About two weeks ago, I headed to Melbourne to celebrate Pesach with my friend Sharon's Auzzie family. It was a great night with great discussion and even better food. I got to meet up with one of my close friends from Israel who happens to be working in Australia at this time- what a small world it is! We stayed with Sharon's cousin, who warmly opened her reptile-infested home to us, and even allowed us to feed her many snakes, lizards, and dare i say.... baby crocodile!!!!!!!!! Yes thats right folks- after being bitten by a snake here in the glorious Land Down Unda, I consciously fed a snake and witness the feeding of a live croc. It was a rush of adrenaline as I wasn't sure if the croc would accept his shrimp as a justified meal, or if I appeared better to him. Luckily, the croc was trained well (thanks Ann and Maura) and I still have all my fingers and toes. The next day we explored Melbourne another time and prepared for 2nd night sedar. This was one of the more EPIC sedars of my life. It's theme- Gangsta Sedar. It was a hilariously festive gathering of Jews and non-jews to tell the story of G-Dawg (God) and the Cappin' of the Thugs (Story of Passover). We all helped read the story of Passover, re-written of course, to gangsta-fy the celebration of our freedom. It really was a fun night, and we passed out, ready for the adventure ahead of us.
The next morning we woke up, packed the car, and headed on the road to the Queenscliff Annual Seafood Feast. Maura, Sharon, Eran and I were all ready to eat our share of 400 tons of seafood, but were kept in line for hours waiting to get in. So we ended up turning around, and continued on the Great Ocean Road, having PB and J for lunch instead (for those who don't know, and i hope that is none of you, PB and J is the glorious gourmet delicassy of a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwhich). We ended up driving along the South Eastern coast of Australia for most of the day, stopping off to take pictures of the 12 Apostles, Koalas, and the many of faascinating things Australia has to offer. We camped that night on the beach, and woke up to the sound of the morning tide rushing out to ocean. A great day 1.
The second day we woke up, packed our tent, and headed back down the Great Ocean Road to an old waterfall, that, since it hadn't rained in a while, was dry and thus EXPLORABLE! We hopped down the rocks and descovered a huge cave that was gorgeously eroded into a work of art. We spent time looking around the area, and were set on catching a sunset on the beach later that day. We arrived near Bells Beach, and the next morning, went to the Rip Curl Pro annual surf competition. The festival was full of surfers and family, and live music was being played as we watched the World's top surfers compete on wonderful swells. It was a nice way of topping of part 1 of the Great Australian Adventure, and later that day we headed back to Anns to get showered, and get to the aiport, in order to start part 2 of our great trip.
PART TWO: Exploring the Origins of Aboriginal Culture in Kakadu
We arrived in Darwin at 1 am, and jumped into our rental car. With nothing open and no place to sleep, we headed toward the Kakadu National Park in search of cave paintings, waterfalls, and of course, freshies (freshwater crocs). We arrived a few hours later, and grabbed a few Z's in the car until the heat of the morning woke us up. After stocking up on food and supplies, we ventured into the Outback to hike, camp, and view thousand year old Rock Art that explains much of Aboriginal culture. This area was fantastic. Amazing plains and plateaus spotted this wetland and although the mossies (mosquitos) feasted on our skin, we enjoyed the views our eyes saw, and the places our feet took us. We camped out one night and woke up to a car with a dead battery. Immediately, we flagged down a passing car, got a ride to the visitors center, and got the Park Ranger to give us a jump. I have to admit, i was scared for a moment of two that we would be stranded in the outback with little food and water, and worst of all... no cell service! But it ended up just being another aspect of the adventure, and we soon continued on to see the Aboriginal spiritual sites. The Rock Art was amazing, and our last day was spent in freshwater pools created by waterfalls, high up on one of the plateaus. We ended up returning to Darwin early, checking out the botanical gardens and grabbing a few cold ones after roughing it in the bush. Dropping the car off at the airport, we lugged out backpacks into the domestic terminal, and slept (yes, we slept!) for 5 hours at gate 16. We woke up, boarded the plane, and headed to Perth, tired but ready for the west coast.
We arrived in the Perth airport mid day, and headed to Sharon's cousins home to coordinate dinner with her west coast family. Thank God Sharon has Auzzie family, or we would have spent a ton more money, and had a to have slept outside WAY MORE than we did. We were welcomed warmly, and after a little lunch, took a tour of the city and met up with all of Sharon's family for dinner. We had an authentic Barby (BBQ) that lasted 4 hours, and overwhelmed each other with stimulating conversation. The next day we went to the beach, which was wonderful as the majority of our trip prior to Perth was in a "Go! Go! Go!" fashion. We left the beach when the clouds covered the sun and it was too cold to stay, so we headed home and began to prepare for shabbat. This was no ordinary shabbat. We celebrated the Indian food-Skip Bo-Shabbat by cooking Indian food, playing a card game called Skip-Bo, and of course, it was Shabbat. It was a great end to a great day, and even better was the fact that the next day we would be rocking out for 14 hours.
The rocking began at 8 am, when we dropped off the car, and rushed to the site of the West Coast Blues and Roots Festival, where we were volunteers for the day. We got our Green Team t-shirts, trashbags and were briefed, and headed out to keep the festival grounds clean. This experience was amazing, as Australians really do care about the environment. The entire day I received "Good onya Mate!" and "Thanks a lot for doing this" as I picked up cans and cups to be recycles. It was such a great experience, minus the one guy who drunkenly threw a can and hit me in the head (I promptly responded by giving him the death stare, which made him pick up the can and put in in my trashbag), and we got to see some great musicians and bands. The festival environment reflected the general vibe in Australia of celebrating life through supporting music and arts and everyone had contagious smiles on their faces. After our shift was over, we spent the rest of the night rocking out to Blues Traveler, Jason Mraz, John Butler Trip and Zappa Plays Zappa. These were STELLAR acts. AND I MEAN STELLAR. John Butler Trio changed my life and it was incredible to see Frank Zappa's music played live (and perfectly too!). It was the best "icing on the cake" I've had, and a wonderful end to a great adventure. The next day we went to the Perth Zoo, and packed up our stuff to return home.
The trip was so great. It was exciting, fun, hard, and full of smelly moments that were forgotten by the amazing places we visited. I loved my Australian Adventure and am blessed to have seen so much of of this wonderful country. I now am back in Brisbane, and back in school mode- as I have got to kick some arse on my upcoming midterms. Thanks again to my travel buddies and those who hosted us, and I'll be sure to keep yall posted on where in the world is Max Einsohn.
Much LOVE,
~MAX~
No comments:
Post a Comment