to make it mine somehow. I had the impression that mine was just an ingenuous attempt.
I walked around, following paths that were taking me right in the middle of the forest.
I was surrounded by the white trunks of the gum trees. Their leafy branches were giving shelter and shade from the hot sun.
Unfortunately I could not make this day trip mine. Too many of my family around. Too many people to get together, too many things that had to be done.
“The kids are hungry, we have to stop”; “Wait, and some are still in the toilet”; “What about the gift shop?”; “We cannot walk all the way down, we have to go”. I went with the flow but I do feel the need to go back and live that place my way, taking my time.
Needless to say, I took heaps of pictures (as they say here).
By the way, here is an interesting fact. They called this forests “Blue Mountains” after “.. the soft, blue haze emanated from the oil secreted by the covering forests of eucalypts.” I could not quite see the blue though. Maybe the sunlight was not right.

The Blue Mountains, like everywhere else in Australia, were territory of the Aboriginal people. The Three Sisters is a rock formation and here is the Aboriginal explanation of it existence:

“Whenever he had to leave his three daughters, Meeheni, Wimlah and Gunnedoo, Tyawan the witch doctor, would place them on a high cliff to protect them from the bunyip. One day, a stone which Meeheni had thrown at a caterpillar fell from the cliff and caused the part the sisters were on to break away so that they were stranded. The noise woke the bunyip and he lunged at the sisters just as Tyawan was returning. Tyawan pointed his magic bone at his daughters so that they turned to stone until the bunyip left. Tyawan though, was trapped in the rock and turned himself into a lyre bird. In the confusion he lost his magic bone and is still searching for it today, while the three sisters silently watch from the edge of the mountain.”