5 Cities in 5 Days

Although Bryan didn't get to do much sight-seeing on his whirlwind trip covering the entire continent of Australia he was able to get a few interesting pictures. I'll let him tell you about his trip and what he saw:

These pictures all come from a 3 hour commute to go 209 km (120 miles) west of Sydney to our training site in Bathurst. It turns out Bathurst is a famous place in itself...it's home to the "super bowl" of V-8 racing (AUS version of NASCAR). Mount Panorama is more like a road race than the usual oval racing we know of Nascar as it's about 3.7 miles in length. The bigger difference is that it climbs pretty steep and has sharp corners to get to the top of the "peak" before again descending to the flats. Regular pedestrian vehicles are also allowed to drive on the track, as you can see we did during this excursion.







About halfway back to Sydney we stopped at Echo Point in the town of Katoomba. It's an awesome view of a very abrupt canyon wall. Unfortunately clouds impaired our view that afternoon, but you'll notice the picture I snapped of the "Aboriginal" man playing an instrument. It was interesting to watch as he was using circular breathing to continue a solid note between percussive strikes with a wooden stick. I say Aboriginal in quote's because the folks I travelled with say he must have been modernized as most Aboriginal's have similar beliefs of the American Indian that if a picture is taken of them, it will rob them of their soul.


We spent the weekend at the park with Evan on Saturday and visiting the Queen Street Markets and Mall in downtown Brisbane on Sunday. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed walking around (and shopping!) Here are a few pictures from our weekend.




Australian Education: In downtown Brisbane I quickly snapped this picture of individuals freely jaywalking in the middle of a busy street. On many of the downtown streets all four pedestrian traffic signals will turn green at the same time, stopping all vehicular traffic coming in every direction. The intersection then becomes a free-for-all and people walk to whichever corner or street they need to get to. It is actually a more efficient way to get people from one spot to another so they don't have to cross from light to light and wait in between.