Vassar Has Prepped Us Well

Our last night in Sydney, we stopped at a free concert/party (it's the Sydney Summer Festival aka concerts and activities around the city).   Picture this: night time, slow drizzle, DJ playing the Postal Service, "Such Great Heights", 2 girls grooving out on the dance floor wearing oversized floral dresses, black leggings and bomber jackets.. for the Vassar kids, you must know this image.  It was hipster galore; a flashback of sorts.  

Fast forward:  We left our Sydney hostel at 6:30am.  We've learned:

• With a size 13 shoe and a few good swings, cockroaches the size of my thumb (Mailynh's thumb) are squishable.
• Flying Lan Airlines means excessive announcement that interrupt movies and games but they have better blankets than United Airlines. These announcements are made twice, first in Spanish then in English.

So we landed in Auckland at three in the afternoon. It's warm and sunny here, less humid than Sydney, perfect weather.  We found the backpackers kiosk and discovered that almost every hostel is full due to a huge concert, "The Big Day Out" in Auckland (oops).  Luckily we found accomodations at Nomads Fusion Hostel but we stayed in separate rooms.  Brian's room was full of people who slept the whole time. My room had a couple Germans, 3 Canadians and someone else I only saw sleeping this morning.  Fusion was far nicer than the Sydney one.  There was a jacuzzi on the roof top and a bar/club downstairs. 

Last night, though thoroughly exhausted, Brian and I went to the Fusion Bar.  Fusion Bar is the equivalent of the Vassar "Mug".  For those of you who did not attend Vassar, the Mug is a dimly lit space in the downstairs of Main Building that has a bar, a sweaty dance floor and randomly placed tables filled with underclassmen trying to kiss each other while indulging in alcohol.  Fusion bar was the same except there were more people with accents.  Brian and I did what we would do at the Mug as upperclassmen, bought a couple beers, sat a table and people watched.  My kiwi mate Mel (an Indian dude from North Auckland) called this "mockery" but he doesn't understand the sport of People Watching. 

What we learned about Auckland:

If you're interested in seeing this city, first visit New York City's SoHo and then take a look at the Vassar student body. That about sums it up perfectly.  Off to KeriKeri. 

Bat Fight Among The Palm Trees

We woke up on Wednesday, the 13th and traveled to Sydney's Chinatown down in the Haymarket.  (Mai: "Chinatown here is not as good as New York City Chinatown.  There are no hole-in-the-wall dumpling places.  It's less Asian.") We picked up some new sunglasses for a cheap $10 and made our way to Bondi Beach.

Bondi Beach was beautiful.  We walked along the water and then scaled the rocks that jutted off the coast.  The water was a little crisp, but it was clean and refreshing.  It was pretty cloudy most of the time there, with some spots of sun here and there.  It was quite windy, so we didn't get a chance to pass the volleyball around.  We DID try the two fast food places there: Oporto and Hungry Jack's.  Verdict is the fries at the former and the burger at the latter.

So we've been lagging on the posts due to limited internet time, but it seems we've finally caught up with the present.  It's one in the morning here on the 14th.  We braved the rainy weather not too long ago and walked from our hostel to the Sydney Opera House, only to decide that while it looks really cool at night, we need to come back in the day time.  Seeing as we are leaving early tomorrow morning for New Zealand, I guess that means we are coming back on our way home.  Until next time, Sydney.

Oh, you might be wondering about the meaning of this post's title.  On the walk home from the opera house, we literally saw two bats fighting while flying among the palm trees.  It was pretty cool.

Sydney, The Land With No Style

Why does Sydney have no style?  Because everyone here wears too much camouflage and cargo shorts.  And what's even worse is more often than not, they combine the two!  However, we shouldn't bash it so much, Sydney is a fun city.  We arrived the morning of January 12th around 6:45am.  After breathing the warm Australian air, we booked a hostel and hopped in a shuttle.  The shuttle ride was basically a tour of the city because he dropped off quite a few travelers before bringing us to Sydney Central Backpackers in Kings Cross, which is basically the backpackers district and only a few minutes from central Sydney.


After dropping off our stuff, we continued to rack up the walking miles through the heart of the city.  We walked through parks, down busy city streets, and received a few free Pepsis!  A quick visit to the Museum reviled not only some beautiful art, but an Indian Dance performance.  We enjoyed walking in the beautiful 88 degree weather, but it took its toll a little on me and I've got a red nose to prove it.  So many signs of America here from the Pepsi, to the numerous McDonald's, to finding Mai's favorite game at a nearby bar; Big Buck Hunter!


Lastly, we made big strides towards staying in New Zealand... by buying a plane ticket to get there!  We leave Thursday, January 14th at 9:55am from Sydney to Auckland.  Crazy.