Travel Notes | Australia opens the door to the world

I Brisbane Brisbane – Summertime

Summertime and the living is easy

Fish are jumping and the cotton is high

Your daddy’s rich and your mama’s good-looking

So hush, little baby don’t you cry

 

"Excuse me, sir, can this boat go to Thornton Street?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Then...can I buy a boat ticket with cash or credit card?"

“Just hop in! It’s free! (Just jump in, it’s free!)”

After the smiling captain (who is both the captain and the crew, and he alone controls the entire ship) said this to me, I felt full of joy and a little bit of embarrassment. There are more than a dozen such piers on both sides of the Brisbane River. If you draw a water bus route map between the piers, you will find that it is like a shoelace, tightening both sides of the river at once. The water bus is called City Hopper. There is a huge kangaroo painted on the boat. If you didn’t know better, you would have thought it was a Meituan Takeout meal delivery boat.

Speaking of kangaroos - I saw kangaroos on the first day I arrived in Australia, as well as emus and koalas - the former is on the national emblem of their country together with kangaroos, and the latter I believe does not need to be introduced too much. Brisbane has the only Lone Pine Koala Zoo in Australia where you can hold koalas. It was here that I saw the famous koalas.

I think the living habits of koalas coincide with the city of Brisbane. My friend saw the photo of koala that I sent and asked me if koala smelled bad. I said that it had a mysterious smell, which might be the smell of their food, eucalyptus. It is said that the reason why koalas become lethargic is because they poison themselves by eating this every day.

 

After getting off the boat, we found a place to rent public bicycles. With the transportation tool, it seemed that I could quickly integrate into the leisurely atmosphere of this city, and I immediately became happy. Riding along Kangaroo Point, there was a circle of low cliffs on the river bank. On Monday afternoon, groups of Australians were rock climbing on the roadside with safety ropes attached. This scene makes people feel shocked after seeing it. Enjoy life so much.

Is the essence of life work or leisure? I remember that this is my last summer vacation as a student, and I will start living a life of a social animal in April next year. Although I thought about this before I started working, I felt a bit passive and sabotaged. But now in Brisbane, when I see time flowing so slowly and people with happy and satisfied smiles on their faces, it’s really hard to suppress the envy in my heart. Even the turkeys and lizards that appear on the roadside from time to time regard this human civilization settlement as a paradise for their own tribe.

 

At the end of Kangaroo Point is the famous Story Bridge, and at the other end of the bridge is the Brisbane CBD (Central Business District) on the North Shore. This kind of city style is not unfamiliar, but many cities I have visited do not separate business districts and life so much, including Tokyo (but there are exceptions, such as Copenhagen and Oslo, which do not have a CBD...). When night falls, the city does not become brightly lit, but like a long night lamp, retaining minimal illumination before falling asleep under the stars.

By the way, this day happens to be the autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere and the spring equinox in the southern hemisphere. Day and night are equally divided around the world, and the duration of sunshine is equal. I feel so romantic when I think of this. And the endless summer in Brisbane is about to begin, life will become simple and comfortable, with fish jumping in the water and cotton-like clouds hanging high in the sky...

 

II Sydney Sydney – A Thousand Years

 

One step closer…

I have died everyday waiting for you

Darling don’t be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years

I’ll love you for a thousand more

 

The first time I met the Sydney Opera House was on the subway from the airport to the city.

Sydney's subway has two floors. It looks like a grand old guy, and the platform is very spacious. The old guy just greets every passenger who gets on the train leisurely. However, its fares are also so expensive that it seems like you can find a seat no matter when you get on the subway.

Dozens of seconds after the subway hit the ground, behind the lush trees and row upon row of buildings, the white building like a giant seashell slowly changed its angle as the line of sight framed by the window glass. I knew it was the Sydney Opera House, and my heart jumped. Maria Callas described the Sydney Opera House: "The opera begins long before the curtain rises and ends long after the curtain falls."

 

When I approached the Sydney Opera House for the second time, the sky gradually changed into gold, pink and blue, much like the cover of Taylor Swift's new album. The opera house is like a sail raised high in the afterglow, with white seabirds lingering around it for a long time. Sitting back to back in the sunset, I felt everything was like a dream.

On the way back, a street artist at the City Hall subway station sang "A Thousand Year" with a guitar. I remembered that the last time I heard it was in a friend's car a month ago. We have been good friends for ten years. Ten years ago, we also dreamed about the vast world outside the small county town. And now she has lived a happy life. Thinking of this, I feel even more that the encounters in life are magnificent, ever-changing, and like a dream.

 

When I looked at the Sydney Opera House for the third time, I found that the sparkling water looked like a soft blue velvet. Take a directionless stroll from the Royal Botanic Gardens. After visiting a church and a free art gallery, go to "Mrs. Macaulay's Chair" on the promontory in the Botanic Gardens. It is said that it is an excellent place to view the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge. perspective.

Although the promontory is crowded with tourists, the Harbor Bridge in the distance and the green plants nearby are extremely relaxing. But what’s even more interesting is that I noticed a Chinese tourist group around me. The uncles and aunts were talking energetically in Hokkien about buying Australian calcium tablets. When someone speaks in a dialect you understand, eavesdropping becomes a lot of fun. At first I thought they were Taiwanese, but after quietly eavesdropping, it became more and more interesting until I couldn’t help but asked out of curiosity: “Uncle, where are you from?”

"Quanzhou..."

"Where are you from in Quanzhou?" I immediately continued to ask in dialect.

"Are you from Anxi?" The uncle didn't answer my question, but asked me in a direct manner.

"Yes, I'm from Anxi!"

"Wow, are you studying here or coming here to play? What's your last name?"

"I came here to play. My surname is Xu."

"Then are you xx (my mother's name)'s son?"

It would not be surprising to say that I was dumbfounded at this moment. To me, he is my mother's old friend, but to them, he is the son of an old friend. It seems to be a little more emotional than the situation of "meeting an old friend in a foreign land". It is really incredible and exciting. I kept thinking about that moment of emotion. In a distant country and a strange city, there were still people who knew your background and who you were.

I used to think that the world was infinitely big, but the world is actually very limited.

III Cairns - Open the door to the world

The clay on the left hand, the clay on the right hand, the flowery clothes of a close friend

The world should be what it looks like when you wake up

The sadness in the left eye and the stubbornness in the right eye both look the same.

So you are my conceited courage

 

The plane flew for four hours and finally moved from Sydney, a southern temperate zone, to the tropical city of Cairns.

This is a city dominated by tourism because the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea are really famous. The palm trees in the setting sun shed a trembling light like silver fish, which was soon replaced by the light of the neon lights of the night market and bars. Pedestrians coming and going on the street are all wearing bright floral shirts and beach pants, and their strong bodies seem to indicate that they are going to ride the wind and waves at Whale Whale Wave at dawn tomorrow. Let me, a thin Asian face, silently go to Woolworth supermarket to buy a two-liter bucket of Australian milk, open it on a seat in the seaside park and drink it.

 

The plan for the next day was to take a helicopter over the Great Barrier Reef, go to a platform built on the sea, and then do some snorkeling. When the helicopter came over to greet me, I thought of Lana Del Rey's "High By the Beach" music video, and I wanted to shoot the helicopter down with a rocket launcher. But I still obeyed the pilot's instructions and boarded the helicopter safely.

The wind was so loud in the helicopter that we had to wear headphones to block out the noise. Intermittent English calls came from the earphones, which were the sounds of the helicopter communicating with the ground. I tried to listen at first but gave up. When these sounds transmitted through the radio waves turned into white noise in my ears, the helicopter flew over a green island covered with aquatic trees and headed towards the blue sea without hesitation.

A few minutes later, I saw the Great Barrier Reef from the window of the helicopter. It looked like a halo of shimmering phosphorescent ink, or like colorful blooming mold on a glass slide. The latter metaphor was from when I left Tokyo on a plane. I thought of it when I observed the appearance of the suburbs of Tokyo, and now it comes to mind again.

It is also like a universe with clusters of galaxies - and I am a cosmic creature that constantly receives signals from the earth. Languages ​​that I don’t understand are poured into my ears, but my heart is filled with peace, just like the character in "Three Body" who uses everything in the solar system to A singer for the rotten dog.

When I came back from my cosmic fugue, the helicopter had already landed on the offshore platform. The sun is scorching, and wonderful snorkeling time is waiting for me. Suddenly I remembered the nights when I was a child, in my hometown in the countryside. The dark night seemed to trap me in the swamp, but the light of fireflies stopped like fire on the leaves of the seedlings not far away. An association that is completely incompatible with the current scene, but there may be a connection somewhere.

Throughout the ancient times, I miss Shen Hanwu.

The clothes are stained with patina, and the bright moon shines on Jiangpu.