bron-tee, bon-dee, coo-gee

So my mom does this Kabbalah stuff and met this Australian woman who also does Kabbalah stuff and then they emailed each other and my mom told her that I would be in Australia and she emailed me back and invited me over for lunch. Only it was really difficult to arrange the actual lunch, because I don't have a cell phone here, and my schedule has never been totally set, and she only checks her email once a day. So finally, in my final days, we agree to meet at a cafe in Bronte under her flat.

The bus ride is uneventful until the bus rounds a curve and tops over a hill to give a glorious view of Bronte, a little beachside suburb of colored buildings and a rocky peninsula and white sand, and it is just PERFECT. I'm early for our lunch, so I actually walk back up the hill to where the bus turned so I can take some pictures of the picturesque area. I can't believe I haven't been here sooner.

I meet Orna, and she tells me that we are having lunch with a visiting Kabbalah scholar, which I find weird. I'm pretty sure that she knows that I don't study Kabbalah and I would hope that she knows that I didn't come to Australia to meet any visiting scholars of anything, but I don't say anything. We take a gorgeous walk along the beach to get to Bondi, and meet Zohar. He is actually quite funny and I'm glad he's there. When we get to the cafe, his friend Shuli meets us, and she is even cooler. We talk about crazy southern Christian Fundamentalists, and Aboriginal cultures, and the ultra orthodox guy that was just caught selling body parts on the black market. Shuli and Zohar are quite interesting and I'm actually enjoying myself. The highlight of the month comes when Zohar asks me where I'm from because HE THOUGHT I WAS AUSTRALIAN. AN AMERICAN GUY THOUGHT I WAS AUSTRALIAN. I can't help but adopt the accent when I hear it all around me, and I'm THAT GOOD. He doesn't believe me when I say I'm from LA until I list some streets in Beverlywood that he is familiar with.

After lunch – a very delicious spinach/pumpkin/feta/tomato/pine nut salad, we part ways and I take the cliff walk all the way to Coogee. It starts out well, with the brilliant ocean on one side and the eroded sandstone ledges on the other – all of Australia is made of sandstone, basically – but I get tired quickly and Coogee turns out to be MUCH farther than the 5k that Lonely Planet promised. By the time I get there I have only the strength to buy a frozen coke and plunk my tired butt onto a bus.

Back in Sydney, I have a long time with the check in guy about the best junk foods here. He has some very strong opinions. He also has a routine in which he eats strictly healthy 6 days a week and then on his day off from work he pigs out on junk food. The other workers sitting at check-in nod and shake their heads to let me know that he actually DOES consume junk food all day long Sunday. He shows me some of his favorites online. We agree that Tim Tams are amazing and then I go off to Coles to buy about 15 packs of them. For you. All of you. (And some for me.)

I meet Georgina the Irish and Hannah the Finnish back in my room, eat dinner, and finish my ninth book of the trip. Luckily, this YHA is stocked and so I load up on 5 more books, just in case.

Australian thing of the day: ME. (almost)