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Senior Member
Posts: 1,410
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: USA
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Back From Vacation(NZ+Australia) -
03-02-2006, 12:32 PM
before i get started, I will try to have pics up a bit later, i have a shitload of them so i will have to sort through and host em, and link em and all that crap, which i just don't feel like doing right now.
So before I get started, I will clue you guys in as to where, and why I went. In australia, I spent 2 days in Sydney(yeah, I know, i didnt do the country, or even the city any justice, but I didnt have any more time to spend in Australia... I spent 6 or so days in a tourist hub in NZ called Rotarua, and the remaining 3-4 days with relatives in Aukland. I traveled there for my older cousins wedding, with my parents. Not ashamed to say it, because I just dont have the money to pay for a trip like this by myself. FYI, cousins are both girls, Lena is the one getting married, Olga is the younger one.
Alright, so first stop was Sydney. My impression of the city is quite good. From what I saw of it, it looks like a cleaner, more compact version of a large American City, IE, NYC. Couple things I will note. All our luggage was misplaced, my parents was left in Aukland, and mine was in San Francisco. They gave us 300 aussie dollars, which seemed like a decent amount, but its not. The price of clothing in both countries seems to me to be much higher than in America, even if you take into considerating the american dollar being worth more. So anyway, i got to see Sydney, basically by walking around it for the 2 days that I had there. Visited some souvenir shops, etc, tho i must say that there wasnt anything too special in the form os souvenirs. I did go to the Sky Tower there, and the view was pretty danm cool, I also went on a boat tour of the harbor with my parents which was quite nice. And that was pretty much that, I definetly want to go back someday and spend more time in Sydney and the rest of Australia.
ok, Rotorua....this seems a good time to mention that you have to drive on the left side of the road.............I personally didnt have to drive, and seeing as how my parents rented the car, I cant exactly complain, tho my dad gave me more near death experiences in those 6 days in Rot. then ive ever had in my entire life.......One particularly memorable instance was when a rather large truck nearly smashed headlong into us, and my dad veered his car to the left, almost hitting another car that was passing us by...... So what did we do? Horse trekking tours, off road carts, spas, visiting the geothermal parks, going to the Maori Village, and I even did this freefall/sky diving simulator thing.... The geothermal parks, tho not really my thing, were still admittedly very cool, and the scenery/landscape is just gorgeous. Also, Id like to share with you a rather interesting history about NZ's native peoples, the Maori. You see, once upon a time, there were a different native peoples who inhabited the islands of New Zealand...and the Maori invaded them, and conquered them. And after they had subdued their foes, the Maori did what all respectable conquerors do. They ate the original natives....they also ate the guy who discovered New Zealand, Captain John Cooke I believe.... Anyway, Rotorua was pretty fun, but my vacation wasnt over yet.......
Aukland. Well as you mightve guessed, this was where the wedding took place, and we spent the entire time living with my older cousin and her husband, with lots of relatives being over constantly. My actual impressions of Aukland are a bit limited, tho I will say that it is a very spread out city, and its quite interesting because unlike many big cities where the majority of the people live in apartments, most people live in houses. Rather small houses by america's standards, but houses nonetheless. I was up at teh sky tower here as well, and once again, the view was pretty danm neat. We also checked out the some kind of garden type thing, once again, not really my thing but still something almost any open minded person can appreciate. But anyway, the majority of teh time was spent with the family, and I have to admit, it was pretty cool. Igor, the guy my eldest cousin is marrying seems to be a great guy, and Im sure he will make her happy. The people i spent the most time interacting with would be my younger cousin(a year older than me), and Igor's nephew, who is my age. Growing up, I never really had any family members/relatives that were my age/close to my age, and altho it is a bit late, I suppose its better late than never.
The wedding itself was quite interesting, it was held in a jewish orthodox synagogue, no "here comes the bride tunes" instead there was a violinist who was playing jewish folk songs/traditional songs, which was quite nice. The rabbi was an interesting fellow, cracking jokes to the left and to the right....The after party was also fairly cool, I wasnt particularly impressed with the food, tho it was decent (the afterparty was help in this place called the floating pavilion, pretty cool) but the music was decent, lots of "dancey" stuff, and the atmosphere was nice as well. The speaches were quite entertaining, tho many of the speakers spoke with heavy slovic/russian accents which made it hard to understand them on occasion. My cousins dragged me off to dance with them, and yea........i dont dance....much......if at all..........so yea........
Overall, I had a good time, and a lot of people were saying it was one of the better weddings they'd been to...
Next day we went out to eat with the family, which was nice,(tho i did not like the food at all, it was the japanese Yamtcha place,uhhh). Got to talking with Igor's nephew, pretty cool guy. And of course, Olga.....she seems geared up to be the President of New Zealand, very smart, a bit serious, but very pleasant to be with as well. And Lena, seems strangely out of character, shes going for her PHD, something to do with Biology, forget what exactly, so i always imagined her as a very serious, stereotypical "doctor-like" person, when in fact she is a very cheery person, with a very warm personality. We also went out with just my cousins, Igor, and my parents to a Thai place, which I liked a hell of a lot more. Tho, the thai cuisine is quite spicy, and its not supposed to be very good for you. So yea, that was my vacation, but Im not done just yet.....
You see, I feel kind of lost now.....I mean, its almost like an adopted kid, who knows his birth parents are out there somewhere, but never really thinks about meeting them. Thats kind of the way I felt, they were just so far away, you just dont think about them.....But now that ive met them, im sort of confused.....I mean before I had never even considered living anywhere but the US, but now....after getting to know my family, and the "new members of our family," everything just doesnt feel so certain..... It seems unfair to have to choose one part of my family over another.
And moreover, ive been feeling a bit down lately because I think to myself, what if I never see them again? You start asking yourself, what is the meaning of all this? Why did I meet them once, and then will most likely not see them again, or at least the majority of them for a large portion of my life if at all........
Sigh.....anyway, just wanted to get this off my back, and I know the "I went on vacation/will be going on vacation" threads are fairly popular here so heres anotehr one....as for pics, ill post em later, maybe tommorrow when I have some more time.....
So my final impressions of both countries are, they are definetly great places to visit, and you owe it to yourselves to visit them at least once in your life, I am quite sure you wont regret it. But the greatest reward....believe it or not....the best souvenir I brought back for myself from my vacation are the memories of the time I spent with my family..... And knowing I may or may not see them again, them being so far away, and with all the shit thats happening/will continue to happen, it really does make you appreciate family....and even life....a bit more.
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Back From Vacation(NZ+Australia)
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