So it's time to go for a little wander*...India, Singapore (I'm gonna count it even if it is only for 26 hours), Australia, Argentina and Brazil. Eight and a half weeks - should be fun.

And I may post up some stuff here about how it goes, for anyone who wants to waste two minutes having a read.

*Daunder for those who can cope with the scots

Monday, 12 April 2010

Facts for today

  • There is something very relaxing about sitting on a roof terrace at dusk, watching a seemingly endless stream of flying foxes appear out of the gloom from the direction of the botanic gardens, fly over the opera house, then silently flap over your head.
  • Most backpackers in Australia (sample = those that I meet) are from Germany or the UK.
  • Sydney trains are both double-decked and have those seats that can be turned to face either forward or backward. This is good.
  • Sydney trains do not have quiet carriages. This is bad*.
  • The Blue Mountains really do look blue. It's something to do with the eucalypt forest emitting oil vapours and subsequent scattering of blue light...ask a physicist for more details*. And I'm tired but very satisfied after a day hiking around them.
  • You cannot get a sashimi breakfast from Sydney fish market at 7.30am. It may be the second biggest fish market in the world, but believe me, unlike the biggest, it aint worth getting up at 6am for (I didn't even really see any fish!).
  • There are wild kangaroos in Oz, I've finally seen one (well, three actually, out of the train window).
  • On this trip so far I've bought two pictures for my flat - and unlike my parents' artistic shopping Down Under, neither of them require a 6 x 14ft wooden crate to ship home.
  • I haven't been bitten by a mosquito in three days - WOO!
  • I am rubbish at writing postcards - sorry all!



*Actually it's terrible how habituated I am to a) sitting in the quiet carriage and b) having my ipod with me to drown out any conversations that do occur in my vicinity. I suffered greatly stuck without either this morning!
**ALEX!!
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1 comment:

  1. Alex12 April 2010 at 12:06

    Now physics isn't my strong point, y'know, but a quick look at, ahem, wikipedia... well it doesn't actually help! On the page for the blue mountains (australia) it states that the eucalyptus explanation is a myth and that actually it's just down to plain old atmospheric scattering, where distant objects appear bluer.

    But then a bit of further investigation (looking at the blue ridge mountains page on wiki) suggests that it IS trees that cause these mountains to appear blue, because of trees releasing isoprene. And which tree is one of the biggest emitters of isoprene? You guessed it, eucalyptus.

    So there you go. Isoprene (a monomer of rubber doncha know) could be the cause...

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