Alice to the Outback and back

Glenelg

First, I’ll get the rest of Adelaide out of the way: went to the beach at Glenelg a few times. I love that name, Glenelg. Hilarious. It was a beautiful beach with some wonderful shells. Other then that I explored the Botanic Gardens and wondered the streets in the CBD a bit. Adelaide was a bit boring to me, didn’t seem like there was much of anything going on other than the normal routine. I went back to the market on Tuesday and got some awesome tomatoes and a mouth watering avocado, along with some awesome cheese and pumpkin (squash) bread. On Wednesday Kate left Adelaide on the Ghan train, a nice, 24 hour long journey from Adelaide to Alice Springs. I hung around, doing still not much, waiting for the day to end so I could fly out the next morning. Which I did, to Alice Springs; it was a nice short flight.
Upon arrival to Alice I waited around for the free shuttle ride to the hostel and soaked in the heat. Mid 30s, I had finally found Texas-like weather, minus the dry factor. It’s so dry there that it doesn’t feel like 35 in Texas would. Finally at the hostel I checked in and then took advantage of the free wifi for a spell. Later I walked into town and re-confirmed our booking on The Rock Tour. The only thing we were told that we MUST bring was 3L of water each. So I headed over to Woolies and carried 6L of water back to the hostel. Once back at the hostel I took a little dip in the pool and layed out for a short time. Then it was time to pack up for the Outback. If we wanted our baggage stored while we were ‘on tour,’ we needed to have our bags ready to be put away at 6:30pm, since reception closed at 7. It was sort of annoying, but worth it because bringing all that shit into the Outback would’ve sucked.

The Todd River, no joke.

The next morning we were picked up by Joel, our Rock Tour guide, at 6:10am, hopped on the bus, and were off for an Outback adventure.
Now I’m going to try to describe and put into words what I saw in the Outback, but I don’t think it will come close to the actual experience of being out there; there were some amazingly stunning sights and although my pictures are pretty good, they are nothing like the real thing.
Day One of The Rock Tour, took us on a 5hour drive to Kings Canyon. On the way we all went one at a time up to the front of the bus and introduced ourselves and Joel asked us each some odd questions. This was followed by some jokes and interesting animal facts, and other general hilarity, like this Dutch guy Ruben making the weirdest noise ever. We arrived around noon and set off for our 3.5hour hike of the canyon rim. Gorgeousness! Bloody awesome views! The half way point was ‘The Garden of Eden” tucked down in a little canyon-ish area, where there was a cool swimming hole. After the hike and 3L of water consumed we drove for about another hour (saw a wild camel on the way, there are millions of them roaming the Outback since they were introduced by explorers in the 1800s. Many managed to escape or they simply outlived the human they carried and they were free in the Outback to breed and prosper. There are also wild horses, but we didn’t see any) and stopped to pick up fire wood. This was a process and miraculously no one got hurt. Then we stopped for beer. A sign-up sheet went round because we were going to buy in bulk and everyone said how many cans they’d like at $2.40 a pop for the rest of the tour. This was our only liquor run chance. With that sorted we got 3 cases of 30cans of Toohey’s New (not my preferred choice, but oh well) and then found the campsite on the Curtin Springs cattle station land. The fire got going pretty quick by the trio of German surfers, as the rest of us started to prepare dinner. It was past 8pm and we were hungry but it was well worth the wait. We had Chili con carne, roasted veggies, rice, and bush bread (flour, crushed weetbix, garlic, onion, cheese, S&P, herbs, AMAZINGNESS). Dinner was amazing and after cleaning up and chatting a little we were all in our swags by 11pm, trying to stay awake to watch the stars, which were also fucking amazing! We were miles from any sort of lights.
Day Two we were awoken by Joel getting breaky ready. He told us that if we didn’t get up when we heard his breakfast prep noises he would wake us up with a wooden spoon to the ribs. No thanks. So we all rolled up our swags as small as we could and then had breakfast, which was basic: cereal, toast, jam, PB, coffee and tea. Someone managed to contaminate the hot water pot with coffee, it was pretty funny.
After Breaky we piled back in the bus and headed off for a short one hour drive to the Ayers Rock Resort to check in for our campsite. Here we had a chance to fill up our water bottles in preparation for another 3+hour hike, this time at Kata Tjuta (formerly known as The Olga’s, but re-named to their original name in the mid 1980’s when Uluru (Ayers Rock) and surrounds were given back to the Aboriginal People. Although, the highest one is stilled referred to as Mt Olga). There was a pretty thick haze in the air that morning so we couldn’t see Uluru or Kata Tjuta like we should’ve been able to, it was only when we were almost at Kata Tjuta that we could finally see it. And again, it was amazing. A step up from Kings Canyon for sure. We set off for our hike, of over 7km, at around 9:15am. A good thing since there are warning signs saying the hike is closed after 11am because of extreme temperatures (36C/97F). The flies were much worse here. When we stopped a few times for an educational speech by Joel I covered my face with an extra t-shirt I’d brought just for that. Of course, there was the option of wearing a fly net, but they are hot and not cool and expensive ($7+)! Half way through the hike we stopped for a snack of fruit cake, cookies, and crackers. Well earned. On the way back to the bus the flies were getting pretty awful. I could tolerate them except when they crawled in my ears or up my nose. They just tickle so much. Sometime during the hike I realized that my $2NZ sunglasses had cracked. RIP sunnies. We ended up waiting on the bus for some stragglers and Joel made a thong call to Bruce, the head fly, and together they negotiated that the flies would let up after sunset. Deal. We played hangman to pass the time as well. At this time Anton, from Holland, smashed his bottle of red wine on the bus, and it made a big mess. It was cleaned up successfully with toilet paper though.
Next stop was lunch of leftover chili con carne wrapped in tortillas at the Uluru Cultural Centre. Driving in to the cultural centre I had my first glimpse of Uluru and damn was it awesome! I just couldn’t look away. After lunch we had an hour to explore the Cultural Centre. An hour wasn’t nearly enough time, but I still learned quite a bit about the history of the rock, some aboriginal stories/myths surrounding it’s creation, and also a little about the fauna in the area. One cool thing that I wish I would’ve had more time to look at was this binder full of letters called “The Book of Regret.” The letters were all from people who’d visited Uluru at some point and taken a piece of it (like a rock or something) and then felt badly for doing so, mostly because misfortune had seemed to befallen them since taking part of the rock away from Uluru.
Next we took a very short walk at Uluru itself: the Mala Walk. This walk was guided by Joel and he told us all about the Mala people and their stories of the rock’s creation. He also spoke about Aboriginal art, some history, and the actual geological event that lead to Uluru and Kata Tjuta’s existence. He also talked about how you could climb Uluru and basically put across that you could if you wanted but it was greatly frowned upon by the Aboriginals and most other people for that matter. A few of the Germans didn’t get why it was such a bad thing. But when we were there the climb was closed because of the wind and warm temperatures. Everything seems to shut when the temp reaches 36C or higher. Fair I supposed, even though it didn’t feel bad at all to me in such a dry climate.
After the Mala Walk it was time to secure one of three seating areas at the bus tour sunset area. We pulled into the parking lot at the same time as a large coach of high school kids and ran out to claim the area. Success. Then we got the beers out and waited for the sun to set. We took a bunch of pictures, some silly, and had some snobby French girls comment, en francais, that they hated it when people did that (took silly pics). Kate heard her and asked pourquoi, but she either didn’t hear or ignored her. Bitch. The sun began to set and it was beautiful, we had a really nice view of the rock, and he had dinner out there. There were probably about a dozen, if not more, bus loads of people there. After the sun had set and darkness was setting in we went back to the campground, where there was a comfort station, and I think pretty much everyone had a shower. It felt good but totally killed my beer buzz! Then we laid our swags out in a circle and began playing the story game where one person tells a story and everyone else has to ask yes/no question to figure out why something in the story happened. It was good times and Ruben made his noise some more.
Day Three we got up at 5am to make it to the sunrise over the rock. Or guess it was in front of the rock so that as the sun gets higher in the sky the rock goes from a darker aubergine to a rich red color. We had breaky in the dark; someone contaminated the hot water with coffee within 5 minutes, and then watched the sun rise. I alternated between watching the rock change color and the actual sun rise. I think it was my 10th sunrise of 2009. Once the sun was properly up, we got back in the bus and were taken to the rock to do the Base Walk, another 2+ hour walk. But this time it was entirely flat and since it was early it was quite cool and there was a nice wind keeping the flies at bay. The walk was great and I could’ve taken much longer to just slowly walk around staring up at Uluru but about halfway around I had to go pee and the urge to go only got worse. By the end I was walking pretty slowly just because I had to really concentrate to hold it in and not pee all over myself! Luckily there were toilets at the car park (I’d been looking for a bush bathroom, but there was mostly only grass and skinny trees nearby).
Next stop was petrol fill up and collection of the German surfers’ boards, who were being let off at the Uluru airport. On the way we pulled over to the side of the road for a group pic. After the airport drop off we had a close to 5 hour drive back to Alice Springs. We stopped at a rest area with a great view of Mt Connor (the giant toothbrush) on one side and over a burnt orange sand dune an old salt lake on the other side. Both very cool. I was wearing a burnt orange Texas shirt that day and totally blended in. We stopped for lunch a few hours later and then at a camel farm. You could ride the camels (racing camels) around the paddock for $5, they walked and then ran, but there were also birds, a dingo, kangaroos, and llamas to check out. I was happy to finally see the dingo, he looked just like a dog, all chained up though. I feed a couple camels some hay too.
An hour later we were back in Alice and the first thing we did back at the hostel was jump in the pool and then shower. That night we all got back together for a group dinner/drink up at a local restaurant and then headed for a night on the town in Alice Springs. The bar was called Bojangles and it was heavily stylized after an old outback saloon. Pretty cool.
The next morning Kate left early for her flight to Perth and I had all day to relax in Alice before taking The Ghan train to Darwin. It is called ‘The Ghan” because before the railway was complete Afghans would transfer passengers on camel back from the end of the line to Alice Springs. I wandered about Alice CBD for a while and basically just chilled at the hostel before taking a shuttle to the train station. On the train I sat beside a smelly Briton and across the aisle I listened to an annoying American brag about where he had been to an unassuming Dutch guy. I got tired to listening to him pretty quick. The train ride went by pretty quickly to the first stop- Katherine- the next morning at 9am. The Outback had really changed since I went to sleep the night before. It went from semi-arid region (mostly sand on the ground with yellow grass, short shrubbery, clusters of trees around riverbeds) to more tropical looking (lots of green grass and lots of green trees and shrubs everywhere). I guess that makes sense since Katherine is considered to be in “the Top End,” and we had crossed the Tropic of Capricorn some time during the night.

Right now I’m posting this from Darwin and the next stop on my adventure is Bali, Indonesia. I’ve been itching to go to Southeast Asia for a while now and I am now making that dream a reality. I leave tomorrow evening, April 1, and am there for 3 weeks, flying back to Darwin April 21. Then who knows! So if there is no word from me in the next 3 weeks I’m either having too much fun to bother with the internet (leaving the laptop and a most of my clothing in Darwin) or you might need to contact the Canadian consulate… Just kidding!

PS I was going to post like a dozen awesome Outback pics, but blogger is taking forever! UGH!

Adelaide

The overnight bus was horrible. Well wait a sec, let me preface the negatives with the one positive: we had sweet seats; it was a double decker bus and we ended up with the top front seats, right above the driver. It was like we were in a very low flying aircraft. Okay so the negatives: I think part of it was because we left earlier and arrived earlier than the last one. The part was that there was a man sitting across the aisle from us whose phone kept ringing VERY loudly and he was sleeping right through it. It rang at least 5 times before he noticed it. The final part was that it was freeeezing on this bus. Luckily it was warm in Adelaide and I warmed up quickly. We got to the Adelaide bus depot right on time at 6am. We could see our hostel from the bus depot but reception didn’t open until 7am. After killing that hour we headed over, about 50m, and went inside. Of course they couldn’t check us in yet because they were booked solid and our beds wouldn’t be available until after 10am check out time, but we could put our stuff in the storage room, have breakfast, watch TV, hang out, etc. Fair enough. We went to check out this free breakfast they’d advertised for on the internet. It was white bread for toast, 3 kinds of jam, “spread” (think sort of like butter), powdered coffee, tea, full cream milk, fresh fruit, and pancakes. The pancakes were not what I envisioned, which was a cheery hostel worker in front of a griddle creating magical, fluffy pancakes for all until the batter ran out. Instead it was just a jug of batter and we were to make our own. I tried but it was tough without a non-stick pan or oil/butter. In the end I had some sort of pan cake type thing. After that we headed over a block to the Central Market, on 5 days of the week, and bustling with activity. There are fruit and vegetable stands, cheese, baked goods, the usual, at this market. Kate had read somewhere that this was the biggest produce market in the Southern Hemisphere, but we both thought that was very wrong; the market in Melbourne was much bigger. We both made a few purchases and then head back to the hostel. At this point we were both sleeping on our feet. Keeping my eyes open was the biggest struggle of all time it seemed. We went back to the hostel and waited another 1.5 hours before getting our beds. Then I slept for 3.5 hours. I could’ve slept all day. I forced myself to get up and walk around town. At first it seemed like a ghost town, especially coming from big and busy Melbourne, but then I got to Rundle Street and the city came alive. There were tons of people and buskers all over. The city definitely has that small city feel to it though. I wandered for a few hours and then came back for dinner and free apple pie (another feature of this hostel). It was not bad for being free. We were going to go out, or at least check out the hostel bar, but Kate feel asleep pretty earlier and I didn’t protest as I was pretty beat as well.
Somehow, we both managed to sleep at least 11hours. I got up and booked my Bali flights! Three weeks exactly, I am so excited! Then I head into town and checked out the Sunday Rundle Street market. It was small and seemed over priced to me. I am turning into a market veteran. Then I strolled through the Botanic Gardens and along the Torrens River for a bit before realizing I was still tired (probably from too much sleep) and a little bored. I went for a run later and that woke me up a little, but otherwise all I want to is lay about like a bum.
Today was Beach day even though I woke up feeling yuck. I finally got out to Glenelg around 1pm and headed straight for the beach. It was great: there was a nice breeze coming off the ocean, the sky was blue, and there were hardly any people on the beach! Kate joined me later and we went to get 2-4-1 ice cream at Andersen's (not Coppenhagen, haha). Then I went back to the beach, fell asleep for over an hour, read some more and then decided to start heading back towards the tram to the city. That's when I had a seashell overload! I was just going to dip my feet in the water and walk along the beach, but then I saw the shells and went a little bit nuts! haha I made myself go quickly but still managed to end up with 2 handfulls. I sat on some rocks at one end of the beach and sorted through them, taking only the most beautiful of course, hahaha.

St. Paddy's and more Melbin

First- Happy Belated St Paddy’s Day! I say Paddy instead of Patrick now because of all of the Irish people I’ve been hanging around.
Second- We did go for Round 3 on Sunday night… Diva had found a ‘What’s Happening’ section in a local mag that said there was good dancing at First Floor on Sunday nights starting at 11pm. We got there at 11pm, first ones in the entire place, and had a few beers thinking things would pick up. They didn’t, but we had a good time anyways, made friends on the street, and got to see the “hip” area of Melbourne- Brunswick Street in Fitzroy.
Monday was St. Paddy’s Day rest day. In the morning I had an awesome 50min run along the river though and then had an excellent cappuccino. Then we all went to the soup place in the alley (that sounds good, haha) and had a giant bowl of soup for lunch each. Then I wandered around town for a bit. I found the biggest supermarket I’ve seen in Australia yet and a self-serve Japanese Bakery type place called “Bread Top.” I also spent about an hour in a book store reading up on Bali! I hadn’t been feeling to hot after the soup and so lay down for a bit while the girls went back up to Fitzroy for dinner. Later, upon their return we decorated t-shirts for Paddy’s Day, all of which included our names with an O in front: O’Cory, O’Guthrie, O’Gill (for Kate, she made the apostrophe a little R), and O’Liz-Core for myself since O’Wycliffe sounds not good. We also all put a maple leaf or Canadian flag and our team name: Bike Gang (from the Byron days when we all rode our bikes everywhere and rang our bells at strangers and had different attack formations). We also included various lewd jokes.
Tuesday was the big day we’d been waiting for; I think I was more excited about St. Paddy’s than my birthday. It was my first St Paddy’s Day that I could properly celebrate in true let’s-drink-too-much-and-all-day Irish style since in years past I always had a big swim meet in mid/late March since the age of 18. So we went to PJ O’Brien’s, which was THE place to be apparently, at 2pm. The place had had a big traditional Irish breakfast that morning at 8am (for 30 bones) and so it is thought some people had been there since then. When we arrived there was no line to get in but it was already quite full. We all got a pint by 2:30 and let the celebrations begin! It was early decided that we should all stick to the rule of 1 pint or drink per hour, and after either 2 or 3 pints I had to take an hour off already. Weak Liz, weak. We met up with a couple of our new Irish friends, namely Paula (who’d we met in Queenstown, NZ. Oh the magic of Queenstown), and some other friends from Byron who were also in Melbourne. Dancing and drinking and general debauchery continued for the next couple hours. A steady stream of Irish folk singers, bagpipes, and traditional Irish dancers performed on the little stage the bar had set up. I found a Guinness hat and wore that for a while until it was stolen by an Irish guy. A cougar joined our group for a little while, that was interesting. A $6 leprechaun type hat was sold for $15 and then returned for free because the girl who paid the $15 chin was hurting from the strap. Around 9pm Diva was feeling sick, as in head cold-congestion sick not barfy, so her and Laurie went home. Kate and I continued on until she left around 10 to join friends at The Joint (our hostel’s bar), and I stayed on to dance my face off with Paula. I think I left a little after 11pm to find Kate and go to bed. Mission accomplished after a half bag of Burger Rings (think burger flavored funyons). In bed by midnight and satisfied with my first true St Paddy’s Day!
Wednesday we rose early and after a somewhat slow start (will not get into gritty details here) we were on the road to the Great Ocean Road for the day! Once on the road, through Geelong and Tourquay, we stopped at Bells Beach because that’s where a major surf competition is going to be held in mid-April. Diva and Laurie are probably going to fly back down for a few days to spectate (next year they’ll be wildcard entries, just you wait!). It was our first taste of Ocean for a while so it looked beautiful (little did we know what awaited us in the following hours of the day). Next stop was the small town of Anglesea for a snack and cold medicine for Diva. Unfortunately, this was also where the keys were locked in the trunk (crisis averted by driver’s window being open enough for Diva’s skinny arms to reach the unlock button) and Diva realized she’d lost her credit card. A quick phone call later she was relieved to discover that it’d been left at the car rental place and that they would deliver it to the hostel since we were returning the car after their office closed. Phew. Next we drove straight out the 12 Apostles (originally named the Sow and Piglets, renamed to perhaps sound more majestic) and boy was it worth it! The whole long day was worth it, the coastline was beautiful and the short time when the road takes you inland was all through eucalyptus forests that smell amazing and reminded me of Tasmania. We returned to Melbourne CBD around 8pm, had dinner, and said our Goodbyes, as Diva and Laurie had an early flight in the morning. Diva’s credit card hadn’t been delivered so the plan was that I would go get it in the morning and then mail it to her in Byron.
I was awoken at 7am by a text message from Diva saying the car rental guy had met her at the airport and given her her credit card! Now that’s service! Haha
After a painful run and what seemed like forever for me to sort my shit out, I was off to the Queen Victoria Markets (on 5 days a week) in the midst of a warm and sunny day, finally! The markets made such an impression on me that I decided I could live here, as in have a real job and life here, not live here and be a backpacker with no money. So I might look for a real job in Melbourne closer to my visa’s end (Don’t worry Mom, I will still be home for Christmas!). The markets were a lot like St Lawrence in Toronto but had more of everything. A whole building for just cheese, bakery stuff, and deli stuff; another building for just meat and seafood; Two separate outdoor covered areas for organic and non-organic produce (the regular produce was wickedly cheap); a huge outdoor covered area full of clothing, shoes, accessories, leather goods, souvenirs, watches, jewelry, beauty products, candy, etc; and finally little cafes all along the outside of all this. Remarkable.
After a good 90mins at the markets I went back to the self-serve Japanese bakery and treated myself to a coconut roll. Yummy. Then hit a café for coffee and internet.
Last night was our last night in Melbourne. Kate was still feeling the effects of St Paddy’s Day, but I wanted to go out and met up with a friend for more night of not enough sleep. Finally hit up Lord of the Fries today for a “French Canadian” aka poutine! It was soooo good! Tonight we take another glorious overnight bus to Adelaide, arriving at 6am tomorrow morning!

Happy Birthday to ME!

On Friday night after arriving and having some dinner, Paula joined us at our hostel and we drank some goon and went out hoping to meet up with the Irish lads (minus 1) we’d met in Queenstown. It was our only chance to see them as they were leaving for Sydney (and apparently a superior St Paddy’s Day celebration) on Saturday. Since it was dark and we had only just got to the city that morning we didn’t really know where we were going, but eventually found a bar with no cover charge and live music. The band was pretty good, played an interesting mix of things including BackStreet Boys “BackStreet’s Back.” We met some Aussie dudes on the dance floor that I decided were lame, and well I thought the whole place was kinda lame after the band stopped. Throughout all this Kate and Paula were texting back and forth with the Irish guys, trying to figure out where they were and telling them to meet up with us. They kept saying they were ‘in transport,’ which we took to mean as they were in the progress of going from point A to point B. Eventually I looked at one of these texts and said I think that the name of the bar is Transport. Duh. Haha. So we found out where it was and went there. The rest of the night was mayhem as per usual with the Irish fellas. We met there a few of their friends, also Irish, who will be in Melbourne for St Paddy’s, sweet! Anyway, I was given a few Birthday drinks (it was well after midnight by this point) and a tequila shot that did me in (didn’t puke! Just started drinking water after that, haha). We ended up all going over to the bar under our hostel “The Joint” for a little dancing and more fun. It was a good night and ended late- 5am! A couple people ended up sleeping on our hostel room floor, how they got past the Nazi security at this place is a mystery to me.

I slept late on my birthday and shortly after waking got a call from Mom, Dad, and Julia. It was awesome and so great to hear their voices. A little later Laurie and Diva called, it was great to hear form them too. Shortly into the call Laurie asked if she could call me right back, I said sure. Then there was a knock on our door and Kate answered it and it was Laurie and Diva!! BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER! The three of them pulled the whole thing off and I had NO IDEA! Before we left Byron we had all planned on meeting up in Melbourne this week, but when we were Sydney I’d emailed Diva and Laurie and they said that Diva couldn’t afford it right now and that someone had just been fired at Laurie’s work and so she wasn’t going to be able to get the time off to come down. I bought it all! I was so surprised to see them standing there (didn’t help that I was pretty much still drunk, haha). So after the excitement of their arrival they checked in and then we went out for a 2pm breakfast and then wandered around the city for a few hours. It was cold and rainy and I wasn’t feel too hot from the night before so came back to the hostel around 4 for a shower and nap. The hot water wasn’t working at our floor and reception just told me to keep trying all the floors, so I found hot water 2 floors up. Odd.
We went out to dinner at a place called “Spaghetti Tree,” they didn’t do doggie bags, which was very weird, but I got to blow out a candle and eat cake and ice cream! After dinner we met up with Paula (who’d been drinking since 5pm! It was now about 11) got more goon, put on my Diva-made birthday tiara, and then went back to Transport. We hit the dance floor hard and hilarity followed in the form of a cardboard cactus. We wanted to go to another bar but everyone we asked ‘where to go’ weren’t from Melbourne and didn’t know. We ended up back at The Joint, danced a little, and then went back to our room for a goon break. That was the end for Kate, and after a dog pile we went back downstairs for more dancing. The place was a lot busier then the night before, which was good, but after Diva and Laurie came in from their dart they wanted to go to bed too. Booooo, it was only 3:30am! And the bar was open until 7! Haha
What a night!

This morning we hit St Kilda Beach. It was a cute little corner of Melbourne, unfortunately the weather was sucky again, raining and cold for the second day in a row. We walked a lot, sometimes in the wrong direction, and I ended up coming back to the city ahead of the girls to get groceries, while they went out for Asian cuisine. I think it’ll be a easy night, but who knows, round 3 could happen!

Bondi Beach to Canberra

Bondi Beach to Canberra

I think I left off with the move to Bondi Beach and the forth coming Gay Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras was awesome! Kate was out and about in the city all day and I spent some time on the beach and then met her at Paddington Market on Oxford Street. The market was okay (Byron’s is better!) and there were a few vendors with really beautiful leather wares. After the market we headed down the street to the parade area, stopping in briefly at Sportsgirl (a clothing and accessories store) to use their “try me” make up samples, and then finding a spot near the barricades to watch the parade. It was about 4:45 when we claimed our spot and the parade wasn’t supposed to start for another 3 hours at 7:45. We were told to get their early if we wanted to be able to see anything and we were not taking any chances. At around 6 we started drinking (we had each filled out nalgene bottles with goon) and by 7 were just rolling. At around that time I went on a mission to find food and came back with a giant take-a-way container of beef nachos. My stomach hurts just thinking about them. I got back just in time for the parade to start and for the next 2 hours I saw some interesting things… nothing like men in eyeliner and tights, let me tell you, Haha. It was definitely worth the long wait. Afterwards we headed up the street to meet up with up with Paula, an Irish girl we’d met in Queenstown, NZ, and couple of her friends. We all went down to a quiet corner of Sydney to a little pub and just sat and talked for a few hours. Eventually, we headed back to Oxford street and caught the bus back to Bondi.
On Sunday it rained ALL day and it was yuck. We hit up the markets in the morning before the rain started, but after that just stayed inside all day. I did go for a run in the late afternoon in the pouring rain. The rain was coming down so hard at one point that it was stinging my face. I was drenched after about 5 minutes. It felt great though, the temperature was perfect, and I figured that of all the people in the world who have ever visited Bondi Beach and done the Eastern Beaches walk between Bondi and Bronte a very very very select few of them have actually seen it in weather like that. With the wind blowing quite hard the surf was really crashing against the rocks below and the spray was coming up pretty high too. We finished the goon that night and tried to go out in Bondi Beach. But it was a Sunday night and everything was closed except the Bondi Hotel and they were charging the stupid Sunday surcharge of an extra 10% or something. Garbage. So after 2 drinks we asked the bouncer if there was anywhere else to go in Bondi on a Sunday and he said World Bar in Kings Cross! The place we’d been on Thursday night causing trouble! So that was the end of our night, since it was still raining and we didn’t want to take the bus into the city.
The next day the weather was still a little crappy but I did the full Eastern Beaches walk to Coogee beach and back anyways. There was part of it that goes through this massive cemetery on the hillsides overlooking the ocean. With the overcast skies and crashing waves below it was really eerie. That night was our last night in Bondi and Sydney. We decided to make it count and go back in to Kings Cross. We started off the night in our dorm room with a bottle of wine each and the Will Ferrell Best of SNL DVD. Magical. Then we caught the bus into the city and went to O’Malley’s Irish Pub for some live music and beer. When Kate went off the bathroom she told the two guys standing near us to “keep my friend company.” They ended up being really cool and we hung out all night. One was from England and only in Sydney for about 48 hours because he was actually staying at a friend’s in Melbourne. The other was from small town Ohio but lived in Thailand and was only in Sydney for the night as well. They had met in their hostel room at BASE. Oh Base. Somehow we ended up in Sydney CBD with these guys, I guess it was the free beers they kept buying us? When we decided we’d had enough and it was time to go home, the guys of course told us to “just come stay at base with us tonight.” HA! That didn’t happen. We made it back to the street where the bus could be caught and Kate bought pizza and I had a bite. Bad choices. When the bus rolled up I was bent over, trying to make myself puke but couldn’t. We boarded the bus and the end of the world sort of happened. First Kate threw-up in her hands and down her shirt and in her lap. A few minutes later I threw-up in my hands/on to my legs and shoes. We blame it on those awful boys and the rickety bus ride. When we got back to the hostel I immediately went into the shower and rinsed my shoes and bag (oh yeah, my bag was in my hands when I puked into them) and then showered. I had put the contents of my bag on my backpack and when I returned to the room couldn’t find my phone and thus convinced myself it was lost forever and went to sleep sad. I found it on top of my backpack in the morning. Wreaking of vomit, we made our way to the Greyhound depot in Sydney CBD the next day and got on a bus and made it to Canberra. Kate’s Uncle picked us up and since then it has been a relaxing time in a beautiful home. We’ve been enjoying delicious food and drink, and the luxury of a washing machine!
We hit up the National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery of Australia yesterday, both maginifcent! Then met up with Uncle Jon for a treat at the 'chocolate place' in the CBD: Koko Black. I had the best iced chocolate Mocha of my life! haha I went back to the house after that and stabbed myself in the palm while cutting open an avocado. I was concerned for a few minutes until it stopped bleeding. It's fine now.
Last night we were off on an overnight bus to Melbourne. The ride went by fast for myself and I figured I slept for about 6 hours of the possible ~9.
When we arrived at around 8:30am we walked for like 8 blocks to our hostel, got a sweet deal b/c of our Byron connections, and then took a 3 hour nap.
The first night of Melbourne March Mayhem starts tonight in celebration of Friday the 13th and the eve of my Birthday! YAY!

Syd-Syd-Sydney

The four nights in Sydney went by pretty quickly. After spending Tuesday at Bondi, Wednesday was my exploration day. I strolled down to Circular Quay through The Domain and The Royal Botanic Gardens (great herb garden!), took in the Opera House and Harbor Bridge, The Rocks, and eventually made my way back through the CBD and Hyde Park. I also paid a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art and was lucky enough to see an the exhibition on by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. She seems to have dabbled in everything: painting, sculpture, film, performance art, poetry, and even installations. There were two mirrored room installations; in both the walls were all mirrors and there is only about a 1m by 4m place to stand. You are ushered into the rooms by a museum employee and the door is shut behind you. In the first room the floor was water and the ceiling was also mirrors. Hanging from the ceiling at various lengths were tiny lights, like Christmas tree lights. With the door shut and the all the mirrors the result is astounding, like you’re amongst the very stars themselves. In the second room the ceiling was white lighting and the floor was 3D stuffed figures in white and red fabric. It was also really cool. When you were waiting in line for the rooms it seemed like the time spent in the room behind the closed door was very short, but when you were actually in there it seemed like waaaaay longer. Crazy good. Of course the gift shop didn’t have any of her prints or postcards.
Yesterday we went to Manly Beach for the day. It was a beautiful day and great to spend it on the beach. When we returned to Circular Quay I took a chance and ventured into the CBD to get the Vans sandals I had seen the previous day (it was a chance because it was almost 6pm, the usual closing time for most shops). Karma or luck or something must’ve been on my side because once I got to the store it was after 6 but open until 9! YAY! New shoes! I wore them home and couldn’t stop looking at my feet the whole way! The only downside is that they squeak like mad, but that should go away after they are properly broken in.
So last night we finally felt ready to go out (Kate and I have both been a little sick in the past week with colds) and boy did we pick a good night! We started the night off with goon and Jeopardy and finally meeting the two 21 year old Canadian boys who we shared a room with (On a side note, there was a Frenchman in our room who seemed to sleep 20 hours a day. He’d go to bed early, sleep late, and then take naps. It seemed like he was always sleeping. He questioned about his sleeping behavior he replied that he had worked hard in France and was now relaxing. Boring! He also didn’t want to go out at night because he didn’t want to pay for it. ) Anyway, this girl Yazmin who once lived/worked/stayed at the hostel arrived at took us to World Bar (same one as the one in Queenstown) where she works or used to work, and got us all to the front of the line and then a good many jugs of free beer (jug = pitcher). Then the Canadian boys insisted on buying a round of teapots (girly, sweet as shit cocktail, that comes in a teapot with a shot glass. You’re supposed to pour yourself shots and share the teapot, but everyone mostly just drinks it out of the spout of the pot. I spilt a lot of mine at first and got laughed at and told to be careful by a 21 year old, haha). So the dancing began after that and that lasted for hours. In the meantime, Kate somehow got Paula (an Irish lass we’d met in Queenstown) to skip the line and into the club, and while she was out there doing that sees the guys who we knew in Byron and had randomly ran into in Surfers Paradise and partied with, waiting in line. Crazy! So by then we had a nice little group going and I had had enough dancing and needed to “hide” from “someone” so crawled into a dark corner of this big couch while Kate, Doug, Dan, and Paula played dumb as to my whereabouts. Crisis seemingly averted I came out of hiding a little prematurely, but the hint seemed to be had by then anyways. The rest of night is a blur of good times, more dancing, decent music, lots of water, and more odd run ins. We returned to the hostel at 4am, slept for about 3 hours, and then checked out, took the train and bus to Bondi, and then sat around waiting for our beds to be ready. Once that was set, I headed to the beach and jumped in the ocean hoping to cure my hangover. Then enjoyed the gorgeous weather and even more gorgeous eye candy on the beach for the next coupe hours!
Tomorrow night is Mardi Gras in Sydney and should be a hoot! Toot toot!

Back in OZ!

First things first- I’m back in Australia! Sydney at the moment, staying here for a week and then moving on.

Before we left Rotorua I had a chance to check out the other geothermal area and it was much more impressive. It helped that it was a sunny day too. I also had ice cream for breakfast that day, haha. Then we took another Intercity Coach to Auckland, it was a short trip and we had to switch buses half way in Hamilton, and the second bus ended up being totally full. It was the first time I had to share a seat for the whole time I’d been in New Zealand. Neither of the bus drivers commentated, sad face, and on the second bus a nasty 12 year old boy sitting behind me played 3+ year old rap music for everyone to hear. Once in Auckland, we took the free CBD bus to our hostel and checked in, and then headed to the bar to meet Ashley Burns’s boyfriend, Luke. He gave us some suggestions on where to go in town, so with those in mind we strolled around the main street- Queen Street- and along the harbor front. It was nice to be on the ocean again. Back at the hostel Luke hooked us up with a free dinner of Bangers and Mash- I hadn’t had mashed potatoes and gravy in so long! It was a real treat, even though I was soooo full afterwards. Ashley came by and we got to catch up on the last almost 7 years! It was surreal. Since she’d spent some time living in Sydney I asked her a bunch of questions about what to do and see.
The next morning I got up around 8:30 and went for a longish run along the waterfront, about 40mins. The warmer temperatures and sun was a nice change from the past few days. After that we went on a hunt for breakfast and then took one of the inner-harbor ferries across to Devonport. The tourism literature makes it sound almost like a historic village so I was a little surprised to see a few chain stores there, but it was otherwise quite quaint. We walked up Mt Victoria, an extinct volcano, and got a fabulous view of everything: the Auckland City skyline, the harbor, and the surrounding islands, all of which are also extinct volcanoes. Most, actually more likely all, of New Zealand is there because of volcanic and other tectonic plate activity, since it sits on the barrier of the Australian and Pacific plates, and they are said to be moving against/away from each other at a significant rate, causing volcanoes in the area to still erupt from time to time (one erupted in the late 1990s).
So down the mountain we visited Devonport Chocolates where the sample of the day was the Chili Lime Chocolate Truffle log. The chili added a nice kick. Kate and I each bought ourselves an additional truffle; they were delicious. After that we walked along the beaches a little, dipped our feet in the ocean just to say we did in New Zealand at least once (actually wasn’t that cold, I think Tasmania was colder), and I had a chance to collect some shells! There were lots of pretty cool ones! Hahaha
After taking the ferry back to the city we wandered a bit more and then collected our bags to go to the airport. We took the Airbus Express, which is supposed to come every 15 minutes, but we waited over 45 minutes for one to show up. Then it took another hour to get to the airport, and then we waited an hour in line to check-in. But let me tell you, it was all worth it because we flew Emirates and it was fucking sweet as! The plane was giant (it was bound for Dubai after Sydney) and had two levels, we were on the bottom level but only about 5 or 6 rows from the front of the plane. The seats all had personal screens in the seatbacks, with hundreds of movies, TV shows, sports, news, radio, games, etc to choose from. You could even pay $1 to email or SMS! We were given hot towels before take off and a full meal during the flight. AND if you can believe it, it was the cheapest flight we could find! I didn’t want to get off the plane and joked about going to Dubai… but will for sure be flying Emirates again and hopefully on a flight longer than 3hours. Never thought I’d say that.
Once in Sydney we got through customs and my nemesis Australian Quarantine really quickly and then stopped at a free internet kiosk (couldn’t resist) where we met a guy from Toronto who’d just been on our flight. Then we found the train and hopped on and met two Queens Graduates! Once we reached our stop some awful Aussie man tried to show us where to go but he was completely wrong and pointed us in the wrong direction, luckily we noticed immediately and turned around. At the hostel we checked in- probably met someone else from Canada, can’t really remember, there are too many Canadians in Sydney, haha- and then made ourselves comfortable.

Today nothing much happened. Took a trip to Woolies for groceries, I hit the free wifi at MacDonald’s and had a surprisingly very good cappuccino there, while Kate went for a wander. Later I went to Bondi Beach. I had to walk a few blocks to the next train station because for some unbeknownst reason the Kings Cross Station was “closed.” But I made it to the beach and it was great to have my feet back in the sand J Bondi seemed more built up and smaller than the last/ only other time I’d been (in 2001). I think that all the time spent on the never-ending beaches of Byron has spoiled me.

P.S. Some bad news- Queensland Tourism are morons and did not shortlist me as one of top 50 candidates for their so-called “Best Job in the World,” their loss I suppose ;) I guess I will just go on up there for a few months anyways because, well, I CAN.