Emerald City

Day 104

"Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?"

Dorothy fell asleep in her home. As she dreamed, her house was grabbed by tornado and thrown into Oz, place where dreams come true. Everything was so different that Dorothy said "I think we are not in Kansas anymore". She arrived into Munchkinland and followed the yellow brick road all the way to Emerald City, the most beautiful place in Oz and home of the Wizard, picking up few friends along the way.

Three and hald months ago I arrived through air and turbulence to Oz and in Perth. Everything around me was different, I definetly wasn't in Helsinki anymore. I too followed the yellow brick road which was considerably longer than Dorothy's. Along the way I too picked up friends allthough most of them had brains(unlike Scarecrow), they definetly had hearts(unlike Tin man) and all were blessed with courage to travel(unlike Lion). But in the end yellow brick road took me to Emerald City, the most beautiful city in Oz, Sydney.

Ok, lets do little timewarp before Emerald City, Hunter Valley. So my 11h bus journey wasn't that tough. I arrived 22:30 to Newcastle to have a decent sleep before heading to Hunter Valley next morning at 8:30. As is common in Australia, bus drivers are generally very nice people and so was this. He took 2km sidetrack from his route just to drop me off at my hostel door, very nice. When I arrived at my hostel I saw a sign with 5 letters. At first I thought it can't be true, pinched myself and looked at it again: S-A-U-N-A. Jumalauta Sauna! Sauna Perkele! V*ttu jee!! Over three months in Australia and there is sauna! Needless to say I went to market, bought 6-pack of beer for evening sauna.

But first I rented a bicycle for the day and went on self-guided wine tour. Managed to visit 5 wineries with full tastings until I called it day. Also managed to get attacked by vicious Magpie. That insane bird chased me for over kilometer doing over 10 swoops hitting my bike helmet each time. Christ, when I arrived to Australia, I didn't realize that the most dangerous wildlife encounters would be with birds, first Cassowary and now Magpie.

Anyway, managed to get back to hostel unscarred and fired up Sauna. Now, it seems I have become some sort of Finnish magnet pulling every single Finnish traveller to me wherever I go. This time her name was Annette. I'm quite proud that I actually picked her finnish accent within seconds. We had nice evening with Sauna and drinking the wines I picked that day at wineries along with her and Tina(little older aussie).

Next day I went touring along with YHA minibus. We had absolutely hilarious tour with our nude model Michael driving and Gay-Bob offering commentary :D On tour I also managed to actually grab some pictures of the fantastic Hunter Valley landscapes.

Evening featured yet another 1.5h in Sauna and wine drinking :)

So...after 2 days being totally wasted in wine country it was time to head Sydney. As Michael was driving me to Cessnock we realized that it was saturday and that ment no buses went back to Newcastle today...crap! So Michael made me new travel plan, bus to Maitland(I had no clue where that place was), then switch to train in Maitland and go to Hamilton(still no clue where that place was) and finally switch trains in Hamilton to go to Sydney. I still haven't looked at the map where those places were but it took me to Emerald City at last...and it is beautiful.

My original plan was to do as little as possible here. I planned to just relax, do "inventory" on my gear, wash all clothes, sort out bank stuff and generally prepare for upcoming trip to Pacific and New Zealand. Oh well, plans are made to be changed. First of all it's almost impossible to not do anything in Sydney, this city is so full of things to do and places to see. Second, Annette came to Sydney as well so we have been spending some time sightseeing together including this picnic at very famous location :)

Gonna try to squeeze in atleast one more entry before heading to Tonga. Until then...greetings from Oz and Emerald City.