This is the life

Been a really fun last while here...
flew from Tasmania the day after my last entry. had a nice leisurely morning packing my gear. got a ride two towns over with the lady who ran the eco-hostel. made a couple calls on a payphone to peoples back home (managed to lose my watch - to add to the list of lost items... now also including 1250mb of SD media, which I lost weeks ago, my soap and towel stuff sack - realistically, not that bad... with the exception of my two memory cards) annnnyhow..
got a ride to the airport right off... left early, just in case, and got there with 5 or 6 hours to spare... good time to hang out, get some sun... cook up the rest of my food before leaving a gas cylinder with a note in the parking lot (can't bring them on the plane) which, in all likely hood probably attracted the bomb squad... (you laugh now..)
Chrysi picked me up from the airport - spent the night ripping around the city... got one of those famous (franks?) pies and hung out on the waterfront.... later ending up under the harbour bridge rambling the night way while gazng apon the sydney operahouse hown below.... very surreal for me.. having just spent the last fortnight in the boonies and then suddenly dropped into the biggest city in the country.
Missed all possible accomidations. ended up sleeping in the car for a couple hour down by the water and were up with the sun for a beautiful morning.... which later turned out to be the longest day ever...went on and on... had highlights tohough.. nice art gallery run through with Chrysi (she's an art theory girl) I don't even remmber what else happended that day... lazing in the park... food was eten... people met... beers consumed. got a hostel in the city that night and eplored around downtown Sydney at night with a Kiwi (new zealander) guy. what a place! layers of urban jumgle... multi layered subway system... freeways, peds ways, a monorail... lights, boads and bridges. bloody beautiful.... as crazy and hot as sydney can be during the day... it is a wondeful place at night...
Spent the next day scoping out the sights.. being a tourist... sydney opera house, botanical gardens, all of that... we all spent the night at Lauras place and hit the road in the morning.... 10 hour drive to Ballina. relatively eventless drive (except for the giant bananna) and yeah. we're here...
Renting a flat here for a week with Chrysi and Laura. beautiful beach view.... a 1 minute walk down to the beach itself... Chrysi's a really great cook and is spoiling me with wonderful food... and it's tropcal enough to grow bannanas here. what more can you ask for, really?
unfortunately my time is up here... I'll have to write again with more detail in a few days. and photos!
until then...