Saturday, June 2, 2012

A Bit of Culture and Fish


After a very short afternoon and evening in Sydney we loaded the plane back up and took off for Cairns! Sydney was the first time I actually felt warm the whole trip! (It was pretty exciting!) The flight was the roughest flight I’ve experienced in a while because there was a lot of turbulence, etc.
After we landed I stepped outside and could feel the change in humidity. We were definitely in the tropical part now.  The afternoon was spent at the Tjapukai Culture Center. Here they performed various dances, gave didgeridoo lessons, and taught us how to throw boomerangs. The boomerang fell short and the spear did too. But I brought a boomerang home to practice my "hunting skills" I learned I could never survive as an aboriginal because my hunting skills were just not up to par. They also demonstrated how to light a fire along with the stories of their culture.They spoke their native language but this was only one of hundreds of languages in Australia. 

The experience was very interesting to see how they lived and to experience their culture. Although, we questioned whether they still lived the way they lived 100 years ago and the question was answered when our tour guide walked out after we had left in shoes and modern clothes. He hightailed it back into the center. I’m sure they reserve the ceremonial clothes, etc. for special occasions.
We were definitely hungry after the culture center so we got cleaned up and went down to Tha Fish for dinner. Now, I’m not a big seafood/fish/anything previously living in water fan. BUT I have found a fish that I liked. The coral trout was amazing it didn’t taste like fish hardly at all! It was interesting to try all the different types of seafood other people ordered. I tried a mussel! It didn’t taste terrible but given the choice I would probably not order them again. I can now say I’ve tried them though. 
Today was a day of new experiences and it was nice to see where some of the native people of Australia got their roots.

‘Til next time!

MaryAnn

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