Occult Armidale?

On my last three road-trips down the east-coast of Australia I stopped in Armidale three times.

The one-way street through the Armidale cemetery 

I have already written a post about making a wrong turn on a roundabout and ending up on a one-way street that led me through the cemetery of Armidale on my first trip into the town, which you can read about at this link below -
Who Are You 2?

Looking out of my car window in the Armidale cemetery

The first time I stopped in Armidale it was only a half-hour stop, mainly to grab a burger for a late lunch before hitting the road again, but I vowed that on my next trip I would stay overnight and explore the town, which I did and for two nights, not just the one I promised myself.
I stayed in Armidale the day after my trip to Wollongong, which I wrote a post about here -
Weird Wollongong Skies

Armidale at night is really worth a look ...
it's kind of spooky in a way

I wish I had of known about this Halfasheep video of occult Armidale (below) before my third trip to the town, but I probably got a few more snaps of the "four into the ones" around town that weren't covered in his video.

Plenty of 4 into 1 on and around
this Celtic looking statue, I think

Wow! Look what happens when you drink the Holy Water;-)

There was even a picture hanging on my motel room wall of one of the most famous four into the one pillars in the world.

The print hanging on my motel
wall on my second Armidale trip

The funny thing is that I had ... and still have a glass chopping block to the right of my kitchen sink in my unit in Queensland with, "Paris is always a good idea", on it as well -

The Theory of Everything ... Being Connected?

My glass chopping board sitting
next to my kitchen sink at home

I also realize looking back at that picture now, that it was exactly two weeks before a madman would run amok in a truck in France on Bastille Day, as I was in Armidale on the 30th of June/1st of July, the two nights I stayed in that room with the "Paris is always a good idea" print on the wall.

The Armidale motel I stayed in on
my last two visits to the town

There is another amusing story I have to tell about staying at the above motel on my last trip, which you can read about in this post in the link below -
On a Synchronicity Kick in Armidale

The motel I stayed in was right across from the park featured in Halfasheep's 'Occult Armidale' video at the top of this post.

My bird friend and I had a good chat in Central Park

The great thing about Armidale for people who like to read are the amount of good quality bookshops that are scattered about the town.

I found this great second-hand bookshop called BooBooks in an old bank building and I found a good book about the history of Armidale while I was browsing inside.

There was even a picture in this book of the original bank that this bookstore now occupies.

That shows the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement a thing or two about running a successful campaign, I reckon;-)

It was so cold in Armidale that this fountain
 should have been frozen over

And I have to tell you that Armidale is probably the coldest town with a population above 20,000  in Australia and I serious as for the three coldest weeks in winter Armidale was always colder than any town I was traveling to on internet weather reports, including Hobart, Canberra, Melbourne and Albury.
And the weird thing is that Armidale is the closest of all of those towns mentioned to my sub-tropical city of Brisbane, that couldn't really say it has a winter season compared to those towns.

Look at those flags blowing in a freezing breeze at the New England University while the temperature is about 7 degrees Celsius (44.6 Fahrenheit) at around midday. 

Get me back to sunny warm Hobart, please -
A Cascade of Rabbits?

'The Rabbits' is a book written by John Marsden and illustrated by Shaun Tan that I bought in Armidale when I paid a visit to the art gallery that displays Shaun Tan's work.

The art gallery in Armidale that displays Shaun Tan's work

Oddly enough, I would run into the author John Marsden at the 'Byron Bay Writers Festival' later on in August that same year and discuss the book with him while getting another of his book's signed.

I'm yet to read the above book and you can probably tell from my writing;-)

I also bought Nick Cave's book, 'The Sick Bag Song' on my second visit to Armidale, only because I had a sick bag in my luggage from traveling on, 'The Spirit of Tasmania', the first time I had ever crossed the ocean on a boat.
I wrote about buying Nick's book in this post -
The Sick Bag Song

I took a free bus tour around Armidale from the tourist centre on my second trip to Armidale and we were taken to the New England University and told the impressive story behind this stain glass window pictured above.

Ironically, considering that my first attempt to visit Armidale ended with me taking a wrong turn and ending up in the cemetery, I thought it was amusing that the journey at the bottom of the stained-glass window starts off, more or less, in the English town of Gravesend.

That stained glass window looks
rather dark from the outside though

I think it's interesting how the university are funding this study at the moment, as well -
Mythology in uncertain times

We were also taken to the Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place on the bus tour.

I liked the artwork in this place and I wanted to buy a painting that really resonated with me (pictured below), but I didn't want to carry it around on the bus with me, so I thought that I would come back and buy it the next day when leaving Armidale, but I forgot to buy it until I was way outside of town and back on the road.

I met a family from my hometown of Brisbane in Armidale, while on the bus tour and struck up a conversation with them only because their son was dressed in Brisbane Lions supporter gear and I'm a Lions fan myself, so I was showing them my photos on my iPod of the Lions game against Richmond that I saw in Melbourne the previous weekend.

I also showed them my photos I took in Tasmania, and we got to talking about Port Arthur and ghosts.
The Conjuring, Too?
I was told by the mother about a chair she had sat in Port Arthur and felt she was pushed out of by unseen hands on her back, I then showed her the picture of a creepy chair I had taken a photo of that creeped me out ... probably because I had seen the movie 'The Conjuring 2' at the start of my road trip ... and her face lit up in recognition when she saw the photo of the chair and exclaimed, "Yeah, that's it".

The haunted (?) chair in Port Arthur, Tasmania

I wrote about seeing 'The Conjuring 2' in this post linked below -
The Owls Aren't There Anymore It Seems

After the bus tour I took a walk through the Judith Wright Memorial Grove in the Centre of Armidale, with my 'The Rabbits' book from the art gallery that I had bought on the bus tour and thought how funny that I first saw Kate Miller-Heidke perform at the Judith Wright Centre in my hometown of Brisbane when Kate wasn't quite so famous and Kate is the opera singer who is the star of 'The Rabbits' opera, which was based on the book.

My trips to Armidale were always eye-openers for me, 
On a Synchronicity Kick in Armidale
But being on the road with death and ghosts surrounding me I was always glad to be back home ... where-ever or whoever's home that is, that is.

There's no place like home.
Not on this planet anyway.

Like Jesus said, "home is where the heart is" ... or was that someone else who said it?
I'm sure that's what Jesus was getting at, either way;-)

Next time I'm down Armidale way I'll take a better look around and see what may, or may not be hidden in plain sight.

Frost over the grass in Guyra,
just up the road from Armidale

On the backstreets of Guyra listening
 to some Rock & Roll:-)

I was glad to be heading for the warmth of Goondiwindi after spending two freezing days in Armidale on my second road-trip, but that story is for a future post.

The Finishing Post: Goondiwindi Grey?