Jetlagging Through Sydney

Happy late Thanksgiving to everyone back in the U.S. I’m extremely jealous of anyone who enjoyed turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, jello salad or anything else Thanksgiving-related on Thursday. You know how I celebrated the holiday? By going to a deli in Sydney and eating a sandwich called “The Thanksgiving.” So there.

I’m getting ahead of myself though. I had extremely successful flights from Paris to Sydney on Tuesday & Wednesday. It was a pretty strange, um, day? 2 days? It went from night to day to night and back to day quicker than it ever should. And also, on the first change from night to day, it went from pitch black to completely light in about 4 minutes. I can’t ever remember flying from SF to Boston and having a similar experience with how quickly the sun can rise when flying east. With 24 hours of traveling, I had convinced myself I’d be sleeping at least once for an 8-hour stretch. As a matter of fact, I got some sort of “sleeping pills” from a pharmacy in Paris for that very purpose. It was an interesting exchange as I asked the pharmacist if he knew what Nyquil or Tylenol PM was, and he asked what my symptoms were. I said I just want to be able to sleep; he walked in the back room and came out with a small box of pills. Nothing else was said, and it was honestly the closest I came to being involved in a drug deal in all my time in Europe. I looked up the drug’s name online at my hostel in Paris, and it wasn’t completely comforting to see a sentence like, “it is known that the pills Heath Ledger died from contained Donormyl.”

Anyway, on the first flight (7 hours) I used more natural methods to fall asleep (complimentary glasses of wine & beer). On the second flight (14 hours), I took the pills several times but could not fall asleep. I think the main reason was the incredible in-flight entertainment provided by my new favorite airline:

There were roughly 100 movies and 75 TV shows I could choose from on my personal entertainment system. Also, video games!! Picture me dead tired, having taken pills to help me sleep, but choosing to fight those urges to play the “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” game instead. That’s pretty much how it went down. I believe I watched 5 movies from start to finish, including Lord of the Rings. So not much sleep time at all.

When I got to the Abu Dhabi airport, I realized I was clueless about their currency and the applicable exchange rate. But clearly I needed to eat. I exchanged 20 USD for 72 Dirhams. I have no idea if this was fair or not.

While I’m on the topic of currency, a couple things about Australian currency:

1). Pretty awesome that it’s almost a 1-to-1 exchange rate with the U.S. dollar. In one sense it makes life easy finally, but in another sense, I find myself converting it back to Euros to see if I’m paying a similar amount for things here as I was in Europe.

2). So even though Europe is annoying with having so many coins due to no bills smaller than 5, at least they do coins the correct way with the larger ones being for the larger amounts of money. In Australia they just have to do it different (of course), so a $2 coin is the size of a U.S. dime, and a 50-cent piece in Australia is roughly the size of my fist. Not confusing in any way.

Now that I’ve opened up the “how Australia is different” conversation… did you know they drive on the opposite side of the road here?? I didn’t. Seriously, I had no idea even after a shuttle took me from the airport to the hostel (that’s what minimal sleep for 35+ hours will do to you). But at least they are looking out for us American & Europeans with helpful indicators:

I will say it’s a big relief to be back in an English-speaking country. There are so many examples I could point out already such as being able to communicate with a bus driver or someone making my food. But it really hit home when I went to the grocery store, and finally there were no more guessing games. No more accidentally buying tomato paste instead of pasta sauce, or hoping I bought turkey breast.

I’ve now spent 2 out of my 3 days here on the beach, including a long day of relaxing on Manly Beach yesterday (Friday). Apparently Bondi Beach is the most-famous of all Sydney beaches, and I can’t figure out why. But on Wednesday morning I did a free walking tour of a bunch of beaches along a 5km path leading to Bondi. Here are some pictures:

As for Manly Beach, I thought it was fantastic. A little less crowded than Bondi, better waves, and a great “beach town” atmosphere. Some supporting pictures:

Here are some quick observations about the beaches in Sydney:

-There are specific “flagged areas” on the beach where they recommend you swim due to the current, but usually you’re allowed to swim outside the flags at your own risk. At Manly, I was outside the recommended area for 10 minutes when a Lifeguard started yelling at me to get out of the water. Perfect timing as I was just starting to think, “Shit, I may not be able to get back to shore on my own.” The waves just never stopped coming.

-It was pretty funny watching hundreds of surfers get absolutely crushed by these waves all day, until I remembered that I will be one of those people next week.

-It was a windy enough day yesterday that when I came out of the water after 15 minutes, I could barely find my towel as it was covered in a layer of sand. Not very comfortable laying on a beach and getting covered like that every time the wind blows.

-So it appears that clothing is optional for women on all parts of the beach…

-And also, how do I say this non-offensively??? Um, it seems the “cuts” (or styles) of bikini that most girls wear in Australia aren’t even available in the U.S. And they should be…starting now.

-You know how in the U.S. people will toss a football to each other on the beach? Well in Australia they don’t seem to do that. Instead they use a rugby ball, and they basically pitch it backwards to each other while standing maybe 6 feet apart. Seems super fun huh?

-I know this isn’t a beach-related observation, but I may set a record for most milkshakes consumed in a 1-month period if the weather stays this hot. That should do wonders for my “surfer’s body.”

I was chatting with some girls from Oregon the other day, and they agreed with me that the Christmas vibe doesn’t seem right out here. First of all, it just seems weird to have Xmas decorations & carolers in 90+ degree heat.

And also, they apparently don’t say “Merry Christmas,” but instead use...

Weird.

On the 1 day I haven’t gone to the beach, I did the typical Sydney sightseeing. Now live vicariously through these pictures:

And lastly, if you’ve made it this far, a final story for you. So I cut my hair on Thursday:

But I was convinced I would get a mohawk and leave it that way for a week or so. I had the guy start by giving me a mohawk, and even though he warned me it would look bad, I went forward with it. When he asked me what I thought of it, I muttered, “This looks friggen ridiculous.” He laughed and asked if I wanted him to take a picture of it before he cut the rest off. I said no thanks, one of my brothers already has enough incriminating photographic evidence of me anyway. So I guess it’s settled: I only have 2 hairstyles, and one of them makes me look Jewish.

Tallying Up the Numbers

In 4 1/2 hours, I'll be starting the very LONG journey to Sydney. As I sit here in Paris wasting time before heading to the airport, it seems appropriate to run through some numbers from this part of the trip:

For the record, my travel will consist of a 7-hour flight (Paris to Abu Dhabi), a 3-hour layover, and a 14-hour flight (Abu Dhabi to Sydney). That is a mind-boggling 24 hours of travel. Due to the time change, it will take up 34 hours of my life. Turns out Sydney is 10,543 miles away from Paris.

Moving on to somewhat relevant numbers:

-70 days of travel completed

-25 destinations visited in 11 different countries

-most destinations in 1 country was Italy with 7

-foreign languages I've survived = 10 (you could argue more than this though because trying to understand English peoples' English & Aussie peoples' English is like hearing a foreign language)

-average amount of words I learned to speak in each language = 6 (yes, no, hello, goodbye, please, thanks)

-23 different hostels

-21 "long-distance" train rides

-3 short flights inside Europe

-countless bus & metro rides in almost every major city

-7 cabs taken (more than I had hoped for, but most of those came at 5am in Barcelona after leaving a club)

-8 books read (including one book, Shutter Island, that I read in 3 1/2 days)

-2 TV shows downloaded & watched from iTunes: current season of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" & "The Wire" (which I will be done with soon)

-over 1,750 songs on my iPod that I've easily listened to in its entirety

-number of days out of 70 where I didn't have my small backpack on for significant time: approximately 4 (hence the permanent back/shoulder damage)

-number of days out of 70 when it rained: 7

-pub crawls attended = 5

-amount of beer drank = incalculable

-soccer games watched in person = 1, watched on TV = about 13

-in contrast, only 4 NFL games watched (including 2 Patriots games)

-only 7 "art museums" visited (this doesn't include non-art museums like the Heineken Museum in Amsterdam) By the way, went to the Louvre finally today. Great museum even though the crowds are ridiculous and the Mona Lisa is beyond overrated. Seriously, least impressive famous painting....ever.

-days spent on the beach = 3 (Australia here I come)

-cathedrals & castles seen = too many

-number of Australians traveling in Europe: approximately 1.3 billion

-4 cigars smoked on entire trip (surprisingly low)

-amount of homeless/beggers/pan handlers in Europe = almost equal to # of Australians

-amount of money given to these people = $0.00

-2,012 pictures taken (I'm planning on throwing a party in SF when I get home where I walk everyone through each picture, stopping to talk about each one for 3-5 minutes...bring your sleeping bags)

-number of times somebody said, "Oh Ross, like from Friends" = 75

-number of times I gave an annoyed look when somebody said that = 75

-number of times someone said I looked like Seth Rogen = 1 (3 days ago in Paris)

-percentage of people I've met who think I'm Jewish = 45% (guess I gotta cut the Jew-fro to avoid this)

-amount of coffee & cigarettes purchased = 0 to both (I have a theory that I have spent less money on average than other travelers because of this. Actually, I might have had to skip Australia all together if I drank as much coffee & smoked as many cigarettes as some people I've been around)

-number of times I've used my alter ego (Henry): 4 or 5 I think

-number of times I've been called out for giving a fake name: 3

-amount of people who thought I said my name was "Russ" = 0 (and yet Nicola thought this was my name for like the 1st 8 months I knew her)

-amount of money spent: not even gonna go there. I'm more scared of looking at my online bank account than of watching "2 girls, 1 cup" (please please please don't go googling that if you've never heard of it)

-number of chocolate croissants eaten for breakfast...let's see I've been here 70 days, so probably about 62

-times I ate an entire cylinder of Sour Cream-n-Onion Pringles in 5 minutes: 1 (2 nights ago walking home from the Pub Crawl with my roommate James at 4am)

-current height (in inches) of my afro: 2 1/2 maybe?

I think that's all I've got for now. I leave you with a few more pictures of Paris, and I'll talk to you all from the other side of the world.

Counting Down to Australia....in Paris

Since it's Friday afternoon and most of you people want a distraction from work, let's see if I can come up with some semblance of a blog post. I might be tough because I've drank a few beers already (8:30pm right now), including one that was 8.4% alcohol. But away we go...

Before my trip, I bought a Eurail pass which gave me "15 travel days over a two-month period." As you can see, this worked our perfectly. It couldn't have been any better as my 15th and final journey took me to Porto where I flew to Paris:

I did 4 days in September, 6 days in October, and 5 days in November. That makes perfect sense since the only full month I had here was October. Well done, Ross!

Speaking of flying to Paris, I actually got warned by the woman checking me in at the Porto airport that I was "running out of time" on my stay in Europe. Really? I've been here 60 days out of the 90 I'm allowed. Don't you think that's a bit too soon? I guess she was just trying to be nice, but I was too tired for nice. I snapped back that I'd "be gone in one week so don't worry about me." Also, this is the 2nd time I flew on RyanAir. Good budget airline, but they are so obnoxious. They try to sell you EVERYTHING on their flights. Literally they go from trying to sell lottery tickets, to duty-free booze, to cheap cartons of cigarettes. Also, when we land, they put on some triumphant music and everyone claps. I'm supposed to be excited that we landed safely? Like this doesn't happen for you guys that often? Sketchy...

Now as you'd expect, when I got to Paris on Tuesday night I had some definite priorities. Like everyone, I wanted to do the must-see Paris things right away on Wednesday morning. So here was my first stop:

Crepes bitches!!! (Not as good as grandma/grandpa used to make us, but ya know...next best thing)

So as I was getting ready for Paris, I was looking at hostels and noticed even the best ones online had really craptacular reviews. Seriously, only 1 of them had solid reviews across the board. Of course that 1 hostel was booked my first two nights here, so I had to stay elsewhere. I have never been more afraid in my life. Not so much afraid from a safety standpoint, more like a health/toxic standpoint. I was afraid to use the bathroom, afraid to make lunch/dinner in their "kitchen," afraid to use their computers. It was disgusting. Also, on my first night, the nice Brazilian family in my room had stolen my hostel-issued blanket before I got to my room. There are no pictures of this atrocity as I don't want to scare anyone too badly.

Did a free walking tour on Wednesday morning with the same company that does them all over Europe. Pretty solid, not as good as Prague's. Probably because our tour guide looked exactly like a leprechaun. Same size and all. Either way good intro to an extremely large city.

On Thursday I could only fit in two things because in Paris there is always a line. I went to my new favorite museum. No, not the Louvre. The Museum d'Orsay. I'm hearing more & more that the Louvre is overrated and will be a disappointment. I will probably judge for myself, but it's been bumped down the priority list. I will probably only do the Louvre if time permits on Monday afternoon. The Museum d'Orsay was gigantic and had an amazing collection. I also found my new favorite artist, Alfred Sisley: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sisley

Based on my relative inexperience with art, this is almost like me saying I have a favorite WNBA player. Oh well.

I was ready to bitch & moan about how the signs at certain museums (like this one) say no photographs so I oblige and leave my camera in my bag at the baggage check, and then I see hundreds of people snapping pictures of every piece of art. But then I realized the sign is only indicating no flash photography. Pictures without flash are OK. Damnit! (but no pictures of this museum thanks to that)

The other thing I was able to fit in on Thursday was the Eiffel Tower. I'm beyond torn on this. It really should be ugly. You put this structure anywhere else in the world and you don't have a billion tourists going crazy over it, and the natives would be PISSED at its existence.

On the flip side, you really can't appreciate it until you're here. It's gigantic. You walk away from it and 15 minutes later it's still like you're standing under it. It's that big. See for yourselves:

Did you know the Eiffel Tower is painted 3 different colors so that it looks all the same from far away? Me neither, until 2 days ago.

So last night I finally moved into a good hostel. By "good" I mean, "a hostel that didn't constantly have feces on its bathroom walls or ridiculous stains on all its beds." Anyway, within minutes of me sitting down in the common room a girl sat at my table and the bartender brought her dinner. I'd like to let Michael know that exactly 13 sentences were exchanged between us before either one of us said where we were from (he challenged me to go as long as I can without saying where I'm from, since that's the first question everyone asks everyone while traveling). I'd love to report good progress with this girl except she was the single most obnoxious person I've ever met. Within minutes of meeting her, we were talking about college and she was saying things like, "Yeah I guess maybe I'm just a little smarter than everyone, but how could you possibly spend college partying & not taking your classes seriously?" ....ummmm...we would not mesh well hunny (don't know her name still). I decided to tell her how after my first year in college my Dad got my grades and in our driveway at home he looked at me and said, "Well, Ross, better start looking at other colleges if this is what you're gonna do for the next 3 years." So yeah, not a match made in heaven to say the least. It's ok. She stood up eventually & I realized she was not for me. For the record, she went on & on about how great she was at everything (including singing) for about 45 minutes. Then she stopped and said, "Wow, just realized you've been listening to me talk for a while." I faked like I got a phone call on Skype (can that even happen?) and I walked away.

Oh you were about to ask, "What did you do today, Ross?"

Well I'm glad you asked... here's what I did today, in pictures...including a couple pictures that only Ben will care about.