Lots of stuff going on!!
As Andrew said, there's quite a bit of stuff going on in Sydney lately. We saw some more fireworks last night because of Australia day. We did plenty of walking and took a ferry to Manly beach. We got a cool video of the ferry ride, I'll try to put that up tomorrow. In the meantime, below is the fireworks show from Aussie day. It's in two parts, so just watch them in the order they appear.
Laters,
Ross
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Lots of Animals!
Howdy folks,
Its been a fun few days here. Lots to tell you about.
We went to a fireworks festival, they call it cracker festival here though. I was imagining going there and taste testing some crackers.. haha. Well, it was a very cool event. We were situated in the middle of a circular arena surrounded by fireworks. Many loud explosions and colorful fountains. They confiscated my video camera, so no clips :( but Andrew got some great pictures of the fireworks.
We have been walking around the city a lot lately. There is a great botanical garden. Many different types of plants and animals there. Andrew's got some good pictures of that too.
A few days ago, we went to the Sydney aquarium. Very cool stuff there. We got to see some crocs, sharks and many other cool looking animals. They didn't take my camera for this one, so there's a clip of some of the cool stuff we saw at the end of this blog.
Laters,
Ross
Its been a fun few days here. Lots to tell you about.
We went to a fireworks festival, they call it cracker festival here though. I was imagining going there and taste testing some crackers.. haha. Well, it was a very cool event. We were situated in the middle of a circular arena surrounded by fireworks. Many loud explosions and colorful fountains. They confiscated my video camera, so no clips :( but Andrew got some great pictures of the fireworks.
We have been walking around the city a lot lately. There is a great botanical garden. Many different types of plants and animals there. Andrew's got some good pictures of that too.
A few days ago, we went to the Sydney aquarium. Very cool stuff there. We got to see some crocs, sharks and many other cool looking animals. They didn't take my camera for this one, so there's a clip of some of the cool stuff we saw at the end of this blog.
Laters,
Ross
Australia Day 2007!
Hello everyone,
this week at 'Wake Up' has been great.. almost never stopping at all! Some highlights include the Sydney Aquarium, Botanical Gardens, Ferry to Manly Beach and the beach itself, Australia Day and their fireworks and a great 'cracker festival' at the Sydney Olympic site. Its almost too much to write about.. we are off to surf camp in only one more day but we don't have anything firmed up for after that yet. Stay tuned for that!
The aquarium had lots of wildlife, but the shark tank was the most impressive. The botanical gardens had a great view of the opera house, lots of amazing trees I've never seen before and great birds! I can't say exactly what kind, but I think there were some parrots. (Picture to follow) Manly beach is amazing, I think the best I've seen yet and much better than LA (at least in LA's winter). The town of Manly was also very interesting, a nice little surfer town. The ferry over allowed us some great views of the harbour and because we went on Australia day there was a jet flying over head very close to the ship. Lots of boat parties as well. Earlier in the week we lucked out and got to enjoy a free 'crackers festival' at the Olympic park. The cracker festival was basically a fireworks show only more. Everyone stood in the middle of a massive circle and the crackers were fired from around us, there was also music and actors as part of the show it was very intense and impressive.
The rest of our time was dedicated to walking the streets, seeing sights, sleeping and making new friends! We have only been here one week so far, but we have already made many great friends; the experience down here is hard to describe accurately. I am going to post a good number of photos now.. including a view into the 'wake up' hostel. I'll see you all very soon!
Cheers,
Andrew
this week at 'Wake Up' has been great.. almost never stopping at all! Some highlights include the Sydney Aquarium, Botanical Gardens, Ferry to Manly Beach and the beach itself, Australia Day and their fireworks and a great 'cracker festival' at the Sydney Olympic site. Its almost too much to write about.. we are off to surf camp in only one more day but we don't have anything firmed up for after that yet. Stay tuned for that!
The aquarium had lots of wildlife, but the shark tank was the most impressive. The botanical gardens had a great view of the opera house, lots of amazing trees I've never seen before and great birds! I can't say exactly what kind, but I think there were some parrots. (Picture to follow) Manly beach is amazing, I think the best I've seen yet and much better than LA (at least in LA's winter). The town of Manly was also very interesting, a nice little surfer town. The ferry over allowed us some great views of the harbour and because we went on Australia day there was a jet flying over head very close to the ship. Lots of boat parties as well. Earlier in the week we lucked out and got to enjoy a free 'crackers festival' at the Olympic park. The cracker festival was basically a fireworks show only more. Everyone stood in the middle of a massive circle and the crackers were fired from around us, there was also music and actors as part of the show it was very intense and impressive.
The rest of our time was dedicated to walking the streets, seeing sights, sleeping and making new friends! We have only been here one week so far, but we have already made many great friends; the experience down here is hard to describe accurately. I am going to post a good number of photos now.. including a view into the 'wake up' hostel. I'll see you all very soon!
Cheers,
Andrew
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Wake Up!
Hey everyone,
I don't have any new pictures ready for today so this is just going to be a small update..
We have changed hostel's (footprints -> 'wake up!') and the new hostel is amazing.. I'll have pictures soon to show you what I mean. Great bar in the basement, cafe on the main level, and a clean kitchen on the 1st. It feels more like a hotel than a hostel really. We are going to stay here at wake up for the next week (monday to monday) and then go to a four day surfing camp! This week I'll be checking out the aquarium, zoo, australia day (friday) festivals and going to a barbie (bbq) on cogee beach! So there is lots going on..
After the surfing camp we plan to find 'working hostels' in smaller towns away from sydney. Working hostels are interesting; basically you live and work with a great group of people. The farm or other organization owns or is involved with the hostel, and everyone who stays there gets to work and live, you even get free transportation to the job because everyone is going to the same place! I'm looking forward to seeing more of the country. Another option we are going to look into is something called 'WWOOF' which is volunteering on organic farms across australia.. this work will give us board and food in exchange for 4-5 hours of work a day. It will also allow us to meet locals and see parts of Australia we probably wouldn't have otherwize.
So in short, we know what we are doing for the next two weeks but after that its going to get even more interesting! We've basically been run of the mill tourists so far, but it really has been fun.
I hope everyone is having a great winter at home. [ hehe :) ]
Cheers,
Andrew
I don't have any new pictures ready for today so this is just going to be a small update..
We have changed hostel's (footprints -> 'wake up!') and the new hostel is amazing.. I'll have pictures soon to show you what I mean. Great bar in the basement, cafe on the main level, and a clean kitchen on the 1st. It feels more like a hotel than a hostel really. We are going to stay here at wake up for the next week (monday to monday) and then go to a four day surfing camp! This week I'll be checking out the aquarium, zoo, australia day (friday) festivals and going to a barbie (bbq) on cogee beach! So there is lots going on..
After the surfing camp we plan to find 'working hostels' in smaller towns away from sydney. Working hostels are interesting; basically you live and work with a great group of people. The farm or other organization owns or is involved with the hostel, and everyone who stays there gets to work and live, you even get free transportation to the job because everyone is going to the same place! I'm looking forward to seeing more of the country. Another option we are going to look into is something called 'WWOOF' which is volunteering on organic farms across australia.. this work will give us board and food in exchange for 4-5 hours of work a day. It will also allow us to meet locals and see parts of Australia we probably wouldn't have otherwize.
So in short, we know what we are doing for the next two weeks but after that its going to get even more interesting! We've basically been run of the mill tourists so far, but it really has been fun.
I hope everyone is having a great winter at home. [ hehe :) ]
Cheers,
Andrew
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Oz Info!
Austrailia is very hot!! Wow. Going from -20's degrees Celcius a week ago to the high 20's is pretty intense!
Sydney is very large. Andrew and I took a long walk around downtown yesterday. We got some pictures of some cool areas (see Andrew's post) and I took a few clips of some interesting areas. The clip below shows one of the intersections in the city. After the cars have their turn at the intersection, its everyone for themselves at the crosswalk, have a look!
We're planning on walking around the city some more today. We need big hats and sandals to survive here. HAHA!
Oh, the money here is so crazy looking! We'll have some pictures of those soon.
Future posts will be a little less often until we work out a better internet option.
Laters,
Ross
PS: We wrote up the past few posts before finding the internet to save time and money. We spent quite a while walking downtown before we found an internet cafe with wireless internet (that didnt charge 9 bucks per half hour!).
Most planed out series of posts EVAR!
Sydney is very large. Andrew and I took a long walk around downtown yesterday. We got some pictures of some cool areas (see Andrew's post) and I took a few clips of some interesting areas. The clip below shows one of the intersections in the city. After the cars have their turn at the intersection, its everyone for themselves at the crosswalk, have a look!
We're planning on walking around the city some more today. We need big hats and sandals to survive here. HAHA!
Oh, the money here is so crazy looking! We'll have some pictures of those soon.
Future posts will be a little less often until we work out a better internet option.
Laters,
Ross
PS: We wrote up the past few posts before finding the internet to save time and money. We spent quite a while walking downtown before we found an internet cafe with wireless internet (that didnt charge 9 bucks per half hour!).
Most planed out series of posts EVAR!
Hello Mates!
The flight from LA to Sydney was enjoyable, I know its hard to believe! We had fairly good food, all you could drink, and on demand entertainment. Not to mention great company! The 13 hours went by faster than I ever would have imagined.
After landing in Sydney, we hooked up with a shuttle service and were quickly at our hostel. The first thing that stood out to me were the cars (of which most are not available in north america) and the way everyone drives. Not only is it on the opposite side of the road, but its fast and aggressive! Horns are heard almost all the time.
Most of the day was spent walking the streets of Sydney (mostly Pitt St. [where the hostel was] and george street). Its warm here.. I mean really warm! The sun is more intense than I have ever felt before, I don't think I would walk outside without sunscreen ever. There is a great deal of tourist type stuff to see and do.. we plan to see the aquarium, gardens, olympic park, art gallery and more. Even the streets are interesting.. most all malls have no doors.. none at all! You can walk right in, and feel the breeze outside. I don't mean that its just wide open but could be closed either; its open for good, major building are designed to be wide open moving sometimes from one street to another inside a building. (pictures to come).
There is a monorail! It feels like you are in disneyland almost, the whole city has a theme pack feel.. another interesting thing we noticed was a particular intersection where the pedestrians have full right of way in every direction.. and when that happens the street is full of people going every which way! (see Ross's post for a video)
I suppose I have lots more to say, but I can't think of it now. Here are some pictures from our first day down under.
Cheers,
Andrew
PS: The internet availability in Australia is much worse than in Canada so I won't be online much if at all, and the blog posts will be less frequent than desired.
After landing in Sydney, we hooked up with a shuttle service and were quickly at our hostel. The first thing that stood out to me were the cars (of which most are not available in north america) and the way everyone drives. Not only is it on the opposite side of the road, but its fast and aggressive! Horns are heard almost all the time.
Most of the day was spent walking the streets of Sydney (mostly Pitt St. [where the hostel was] and george street). Its warm here.. I mean really warm! The sun is more intense than I have ever felt before, I don't think I would walk outside without sunscreen ever. There is a great deal of tourist type stuff to see and do.. we plan to see the aquarium, gardens, olympic park, art gallery and more. Even the streets are interesting.. most all malls have no doors.. none at all! You can walk right in, and feel the breeze outside. I don't mean that its just wide open but could be closed either; its open for good, major building are designed to be wide open moving sometimes from one street to another inside a building. (pictures to come).
There is a monorail! It feels like you are in disneyland almost, the whole city has a theme pack feel.. another interesting thing we noticed was a particular intersection where the pedestrians have full right of way in every direction.. and when that happens the street is full of people going every which way! (see Ross's post for a video)
I suppose I have lots more to say, but I can't think of it now. Here are some pictures from our first day down under.
Cheers,
Andrew
PS: The internet availability in Australia is much worse than in Canada so I won't be online much if at all, and the blog posts will be less frequent than desired.
Hollywood Footage
Ahoy!
As Andrew has explained, the internet availability here is pretty slim, and as such, our postings have been a little scarce. This should make up for it though.
We had a lot of fun while in LA. Irving and Sherry (my uncle and aunt) were very helpful and fun! Lots of sights to see, and places to travel to. We got a lot of pictures and video clips of different areas of the city, including some beautiful beaches. We also sampled some of the wonderful LA driving on the interstate freeways (more like parking lots, hahaha). One particularly cool area to see was the Hollywood hills by the Hollywood sign. Below is a clip of our adventure through the crazy narrow winding roads of the hills. We attempted to get as close as possible to the sign. Apparently there is a fine if anyone attempts to get to the sign because of the vandalism in the past. Well, have a look at the wicked houses and crazy scenery in the video.
Austrailian info to come soon!
Laters,
Ross
As Andrew has explained, the internet availability here is pretty slim, and as such, our postings have been a little scarce. This should make up for it though.
We had a lot of fun while in LA. Irving and Sherry (my uncle and aunt) were very helpful and fun! Lots of sights to see, and places to travel to. We got a lot of pictures and video clips of different areas of the city, including some beautiful beaches. We also sampled some of the wonderful LA driving on the interstate freeways (more like parking lots, hahaha). One particularly cool area to see was the Hollywood hills by the Hollywood sign. Below is a clip of our adventure through the crazy narrow winding roads of the hills. We attempted to get as close as possible to the sign. Apparently there is a fine if anyone attempts to get to the sign because of the vandalism in the past. Well, have a look at the wicked houses and crazy scenery in the video.
Austrailian info to come soon!
Laters,
Ross
LA Day 2 (From Australia!)
Hello from Australia!!
We haven't had an opportunity to access the internet since we left LA so today we will make up for it with a few posts..
The second day in Los Angeles was just as jam packed as the first. We left Fullerton early in the morning heading straight for Santa Monica Beach Pier. The beach itself is beautiful, and the pier a famous tourist trap but I would say it is a lessor beach when compared to New Port and Balboa. We then following Santa Monica Blvd. from the beach all the way to east Hollywood (passing Santa Monica City, Century City and a few others for which I forget the name). This part of LA while nicer than what we saw Tuesday, was still slummier than I had expected. The night before we had worked out the directions to the famous Hollywood sign and we tried to follow them at that point. (see ross's post for a video of the drive in Beverly Hills) The drive up is full of small tight roads and great views. After descending the hills we drove along Hollywood Blvd. just enough to see the star covered sidewalks and red carpet movie theatres. (no pictures) Finally we set out on Sunset Blvd. for a drive through the richest part of LA, Beverly Hills (including Holmby Hills, and Bel Air). The hedges protecting some houses were easily 50 feet tall, and it was very common to have a security gate with intercom. We stopped by the Playboy mansion, but all we got to see was the big black gate.
What a day! We then jumped on the 405 freeway and headed back to Fullerton for a chinese buffet with Ross's family before heading to LAX.
Cheers,
Andrew
Here are some photos from the day:
We haven't had an opportunity to access the internet since we left LA so today we will make up for it with a few posts..
The second day in Los Angeles was just as jam packed as the first. We left Fullerton early in the morning heading straight for Santa Monica Beach Pier. The beach itself is beautiful, and the pier a famous tourist trap but I would say it is a lessor beach when compared to New Port and Balboa. We then following Santa Monica Blvd. from the beach all the way to east Hollywood (passing Santa Monica City, Century City and a few others for which I forget the name). This part of LA while nicer than what we saw Tuesday, was still slummier than I had expected. The night before we had worked out the directions to the famous Hollywood sign and we tried to follow them at that point. (see ross's post for a video of the drive in Beverly Hills) The drive up is full of small tight roads and great views. After descending the hills we drove along Hollywood Blvd. just enough to see the star covered sidewalks and red carpet movie theatres. (no pictures) Finally we set out on Sunset Blvd. for a drive through the richest part of LA, Beverly Hills (including Holmby Hills, and Bel Air). The hedges protecting some houses were easily 50 feet tall, and it was very common to have a security gate with intercom. We stopped by the Playboy mansion, but all we got to see was the big black gate.
What a day! We then jumped on the 405 freeway and headed back to Fullerton for a chinese buffet with Ross's family before heading to LAX.
Cheers,
Andrew
Here are some photos from the day:
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
New Port, Long Beach and more..
Our first real day in LA! (and last for awhile)
After a great Mexican breakfast and a slow morning around Fullerton (which is in Orange County I found out!) we rented a car and hit the road. We spent the whole day driving and managed to hit the following areas in this order: Fullerton, Anaheim, Santa Ana, New Port (including all the cities and villages along the south beach front), Balboa, Long Beach (including the docks), Torrence, and many other cities along the Pacific Coast highway all the way back up to LAX. We passed by Santa Monica, and then took the freeway all the way back to Fullerton. We plan to spend what time we have tomorrow exploring downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, and Beverley Hills.
This is the pool located in the center of the apartment complex; Ross's Aunt and Uncle are the managers of the area. It is in the city of Fullerton, Orange County. Fullerton is very clean and cute, Disneyland is only a 5 minute drive away!
This is a native plant right outside the front door. It may not be super special, but it looks amazing in real life!
A lifeguard stand on New Port City beach.
A parrot on my arm.. a nice man on the beach was showing us his pretty birds!
Ross even got to kiss one!
I'll finish today off with a couple more pics..
Cheers,
Andrew
After a great Mexican breakfast and a slow morning around Fullerton (which is in Orange County I found out!) we rented a car and hit the road. We spent the whole day driving and managed to hit the following areas in this order: Fullerton, Anaheim, Santa Ana, New Port (including all the cities and villages along the south beach front), Balboa, Long Beach (including the docks), Torrence, and many other cities along the Pacific Coast highway all the way back up to LAX. We passed by Santa Monica, and then took the freeway all the way back to Fullerton. We plan to spend what time we have tomorrow exploring downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, and Beverley Hills.
This is the pool located in the center of the apartment complex; Ross's Aunt and Uncle are the managers of the area. It is in the city of Fullerton, Orange County. Fullerton is very clean and cute, Disneyland is only a 5 minute drive away!
This is a native plant right outside the front door. It may not be super special, but it looks amazing in real life!
A lifeguard stand on New Port City beach.
A parrot on my arm.. a nice man on the beach was showing us his pretty birds!
Ross even got to kiss one!
I'll finish today off with a couple more pics..
Cheers,
Andrew
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Troubles on the way to LA
Our first day of travel was not without glitches. If all had gone according to plan we would have arrived in LA around noon pacific time; the reality was about 11:30 PM pacific time. We ran into a strange problem not once, but twice!
After passing security and arriving at the gate in Halifax, we found out that one of the crew members was missing (and because it was snowing outside I believe it was weather related) The lack of a steward caused the departure from halifax to be delayed about one hour.. just long enough to make sure our connection in Montreal to LA would not happen. Once in Montreal, and with a rescheduled ticket (to depart at 6 EST) we thought all was well.. but alas once again a single steward was missing! How could this happen twice in one day!!!
The bottom line is I am now in LA and its great!
Cheers,
Andrew
After passing security and arriving at the gate in Halifax, we found out that one of the crew members was missing (and because it was snowing outside I believe it was weather related) The lack of a steward caused the departure from halifax to be delayed about one hour.. just long enough to make sure our connection in Montreal to LA would not happen. Once in Montreal, and with a rescheduled ticket (to depart at 6 EST) we thought all was well.. but alas once again a single steward was missing! How could this happen twice in one day!!!
The bottom line is I am now in LA and its great!
Cheers,
Andrew
Monday, January 15, 2007
My First Post
Well, we're all packed and ready to go. Just giving the ol' blog a whatsover to work out the kinks. And are there kinks!!! :)
More info to come when we get to LA!
Bye
More info to come when we get to LA!
Bye
Day One..!
I can't believe we are leaving already! WOOO HOO!!! Getting up at 4:30 this morning doesn't seem so bad when you know you'll be across the continent this time tomorrow. I expect to see something a little bit like this just a few hours from now..
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