Australia day 19

15 July

The overnight temperature in Canberra was below freezing. I know this from the frost on the ground that took its time burning off this morning. We were comfortable in our caravan, but there was an edge of chill in there despite our space heater.

Today was Friday and we once again had an opportunity to join a Jewish congregation for evening prayers, this time in Sydney. We had been in touch the past several days with Debbie, the wife of Gary, whom we met in Singapore and who helped us find meaningful Jewish content in Perth and now in Sydney. Debbie invited us to her home for the traditional Friday night meal and we adjusted our original itinerary for this special purpose.

Our goal when we left Canberra was basically to get to the caravan park near the Sydney Airport, where we'd reserved a powered site, early enough to shower and do laundry and put our nice Shabbat clothes on over clean and shiny skin. It took us a bit longer to reach Sydney than we had anticipated, but our goal was attained.

Shortly after leaving the built up area of Canberra we saw the "Welcome to New South Wales" sign. It occurred to me then that we had slept in each and every one of the Australian states (WA, SA, VIC, NSW) and territories (NT, ACT) we've visited during this trip. Only two of Australia's states, Queensland and Tasmania, were not on our itinerary this trip.

I'd say we gave Australia a pretty thorough look-see.

The road connecting Canberra to Sydney is a four-lane limited-access motorway. It was a pleasure to have such easy driving conditions for a change. I remarked to Razelle, "This is the last leg of the Australian segment of our round the world trip. These roads will be the last I drive on the opposite side of the highway. How nice to experience this well-earned treat after all those tedious two-lane highways. It will be a nice last impression of Australian motoring."

 Little did I know ….

At Goulburn we took a break from driving. At the service area we came upon a huge (I mean world-class huge) statue of a merino ram. He towered proudly in all his anatomical correctness over the parking lot, dwarfing the vehicles and their photo-posing occupants. He certainly was imposing and he put Goulburn on the map (and into this blog).

We were warned by the rental company that Sydney has several toll roads and, with this caravan, paying these tolls is complicated. We set our GPS up to avoid toll roads and it most certainly did. So much for pleasant driving conditions. We found ourselves driving the streets of Sydney with buses and bicycles and lots of traffic lights and potholes. Razelle remarked that it was like taking Route 1 through Connecticut. We passed every fast-food joint and used-car lot along the way. The left lane put us behind the occasional parked car, the right lane caught us behind right-turners. Our GPS slowly counted down the kilometers to our destination and the countdown was suspended with each red light. We found our caravan park finally and were relieved to be able to switch off the motor.

This is the homeliest caravan park of all that we've been to, homely in a less than flattering sense. The guy in the next caravan gave us the creeps. He left his lawn chair and climbed into his caravan as we set up. He peered out at us from behind his curtain the whole time. He never spoke to us. Others will make small talk and we have met some interesting people this way and learned from their experiences, but this guy just stared at us from behind his curtain.

We were checked in by George the manager. I asked if I might be due a concession (what they call a discount here) because we'd be here on my birthday. He leaned toward me and said, "No, on account of it being my birthday too." We have the same birthday! We wished each other happy birthday at the same time with the same voice and then laughed at how that had happened.

Razelle and I showered and did a batch of laundry while the heavens opened up and gave Sydney a good rinsing, too. We haven't seen a good downpour like this since we left Western Australia.

We drove through more of Sydney's exemplary city streets in the rain during rush hour through congested historic districts to get to the Central Synagogue in the Bondi district. I dropped Razelle off at the door and conned the narrow residential streets looking for a parking spot the caravan would fit in. I entered the Synagogue after they thoroughly searched my bag and asked me several questions (heartened to see they take security seriously, but delayed all the more).

The rabbi was delivering his sermon by this point. He is a very good orator. He has a Brooklyn accent. They have a wonderful male choir that harmonized a-capello and filled the domed sanctuary with their rousing resonance. It was a pleasure to hear. Perhaps because we arrived late the congregants politely averted their attention from us, or perhaps they are just less congenial than we thought they'd be. We were not greeted by anyone. We promised Debbie we’d be there at 7:30 PM so we didn't stick around after the last prayer of the service. We walked in the cold drizzle to our caravan and drove to Debbie's.

The evening with Debbie's family was the most wonderful evening we’ve spent in Australia. We met three generations of harmoniously relating relatives. We were graciously received by Debbie and her parents; then Debbie's charming young adult daughters and soon-to-be bar-mitzvah son joined us and were absolute rays of sunshine. Debbie's sister and her husband (he is a dentist and his resemblance to my own dentist in Beer Sheva is uncanny) and their son (who is a Macabee Olympian athlete in rugby) came with his American girlfriend. They also brought their precocious poodle. Razelle did not have any allergic reaction to this poodle the whole evening.

Kiddush was recited by the bar-mitzvah boy to be and a lovingly prepared meal was served. This was the first time I'd eaten roast lamb. I enjoyed it enough to go back for a second helping. Razelle ate the roasted chicken. The side dishes included a quinoa dish and roasted purple carrots. Desert was homemade meringue biscuits and a fruit salad that included strawberries and blood oranges. I had a second helping of these too. I miss seeing blood oranges in the stores in Israel. They didn't succeed there. Table talk was so pleasant; all the cousins get along famously and interact so nicely. Debbie's mother had a strong opinion about Lady Gaga. No generation gap here. I will always remember this evening fondly.

We returned late to our campground and drove through the same streets of Sydney. But at that hour the traffic was light and so were our spirits. Thank you to the families who hosted us for a wonderful evening.