Me, A Bus, And the Dark of the Night.

If there is one thing that I have learned from this trip thus far, it would be the fact that people have this great capacity to love. And when I love, I love hard and usually unconditionally. It really can be boundless sometimes. I am certainly not half ass about what I love and what I don't love. It both gets me in trouble and allows me to soar sometimes. Most people don't understand that capacity and if they do usually they either become my friend or lover. But with such great ability to care comes great responsibility. Sometimes if I think if I didn't care so much about things my life would be easier. As I said, when I love, I love hard; And there is nothing more important than finding people and places that remind you of your capacity to love the world and the people in it. I think that measurement can be distorted by day to day life, job and obligations. And every once in a while you need a place or an experience to dust that measurement off and make it clear again. I think Sydney was one of those places for me.

(or perhaps Australia as a whole-as I write this from my moving bus window a rainbow has formed over the Australian countryside in the wake of a passing storm-it rains sideways alot here).

I felt as if I lived a whole other life in Sydney. I watched as a whole city rise to wake every morning and came alive again with young people in the evenings. I visited several beaches..Coogee, Bondi and Manly and surfed the later two. I visited the Blue Mountains for two days, where I witnessed herds of wild Kangaroo jumping through the bush. I witnessed Sydney's Gay Mardi Gras and drank plainly in front of the police openly on the street. I went sailing in Sydney Harbor under the Harbor Bridge and in the shadow of the Opera House. I was even allowed to sail the 38foot yatch for a while (above). I watched Slumdog Millionaire, Lost, Run Fat Boy Run, and The Dish. I visited the botanic gardens and ate in the southern hemisphere's highest revolving restaurant (Sydney Tower). I even attended a Purim Party (the Jewish Equivalent to our Halloween) dressed as a Viatcong. I hung out at the University of New South Wales and spent my Saturday nights in the "Rocks" district. I ate Pancakes at 1am. I had a picnic under the Harbor Bridge . I even attended a Pakistani Funk Music Show in the famed concert hall in the Sydney Opera House. I shopped at Paddy's Market and drove a manual for the first time on the left side of the road (much to Leeron's dismay). I had fish and chips in Watson's Bay and took in the glory of the bay from Camp Cove. I slept in, I got up early, I rode the bus, I had coffee in Darling Harbor. I ate out and I ate in. I laughed and I even cried a few times. And I did all of that as if I lived in Sydney. Or as if the city lived for me for a while. Its a great place.

As I head up the east coast now I wonder what is important to me in a place. At what point in your life do you finally have the courage to say what is important to you in the long haul and what are you willing to give up to have it. People make those kinds of descions every day and they make it seem so easy. Its hard to find a place in this world. The people who do are good at compromising and weighing what is important to them. That is hard to do when you have so much love to give and the grass always seems greener.

But I ask ..what if it actually is?

I head up the east coast now where apparently I hear there is a lot of love to go around. First Byron Bay, then Brisbane, then Frasier island, then the Whitsunday islands. At the top of the east coast I will end up (hopefully) at the largest living thing on earth - The Great Barrier Reef. But for now a very long and dark bus ride through the night. And my own thoughts to keep me company.