Come fly with me...

...to Bali, Indonesia!  Benjamin and I are at the Sydney airport, about to fly to Bali, do some traveling around Indonesia, and then who knows?  We had to buy airline tickets out of Indonesia in order to be eligible for the upon-arrival visas, so we booked some fully refundable flights to Singapore (where I may meet Amanda for a quick hello before continuing traveling. Exciting!).

Looking forward to getting some WiFi so that I can post new photos and reflections upon the last several weeks, stored on my newly charged up netbook.

A new passport stamp is only hours away...
Julia

There's no place like Oz

G'day, mates...and all those other Australian cliches...from Byron Bay, Australia!  I'm not sure how far geographically north Byron Bay is from Sydney; I can tell you that it is precisely three nights in a camper van north.  What a ride!

I arrived in Sydney last Sunday and showed up on the doorstep of Evan and Andy, two of my oldest friends from my elementary school days who moved out to Australia five months back - lived in Sydney - lived in Melbourne - and are now traveling up the east coast of Australia, where I've joined them for a bit.  While awaiting the arrival of Eli, another old old old friend, we explored Sydney anew (Andy and Evan hadn't been back since their two months of living in Melbourne).  Highlights included a 6am (my jetlag; Andy's inability to sleep) walk through the Botanical Gardens, a ferry trip to Darling Harbour, and dancing the night away in Pott's Point.

Four days in a camper van = lots of crackers; driving on the left (an adventure in itself); trailer parks; 5:30am wake-up calls from policemen telling us to get off the road and INTO a trailer park; and lots of pulling off the road to the paradises that are so common we've begun (jokingly) to number them, as in "gotta head out and find paradise #13."

I am still without a netbook charger, and it looks like it will be a while longer as Ben is currently stuck under a cloud of ash in London, charger in tow.  So posts will be sporadic.  I promise to write more when I can!

Photos and stories to come - I'm off now to enjoy Byron's beaches.
Always love.
Julia

In transit(ion)

Yesterday morning I awoke in Buenos Aires.  This morning I was in Atlanta.  Currently, I am in Los Angeles.  Right now, it is "tomorrow" in Australia.  I will land in Auckland, New Zealand - and then fly to Sydney, Australia - on Sunday, April 11, having departed on Friday, April 9.  What will happen on Saturday, April 10?  You'll have to fill me in.  That pesky international dateline! 

Please pardon my blog silence.  I left the charger for my netbook in Mendoza, Argentina.  I've ordered a new one and hopefully it will arrive in Brooklyn on time for Benjamin to bring it to Australia.  All in, this is a small price to pay to the travel gods, who blessed me with an absolutely incredible ("alucinante," in Spanish) first leg of my trip.  I'm not quite sure how to put it all into words.  There will be lots to tell when I juice up the ole netbook...until then, know that on my 30+ hours of flying today and yesterday and (I guess) on April 10, I will probably have thought of YOU!

With love and a new passport stamp from your antipodean friend,
Julia