Goodbye Once Again

Sydney Australia is really an amazing place to visit. It's so iconic and really every time you look at it, from Circular Quay looking at the Harbour Bridge and back to The Opera House, it's always fresh and exciting, whether it's daylight, or the city is lit up at night. I'd like to say that Circular Quay was the first and last thing I saw of the city, but instead it's always Kingsford Smith International Airport.

No, he isn't the man who invented charcoal, but rather one of the greatest aviators of all time, and that doesn't just include Australians. The first pilot to ever fly across the Pacific, which was a much sketchier path to cross than Charles Lindbergh's crossing of the Atlantic. Each time I've flown the route from Los Angeles to Sydney and vice versa, it's always been under favorable conditions. However, the Qantas Kangaroo Route is aptly named, because it's certain to be bumpy and jumpy.

So, while I'm writing this prior to actually stepping back into the Kingsford Smith International Airport on this day, I'm also saying goodbye, simply because it could be the last time. I've certainly felt a lot of emotion at this airport, from amazement, to excitement, to sadness, to longing, to hopefulness, to regret, and relief. The last time I departed I knew I'd return, but on this return trip home I can't say that for certain anymore, and I'm fine with that.

Have I had enough of Australia, and have I seen all there is to see? At the moment, I'm not sure, but I'm certain that I'm ready to return back home. On my previous visit I had a hard time believing I was actually here. This time I felt no need to pinch myself, and I was already familiar with many aspects of the country. Truly, a country that for most of my life had played of such little importance that I rarely ever gave it a second thought. Over the last few years, one that played a great deal of importance, and became a place that I gave much thought.

Australia has changed me. I'd like to think that all change is for the better. Maybe it's putting my fork in my left hand, knowing the difference between a long black and flat white, or the phrase "no worries". I haven't been here long enough to really understand how Australians view Americans, but I've gotten a pretty good idea. And what about the other way around?

I hate to say it at times, but after seeing enough if it, with the heavy influence of the USA, it has felt at times that Australia is nothing more than a American theme park, with cool accents and a place where they forgot to bring the ketchup and got a few recipes wrong, plus you drive on the other side of the road. I know that's not what it is, but let me explain.

Bill Bryson nailed it in his book In A Sunburned Country:

What struck me in all of this was not how much better off Australians are today, but how much worse they feel. One of the oddest things for an outsider to do is watch Australians assessing themselves. They are extraordinarily self-critical people. You encounter it constantly in newspapers and on television and radio- a nagging conviction that no matter how good things are in Australia, they are bound to be better elsewhere.

So much of the countries population is located on the coastal regions. One could joke and say that it's like living on the edge with an easy escape route. Most of the interior portion of the country is not a nice place, putting it mildly. It's a place where if you take a wrong turn and get lost, you're more likely to be drinking your own urine prior to dying on the red dirt.

However, the extreme irony in my extended visit to Alice Springs was the contrary. It was supposed to be a remote and desolate place. Sure, it was a long way to get to it from ANYWHERE, but it's also a place that has a McDonalds, a KFC, a Hungry Jacks (Burger King), a Subway, a Pizza Hut, a Blockbuster Video, a Best Western, a K-Mart, a Target and much, much more. It's a tourist destination, with more people visiting it than ever, usually on way to see Ayers Rock.

The big red rock itself is amazing, but the resort that you stay at is like Disney Land. Uluru has it's own airport, and the people you see around the rock feel more like the privileged rather than true adventurers. It doesn't take much determination to make it there, it only takes time and money. Maybe if you actually climb the rock, it takes some ability, but that's almost like climbing the Statue of Liberty with a grappling hook (it's slightly frowned upon).

Alice Springs was the first Australian city I spent any great amount of time in. For a place that was supposed to be about as extreme as you could get in the Outback, it didn't feel all that foreign or unfamiliar. Probably the most striking feature about the place and the country as a whole is the amount of deadly creatures located here. Spiders: the funnel web spider, white-tailed spiders, mouse spiders, wolf spiders, and redback spiders. Snakes: western brown snake, desert death adder, tiger snake, taipan, and the yellow-bellied seas snake. Of course you also have heaps of crocodiles, sharks and the oh so wonderful box jellyfish. But, if you avoid the nasties, and play it safe, it's no worse than living in Arizona where you are more likely to be shot there than bitten by a snake here.

Visiting Australia itself feels like taking a step back in time. Maybe not in the large cities, but heading out into the rural areas it feels like driving across the USA in a different time period. All of the towns have signage that depicts historic Americana. Heck, Alice Springs felt like Bend back in the 1980's. Maybe the distance to drive to a larger city was a bit greater, but the size of the town and the shopping options felt familiar.

As a whole, Australia has felt very familiar, eerily familiar at times. You can't look in any direction in a city here, without seeing something familiar. It sort of sickens me to see the endless sea of fast food chains from back home. The Aussies love the KFC and the Krispy Kreme donuts. At least every time I have been near one, they are always busy. Why is the world brainwashed into thinking these things are as good as it gets?

The other day in Cressnock, I was debating how I really felt about the country. Truly, this place has been something different to me, than to most tourists. Love brought me to Australia, and love has also taken me away. At times, I truly looked at this place with rose colored glasses, and in more recent times I actually did not look forward to coming back. While I sat in the Klewz Kafe, I longed to be back home having a good hamburger. I was tired of the hamburgers being made wrong here. However, when my order arrived I was more than satisfied.

Pretty sad that I needed an American hamburger to lift my spirits about this place, but as the U2 song "With Or Without You" played in the cafe, I had to agree. No other country will ever have a hold on me like Australia does. My life story includes Australia, truly a portion of which I can't live with or without.

The film Australia has been failing at the box office. Why is that? Probably due to the fact that this country has been overlooked for a long time by the known world. So, the history of an overlooked place is hardly that interesting. It's too bad, because this place is endlessly fascinating with it's wildlife, and vegetation that cannot really be found elsewhere. There are some things you have to come to Australia to see in person.

My thoughts of Australia as a theme park also faded as we covered a lot of ground by driving from town to town. Once you escape the heavily touristed areas, you no longer see kangaroo, camel and emu on the menus. You don't see the cliche boomerangs everywhere. You do run into real people who live here and are as curious about you as you are about them. They are friendly, and they speak the same language. It's easy to like this place.

The rain was falling and sky is a solid grey with clouds in Sydney yesterday. Sort of made it much easier to return home, to where the weather is certainly going to be much colder. That's the way the kangaroo hops when you jump back from Spring to Winter (or close to it). I had hoped last night to return to the harbour and see Circular Quay and Darling Harbour once again, but the truth is the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House are something that I never tire of looking at, so honestly one more look would never satisfy me. And that's a good thing.

I've had Bill Bryson's book In A Sunburned Country longer than I've had experience in this country. I set out to finish it before this trip was over and tonight I finished the last page and set the book down. Much like the end of the final chapter in his book, I'm writing my final entry on this trip.

Australia is mostly empty and a long way away. Its population is small and it's rule in the world consequently peripheral.....It is stable and peaceful and good. It doesn't need watching, and so we don't. But I will tell you this: the loss in entirely yours.

So, on this day I will once again step back into the Kingsford Smith International Airport. I'll board my Qantas flight and return home. I will still get a chance to be with some friendly Australians all the way back to Los Angeles, where I will get off the plane and truly say goodbye once again. I'll forget about what's going on here in a daily basis. It no longer really matters to me. Does that mean my story with this endlessly fascinating place is over? I can't say.

For now I bid Australia a fine farewell. I'm ready to go home.

Melissa said: