i made it to alice springs this morning and my ride was completely absent.

And now for something completely different.

I spent the other day walking around the South Bank and West End areas of Brisbane looking at stores and restaurants i can't really afford and walking through the really cool Queensland Art Museum. The buildings in Brisbane are all super modern and the QAG was no exception. It was nice to get to walk around inside such a cool building with tons of diverse and quality art. I particularly liked the paintings of Richard Godfrey Rivers.

I spent the night getting a more than a bit tipsy with some Kiwis (New Zealanders call themselves this) some Brits, Italians and an Irish guy. I actually heard the Irish guy say "Australia made me turn to alcoholism" which speaks to how big a part of the culture drinking is here.

Up at 5:00 AM to head over to the airport where i saw the first americans i've seen all week. (excluding my neighbor who i already knew) It seems like most people headed for Alice Springs are just going straight on to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) or hiking.

As far as the view from the airplane was concerned it was kind of like . . .

Beauty overkill...
Critical Hit
Finish Him.

Indescribable. I kept expecting a slow transition from the lush green forested mountains and grasslands that make up eastern Queensland to the red martian landscape of the outback. but neither was it quite a stark jump. so for the first hour of the plane flight it was all green. then suddenly there were all these bright red lines (roads i think) crisscrossing the terrain. after a few minutes the land was a crazy swirly amoebic pattern of red blue yellow and brown. with weird little ponds dotted here and there. the pattern changed from time to time to form lava-lamp hills and crazy lightning shaped flood-plains. and the kaleidoscope didn't end until we were over what i think was the Simpson desert. at this point it was a sea of wave like florescent red sand dunes with little dark green stipples of bushes. I can't believe that anyone could bring themselves to watch the in flight movie with THAT out the window. i took some pics which i will post here when i have better internet.

and so that brings me to what has been the most hair haising part of the day (for me anyway) my discovery that i really am in one of the most remote cities on the planet and i had no ride from the airport, no phone or internet and no place to stay.

after 2 hours and much walking around and asking everyone who looked like they were looking for someone, if they were looking for me, i used the ONE internet terminal in the entire airport to get Mr. Holt's phone number off his website (thank god it was there) and i took a shuttle to the YHA. (a chain of hostels in australia. not sure what it stands for.) i got the unlimited internet here (which is an investment to be sure as internet is FOUR dollars an hour most places here.) and i promptly skyped him.

Turns out he had been looking for my phone number to call me and let me know that something came up and he needed to pick me up tomorrow anyway.

So i have taken this opportunity to walk around Alice Springs a bit and see what it has to offer. I bought myself a Kangaroo leather hat. I was going to hold out and buy myself a nice Akubra hat, but alas, im not that cool. Actually it's more like i have a long skinny face and i don't look that good in hats with high crowns and wide brims. Also i have to hike around for the next 6 months and i wouldn't want to ruin it. So instead i bought a Barmah kangaroo leather hat. These are nice because you can just squish them in your bag and it will retain it's shape. Also it has a lower brim and i think i look better in it.

I also payed a visit to an aboriginal art gallery and learned a bit about the art im going to be working around. I was wondering why all the paintings seem to consist of dot patterns and the lady at the gallery said that the designs were originally part of dotted body painting designs that they would paint on themselves for ceremonies. They transferred the designs to the canvas when western art collectors started wanting to buy and collect their art.

She also told me a bit about some of the symbology that they use in the pieces. For instance a "U" shape represents someone sitting and the little rainbow shapes around the edges sometimes mean a sandy hill. To someone who doesn't know the symbology, the art can just look like random dots and lines, but every painting is both a map and a story to those who know how to read them.

The cohabitation between the aboriginals and the australians is not good at best. In the city anyway. The aboriginals just sit around the middle of town some painting and trying to hustle tourists, some drinking and being belligerent. This is probably spurred on by the attitude of ignorance and misunderstanding that many of the australians seem to have towards them. from what i have heard the aboriginals who live in town are those that have been ostracized from their clans for alcoholism and drug use and that many or most live more traditionally in clans in the bush. but i actually saw the A.S.P.D. swing by real quick and pick up a guy who didn't really seem to be doing anything, not 30 feet away from me as i at dinner at an outdoor restaurant. of course i have also heard that the city can be very dangerous at night and that you run a risk of being mugged even if you are in a group. i will probably stick close by tonight as i've got to get up early to be picked up and off to the station tomorrow morning.

wow i just wrote a book.