3/10 - Alice Springs

After an early wakeup Jutka and Stan dropped me at the airport from where I came over with a 3-hour flight to Alice Springs. Very little airport of a small town in the middle of nowhere. The timezone difference between Sydney and The Alice is 30 minutes. Cute, isn't it? Never saw such a thing. The backpacker picked me up from the airport. I saw the Museum of Central Australia the geological exhibition in which meteor parts were shown and the creation of the craters was explained. I saw the aviation museum just nearby where Kingsford Smith, his achievements and his rescue in the 'Coffee Royal' incident were explained and documented. The aboriginal influenced Australian art exhibition "Ocean to Outback" was very much impressive and I saw an aboriginal art gallery as well. I saw those paintings and sculptures and just couldn't leave the museum until I was forced to :). Unfortunately they closed at 4pm. Hot, but beautiful here. Beers and talks in the evening with all the tourists in the backpacker was also fun.

2/10 - Blue Mountains

I took an organized tour today to the Blue Mountains. It is really blue when you watch far. The blue color originates from the eucalyptus oil's chemical process when hot. Ough - that was not very scientific.
We began the day in the Olympic Park where the games took place in 2000. Very modern huge area, which was built brand new for the games. From there we headed west to a village called Leura located 1300 meters above the sea level. Lovely cherry blossom. Excellent patisserie. Then we took 2 cable cars and one crazy train down to the rainforest. The train descended in the most crazy angle I've ever seen. We took a wonderful walk then in the rainforest on wooden walkways. After lunch we visited Echo Lookout where the most beautiful view on the Blue Mountains is.
Then we went to the Featherdale Wildlife Park where we saw around 100 kinds of native aussie birds and cute Koalas, which I touched for the first time. Fantastic, so cute. Finally we took a ferry from the Olympic Park back to Circular Quay.
Wooo. All these in one single day... ;)

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

1/10 - Sydney

In the morning I went to a cruise on the Harbour. An explorer ship took me all over the interesting points of the bay including Fort Denison, Shark Island, The Luna Park, and finally I got off in Darling Harbour next to the warships and the submarine. I felt that I must see them, so I entered the National Maritime Museum, bought tickets for the destroyer and the submarine. Patiently heared some explanations from a navy veteran old man, he thought he was speaking English, I didn't. Very interesting ships, amazing insight to what used to be the permanent lifestyle on the HMAS (Her Majesty's Australian Ship).
After lunch at home Jutka and Stan took me to the Gap and to Bondi beach. The Gap used to be the favorite place for suicide jumpers, amazing ocean view with huge rocks on the seashore. Bondi - is maybe the most beautiful beach I've seen.
We ate in an ex-Hungarian (Jewish) cafe which is currently in Russian hands (Jewish).
On the way home we went over the Italian neighborhood and crossed the military bridge [I can't remember its name].

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

30/9 - Sydney

Rosh Hashana morning, I went to a synagogue! We drove up to the orthodox one, there were not enough parking lot near, so we parked in a walking distance of 5 minutes. The huge temple was full of a couple of hundreds of families. Not that I am a big expert of that, but the pray and the tunes were just like I remember them. It seemed to me that everybody speaks either Hungarian or Hebrew.
Ben came over for lunch, after which we headed to the Koala Park to see native ozy (Australian) animals. The Koalas had their extra delicious dinner - eucalyptus leafs - they were awake and even jumped from one tree to another. We saw kangaroos, and kangaroo-crossings with special birds, worms, mice, and some other kinds.

For dinner we have sacrificed a cow to our god and ate its meat with some lecso and other stuff. Yami.

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

29/9 - Sydney

I had a very busy day today. In the morning Stan dropped my on the south side of Harbour Bridge. Through the historical cute streets of the Rocks I went to the bridge climber's encounter and registered my first bridge climb. After taking a mortgage for paying the entrance fee I was dressed in a funny grey dress. Noone can take anything with him. No cameras, no tissue. The climb leads on the metal skeleton of the bridge up to the top of it which lies 134 meters above the sea level. We were secured by a sliding plastic which rolled all along the metal rope on the climbing path. Great fun. Stairs, narrow wood and metal passes. Bellow us 80-100 thousand cars a day crossing the bridge. The view from the top was fantastic. Clear weather, and great feeling.

From Australia

From Australia

Afterwards I took a long walk in the City an the Royal Botanic Gardens.

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

In the evening we celebrated Rosh Hashana with a 5 dishes delicious gefilltefish, soup, chicken roll with apricot and many other stuff prepared by Jutka and Stan during the last 3-4 days (literally!). Participants: Jutka, Stan, Jesse, Ben, Suzie, Matt, Sharon, Alice, John, Julie, Judith, and myself. Wow that's a lot. yea.

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

28/9, Sydney

Yesterday I fall asleep like a log and slept 12 hours continuously. Well, that happend after 2 nights when I didn't sleep properly. Chompsky the cute dog came over to my room to say hi. After breakfast we went for a walk in the neighborhood with Stan and Chompsy. Burning sun, nice neighbors, 1M$ houses, strange animals all around. After we for home Ben and Suzie came over and took me out to the city for some sightseeing. We saw the north side neighborhood of the Harbour Bridge, where the prome minister's house is located. We had lunch just near the Opera House watching the amazing view of the harbour. Then we drove all around the city ending up on the east bay's well-off locations.

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

From Australia

Arrival

It's all about making a history. I was on the first flight ever which departed from Tel-Aviv and landed in Seoul, South Korea. Is this called an aviation pioneer?
Ceremony at the boarding gate in BenGurion airport. 200 people or more: ambassadors, ministry of transportation, all kind of representatives having speeches, drinking champagne and wine, eating cakes. I went approached the separated area slowly. Suddenly an official person asked me:
- What do you represent here?
Without hesitation I answered:
- I represent the passengers of the first flight to Seoul.
- OK, come in.
So I had a nice beginning.
Approaching Sydney's Kingsford Smith airport was a sightseeing tour. I saw the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House and another 20% of the central Sydney.
Jutka and Stanley waited for me at the airport about an hour or so, but finally got home with them. Instead of going to sleep we ate breakfast and then went for a walk with Chomsky, the cute dog.
We went to Dobroid Point which has a great view to Manly, its port, harbour- and ocean side beaches. The took a wonderful walk in Manly. Saw a handicraft market, nice downtown with nearby beaches. Photos to come.
Very tired now, but I should not go to sleep in order to solve the jetleg until tomorrow.
Jesse, my cousin took me out to one of the less known beaches of Sydney. We went over Neutral Bay and then left... ok, I don't remember the exact name of the place, but this was really nice. We talked a lot and ate calamer-n-chips in a kiosk.