[ by Stian ]
And so we arrived to our very last
stop in Australia. We've had 22 days in Australia so far and were
about to spend the 4 last ones in the extremely exciting city of
Darwin, far north in Australia. Well, at least it's the biggest city
in the Northern Territory, but it would turn out that it wasn't a
very exciting city at all. To be honest we were a bit tired, and we
had spent way loads of money... Also, it was about time to start
saving some. In that way, the obvious lack of excitement didn't
bother us much, but saving money? Well that's easier said than done.
DARWIN
Darwin is the 15th
biggest city of Australia. It has a population of .about 130 000
people. It is the capital of the Northern Territory, and it is
perceived as a pioneer outpost, and one of the most modern and
multicultural cities in Australia. Well, well. That's how
Wikipedia puts it. My observation is that there are like 5 streets in
the city, no real shopping center, loads of souvenir-shops and
restaurants. There are no real attractions other than a crocosaurus
cave, where one can be caged in a glass container and then submerged
into the pool of the huge crocodile – this attraction costs way
loads of money to do though. Last but not least, just to inform the
obvious: The city is named after famous Charles Darwin of course. So it was all to be seen if we would be fit enough to survive this really hot and humid city containing millions of flies (as we had been told it would be like when coming here);)
So what to do in Darwin?
We had the options of going to any
of the two national parks: Kakadu National Park and/or Litchfield
National Park. We chose neither... It would though have probably
been a really really nice experience, which later were to be confirmed
by people from our previous tour, who did visit the parks. Anna from
Switzerland had told us that she'd asked some tour company if it
really was worth visiting Kakadu and what she got in reply surprised
her and would probably surprised any of is really. The tour agent had
asked her if she had been to Uluru already, which she had, and if she
had been to Katherine Gorge, which she also had, so then there was no
point of going to Kakadu if she wanted so see something new, because
even though the nature is beautiful – its pretty much the same as
the ones mentioned, just a different place. So we thought as well
that it would probably not be the biggest loss if we didn't go, we
have already seen those kinds of things already.
First evening
We checked into the YHA Darwin hostel,
which was a very nice hostel. We were lucky enough to have a 6 bed
dorm room all by ourselves and except from one night only we had the
room all by ourselves for the rest of the stay. The first evening we
hang out with our tour group, having dinner and drinks together at the
restaurant/pub Monsoons. I also got in touch with a local guy, John,
who would turn out to be a very interesting guy and I immediately
enjoyed his company. He was even of Aboriginal origin so he was the
first real indigenious person I got to have a conversation with, and
throughout the following days I would come to learn more about the
aboriginal culture as well, thanks to John.
Casuarina Shopping and SkyCity Casino
The first whole day we had in Darwin
we did absolutely nothing – which also was the very plan from the
beginning. We only dropped by the «big» shopping center just
outside of the city center – at Casuarina. Well, it was bigger
indeed, but nothing special, nothing at all really. I did end up
buying a shirt and some singlets though. I am really getting sick and
tired of wearing the same clothes every day now (even though I did
brought too many clothes to begin with, haha). On our way back to the
hostel, just before leaving the shopping center, we got an extremely
heavy rain shower once again! But we had to get back to the hostel so
we just had to run, jump or whatever through the rain and so to catch
the bus. Soaked, we did eventually catch the bus (I don't trust GPS on
Ipads anymore, thats for sure, haha).
We then met up with the people from
our tour group once again, Lauren, Johanna, Anna and Seirina for a
beer and to explore the SkyCity Casino. Though, Australia is a
crappy and ineffective country when it comes to certain things (as
ID-check up), so I wasn't allowed in the Casino since I didn't bring
my proper ID (which would have been the passport). They do not accept
photo-visa or studentcards, even though I carried multiple cards
stating the same date of birth... It's pretty lame cause why don't
they realize that it's easier to fake a regular Australian ID-card or
a drivers license than to fake a visa-card issued by a bank. It's
even electronic and I can prove it's validity by paying for my drinks
with it. Though, the biggest problem for me is that I don't want to
look like I am 17 when I am close to become 30. Shitty country this
is ;) haha
Back in the city we got some food,
and then I met up with John again at the tavern were his roomie works
at. The tavern was a very old fashioned pub, dark and kinda dirty
– like taken straight out of an American western movie or
something. There were no people there but me, John, his roomie, and a
couple of other drunken guys. There were 4 pool tables, with
blue-colored cloth in the back of the tavern. John did play pool, he
was pretty good at it as well. Even though there was no smoke in the
room I really could picture the aim of a smoke layer in my
imagination, haha;) We just hang out there for a while playing
music videos from the video jukebox. Not much Norwegian music on that
one – but of course A-ha was there, and also Röyksopp and Madcon
as well. It's funny how popular Madcon has become, cause John's
roomie just loved that song she told us, when it came on the screen:)
Second Day
The second whole day we didn't do
anything. We only met up with Johanna for a short while and
walked around a bit. Kenneth had some plans later in the evening
though, lucky him;) I spent most of my time at the hostel trying to
post photos to our travelblog, but as usual it took forever;) So I
only got to upload the photos from Sydney. It is so hot and humid
here in Darwin as well so it was just fantastic to stay inside most
of the day.
13th of February: Reconciliation Day Australia
The third whole day I decided that I
just had to get out and to actually explore the city – and to take
photos! At this point I had almost no photos from Darwin still,
which is totally unlike me. First of all I was invited by John to
join him at his work for a morning tea. He was working in the field
of psychology at a healt care center, mostly with people dealing with
HIV and Aids. It turned out that there was an event going on at the
center this day, since it was the 5th anniversary of the
Reconciliation Day of Australia. 13th of February 2008
was the date the Australian government officially took responsibility
and publicly declared an apology to the indigenous people for the
wrongs that have been done to the whole aboriginal population by past
governments of Australia. The apology was especially directed towards
the «Stolen Generations». «The Stolen Generations» is a term that
refer to the many many children that were forcibly taken out of
their homes and put into western families fostercare, homes and
schools as a mean of integrating the aboriginals to the western
society. Back in the days the people executing these horrible actions
did believe that they were doing the right thing, but it turned out
that this way of integrating was a total failure – and it hurt the
individual kids, the families and the aboriginal societies much more
than ever expected, and they rarely recovered the traumatic
experiences. Even today the members of the elder generation that was
removed from their families and their homes still carry a pain inside
that some describes as constant and strong. Today many, or at least
some, have gotten back in touch with their families and they have
also gotten their rightful land back as well. I got into a chat with
an elderly woman that was one of the stolen kids, and she was so
interesting to talk to and just a lovely woman in all ways. She told
me that she was a healthcare worker back in the days and that she
actually was the first of the indigenous people to be accepted into
a health care work program as a worker by the Australian authorities.
So when I revealed that I am a nurse myself the conversation was very
light and friendly . It was obvious that people were affected by
ceremony this day – a lot of the aboriginals that had showed up
cried, even the young ones. Even John cried, and when I asked him he
did confirm that even his family has been affected by the «stolen
generations» - though he's luckily had both his parents and all his
siblings when he growing up. The ceremony first opened with a speech,
then we watched a dvd from the happenings surrounding the apology day
back in 2008, and then there was a smoking ceremony executed by an
elder of one of the coastal aboriginal tribes. This smoke was to
cleanse so we all had to walk around the smoke to get cleansed, and
then he took the bucket with the burning leaves inside the building
and cleansed the building as well. So it was all very very
interesting:)
Exploring the city
I then head on to explore the city.
I walked down to the Darwin Waterfront, and the harbour, then back to
the city and walked the bicentennial park before getting back to the
hostel. I got a hold of Kenneth again and we went back to the city
for a swim at the wavepool down at the waterfront. This swim was
just amazing. The wavepool is a manmade pool with regular chlorine
water of course, but it was so refreshing and just relaxing to stay
there. This was actually one of the first days it felt like I
actually was on vacation, haha;) After a couple of hours it of course
started to rain heavily again so we left the pool. I met up with John
again and had a drink before the both of us met up with Lauren for
dinner at the Italian place «Uno Cafe». We were also joined by
Kenneth and his new friend, Joel, as well – and after dinner we met
up with the Irish, John and Amanda again, as well as another Dutch
guy, Bud (or whatever his name was), and another American girl,
Crystal. We ended the evening at the Irish pub «Shennaginan» and of
course had some drinks and along with some dancing. Nice! Since we
had to check out next morning we didnt stay out to late so I took
farewell with John and, well, got to bed at proper time.
Last Day in Australia: Hunting Witches ;)
Last morning in Australia felt very
strange. It was unbelievable to know that we had just finished the
country we were to spend the longest time in. We checked out and
of course had a few hours to kill before having to head for the
airport. Since there is not so much to do we decided to go to the
movies to watch the new Tommy Wirkola movie «Hanzel and Gretel:
Witch Hunters». I have to say I found the movie very funny. I don't
know if it's intention is to be funny but I laughed alot. It was
good in many ways, but also bad in many ways... especially the
performance by Norwegian actress Ingrid Bolsø Berdal was not very
impressive, she would have fitted better into a TV-show like Xena-The Warrior Princess than in a Hollywood movie like this... haha. But well, it has great entertainment value so it
was good. After the movie we met up with Lauren for a last chat and a
lunch, this was not planned – we actually just run into her:) Then
I headed over to Johns work one last time to say goodbye. So today it
was another hard day of goodbyes since we have met so many nice
people on this tour. Well hopefully we will get to see some of them
once in the future again:)
Sidenote:
Ah, and to all Australians, if anyone ask (as I did): "The name Kakadu (as in the national park) comes from the mispronunciation of Gaagudju, which is the name of an Aboriginal language formerly spoken in the northern part of the park". (source: Wikipedia) So it had nothing to do with the cockatoo, which in Norwegian is called Kakadue, as I believed initially;)
Australia has all in all been a
great experience. I have just loved almost every moment of it! Hadn't
it been for the fucking billions of flies it would have been my
number 1 country for sure;) haha.
Photos in a year or something....
haha;)
And heeeeeeeeeeeeeeere they are:-)
And heeeeeeeeeeeeeeere they are:-)
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