Wednesday, November 30, 2005


sydney roolz!

so i'm sitting here at the cyber cafe in the haymarket district after chowing down on some truly cheap (A$8,or about US$6) vietnamese food. sydney is the most awesome conglomeration of san diego, sonoma, berkeley & la brea, santa barbara, and san francisco.

just imagine all the best parts of those california places melded together with great public transport and wa-llah! that's sydney.

i have to thank sydneysider barista judge and australasian specialty coffee association member paul haddon -- who i met at my zen coffee meditation at scaa's seattle conference earlier this year -- for an amazing care basket at my hotel. he sweetly delivered a cunill tranquilo grinder, french press, and fresh whole bean coffee so i wouldn't have to endure hotel coffee for an instant!

that's just how friendly all aussies are! wow!

plus sydney has the most gorgeous fluffy clouds that drift over the opera house! they are hypnotic.

i spent the morning dropping by luxe espresso in the strand mall downtown for a nice cappuccino with impressive latte art, and then hopped a cab to sugarcube for breakfast -- poached organic eggs over a perfect avocado on freshly made english-muffin bread. yummy.

then i purchased a train ticket and took the clean, comfy (upholstered seats!!!) train to the newtown district where samadhi bliss teaches jivamukti-style yoga. since i was still a bit tired from jet lag, i took a level 1 beginner class at noon.

newtown is like the old east village, or maybe the really scrungy part of hollywood -- pierced goth girls, dirty streets, cheap futon stores for students, dubious sushi restaurants and tattoo parlors...

samadhi bliss is a large open shed with a concrete floor and a large picture of yoga teacher alanna with sharon gannon and david life of new york's jivamukti. the concrete floor keeps the studio cool, but isn't really comfy for yoga, imvho, even if you use 2 mats to try to cushion your sun salutation jumps.

still, the vibe was ultra-funky, everyone there had pierced navels just like me, and we all blissed out together. for A$5 (that's just US$3.50!!!! and the mats are free) per afternoon class, it's hard to beat.

tomorrow i'll go to a more upscale studio.

last night we had dinner at the popular longgrain thai restaurant, which is hip, stylish and waaay expensive. it's truly superior thai food, i will admit, however.

altho' residents of sydney are wandering around in their beach clothes "whingeing" that it's only 70 degrees, i think the weather's perfect. just 24 hours on the ground in sydney and i'm wondering why the heck i haven't cashed in that return-trip plane ticket...

stay tuned!

posted by fortune | 8:52 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 3 comments