Overall – good times indeed

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It takes a while to get the hang of how things work around here and how people think. At first, it all looks very naïve, and you’re not sure if people are really naïve or just playing along in some great cynical game that everybody knows about. What is this place?

[Warning… this could also be applied to Israel with far worse questions so when writing something like this one should be careful and treat issues tactfully.]
Riding along everywhere Australia displays the ultimate blend of people and cultures. English, Europeans, Americans (N), Americanos (S), Middle Easterns and loads of Asians from all religions. The variety of the human selection is astounding and makes you feel as though the Australian culture is open and accepting towards all. Walking around the streets I have a hard time keeping my mouth closed and my look away as I’m faced with all the gorgeous looking women – all different in one way or another (and yeah – no doubt - I do prefer the Asian look, as my dad is amused - or maybe afraid - to realize). But, after a while something does bother you and you can’t quite put your finger on it. One week, two weeks, and several realizations come crawling into perception - there are almost no black people around, Asians seem to take the role of low-rank-dirt-workers, and more intriguing is the horrible truth about the Aborigine people - they are no where to be found, unless you go visit the slums. Moreover, the whole Commonwealth British-empire thing gives you the feeling that Australia, maybe as Canada, are kept in the shadows of their bigger brothers – Great Britain and United States. They take part in all the wars (Vietnam, Korea, Iraq…); send hips of troops to ‘keep peace’ but fail to receive either the recognition of success (is success possible?) or the humiliation of failure. Why? Is it just my Israeli upbringing doubting everything? Perhaps, but it seems that we all have our skeletons to deal with…

There was several occasions when I was describing how clean and wonderful everything in the west is to some Vietnamese people and they wondered about why it’s so different than in SE-Asia. I explained to them about the fines for littering and smoking, about traffic police and the ability to track offenders, and was amused to be asked in return – “Unforgiving police, big fines, privacy invasion and tracking… and after all that you say that the west and democracy are freedom and self expression”. Hmm… good point, especially when everywhere you go in Australia you are warned again and again about the fines for everything, the use of extensive IT enforcement mechanism and hear horrible stories about what happens to people who disobeyed the mandatory (!!!) voting or don’t wear their seatbelts. I guess it does make sense, since everything looks amazing over here, but is this what we bargained for? What is freedom?

I’ve been busy, which is a good thing. We’ve started out by doing things around Sydney ourselves – bonding at the lovely Bondi Beach, going to the fancy Opera House and celebrating Oktoberfest while practicing our German at a lively German pub at The Rocks.

I haven’t heard about Puccini’s La Boheme until the show, which is not big credit for my upbringing. Although it was yet another cliché opera tragedy about true love dying from mysterious sickness at the last scene, it shook me up a bit as I could relate to the situation. A special someone I totally adore is faced with the horrible inevitability of death by cancer and I can’t help but feel hopeless and sad every time I think about it. How fragile life is… together with the posh surroundings it made an average opera story into an emotional journey.

After a couple of days trying things by ourselves and relying on the ever-annoying Lonely Planet for guidance I was convinced into registering for a 3 and a half days of commercial tourism one-day-tours outside Sydney.
It was better than I expected, although the distances in Australia can wipe out the wildest travel enthusiastic. Almost 2 and a half hours in every direction and a lot of riding in between sites are just too much. I can’t even imagine trying to drive by ourselves – how do backpackers travel around here?
So, we went to all possible directions:
South – Canberra.
North – Dolphin watching and the wildlife park.
West – Blue Mountains and another wildlife park.
Inside – Sydney tour of Northern beaches (Manly)

Overall – Gorgeous country, wonderful people. Good times indeed.

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