Exploring Manly by Bicycle
It was the second day of my excursion Down Under, and I was ready to delve into on-the-ground exploration: going on a self-guided tour of Manly by bicycle. I’d gotten my obligatory photos with the Sydney Opera House the day before; I’d traipsed around downtown with my 5lb Lonely Planet Guide in tow. It was time for something a bit more challenging. Pamphlets had been floating around the hostel for Manly Bike Hire, which offered self-guided bike tours. Immediately, I had visions of riding around the rugged terrain, discovering hidden coves with the warm spring breeze blowing in my hair. I was sold. Getting to Manly One of the perks in going to Manly is taking the ferry, which gives you the opportunity to take even more photos of the Opera House, Harbour Bridge, and the Sydney skyline — without spending a fortune on a “harbour tour”. Getting to Manly, Renting the Bike and Choosing the Self-Guided Tour Located just a few blocks from where we disembarked is Manly Bike Tours & Bike Hire. Since I was on an adventure (and adventurous people are naturally in good shape), I opted for their “intermediate” route that had the most impressive pictures in the pamphlet: The Sydney Harbour National Park Explorer. I paid the $28 for the hybrid bike, signed a scary waiver that said something about potentially owing hundreds of dollars if I broke or stole the bike, and I was on my way. Dodging Traffic and Getting Lost I don’t know the traffic patterns of Manly, but I can’t imagine it gets a lot busier than on a beautiful, sunny and warm Good Friday afternoon. Between an endless line of parked cars on my left and bustling Easter weekend traffic on my right was a generous twelve inches of open pavement for my wobbly bike tires to straddle. As I desperately tried to keep my bike tires within the twelve inch gap, I remembered I hadn’t ridden a bike in over 10 years, and I’d never ridden in traffic of any kind, much less traffic flowing in the complete wrong direction. I teetered along uneasily for a couple of blocks, dodging mirrors on parked cars while trying not to swerve into traffic. This wasn’t an adventure. This was suicide. With my pride slightly bruised, I hopped off the bike and tried to look as cool as possible as I pushed it along through crowded intersections, until I found a quieter street in a residential area. I consulted the map, and realized that in my quest for survival I’d gone in the wrong direction. I tried to make sense of the roads within that orange square,...
it’s no accident we’re here tonight
A beautiful autumn day back in Sydney. I’m so elated to be back with my couchsurf family — all four of us hailing from different continents, where nearly every conversation is a lively and educating one– otherwise, it’s completely ridiculous and it’s probably the Brazilian’s fault. Seeing Switchfoot tonight, which is a bit surreal. I keep peering around every corner hoping to catch a glimpse of them ambling around the city, but no luck so far. I think I missed my chance at Snapper. Seeing my favorite band in my favorite city in a country I’ve been dying to visit for 12 years. Life is...
still got mountains to climb on my own
Back in Coolangatta after a non-eventful weekend in Brisbane and an interesting adventure to North Stradbroke island. The best thing about Brisbane was meeting up again with Maria, my first buddy when this whole adventure started almost 3 weeks ago. I only spent two nights in Brisbane, couchsurfing, which was quite educational (I learned oodles about Australian football, rugby league, and rugby union — not all the same thing). Aussie rules football has been my favorite so far, which means my place is in Victoria…maybe? I think in Queensland and NSW they prefer Rugby, but I could be wrong. This was only my second lesson in Australian sports; I hope I can squeeze one more out of Jim before I leave for New Zealand next Tuesday. In Brisbane, I spent my full day traipsing around South Bank, which may be the nicest area to meander about in. I walked through the markets and varying gardens, and finally to the state library. I then went back across the river to hang out in Elizabeth Square (I think?) and listen to various street performers (NOT country!). North Stradbroke (“Straddie”) was interesting. I arrived at the hostel feeling a little dejected, as it seemed more like a steamy deserted island lacking any elements of homey-ness or paradise. And as soon as I stepped out to explore the beach a massive downpour swept in, so the first day wasn’t shaping up to be too exciting. Then I met my roommate, Miriam-from-Germany-with-a-British-accent, and she was exactly the kind of girl you’d hope to share a hostel room with. She’s very warm and genuinely happy to see you, even though she doesn’t know a thing about you. Next I stumbled across Josh from South Africa and Yune (Spelling? He was Dutch). We bonded while trying to watch a VHS of The Hunt for Red October on a HD plasma screen, where the quality was so terrible it looked like someone filmed it with their own video camera back in the 1980s. After that, our curiousity was piqued by the hostel’s copy of Spice World, and much to my surprise, the guys actually wanted to watch it to poke fun at it. My kind of people! It was SO entertaining to listen to a guy with a heavy Dutch accent seriously try to list all of the various Spice Girls by their “Spice” nickname, hahaha. My gosh, I laughed the hardest I’ve ever laughed on this trip with those two. The next night was a bit weirder, as everyone checked out of the hostel except for myself, Miriam, our nice Japanese roommate, and Josh. A random...
All that’s in my head is in Your hands
It’s about to be tax day in my home country. w00t w00t? Today I was able to put myself in the perspective of bored, antsy, itchy feet Laryssa sitting on the couch in Nashville perusing ticket prices to Australia and I got really, really excited about being in Australia and seeing Switchfoot while they’re here. Since being here, it’s been easy to forget how unique this experience is, or how I’ve been wanting to come here for ages. It’s easier to justify not doing something than it should be. I can’t really explain what I’m getting at. I think the waves knocked my coherency out of my brain. Speaking of which! I finally got the guts up to rent a surfboard. I was feeling like a bit of a dud telling my friends at the hostel that I’d just hung out on the beach all day. With their encouragement, I rented a board and headed out to Rainbow Bay. It was a bit too crowded for my liking. Apparently, it’s surfer etiquette is to back off of a wave after someone else has caught it. I learned this after receiving my third dirty look from a surfer that nearly hit me. Catching the wave is also harder than I thought. At the lesson, the coach would launch us into the wave, so all we had to worry about doing was standing up. Catching the wave takes so much energy out of you — I think I only caught 4 waves today and made it to one foot half-standing twice. Pretty embarrassing. I’d love to travel long-term. I think I’d like to come back to the Gold Coast for a few months and try to work, and then maybe head over to the west coast for awhile and try my hand at fruit-picking. I could meet fellow travellers and journey with them to Bali or Thailand. One of the girls in my dorm room is from Chang Mei, and she keeps telling me I need to visit her next year in April because that’s when their big festival is. Right now, the rough itinerary is to go to Brisbane for the weekend, come back to Coolangatta for 2 nights, then fly to Sydney. I’m excited to go back to Sydney and see the “original” crew. It’ll be a bit like coming home, I think. I plan on staying there until the following Tuesday before heading to New Zealand for real. Anyway. Time is about to expire. I really must find another state library in Brisbane to mooch free internet off...
Learning curve.
Okay. So if I had to repack for this trip all over again, I would do the following: -Buy a netbook for $200. I’m sure by the time this trip is over I will have spent at least $60 in internet access. -Bring more than just 5 shirts. How freaking Spartan of me. -Bring a dress or two. -BRING A BELT. Heavens. -Leave the winter clothes at home, as I’m not going hiking after all. But how was I to know that? So now I get to lug around giant snow pants and giant winter jacket which take up 75% of the room in my 40L backpack. I would’ve brought more, essentially. I’ve always read about underpacking for trips because you’ll never regret it, but I definitely took it too far to the one extreme! I was OK in Greece/Italy because we were only there 10 days… but I’m approaching the two week mark and I’m about to shoot myself in the face and there’s still another month to go. I’m excited about going to the beach although I’ll be considerably poorer afterward. I hope I meet some great people up...
weird
Every time I travel I discover how many people there are that are unaware of deodorants. I can now understand why some people choose to never leave their neighborhood. So, Melbourne is a charming little city. It has a lot of coffee shops, quaint alleys with cafes, lots of music… as other people have said, it’s very European. I met up with a guy named Kim yesterday as he couchsurfed with someone who I’d just met in Nashville before leaving, and he was able to explain all about Australian government and their constitutional law (as that is what he’s studying). Generally, he said, Australians are more trusting of their government and depend on them to fix their problems. He also explained their health care system to me, which was helpful, as it seems our country is headed in the same direction. While they have socialized health care, they are allowed to get private insurance on top of it. If you need non-elective surgery, you get treated right away with Medicare; if you need elective surgery, such as hip replacement, then you could be waiting for 6 months unless you also have private insurance. Part of me wishes I had another day here, but I’m not about to cough up $75 to change the flight date. My couchsurfing host here is less than interested in me, and that’s okay, I guess. It’s amazing how much I’ve thrived off of other people so far on this trip and didn’t even realize it. I’m couchsurfing not because of the free place to stay, but because of the symbiotic relationship that forms from it. I’d love to meet up with Sunara in South Africa someday, go to a pub with Melissa in France, saunter around Amsterdam with Maria. The night in the hostel really wasn’t that bad, and I wouldn’t have minded staying there if I’d had a companion. I slept in a mixed dorm with 7 other people, my bed literally next to a window level with the busy city street. Oddly enough, I slept sounder than I have so far on this trip. Everyone was quiet and courteous, and were probably all agitated with me when I had to pack up my stuff to check out the following morning. St. Kilda is a joke. In my research, it sounded like a thriving hipster area with a beach, but the beach was the lamest I’ve seen in my 23 years. It was abandoned, dirty, next to a marina, and you could see oil refineries (or something similar) in the distance. It was so heartbreaking I didn’t believe that it was actually St....
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I'm Laryssa, and when I'm not working in film or television, I'm attempting to travel -- or I'm here, providing resources for working in film or travel. Read more Elsewhere on the internets
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