Canberra

I signed up for a trip to Canberra with Jenna and Jacob through the Uni! We headed there on May 8th, for the day. It was a long drive down to Canberra so we stopped off for morning “tea” (aka. Breakfast) in Manfred Park, Goulburn. This park had some nice fountains and across the street there was a Victorian style court house that contained a Gaol (jail) and a morgue! After morning tea, we had another two hour drive until we would get to the National Capital Exhibition Centre. On the way, I mostly slept, however I did wake up in time to see (and take a photograph of) a gigantic Ram statue on the side of a building. I never did figure out what this was...


National Capital Exhibition – When Jenna Jacob and I arrived, we were not sure what the Exhibition was exactly. We thought it was a huge garden, and so we walked along the pathway leading to the gardens (and containing countless sculptures and plant life) – however, when we completed the circular pathway, we realized there was an actual museum. We were not too upset though, because we were able to see some beautiful trees (with their Autumn colours) and sculptures.



Australian War Memorial – This was probably my favourite stop of the day. This memorial is absolutely jaw dropping. As you approach, there are massive tanks, rockets, sculptures and statues surrounding the grounds. The building itself is also an incredible sight. As you enter, there is a large dome structure at the opposite end, a reflection pool, and hallways containing the names of Australians who died in World War One and World War Two.


Looking out from the War Memorial, you looked upon the Parliament Building. It was oddly reminiscent of the way the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument are laid out. Inside the memorial was a museum! It contained exhibits on both the World Wars, the Boer War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the First Gulf War, and Peacekeeping. It was incredible and absolutely worth seeing for anybody studying abroad in Australia.

Parliament House – We were taken across the way to the Parliament House. I found this slightly less interesting than the War Memorial. Though the outside of the Parliament House is interesting, the interior is not anything special (especially in comparison with the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa). My favourite room was the large ballroom with a grand piano that was just off the main foyer.


There was a room that had the photographs of all the women in parliament, and a room with a bunch of artwork (created by people I have never heard of, unsurprisingly).
After Parliament, we departed for Wollongong.

Zach’s Trip to Sydney

Not only was I lucky enough to have my mom visit over Easter break, but I was lucky enough to have one of my best friends come all the way to Australia to spend a week with me!
Upon arriving in Sydney on Thursday night, I was exhausted, having been kept awake until 3:30 am on Wednesday thanks to the drunken University students who have no regard for anybody else on residence. However, I digress. Zach met me at Central and we made our way to our hotel, Travelodge Sydney, on Wentworth and Commonwealth (a five-minute walk from Central Station). Zach had the Vodka chilled in the fridge and we got to pre-drinking almost straight away after catching up for a little while. We mapped out our itinerary for the duration of his stay and he showed me all the happening gay clubs. We changed clothes and headed out to the first club: Stonewall. This was the only gay club was busy before 11pm. We got drinks – vodka cranberry: $7.50 each – and hung out by the stage and people-watched. We also got to see two mostly-naked gay men dance on stage in tiny booty shorts. It was fun and entertaining to watch. Afterwards, we moved on to check out the next club, Arq. This club was set to get busy around 11:00-11:30. We arrived there at about 11:20pm and got some more drinks. The drag show began at midnight and featured talent such as Divine Intervention and Karen. I was pretty drunk and cannot recall the rest of their names. But they were quite entertaining – as drag queens tend to be. From here, Zach and I retired for the night in order to awake fully rested for the zoo on Friday.

Zoo - The Taronga Zoo is a famous Sydney attraction that holds a number of Australian and non-Australian animals. In order to get to the zoo, we took the Captain Cook Cruise across the harbour. We stopped at Fort Denison in order to drop off some passengers and learned that even though some believe it was a jail, it was always only a Fort. Convicts were held there, however, but the official status was never a jail. From here, we made our way across to Taronga Zoo. We took the Skyrail to the entrance and it took us over many of the exhibits. The first animal that we saw from the Skyrail was the female and baby elephants! I was so excited. As we continued throughout the zoo, we were able to see a number of animals including koalas, chimpanzees, emus, kangaroos, pigs, cassowaries, wallabies, lizards, snakes, seals, penguins, komodo dragons, orang-utans, spider monkeys, a male elephant, rams, sheep, and wombats. Despite having two separate platypus exhibits (The Platypus Ponds and an indoor platypus exhibit), I still could not see any. My hunt for the ever-elusive platypus continues. Zach and I also had a Koala experience. He paid to have his photo with a koala, but at this zoo there is no touching or handling of the koalas at all. However, we got to see two koalas together which is apparently very rare. The female koala’s name was Felicity (and I cannot remember the male koala’s name, unfortunately).




We also spent the majority of our nights at Stonewall. They had a lot of entertaining shows but my favourite one would have to be the "Alice in Wonderland" show. The Drag Queen's back home have nothing on these ladies. I did not expect a quality show, mostly because I have seen a Drag show back home, and it's all poor lip syncing and horrible dance moves. However, at this particular club, they had unbelievable costumes, real singing (which was surprisingly really well done), a dance routine and a plot. It was bizarre.



They also did a show that was based on the Glee soundtrack – but it was not as interesting as Alice in Wonderland was.
We went out for a delicious breakfast on one of the mornings, and I ate delicious and reasonably priced omelets. On this day, we walked through King’s Cross – one of the neighbourhoods in Sydney. It started to rain and so we headed back to the hotel. We did not stumble upon anything of interest in this neighbourhood. Our walk around The Rocks and Darling Harbour was much more interesting.
Unfortunately, we did not make it into any museums, galleries, or gardens. But, we did go shopping one afternoon in a gigantic mall that Sydney has, just up from Circular Quay. The boutiques were extremely pricey, but the mall itself had some interesting architectural features. The top of the mall had a domed roof with stained glass windows. There were also many different stained glass windows at each of the stairwells. It also had a wrought iron winding staircase that was not for public use. One of the neatest things was the clock – suspended from the ceiling, it was in the shape of a castle!

That was about all that Zach and I got up to! It was a short, but pleasant visit. I was so thrilled to see Zach and spend some time with a familiar face from home!

Denman: The Food and Wine Affair

Taking the train to Denman takes 8 hours, but we somehow stretched that out into a 12-hour trip. We took the train from Fairy Meadow to Central Station and from Central to Newcastle, where Woody lives and attends Uni. It was around 12:30am I believe, so we went to Woody’s and crashed until the next train - which was not until 4:00am! We met some interesting characters at the train station when we first arrived – and they were still there waiting for the train at 4:00am! They were heavily intoxicated and attempting to help their friend who appeared to also be heavily intoxicated, or on a bad drug trip – I’m not really sure. Newcastle is so pleasant.

We arrived in Aberdeen – where Stacey lives, and her mom was there to pick us up (she even had the SUV warmed up. We had been freezing since we got on the train from Sydney to “Newy”). We stopped off at a bakery and the picked up some goods for breakfast and we drove back to the Ferris residence. Leanne, Stacey’s mom – made us some raisin toast and hot Milo (almost like a hot chocolate drink, but not nearly as good) and then we all passed out. We slept from 6:00am until about 12:00 noon that day. We woke up to a breakfast feast, made by Leanne. I have mentioned her hospitality before – and it is still the best! She is such a phenomenal cook and so happy to take care of all of us.

By the time we arrived at Jess’s house in Denman, it was nearly dinner. We had a delicious feast and headed to a footy game in town. It was raining and cold so Jess’s dad Noel lent us his jackets. Once we got to the footy game, though, none of us was keen to stay because of the poor weather. We went back to Jess’s house and watched Twilight: New Moon, and then went to sleep.

The next day was the Food and Wine Affair. We went into town around noon to start the day. Jess and Catie got their wine coupons and glasses (I don’t like wine so I opted out) and we walked up and down the street stopping at the different wine and food stalls. I decided to get some chips and later, some delicious ice cream – which was incredible! Later in the evening, we ran into Woody who was working at his sister’s new restaurant – and we met baby Olivia! She wouldn’t stop staring at me – Catie and Jess believe it was because of my hair. I think that babies know that I do not like them, and they like to make me feel uncomfortable. At least Olivia was well behaved – and beautiful.



Woody was unable to come out with us, so we moved on and we went to the Bottom (pub) and met up with some of Jess’s old friends (some of whom I met the last time I visited Denman). We migrated to the Top (pub) at one point, but we got kicked out because Catie did not have her id. with her. We went all the way back to the Feeney’s in order to get it – but when we got back to the pub, the bouncer’s refused to let us in because apparently, a United States driver’s license is unacceptable identification. We had fun at the Bottom for the rest of the night, and then headed home the next day.