Transcending Borders With Seeds in Our Hands

I reached civilization (Sydney) at about 5 pm on Tuesday. I shared a flight with two girls from the tour: Sabine, a girl from Holland, and Tomb Raider (her real name is Iveta and she is from the Czech Republic but we called her Tomb Raider…not to her face…because everyday of the trip she wore a tube top, short shorts, and a pack around her waist that looked like it could hold guns instead of water bottles. Additionally, she was always climbing a rock or endangering her life to get a better picture or view. Several times she jumped over people so that she could get a better shot. Tomb Raider spoke English with that Eastern European toughness. She was fun though. Besides, I didn’t want to cross her–she had bigger muscles that I have). I knew that Sabine was going to have to rush out of the airport as soon as we arrived because she had bought tickets to see an opera at the Sydney Opera House. The show started at 7:30 so she grabbed her stuff off the luggage belt and ran to catch the train with me. I told her that I might see her because I was going to try to get rush tickets an hour before the show.

I got to my hostel a little later than I expected because I got off at the wrong train stop and I couldn’t get a good map of the Wooloomooloo precinct. I found it and ran to check in. I was all sweaty and didn’t bother to change (I know, ew). I was pretty sure that even if I got to the opera house on time I would not be allowed in because I was a) definitely not in dress code, b) I smelled and looked like I had been rolled down a red dirt hill and had landed in a foul-smelling, stagnant pond, or c) the show was sold out because, well, it is the Sydney Opera. Add all this on top of the fact that I had the incorrect time on my cell phone due to Daylight Savings and you have the perfect way to NOT get into the opera.

I ran up the many, many steps of the opera house, two at a time and made my way to the box office after bumping into several tuxedoed men and fancy ladies. I got to the window and saw the real time on the clock and it was 7:25. I had five minutes. The woman at the counter motioned for me to bypass the will-call ticket line and she asked if I wanted a student rush ticket. She must have guessed by my outfit that I wasn’t exactly looking for the champagne bar. She said, “I have an awesome ticket for you but I need your credit card RIGHT. NOW.” I whipped it out, she swiped it, and in the blink of an eye and the flash of an unseen $33 I had a ticket to see La Boheme.

I slithered past all the older, better dressed folk to find my seat, thinking that I would have to go way up into the nosebleed section, climb over several immobile elderly ladies, and then plop down next to a large man whose personage would extend over my arm rest. I gave the ticket to the usher to analyze and she said “oh, you’re just over there,” pointing somewhere in the middle of the floor section. Turns out, I had a seat eight rows from the stage, right in the center of the auditorium. As I sat down I felt as if I had cheated the system because a ticket to sit where I was must have cost over 200 dollars. Sabine paid $106 for hers and she was in the back row of the second level. I felt conscious of my stinky, hobo state as we applauded the conductor. I kept my elbows in and tried not to stir up too much air with my clapping.

The show was superb and the sets and singing and everything was really well done. Although the opera is a work of Puccini, they brought it into the modern age but still kept that timeless feel at the same time. I thought it quite humorous that I was watching an opera about grungy people who can’t pay their rent as I looked like I could have easily blended into the chorus of people in the background who were rumaging through trash and trying to warm themselves by garbage can fires. At the end of the show I found Sabine and told her the good news of how much I paid for my ticket and where I got to sit. She wanted to slap me.

Our final stop in the Outback was King’s Canyon National Park. Tucker warned us to bring over a liter of water each because, again, people die there every year. The temperatures can become absolutely scorching and you can get heat stroke. We started out on the hardest part of the trail called “Heartattack Hill,” and you can guess why it’s called that. There were over 150 steps to climb but it was early in the morning so it was still cool. We got to the top and started the walk around the rim which lasted over three hours. The walls of the canyons were formed from layers of rocks that had been pressed together as the continent of Australia compressed inward. The change of pressure on the landscape gave rise to the domes and outcrops that exist today. There were ripple marks on smooth slabs of stone, evidence that the desert was once and inland sea. We made our way down into the gorge and sat in the shaded respite of the Garden of Eden. There was a natural pool and lots of vegetation and birds. The birds made beautiful calls back and forth to each other and flew unabashedly inches from our heads. It felt a bit like I was getting a taste of what the Grand Canyon is like. We finally got to flat ground after coming down gradually over the next hour then we took off to high-tail it to Alice Springs. Tucker dropped each of us at our respective hostels and warned us not to walk around at night if we could help it. This advice was taken into more serious consideration as the sound of two sirens was heard in the distance. Everyone wanted to go to the pub for drinks but I was not feeling well at all, so I went and had a $5 dinner and then left early to get some sleep–I had to get up early to fly to Sydney. I ended up walking back to the hostel by myself and I didn’t feel threatened at all. I walked on the grassy median in the middle of the road and stayed away from the shady park. The next morning I grabbed a coffee in town and saw that it was actually a nicer town than nightime lets on. I was glad to be heading back to Sydney so that I could wash my VERY smelly clothes (I hadn’t washed anything for the whole week in the Outback). My bag still smells so I’m going to have to buy some deodorizer.

A long while after we left Coober Pedy we turned off the Stuart Highway and headed towards Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. We saw what we thought was Uluru (Ayers Rock) in the distance but it was actually Mount Connor. According ... [Continue reading this entry]

We continued up the bumpy dirt road and I could see mirages in the distance. Huge lakes appeared and then seemed to evaporate in a matter of seconds. The only life outside our vehicle was the birds who were feasting ... [Continue reading this entry]

The town of Coober Pedy was built on shaky foundations. Surface opal was discovered by a young man and the town immediately became home to those seeking the untold and unknown riches below the desert surface. Dynamite began to rumble ... [Continue reading this entry]

Today I left for the Outback on a tour with 18 other people. Adelaide and even the beginning of the Outback was really cold. Moving north out of the Adelaide Hills the trees and grass began to disappear, being replaced ... [Continue reading this entry]

I woke up this morning and the first thing I thought was I need to go and look to see if the weather had cleared. I popped my contacts in and went to look out over the ocean and it ... [Continue reading this entry]

I got up at an ungodly hour this morning to get on the bus to begin our Great Ocean Road trip. I got on the bus and said hello to everyone. We were not really that talkative though because we ... [Continue reading this entry]

I arrived in Canberra, the capital. The city was built with freaky geometric precision. The city itself is divided in two by Lake Burely Griffin with one side being the Civic center and the other being Capital Hill. I had ... [Continue reading this entry]

I'm back in Sydney at long last. It is noticeably warmer than I left it, making me break a sweat as I hiked (mostly uphill) from the bus station to Kings Cross with my strangely-getting-heavier backpack. I don't know how ... [Continue reading this entry]