We made a trip on Saturday again by car: this time to the south of Sydney to Kiama, where we were very lucky and could see the blowhole working very hard))

Kiama is about 120 km to the south from Sydney, located at the coast. ‘The name Kiama is from the aboriginal word Kiaram-a, to which some sources give the meaning “Where the sea makes a noise“‘. It has two blowholes - a bigger and a smaller one. They were discovered ‘by George Bass on his voyage of coastal exploration on December 6, 1797‘, but it was known by the local Aboriginals before, who called it ‘Khanterintee’.

I discovered only after the trip on Internet, that there is a smaller blowhole as well, not too far from the other one, so we just missed it this time…But no worries, the bigger one made us amazed already.

So what is a blowhole exactly? It is a kind of hole in the rock at the coast, from which the water is blown out under high pressure. It becomes first vapour and falls back to the ground in big drops. There was a board with a good picture and text explaining the phenomenon:

`The Kiama Headland is composed of volcanic rock called latite. A volcanic extrusion, known as a dyke, cuts through the latite. The dyke is composed of a softer rock called basalt. Over millions of years the softer basalt has eroded faster than the latite creating a tunnel under the headland. Eventually part of the headland collapsed creating the Kiama Blow Hole.

As each wave surges through the tunnel, air is compressed in the rear chamber building tremendous pressure. As waves subside, pressure in the chamber releases forcing the trapped water up the blow hole with loud `whoomp`.`

If the blowhole functions at full capacity, the spout comes up about 20 m high- maybe sometimes higher-, and it makes a tremendous noise, so you even feel the energy under the rocks. It is nice to watch it for a while and waiting for the biggest launches. Believe me, it surprises everybody. And it is worth waiting because the spouts are not standard high, neither in frequency nor in `quality`.

It is said, that the success of this phenomenon depends on a lot of things - the height and the direction of the curls and the height of the sea. For the bigger blowhole for example the waves coming from the south-east are the most prosperous.

There is already a safety fence built around the hole after many accidents. This blog from a Hungarian guy tells a story about three unlucky persons who wanted to have a shower in the water vapour. Unfortunately the shower was not the best idea, because a sudden enormous break took all of them under the rock, and

they had to be taken in away in a coffin. Sad story. I am not sure if it is true, maybe it is only an urban legend, but it is true, that somebody in the NSW Parliament had already asked for this fence in 2000 because of the many serious accidents earlier. In that speech there were mentioned other true and sad stories.

So there is a smaller blowhole in Kiama as well, and it is good because it is said to be working more balanced. It prefers the surfs coming from the north-east.

A white lighthouse has been standing behind the bigger blowhole majestically since 1887, where young couples like posing for wedding photos. I share their opinion, it is a really romantic place.

I read that around 600 thousands visitors arrive here every year, which means about 11 and a half thousand people a week. It is a huge number, isn`t it? As I remember there were about 100 visitors already together

with us at the same time on Saturday -an hour before sunset. Luckily, the place around the blowhole was not overcrowded, so it was fine.

Anyway, there are blowholes in other places in the world as well, for example in New-Zealand I would be very curious about this one. And about any other ones of course. Have you seen other blowholes? Do you want to share your story and pictures? It would make us very happy!!

But until then watch this funny video about the blowhole working in tough times!)))

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It is already a bit late, and I really would like see the French movie that is starting in a few minutes on television. But I promised myself this morning that, whatever may happen, I will write this post tonight.  Today was a very nice day, not only with respect to the weather, but much more interesting than we initially thought as well. Today is April 25: ANZAC Day, I will tell a bit more about this day.

ANZAC is an acronym for ‘Australian and New-Zealand Army Corps ‘. Both in Australia and New Zealand, they celebrate this event on April 25. Maybe it is one of the most important Australian days, with very long parades and many memorial services.

Initially this day was to pay tribute to those soldiers that died in World War One. In 1915 the Australian and New Zealand army entered the Turkish peninsula Gallipoli on this day, trying to force back the Turkish troops. The initial plan did not really succeed end ended up in an almost eight months during bloody war. At the end of the year the ANZAC-soldiers had to be rescued after enormous losses. (more than 8700 Australian and 2700 New-Zealand soldiers have died.)

The first ANZAC day was already held in 1916 to honor this war, and over the decades it became a important tradition to memorise those who died. Today ANZAC day is to honor all who have died in any war or conflict. All those who have sacrificed their blood and live for the nation and for peace.

I was surprised when I heard today, that only in the state of New South Wales, there are about 3000 ANZAC memorials.  There are many parades, services, prays, flags, drums and bagpipes, and lots of wreaths.

What was really interesting for me is that the memorials already started at quarter past four in the morning.  Not only here, but everywhere in Australia they start with the ‘Dawn Service ‘ before the first light. This has a very deep meaning. On the war-field it was very common (apparently it still is), that the enemy starts to attack at dawn. For this reason the defending soldiers had to be ready for war way before sunrise, quite and without moving. These are the moments that makes the bond between troops stronger, the moment that are still remembered, that soldiers were in the same situation with the same problems.  This is the so called ‘stand-to ‘ moment, which is repeated at sunset.

The precise program of all the memorials can be found in the link at the bottom of this post. I found a lot on interesting information on these pages. Maybe you would like to know what kind of symbols they use on this day. Apart from the many decorations that can be found on the countless uniforms, there are the paper poppies. These small flowers can also be seen on Remembrance day, which are used to make wreaths and are placed on all the war memorials. They are also used to pin next to the names of those who have died, on the so called Memorial’s Roll of Honour. The other one is the laurel, which is used to make laurel wreaths, we have seen many on Market Place.

Most common on ANZAC day, is that those who ‘remember’ pin a small twig of rosemary on their breast. We asked a friendly veteran, who allowed us to make a picture of his decorations while he was telling about them. Many were not his own, but from his father who was in the army all his live. The rosemary is  a very old symbol , and because of the smell that apparently improves your memory, it is the symbol of memorial.

We are not Australians, but we like special events, and for us one of the best associations with ANZAC day is the ANZAC-biscuit. This is a small coconut flavored tea biscuit, which originally used to be baked by the women and was sent to the front, ‘to keep morale high’.

It was interesting to see the many generations of soldiers: the young man in his early twenties, the grown up man surrounded by his family or the old veterans, sometimes in a wheelchair. The city was full of celebrating families; all the bars were occupied by marines with their friends and girlfriends. In front of us one marine man traded his cap with that of girl from the royal air force.  During a memorial service in Hyde Park, the boys holding the flags were starting to faint one by one, it was to warm, or teenagers here do not eat properly either The veterans were proudly showing their medals and decorations. On every corner we met men in skirts playing the bag pipe.

After all, I am really glad that we have seen the parade and one of the memorials in Hyde Park, as it was very interesting and impressive.

So this was our ANZAC-day very briefly. And while I have been writing all of this, I also managed to see the movie…)))

http://www.awm.gov.au

Wikipedia

cityofsydney

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Some of my family members -especially my dear sister- asked me several times to write a post about the aussie slang. Here we go, I took my time to collect some funny and truly Australian slang expressions. Some of them were known by us, but there were plenty of them which were completely new to us, of course.

It was really interesting to see what differences there are between websites and between their slang word collections - what kind of words are included there, and how they are spelled. I think there are some words that are only used for a short time, but on the other hand, this country is sooo big, that it is virtually impossible that everybody in every corner of this country knows everything. Here is a nice video on Youtube, it is worth to read the comments as well. Nice to see how some people are almost angry on each other because of using different expressions in the same country.

To tell you the truth, the task to write about the slang of another country is a bit difficult-especially because we are not native English speakers. We do not know every expression here; it is much more difficult to understand them on the train when other people are chatting behind you, etc. However if we knew more we also would not use them -except maybe those two or three which are really in our mind because they are used commonly in every situation, not just as slang words, like `no worries`, aussie, etc. Furthermore it is always really weird when a non-native English speaker tries to say something funny `aussie`, because it just does not work. You can not imitate that kind of funny and energetic pronunciation, especially if you have some kind of sweet but tough European-sounding accent. This is not funny but embarrassing. Especially if he wants to curse (Attila: what about she-ilas??). There is a saying that one can pray and count numbers only in his/her own mother tongue. In my opinion, cursing is the same category. Or do you have a different view?

So, let`s talk about the topic!! We shall start with the most typical expressions.

Australians use to talk about themselves as `aussie` or `Oz`, and the latter means the country itself, as well, just like the expressions `down under` or the `Lucky Country`. By the way, the lingo or the slang is called `Strine` (Australian English).

Friends or buddies like saying hello as `ga day`/`gidday`/`G`day, mate`, but it is also common among friendly strangers and you can hear the shop assistant saying it as well. If they want to start a conversation, it often begins as ` How you going`. Also a very typical expression is the so called `onya`/`Good on-ya` instead of the well known `good on you`or `well done`. Sometimes if they want to say thanks, cheers or don`t worry, they use simply the same words: `no worries`.`No drama` is also used as no problem. They say `Hooroo` (without h) instead of goodbye sometimes, and `ta` or `tar` as `thanks`.

If you live here, the very first thing that you realise, is that these guys in Australia really like friendships, so they use buddy or mate in almost every sentence. How are you doing, mate? Good on ya, mate! Have a drink, mate? Etc. The so called `fella` (fellow) or `bloke` are also used very often. By the way, an aussie woman is `Sheila` for a lot of people when they talk about an Oz girl or woman.

After the greetings, let`s talk a little about the geography. You know, the big cities -like Sydney and Melbourne -are `big smoke` in slang, but this is not as typical as the expression for `the bush`, which means the rural area near towns. The bush is not so extreme as the `outback`, where so called `bushwhackers` live. On the other hand, even aussies can not tell you where outback begins exactly, but you maybe feel the difference between these two words. However we also have not been in the outback yet, but we are planning to do so later this year before we leave…

Going further on the map, I have learned many more expressions related to the states and their people. If you come from tropical Queensland, you are a `Banana bender`, or a `Cane Toad`. Its state capital -Brisbane- is called `Brizzie` or `Brisvegas`, showing how famous it is for its night life, local bars, casinos, etc. If you live in the far north, you come from the `Top End`, and the middle of the country is called `Centralia`. If you come from South Australia, you are a `Croweater`, whereas those coming from Victoria are so called `Gums..kers`. Tasmania is shortened as `Tassie` very often, and its inhabitants are the `Apple eaters`, while New-Zealanders are `Kiwi`-s, or `Sheepsh..ger`-s. According to this site, people living in NSW are `cockroaches`, but I can not understand why, because as far as I know, people in all parts of Australia are suffering from these animals. However, after several tough months, at least we managed to make a clear sweep of them. In addition, if we talk about geography, let me tell you, that Manchester is not a town here, but means bed linen, quilt, etc., just like `Matilda` is also meaning the `swagman’s bedding or sleeping roll`. A swagman, or tussocker is an old expression for temporary workers who travelled from farm to farm while carrying a “swag”.

There are also some nice or less nice expressions in slang lingo for foreigners, of course. Englishmen are `Poms` or `pommies`, meanwhile Americans are called as `yanks`, `Seppo` or `Septic Tanks`. Less PC words for Lebanese origin people is `Leb` or the `wog` for Mediterranean originated people usually with darker skin types, but this word is a kind of insult for them. However, wog means influenza, as well. Further more, `Westie` is used for those people, living in the western parts of Sydney and are mostly associated to people from lower social or economical background. Aussies have a slang word for refugees as well: like `reffo`.

But lets continue with some happier and more common words… Very typical and commonly used is `Barbie` instead of BBQ or grill; or `veggie` as vegetable; and those shortened `cute` words ending with `ie` or `y`. In this way, underwear is just called `undie`, and a kangaroo is `skippy`. A bottle of beer (375 ml) is a `stubby`, but the canned beer is `tinny`, while the cold beer is `coldie` among friends. Not to mention, that the famous aussie souvenir thing is called `stubby holder`. The chewing gum is just `chewie`, breakfast is `brekkie`, and both the cockroach and the cockatoo are called `cockie`. People who do not go to work because of sickness, are `sickie`, but they `chuck a sickie` if they are actually healty. Sunglasses are only `sunnies` in Australia, as mosquitoes are `mozzies`, a surfer is `waxxy` or `waxhead`, maybe because they are using wax to wipe their board. If you have a good `pozzy` in the stadium, you can see the aussie football called `footy`, and you can shout ` Av-a-go-yer-mug`!!!  to your favorite team…Children use to go to `kindie` (kindergarten); Christmas time is only `Chrissie`; a gift is a `prezzy`, and expensive is `exy`. Lipstick is called `lippy`, like sweets are `lollies`, and your cup of tea is also a `cuppa` for Oz-s, just like for the `Poms`.

There are more interesting slang expressions, maybe more interesting than the ones mentioned here. Would you like me to continue? Than make a comment))))

www.aussieslang.com

www.koalanet.com.au

www.australiatravelsearch.com.au

www.australianhistory.org

www.dunway.com

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The best thing of the Hunter Valley is that in all the wineries, you can taste several wines for free. At the different locations you will often find merchandise items as well, but in most places the area is full of wine bottles and a counter with a few, very friendly sellers behind it. First you look around, but after a few seconds there is an appealing question: how can I help you? Which one would you like to try?

You get a wine card, and if you are in a small group, one of you will say what he or she wants to try first. You all try this wine, and then of course all the shyness disappears, and everyone wants to try his favorite. Of course you don’t have to try all the wines and usually a few is enough. You have to take into account, that you will probably visit more wineries on the same day, and you can taste wines in each of them.

If you do not know much about wines or wine drinking, “no worries, mate”! All the sellers are very friendly and keen to help or give some advice, not to mention that the main goal of these wineries is to SELL! After all, believe me, after a day spent with tasting wines in several places, you will have a feeling for tasting wine, and know what your favorite is.

To start with, taste some light and clear white wine, than some of the more tastier red wines - maybe a rosé in between -  and at the end a sweet dessert wine, like tokay, port, etc. There is a big sense in doing so, because one wine influences the taste of others. And at the end you will feel the taste of sweet raisins more in the heavier wines. Sometimes people are only curious for red or white wines, or dessert wines. In that case the usual response of the sellers is a kind of very friendly question, whether you are sure you do not want to taste something else before that. That is just because they want the best for you… You do not need to drink all the wine in your glass, so you can pour it into the metal bowl used for this purpose. They are sort of organised for the drivers as well, they cannot drink too much of course…

Yes, the drivers…Unfortunately they are definitely the biggest losers of the day. They are the persons who can not drink but probably would like to taste much more than the `lazy` and shy passengers. But they can not, or maybe just a little bit from the best wines.

So during the day, everybody is tasting wines and chatting happily, and usually everybody is getting a better idea which wine is better, in which wineries and why, which one they like, which one is their personal preference etc. If you have some money and are keen to buy some bottles, no doubt, the sellers will recognise this…They keep asking you whether you like the wine you are tasting at the moment. They tell you more and more about a wine they think you liked, and start to offer you some similar bottles. And of course you like when they are friendly with you, don`t you? So you will tell them more about yourself or what you like, which is a good base to get somewhere. And the interesting thing starts when you tell them that you maybe want to buy some bottles of the nice and clean Semillon. You can notice how much more other interesting wines they will show you to try, and of course these types are not on the list…You come from Hungary? …(two minutes)…what about this light and sparkling dessert wine? Or this Tokay?…

Believe me, you will not forget these happy moments in Hunter Valley, and you can drink your bought wines later at home as well, of course))))

PS. You should try Semillon (white wine) in Hunter Valley, and Shiraz (red wine), because they are really famous here. One `normal` bottle of wine is about 20-30 AUD, but they can be really expensive as well, of course. Usually a bottle of wine here contains more alcohol than the ones in Europe (especially in France), with approx. 1-2 %point.

Do not miss the Semillon and Seafood Festival this year (17^th to 19^th April `09)!

Or at least check out the official Tourist Information Website for Hunter Valley!

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