Traedogg Down Under

I am officially on Spring Break Starting today: Friday Sept 23rd till Tuesday Oct 4th! Look forward to the longest blog when I get back and hundreds of pictures!!! Until then… love and miss you all!

Another 5:45 wake up call began my Saturday morning, only this time I was not headed to work (thank god) but on a tour to the Blue Mountains with my roomies! This tour was arranged by the same company that led us on the Hunter Valley Wine Tour and on that tour, we had the most abrasive, American (but who has lived in Australia now for 10 years so he thinks he knows all about the country) tour guide, Brent. We had been thinking of cancelling our Blue Mountains tour numerous times at the small chance at getting Brent as a guide for Blue Mountains, but decided to chance it. And sure as hell, we walk up at 8:00am, Starbucks in hand, to meet our tour bus a are face to face with Brent. It was a definite staredown from all parties involved, as he rememberd us… the group of American girls who didn’t tip him after he begged for tips for 5-10 min at the end of Hunter Valley, (even though tipping isn’t a cultural practice in Australia), and as we remembered him.. the boisterous American tour guide who cracked sexist jokes all day and loved to hear himself talk.

Being who I am, I decided to give Brent another chance and the benefit of the doubt.. maybe Hunter Valley just wasn’t one of his shining moments. But I needent have tried to be so nice. He was up to his old antics immediately, talking non-stop from the time we left Sydney for an hour to our first stop: The National Wildlife Park, slipping in a few sexist jokes/comments on the way. Despite Brent, the day was fantastic! (Although very cold as we continued our ascent into “the Blue Mountains”). When we weren’t trapped in the bus for hours with Brent on his loudspeaker, they had us doing amazing things! At the wildlife park, we got to see hundreds of native australian animals. Including Koalas, Kangaroos, Dingos, etc. I have GREAT pictures of all of these animals on snapfish including one of me feeding a kangaroo and one with a joey actually in the momma kangaroos puch! (the kangaroo pics are for you Tad! I tried to make it out with one… but it kept kicking me!)

After the wild life park, we continued on to the Three Sisters, which is the must see “tourist attraction” of the mountains. Really its just three big rocks on the ledge of the mountain, but beautiful none the less. After lunch, the afternoon coninued on with a train ride on the worlds steepest train (which was crazy!) down into the valley of the mountains, followed by a ride on the flyway back up to the top! After a short tea/coffee break at the final look out point and a stop in this incredible niche candy shop we bored the bus one final time. Thankfully Brent gave his yapper a rest for an hour and played some native australian music while we traveled to our last stop of the day.. Sydney Olympic Park. (how exciting for me… I am there 2-3 times a week for work!). From there, we boarded the ferry for a river cruise back to Darling Harbour in Sydney. It was my first time on the harbour by boat, so it was exiciting! It also couldn’t have worked out any better, because Darling harbour was less then 2 blocks from where the NBL (national basketball league) game, Sydney Kings vs. Brisbaine Bulletts was being played at the Sydney Entertainment Center, and I just happened to have 7 free tickets for me, my roomies and our friend Danielle.

The game was awesome to witness. This was their professional basketball league and it was SO small scale compared to the states (as I imagined it would be). There were probably only about 4000 people there in an arena that held about 10000, and the cheering/excitment was minimal even though the two teams that were facing off are the two top contenders to win the league this season. The half time show was also entertaining. First, the six poms girls did their little routine (dressed in literally underwear… we were SHOCKED at how scantally clad they were.. that would NEVER fly at an NBA game in the states) and then they had 5 guys (three of whom for some reason decided it was necessary to have their shirts off for this) did a tumbling/karate/breakdancing routine. It was really cool. In the end, the home team pulled out a victory and we headed home after a full, long day, excited for our warm beds;) Pictures of the day as always are posted on snapfish! (www.snapfish.com username: tlswartz@wisc.edu password: snapfish… and remember to click on the PHOTOS tab… my albums are in blue.. my friends are in green!) Only 6 days till spring break!! (but unfortunately, 2 of them are full days of class, and three full days of work ;/)

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