The Blue Mountains

The few adventures Pieter and I have had has really inspired him to travel at least once every week or two. Today was the day of journeying to The Blue Mountains. 

Ummm I vote this for coolest bathroom ever. Carved out of ancient rock. 

The pictures do the talking. And I've been posting so many simply because I can. The internet is fast enough. I know from my Europe journey that I have to take advantage of that because who knows, the next host or two or three I may not post anything because the internet is too slow, or I may be out in the middle of nowhere chilllin with some Aboriginals. I just don't know. 

This spot was just minutes before we got to the famous Three Sisters. Just a taste of what was to come. There's nothing quite like being here in the moment. I looked at some google maps before I came to Straya' of this area, but nothin feels like being here. It's kinda like months after my Europe journey, thinking about it, it's so different. So different than experiencing in the moment. One is a thought or a feeling, and one is direct experience. 

Ladies and gents, The Three Sisters. 

This, my friends, is the Australian brown snake, one bite and you will be sent to the grave. After the three sisters we saw this lil guy slithering slowly across the road, and as I got out, Pieter said, "careful mate, that thing'll kill you." And of course to me that meant get as close as you can without dying. So I did a little dance around it and took some pics. Afterwards Pieter said, "man you are bringing all the good karma." The weather has been amazing every time we've journeyed out somewhere and a sighting like this is super rare.

How cute. Granny and gramps taking selfies. Ha. 

After hanging out in the park for a while reading and breathing we stopped by another lookout spot that Pieter had never been to. Wow. Check out that lighting against the rocks. 

You can't see in the picture but Sydney is way out in the distance to the far left. To give you some perspective on where this is. 

Had to pull over for this beaut. 

Pieter is an amazing dude, let me tell you. It's easy for me to see how we aligned. It's so refreshing to talk to someone like him, who is completely open with his feelings and experiences. His heart is open, as is mine. 

Jam sesh. (Pieter on the left and Dave on the right). They were playing a song that Pieter created one day after he'd been going through a rough breakup with his ex who had originally met him while couchsurfing at his place. Sarah from Paris. He was driving through the mountains just crying and crying and really struggling, and it was raining and gloomy outside, then the sun broke through and it cleared up. And he felt our Creators love flow through him and he wrote the song right then and there. 

Lemongrass lane. 

You da man Pieter. 

Lost in Sydney

It was Sunday. Day off. Pieter owns his own gardening/landscaping business so that's what I've been doing as far as work goes, but it's never more than four or five hours a day so it's a nice balance. So many people have pools here so for example, at one of our jobs me and Pieter would take dips every hour or so. My first day of work out in the sun I got roasted, but I love me some sun. I love driving through the suburbs around Sydney because not one house is the same. Every house is so different. Man, so refreshing compared to so many new neighborhoods cropping up in America where every home is the same color, same shape, etc. So booooooring. I had a lot of options but it wasn't a hard decision, I had to see the downtown Sydney area. I took the train, immediately found an internet cafe, wrote my first blog, then skateboarded out into the city. 

Firstly I wanted to head to the Opera house, and I literally got lost three differernt times, but because of that, I found gems everywhere. Hmmmm kinda like my life eh? The straight and narrow could never be me. If I lived that way I'd be living someone else's life. 

Gettin super serious. Yes. 

I sat down at the cafe in the background and ordered eggs benedict. $20. Damn this place is expensive, but that's why using workaway.info to stay and live with the locals is the only way to go in my opinion. Not only do I stay and eat for free, but I get to live with the people, and to me that is the most enriching, most profound way to travel. I wouldn't do it any other way. And I enjoy the balance and variety of work. I couldn't travel for months and not work, that would drive me crazy. 

Such an epic experience skatin through the city. It was like I was in a snowboarding race, but instead of carving around sticks with little flags on top, I was carving around people and cars. Creating my own course, like I do with my life. 

What a city. This place is magic. The endless cafe's, the water weaving around the city, the variety of people, the vibes. I feel like I could live here a year and still find hidden gems everywhere. 

Sydney is without a doubt the most amazing big city I've ever been to. Oh, and this lovely park is awesome. I took a nap on that grass yo. 

I spy with my little eye, something that starts with an O. 

This giant building is a five story mall, that has some levels underground, and it's where the train station is as well. I didn't care to check out any of the stores. Don't wanna go bankrupt in one day. 

Not a bad spot to sleep eh? 

An Exotic Wonderland

The third day of my stay here in the town of Oatley (25 min outside of Sydney) Pieter and I hit the road. Christian had left the day before so it was just us two. It's kinda ridiculous how much we connect. He's 55 and I'm 25 but age has never meant anything to me. It's amazing to me how I can just spontaneously fly to Sydney and yet it doesn't matter where I'm at, or what culture it is, I'm always gonna connect with certain people on a very high level. Pieter is that kind of dude. We were on our way to the beach and we saw a sign to some lookout spot, which he had never been to, and walking up to this spot I'm pretty sure I peed my pants.

Everything about this day was mind blowing. And this is how it started.

Had to capture this randy jackson throwing some paper airplanes off the massive cliff.

Beach time. My favorite. Out of all the locations I could live by it'd be by the beach. No doubt. After a quick dip in the ocean we headed out for a lil stroll through the mountains outside of Wollongong. I'm loving all the Aboriginal city and street names. 

My only thought here is, why aren't these in every park in America?

Next up we spontaneously went to the Illawarra Fly Treetop Walk. We checked out when the next time we could start the walk and we were originally planning on going to a Jazz gig that Dave was helping put together in a different town but it was such a nice day we had to take advantage of the weather and just go for it. It was a total of 75 AU but easily worth it. 

Here we go.

Ehhhh look at that Auzzie bloke!

Up up up the stairs we go. I apologize for the dust particles on my camera lens. It's so annoying. I just want some quality pics! I think I'll have to find a camera shop or somethin because I can't seem to figure it out.

Wowzers. I think I wet my pants here for the 7th time of the day.

Lake Illawara up ahead.

After the treetop adventures, we.... well went on more adventures of course. We stopped at a nature reserve lookout spot and it was so peaceful. 

Strolled through an old school town where Pieter used to play with his band. This was one of his spots back in the day, and he showed me the room where it all went down. Ordered a nice local cider and enjoyed the view outback (he he).

Yummyness

And then after all that epicness, we come home to this. I love this place, and I hope everyone reading this can make it out to Planet Straya' someday because it's incredible. I could be in this part of the world for a very long time.