Emergency!

So I'm sitting in the hot tub at the hostel, just getting into that relaxing alpha-wave state, when all of a sudden alarms start going off everywhere, and a booming voice comes from the roof,  saying, "EMERGENCY! EVACUATE THE BUILDING IMMEDIATELY!"

I'm thinking, "You've got to be fucking kidding." I'm trying to figure out a way that I won't be outside sopping wet, in what I'm using for a bathing suit, but is basically my spandex travel underwear. I dry off as best as I can, and plus outside in the chilly air barefoot, nearly naked, and with clattering teeth.

Then a fire truck shows up. They all clamber in. Then a second fire truck shows up, and they join the crew from the first. After about ten minutes, they told us we could go in. I don't think there was any fire or anything, they just reset the alarm.

I came back in and took a sauna, and now I'm back in my room.

An Interesting and Bizarre Coversation

I just had an interesting conversation (well, conversation is not really the word for it, it was more like a monologue) in the hostel kitchen with a guy from New Zealand who designed solar race cars.  He started with the materials and designs of solar race cars, complete with diagrams and equations that he furiously scribbled as he was talking, and he interspersed that with talk of recumbent bicycle design, US interventionism internationally, corruption in the Philippines, the fabrication techniques of all the devices and things in the hostel kitchen, the difficulty of finding flat spaces in New Zealand, the specific problems with military bidding protocols, how Texas Instruments poisoned their workers, different grades of military aircraft and the folly behind each, the Cuban Missile Crisis, etc.  He talked a mile a minute in this fashion that was densely packed with concepts, backed up with furious scribblings, and almost devoid of social cues. It was really interesting to listen to this person who had a communication style that was pretty different from the usual.

And now I'm off to explore Canberra.

Arriving in Canberra

Today I took a bus from Sydney to Canberra. The scenery on the way was nice, varying between forests and dry hills.

When I arrived, I found that the hostel was about a kilometer away, so I decided to walk it in full gear, that is with my loaded backpack and incidentals. It was not a bad walk at all. The hostel is nice and the room I'm in is pretty empty and quiet so far.

I walked around looking for a grocery store and I found the Aldi, where I picked up some supplies. Then I returned to the hostel, where I took a hot tub and sauna. I might take it easy on the walking some until my feet stop throbbing. But tomorrow I'll undoubtedly check out the city more.

Canberra is cooler and drier than the places I have been so far. It really feels like fall here, whereas most of the places I've been (except for the Blue Mountains, which were REALLY cold) have felt more like summer. I hear that sunburns down here can be brutal because of the ozone hole. Shane the tour guide said his girlfriend fell asleep at the beach and had third-degree burns and had to get skin grafts.

So I'm just going to chill at the hostel tonight rather than get all jiggy. I'll let my feet test at least for the day. I only walked a little over 6 kms today, and that's good for now.