Melbourne

Hey everyone!

Today we are sitting in an internet cafe in downton Melbourne, Australia. We have had a good time in Victoria thus far (I say Victoria because that is the state we are in and drove through much of it yesterday) and will have until tomorrow afternoon here.

We are staying with the brother of a Covenant student and an old roommate of Scott's. He lives southeast of the city in a suburban area. Our first day in we got things settled at the house, threw in some laundry (first time since LA) and headed to eat. We ended up going to St. Kilda a beach, a hot spot in the summertime. It was very cold and windy, the climate difference from Sydney was obvious. From there we went to a pub and watched some of the World Cup.

Yesterday was a great day...I knocked off a good bit of my Australia bucket list. We began by taking public transportation into the city and renting a car for the day. We grabbed some groceries for the day and took off. the weather was crazy...we began the morning with a crisp blue sky, which quickly disappeared behind a dark gray cloudy mess, which then turned into downpour. We probably went through that cycle three or four times. As we have heard, Melbourne gets four seasons in one day.

Anyways, the plan for the day was to hit Great Ocean Road and eventually get to the Twelve Disciples, the most famous area of Australia's coastline. On our way we saw beautiful beaches and coast...gorgeous blue water. We drove through a bit a rainforest and some wide open plains as well with great landscape views of the surrounding area. I feel as if much of what we saw was a small taste of what some of New Zealand might look like. Vast arrays of powerful views that really make you stop and stare.

On to the bucket list: We saw stopeed at a lighthouse gift shop where the lady told us there were hundreds of koalas in the trees around the area. And so we went on a koala quest and sure enough we found several just hanging out, sleeping. It was awesome to see them live in the wild. Down this same road, while looking for koalas, Joel spotted a field of kangaroos and screamed, "Dude, KANGAROOS!" We jumped out of the car and chased after them. They started flying in the opposite direction. It was incredible to be running in a field of about 30 or 40 kangaroos...and man could they jump. Once I stopped to think of what we were doing I realized if these things turns on us we would be in a world of hurt. There was one male that was much bigger and darker than the rest and he was off to the side staring at us. Pretty intense...but awesome!

Kangaroos! (video)

We finally got to the Twelve Apostles and they were worth the hype. Amazing! So beautiful...so stunning. Huge rocks sitting in the ocean off the coast, with giant waves of white foam crashing against them. They are located on the southernmost tip of Victoria and it was cold and incredibly windy. Possibly one of the windiest places I have ever been, almost got knocked down a few times. It was crazy to think that we were just a little bit north of the South Pole. The landscape at that area was pretty New Zealand-like. Beautiful.

Today we have gotten to explore the city. It is a cool place to be. So different for Sydney, but I like it almost as much. It is a bit more rock and roll and artsy, versus Sydney's more elegant and romantic style. There are a ton of athletic arenas here as well. We walked through the old Olympic stadium from 1956, the Cricket Grounds, the Australian Open stadium and park, a couple other arenas and another oval stadium. Pretty sweet. I like Melbourne. It has a good feel to it. Tonight, we are hoping to go to an Aussie Rules Football game in the McG Cricket Grounds. It is supposed to be a huge game, 65,000 people...should be great.

Not sure if I have time to say much more. I am really loving it here. Learning a lot about the culture and enjoying it. Joel and Scott say hey.


So long.

-b garrison

goodbye Sydney

Well, we have spent just over 72 hours in Sydney and have absolutely dominated every spare moment. It has been an incredible three days...I wish that I could spend three more weeks here. Sydney is the most beautiful city that I have ever seen. It has so much to offer. Incredibly beautiful, super clean, really diverse, so much culture and opportunity. I am very sad to leave.

So what should I write about in this short time I have...the walk through the Royal Botanic Gardens for the view of the Sydney Opera House and the city skyline with the Harbor Bridge in the background...or perhaps our ferry ride to Manly Beach and back giving us incredible views of the harbour and the city, Opera House, etc. during day and lit up in the dark...or maybe our 4 mile cliff top walk along the eastern beaches of Sydney, Bondi, Bronte, Tamarama, and Coogee...then there was our time spent in the Rocks, eating from a rooftop resturaunt with views of the harbour and city and getting a great $10 steak meal.

Indeed, it has been pretty remarkable. We all really love Sydney and the Aussie way of life. We were talking last night of our favorite part of the time here thus far and honestly I really couldn't think of what I loved more. The sights and experiences were one thing, but learing the culture and lingo has been a completely seperate aspect which I have loved. The accents, the driving on the left side of the road, the walking on the left side of the walkway due to the fact that they drive on the left side of the road (which is interesting because my tendency is to walk on the right side), the early morning rush where everyone has their iPod's going, the "flat white" coffee, the crazy amount of runners in this city, their love for sports, the World Cup, and beer.

Last I wrote, early Monday morning, I explained how we were heading to the Opera House. Well, we left the hostel and heading north toward the harbour. We went through Hyde Park which was modeled after London's Hyde Park. It is a really pretty location. We went through that and past St. Mary's Cathedral, gorgeous old building. From their we walked into the Domain park which connected us to this beautiful walking path along the harbour which funneled us into the Royal Botanic Gardens (what a great park!). We followed the walkway and made it up to the point at Mrs. Macquirie's chair, an old stone chair from the 1800s which had an inscription carved in it. Then we turned and saw it...the Opera House. It caught me by surprise. It was stunning, I literally couldn't believe I was standing there.

SydneyOpera House! (video)

Manly Beach Ferry Ride (video)

We took the walkway and followed Farm Cove around and took a path through the Botanic Gardens...such a beautiful park with all sorts of tropical trees and birds and then the huge city in the background. We eventually made our way down to the Opera House, took pics, sat on the steps, walked around it, soaked it all in. We took the Cahill walkway to Circular Quay; the ferry port in the middle of Sydney Harbor. We got breakfast there and got ferry tickets for Manly Beach. The ferry ride was incredible. It took about a half hour to take us northeast through the bay to the city of Manly. We were able to lay out at the beach and go for a walk around the North Head cape. There were some beautiful views there. We also ran into and old military headquarters, with barracks, guns, all sorts of stuff. In Manly we were able to pick up some food from the grocery and we headed back to the ferry. The ferry ride in the dark was amazing. Coming back into the harbor seeing the city lit up was one of the most beautiful things I've seen. Awesome. It was during that ferry ride that I noticed I could see the Southern Cross constellation...pretty cool.

We ended our day with a stroll through the Rocks. An awesome area built on and around old Sydney. It had a distinct European feel to it, just one of the best areas of any city I've seen. They had this outdoor market going on with all this incredible food, music, and people selling their merchandise. A licorice guy gave us a ton of his flavored licorices, which was great. On the way back to our hostel we hooked up a reservation for at a rooftop resteraunt for $10 steak dinners for the next night. It was a sweet day.

Yesterday we headed out at about 9 a.m. and took the bus out to Bondi Beach, surfing capital of the area. It was sweet. There is an incredible walkway which goes along the coastline for miles (or should I say kilometers?). We took that an hour and a half to Coogee Beach where our hostel was putting on a barbecue. It was a beautiful walk. Maybe my favorite part of the trip thus far, but I love the ocean. The water was so blue, tons of surfers out. We walked back and spent a brief time shopping in Bondi where Scott and I each prchased boomerangs. And of course I had to try it out on the beach. I got it halfway around...it was pretty tough. We finished our day off yesterday with a great dinner in the Rocks on top of a roof overlooking the Opera House, with some good beer and good discussion. Just $10 for the meal...no tipping, no tax. Pretty sweet.

Thats all the time I have for now. Cheers.

-b garrison

Sydney, Australia!

Good day everybody!

This is my first post from the land down under. The local time is about 6:45 a.m. Monday morning. We got up at about 3:30 this morning to watch the Australia vs. Germany game. There is a huge setup down at Darling Harbour called International FIFA Fan Fest which is 1 of 7 locations around the world. People from all over the place are here to watch the World Cup; it's crazy. There might have been a quarter of a million people down there this morning. Unfortunately Australia got smashed 4-0. We left after halftime to go to a pub to finsih out because it is pretty cold out today.

The plane ride in was pretty decent, around 14 hours long. I wasn't able to get a lot of sleep, but not really a big deal. It was great to have all the Aussies on board...I love there accent and they had good insight into where we were going to be. When we landed wew had to figure out 2 things: 1) Where we were going to stay for the night, and 2) how we were going to get to Hillsong Church. Trains from the airport cost too much so we called in a backpacker hostel shuttle to bring us in for free. That meant that we had to stay at the hostel for 3 nights, but we decided that would be the best option. So we are at the West End Backpackers hostel off of Pitt Street near Sydney Central Station. It is decent, pretty dirty, really crowded. We are staying in a 32 person room...mostly young people, guys and girls. 

We discovered in the airport that Hillsong's main campus was pretty far away, but we found their city campus, and a free bus ride there and back from Central station. Hillsong was pretty cool...great worship, great people, incredibly multicultural. There were certainly things about the service that we all disagreed with but overall a good experience. Coll to see what was happening in the church here. We met a lot of neat people too. So far we've talked to people from England, Ireland, New Zealand, Poland, Germany, Korea, China, Japan, Netherlands...Sydney is so much more diverse then I expected. We are staying in a very oriental focused area., which has just been weird coming in thinking that I wzas going to see blonde, white people everywhere...not the case at all.

After church yesterday we were able to go visit Darling Harbor and see the World Cup craze. It was that inded. And it was beautiful down there. There is an aquarium and wildlife area down there, a Maritime Museum, and lots of cool resturaunts. There are tons of pubs around too. Sports are just really big here. So far Sydney has exceeded my expectations, beautiful, diverse, large. Today we are going down to the Opera House, the harbor bridge, and the Manly Beach. It looks like it will be a clear and beautiful day. There could be so much more to write about, like all the cool lingo I am learning, but I don't have the time.

One cool thing that happened before we left California was going to Laguna Beach for a bit of time, then going up to the Ritz Carlton and getting treated like kings. We met one of the Hagopians friends, Ryan, Thursday night who told us to stop by and we ended up getting free chips and salsa, free lemonades, free drinks, and ice cream sundaes. Sweet pool and pool area, and a beautiful view of the beach. It was a really great send off.  

Well, so long for now...

-b garrison