Trav3lingMan

I just realized that it’s been over a month since my last post and at this rate it’s going to take me forever to get everything posted, so I decided to pick up the pace a bit. My work on my PhD has all but consumed me, so free time is somewhat scarce lately..
June 29th, 2008

Collene has just arrived in Sydney and despite her serious lack of sleep, we decided to head to the Blue Mountains with our good friend Tom, who graciously offered a ride in his company van. We left fairly late in the afternoon on account of the fact that everyone had been up fairly late the night before and not necessarily in the proper condition to go outdoors any earlier than 3 pm. We managed to round everyone up and prepared to leave..

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June 28th, 2008

I had enjoyed climbing so much the previous weekend, that George and I agreed to do it again this weekend. He suggested a place known as Clovelly Bay, right on the coast of Sydney and a little south of Bondi Beach. We met at Central Station at approximately 6 am with the intent of catching the first bus to Clovelly, hopefully to make it in time to see the sun rise. Fortunately, we were just in time..

Clovelly consists of a series of sweeping sandstone cliffs just to the north of the little bay which also happens to be the scene of some very impressive ocean front climbing. I couldn’t help but to smile as we sat in the early morning breeze watching the sun crest over the horizon like it has for millions of years. The weather was already looking to excellent and the breeze was just strong enough to give the morning a slight chill but take the heat off in the afternoon. I must admit.. I spent most of the day taking pictures of the waves. It’s been years since I’ve been to the ocean, and never before had I been to a place like this..

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I’ve been back in the states for two weeks now and already I thoroughly miss Australia. On June 29th, my girlfriend (Collene) arrived in Sydney to begin our 3 week journey through Australia. Due to a limited schedule to see everything we wanted to, I just didn’t have the time (and later internet connection) to make regular posts. We often gauge our trips by the ‘remoteness’ of the location and lack of communication with the outside world. This was no exception. Now that my schedule has returned to normal, and I’ve adjusted to driving on the RIGHT side of the road, I will continue to post the remainder of the over 8,200 pictures taken on this trip (yep, 45 gig total).

After my climbing endeavor in the ‘Bluies’, my week was fairly un-eventful. Work at the OFTC went as usual, with a slight increase in the pace as I would be leaving at the end of the week. On Friday (June 27th), I decided to take a few pictures of the interior of the building in which I worked, since I had marveled at it’s original design and ‘re-purposed’ renovation for 3 weeks now.

As you enter the building through a large set of sliding glass doors, the first thing you see is a majestic staircase that leads to the upper floor of the building.

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This post is a bit late, as I’m still catching up from last weekend..

Due to my ‘indulgence’ in after-hours activities, I was in no condition to get up early and function.. Sometime in the afternoon, I felt well enough to head downtown with the intent of getting good shots of the Opera House at sunset. I took the train form Newtown to Circular Quay and arrived at ‘The Rocks’ just about 3:30.

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It seems that the longer I’m here, the more there is to do, and this past weekend was no exception (as it should be). After a relatively long week, Friday was a welcome event. The evening started with just the usual crowd at the hostel. There had been a celebration of sorts brewing all week in part due to the occurrence of a birthday as well as several long-term hostel residents moving on to bigger and better things. At around midnight, we all headed out to a pub just down the road named ‘Kellys’.

We spent the better part of the night sitting around tables at the pub bantering about nearly everything. Honestly, I can’t remember 90% of what was talked about. All I know is that everyone had a really good time (for one reason or another).

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