First of all, the Easter Vigil yesterday was incredibly looong, I can not believe it! It took three hours, the reason why it was this long was because the mass included the confirmation and baptism of new candidates. I think it might have been better if these two feasts (Easter, and these sacraments) are held separately. You had to see those unconcentrated and bored faces yesterday all over the church (St. Mary Cathedral) at the end of the mass, and compare the number of people at the beginning and at the end of the vigil. I am really sorry to tell you this, but it was much too long.

But during the day we had both nice and unfortunate things happening as well. This time we planned to make a trip from Manly and go a few beaches north. We passed at least three beaches and several long rocky cliffs.

At Manly we could not swim, neither go into the sea -as we planned originally-, because for some reason it was full with kelp, sometimes the kelp-hills were almost one meter high! All along the sandy beach and inside the water it was dirty, so no one could swim. Further more it had an `interesting` smell, a bit disgusting. According to the news it will stay there for a while, because it fertilizes the sand and water, in addition there is more kelp coming out of the water in the next few days.

So we went further till Curl Curl Beach, were there also was a certain amount of kelp, but it did not seem as much as on Manly. But the boys (my dear husband and my cousin) soon realized, that it still was impossible to swim in the water or move in the waves, because these plants get stuck to you everywhere. It is a bit annoying to go under water and come back with your head full of weed.  Then we realized, that further north of the long beach there seemed to be no kelp on the sand, we thought there also would not be kelp in the water. Fortunately that was indeed the case! The sea was really clear there but unfortunately there were no waves either …

Just before we wanted to leave, we wanted to see one lookout -very close to the beach -, and this was not the best idea: because of this we just missed the bus…When you are in a hurry to go somewhere on a holiday evening without having checked the timetables at home, it is not the best idea to discover the beautiful remote places around you. No worries, we were waiting for the bus, and waiting and waiting, less and less patiently. There was a certain point when we had to decide to go and not to wait for a bus in a bus-stop where there was not even a timetable…Okay, this was a good decision, because after a few hundreds meter we realized that we were in a wrong bus stop, but while we were going further and further, we just missed two busses again…You maybe know this feeling that everything goes wrong. One day after this has happened, we can easily laugh about it, but at that moment it was a bit frustrating.

At the end we had to make our way all along the beaches back to Manly, because once we reached a bus stop where the timetable was not missing, we found out that we had missed all the busses and the following one would come maybe only after an hour. Okay, we are young, we can do that! So we started walking further. But at the north of Manly beach we felt tired again. We found another bus stop with other bus services, and we thought, the timetable was in our favour this time:  according to it, two busses had to come within five minutes. So what would you do?  Would you try to go further and walk the last one and a half km in ten-twelve minutes to the ferry -which you do not know the timetable of either-, or would you  wait for the bus? It is a difficult choice, think about it.

We stayed there waiting, and waiting and waiting, of course the bus did no come. One thing we learned is that you should not trust the Sydney busses timetable.  It gives a rough indication of when the bus is not driving.

As a result of all this, we missed the boat of coarse as well.

But at the end, fortunately we did not miss the vigil`s beginning in St. Mary`s Cathedral, which is so beautiful, it is hard to describe. It begins at 8 pm, when it is dark outside, and if the lights go out inside the church as well, it is unbelievable, it is really nice. After a few minutes the priests and the choir is coming inside the church from the back, meanwhile the light is going on continuously, as people give the light to each other from candle to candle.  That is so nice here in Sydney, I liked it last year very much as well, so I would have felt really bad to miss it.

And the vigil continued nicely as well. The problem started for a lot of people, when after an hour the ceremony of baptism and confirmation began. I think the Easter vigil is a long ceremony itself, and people came here to celebrate Easter. But putting both ceremonies together makes it less special, when people are getting more and more tired, especially the elderly and children. In my memories it was a really special moment and mass, when we had our confirmation. The mass was only about that, the speech had a message only for us, etc. I really felt sorry for these new candidates, especially because they do this as adults.

Anyway, I liked the end of the mass very much as well. The Alleluia sounded beautiful and cheerful as the singing choir was passing us, this church has a great acoustic.

It was amazing how strong my nephew was as he was standing all along the mass, although he did not need to do this because of the high number of leaving people during the mass…

By the way, I always have to laugh when I think about those Easter Vigils in Hungary. I am really interested in what my mother will tell me about the ceremony this year. How many in my family will faint during the mass…To tell you the truth, the situation is very different in Hungary. The churches are 200 percent full this time, there is no air, no place, it is like a silent rock concert, at least in the way how many people can share one square meter…The spring is starting, people are still pale from the winter, need more vitamin, and young people do not use to eat healthy, but this is maybe the case worldwide. So in this condition there is always somebody who faints. It is not funny at that moment, just afterwards if you look back and start to count your `fainting` experiences.

In addition, Hungarian catholic churches use to organise a kind of procession around the church, which is part of the mass.  That is a nice experience and I like to do it for several reasons. Apart from that it is a spiritual thing, it is a good time to socialize as well. You meet people from the past, you meet your family members, you hear some stories or have some big hugs with your aunties, etc. It is funny to see how non-catholic people in the busy bus stops or on the bus looking at you with those staring eyes; how people try to take a cutoff  during the round-route, and there are always some accidents with the loudspeakers, etc. Then you hurry home and eat the Easter supper - cold hard eggs, sometimes with green yolk, nice cakes, and other typical Hungarian cuisine. I love Easter!!

And then I have more interesting stories, like `how many rabbits were alive after Easter times` or how Easter Monday is happening in Hungary, but this blog is not about my country, it is about this country. However I really want to tell you about it sometime in the future.

Any way, we wish you happy Easter!!!

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More than a week ago we made the walk from Bondi to Coogee beach as we also told you in a previous post. From 16 October till 2 November, you could see the outdoor exhibition “Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2008″ where artists from all over the world exposed their sculptors. Unfortunately the exposition is over, but we made a short film to give you a glimpse.

We liked the idea very much of showing the sculptures in this environment instead of a traditional gallery. Most of them fitted in the surroundings very well, like sculptures imitating big toys on a large playground, or a large bubble on the sea, or stones on the rocks, suddenly  spitting water on curious children. Another big difference with an usual gallery was that you could get very close to these objects and even touch them.  This was a kind of cultural event that you can remember for a long time.

This exhibition is organized every year at different location. The next show will be at the beautiful Cottesloe Beach in Perth in March 2009. For more information you can look at the Sculpture by the Sea website.

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On Saturday we walked down again from Bondi to Coogee Beach, which is a very nice trip with beautiful views over the beaches and the ocean. We planned to see the outdoor exhibition “Sculpture by the Sea”, which was interesting, so we will write a post about that later.

Between Bronte Beach and Clovelly Bay the road goes through a cemetery. When we saw this for the first time, we were so amazed that we almost had to laugh about the situation. It is a bit absurd, if you see men without T-shirts - headphones plugged in their ears - running over the hills, showing their sweated bodies. Or happy families walking through with small children as if they were in Hyde Park.

No doubt the Waverley cemetery is located on one of the most beautiful places; on the hill sides, ending at the high cliffs that are suddenly rising out of the ocean.  The view is spectacular with only the sound of birds and the ocean.   Just a few people reach this part of the walk from Bondi, only the families in the neighborhood, the sweated joggers and the persistent tourists.

Because it was All Saints` Day  - and we could not visit the cemeteries like we are used to at home - we made a small detour from the prescribed road and we walked around a little bit on this cemetery. Most of the graves are over 100-150 years old, they look very similar in their appearance, shape or colour, and the fact that most of them have not been visited for a long while. You don’t find there colourful flowers or candles that you can see at home around this time. Either there are no flowers at all or there are tiny little yellow daisies - spread by nature - as in a `still life`.  Here, or at least on this cemetery, it is no habit to bring a visit. The sight however is beautiful, and if you have been here a few times, you will also get used to the running people.

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