RastaPasta

It’s official! Rebs signed a contract accepting a job covering Asian liquefied natural gas and coal based in Perth, Australia today!

We had no clue about Perth when we first started looking at this job, here are some answers to some frequently asked questions.

1) Where in the world is Perth?
It’s in Western Australia, the name of the state that pretty much makes up the western third of the country.

2) What! I’ve never heard of Perth! Is it even a city!? It looks like it’s in the middle of nowhere!!
It’s an actual city! It’s said to be the most isolated city in the world, and yes, it’s far, BUT we’re worth visiting, right? And if we’re not, there are beaches and national parks to entice. It is also rated #8 in the Economist’s annual livability rating. If some stodgy old British guys think it’s ok, how bad can it really be?

We’ve heard it’s beautiful, it’s on the coast of the Indian Ocean and has the Swan River running through it. With about 1.6 million people, it’s about the size of Philadelphia.
See, it even has a city skyline:

3) So you’ll be wearing a bathing suit all year long?
Not quite– temperatures range between a dry high of 105 deg F and lows in the 40s in the “winter” (so long, awful NYC winters!!).

Western Aussies like to say that Perth has the weather that California thinks it has: average temp on Christmas– high of 88 deg F, low of 62 deg F. Average temp on Fourth of July– high of 64 deg F, low of 47 deg F. To get a year round look, click here.

4) G’day mate, let’s throw some shrimp on the barbie!
Yup, Aussies have peculiar slang, much of which seems to involve shortening words and sticking an “o” or an “y” on the end of them.

Avocados are “avos” (a good sign, we think– they must have a lot of them), bizzo is “business” as in, “Mind your own bizzo!” For more slang-o, some of it quite colorful, see: http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html

5) No, really, throw some shrimp on the barbie!!
Ah, yes, food! Here’s what we know about Aussie food so far:
- The Australian-style burger comes with “The Lot”– pickled red beet “beetroot,” pineapple and a fried egg.
- Kangaroo steaks– yes, true, and supposedly tasty.
- Vegemite (made by American Kraft foods, of course) is all the rage. Hmm… no thanks, I think I’ll stick to nutella.
- Last, but not least, the best of Australian fine cuisine: the Tim-Tam slam!! It’s the Australian version of tea and biscuits which involves drinking tea through a biscuit. Keys to success are speed, dexterity, and not wearing a white shirt. You can watch Australian pop star Natalia Imbruglia demonstrate on YouTube. We’re guessing she does it more attractively than we do.

6) When can I visit?
Anytime! Please come visit… we’re going to miss everyone so much! This is your chance to see some kangaroos and koalas and maybe try to pick up a funny accent… first visitor gets a nice cold Emu (Apparently, nobody drinks Foster’s in Australia, that’s the stuff they ship to us).

It’s hard to capture how mind-boggling the 13 churches of Lalibela are, but we made some attempts. Legend has it that they were built by King Lalibela in the 12th and 13th centuries (his name means, “He eats honey”) with the help of some angels. Since the churches are carved out of solid rock, it’s not hard to see why one might attribute the work to some supernatural force:

The church that most frequently gets on the postcards, posters, and Lalibela ads is Bete Giorgis:

We visited Ethiopia during Lent, which meant that technically, the use of drums is not allowed (according to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church’s website, “The drum’s pulsating sound is often associated with sensual pleasure.”… so it’s out!).

However, in Lalibela, we discovered there is one day during lent in which the drum, or kebero, can be used and we happened to be there for it…

Pilgrims come from hundreds of kilometres away to Lalibela… although we didn’t arrive at the height of pilgrim season, there were still some there, as well as priests, monks, and nuns that live there year round. Visiting Lalibela, you see a lot of people sitting quietly and reading… and a few others who have dozed off…

A common site around Lalibela– shoes. You have to take them off to go into churches…

Lalibela, a UNESCO world heritage site, was an amazing, and surprisingly remote city that thrives the many pilgrims who come to visit the its rock-hewn churches on foot, as well as tourists like us. There are also ancient monestaries in the surrounding countryside, many of them also cut out from the mountain tops they perch in.

We had a day to kill as we waited for Janet and Negash to join us from Addis, so we decided to visit one the Asheten Monestary in the cliffs overlooking Lalibela. We decided to skip a ride on the flea-ridden donkeys and enjoyed the 3-hour hike each way.

Here is a photo of our young guide, the brother of a guy we met working in a local cafe.

Here we are after 30 minutes of hiking out of town, on the outskirts of Asheten village. The monestary is located in the lump of cliff on the top right of the picture.

The view from the top, almost at the monastery:

Inside the monastery, the head monk went through what seemed like a fairly well-practiced routine of showing us some of the religious texts and posing with a couple of crosses… in one photo you can see Sean peeking from behind. When we visited, it was late afternoon and light streamed into over some drums.

Rebekah struck up a conversation with the head monk and we made a generous donation to their “preservation fund.” Soon we were fast friends and got an invitation to drink home-brewed beer around back with the other monks. There was also a nun at the monastary, who lived in a small hut separate from the church and sold religious paintings and jewelry.

In March 2010, Sean took a trip to Ethiopia for work and Rebs joined… we had a great time in Addis, much of it focused on food and visiting Rebs old haunts. For starters, we had mille-feuille and cappuccino for breakfast in Piazza:

Piazza looks pretty much the same as the old days:

We spent some of our trip riding around town in Rebs’ favorite car, the lovely Peugeot 304, Rebs’ “older sister” (two years older, but you wouldn’t know it to look at her)… Those of you who are acquainted with the green Peugeot will be happy to know that except for a mishap involving a non-functional gas gauge and the inevitable aftermath, the old green Peugeot behaved very well and is as vivacious as ever. Here she is waiting for Rebs to pick her up at the garage:

And Sean and Peugeot 304 while Rebs does some shopping by the post office:

Some other things that are the same in Addis– the taxi mini-vans with “weyalays” yelling their destinations (and yes, they are as cramped as ever), the broom and mop sellers (“metregya, mewolwolya”!), the shoe-shine business which is still booming, and Meskel Square still looks about the same from a certain vantage point:

We did a lot of eating in Addis, a lot of it at Habesha, a restaurant on Bole Road with the best tibs and veggie combo… still makes me hungry to look at it. Off to lunch!

Well, we were already in the Veneto, so why not spend a couple days in Venezia before heading home. Turns out that winter is a fabulous time to see the floating city: few tourists and great light. Plus the aqua alta is surprisingly beautiful…if a bit inconvenient.

Acqua Alta, or “high water” happens when the lagoon that Venice sits in over-runs the edges of its islands and canals. It is thrilling to see the sea nipping at your heels while walking down a sidewalk. It turns out that the floods clear out pollution and bring a lovely light turquoise to brighten the city.

Here is a shot of the sidewalk on the edge of the glass-blowing island of Murano. You can see “mainland” Venice in the distance.