Dancing with Matilda

I am back to Hawaii. After a wonderful, amazing, busy adventure in Australia, I have returned to the U.S.. I have to admit that I almost cried when I got on the plane to come home. I really loved it there. Life is so free in Australia. I have so many stories, so many observations. I love the people, the places, even their government. I enjoyed that the focus in life is in living life, and enjoying your mates. I loved the desire for Eco living. This does not appear to be out of pressure, but more as a general acceptance of how one must live to be sustainable. I love that in every space there is some piece of creative focus, whether it is architecture, or park design, or a piece of sculpture. I loved that people didn't struggle with my name. In fact they felt a bit of connection with me because of it. And for some reason the blokes found me rather handsome. I don't know why, but if you ask my husband, he'll tell you all about it.

I did feel sometimes our "Americanism" came out somehow. I still don't understand it, but when we would go out to dinner, people would just turn and stare at us. I thought maybe it was because of my husbands size (Rugby size), but then Australians have a rather large build to begin with, both men and women. I spent a bit of time trying to analyze the accent. I won't go into a lot of detail here, but I did find a few things rather interesting. When explaining something to you, they end each sentence modifying the last word sound to end like a question. Probably the funniest colloquialism that I came across; "budgy smugglers." Think on that one a bit, and I tell you what its reference is to later on. They say, "oh no" a lot when reacting to not so good news or surprises. When they say "no," it comes out "noyw." That is the best way I can spell it without using IPA, which would probably confuse even more.

Most Americans think that Australia is smaller than it actually is. Probably because it is out there on its own. All of Europe fits inside Australia's boundaries. So no, I did not get to Ularu, the Great Barrier Reef, or even Melbourne. Larry worked for a week, so we just didn't have the time to go too far. Melbourne is a 9 hour drive, the Reef is a 3 day drive from Sydney, and Ularu is about the same.

I did keep up on my journal a bit, give a day or two. I also took some 300 pictures. I think they help tell the story too. I will try and pick only a couple from my collection. I will post some of my journal later.

Sunrise from the Harbor Bridge looking at Sydney.


Same day and time, looking at the Opera house


Downtown Sydney. I love the angle I got on this shot.


A painting on the side of a highway. This portrays "The Rocks" in the early 1900s.


City scape from the Botanical Gardens. Our hotel was on the right.


Manly Beach


Larry, Clay and Annie


Canberra


Oldest Pub in Sydney


The Countryside


One of my favorites! Cowrashire at sunset. Looks fantastic, but it is very real.


Blue Mountains


Fruit Bats


Kangaroo on the side of the road.


Australian Flag on top of Parliament House.


I should probably stop now, or things are going to get out of control. Please click them open and see them in their larger, original size.
Finally...

Us in the Blue Mountains



I will put my pictures on Flickr, so you see more of Australia there.