Days 67 - 69: Alice Springs and Sydney (March 15 - 17)

My last full day in Alice Springs proved to be a lot of fun, thanks to my new friend Maartje from Holland, who was on the Red Center tour with me. Like me, she's a solo traveller and in she's in Australia for 5 weeks, and we both had a free day in Alice before heading on to our (separate) next stops.

We met up at the Reptile Center after lunch, and were just in time for one of the animal showings. I can't remember if I've held a snake before, but I definitely haven't had one wrapped around my neck before. It made me a little tense, even knowing they wouldn't put a dangerous creature on me.

Snake, the new fall fashion.

I was more relaxed holding my second animal, a blue-tongue goanna:

"Nyah!"

Maartje and I agreed this guy would make a great purse:

Our next stop was the Starlight Theater, which is run by some guy who plays the didgeridoo for a stage show and holds free workshops during the day to teach people how to play (and probably to entice them to his show or to buy some to take back home). None of us there were any good at it, of course, but at least I can say I've played a didgeridoo. And I figured out where the name comes from: If you purse your lips just right, you can make different sounds as well as pitches, and can make the instrument say dig-er-ee-doo. I suppose some other combination of sounds would have served just as well to name the thing, but it was stunning how closely the sounds coming out of the instrument sound just like that word.

Afterwards, I was really light-headed.  Because I did it wrong.

We spent the next few hours just hanging out in town: Grabbing some coffee, a few errands, drinking beer. We talked about all sorts of things, but I had the most fun laughing about the horrors of our tour. Maartje had a better time than I did on the tour, but knowing that she was annoyed by a lot of the same things I was made me less disappointed in the whole excursion. And of course laughing about it so much made it better too.

Maartje looking happy because she just booked a trip to Kangaroo Island.

Of course I made the right decision staying out with Maartje, but it meant less time that night to write my blog and stuff.
The next day I flew to Sydney. Qantas does something really smart with its large planes: It boards people from both ends of the plane, so boarding takes only half the time. Maybe less, since people in row 1 who won't get out of the aisle can't hold up a whole plane, just half a plane. I don't know if Qantas can do that at all its airports, though, because the weather in Alice is pretty good and the airport is small, so everyone can just walk out to the plane.

In Sydney, I'm staying with friends of a friend from work. I am so glad he hooked me up with a place to stay (thanks, David VW!), because it's so nice to be in an actual house with people to talk to and real furniture and animals. Mark and Miriam are really cool and live in a very cool house as well:

That street art is painted on their house.  Wow.

It's right by a train (aka a subway) station, and walking distance to this funky street full of antique and vintage shops, and little cafes. We went out to eat last night (my first good meal in Australia!) then for drinks afterwards, where we listened to some live music. I was a little drunk by the time we got home. Enough that I couldn't bother blogging.

I was cut off by the time this photo was taken.

This morning I spent about 3 hours drinking coffee and chatting online with a friend. Mark and I took the dogs for a walk (they're not so bad... for dogs) then I spent the rest of the afternoon on King Street, moving from cafe to cafe and shop to shop. It's too bad I'm not furnishing an apartment here, or building a wardrobe. There's lots of retro furniture and vintage clothing that are right up my alley. The Australians continue to be quite friendly; I wasn't sure they would be in a big city like Sydney. I wound up chatting with one young shopkeeper for about an hour today. She leaves on a 4-month European trip next month, so we started off talking about what she should (and more importantly, shouldn't) pack, then moved on to clothes and places we've been and etc.

King Street

More King Street

Evening was pretty low-key. Mark, Miriam and I stayed in and ate Thai food. But again, it felt like a treat to just sit around someone's living room and talk about normal stuff, and not have to worry about getting back to a hotel or anything. I'll be on my own the next three days, so I'll be out and about more.

I think this is the longest I have delayed blogging since I began my trip. On safari, I wasn't able to post every day, but I did write every day, and posted later. The past three days I just didn't bother to write, mostly because I've been socializing into the evening. I'm glad for that. Nighttimes are the hardest time to fill when I travel alone. While blogging is a good way to fill that time, I'd rather spend it with friends.