It's 17.3C!!!

...Otherwise known as 63F to my American friends (which is pretty much all of you). It's starting to get cold in Sydney and I don't like it. I just escaped the winter back home and was just getting ready to stop wearing pants when I have to start wearing pants again! This is totally going to mess me up when I'm trying to wear summer dresses for nights out and I'm sitting there waiting for the ever infuriating public transport system.

Honestly, I hate public transport with the passion of a thousand fiery suns (although Sydney's is very good overall). The timetables are often crazy and either drop you off with soo much time to spare that it's ridic or they end at very inconvenient hours (re: stopping at midnight when I'm staying out late in the city with friends). It gets confusing when you have to keep switching on/off at various stations, and if one leg of the transport is late, then you're doomed for the rest of it. I also hate that you have to wait outside for them, which means you are the mercy of the elements. Maybe I have just gotten soft these days with my own cushy personal transport system, but it drives me nuts. Friends, I have not had to rely on public transport since my undergraduate days and I would like to keep it that way. The exception is I enjoy the ferry and the train for the most part. The buses, I loathe... perhaps because you already have to have an idea of where you want to stop, which is not always the case for me (i.e. I don't always know which street I have to get to).

Warning: The following is another pointless rant. Proceed at your own risk.

On to new topics... I'm going to the Jenolan Caves tomorrow.

I potentially got screwed because the online site to buy the bus tickets makes no sense. Before I begin, I must explain a peculiar thing about Australian traveling costs... companies don't seem to group their ticket purchases together (like, you don't often have a round-trip option, you have to buy the to and from trips separately). What they REALLY love to do is charge almost nothing for a trip there and then charge you up the wazoo  for the trip back (not the case here). So I was looking at the bus website and it has three options -- a one-way transfer to Jenolan from Katoomba (train station), a one-way transfer from Jenolan to Katoomba (each costing $40), and another one that costs $53 and is labeled "Return Coach Travel to Jenolan".

Friends, they do not offer an explanation about what exactly the "return coach travel" means. Does that mean that I can only take it one way? Does it mean that I get both to and from trips for $53? In vain I searched and decided to be safe and just spend $80 on the two one-way transfers. I hope I didn't get screwed over and spend $30 more than I was supposed to.

Below is a nice little hammock overlooking Manly Cove (or what I'm assuming it's called). I think that's the perfect spot for one!