Blue Mountains & Katoomba

The Blue Mountains in Katoomba just west of Sydney are beautiful!  We took a relaxing three day break from the city and hopped on a tour bus that brought us all the way up here for some outrageous views.  Looking at the pictures we posted you can see the blueish haze that comes off of these mountains.  This is created because of so much eucalyptus in the air from the 250 different kinds of eucalyptus trees in the rain forest at the base of the mountains.  We saw the Three Sisters which comes with an aboriginal folk tale.  In short, the three sisters were frozen in stone and the mean man hasn't been able to find his magic stick to turn them back since.  Now, that's a LOT shorter of a story than the the one we got....   Anyways, The three sisters is a sight to see and we were able to get many pictures from different angles traveling on three kinds of transportation at Scenic World.  Yes, we too think that name is silly.  It reminds of of Wally World.

At Scenic World we rode the skyway across the steepest part of the canyon and got a good shot of Katoomba Falls.  We then journeyed a 50something degree railway down to the forest floor.  Supposedly, it's the world's steepest railway.  (Who keeps track of this stuff?)  At the bottom of the forest floor we got to explore a bit and then head up a gondola-ish cableway back to the top.  Overall, it was pretty cool, and we had great/clear weather to take in the sights all day long.

After our fun at Wally World, er Scenic World was over, our bus dropped us off at the Katoomba YHA where we have stayed for the past 2 nights.  It's been great - it's an old hotel complete with big dance floor that's been transformed into a hostel up in the mountains.  We explored the small town for a bit, stopped off at the chocolate shop, ate our best dinner yet at a little Italian place and spent some time relaxing in the hostel too (to escape the 10 degree (C) difference up here compared to Sydney.  Yesterday we established camp in the TV room and watched 3 movies back to back: Princess Bride, Lost in Translation, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  Funny people those Greeks.  

Oh!  almost forgot - we visited the local church yesterday and experienced a unique Mass to say the least.  The church had no heat, they ran out of the host so they started breaking pieces in half to give out (that, of course, was after the spent time rooting around the back of the church for the missing tabernacle key).  The music was...interesting...but the hightlight was the priest...  Towards the end he said "forever and ever" but said it a la the Princess Bride priest - which hurled Kristen into an almost uncontrollable laughing fit.  Hence us starting with that movie.

Last - Matt bought a new gift for himself (not electronic) - and we posted a picture that gives it away partially - you'll have to wait to see it in action later though.

We're off for now though - waiting for the bus that brings us back into Sydney for a couple nights - before we start our 2 weeks trip with the group we have yet to meet up to Cairns.

Talk to you later, cheers!