New Zealand Decembers

This is how I spent the last few days. How's the weather in the states these days? Bahahahaha!


Kisses!
-Katie

(For the people who want the deets, the picture is of me, Pheonix, and Pheonix's Dad [Rob] jumping off a dock into Akaroa harbor.)

By Popular Demand...

At the request of both family and friends, and much to the chagrin of Katie, this blog is being temporarily co-opted by...me (Pheonix).

We did some pretty rad things during our stint in Australia. I'll jump right to Melbourne, because it was our favorite. It reminded us a lot of Seattle, maybe because we spent most of our time in cafe's drinking coffee, but we had some good nature experiences as well, as you'll see.

We started off our trip there by riding into the train station with no idea where we were or how to find the folks we were staying with. After a few ventures out to find an internet connection, and convincing Katie that she didn't have to embrace each and every bag to avoid theft, we found our hosts in the grocery store buying some beer. Leo and Greg are awesome guys with great senses of humor, and they made sure we enjoyed ourselves in their city.

Melbourne has tons of colorful graffiti and stencil art. Here is a pretty typical alley way:

And a few of my favorites up close:

Keep your eye out for a little graffiti zine we will be working on.

We also went to the immigration museum, which was fantastic. Melbourne is like the Ellis Island of Australia, and they had tons of history in this museum. Other touristy things we did included: having lunch in some park and walking through the Queen Victoria Market, a huge open air combination of flea market junk, organic produce, and live little chickens and ducks. I bought a tea towel with a map of Australia on it, and Katie tried to find a cool Australia jacket that would fit her brother, but they were all too small.

Oh, and we went to the beach. Seeing as how there is no ozone layer down here, going to the beach consisted of: rolling our pants up a little, lathering up in sun tan lotion, getting out our books and water bottles, and sitting on the sand for about 5 seconds before it got too hot and it was time to move on. We did, however, have a lovely walk along the water and found a few adorable dogs to play with. There were 2 little yappy gay boy dogs who just wrestled and rolled around in the sand, and a tough little girl dog who ditched her owner when we walked up and decided we were the only ones who could throw her tennis ball for her.

That was the beginning of the nature experience, where all the ferral little creatures of Australia came out to say hi to us. We saw wild penguins nesting in rocks, they used to be called Fairy Penguins, but out of respect for fags everywhere, some of whom apparently didn't want penguins named after them, their name was changed to...Little Pengins. No pictures, though, because it blinds the little things. We did see some fluffy little chicks, along with some swimming water rats.

We also saw kangaroos:

Unfortunately they don't stand still for pictures. But, they do just hop wild in the streets of suburbs.

We also saw a deadly spider:

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), our hosts sprayed it with Raid. This picture is post-Raid.

We saw a bat just chillin in a tree in the park:

The best, however, were the 'possums, which we quickly made best friends with, thanks to a loaf of stale bread:

(That is a lollypop in my hand, which I pulled out of the mouth of a baby 'possom. Stealing candy from babies, I'm so bad.)

And that pretty much wraps it up. We are now in New Zealand to reconnoiter with my folks, I'm sure Katie will be glad to have control of her blog back to give her faithful readers the next update.

xo,
Pheonix

Cool Kids

Pheonix and I are having a ball in Australia, mainly because we are meeting really cool people. We spent three nights with Ed and Kat:

They are superfun. Ed rides a Penny-Farthing (RAD!):

and plays in a couple bands. Here he is in The Fuelers playing the upright bass:

Kat just generally kicks ass and got an adorable puppy, Eva, a week ago:

We had a great time sharing food, drinks, and stories with Ed and Kat in Canberra. We were sad to go, but hopefully we'll see them in Seattle some time soon-ish.
We are now staying with Leo and Greg who are the wonderfullest people in all of Melbourne.
-Katie

PS: We saw kangaroos (duh) in Canberra and penguins in Melbourne.
"What?!" say you. Yeah... I don't really know why penguins are on the beaches in Southern Australia - no ice, no ozone, it's summer. But, there they were and the pictures didn't turn out! Dammit! They were super cute, too. Grr.

Wollongong (rated PG13)

I left India and I am heartbroken about it so it’s not to be discussed until I have a ticket in my hand to go back.

The upside is I’m in Australia, hooray! And, I’m with Pheonix, hooray! We’ve been in and out of Sydney, which feels strangely similar to Seattle so it was somewhat familiar. Now, we’re in the town of Wollongong where the residents have weird senses of humor.
A Public Service Announcement about the problem with drunken walking:

Business establishments that refer to sexual acts without apology (!):


And the current events are rather gruesome:

This place is, needless to say, bizarre. Let’s hope weirdly fascinating things happen to us here...
-Katie
(I turn 26 tomorrow, which I’m sure you all remember, but it is kind of sad to have a birthday on the road... miss you guys.)

Sanjay

This:

is Sanjay.
Sanjay drives a rikshaw and this is how we met: Yesterday afternoon I was looking for someone to take me sightseeing around Pune (pronounced "Poona"). Sanjay stood out from the crowd of eager drivers - I think it's his friendly face and demeanor. Once we agreed that he would be my driver, we almost immediately developed a fun and lively relationship. One that wasn't so much based on verbal communication, but rather subtle more profound methods including various arm and hand gestures... Anyway, off we went! Sanjay's tireless rik tore around Pune with enthusiasm and speed that can only be fueled by loud, noxious diesel gas.

First, he took me to:
The Aga Khan Palace (Gandhi was held in detention here for 2 years, his wife passed away here, as well):

Then, to The Saras Baug Park:

Rushing past the Lal Mahal (another palace where a famous Indian historical figure was held in detention for a while):

Nearby was Shaniwarwada (which is an old kick ass mansion, but really a fortress):

Lastly, we went to The Pataleshwar Caves:

After that, we called it a day, but not before we promised to meet up early tomorrow (this) morning to go to The Osho Commune:

And to check out the Laxmi Market:

Sanjay and I just bid our final farewell where he overcharged me for a second day in a row. Sanjay, thanks for the goodtimes!

-Katie