Friday, September 16 - Sunday, September 18

Friday, September 16

Really not too much happened this weekend. I have an essay due the very first day after mid-session (the Australian equivalent of the US's spring break) and over mid-session I will be in New Zealand and won't have time to work on it. So, on Friday I mainly just worked on my essay.

Friday night I was ready to go out and do something because I had reached my goal of where I wanted to be with my essay. I texted Ryan and asked him if he wanted to check out a couple of bars. Last time we tried to go check out a couple of bars we ended up not having fun and getting sidetracked and we made sure this time that wouldn't happen. We heard about a place called Rad Bar to check out and decided to go there. Georgia and Hayden, who live on Ryan's floor, both decided to come along with us.

On the way there Georgia got excited because she had heard about Rad Bar, but hadn't been there and she heard there was a band performing there that night. We walked in and immediately knew that we were going to be out of place, but were also going to enjoy our time there.

When you walk into Rad Bar the bar area is to your left when you walk in and maybe ten people can stand there at a time. Off to the right, there is a small staircase and at the top there is a room that is probably three times the size of my dorm room here and the band plays in here with no stage. When the room fills up there is only enough room for about four people to stand between the stage and the stairs....that's how small the room is. Off to the right of the area where the band plays there is a staircase that leads to the second floor. On the second floor the back wall is lined with pinball machines. There are a couple beer kegs turned over to use as stools and a little window that looks out over the room where the band plays.

The pinball machines upstairs.

The first band that performed was like Nirvana, but with more heavy metal influences.  They sounded pretty good, but after a while their songs sounded the same. The second was just like Rage Against the Machine and they called themselves Furious Monk. They brought a ton of energy and everyone in the audience definitely followed their energy.

We definitely stuck out like sore thumbs here. I was wearing a gray zip-up jacket and blue jeans while almost everyone else was wearing flannels and skate brand T-shirts. No one really cared though just because it was such an odd ball place.

During the first band Georgia brought us earplugs but Ryan and I did not want to be "those guys" so we didn't wear them....which was a mistake. After we left we were definitely yelling at each other on the way home rather than talking due to our ears loudly ringing.

Saturday, September 17

The next morning I woke up and finished my essay then went to Relay for Life at Beaton Park (which is right next to Weerona). Weerona had a Relay for Life team and was having a floor competition to see which floor could walk/run the most laps. I stayed there until dinner and did roughly 40 laps around the track just talking and hanging out with everyone.

Austin (another American) had heard about what Ryan and I did the night before and he really wanted to go so we decided to go back to Rad Bar the night before.

We saw three acts last night. They were like alternative/punk and the headlining band was psychedelic rock, like Oasis, the band that sings "Wonderwall".

The three of us had a lot of fun and wore ear plugs this time. We didn't want to make the same mistake twice.

Rad Bar sounds like a weird place to go but it really is a lot of fun and a lot of people there are more welcoming than you'd expect.

On the second night in between acts they had a DJ spinnning old 45s and 33s.

After Rad Bar we went back to Relay for Life to check in on people because the event goes for 24 hours. I caught up with some of my friends and theywere trying to do the equivalent of 2+ marathons. They didn't know what they were getting into and I gave them some nut bars because they did not have the proper food supplements to carry them through their endeavors. I left them and went to bed because I was super tired from everything that had taken place from Relay for Life to Rad Bar.

Sunday, September 18

This is going to sound lame, but today I really did nothing besides watching movies in my room. It was raining all day so I just stayed in and popped some popcorn, made some tea and just had a laid-back day.

So, I have tried to update my blog after every weekend and I know I am usually pretty late with posting, but next week I won't have a post...or the week after that because I am going to New Zealand! It is mid-session next week and I am leaving next Saturday! I will try and update my blog with everything that we will be doing ASAP when I get back!

September 10-11th

September 10th

I had an essay due on Monday so Ash (A fellow Weeronian who is in two of my classes) wanted to take me to a tea store a town or two over and we could look over each other's papers. She thought it might be a little cafe, but it ended up being just a little store. So she took me to Kurtosh, which is a Hungarian bakery. Kurtosh looks like an underground hideout or a speakeasy. I got a flat white and some chimney cake there.

Now, chimney cake is a hollow pastry that is rolled and looks like a spring. You can order it with various toppings like Nutella, walnuts, almonds, coconuts, and more. I got mine with cinnamon and sugar on top. On the outside it is hard and crunchy and on the inside it is super warm and doughy. It is so good!

My flat white

Chimney Cake!!

The inside of Kurtosh. There is more behind me also. Probably my favorite spot in Wollongong currently.

 September 11th

I woke up and caught the train to Sutherland and met Jacinta who drove us to Olympic Park and Newington Park.

Newington Park is in the Olympic Park but it has a couple old WWII buildings that are cool to take pictures of.

There were also old military docks.

We kept wandering after taking some photos around that building with the multiple arches and found this little tunnel which lead to an old Ammunition Building. The door was smashed in, which made for some cool photos.

Coming back out of the tunnel

Got a better picture of the Olympic Park sign!

The Olympic Torch which doubles as a water feature.

After Newington we went back to Jacinta's place for family dinner. Every other week the Marshalls have their entire family over for dinner; where they eat and hang out together. I have to say, they are my Australian family.

I stayed the night and then Jacinta drove me to school the following morning.

It's getting late here and there are fitness classes Weeronians can go to and I went to one for the first time tonight, boxing. I have never boxed before, but my hand is super shaky....which I hope is normal. Hope all is well!

Sept. 4-5th: Katoomba

This past weekend started on Friday night. Ryan, Makenna, and I had nothing to do so we started to watch Stranger Things on Netflix. We all immediately got hooked and stayed up until 11 p.m. watching it. After we were done I still had to pack for my trip to Katoomba the very next day. When all is said and done I wasn't in bed until 1200 and due to noisy neighbors I didn't fall asleep until 1 am.

Saturday September 3rd

Ryan and I woke up at 5:45 a.m. and caught the 6:42 a.m. train to Central Station in Sydney. As soon as our train pulled in we ran all the way from downstairs at Platform 25 to Platform 7 to catch the very next train to Katoomba. Luckily we made it and arrived with no troubles.


We got to Katoomba and Ryan dropped some of his bags off at our hostel and we headed off for ---lunch. It felt like 1 pm but it was only about 10:50 p.m. We went into a kebab restaurant and got snack packs for lunch/breakfast. After our meal we went out to the Echo Lookout to see the Three Sisters.  We walked to the lookout point and it was so windy that it was a little uncomfortable to walk under the power lines.

After admiring the view and the extremely strong winds we found a trail to Leura Cascades and headed off that way. The trail was very muddy, but it sort of felt like we were in a rain forest at some points.

The view from Echo Point...again.

The Three Sisters.....again.

A short video I took at Echo Point

A muddy section of our trail.

A large rock wall that was on our hike. It was actually pretty cool, but I am just unsure of how to describe it.

A random waterfall we encountered

Leura Cascade

So this is Leura Cascade also but it is what leads down to the photo below

After admiring the falls we took another trail back that walked along the valley floor. This trail was weird because in the trail we encountered the base of another waterfall, extremely steep stairs, trails that were up against the cliff with a big drop, parts that felt like a temperate forest, and more rainforesty sections. It was a very  fun hike that included multiple waterfalls and really pretty plants.

Eventually, Leura Cascade leads to this big waterfall. We were lucky because our hike lead us to the bottom of it!

Here is a photo of it in color, but I prefer the black and white photos.

Some of the trails felt like a line at Disneyland. Having a metal bar on one side guiding me down a path with a rock feature on the other side.

Some of the trails included ladders and stairways

We encountered so many different waterfalls along the way and I am unsure if I have every seen so many in one day.

Just some moss on a log

We walked along the floor for quite a while and ended up walking around the Three Sisters (we couldn't see them though because of tree coverage) and ended up in a place called Scenic World. Now, we were told to do this hike by a guy at an info booth and he said scenic world is cool because we can walk around on the boardwalk for and take a really steep train back to the top of the cliffs for about $20. We walked around on the boardwalk and there was nothing there! It was a complete tourist trap!! The boardwalk just walked through more of the bush which is something we had been doing for the past 10 miles or so! We turned around after a while because we thought we were wasting our time.

We did not want to spend $20 for less than a minute train ride back to the top so we took a trail up to the top called The Furber Steps and these steps destroyed us. They were steep and they just kept going up and up and up!! We were so exhausted, but there was no other way up. We stopped and admired a look out point right by Katoomba Falls (another large waterfall), but didn't stop to take photos because we just needed to get back before dark.

View from Furber Steps.

This is the lookout we were at at Katoomba Falls but this was probably the top third of the falls. The rest went over the side of the cliff.

I tried to upload a video of us hiking up to stairs to sow them and how exhausted we were, but the file is too big! So, below is a photo of one of the many sections of stairs.

When we got back to the top we were so exhausted and we still had to walk about another half mile into town to find food. We found a Domino's and got three pizzas for the two of us for $15 which we were pretty excited about how cheap it was. We were so tired that we could have slept right there in that dirty Katoomba Domino's.

We walked back to the hostel, hung out for a little bit and were fighting to stay awake although it was only about 7 pm. I convinced Ryan to go to a bar down the road and we sat there and had two beers each and hung out for a little then went back at 9.


Sunday September 5th

We woke up and grabbed some muffins and power bars as well as some pizza roll type things for lunch at the grocery store and had them for breakfast. We had a trip booked to go to the Jenolan Caves and as Ryan was using the restroom I got a call telling me that the tour was leaving in the matter of minutes. Luckily the pickup spot was right up the road, but we ran as fast as we could there. We hopped on a large bus that had about 50 seats, even though there was only about ten of us total, and headed off to the caves.

The ride there was actually really exciting because the road to the caves is a one way road headed to the caves from 1145-145. Going on an extremely windy road in a large coach was actually pretty thrilling. We were watching how close we would get to the side of the cliff. Luckily our bus driver was pretty good at his job.

As we drove up to the caves we both decided how the entrance looked like a Bond Villain cave.

This is the entrance to the caves. I felt like Blofeld or Goldfinger had some men hiding behind the rocks waiting to ambush the bus.

The road through the cave.

 Once you drove through that large cave there was a hotel and the caves tour office on the other side. It all had a villainous hideout vibe to it.

We had time to kill before our tour so we walked back into the large cave and walked around and took some shots of it.

Looking up at the side of some stalagmites and stalactites. 

A shot of the ceiling....just 'cause.

After walking in front of the cave we walked to the top of it and found an archway.

We climbed to the top of the arch and this is a shot looking from the top.

When it was time for our tour we were lead to a large metal down and once inside it felt like were were infiltrating the villain's lair. Believe me, I know how geeky this sounds, but that's what I was imagining.

We went into the Orient Cave (evidently there are multiple caves that you can tour here and we did The Orient Cave) and went in many different chambers. If I am right we went into the Persia Chamber, India Chamber, and the Egypt Chamber.

In each of the different chambers the guide would turn on the lights as we went. I was in front of the tour so I would stop at some point because it would be pitch black and I would stop because I didn't want to go any further without lights. In this photo above the stairway lead down into a pit so you could look up. Ryan and I were the last people to go down and we were alone down there taking photos. Right as Ryan said "We should probably start heading back up" The lights turned off on us! The guide thought everyone had come back up from the bottom and turned the lights off. We threw our cameras over our shoulders and started to get back up the ladder. The lights turned on a couple seconds later because someone told the guide we were down there luckily.

View from bottom of the stairs

View of some of the stairs we had to climb up and down.

This is a video of us coming back through the cave because the tour was over. The part where I turn the camera around it was a very tight squeeze for me! The video is dark at first but near to end you can see the Indian Chamber

Here's a photo of the villain cave if it wasn't clear in the video.

After our tour we went by the cafe and since they were closing we got lunch for the two of us for only $5! Score! Then hopped back on the bus.

This bus ride was more thrilling than the first because on our way up we ran into multiple cars coming the mountain and got to watch them backup on a one-way road with a cliff on one side. Everyone had to move for the bus because it was so big that it wouldn't be able to back up.  At one point we watched two cars barely squeeze by us and the barrier! 

Once we got back to Katoomba we hopped on the first train to Sydney. Once back in Central Station in Sydney we ran to catch our train on Platform 25 but just barely missed it and had to wait an hour, which wasn't too bad.