The Great Utah Road Trip July 3rd - 8th, Part 2: Freaks and Geeks in Salt Lake City

Well, in those days Mars was just a dreary uninhabitable wasteland, much like Utah...but unlike Utah, it was eventually made liveable. - Professor Farnsworth, Futurama.

I've decided this entry is going to be mostly comprised of lists, because I could rant about Utah until the cows come home and if I don't restrict myself somehow, it's going to expand to the point of literary explosion. My old university essays will start to feel threatened and we certainly can't have that, they're inferior enough as it is.

Pretty much every SLC local, every American, every living creature has asked me the following question at the very mention of our little road trip: why did I stay in Salt Lake City, hell, why travel to Utah at all? Salt Lake City was an experiment to see if I could survive the whole 'going it alone' approach to travel the way I had planned. Start off with the very worst (she wrote, with trepidation...) and by doing so, become accustomed to the joys of unlimited freedom and the potential pitfalls of loneliness, getting hopelessly lost and, most of all, my own incredible stupidity which tends to rear its ugly head whenever I'm thurst into the infamiliar. I'm pleased to say that the experiment succeeded (meaning I'm still alive and writing this entry in Portland).

I'm less pleased to say that Utah was pretty much exactly what I expected: Red State Hell. Lots of chains, lots of dodgy people, too much heat and too little sense. I will say a few things in Utah's defense (before I start working for the prosecution) - the people who aren't dodgy are quite friendly. People will often greet you in the street which was a shock to the system after coming here from Sydney. There were some random surprises: as I was wandering around one afternoon, I turned a corner and found a concert/festival that wasn't full of tabernacle music. Also the Life After Death exhibit at the Salt Lake Art Center was pretty good (loved the works of Neo Rauch), unfortunately it was the only exhibit.

The following places I have listed are not in any particular order of importance. I thought I should mention that before the 'WTF, you're listing a Catholic Church first?' comments begin.

Top 5 Favourite Places In Salt Lake City/Utah (I did have some, you know).

1. The Cathedral of the Madeleine 331 E. South Temple, Salt Lake City

Yeah I know, I know...I went to the Mormon heartland and was nearly converted to Catholicism. It doesn't matter which creed you follow, if you're in Salt Lake and you're dying from heat exhaustion, or just need to escape...go to church. I'm not religious at all, thanks to three and a half years of studying the subject at university, yet I found this to be the most peaceful and beautiful place in Salt Lake City. It is deliciously cool inside the Cathedral and there are murals covering the walls and ceiling, the likes of which kick the ass of some of the more famous cathedrals in Europe. After a few moments of sitting in the pews, taking in the violent splendour of the Stations of the Cross, I found myself in the chapel, lighting a candle. As soon as I did, this cool breeze floated through the room. Again, let me specify that I am not religious, but I was v. grateful for that coincidental occurrence.

2. The British Pantry, 652 SW Temple, Salt Lake City

Say hello to the lovely ladies at The Pantry if you're in the area. If you're not in the area, make time for tea and scones and go here. The British Pantry was my favourite spot for brunch in SLC because it was ridiculously cheap ($4 for a huge pot of Scottish Breakfast tea and two scones with fresh chantilly cream and jam, what a steal), and the staff were just gorgeous. I spent half an hour talking to them because they refused to let me drag my bag around in the oppressive midday heat.

3. Hogle Zoo, 2600 East Sunnyside Avenue, Salt Lake City
Yeah, I'm a sucker for cute, caged animals. Go check out the zoo's adorable Sand Cat and the Arabian Wildcat who, despite its name, looks like it belongs in a Victorian manor, with a pink bow around its neck. The black bears were fun to watch...the more sedentary of the two was quite happy to lie around in the baking hot sun (I'm going to guess it was a she, since she reminded me of myself) but the other bear would spend half its time pacing around the enclosure and the other half walking over to the lazy bear and butting its head against her back, trying to stir her into action only to receive a bite on the snout in return. Hogle is also home to three of my favourite animal species: the African elephant. Dari the megalomaniacal matriarch, Misha the clever subordinate who stores food in her tusks so she can get her share of the spoils and Christie, the baby (relatively speaking, she's only a year younger than me). The only problem I had with Hogle is that the most rambunctious animals are not the spider monkeys, nor are they the showoff giraffes. It's the children. Howling, screaming, crying kids. Everywhere. Christ.

4. Esther's Cafe, 30 East 300 South, Salt Lake City

On my last day alone in Salt Lake City, I was making a fast getaway from a creepy Salt Lake Stalker on a bicycle and I needed somewhere to disappear into. Quickly. It was also around dinner time, so I bolted into the first place that looked open, hoping to kill a couple of birds with one stone. That place was Esther's. What a stroke of luck. It's a cheap looking joint made for take away and initially I didn't have much confidence in the food. Before I could turn on my heel and make for the exit, I found out they had homemade clam chowder as the soup du jour. Something I'd never had before and was aching to try. So, I decided to take a chance on the little diner that could. Add a bit of green tabasco and the result is exquisite. Either that, or I was really hungry. Friday is clam chowder day at Esther's, so do yourself a favour and have the friendly people behind the counter look after you for an hour or two. There are free refills (well, there would be if the one serving wasn't so filling) and it's cheap and cheerful.

5. The Bonneville Salt Flats.

They filmed part of Pirates 3 here (think of the bit where Jack is in Davy Jones' Locker, talking to a few hundred replicants of himself) and once you step out onto the texturally incorrect salt surface, you can see why. The landscape is eerie, all white and blinding when the sun is out and all you can see is this huge expanse of nothingness. Much like, you know, the rest of Utah. Take the I-80 on the way to Nevada and you'll be driving right next to it. Bring those sunglasses.

Top 5 Worst Things About Salt Lake/Utah.

1. Salt Lake Stalkers

By the time the others had come back from camping, I was at the end of my tether. I'd come to Utah with certain expectations about the place, the main expectation being that it's full of Mormons who are a pretty harmless, if stupid, bunch of people. That expectation turned out to be correct, however, I'd failed to prepare myself for the rest of the population who are not Mormon and although they're harmless, they're irritating in the extreme. Dodgy men infest Salt Lake City at every time of the day and night (I refused to go outside my hostel after 9pm for this reason) and if you're a young woman on your own, they will target you. It doesn't matter if you refuse to acknowledge their presence (believe me, I tried), they've got bicycles and they will circle you. And follow you. And ask ridiculous questions, especially if you have an accent. The problem is, if you throw a rock in the spokes and they fall off their bike and get hit by a car...then you look like the bad guy. So instead I had to grin and bear it and try to lose them as quickly as possible. This is difficult, because Salt Lake City isn't exactly the liveliest of towns and the streets are close to empty, even in peak hour.

2. Mormons

Only ye with enough faith to tithe 10% of your total income may enter here.

Except for their taste in architecture, it's a well-known fact that I hate Mormons. The history of the Mormon religion is an adventure into the ridiculous, the two leaders and their merry band of idiots were so disliked amongst the general populace of wherever they went that they had to go all the way to a barely inhabitable place like Utah in order to set up shop, they wear ridiculous underthings and they wake people up on Saturday mornings in an attempt to spread the stupid around. Plus, who willingly goes to church for three hours?

It's also a fact that I am not a particularly tolerant person and that one of my favourite things to do when I am approached by a person I recognise to be an idiot is to question them relentlessly and to make them as uncomfortable as possible. Wandering around Temple Square was a difficult experience for me, mainly because I wasn't able to wipe the smirk off my face the entire time. Temple Square is the main tourist attraction in Utah and the main objective of the thousands of missionaries there is convert you, so it's very difficult to just wander aimlessly around the place, people want to take you on tours or if you're not on a tour and you're on your own for too long, they come over for a chat before the independent thoughts have a chance to begin. The hilarious thing about the missionaries in Temple Square is that they make sure to have the rookies come over to you, so they can harp on about all that 'loving one's family' crap and they can avoid talking about, for example, how the Book Of Mormon sets up a huge case for racial genocide. I was firing question after question at this one girl about the simplest things and she was turning a nice shade of lobster red in the face from the exertion caused by thinking. I know, I'm a needlessly cruel little wench and possibly a bride of Satan. But they're idiots.

3. The Weather

Utah is hotter than Hades. Hot and dry, which is better than hot and humid but a damn sight more expensive, thanks to all the bottles of water one has to buy. Potential travellers to the area (snort) beware - it is impossible to walk a few metres in the heat of a Salt Lake summer without a 'sip' (re: massive, gulping chug) of water. There's little change between night and day, if you don't count the light and the best time to go running around is in the early morning, before the sun has had its first few fags and isn't yet hot enough fry you to a crisp. The only brief period where the heat wasn't as intense was during a sudden wind/dust storm which descended upon me after I'd been walking around for four hours straight trying to find something interesting to look at (the Sugar House District is not urban, nor is it hip...it's suburbia. The SLC guide book tells filthy lies!) and it was exactly what I didn't need. You will be sunburnt, so take sunscreen and even if you have the complexion of a 'fair English rose' like myself, you will probably get something of a tan (Praise be to the Christ and the Prophets! It's a miracle!!). Also, if you don't own a pair of sunglasses and you go to Utah, then you're a bloody idiot. Get the hell off my blog.

4. Hostel Patrons

I really liked my hostel. The Camelot is in a really inconvenient location (quite a ways out of the main centre, in a particularly dodgy district) but the rooms are deliciously cool, even during the day and they're decently furnished, clean and comfortable. I scored a private room (hallelujah!) and I wasn't bothered by anyone barging in at some ungodly hour of the morning (re: 11 a.m) trying to tidy it. There was one problem though: the other people staying there were freaks. There was one guy who, every night from 9 to 11 without fail, would be watching a Star Wars film. The Hayden Christensen films. Ughhhhh. I'm not a huge fan of Star Wars, mainly because geeks tend to make oh-so-hilarious jokes after they find out my last name ("Why, no, I'm not related to Luke Skywalker...") and I hate how George Lucas temporarily destroyed Natalie Portman's stellar acting talent (Christensen never had any talent to begin with). There was another asshole who, when I was blundering around trying to work out the crazy check-in system, was doing his best to be as unhelpful as possible when I inquired about the workings of the hostel. I never had direct contact with anyone else but for a while I'm pretty sure I was the only woman, the rest being an assortment of older, morbidly obese guys with severe cases of plumber's crack. Gross. And the Camelot claims to attract a 'more discerning clientele'...

5. Billboard Moralising

This wasn't limited to Utah. It's everywhere, even in Washington. Billboards in America can be hilarious at times. Check this one out. Other interesting signs along the way included an ad which listed how much bacteria is exchanged during a kiss (at the bottom it revealed itself to be a Toyota ad, wtf) and a church sign - 'Don't be too open-minded or your brain might fall out.' Hmm. Start talking before they start thinking...

My main qualm with SLC was the fact that there was bugger all to do there...I was there for a mere three days and was struggling to find something to divert my attention by the third day and I'm fairly easily amused. I ended up having to go to the mall. It could've been worse though. Imagine if my hostel didn't have free wi-fi?! Or worse still, what if I'd been wandering around the desert in the heat and dust and the burnination, like my friends?

Discography.

A whole bunch of songs will be forever connected to the Salt Lake City/Utah in my mind. You want to know what I was listening to on the way? Download the following:

Journey - Don't Stop Believing

Oh my god, Steve Perry. If I ever meet you in person, you will be thrown into the Pit of Doom. Kosta and Jon's endless repetitions of this song (I missed a whole chunk of renditions, thankfully) meant that Journey have now become something of a personal joke between the Red State Road Trippin' Seven.

Viva Voce - Get Your Blood Sucked Out
Sufjan Stevens - In The Devil's Territory
Elvis Presley - Hound Dog
Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
The Arcade Fire (Mormon music!) - Keep The Car Running

The Great Utah Road Trip July 3rd - 8th, Part 1: Where To Find The Coldest Beer in Boise.

I know, I know, technically I travelled to Seattle first but I barely had time to adjust to the time difference, let alone the Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest grid before I was whisked away to the Red States. That and I'm still in Seattle at the moment, so I'd much rather do a write up once I've had the full SeaTac experience (Viva Sea-Tac!).

We set off for Utah on the afternoon of the 3rd, seven of us in two cars, Percy and Karl. Everyone tended to hate Karl for his complete inability to accelerate up hills but his unco-operative behaviour reminded me so much of Feste, my moody Beastiva that I quite liked him. Of course, I say this because I didn't drive...the concept of driving on the right hand side of the road doesn't freak me out but I'd be bloody dangerous in action...I'm damned if I know which way to look whenever I cross the road as a pedestrian, can you imagine me trying to do a left hand turn in a car?

Anyway, Karl came equipped with Satellite Radio, which is a lot like Cable TV in that it's the most awesome thing you've ever seen and oh my god you'll never ever get sick of this...and then after an hour, you discover that just because there's a lot of selection, that's no guarantee of quality. There was a channel dedicated to the 1950s which I quite liked, there was an all Elvis, all the time station and they even had Patrick Wolf on Left-Of-Centre but aside from that...too many Christian channels, way too much country (one channel dedicated to country is too much) and not enough rockin'.

Then there was the scenery on the road. We crossed five states during the course of our road trip - Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Nevada (in order of appearance). Washington is interesting for a while because it's quite mountainous and green and foresty and Oregon's a bit like that too but then you get to Idaho. Oh my god, Idaho, not even SatRad and endless rounds of Taboo can save you. Parts of that state reminded me of crossing the Nullabor(e) because it's all just one big expanse of deserty nothingness where no one can hear you scream. The small towns we came across within and on the way to Idaho are similar to the little spits of civilisation you see on the way to Western Australia, except there are terrible burger chains and Wal-Marts where the filthy pubs and Target Country stores should be and not as many American men (or women for that matter) go around sporting big beards such as the kind you'd see sprouting on folks in Olary.

I couldn't (and still can not) get past the amount of burger chains here. It's not just McDonalds and KFC any more...there are tens, possibly hundreds of cloned buildings with big, gaudy logos springing up in every town and as with SatRad, the more selection you have, the lesser the quality. My beef (so to speak) is not so much the quantity of these places (well, ok, it is a large part of it), but rather the fact that I don't believe that anyone should invest any sort of interest in food that takes longer to eat than it does to cook. Particularly if it takes a minute to serve up a burger, and two minutes to scoff it. It's just wrong.

We spent most of the afternoon and a few of the a.m hours on the road to Boise, the capital city. Compared to the rest of Idaho, Boise is a quaint little town with shady avenues, lots of green spaces near the river and, if the free publications are to be believed, damn cold beer at the local P.F Chang's. There's a souvenir store called Taters (oh god). There are cinemas which screen three year old Australian films. There's the Capitol building, which looks exactly the same as every other Capitol building ever, and a parking lot that looks like a giant diving board. That's really about it. That being said, I actually didn't mind Boise...the shade gave us respite from the heat, the city looked well-planned with its broad streets and its walkability (that's totally a word) and, after endless 'same, same, different name' small towns with their rows of Wendy's, Arby's and other chains with apostrophes, it was a relief to see a building over three stories high.

The next day was full of Idaho. I've complained about Idaho enough for you to get the picture I saw out of the window. Thank god for music, sweet music, as napping vertically proved near-impossible...sleeping horizontally was difficult enough for me, who had not quite become accustomed to the time zone change and was on constant doses of Nyquil thanks to the flu which will not die. Travellers tip #1: Don't take sleeping pills, no matter how strong the temptation. I found that although I slept at night, I also wanted to sleep during the day, which made me even more of a pain in the ass to be around. That and they screw with so much more than just your sleeping capacity.

zzzzzzzzzz.....

We eventually arrived in the state of Utah in the early afternoon and you could instantly sense the change...by the choice of roadside advertising. There's not enough city in Idaho to warrant many eyesores on the side of the road but Utah was a different story. The closer we got to Salt Lake, the more distractions there were and they were hilarious. One particular ad stated the following: "You exchange 500+ different types of bacteria when kissing.' I can't remember the exact number. What was it supposed to be advertising? Sexually transmitted disease? Oral hygeine products? Wrong.

Toyota.

Yeah, the car company.

Jesus christ. You know you're in a Red State when...

Salt Lake City is one of those places that looks quite beautiful from a distance. A great deal of the buildings are tall and white, it is surrounded by mountains and, like Boise, it's quite well organised in terms of the layout. After my functioning brain cell kicked in and I figured out the North/South, East/West, numbered street system, it was really easy. After coming from Australia, where all the streets are named and not numbered, it takes a while to get used to addresses like 200 S West Temple. On our first day when we were all strolling around finding a place to eat, Salt Lake looked so clean. Sterile, really. Like a dentist's office. I soon found out it wasn't the case but that first day in Salt Lake was a trip.

I forgot to mention, that day was also the 4th. It was way more subdued than I thought it would be, perhaps it was because we were in Utah or perhaps it was because we missed the main celebrations but it was so...nothing much. In Australia there are rabid patriots everywhere, with flags attached to cars and green and gold face paint and all that embarrassing rubbish that mostly occurs on the 26th of January, or at sporting events. I didn't see a single flag on anyone's car in Salt Lake. Most people didn't even wish us a happy 4th of July. My friends and I were almost poking fun of the whole concept, but that's probably because my little group was comprised of 2 Australians, 4 Canadians and 1 Canadian/American. Oh another trip for Salt Lake travellers: don't sit on the grass in Utah. I woke up the next morning covered in red scratches thanks to the itchy grassy knoll we were celebrating on and I know I wasn't the only one.

The next day saw me transferred to The Camelot Hostel on the very edge of the Downtown area
whilst my friends went camping in the National Parks. I'm a fan of keeping clean and well-groomed and although I like communing with nature on the odd occasion, two days without a shower is an unthinkable concept. So I opted to remain a city slicker in order to prepare myself for the two long months where I'd be a stranger in a strange land. Oh the tales I will tell...

The Benefits Of Terrorism: Abolishing Airline Bathroom Queues Worldwide

Flying over the dateline is disorienting. I left Sydney and arrived in San Francisco an hour later. After a thirteen hour flight. Yeah. Needless to say, I didn't know if I was Martha or Arthur for the next couple of days...thank god for the marvellous invention of Nyquil, even if it didn't always stop me waking up at 3 in the morning.

I flew Qantas and I have to say, the service is snooty, the legroom is uncomfortable (I'm a mere 5'3''), and the food is inedible but at least I didn't have to sit through Serendipity & Life as a House six times like I did last time. I'm one of those travellers who does not sleep on planes, at all and therefore rely entirely on inflight entertainment in order to sustain my sanity and stave off the cabin fever. I've only ever been on one other long-haul flight to Greece and that was five years ago. We flew Olympic. Entertainment on Olympic Airways is so bad that Qantas looks fantastic. Entertainment on Olympic was 44 hours of watching Hayden Christensen try and display a facial expression other than complete and total disaffection. So when I flew Qantas and discovered that not only do you get a choice of around 15 movies (13 of which are complete shit but what can you do?) and a whole array of TV shows AND full albums at your disposal, I was v. satisfied. For about four hours. I even made a great single-serving friend who assisted clueless little me (I swear my brain fell out the second that we took off) through Immigration and finding connecting flights. I was exposed to a large quantity of Americans for the first time, about three quarters of the passengers on my flight were American, so I was v. relieved to find myself seated next to a similarly-aged Australian chick who I could snark with. It was also my first exposure to the volume of the typical American's voice ie: ouch dude, you're louder than the jet engine, please STFU.

So after 12 long hours brightened only by Borat, Kath & Kim (how is it that I never got around to watching this show before? It's BRILLIANT!) and the Justin Timberlake album (did I not say that my brain had fallen out?) I emerged, buggered and in dire need of a shower. Unfortunately, I had another two hour flight to look forward to and before that, I had the hurdles of Immigration and Customs which seemed like such a confusing concept and I was sure I was going to slip up at some stage and be threatened with deportation or worse, an all-expenses paid trip to a dog cage in Cuba.

My first post-customs thought?

Why the HELL didn't I try and smuggle my Wollombi chilli olive oil into the country? Customs was a doddle! There were no sniffer dogs, no security checks, nothing...except for one guy to whom you hand your customs card. Even Immigration was easy, although I feel sorry for the guy who had to take a photo of me, eyeliner smeared and face oily from too much airconditioning and not enough air. He was surprisingly kind for an Immigration guy, I was expecting some drill sargeant hospitality but this guy could almost be classified as friendly.

The most confusing part was finding the Alaskan Airlines check-in counter and getting all my shit loaded onto the plane, almost flew with the wrong carrier... twice... and almost didn't get a seat because my flight was overbooked. The two occasions that I went over to inquire about the lack of seating on my boarding pass, the Alaskan Airlines woman looked at me expectantly and stated 'We're hoping some people might voluntarily give up their seats...they'll get a free round trip ticket to any Alaskan Airlines destination.' A tempting offer for sure, but there was no way in hell I was hanging around San Francisco aiport for another four hours. Eventually, I scored the best seating ever, a window seat in Exit Row, sitting next to an actual Alaskan Airlines pilot.

Captain Alaska, as he will be forever known in my mind, was a Bainbridge Island local who kept me occupied for the entire trip by using his knowledge of the San Fran - Seattle route to point out all the various landmarks (flying over Crater Lake and Mount St. Helens was an incredible experience), inquiring about the state of the Australian health/education/political system and bitching about the lack of decent political candidates. One of the benefits of sitting next to an Alaskan employee was the free (and huge) bottle of water I scored before we came in for landing. A very short two hours later I was in Seattle and feeling re-energised, despite looking (and smelling, presumably) worse than ever after an extra couple of hours in a flying tin can with wings. Cheers, Cap'n.

A Send Off from Sydney: The Highlights Part 2

In between coast-to-coast trips, I spent most of my remaining weeks in Sydney doing the following: freaking out, planning, working, begging relatives for cash (hi Mum) and occasionally emerging from my stressful cocoon and making the effort to be social. These are the things/places/people I'll actually miss (correction: am missing) in the Harbour City.

1. High Tea with my favourite ladies - I will never forget the afternoon we spent running around trying to find the Sofitel Wentworth in the pouring rain and the fabulous reward of French desserts and tea we shared, looking dishevelled as all hell, with the blue blood/blue rinse set surrounding us western suburbs ratbags from all angles. Fabulous tea, fabulous company, occasionally fabulous (tastes ranged from bleurgh to ooohh on the nonsensical expression scale) and a fabulously gorgeous waiter made the battle with the elements worth it. It sucks we couldn't get into the Victoria Room.

2. Boys 'n' Berry - My two favourite men and I tripping down to the south coast for a giggle on a Saturday afternoon. We had conquered the west for my birthday and the South followed for my farewell. We had lunch at the Postman's Ghost (unfortunately, said ghost declined to show up during our meal, but the bruschetta was fantastic), tried on a variety of stupid hats in one of the many left-of-centre clothing stores (left-of-centre here meaning rainbow, tyed-dyed knits favoured by elderly potheads the world over) and sung along to Cherry Lips at full volume somewhere outside of Shoalhaven.

3. Countless 'this is the final time, I swear' visits to Newtown. The hardest part of leaving has been giving up my self-appointed title of 'Newtown Rat' right when I was beginning to fit in (my hair colour finally became the standard after I added the black streaks) and then heading to the real world where having red and black hair to match your regularly red and black clothing kind of brands you as a bit of a punkass or worse still, emo child. More than anything I miss the weekly pilgrimages to Ice and Slice and Burgerfuel and Thai Pothong and Quick Brown Fox and, most of all, the people who would join me there.

4. Darling Harbour & Palm Beach - My final night in Sydney stands amongst my favourite moments of all time. Jian and Simon and I being complete dickheads on the Monorail (I am so amazed that we didn't get kicked off, much less arrested for some of the things we were doing), finally visiting the Lindt cafe (overrated, has nothing on Max Brenner), sitting on the edge of the harbour yelling obscenities, screwing around in Tumbalong Park and then roadtripping to Palm Beach as a final flourish. It was like all the good parts of being drunk (so I'm told, having not had any decent experiences the few times that I've been drunk :P) - the recklessness and that floating feeling you get when you're completely carefree. I don't think I ever properly thanked my two boys for taking me out that night so: Jian, Simon, (if you're reading this) - thanks you darlings.

5. I would like to personally thank each and every person in this photo:

for a) coming to the airport to see me off and b) being there for me since birth in some cases and a slightly shorter period of time in others. Every single person in that photograph is worth coming back for...if/when I eventually have to return to Australia.

Thus ends my entries about Australia (for now...). Now that I've been all loving and sweet and caring, I can get down to the nasty stuff.

A Send Off from Sydney: The Highlights Part 1

For the record, I'm officially in the States and I survived immigration without a single deportation threat. Before I start my America commentary, I felt I should write a longwinded entry or two on how I spent my last weeks in Australia.



1. The Hunter Valley.

Shiraz grapes growing in the sunshine

Spending 22 years in Australia is a long time (too long...) and after a while, you begin to forget what you initially liked about the place. I spent the past couple of months trying to remind myself of the less awful sides of the country and found that they do exist, you just have to travel a few km's out of the Sydney Metro area to find them.

Before the vast majority of the area became an extension of the great lakes, my mum and I trekked to Wine Country, glorious, shiny (after a few choice vats of red it is...) Hunter Valley Wine Country. We scored a room at the fabulous Vintage Grand Mercure Apartments (thank you lastminute.com.au). Poking around our sizeable apartment (complete with humoungous bath tubs, fake fireplace, and the most uncomfortable king sized bed I've ever slept in) I uncovered the most bizarre design feature I've ever seen in a hotel (I say this because I haven't been to Vegas...yet).

The view into my bathroom...from my bedroom!

My apologies for the shocking photo quality, I'd like to see you try and take a better photo of a totally random window in the middle of the west wall of the master bedroom...whilst you're lying awkwardly on the bed, trying to fit this gigantic glass pane into the frame. Seriously though...why? What's the reasoning behind having a window that looks into your bathroom from your bedroom? It's quite, um, kinky. Naturally I found a practical use for it...since the bath takes up a nice third of the bathroom, I put my laptop on the bed, full-screened an episode of Futurama, turned up the sound and watched TV in the bath. Not featured in the photo is the showerhead...which was the size of MY head and had...practically no water pressure. Bah.

Mum and I had two items on our agenda for the next two and a half days.

1. Eat hideous amounts of food.
2. Drink hideous amounts of wine.

I want to put in a few shameless plugs for the following local businesses. Anyone thinking of going to the Hunter Valley once El Nino comes back to town and the place is no longer the Southern Hemisphere's answer to Atlantis, needs to dine at The Mill and order the honey brulee. They also need to dedicate an entire day to a horse and carriage winery tour, Pokolbin Carriage Tours is by far the best (not that we tried any of the others, but nothing could possibly top these guys). Our tour guide and all-round gentleman Frank and his trusty steed Matilda took us around five different wineries and even threw in a sumptuous antipasto lunch to boot. I am still dreaming of that roast chicken and caramelised onion. As for the wineries themselves, my favourite had to be Scarborough, which may have survived the downpour since it is perched right on top of a hill in Pokolbin (conveniently enough, it's near the starting point of the carriage tour) and has some of the most picturesque views of the Hunter. It's also one of two wineries to produce Pinot Noir (the other is Tyrells and I wouldn't waste my time going there...) and it's a corker of a red. Their '03 Chardonnay was divine as well. Also, if you're ever in the Hunter, keep an eye out for Binnorie Dairy's Labne and ANY brand of Caramelised Balsamic Vinegar, two present addictions of mine.

2. Geraldton

In order to better prepare myself for the Red States of the U.S, I travelled to one of the main regional centres of Western Australia. I'm pretty sure it's the same as Texas, except the Texan accent is undoubtedly classier than the 'Where did all the consonants go?' Geraldton brogue. You know the kind of town...lots of two-dollar stores, lots of small, blonde children, lots of people married to their distant/not-distant-enough relations. Geraldton life revolves around the beach/marina area and thanks to our purchase of an investment property right before the housing boom, we have a house that is right around the corner from the Indian Ocean. We arrived at the end of autumn/beginning of winter and the water was still warm enough to swim in and the sky was sunny and cloudless. So I spent a great many of my days working on my winter tan (failed), expanding my literary horizons (succeeded) and looking like a right bloody fool wading around in the water with my almost knee-length skirts still on (v. successful). I've been to Geraldton three times now and each time I totally forgot to check out the sun setting over the water. On my last day of what was most likely going to be my final Geraldton trip (if I have my way) I realised the sunset was approaching and I was going to miss it (again) so I raced down to the end of the block ad had just enough time to grab a photo:


...of a ship, blocking the sunset. Damn it!

Anyway, in terms of excitement and cuisine, Geraldton's not exactly the most happening of spots. Your best bet is to hire a car and drive north to the cliffs of Kalbarri to catch the beautiful ocean views (and maybe even see a pot of dolphins), head east to check out the Chapman Valley Wine Country or south to Greenough to check out the convict settlement. Thankfully when I was there I had the blessed child Neo Ripley (please note that I am not responsible in any way for the naming of the blessed child) to keep me occupied. What an adorable little tyke...I'm not a huge fan of toddlers, or babysitting or children generally but this one is special. Just over a year old, curious about everything, very rarely cries and has the most evil cackle I've ever heard. When I wasn't hooning around, complaining about my hayfever (I spent most of my time wandering around half-blind from all the dust) or sunbathing, I was running around trying to convince Neo that my laptop was of no interest to him and his greasy fingers.

Most restaurants are way more expensive than they should be, the service is generally rude and the food is usually Modern Australian (whatever that means) seafood and isn't too bad but for the price you pay, you're not exactly wowed. The best place is Conversations by Indigo which serves wanky, upmarket, expensive food to match the wanky name but at least the service is attentive and the garlic prawns are fabulous.

One of my most memorable parts of the trip, cute golden-haired children aside, was heading down to Greenough Hamlet (that aforementioned convict settlement about half an hour's drive out of town) for a ghost hunt. About five years prior to this trip, I'd gone down to Greenough and had a curious experience in the back room of one of the settler's cottages...walked into the room and suddenly became so dizzy I had trouble standing up and couldn't see straight. The only cure for this bizarre attack was to make my way out of the room...once I was out the dizziness faded, my shoulders felt less heavy and of course, I flatly refused to go back in. So this time, I decided to ask the owners of the settlement (a delightful British couple) if they had any good ghost stories.

Amityville and Greenough seem to have a lot in common.

Some of the better stories I heard (and it may be useful to check out the latter half of this photo album to get an idea of what the places are like, plus I threw in the longer versions of these stories in the captions/comments) included: the fat ex-priest of the Catholic church who will shift the altar sideways so he can get out into the pews, the curtains on the stage in St Catherine's hall which mysteriously open and close themselves during the end of Harvest Festival social season (the curtains would be symbollically closed after the festival concert as a way of ending the season back in the days of the settlement...the festival itself is no longer celebrated but clearly someone doesn't want the tradition to end) and my favourite - the little girl ghost who hangs around a hill just outside the settlement area when the moon is full, looking for her lost cat. Apparently some miners who were contracted to work in the area caught her running around and she stopped to greet them. They, in turn, had the daylights frightened out of them and promptly ended their contract. Aww. I probably would've just said hello. She still haunts the area so whenever the moon is full (I missed it by two days) all the local kids hang out on the hill waiting for her to show up, but she tends to appear only to individuals.

Was I visited by any ghosties this time around? Not as such. Although, I did walk into another cottage and could swear I caught the scent of fresh flowers in the front room. I was alone in the house and was not wearing perfume or scented shampoo or anything of the sort, so when I questioned the owners about the cottage I was informed I'd been standing in the front room of the undertakers' house, where they arranged the funeral wreaths and coffins in preparation for burial. Hmmm...

The other most memorable moment was viewing The Pinnacles on the drive down to Perth. About a kilometre from the ocean in the middle of nowhere, these huge limestone rocks randomly sprung up from the Earth (er...they explain the phenomenon better on Wikipedia) in this even more random patch of desert which is right near a lake containing the oldest forms of life in the world...naturally I thought they were rocks and accidentally stepped on them. Christ, what a genius. I could show you a photo I took that has the desert in the foreground and the ocean in the background, but instead I'm going to upload this one, because I'm a child:

heh heh heh...

If you want a bit of audio to go with that photo, open this link and fast forward to the 2:15 mark once it has loaded or this one and go to the 2:58 mark and ignore the word 'turnip' in both parts. Then you should watch the rest of the episode because it's hilarious.

Part 2 coming soon...