So I guess mind over matter is only a short term victory, eh? Over the last 6 nights or so I haven’t really gotten the right amount of significant sleep, namely 8 hours or more. I aim to change that tonight as I am going to go to bed early.

After last nights blog I went back and discovered that the guy sleeping in the room had been on a 40 hour plane journey so he was wiped. After talking to the other roommates went to bed around 11 PM. I think I went to bed quite quickly.

My alarm went off at 5 after six but I had been awake for a good 30 minutes before that had happened. I got up and got dressed in the dark. You get really good at dressing quickly and in low light after travelling, especially when a lot of your outfits are repeats.

I went downstairs and made breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. I also packed apples and nuts, again typical food. I then went to reception to recheck in as I was told this was necessary because I had booked the nights at two different times. This unfortunately took 15 minutes to resolve. This made me miss the earliest train out, but the next one wasn’t much after.

I made my way to the train station, just around the corner, and purchased my combo train bus ticket. I then waited for the train and boarded it. The trains that run the western line and much of the other Sydney lines are from 1958. They are multilevel, stainless steel trains that are very pretty. They contain reversible seats so you don’t have lots of people sitting backwards. To be honest they feel dated, but then again I suppose not everything has to be flash.

The train ride was just over 2 hours long. The scenery was unremarkable to say the most. Mainly suburbia things and houses. I guess it was good to see the other parts of the city but I wasn’t really wowed by it.

We made it up to the stop (I am blanking on the name) and I got off the train and headed to get my bus ticket and information. For this Oz trip I haven’t really planned anything in advanced or really researched anything. I am kind of just taking it as it comes. It’s kinda unnerving as I’m the plan type of person but it’s good to try new things.

I switched the ticket and got a map. I had to make a quick decision on what I was going to do that day but I made it and got on with life. I caught the bus 5 minutes later and headed out towards stop #9 at the base of the skyline. The bus was an retired London double decker bus. It raddled like none other and I laughed at the fact that literally everything rattled terribly. It acted like it was just waiting to fall apart.

I got to the base of the skyline and took the advice from the woman at the desk where I had purchased the ticket. Ohhh wait.

At the ticket counter where I picked up my information I was offered a pass to take the skyline gondola, the railcar train, and the skytram around the touristy facilities that were there. Sorry this is really hard for me to write as my brain is not firing properly.  I choose yes because it was only $25 and I am normally scared of heights so I thought it would be good to do.

Back at the base I took a quick walk around to a nice waterfall and a lookout point. The waterfall was cool and the lookout was georgeous. I am sure at sunrise/sunset the blue mountains are even more amazing.

Basically the Blue Mountains are a world heritage listed sight. They have a variety of trees and other fauna that are only found in this part of the world. The area is very geologically stable which has contributed to the ability of the plants to survive for long periods of time. I believe they are called the Blue Mountains due to a blue haze that is seen in the area which is based on some release of stuff from the trees in the area. That is a god awful sentence. Ohh well.

Basically I spent most of the day walking around the forest. I took the tram over to the main touristy station. It was cool as it had an electrostatic glass floor and open air windows to allow pictures to be taken. Next after looking out at the three sisters, the most well known landmark of the blue mountains, I boarded the Railcar train down to the base of the forest.

The railcar train is the steepest incline in the world, 52 degrees. It was really cool and used to carry coal from the mines up to the processing facility. I was the only white person on board as a huge number of asian tourists came down and boarded the train. It was a short ride and we were counterbalanced so it was smooth descending.

Once on the forest floor I walked over to a lookout of the Kootomba falls to avoid the mad amount of Asians that were going through. I then doubled back to the main walkway, which was boardwalk and began checking out all the information. Even though it was really touristy the information and history was spectacularly done. I really appreciated that it gave you something to read and learn rather than a lot of the other things were it is like ohh take your pictures here and then move on.

I was standing listening to a little presentation by an animatronic figure and I noticed a little girl (prob about 9) wearing a red jacket. Now being a Tech fan red is obviously a color that I refuse to wear and it brings up a good amount of aggression when I see it. But the thing was I though this was Georgia read. She moved and I saw she was wearing a Georgia sweatshirt! I then asked the family generally if they were from Georgia. They were. There oldest son, they had 3 kids, had just graduated from UGA with a forestry degree (go figure) and this was a graduation present for him. We had a short talk for about 5 mins and then I continued on my way.

I spent about 90 minutes wandering down there in the forest floor and had lunch. PBJ, it was very good. I then took the skytram up but not before running into another American family. This one made me smile. I didn’t ever actually talk to them, I just listened to their Americanness. We give away a lot of clues for one thing. For example a german girl ahead of me sneezed and the daughter (2 sons, 1 daughter, and a mom I later deduced) said God Bless You, which is not something they say in NZ or Oz. (Yah I know bc I had to stop saying it). They also used American slang and had the attitude (not a bad one, just definitely American) so it made me smile.

After finishing the skytram back up, I walked around the Prince Edward walk to the three sisters which took about another 90 minutes. It was very pretty and the sandstone cliffs were amazing. It also started to rain so I was fully jacketed up. I haven’t mentioned this before but it was very cold today. It was actually in the 40’s in the mountains. I had appropriately planned though and was thoroughly warm except for my hands.

Afterwards I got the bus back to Leoria, and then explored the shops, and finally went to wait for the train ride back. I talked to a nice guy on the platform and then settled in for a good hour nap for the 2 hour return trip. Upon return I got out of the way and just watched the people bustle about. It was really neat watching the full, like packed full, trains of people go each and every way. Everyone all bundled up in their winter gear and reading the paper or playing with their phone. I don’t know I enjoyed watching it all.

I then went to check if I had a place to store my bags for my train ride tomorrow and I do. I also checked my bag into PeterPans for storage and learned a valuable lesson. They didn’t have rates for baggage storage, it is sorta negotiated so you can use that to your advantage. I didn’t in this case but it is a lesson to keep for the future.

Anyway tomorrow I will be spending most of the day in Sydney then hopping on the train for the ride to Brisbane.

Sorry about this blog being kinda sporadic. I think I am mentally tired and I really felt that leaving the train station. I am normally a very alert person, normally attempting to observe as much as possible about the world around me. But it was like that sense was put on hold or something and I was just operating at a more base level. I don’t like that feeling.

Check out the new photos on facebook, I am going to comment on them.

All the best,

-Mathias