the centre

it surprises many people, including myself, how far we have travelled in less than three weeks. the car has already clocked six thousand kilometres since i left brisbane. are we going too fast? should we be spending more time in fewer places? all i know is i need a break from the mozzies and the flies and the twice-a-day application of 80% deet.

we spent about a week in the centre and i have completely fallen in love with the desert nothingness. in particular, i love spinifex grass. i know it's a strange thing to love but there it is. i love how it coats gorge walls and mountain sides in its fluffy green and yellow and breaks up the monotony of red and brown. there has been a few good walks too: kings canyon rim walk and section 12 of the larapinta trail to mt sounders, both visually stunning and physically satisfying. ormiston gorge was quite nice, too, in case you were wondering...


chilling out @ uluru

sunset @ kata tjuta

desertscape @ rainbow valley

the dry riverbed @ simpsons gap

gal and poyi feeling very small @ ormiston gorge

yep, that's where we're going @ mt sounders

back on the road

gazing into eternity @ st germain pier

where the hell are we? gal and poyi at wilpena pound

 

a whole lotta nothin' on the oodnadatta track

 

chilling out @ mutonia sculpture park

dusk @ coward springs

hanging loose

my days are decided on a whim. while i've been on the road, external factors had played a big part in their shaping: where i am going to sleep; what i am going to eat; when i need to get up. now that i am home, i have withdrawn into a cocoon of self-indulgence. i sleep until i am no longer tired. i eat as much as i want of mums cooking. i play computer games for hours. apart from a few chores and applying for jobs, the only worries i have are my desires. god it's a tough life! but i am slowly and surely becoming disgusted at myself.

i can't remember what it feels like to be a doctor. for what seems like the last few weeks in europe i dreamed about work every night. it wasnt exactly unpleasant, either. was i missing the camaraderie? the feeling of power, responsibility and purpose? it certainly wasnt the hours or the stress? and i definitely havent missed the game of hamming up my resume, picking the right tie to go with the shirt, or sucking up to hr. god knows i suck at it. i am scared but i am looking forward to it. hopefully i will have a job in melbourne next year.

i'd forgotten how cold it gets in melbourne. ballarat is going to be even colder. i wonder why i like it there so much? it could be that it was my first hospital, that i got to know lots of people, and that they happened to be lovely. perhaps melbourne will be just as good. i doubt it though.

germany

i have been kicking around in germany for a couple of weeks. the party atmosphere of the first week dissipated quickly when germany lost to spain in the final. i was actually a little bit disappointed after visiting munich and berlin - sprawling metropolises with lots of different suburbs and galleries and gardens and palaces to explore, but it just feels like ive seen it all before. instead, i appreciated dresden and nuremberg a lot more. we stayed at a cute hostel on a artsy street in dresden, that managed to be bustling and laidback at the same time. dresden old town was compact and filled with grand old buildings with blackened walls reminding everyone of the allied firebombing of 1945, and the rustkammer there had the best collection of arms and armour that ive come across (better than the kremlin and the met in new york. nuremberg was more romanesque than gothic, which was a nice change, and the dokumentation centrum set in the old nazi rally grounds was excellent. frankfurt and hamburg were also nice towns to spend a few days in, guzzling down excellent beers by the water, watching the world float by on the waves.

racism: when people treat you differently because of something you have no choice about, something you cant change, it makes you feel very vulnerable. the rest of the day changes for you, all of a sudden you are on the look out. every comment, every glance, seems to be suspicious or even hostile. its a very unpleasant state of being. when the trigger event stem from children, its so much more hurtful in its innocent cruelty. i suppose lots of countries have mostly homogeneous populations, if you look chinese or japanese, they assume you are. even when i assure them im from australia, they look incredulous and fall back on 'but you dont look australian'. no, i dont look like paul hogan, but then again, most australians dont. but they wouldnt know anything about that. and its not just germans that are guilty of racial stereotyping or tactless behaviour towards foreigners. lots of other people ive met on my travels are also just as clueless.

hungary

i have just stayed at the best hostel ever. i'll admit my first impressions were apprehensive. walking through a non-descript door, up four flights of stairs in the dark, knocking on an unmarked door, then practically falling over some long-haired freak smoking on a bean bag in the living room did not fill my heart with confidence. the long-haired dude turned out to be the owner of the place. evan hails from florida, via berlin, and had been running hostels for a few years. his latest hostel was basically his house, with an open-plan living area (lounge, kitchen, dining) downstairs and two dorms with ensuites up the rickety spiral staricase. but the place was majorly chill. we smoked inside and drank beer talked shit and played poker (i ended my five days there 3000 forints up - yo!), cooked snacks on the stove and watched the football, all in the company of similarly chilled-out people (a real mixed pot: english, irish, americans, mexicans, canadians, finns, norwegians, australians) it was very easy to just hang out and never venture outside except to go next door for more beers and fags... the dorms werent super-massive (im staying at a 40 bed dorm in munich next = whoa) and the bathrooms were squeaky clean. the kitchen was fully equiped and the internet was free. and there were no snorers in my room. what else can one ask for from a hostel?

but i did head outside for a bit, even though the weather was very ordinary. budapest is a charming city. not as beautiful as vienna (vienna was so good that i decided to head back there for another three nights afterwards) but the disintegrating old buildings and the constant flow of the danube contained an energetic, friendly population that made it, well, not better or worse, but different from prague and vienna and st petersburg and all the other great cities i've visited in the last few months.