So, I made it to Italy. I spent the last two days in Luzern, Switzerland and it was beautiful. I spent a full day walking into and around the old town, which unfortunately has been modernized with modern mall type stores, which differ from the little tiendas they had ten years ago. However, I found the hotel (i think) that mom and aunt peggy and i stayed at ten years ago right on the river-lake water way. The current of the river amazed me, it was so fast. I felt like if i fell in I would be in the Adriatic Sea in no time (assuming that it eventually connected with it).
The hostels in Europe are far different than the ones in Australia. The main difference is that none of them have kitchens for public use, which is a huge downer. Im used to being able to buy cheap food and cook it myself, but so far I've spent close to 200 dollars on food alone because I have to buy all my meals, so I'm doing two meals a day and a snack in the middle to conserve money.
I've also been doing a bunch of reading. Primarily for my job which starts in Chicago on September 8th. I just finished The Essays of Warren Buffet: Lessons for Corporate America, and I actually enjoyed it. That Buffet has a keen sense of humor, let me tell you. And he always throws in these wacky analogies which seem to make everything into perfect sense. I didn't understand a lot of the accounting chapter, which was the last chapter, but I'll cover that with my parents when I get back to Michigan.
As of now I have ten days left in Italy, but I am finding it difficult to get up and do things every day. The last two months have finally caught up to me (Australia, moving, driving to Michigan from San Diego, cruise and now backpacking through Europe on my own). I think it'd be more fun to do it with a friend.
I met a guy at the hostel tonight in Florence who's from San Luis Obispo, about two hours north of LA, which is neat. I also met a guy from New Zealand who's moving to Sienna, Italy to become a wine maker. (Neat) So he and I bought two bottles of wine to compare, one for 2.5 euro and one for 5 euro. The 2.5 euro wine was bright purple, and had a super sweet taste, but it was alright. Unfortunately I now have a very purple tongue.
I departed from them, because they went and got pizza with two guys from France, and I came to find an internet. The internet here is much more reasonably priced. I bought 5 hours for 5 euro, as opposed to Switzerland, which was more or less, 6 swedish francs (about 6 dollars) for half an hour. Unreal, right?
Anyways, so far so good. I'm going to go hunt down some gelato now and head to bed. Miss all you back home, and can't wait to get back to the good ol' U S of A.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The Baltic Sea & Amsterdam
So here we go again. ! I just finished a ten day cruise around the baltic sea, with my parents and my aunt. We traveled from Copenhagen [Denmark] to Stockholm [Sweden] to Helsinki [Finland] to St. Petersberg [Russia] to Tallin [Estonia] to Gdansk/Gdynia [Poland] to Warramunde/Berlin [Germany] and then returned to Copenhagen.
Our first full day was spent at Sea, on our way to Stockholm, and I spent the first 7 hours of that day...puking. I learned my lesson, for the most part, but was just sad to spend my only day at sea, which should have been spent out by the pools sipping pina coladas, was spent in my room. :[ Props to my dad for taking care of me all day :) In mid-afternoon, I forced myself to be social and went to a wine-tasting lesson thing. However, I found the wines appalling, probably for various reasons, and left after the third glass. Have no fear though, my aunt and mom didn't let any wine go to waste.
In Stockholm, we did a hop on - hop off bus for a couple hours, and attempted to go to the Ice Bar, but were refused entry because they were only allowing those who had purchased a cruise tour package to enter at that time. Oh well, it just made me glad I visited the one in Melbourne. We also got to do a short boat ride around the harbor, as well as see the Vasa Museum. The Vasa Museum is home to the only entact warship, because warships were either blown to bits or sank to the bottom of the ocean. However, the Vasa was special because, due to the amazing builders and craftsman and planners of the ship, it sank within the first ten minutes of her maiden voyage. Therefore, they just hauled it out of the water, and now it's in an amazing museum for all to see. Could you imagine...after spending months and probably years planning and building a ship...that it just up and keels over within ten minutes? Mmm, think of all that wasted money. Anyways, I loved the city, itself. I felt Stockholm was amazingly beautiful, and was my favorite of the Northern Europe countries.
In Helsinki, we all did the Helsinki City & Cuisine Tour, where we toured the city. Unfortunately (or not so unfortunately -- it depends which way you look at it), I slept the entire bus ride. I woke up just in time for the "cuisine" part of the tour. We got to taste customary Finish traditions, which revolves around fishies. Lots and lots of smoked and marinated fishies. Poor nemo. :( Anyways, that was about it for Helsinki.
In St. Petersberg, we had two full days. My first day, I got to sleep in and in the afternoon I toured two palaces, although more or less, they're just museums now. The neat thing was that I got to see the exact cellar where Rasputin was poisoned. That was my dorky moment of the trip. However, it was quite tacky...they had up a wax exhibit of Rasputin, the duke who "attempted to" poison him and later "shot" him (from which he jumped up from the floor and ran out to the garden)...after which he was actually fatally wounded. Anyways, overall I thought it was a neat exhibit. I was rushed back to the boat at 5:30 and met up with the fam for dinner. That evening, my mom, aunt, paul (an awesome guy I met on the boat) and I went to a Russian Folk Dancing/Singing show. The dancing was unbelievable, except the typical thing for female dancers to do often is to yelp...which got quite obnoxious after awhile. But paul liked the yelps...or so he says. The singing, on the other hand, was alright, but really slow so I kept falling asleep. Day Two in Russia was spent at the Hermitage. I got to see two original paintings of Madonna by Leonardo Da Vinci, a sculpture by Michelangelo, and numerous Picasso, Rembrant, Matisse and El Greco. I thought it was pretty neat. I had some seriously obnoxious people in my group, though, which kind of put a damper on things. For instance, one of Da Vinci's paintings was "Madonna and Child", where a baby is sucking on the breast. And this woman behind me is like "ohhhh the emotion, you can feel the emotion" and she's like screaming it. And then she tells her husband "how cute is it that he's sucking on his thumb" to which he expertly replied "hunny, thats not a thumb, its a bottle" to which I replied, without a hint of annoyance I assure you, "it's a breast", before promptly walking away.
Anyways, moving on. Tallin, Estonia was pretty sweet. The city is a teeny cobblestoned street town on the Baltic Sea, with amazing architecture and lifestyles that belong to both the old times and newer modern times. I found it amazing that Estonia has just recently gained their independence (1991, I believe) and yet there cities have already been rebuilt in their post-Soviet domination era. Tallin was one of my favorite towns. :]
Gdansk, Poland was another one of my favorite tours/cities. Gdansk is located about an hours drive inland from Gdynia on the Baltic Sea. We were taken to the "main drag" where there was a marathon going on. Apparently roller blading is a huge thing there, because the majority of people who participated were riding blades. There was also numerous street vendors and cafes and shops to go to, and the tour lady pretty much gave us 2 hours of free time to do as we pleased.
The following day, my aunt and I endured a 3 hours each way train trip from the coast into Berlin. It ended up being a whole day trip, but we only got to spend 5 hours in the city, which was okay by me. I got to see the things I wanted to see, and after a couple hours I had wished I could have gone off on my own. However, I got to see the Berlin Wall remains (I even gave in to my tourist political-science major side of me and bought a piece for like 18 dollars), go on a canal tour of the city and see Checkpoint Charlie (which wasn't all that awesome). The highlight of my day came as a surprise. As part of our tour, we did a tour of the Jewish Museum, which had multiple exhibits that detailed the history of Jewish/German relations. My favorite exhibit was this art piece that took place in a "void". It's very difficult to explain this museum because everything has symbolism, but it was filled with these dead-end hallways and gaps between walls that were called voids, to symbolize the void Germany felt after the execution of 6 million Jewish people. This one void was lit by only a small sliver of light, and the floor was covered with hundreds upon hundreds of metal faces. They had been crudely cut and featured different shapes and sizes, some with two eyes, others with eyes or mouths filled in with a piece of metal. Anyways, the piece was very moving, and everyone was invited by the artist to walk on the floor of faces. As the faces clinked together, the metal clanking was the only sound you could hear. That exhibit alone made this museum one of my favorite museums I've ever visited.
We returned to Copenhagen (sadly) and spent a day in Copenhagen, with a few of my Aunt's friends who live a couple hours out of the city. On the 18th, Paul, his sister Claire, and his parents and I said our goodbyes, but we know we'll see each other again, because they live only a couple miles from my Aunt up in Danville. Anyways, overall the cruise was pretty amazing, to say the least, and I didn't even get to talk about how awesome all the food was.
As most of you know, I'm now in Amsterdam. I got here yesterday after traveling on trains from 7 am to 8 pm, and having a pretty awesome time. The weather could be a little nicer. I feel we lucked out on either getting lightly rained on or missing the rain on our cruise, but it's been a nice couple of rainy days here in Amsterdam. I leave tomorrow for Switzerland, and will either spend a night or a few hours in Zurich before heading to Luzern. Then I'll be spending the remainder of my time in Italy. Lucky me :] Hope everyone's having good summers. I'll write more from Switzerland :)
Our first full day was spent at Sea, on our way to Stockholm, and I spent the first 7 hours of that day...puking. I learned my lesson, for the most part, but was just sad to spend my only day at sea, which should have been spent out by the pools sipping pina coladas, was spent in my room. :[ Props to my dad for taking care of me all day :) In mid-afternoon, I forced myself to be social and went to a wine-tasting lesson thing. However, I found the wines appalling, probably for various reasons, and left after the third glass. Have no fear though, my aunt and mom didn't let any wine go to waste.
In Stockholm, we did a hop on - hop off bus for a couple hours, and attempted to go to the Ice Bar, but were refused entry because they were only allowing those who had purchased a cruise tour package to enter at that time. Oh well, it just made me glad I visited the one in Melbourne. We also got to do a short boat ride around the harbor, as well as see the Vasa Museum. The Vasa Museum is home to the only entact warship, because warships were either blown to bits or sank to the bottom of the ocean. However, the Vasa was special because, due to the amazing builders and craftsman and planners of the ship, it sank within the first ten minutes of her maiden voyage. Therefore, they just hauled it out of the water, and now it's in an amazing museum for all to see. Could you imagine...after spending months and probably years planning and building a ship...that it just up and keels over within ten minutes? Mmm, think of all that wasted money. Anyways, I loved the city, itself. I felt Stockholm was amazingly beautiful, and was my favorite of the Northern Europe countries.
In Helsinki, we all did the Helsinki City & Cuisine Tour, where we toured the city. Unfortunately (or not so unfortunately -- it depends which way you look at it), I slept the entire bus ride. I woke up just in time for the "cuisine" part of the tour. We got to taste customary Finish traditions, which revolves around fishies. Lots and lots of smoked and marinated fishies. Poor nemo. :( Anyways, that was about it for Helsinki.
In St. Petersberg, we had two full days. My first day, I got to sleep in and in the afternoon I toured two palaces, although more or less, they're just museums now. The neat thing was that I got to see the exact cellar where Rasputin was poisoned. That was my dorky moment of the trip. However, it was quite tacky...they had up a wax exhibit of Rasputin, the duke who "attempted to" poison him and later "shot" him (from which he jumped up from the floor and ran out to the garden)...after which he was actually fatally wounded. Anyways, overall I thought it was a neat exhibit. I was rushed back to the boat at 5:30 and met up with the fam for dinner. That evening, my mom, aunt, paul (an awesome guy I met on the boat) and I went to a Russian Folk Dancing/Singing show. The dancing was unbelievable, except the typical thing for female dancers to do often is to yelp...which got quite obnoxious after awhile. But paul liked the yelps...or so he says. The singing, on the other hand, was alright, but really slow so I kept falling asleep. Day Two in Russia was spent at the Hermitage. I got to see two original paintings of Madonna by Leonardo Da Vinci, a sculpture by Michelangelo, and numerous Picasso, Rembrant, Matisse and El Greco. I thought it was pretty neat. I had some seriously obnoxious people in my group, though, which kind of put a damper on things. For instance, one of Da Vinci's paintings was "Madonna and Child", where a baby is sucking on the breast. And this woman behind me is like "ohhhh the emotion, you can feel the emotion" and she's like screaming it. And then she tells her husband "how cute is it that he's sucking on his thumb" to which he expertly replied "hunny, thats not a thumb, its a bottle" to which I replied, without a hint of annoyance I assure you, "it's a breast", before promptly walking away.
Anyways, moving on. Tallin, Estonia was pretty sweet. The city is a teeny cobblestoned street town on the Baltic Sea, with amazing architecture and lifestyles that belong to both the old times and newer modern times. I found it amazing that Estonia has just recently gained their independence (1991, I believe) and yet there cities have already been rebuilt in their post-Soviet domination era. Tallin was one of my favorite towns. :]
Gdansk, Poland was another one of my favorite tours/cities. Gdansk is located about an hours drive inland from Gdynia on the Baltic Sea. We were taken to the "main drag" where there was a marathon going on. Apparently roller blading is a huge thing there, because the majority of people who participated were riding blades. There was also numerous street vendors and cafes and shops to go to, and the tour lady pretty much gave us 2 hours of free time to do as we pleased.
The following day, my aunt and I endured a 3 hours each way train trip from the coast into Berlin. It ended up being a whole day trip, but we only got to spend 5 hours in the city, which was okay by me. I got to see the things I wanted to see, and after a couple hours I had wished I could have gone off on my own. However, I got to see the Berlin Wall remains (I even gave in to my tourist political-science major side of me and bought a piece for like 18 dollars), go on a canal tour of the city and see Checkpoint Charlie (which wasn't all that awesome). The highlight of my day came as a surprise. As part of our tour, we did a tour of the Jewish Museum, which had multiple exhibits that detailed the history of Jewish/German relations. My favorite exhibit was this art piece that took place in a "void". It's very difficult to explain this museum because everything has symbolism, but it was filled with these dead-end hallways and gaps between walls that were called voids, to symbolize the void Germany felt after the execution of 6 million Jewish people. This one void was lit by only a small sliver of light, and the floor was covered with hundreds upon hundreds of metal faces. They had been crudely cut and featured different shapes and sizes, some with two eyes, others with eyes or mouths filled in with a piece of metal. Anyways, the piece was very moving, and everyone was invited by the artist to walk on the floor of faces. As the faces clinked together, the metal clanking was the only sound you could hear. That exhibit alone made this museum one of my favorite museums I've ever visited.
We returned to Copenhagen (sadly) and spent a day in Copenhagen, with a few of my Aunt's friends who live a couple hours out of the city. On the 18th, Paul, his sister Claire, and his parents and I said our goodbyes, but we know we'll see each other again, because they live only a couple miles from my Aunt up in Danville. Anyways, overall the cruise was pretty amazing, to say the least, and I didn't even get to talk about how awesome all the food was.
As most of you know, I'm now in Amsterdam. I got here yesterday after traveling on trains from 7 am to 8 pm, and having a pretty awesome time. The weather could be a little nicer. I feel we lucked out on either getting lightly rained on or missing the rain on our cruise, but it's been a nice couple of rainy days here in Amsterdam. I leave tomorrow for Switzerland, and will either spend a night or a few hours in Zurich before heading to Luzern. Then I'll be spending the remainder of my time in Italy. Lucky me :] Hope everyone's having good summers. I'll write more from Switzerland :)
Monday, July 14, 2008
Sex + Death, Crab Racing, and the Pope
So I'm leaving! Home I come! I figured I'd do one last post, since I have some time to kill.
To begin with, Sydney's pretty lame. It's just another big city, and once you've seen the opera house and the bridge, it ain't all that spectacular.
I spent yesterday wandering around town (again), and had lunch at the same place (and ordered the same thing), and then spent a couple hours walking around the botanical gardens, which brings me to the "sex + death" part of the title. I was walking (and walking and walking) and I came across this huge glass pyramid with plants in it. It was pretty neat. Then, as I walk closer, I notice that in flowers, right in front of the pyramid, it says "sex + death" and I mean it's huge. The "S", if I laid down next to it, would be longer than I am (5.5 feet), and all the other letters were in caps, as well. Anyways, I found it strange and amusing.
I bought two books on sale for 5 bucks. (I am so sick of spending 20 dollars for a book) And yes dad, I know "Why don't you just go to a library?" WELL! I did. The Melbourne Library doesn't even loan out books, and at other libraries I can't get a card because I'm not an Aussie Citizen. So there. And I was not about to lug around library books with me from back home, while I traveled.
Alright Crab Racing. The bar below the hostel in Sydney (Scu Bar), every monday night, does crab racing. Hermit crab racing. It's a giant circular platform, and the crabs start underneath a bowl in the middle of the platform. Once the bowl is lifted, the first crab that gets to the edge of the platform first, wins. Well, the bartender is from San Francisco, so he told me to pick crab 16. Well, crab 16 was taking his steroids because he just flew (and i mean FLEW) to the edge. It was the most spectacular crab race I've ever seen. And for the hard work of my awesome crab (who I named Flounder) I won a free day trip w/ a scuba dive. Unfortunately, I was leaving today, so there was no way for me to do it. So. I sold it. bwahahahaha. Being the amazing person I am. It was a 95 dollar value, and I sold it for 50 bucks plus a drink, so like a 55 dollar value. I was very pleased with my negotiating skills.
Anyways, other than crab racing, last night was pretty amazing. I hung out with a bunch of aussies and california people. A bunch of girls from UC-San Diego were out here for next semester, so they just got into Sydney for orientation, and start school next week. So last night was lots of fun.
Now, the last segment of the title. The friggin Pope is here. It's World Youth Day here in Sydney. Although it's a lie, it's world youth days (July 15th - July 20th), but it's also like World Youth WEEKS, because while I was in Melbourne all the kids (and adults -- "youth" is also a misconception) were there. It's a Christian extravaganza, and there's thousands of people everywhere with there red/yellow WYD SYD 08 backpacks. And everyone comes in 'teams" from their home countries, and walks around with their country flags and stuff. It wouldn't be so bad, except it's totally consuming Sydney. Plus all the streets are closed down for the Pope, and it's a good thing I don't have a car, otherwise it'd be super frustrating.
Anyways, I'm going to go grab some breakfast and head on home! Yay!
Oh, and for those of you who know Alex Shank, he got promoted to Full-time, Annual Salary, Jr. Programmer position. (He was a 3 - month intern before). So if you know him! Tell him Congratulations!!
To begin with, Sydney's pretty lame. It's just another big city, and once you've seen the opera house and the bridge, it ain't all that spectacular.
I spent yesterday wandering around town (again), and had lunch at the same place (and ordered the same thing), and then spent a couple hours walking around the botanical gardens, which brings me to the "sex + death" part of the title. I was walking (and walking and walking) and I came across this huge glass pyramid with plants in it. It was pretty neat. Then, as I walk closer, I notice that in flowers, right in front of the pyramid, it says "sex + death" and I mean it's huge. The "S", if I laid down next to it, would be longer than I am (5.5 feet), and all the other letters were in caps, as well. Anyways, I found it strange and amusing.
I bought two books on sale for 5 bucks. (I am so sick of spending 20 dollars for a book) And yes dad, I know "Why don't you just go to a library?" WELL! I did. The Melbourne Library doesn't even loan out books, and at other libraries I can't get a card because I'm not an Aussie Citizen. So there. And I was not about to lug around library books with me from back home, while I traveled.
Alright Crab Racing. The bar below the hostel in Sydney (Scu Bar), every monday night, does crab racing. Hermit crab racing. It's a giant circular platform, and the crabs start underneath a bowl in the middle of the platform. Once the bowl is lifted, the first crab that gets to the edge of the platform first, wins. Well, the bartender is from San Francisco, so he told me to pick crab 16. Well, crab 16 was taking his steroids because he just flew (and i mean FLEW) to the edge. It was the most spectacular crab race I've ever seen. And for the hard work of my awesome crab (who I named Flounder) I won a free day trip w/ a scuba dive. Unfortunately, I was leaving today, so there was no way for me to do it. So. I sold it. bwahahahaha. Being the amazing person I am. It was a 95 dollar value, and I sold it for 50 bucks plus a drink, so like a 55 dollar value. I was very pleased with my negotiating skills.
Anyways, other than crab racing, last night was pretty amazing. I hung out with a bunch of aussies and california people. A bunch of girls from UC-San Diego were out here for next semester, so they just got into Sydney for orientation, and start school next week. So last night was lots of fun.
Now, the last segment of the title. The friggin Pope is here. It's World Youth Day here in Sydney. Although it's a lie, it's world youth days (July 15th - July 20th), but it's also like World Youth WEEKS, because while I was in Melbourne all the kids (and adults -- "youth" is also a misconception) were there. It's a Christian extravaganza, and there's thousands of people everywhere with there red/yellow WYD SYD 08 backpacks. And everyone comes in 'teams" from their home countries, and walks around with their country flags and stuff. It wouldn't be so bad, except it's totally consuming Sydney. Plus all the streets are closed down for the Pope, and it's a good thing I don't have a car, otherwise it'd be super frustrating.
Anyways, I'm going to go grab some breakfast and head on home! Yay!
Oh, and for those of you who know Alex Shank, he got promoted to Full-time, Annual Salary, Jr. Programmer position. (He was a 3 - month intern before). So if you know him! Tell him Congratulations!!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Opera and Bridges.
So I made it to Sydney. The last two nights in Melbourne were awesome. The pub crawl we did was amazing. It went from about 7 pm to midnight, and we ended at a nightclub type spot called "eurotrash". Awesome name, yes? We also got to go to the ice bar, which was cool (literally and figuratively). The only down side to the pub crawl is that you end up spending way too much money on over priced drinks. The last night in Melbourne, we went to an AFL game (Aussie Football League), they call it footie. No, it's not like American football. No, it's not soccer. and No, it's not rugby. Basically, it's played in a huge oval (no lines drawn on it except two mini ovals, kind of like under the basket in basketball, but way bigger). The players are trying to kick this rugby-shaped ball through a series of poles (much like a field goal). There are four poles, and if somenoe can punt the ball through the middle two poles its 6 points, if it goes through either of the sides it's worth one point. They don't wear pads, and it's full on tackling. Anyways, it's probably not a very good explanation, but it took Annelise and myself three quarters to figure out the rules and logistics. The team I rooted for ended up losing, but almost made an amazing comeback in the fourth quarter, but then with ten minutes left, fell apart again. (Each quarter is 25 minutes long, but the clock never stops, so the refs add time to the end to account for the ball going out of bounds and what not). The ball, however, rarely goes out of bounds, because the oval is friggin huge. Anyways, I'm in sydney.
I went out last night to a couple clubs in Darling Harbour (Wallaby Bar, Chinese Laundry and Retro). Retro was this three story night club witha 20 dollar cover charge...but I ended up getting in for free because it happened to be "dyno white" night, so if you dressed in all white you got in for free....I was wearing a black/white shirt, jeans and a white hat, so the girl just let me go in. I was stoked. The floors all played different types of msuic. The first floor was liek retro rap and rock music from the 80s and 90s. The second floor was like 70s music, and the top floor was pretty much a rave, with neon lights and lasers and techno music.
I walked from teh hostel to the bridge/opera house today, which was about a 45 minute walk, and then walked around. I treated myself to a good lunch at a cafe. I haven't really eaten good food my entire trip here because eating out is so expensive, and my diet has suffered, so I finally decided money is worth trying to get back on my diet. I then spent 40 bucks on a tour bus thing that took me all around Sydney, which was nice. I got to see parts that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. I tried getting on a sail boat, because the harbor was filled with boats, but it was all "we don't need you" or trying to convince me to like charter a sail, and I was not about to spend 200 bucks for a sail around the harbor. So I failed on my sailing endevour, but I guess that's alright.
Tonight I plan on staying in and reading a dean koontz book I got. I'm also considering going skydiving tomorrow to end my trip, because there isn't a whole lot left to do, unless I want to shop...which I don't.
I went out last night to a couple clubs in Darling Harbour (Wallaby Bar, Chinese Laundry and Retro). Retro was this three story night club witha 20 dollar cover charge...but I ended up getting in for free because it happened to be "dyno white" night, so if you dressed in all white you got in for free....I was wearing a black/white shirt, jeans and a white hat, so the girl just let me go in. I was stoked. The floors all played different types of msuic. The first floor was liek retro rap and rock music from the 80s and 90s. The second floor was like 70s music, and the top floor was pretty much a rave, with neon lights and lasers and techno music.
I walked from teh hostel to the bridge/opera house today, which was about a 45 minute walk, and then walked around. I treated myself to a good lunch at a cafe. I haven't really eaten good food my entire trip here because eating out is so expensive, and my diet has suffered, so I finally decided money is worth trying to get back on my diet. I then spent 40 bucks on a tour bus thing that took me all around Sydney, which was nice. I got to see parts that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. I tried getting on a sail boat, because the harbor was filled with boats, but it was all "we don't need you" or trying to convince me to like charter a sail, and I was not about to spend 200 bucks for a sail around the harbor. So I failed on my sailing endevour, but I guess that's alright.
Tonight I plan on staying in and reading a dean koontz book I got. I'm also considering going skydiving tomorrow to end my trip, because there isn't a whole lot left to do, unless I want to shop...which I don't.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
The Machines Will Always Win.
Apparently gambling is a big thing here. I've fallen in love with all the bulletins and billboards that Australia has to stop people from doing certain things. For instance, the "drowsy drivers die" is awesome. Yesterday I saw one that said "if you drink and then you drive, you're a bloody idiot". The bathrooms around here at clubs (yeah...strange place, but..) all have these pictures of ice bergs (you know, Titanic style). With about 1/100th of the berg above the water line, and apparently it's supposed to represent meth. And it says "99% of what you get, you don't see, because it's below the surface". So I guess, don't do meth? Duh... And then, my recent favorites, are anti-gambling advertisements. They have pictures of super sad, depressed looking people with random captions like "the machines always win" or "it starts once, and continues to spread". Some of the captions don't even make sense...but then they show the gambling help hotline. Anyways, I love the ads here and I'm trying to take pictures of them.
So so so, we're in Melbourne. We got in Monday night, and we just hung around the hostel and met some cool people. I went into town and got my camera battery charged at Sony (my charger is broken). They charge 120 bucks for a charger here, but they offered to charge my battery for free, and then told me once I get into Sydney I can get it charged again at the Sony in Sydney. (Yay!) I did "meet and greet" with one of our room mates, Tom, from Leeds, England...and it was pretty lame, except we got a free glass of champagne (which is always a benefit).
Tuesday, Annelise and I went to Queen Victoria Market, which is 8 hectares...I have no idea what a hectare is, but it was like 6 blocks by 6 blocks of open air markets. They had the freshest fruits and veggies that looked sooooooo delicious, and so cheap. We bought a container of strawberries for 2 dollars and ate them as we wandered around. Annelise bought a hoodie, and I bought a pair of gloves (because my poor fingers felt like icicles). It was raining/windy on and off all day, so it wasn't the best conditions, but it was still a lot of fun. We had lunch at the cafeteria style place across the street, and I had wonton noodle soup and dim sims (both of which were poorly flavored and made me very sad).
When we were in Adelaide, we had one crazy night out at PJ O'Briens (where my friend Sarz met up with us), and I was feeling the effects of it the next day. I don't drink that often anymore, and I didn't drink a lot that night, but it was just more than I was used to, so I was a sad shannon the next day. Anyways, that day we had gone for sushi for lunch (which I didn't eat because I felt like sushi and a hang over would not be pleasant), but apparently the sushi was amazing, and ever since then I've been craving good sushi. Well! We found it here in Melbourne. The sushi here is phenomenal. They have these sushi walk-in shops, where you just walk in and get a handroll (not cut into pieces) for 2 dollars. And it's difficult to find raw tuna here (all most places have is cooked tuna, so it's liek a tuna salad wrapped in rice/seaweed). However! Here in Melbs, they do have it, and it makes me very happy. So for the last two days, we've had sushi for lunch (and I'm having it again today!).
Anyways, back to the story of lunch on tuesday -- it was so bad, that at 4 pm when we wandering around the city, I found an amazing sushi place (which I will hunt down again today) and had a tuna (not cooked!) handroll for 2 dollars. Best food price value around for sure. Everything here is so expensive. I am not looking forward to going home and paying my mom back for everything I've bought! So anyways, we wandered around the city, in the CBD (central business district), and I had all my camera stuff with me (camera, battery, charger), because I wasn't sure if it was the charger that wasn't charging, or if the battery couldn't hold a charge. So we went into one camera place, who was nice enough to test my battery and my charger for me. My dad taught me well, and I wasn't about to buy a new battery (or charger) without knowing which one had the problem. So we tested two batteries in my charger (mine and one brand new one at the store), and my charger didn't charge either of them! (Hooray! Problem located!) The next problem, as I was afraid of, was the fact that most digital cameras/chargers are sold together, and rarely are chargers sold by themselves. The guy at the camera store told me about the Sony store just up the street two blocks, so I was pretty pleased. I then walked to the Sony store, and they had the chargers! For 120 dollars. :( Lucky for me, though, the guys at Sony asked me how long I was staying in Oz for, and I said about a week, 4 days left in Melbs, and 3 in Sydney, and they said that they would charge my battery for me, and then when I get to Sydney, the guys at Sony there could charge it again. !! Yay!! So I stayed around, and when I saw my battery was taking a charge, I left my contact info with the guys at Sony and went around the city for two hours, while my battery charged!
We found a couple bookstores, which were nice to read in, because it was so cold outside, and we went to a couple ticket places to try and book a haunted night tour of the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail...), but unfortunately the one for Tuesday night was all booked, and the next one was Friday (which we already have plans!) So we decided to just do the day tour of the Gaol, which we did yesterday. After getting no luck with the night tour, we asked what else there was to do -- comedy clubs, music lounges, etc, and we were told of a Jazz Lounge, called Bennets Lane, and we decided to do that Tuesday night.
Well, Tuesday night rolled around, and we hopped on the tram to go to the lounge, based on directions and instructions given to us at the front desk of the hostel, but the tram stopped halfway there and said that the hostel was mistaken, this was the last stop of the night. I returned home, and Annelise decided to walk the rest of the distance to the lounge (which she never found). I returned to teh hostel, and entered in a pool competition. I made it to the semi finals (the only girl to do so), and then lost on a shit shot where I pocketed the black ball. The balls here are slightly smaller and are just red/yellow as opposed to spots/stripes. I'm not sure if it's considered "billiards" if it's smaller balls, but I always considered pool and billiards to be the same. Dad, maybe you could clear this up for me? Either way, regardless that I lost, it was a lot of fun. I won 3 rounds, and the guy that "beat" me (I prefer to think that I beat myself) ended up losing in the next round. Annelise finally got back from the city, and it turned out she had the wrong directions the whole time and wound up at a comedy place for amateur night. She said she still had a good time, and some of the acts were good, but some were just plain bad.
On to Wednesday (Finally!)
It's amazing how much teh days here blend in together. Yesterday we went back into the city with our new friend Andy, and Annelise and I went to the Old Melbourne Gaol. I was already excited to go, but it was even more awesome than I expected. THey had the main jail cells (three floors) open, and in each cell there was some sort of informative stuff, including, torture tools, hangmen's ropes, beds, linens, hundreds of informative posters that talked about different inmates. THe third floor was dedicated to women/children in the gaol, as well as commemorating war soldiers who went AWOL and wound up in the Gaol. It discussed, in detail, the politics surrounding the time, as well as controversies surrounding certain aspects (such as public v. private hangings). It also had a whole wing dedicated to Ned Kelly and his gang of badasses. Ned Kelly (apparently) is Australia's most notorious bad guy. We met up with Jim (a Korean guy who was on our Adelaide - Melbourne tour), and he and annelise walked around some more, while I went to the Watch Guard House (which was the holding jail for people before they were admitted into the main cell area). It was a half hour tour where we went through the process of being booked and admitted into the jail. The Watch Guard house was active until the 1990s, when it became too small for the purposes Melbourne needed, and was turned into a tourist thing to do. We were yelled at a lot and put in these cell blocks, locked in, and had the lights turned out on us. I got to see the white padded rooms, the exercise areas, the eating areas, and the showering areas. Like a true tourist, I even got my mug shot taken, and believe you me, my 10 minutes locked in jail made me never want to be locked in one ever. No more mug shots for me, thank you. But it was an amazing experience, and I really enjoyed doing the tour.
We met back up with Andy (who had already done the jail tour) and grabbed lunch -- Sushi, as I already explained, and we walked around Fitzroy (a section of Melbourne north east of town, I think). We walked up Brunswick Street, which is like the hippy/strange stores area of town, and it was pretty neat. I had this crazy scoop of ice cream, which I guess is based on some Australian dessert. Unfortunately I can't remember the name, but it was coconut ice cream, with a topping of strawberry jam with chocolate shavings. (SO GOOD!)
Annelise went back into the city, and Andy and I caught the free tourist shuttle back towards our hostel. We proceeded to watch a few episodes of the show, Scrubs, and then I made an amazing pasta dinner with fresh italian sausage mixed in. Then last night, Annelise had gotten a call from two girls who were also on our Adelaide - Melbourne tour, and they were going to a bar, and wanted to meet up with us. So we did. We walked to this bar, where maybe there were 10 people inside, and met up with them. Annelise and I had bought a box of goon earlier and had drank some of that before leaving, so we wouldn't have to spend much money on drinks later. Goon is this boxed wine here that comes in different flavors/varieties. We then walked across town (twenty minute walk) to this club that Annelise had read was "the place to be in Melbs on a Wednesday night", and there was a line out the friggin door. More like hoards of people standing around the door. It reminded me of USC with the big huge frat parties that were registered parties. Unfortunately, what the paper didn't say, was that this club was having an organised function for Uni students in Australia. Annelise could get in, because she had her school ID card, and I tried saying that I studied with her, but left mine at home, but the guy wouldn't let me in, so she was a pal and left with me. We said goodbye to our friends, and headed home. It was an 8 dollar cab ride, which was worth it to me, because my feet were killing me.
Andy had met up with a friend who lives in Melbourne, and they came back to the hostel (after being at the casino! -- I guess they don't know that the machines always win?) and we played pool for a little while, before I headed to bed around 2.
Today will probably be much of the same. We're planning on walking around federation square and take some pictures of awesome buildings (they are architectural marvels). I need to find a cheap (if cheap exists in Australia) bag, because I got a hoodie on that tour, and now I can't fit all my stuff in my backpack. I've still done pretty damn well though with keeping my load light and small! All you men would be proud.
A little preview of what's to come! Tonight Annelise and I are doing a bar tour of Melbourne (5 bars, 4 hours, 2 free drinks, free tapas) for 35 bucks, which is pretty awesome. Plus one of the bars we get to go to is the Chill On Ice Bar, where we get all bundled up in coats, and boots and furs and drink drinks out of ice cups, sit on benches and chairs made of ice, and order drinks at a bar made of ice. It should be pretty neat, especially since entry into the ice bar is 30 dollars on it's own. So we think its a pretty good deal.
Tomorrow night, Annelise and I are going to an AFL game (aussie football). I watched a game in Cairns, and it is nothing like American football. No pads, no touch downs, and all the points are earned by kicking the ball through a series of poles. No points are awarded for any catches. Anyways, it should be fun, and definitely a new experience.
ALright, this was a seriously long blog. I come back on Tuesday, and I'm quite excited to return home (at least for a little while). Wednesday I take apart all my furniture and load it into my awesome rental budget truck, and then Thursday, my aunt peggy is meeting me and we are driving the load up to her house in Nor Cal to store it for the year. Then I fly back to LA on the 18th (thursday), early in the morning, and spend a coupel days saying good bye to people, and then probably the 21st or so, I'll begin the drive to Michigan.
Next month I'll be traveling around Europe. First a ten day cruise through Scandinavia with my mum and aunt, and then I'll spend two weeks or so, backpacking around on my own. I plan on going to Amsterdam, Switzerland (because I went there when I was around 11 years old and always vowed to go back! well now i am!), and Italy (because, again, I went thre when I was 14 or 15 and didn't really appreciate it). So now that I'm older and wiser, I think it will be awesome.
Alright, I am off to the city. Love you and miss you all. My spider bites are healing (thank goodness).
So so so, we're in Melbourne. We got in Monday night, and we just hung around the hostel and met some cool people. I went into town and got my camera battery charged at Sony (my charger is broken). They charge 120 bucks for a charger here, but they offered to charge my battery for free, and then told me once I get into Sydney I can get it charged again at the Sony in Sydney. (Yay!) I did "meet and greet" with one of our room mates, Tom, from Leeds, England...and it was pretty lame, except we got a free glass of champagne (which is always a benefit).
Tuesday, Annelise and I went to Queen Victoria Market, which is 8 hectares...I have no idea what a hectare is, but it was like 6 blocks by 6 blocks of open air markets. They had the freshest fruits and veggies that looked sooooooo delicious, and so cheap. We bought a container of strawberries for 2 dollars and ate them as we wandered around. Annelise bought a hoodie, and I bought a pair of gloves (because my poor fingers felt like icicles). It was raining/windy on and off all day, so it wasn't the best conditions, but it was still a lot of fun. We had lunch at the cafeteria style place across the street, and I had wonton noodle soup and dim sims (both of which were poorly flavored and made me very sad).
When we were in Adelaide, we had one crazy night out at PJ O'Briens (where my friend Sarz met up with us), and I was feeling the effects of it the next day. I don't drink that often anymore, and I didn't drink a lot that night, but it was just more than I was used to, so I was a sad shannon the next day. Anyways, that day we had gone for sushi for lunch (which I didn't eat because I felt like sushi and a hang over would not be pleasant), but apparently the sushi was amazing, and ever since then I've been craving good sushi. Well! We found it here in Melbourne. The sushi here is phenomenal. They have these sushi walk-in shops, where you just walk in and get a handroll (not cut into pieces) for 2 dollars. And it's difficult to find raw tuna here (all most places have is cooked tuna, so it's liek a tuna salad wrapped in rice/seaweed). However! Here in Melbs, they do have it, and it makes me very happy. So for the last two days, we've had sushi for lunch (and I'm having it again today!).
Anyways, back to the story of lunch on tuesday -- it was so bad, that at 4 pm when we wandering around the city, I found an amazing sushi place (which I will hunt down again today) and had a tuna (not cooked!) handroll for 2 dollars. Best food price value around for sure. Everything here is so expensive. I am not looking forward to going home and paying my mom back for everything I've bought! So anyways, we wandered around the city, in the CBD (central business district), and I had all my camera stuff with me (camera, battery, charger), because I wasn't sure if it was the charger that wasn't charging, or if the battery couldn't hold a charge. So we went into one camera place, who was nice enough to test my battery and my charger for me. My dad taught me well, and I wasn't about to buy a new battery (or charger) without knowing which one had the problem. So we tested two batteries in my charger (mine and one brand new one at the store), and my charger didn't charge either of them! (Hooray! Problem located!) The next problem, as I was afraid of, was the fact that most digital cameras/chargers are sold together, and rarely are chargers sold by themselves. The guy at the camera store told me about the Sony store just up the street two blocks, so I was pretty pleased. I then walked to the Sony store, and they had the chargers! For 120 dollars. :( Lucky for me, though, the guys at Sony asked me how long I was staying in Oz for, and I said about a week, 4 days left in Melbs, and 3 in Sydney, and they said that they would charge my battery for me, and then when I get to Sydney, the guys at Sony there could charge it again. !! Yay!! So I stayed around, and when I saw my battery was taking a charge, I left my contact info with the guys at Sony and went around the city for two hours, while my battery charged!
We found a couple bookstores, which were nice to read in, because it was so cold outside, and we went to a couple ticket places to try and book a haunted night tour of the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail...), but unfortunately the one for Tuesday night was all booked, and the next one was Friday (which we already have plans!) So we decided to just do the day tour of the Gaol, which we did yesterday. After getting no luck with the night tour, we asked what else there was to do -- comedy clubs, music lounges, etc, and we were told of a Jazz Lounge, called Bennets Lane, and we decided to do that Tuesday night.
Well, Tuesday night rolled around, and we hopped on the tram to go to the lounge, based on directions and instructions given to us at the front desk of the hostel, but the tram stopped halfway there and said that the hostel was mistaken, this was the last stop of the night. I returned home, and Annelise decided to walk the rest of the distance to the lounge (which she never found). I returned to teh hostel, and entered in a pool competition. I made it to the semi finals (the only girl to do so), and then lost on a shit shot where I pocketed the black ball. The balls here are slightly smaller and are just red/yellow as opposed to spots/stripes. I'm not sure if it's considered "billiards" if it's smaller balls, but I always considered pool and billiards to be the same. Dad, maybe you could clear this up for me? Either way, regardless that I lost, it was a lot of fun. I won 3 rounds, and the guy that "beat" me (I prefer to think that I beat myself) ended up losing in the next round. Annelise finally got back from the city, and it turned out she had the wrong directions the whole time and wound up at a comedy place for amateur night. She said she still had a good time, and some of the acts were good, but some were just plain bad.
On to Wednesday (Finally!)
It's amazing how much teh days here blend in together. Yesterday we went back into the city with our new friend Andy, and Annelise and I went to the Old Melbourne Gaol. I was already excited to go, but it was even more awesome than I expected. THey had the main jail cells (three floors) open, and in each cell there was some sort of informative stuff, including, torture tools, hangmen's ropes, beds, linens, hundreds of informative posters that talked about different inmates. THe third floor was dedicated to women/children in the gaol, as well as commemorating war soldiers who went AWOL and wound up in the Gaol. It discussed, in detail, the politics surrounding the time, as well as controversies surrounding certain aspects (such as public v. private hangings). It also had a whole wing dedicated to Ned Kelly and his gang of badasses. Ned Kelly (apparently) is Australia's most notorious bad guy. We met up with Jim (a Korean guy who was on our Adelaide - Melbourne tour), and he and annelise walked around some more, while I went to the Watch Guard House (which was the holding jail for people before they were admitted into the main cell area). It was a half hour tour where we went through the process of being booked and admitted into the jail. The Watch Guard house was active until the 1990s, when it became too small for the purposes Melbourne needed, and was turned into a tourist thing to do. We were yelled at a lot and put in these cell blocks, locked in, and had the lights turned out on us. I got to see the white padded rooms, the exercise areas, the eating areas, and the showering areas. Like a true tourist, I even got my mug shot taken, and believe you me, my 10 minutes locked in jail made me never want to be locked in one ever. No more mug shots for me, thank you. But it was an amazing experience, and I really enjoyed doing the tour.
We met back up with Andy (who had already done the jail tour) and grabbed lunch -- Sushi, as I already explained, and we walked around Fitzroy (a section of Melbourne north east of town, I think). We walked up Brunswick Street, which is like the hippy/strange stores area of town, and it was pretty neat. I had this crazy scoop of ice cream, which I guess is based on some Australian dessert. Unfortunately I can't remember the name, but it was coconut ice cream, with a topping of strawberry jam with chocolate shavings. (SO GOOD!)
Annelise went back into the city, and Andy and I caught the free tourist shuttle back towards our hostel. We proceeded to watch a few episodes of the show, Scrubs, and then I made an amazing pasta dinner with fresh italian sausage mixed in. Then last night, Annelise had gotten a call from two girls who were also on our Adelaide - Melbourne tour, and they were going to a bar, and wanted to meet up with us. So we did. We walked to this bar, where maybe there were 10 people inside, and met up with them. Annelise and I had bought a box of goon earlier and had drank some of that before leaving, so we wouldn't have to spend much money on drinks later. Goon is this boxed wine here that comes in different flavors/varieties. We then walked across town (twenty minute walk) to this club that Annelise had read was "the place to be in Melbs on a Wednesday night", and there was a line out the friggin door. More like hoards of people standing around the door. It reminded me of USC with the big huge frat parties that were registered parties. Unfortunately, what the paper didn't say, was that this club was having an organised function for Uni students in Australia. Annelise could get in, because she had her school ID card, and I tried saying that I studied with her, but left mine at home, but the guy wouldn't let me in, so she was a pal and left with me. We said goodbye to our friends, and headed home. It was an 8 dollar cab ride, which was worth it to me, because my feet were killing me.
Andy had met up with a friend who lives in Melbourne, and they came back to the hostel (after being at the casino! -- I guess they don't know that the machines always win?) and we played pool for a little while, before I headed to bed around 2.
Today will probably be much of the same. We're planning on walking around federation square and take some pictures of awesome buildings (they are architectural marvels). I need to find a cheap (if cheap exists in Australia) bag, because I got a hoodie on that tour, and now I can't fit all my stuff in my backpack. I've still done pretty damn well though with keeping my load light and small! All you men would be proud.
A little preview of what's to come! Tonight Annelise and I are doing a bar tour of Melbourne (5 bars, 4 hours, 2 free drinks, free tapas) for 35 bucks, which is pretty awesome. Plus one of the bars we get to go to is the Chill On Ice Bar, where we get all bundled up in coats, and boots and furs and drink drinks out of ice cups, sit on benches and chairs made of ice, and order drinks at a bar made of ice. It should be pretty neat, especially since entry into the ice bar is 30 dollars on it's own. So we think its a pretty good deal.
Tomorrow night, Annelise and I are going to an AFL game (aussie football). I watched a game in Cairns, and it is nothing like American football. No pads, no touch downs, and all the points are earned by kicking the ball through a series of poles. No points are awarded for any catches. Anyways, it should be fun, and definitely a new experience.
ALright, this was a seriously long blog. I come back on Tuesday, and I'm quite excited to return home (at least for a little while). Wednesday I take apart all my furniture and load it into my awesome rental budget truck, and then Thursday, my aunt peggy is meeting me and we are driving the load up to her house in Nor Cal to store it for the year. Then I fly back to LA on the 18th (thursday), early in the morning, and spend a coupel days saying good bye to people, and then probably the 21st or so, I'll begin the drive to Michigan.
Next month I'll be traveling around Europe. First a ten day cruise through Scandinavia with my mum and aunt, and then I'll spend two weeks or so, backpacking around on my own. I plan on going to Amsterdam, Switzerland (because I went there when I was around 11 years old and always vowed to go back! well now i am!), and Italy (because, again, I went thre when I was 14 or 15 and didn't really appreciate it). So now that I'm older and wiser, I think it will be awesome.
Alright, I am off to the city. Love you and miss you all. My spider bites are healing (thank goodness).
Monday, July 7, 2008
Happy Belated Fourth of July.
So I made it to Melbourne. Annelise and I did a three day/two night tour from Adelaide to Melbourne...where we got to do mountain climbs (literally up the face of a mountain) in the Grampians national parks. The first day we did the Hollow Mountain Hike (I'm not sure if you guys can look these up online or not). Hollow Mountain was a lot of rock climbing -- over huge boulders and rocks, and through some holes in rocks, but when we got to the top, the views were stunning. We spent the night at a really nice hostel (which was actually a house owned by Adventure Tours), and we made a huge pot of pasta (enough for twenty people) and had spaghetti for dinner.
We awoke early and did another hike, this time up to the Pinacle. It started to rain on us (which made it miserable), and at the top it was rainy and windy (even more miserable), but I'm glad I accomplished it. To get to the top it is literally thousands of stairs constructed out of stones. It was a 3 km hike up the mountain face, and I was exhausted by the time I got to the top. The way down was very risky, because the rain made the rock faces slippery, but I was smart and kept my center of gravity and weight low to the ground. I had a couple close calls, but that one year in gymnastics did wonders for my balance, so my toosh never hit the rocks.
After the Pinacle, we began our journey on the Great Ocean Road. The first half of the road is all cliff faces and is home to hundreds of ship wrecks. We spent the afternoon seeing different rock formations, including the famous "Twelve Apostles". I spent 65 dollars on a helicopter ride along the twelve apostles right over the ocean, and it was amazing. I got some awesome photos. Unfortunately, my camera battery either is not holding a charge, or the battery charger is broken, so I'm going to hopefully find a camera store that sells chargers for my camera. If I fail in that mission then I don't knwo what I'll do for pictures for the rest of my trip. Anyways, I'm sure you can look up the twelve apostles online. After my heli ride, we went to the lookout point and saw the sun set over the twelve apostles. It was pretty magnificent.
That night we had bbq for dinner, and we watched Riding in Cars with Boys (with drew barrymore). I thought it was a wonderful movie. :] I went to bed...where...at some point I was attacked by a spider. I won't go into the nasty details, but my right leg is badly bitten, and if it gets any worse, I'll be touring an Australian Health Clinic. (Exciting?)
The last day of the tour, we spent driving the last bit of the Ship Wreck part of the Great Ocean Road, and then began the second half, which includes all the famous surfing spots, including Bells Beach, where the world chamiponship was held either this year or last. We stopped in Apollo Bay, and Anenlise and I got this heaping mound of fish and chips (which is their specialty), and it was delicious. After apollo bay, we drove up to Bells Beach, and then on to Torquay (for shopping for half an hour). I got a hoodie sweatshirt, and a beanie. It rained all day yesterday, and so far today, it isn't looking any better, but we'll make the most of it anyways.
Anyways, Melbourne is amazing. It's this huge awesome city with awesome city lights and big buildlings. I can't wait to go explore...which I'm going to do right now. This was kind of a short version of my tour from Adelaide to Melbs, so I may add some details later that I have forgotten at the moment. I come home in a week, and I won't lie I'm very excited. I miss my family, and being able to talk to them on the phone every day (haha), and I miss Alex a lot more than I ever expected I would, and I miss my car. Man, do I miss my car. Anyways, I'm sad that I'll only get to be in Cali for a few days before driving to Michigan, but next month I get to go on a Scandinavia Cruise and then I'll be spending a couple weeks on the train backpacking across Europe, before coming back to CHicago to start working.
Hope all is well back home!
We awoke early and did another hike, this time up to the Pinacle. It started to rain on us (which made it miserable), and at the top it was rainy and windy (even more miserable), but I'm glad I accomplished it. To get to the top it is literally thousands of stairs constructed out of stones. It was a 3 km hike up the mountain face, and I was exhausted by the time I got to the top. The way down was very risky, because the rain made the rock faces slippery, but I was smart and kept my center of gravity and weight low to the ground. I had a couple close calls, but that one year in gymnastics did wonders for my balance, so my toosh never hit the rocks.
After the Pinacle, we began our journey on the Great Ocean Road. The first half of the road is all cliff faces and is home to hundreds of ship wrecks. We spent the afternoon seeing different rock formations, including the famous "Twelve Apostles". I spent 65 dollars on a helicopter ride along the twelve apostles right over the ocean, and it was amazing. I got some awesome photos. Unfortunately, my camera battery either is not holding a charge, or the battery charger is broken, so I'm going to hopefully find a camera store that sells chargers for my camera. If I fail in that mission then I don't knwo what I'll do for pictures for the rest of my trip. Anyways, I'm sure you can look up the twelve apostles online. After my heli ride, we went to the lookout point and saw the sun set over the twelve apostles. It was pretty magnificent.
That night we had bbq for dinner, and we watched Riding in Cars with Boys (with drew barrymore). I thought it was a wonderful movie. :] I went to bed...where...at some point I was attacked by a spider. I won't go into the nasty details, but my right leg is badly bitten, and if it gets any worse, I'll be touring an Australian Health Clinic. (Exciting?)
The last day of the tour, we spent driving the last bit of the Ship Wreck part of the Great Ocean Road, and then began the second half, which includes all the famous surfing spots, including Bells Beach, where the world chamiponship was held either this year or last. We stopped in Apollo Bay, and Anenlise and I got this heaping mound of fish and chips (which is their specialty), and it was delicious. After apollo bay, we drove up to Bells Beach, and then on to Torquay (for shopping for half an hour). I got a hoodie sweatshirt, and a beanie. It rained all day yesterday, and so far today, it isn't looking any better, but we'll make the most of it anyways.
Anyways, Melbourne is amazing. It's this huge awesome city with awesome city lights and big buildlings. I can't wait to go explore...which I'm going to do right now. This was kind of a short version of my tour from Adelaide to Melbs, so I may add some details later that I have forgotten at the moment. I come home in a week, and I won't lie I'm very excited. I miss my family, and being able to talk to them on the phone every day (haha), and I miss Alex a lot more than I ever expected I would, and I miss my car. Man, do I miss my car. Anyways, I'm sad that I'll only get to be in Cali for a few days before driving to Michigan, but next month I get to go on a Scandinavia Cruise and then I'll be spending a couple weeks on the train backpacking across Europe, before coming back to CHicago to start working.
Hope all is well back home!
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Drowsy Drivers Die and Kangaroos! (that are alive!)
Don't worry, no one died. On our way back tonight we passed this sign on the side of the road that said "drowsy drivers die" and I have a plan to duplicate and distribute in the states when I get back.
Anyways KANGAROO ISLAND! It lived up to its name. I'll go day by day for you guys. So.
Day One:
We leave our CRAZY hostel at 8 am to run across town (with all our gear) to the YHA hostel...which took us the whole 30 minutes (we were getting picked up at 8:30), and for a glorious seven minutes of those thirty, it rained. No. It poured. I was soaked, and miserable, but then we got picked up and I dried off, and I was no longer cranky.
Our ferry to KI (Kangaroo Island) isn't until 4 pm, so we spend the day touring Adelaide and the coastal towns. We got to see the highest point in Adelaide that overlooked the entire city, and we got to see some beautiful waterfalls. On the coast, we climbed this huge hill (I say hill because I want to use the word 'huge', but it wasn't quite a "huge mountain"). It overlooked the beautiful ocean, and we got some awesome pictures...there are two pictures of me jumping up on a huge rock and another of me jumping from that rock to a smaller one nearby. Annelise got some awesome shots of me in mid air (which makes the pictures so damn amazing), and I got some good ones of her. We then cruised the coast to the ferry and we departed for KI.
We got to KI around 5 pm, and then had an hour drive to Kaiwarra (our "farm" stay). It's considered a farm because of all the sheep, wallabys, and kangaroo...but they had a full bar...so it's not really the typical "farm". Oh, and there were only three of us! Annelise, Margot (a swiss girl) and myself, plus Hamish, our fearless leader. So for dinner we had heaps of pasta with amazing tomatoe, meat, brocolli, zuchini, onion sauce.
Day Two:
We woke up at 7 am to Hamish's idea of a wake up call (blasting The Killers -- ((a band))). We had an awesome breakfast of cereal and toast, and around 8 am we took off for our 10 km hike through the forest to Hanson Bay. We started at Keeley Caves (but we were on top of the caves...so we didn't actually see them), and then we hiked by Grassdale Lagoon (which isn't a lagoon...it's dried up) but it's home to kangaroos!! So we started trekking across this lagoon, and I got probably within ten feet of two kangaroos (but then they hopped away). I got some awesome photos though (of course). At this point we were 3 km into our hike, and my knees were holding up. At what I thought was 6 km in, we found a sign that showed us a "you are here" photo with comparison to where we came from and where we had to go. From the drawn to scale size we estimated we had 3 km left. Unfortunately we had about 5 left. :( So we kept walking, and then ran into Hamish (who had driven the van around to our finish point and had began walking back towards us). We finished the last 3 km together, and finished at Hanson Bay (right on the ocean!). It was beautiful. We climbed a cliff and saw some HUGE waves crash into the rocks...which then sprayed us with tons of salty water.
We then went back to Kaiwarra and met up with three guys who were joining us (they were doing the two day tour as opposed to our three day). In the afternoon we went to SEAL BAY! WHICH WAS SO NEAT. We saw live Australian Sea Lions and they were so cute. This baby one came probably within 2 feet of us, because it was all cute and curious and ( you guessed it) we got some awesome photos. I got to see sea lions surfing the waves, and some big daddys and mommys cuddling up together out of the wind. There were HUNDREDS of seals in this bay and on shore. Oh man, it was so neat.
Then that night we went PENGUIN HUNTING! Not with a gun...with cameras. There are these teeny tiny penguins that hang out by Vivonne Bay (whose beach, by the way, was voted number one in the world, and I must say...it was pretty spectacular and looked as if it would be a surfers paradise). Anyways, it was night so we all had torches (flashlights), and I attempted to get some shots, but we couldn't use our flash...because apparently the flash blinds them for life :( but i tried, so we will see what you guys think when I show you the pictures.
Then to finisht the night Annelise and I taught the other four the glories of S'mores. Apparently roasting marshmallows over a camp fire is totally an American thing to do...the ENglish, Swiss and Aussies had no idea what we were doing.
Day Three:
We arose again to Hamish's idea of a wake up call...which this morning was Michael Jackson's Beat It, followed by Billie Jean. IT was pretty awesome. Breakfast was homemade (from scratch) pancakes. We packed up and headed out for the day. We spent the morning at ANOTHER seal bay...where we saw New Zealand Fur Seals...but we couldn't get that close to them, because we were on an elevated path way (as opposed to Seal Bay where we were right on the beach with them). But these little babies (probably twenty of them out of the hundreds and hundreds of seals) kept following us and tried climbing up to get closer to us. It was totally cute, and yes, I got awesome pictures.
Then we went to REMARKABLE ROCKS. And trust me, they were remarkable. They are these rocks, which I'm sure you can google, that are on this HUGE boulder on the ocean, that have been weathered and eroded over millions of years and have created crazy neat pathways and cut throughs and overhangs. Yes. We got awesome pictures.
We spent the rest of the day touring pretty beautiful spots and beaches before headingb ack to the getty and catching a charter boat back to Australia main land. At our lunch spot we saw this kangaroo with a baby joey in her pouch...which apparently was used to humans, because it let me hug it....yes, pictures to prove it!
Anyways, we got back after the hour and a half drive back to Adelaide, and checked into a new hostel, Backpack OZ (which is not as crazy as the other adelaide hostel). Apparently a bunch of hostel kids are going out to a pub tonight so we're gonna go with them. Also my friend Sarz is going to join us again (I hope). She just finished exams on tuesday, so it should be a lot of fun.
Alright, I'm off! Oh, and p.s my cold is gone. YAY. I still cough a little in the morning, but I think that's just because some flem gets down to my lungs as I sleep. But other than that, I am all cured. Hope all is well back home. Happy day early fourth of july!
Anyways KANGAROO ISLAND! It lived up to its name. I'll go day by day for you guys. So.
Day One:
We leave our CRAZY hostel at 8 am to run across town (with all our gear) to the YHA hostel...which took us the whole 30 minutes (we were getting picked up at 8:30), and for a glorious seven minutes of those thirty, it rained. No. It poured. I was soaked, and miserable, but then we got picked up and I dried off, and I was no longer cranky.
Our ferry to KI (Kangaroo Island) isn't until 4 pm, so we spend the day touring Adelaide and the coastal towns. We got to see the highest point in Adelaide that overlooked the entire city, and we got to see some beautiful waterfalls. On the coast, we climbed this huge hill (I say hill because I want to use the word 'huge', but it wasn't quite a "huge mountain"). It overlooked the beautiful ocean, and we got some awesome pictures...there are two pictures of me jumping up on a huge rock and another of me jumping from that rock to a smaller one nearby. Annelise got some awesome shots of me in mid air (which makes the pictures so damn amazing), and I got some good ones of her. We then cruised the coast to the ferry and we departed for KI.
We got to KI around 5 pm, and then had an hour drive to Kaiwarra (our "farm" stay). It's considered a farm because of all the sheep, wallabys, and kangaroo...but they had a full bar...so it's not really the typical "farm". Oh, and there were only three of us! Annelise, Margot (a swiss girl) and myself, plus Hamish, our fearless leader. So for dinner we had heaps of pasta with amazing tomatoe, meat, brocolli, zuchini, onion sauce.
Day Two:
We woke up at 7 am to Hamish's idea of a wake up call (blasting The Killers -- ((a band))). We had an awesome breakfast of cereal and toast, and around 8 am we took off for our 10 km hike through the forest to Hanson Bay. We started at Keeley Caves (but we were on top of the caves...so we didn't actually see them), and then we hiked by Grassdale Lagoon (which isn't a lagoon...it's dried up) but it's home to kangaroos!! So we started trekking across this lagoon, and I got probably within ten feet of two kangaroos (but then they hopped away). I got some awesome photos though (of course). At this point we were 3 km into our hike, and my knees were holding up. At what I thought was 6 km in, we found a sign that showed us a "you are here" photo with comparison to where we came from and where we had to go. From the drawn to scale size we estimated we had 3 km left. Unfortunately we had about 5 left. :( So we kept walking, and then ran into Hamish (who had driven the van around to our finish point and had began walking back towards us). We finished the last 3 km together, and finished at Hanson Bay (right on the ocean!). It was beautiful. We climbed a cliff and saw some HUGE waves crash into the rocks...which then sprayed us with tons of salty water.
We then went back to Kaiwarra and met up with three guys who were joining us (they were doing the two day tour as opposed to our three day). In the afternoon we went to SEAL BAY! WHICH WAS SO NEAT. We saw live Australian Sea Lions and they were so cute. This baby one came probably within 2 feet of us, because it was all cute and curious and ( you guessed it) we got some awesome photos. I got to see sea lions surfing the waves, and some big daddys and mommys cuddling up together out of the wind. There were HUNDREDS of seals in this bay and on shore. Oh man, it was so neat.
Then that night we went PENGUIN HUNTING! Not with a gun...with cameras. There are these teeny tiny penguins that hang out by Vivonne Bay (whose beach, by the way, was voted number one in the world, and I must say...it was pretty spectacular and looked as if it would be a surfers paradise). Anyways, it was night so we all had torches (flashlights), and I attempted to get some shots, but we couldn't use our flash...because apparently the flash blinds them for life :( but i tried, so we will see what you guys think when I show you the pictures.
Then to finisht the night Annelise and I taught the other four the glories of S'mores. Apparently roasting marshmallows over a camp fire is totally an American thing to do...the ENglish, Swiss and Aussies had no idea what we were doing.
Day Three:
We arose again to Hamish's idea of a wake up call...which this morning was Michael Jackson's Beat It, followed by Billie Jean. IT was pretty awesome. Breakfast was homemade (from scratch) pancakes. We packed up and headed out for the day. We spent the morning at ANOTHER seal bay...where we saw New Zealand Fur Seals...but we couldn't get that close to them, because we were on an elevated path way (as opposed to Seal Bay where we were right on the beach with them). But these little babies (probably twenty of them out of the hundreds and hundreds of seals) kept following us and tried climbing up to get closer to us. It was totally cute, and yes, I got awesome pictures.
Then we went to REMARKABLE ROCKS. And trust me, they were remarkable. They are these rocks, which I'm sure you can google, that are on this HUGE boulder on the ocean, that have been weathered and eroded over millions of years and have created crazy neat pathways and cut throughs and overhangs. Yes. We got awesome pictures.
We spent the rest of the day touring pretty beautiful spots and beaches before headingb ack to the getty and catching a charter boat back to Australia main land. At our lunch spot we saw this kangaroo with a baby joey in her pouch...which apparently was used to humans, because it let me hug it....yes, pictures to prove it!
Anyways, we got back after the hour and a half drive back to Adelaide, and checked into a new hostel, Backpack OZ (which is not as crazy as the other adelaide hostel). Apparently a bunch of hostel kids are going out to a pub tonight so we're gonna go with them. Also my friend Sarz is going to join us again (I hope). She just finished exams on tuesday, so it should be a lot of fun.
Alright, I'm off! Oh, and p.s my cold is gone. YAY. I still cough a little in the morning, but I think that's just because some flem gets down to my lungs as I sleep. But other than that, I am all cured. Hope all is well back home. Happy day early fourth of july!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Rain, Cold and Strange Hostels.
So I made it to Adelaide. Met up with Annelise, and we are staying at the strangest hostel ever. It seems like everyone else there lives there. Last night my friend Sarz (from a camp in NY that I worked at two summers ago) came and hung out with us (she lives in adelaide). We played poker and drank a little with these people who are living/working/traveling around Australia. Two of them are from England, one from Ireland, and one from New Zealand. I guess that guys from Ireland and New Zealand are half-brothers (same dad?), but one is 27 years old and the other is 18, and after the one was about 8 the dad left for NZ....so the two had never met, and randomly on facebook found each other, and decided to meet in Australia. (happy story).
It rained all night (which was pretty neat), and we both woke up around 9 am. We're sharing a bunk bed (I have the top bunk, just like freshman year), and so far we've wandered around downtown adelaide. Done some shopping, and just perused the shops. I got a couple more books to read (I'm starting to like Dean Koontz and I got another Diane Davidson book). I also got a super sweet 4 - 5 meter long scarf which is AWESOME, and this hobo hat, which (you guessed it) is AWESOME.
We leave for Kangaroo Island tomorrow, for a 3 day/2 night trip to see penguins! and seals! and eat some kangaroo! So I will have a longer blog post for when we return! Alright I am off! Hope all is well back home! My cold is subsiding, I can fully breathe. I think the cold air actually helped clear me up. Alright, much love. Send warm weather my way!
It rained all night (which was pretty neat), and we both woke up around 9 am. We're sharing a bunk bed (I have the top bunk, just like freshman year), and so far we've wandered around downtown adelaide. Done some shopping, and just perused the shops. I got a couple more books to read (I'm starting to like Dean Koontz and I got another Diane Davidson book). I also got a super sweet 4 - 5 meter long scarf which is AWESOME, and this hobo hat, which (you guessed it) is AWESOME.
We leave for Kangaroo Island tomorrow, for a 3 day/2 night trip to see penguins! and seals! and eat some kangaroo! So I will have a longer blog post for when we return! Alright I am off! Hope all is well back home! My cold is subsiding, I can fully breathe. I think the cold air actually helped clear me up. Alright, much love. Send warm weather my way!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Obnoxious Girls and Rafting.
Today's theme is apparently obnoxious girls, but before I get into that, a few things I forgot to mention in the last blog. I saw minke whales while I was out diving. As I was swimming back to the boat after my awesome dive at Steve's Bommie, I was in about 4 - 5 meters of water, and all of a sudden to my left, what to my wondering eyes should appear! but a huge ass whale. Just cruising along. And there I was at about equal depth with it just staring at this huge mass of a thing swim ever so gracefully thru the water. How many of you guys can say you not only swam with whales, but dove with them? Huh? I bet not a one of you. :]
Also, as mother and father will remember from the Bahamas....apparently jelly fish LOVE me. I got attacked. My inner knees/thighs/calves are COVERED with stings. :( (super sad face). They itch and are red and puffy, and I have no idea why this always happens to me! Anyways!
Last night I went out with four guys, two from Scotland, two from England. The one british kid and I danced for a little while before I realized I needed to get some sleep for rafting! So we all walked back to the hostel, and Alex W. and I stayed up talking until about 1. His dad lives in Perth, AU, which is neat, and he's been over here for almost a year, and just applied for residency. He just finished his masters degree in "town planning" in Bristol, England, and apparently wants to work/live over here. (I can't say I disagree). So far my tally marks have AU at like 1039857561 and the US at like maybe 3.
Then....at f***ing FOUR IN THE MORNING. These two girls come into my room --- loud. drunk. obnoxious...and to make things worse....they TURN ON THE light. WHO DOES THAT? So I was awoken by bright lights and loud girls. Then I had to wake up (again!) at 6 am to go rafting. I made no attempt to be quiet.
Rafting was AMAZING. My group was a group of 5 + the rafting guide (Vinny). Two people from Belgium (who were awesome) and these two girls (who were obnoxious)....you now see why this was my day theme. THe girls apparently won the rafting tickets from winning a wet t-shirt contest or something like that....and didn't want to be there. They didn't paddle, they complained of being wet (hello....you're going white water rafting....), and from bruises, scratches (and yes...) broken nails...
I fell out of the raft on one rapid...it was the first time I had ever accidentally fallen out of the boat. All of a sudden I was half in the boat and half in the water, and I Just let myself fall. It was freezing, but wonderful at the same time. The Belgian guy (Rul) was quick to save me. All in all rafting was a lot of fun. I think we had the best guide, and we all had a laugh (even if sometimes it was at the two girls expense.) We're not cruel...we just didn't get why they were there. They each weighed probably 70 pounds and did nothing except complain. So we joked with them about crocodiles and such, and I think as the day progressed they got progressively quieter. Perhaps we all did. It was exhausting.
Now I'm back at the hostel. Going to go out for a drink and some dancing before coming back early and going to bed. I fly tomorrow to Adelaide and meet up with my frosh roomie from USC (annelise). Oh! Small world...my roomie for the night is this girl, Carly (from vancouver)...who lived in Annelise's buildling last semester in BRisbane...so we're all enjoying the strangeness this world sometimes thrusts our way.
Oh, and just to put things in perspective...every now and then (especially when I go to the bathroom) I feel like I'm back on the boat. And right now, as I type this long blog, I feel as if I'm rocking. I will take that as a sign to get off the computer. Hope all is well back home. Next time I talk to you I'll be in Adelaide.
Mom and dad, sorry I'm not really responding to your emails. This blog and other emails takes up most of my time, but I love both of you very much and miss you too.
Ps. the medicine I'm taking for my congestion sucks. It's all herbal crap (no sudafed or actifed in australia). So I'll do some more searching perhaps tomorrow for a pharmacy and see if they have some better stuff than the super market had. Okay, ! I'm off.
<3 :]
Also, as mother and father will remember from the Bahamas....apparently jelly fish LOVE me. I got attacked. My inner knees/thighs/calves are COVERED with stings. :( (super sad face). They itch and are red and puffy, and I have no idea why this always happens to me! Anyways!
Last night I went out with four guys, two from Scotland, two from England. The one british kid and I danced for a little while before I realized I needed to get some sleep for rafting! So we all walked back to the hostel, and Alex W. and I stayed up talking until about 1. His dad lives in Perth, AU, which is neat, and he's been over here for almost a year, and just applied for residency. He just finished his masters degree in "town planning" in Bristol, England, and apparently wants to work/live over here. (I can't say I disagree). So far my tally marks have AU at like 1039857561 and the US at like maybe 3.
Then....at f***ing FOUR IN THE MORNING. These two girls come into my room --- loud. drunk. obnoxious...and to make things worse....they TURN ON THE light. WHO DOES THAT? So I was awoken by bright lights and loud girls. Then I had to wake up (again!) at 6 am to go rafting. I made no attempt to be quiet.
Rafting was AMAZING. My group was a group of 5 + the rafting guide (Vinny). Two people from Belgium (who were awesome) and these two girls (who were obnoxious)....you now see why this was my day theme. THe girls apparently won the rafting tickets from winning a wet t-shirt contest or something like that....and didn't want to be there. They didn't paddle, they complained of being wet (hello....you're going white water rafting....), and from bruises, scratches (and yes...) broken nails...
I fell out of the raft on one rapid...it was the first time I had ever accidentally fallen out of the boat. All of a sudden I was half in the boat and half in the water, and I Just let myself fall. It was freezing, but wonderful at the same time. The Belgian guy (Rul) was quick to save me. All in all rafting was a lot of fun. I think we had the best guide, and we all had a laugh (even if sometimes it was at the two girls expense.) We're not cruel...we just didn't get why they were there. They each weighed probably 70 pounds and did nothing except complain. So we joked with them about crocodiles and such, and I think as the day progressed they got progressively quieter. Perhaps we all did. It was exhausting.
Now I'm back at the hostel. Going to go out for a drink and some dancing before coming back early and going to bed. I fly tomorrow to Adelaide and meet up with my frosh roomie from USC (annelise). Oh! Small world...my roomie for the night is this girl, Carly (from vancouver)...who lived in Annelise's buildling last semester in BRisbane...so we're all enjoying the strangeness this world sometimes thrusts our way.
Oh, and just to put things in perspective...every now and then (especially when I go to the bathroom) I feel like I'm back on the boat. And right now, as I type this long blog, I feel as if I'm rocking. I will take that as a sign to get off the computer. Hope all is well back home. Next time I talk to you I'll be in Adelaide.
Mom and dad, sorry I'm not really responding to your emails. This blog and other emails takes up most of my time, but I love both of you very much and miss you too.
Ps. the medicine I'm taking for my congestion sucks. It's all herbal crap (no sudafed or actifed in australia). So I'll do some more searching perhaps tomorrow for a pharmacy and see if they have some better stuff than the super market had. Okay, ! I'm off.
<3 :]
Friday, June 27, 2008
Lionfish, Turtles and Nudibranchs, OH MY! (and why my dad remains the best dive buddy)
So, I just returned back to my hostel in Cairns from my 4day/3night live-aboard dive trip to teh great barrier reef! Overall, it was pretty damn amazing. I was picked up on the 24th at 4:45 pm, and we departed from the dock around 5:15 pm. My first surprise was that I got upgraded from a below-deck 4-share room, to a top-deck double with ensuite (private bathroom!). There was one bunk bed, with a full size bed on the bottom, which my New Zealand roomie, Wendy, allowed me to have. Dinner consisted of chicken and lamb, potatoes, brocolli, salad, and garlic bread (it was all delicious). I went to bed around 8:45 pm, because I was exhausted, after having only gotten 4 hours of sleep the previous two nights.
Day 2:
Wake up was at 0650, but I was up at about 0600. I started off with tea, and breakfast (at 0700) was (as it was every day) scrambled eggs, toast, ham/tomatoe/cheese sandwiches, baked beans, yogurt, and fresh fruit! Our morning dives (at 0800 and 1000) were at Cod Hole. These cod must have been at least 2 meters long. They were huge! My dive buddies were Kyoko (this Japanese woman who didn't speak english...) and C.A. (a Cairns local). We had this giant cod follow us around the entire first dive, so we nicknamed it the puppy cod. I proved myself (as always) to be the finder of eels, as I found a gimongous green moray (probably a good 2 - 2.5 meters in length). We reached our max depth at 30 meters, and when we returned to the boat (which I was pleased to have been able to find), I had about 70 bar left (which is probably equivalent to 700 psi).
Dive two was at Cod Hole, again, but this time it was the Cod Feed, where Yuki (one of the instructor/guides/crew) fed the cod heeps of tuna. They went nuts. After the feed, we were able to swim off on our own. Dive two was about the same as dive one. Lunch was at 1200 and consisted of home made pizza and left over chicken, with pasta salad, and salad. Dive three was at Challenger Bay, where we saw turtles, eels, schools of fish, and beautiful coral. Despite the name...it wasn't really a challenge. I don't know what consists of a challenge for diving, but I guess I was hoping for some swim thru channels of coral.
At 1830, we went on our night dive. I buddied up with Mark, from Dublin, Ireland, and we saw nothing. There was another boat in the area, and as Mark and I were swimming down the reef, all of a sudden it was like star wars, with twenty thousand inexperienced divers swimming towards us. I wanted to strangle them all, and teach them how to dive. We think (emphasis on the thinking) that we saw a shark on the way back to the boat...but it might just be wishful thinking, eh? I spent the rest of the night playing shithead (this silly australian card game) while we all watched blow, with johnny depp. I spent a good hour or so up on the top top deck watching the stars, and felt pretty damn lucky to be there. Finally went to bed around 2300.
Day 3:
Wake up, again, was at 0650, but again, I was up around 0600. Had my tea, and prepared for the morning dives at Steve's Bommie (which were my two favorite dives of the trip). Steve's bommie was this huge mass of coral which was like a giant cylindrical shape whose bottom was at 30m, and whose top was at about 5m. So, we dove down to 30 m and then just swam clockwise around this huge mass of coral. Right at 30m we were greeted by a baby (so cute!) white tip reef shark, shortly followed by two free swimming turtles. Steve's bommie was also home to (oh i don't know), roughly 7 or 8 free swimming lion fish (and dad, even a baby featherhead!). I also found two eels, a cuttlefish (the wanna-be squid), and the videographer of the trip, Chriso found a leafy scorpion fish! Both of the morning dives were there and I went on both of them.
Lunch was at 1200...and I can't remember what we ate...but I'm sure it was good. The afternoon was spent diving at 2 2/3rds (named because it was 2/3rds of the way between ribbon reef number 2....and 3...). My left ear gave me some problems with clearing, and that's when I realized death was coming. (I am now completely stuffed up...and need to run to the super market to grab cough/cold/stuffed up nose medicine). After 2 2/3rds, we headed down to beer garden, for the night dive...but I declined. My nose was dripping and I didn't want to push anything (plus, the night dive the previous night had proven uneventful). I was pleased when people came back and said they saw nothing. From here on out, I will do night dives with my dad only, and when no one else is around.
That night I spent reading books (One Up on Wall Street...by Peter Lynch and The Husband by Dean Koontz). We hit rough weather, and I began to feel a bit queazy, so I took some more dramamine, and laid in fetal position for the rest of the night. I never threw up, and for that, I was very grateful.
Day 4:
Morning dives were at Norman Reef, and I did the first dive, but not the second dive, because there wasn't a whole lot there. I enjoyed just being in the water and looking in all sorts of holes and such and such. Saw some brightly, beautifully colored nudibranchs, a free swimming turtle, a blue spotted ray in the sand flats, and I got the joy of seeing a sea cucumber, which was hanging from an overhang, poop. I literally floated in the water and watched it excrete little balls of what looked like sand. I have no idea why I found it so fascinating...
After the dives we headed back to Cairns, and here I am now. All in all, it was a fantastic trip, and I must come back to do some more diving on the Great Barrier. (and so should all of you who dive!)
Alright, time to go check on my laundry and try and get to the store for some sudafed, or the likes.
Day 2:
Wake up was at 0650, but I was up at about 0600. I started off with tea, and breakfast (at 0700) was (as it was every day) scrambled eggs, toast, ham/tomatoe/cheese sandwiches, baked beans, yogurt, and fresh fruit! Our morning dives (at 0800 and 1000) were at Cod Hole. These cod must have been at least 2 meters long. They were huge! My dive buddies were Kyoko (this Japanese woman who didn't speak english...) and C.A. (a Cairns local). We had this giant cod follow us around the entire first dive, so we nicknamed it the puppy cod. I proved myself (as always) to be the finder of eels, as I found a gimongous green moray (probably a good 2 - 2.5 meters in length). We reached our max depth at 30 meters, and when we returned to the boat (which I was pleased to have been able to find), I had about 70 bar left (which is probably equivalent to 700 psi).
Dive two was at Cod Hole, again, but this time it was the Cod Feed, where Yuki (one of the instructor/guides/crew) fed the cod heeps of tuna. They went nuts. After the feed, we were able to swim off on our own. Dive two was about the same as dive one. Lunch was at 1200 and consisted of home made pizza and left over chicken, with pasta salad, and salad. Dive three was at Challenger Bay, where we saw turtles, eels, schools of fish, and beautiful coral. Despite the name...it wasn't really a challenge. I don't know what consists of a challenge for diving, but I guess I was hoping for some swim thru channels of coral.
At 1830, we went on our night dive. I buddied up with Mark, from Dublin, Ireland, and we saw nothing. There was another boat in the area, and as Mark and I were swimming down the reef, all of a sudden it was like star wars, with twenty thousand inexperienced divers swimming towards us. I wanted to strangle them all, and teach them how to dive. We think (emphasis on the thinking) that we saw a shark on the way back to the boat...but it might just be wishful thinking, eh? I spent the rest of the night playing shithead (this silly australian card game) while we all watched blow, with johnny depp. I spent a good hour or so up on the top top deck watching the stars, and felt pretty damn lucky to be there. Finally went to bed around 2300.
Day 3:
Wake up, again, was at 0650, but again, I was up around 0600. Had my tea, and prepared for the morning dives at Steve's Bommie (which were my two favorite dives of the trip). Steve's bommie was this huge mass of coral which was like a giant cylindrical shape whose bottom was at 30m, and whose top was at about 5m. So, we dove down to 30 m and then just swam clockwise around this huge mass of coral. Right at 30m we were greeted by a baby (so cute!) white tip reef shark, shortly followed by two free swimming turtles. Steve's bommie was also home to (oh i don't know), roughly 7 or 8 free swimming lion fish (and dad, even a baby featherhead!). I also found two eels, a cuttlefish (the wanna-be squid), and the videographer of the trip, Chriso found a leafy scorpion fish! Both of the morning dives were there and I went on both of them.
Lunch was at 1200...and I can't remember what we ate...but I'm sure it was good. The afternoon was spent diving at 2 2/3rds (named because it was 2/3rds of the way between ribbon reef number 2....and 3...). My left ear gave me some problems with clearing, and that's when I realized death was coming. (I am now completely stuffed up...and need to run to the super market to grab cough/cold/stuffed up nose medicine). After 2 2/3rds, we headed down to beer garden, for the night dive...but I declined. My nose was dripping and I didn't want to push anything (plus, the night dive the previous night had proven uneventful). I was pleased when people came back and said they saw nothing. From here on out, I will do night dives with my dad only, and when no one else is around.
That night I spent reading books (One Up on Wall Street...by Peter Lynch and The Husband by Dean Koontz). We hit rough weather, and I began to feel a bit queazy, so I took some more dramamine, and laid in fetal position for the rest of the night. I never threw up, and for that, I was very grateful.
Day 4:
Morning dives were at Norman Reef, and I did the first dive, but not the second dive, because there wasn't a whole lot there. I enjoyed just being in the water and looking in all sorts of holes and such and such. Saw some brightly, beautifully colored nudibranchs, a free swimming turtle, a blue spotted ray in the sand flats, and I got the joy of seeing a sea cucumber, which was hanging from an overhang, poop. I literally floated in the water and watched it excrete little balls of what looked like sand. I have no idea why I found it so fascinating...
After the dives we headed back to Cairns, and here I am now. All in all, it was a fantastic trip, and I must come back to do some more diving on the Great Barrier. (and so should all of you who dive!)
Alright, time to go check on my laundry and try and get to the store for some sudafed, or the likes.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Dead Kangaroo and Jumping out of an Airplane.
So we'll start with last night. I went out with my roomie, Laura, from the UK. We went to the "little aussie bum" for dinner, and got a spitroast and two drinks for 12 dollars. pretty amazing. and the food was really good. Also, there were guys in dresses, and hula skirts, which is always awesome. So we stayed there for dinner, and had a few drinks, and met some crazy people, and then moved on the the "mad cow" bar next door. We played 4 rounds of pool, and I'm proud to say I won two of them. Then we went back to the "bum" and were pleasantly pleased to see the guys in male clothing, and then we had a couple more drinks with the staff, and we all decided to trudge across the street to the "rhino bar/nightclub". we proceeded to dance the night away, and it was, all in all, an amazing night. I had a blast dancing to all sorts of music. Finally, we returned home around 2 am to get a few precious hours of sleep before going SKYDIVING.
So, as you know, I went skydiving. It was. AMAZING. I did "jump the beach" which is down in Mission Beach (about a two hour drive). We went up in the plane with 7 tandem jumpers, and 1 solo jumper, and 1 video photographer (for me!), so we were all like sardines in a can. I was fifth to go, and we were high high above the clouds. On the way up, we went through a cloud patch and I lookd at Pierre's wrist height watch thing, and it said 4,500 feet. The clouds were at 4500 feet, and we were going up to 14,000. At 11,000 we threw out the solo jumper, who leaped out of the plane, and it was at that point that I began to get a little nervous. Not to mention, the guy sitting next to me on the plane was shaking because he was so nervous. Finally, we reached the optimal altitude of 14,000 feet. I was fifth to jump, and before I knew it, I was sitting on the edge of the plane, with my hands crossed across my chest, my feet bent back under the plane, and Pierre saying "alright, here we gooooooo!!!", and there I was. Falling towards earth at 200km/hour. It was a ridiculous feeling. I have no other way of describing it. After what seemed a nano second, we were reaching the cloud layer. As a child, I always thought it would be awesome to take a nap on a cloud, and I always thought clouds would catch me if I fell out of a plane, so in some strange way, it was like I was living a child hood dream. The cloud was freezing and wet, and after about 4 seconds I saw the ocean. It was right below me. With Mission Beach and islands scattered in every direction, and POOF! our parachute opens (to my relief). We glided down to the beach, which took about 4 - 5 minutes, and Pierre even let me steer the parachute! It was pretty exciting. And that was it, I was back on land, and I wanted to go back up and do it again. I was in the first batch of jumpers, and there were still two more to go (which took another 3 hours), so I got to hang out on the beach and meet some new people, and of course, watch for falling people out of the sky. I met a few people from the UK, Natasha, Tom, Robert and hmmm I don't think I ever got the fourth person's name. It's Natasha's birthday, and we're all going out for Mexican food at 8, followed by some dancing.
Tomorrow I head off for my dive trip! I'm stoked, especially since I got to see the reef as I was freefalling towards earth.
Oh yeah, and on the way to Mission Beach, I saw my first kangaroo! Unfortunately, it was roadkill. :[ Also, on the drive back to Cairns, the sun was setting over the mountains and it was so beautiful. Anyways, I've gotta go hop in the shower and get ready for dinner. Will write again after I dive on the Great Barrier Reef!! :]
So, as you know, I went skydiving. It was. AMAZING. I did "jump the beach" which is down in Mission Beach (about a two hour drive). We went up in the plane with 7 tandem jumpers, and 1 solo jumper, and 1 video photographer (for me!), so we were all like sardines in a can. I was fifth to go, and we were high high above the clouds. On the way up, we went through a cloud patch and I lookd at Pierre's wrist height watch thing, and it said 4,500 feet. The clouds were at 4500 feet, and we were going up to 14,000. At 11,000 we threw out the solo jumper, who leaped out of the plane, and it was at that point that I began to get a little nervous. Not to mention, the guy sitting next to me on the plane was shaking because he was so nervous. Finally, we reached the optimal altitude of 14,000 feet. I was fifth to jump, and before I knew it, I was sitting on the edge of the plane, with my hands crossed across my chest, my feet bent back under the plane, and Pierre saying "alright, here we gooooooo!!!", and there I was. Falling towards earth at 200km/hour. It was a ridiculous feeling. I have no other way of describing it. After what seemed a nano second, we were reaching the cloud layer. As a child, I always thought it would be awesome to take a nap on a cloud, and I always thought clouds would catch me if I fell out of a plane, so in some strange way, it was like I was living a child hood dream. The cloud was freezing and wet, and after about 4 seconds I saw the ocean. It was right below me. With Mission Beach and islands scattered in every direction, and POOF! our parachute opens (to my relief). We glided down to the beach, which took about 4 - 5 minutes, and Pierre even let me steer the parachute! It was pretty exciting. And that was it, I was back on land, and I wanted to go back up and do it again. I was in the first batch of jumpers, and there were still two more to go (which took another 3 hours), so I got to hang out on the beach and meet some new people, and of course, watch for falling people out of the sky. I met a few people from the UK, Natasha, Tom, Robert and hmmm I don't think I ever got the fourth person's name. It's Natasha's birthday, and we're all going out for Mexican food at 8, followed by some dancing.
Tomorrow I head off for my dive trip! I'm stoked, especially since I got to see the reef as I was freefalling towards earth.
Oh yeah, and on the way to Mission Beach, I saw my first kangaroo! Unfortunately, it was roadkill. :[ Also, on the drive back to Cairns, the sun was setting over the mountains and it was so beautiful. Anyways, I've gotta go hop in the shower and get ready for dinner. Will write again after I dive on the Great Barrier Reef!! :]
Saturday, June 21, 2008
24 Hours Passed.
So I've been here for almost 24 hours, and so far, I love it. I got in yesterday to Cairns around 1 30 pm, and a lady that had been on my flight from San Fran to Sydney and from Sydney to Cairns offered me a ride to the hostel, so that saved me 15 bucks :). Then I got to the hostel around 2, and it's pretty neat. There aren't very many people here, I have a 6-share room to myself now, since my awesome Korean room mate, Milly, left this morning.
I did some shopping yesterday, and was pretty much appalled by how expensive things are over here, but I did some good shopping and managed to only spend 45 bucks on multiple meals, a hair brush, and sun screen. I also managed to keep my eyes open until 10:15 pm last night, without a nap, thanks primarily to two people (one 56 year old lady who's decided to travel the world since her kids are all grown up, and a 19 year old guy from Amsterdam who is studying in Brisbane), so I succeeded at my goal of avoiding the jet lag/time change fiasco. The lady also introduced me to the wonderful world of Tasmanian Apple Cider, with alcohol, which was amazing. Don't fret, I only had one.
I woke up this morning at 7 am, and went for a couple mile walk down by the "beach", if you can call it that. I call it giant low-tide swamp land, with no sand, but it was still beautiful, especially since I was there just after sunrise. I walked around a little bit and took some pictures, and just felt very good to be in Australia.
I came home, read part of my book and then decided I wanted to book some adventure for while I'm here. I decided on "combo thrills", which is a half day of sky diving TOMORROW from 11,000 feet, tandem (attached to the instructor/professional person), and I jump right over the ocean and land on the beach! And then the next day I am leaving for my 4 day/3 night dive trip to the great barrier reef, and the day after I return I'm doing a full day of white water rafting on class 3-4 grade rapids on the Tully River. Needless to say, I am stoked. A little nervous and anxious, for sure, but totally stoked.
The person who booked me for my "thrills" suggested a restaurant, that has super good food and a relaxed atmosphere, so I think I'll check that out tonight. Hope all is well back home, wherever home may be! So far so good, I'm having a great time, but miss all you loads.
I did some shopping yesterday, and was pretty much appalled by how expensive things are over here, but I did some good shopping and managed to only spend 45 bucks on multiple meals, a hair brush, and sun screen. I also managed to keep my eyes open until 10:15 pm last night, without a nap, thanks primarily to two people (one 56 year old lady who's decided to travel the world since her kids are all grown up, and a 19 year old guy from Amsterdam who is studying in Brisbane), so I succeeded at my goal of avoiding the jet lag/time change fiasco. The lady also introduced me to the wonderful world of Tasmanian Apple Cider, with alcohol, which was amazing. Don't fret, I only had one.
I woke up this morning at 7 am, and went for a couple mile walk down by the "beach", if you can call it that. I call it giant low-tide swamp land, with no sand, but it was still beautiful, especially since I was there just after sunrise. I walked around a little bit and took some pictures, and just felt very good to be in Australia.
I came home, read part of my book and then decided I wanted to book some adventure for while I'm here. I decided on "combo thrills", which is a half day of sky diving TOMORROW from 11,000 feet, tandem (attached to the instructor/professional person), and I jump right over the ocean and land on the beach! And then the next day I am leaving for my 4 day/3 night dive trip to the great barrier reef, and the day after I return I'm doing a full day of white water rafting on class 3-4 grade rapids on the Tully River. Needless to say, I am stoked. A little nervous and anxious, for sure, but totally stoked.
The person who booked me for my "thrills" suggested a restaurant, that has super good food and a relaxed atmosphere, so I think I'll check that out tonight. Hope all is well back home, wherever home may be! So far so good, I'm having a great time, but miss all you loads.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Greetings from Sydney.
Well I've arrived. I'm in Sydney's airport right now, and for the brief 30 seconds that I was outside, I wonder if I packed appropriately. It was quite chilly, but I'm hoping it warms as the day goes on. So I got lucky on the flight here. I was supposed to be in a middle seat, but got switched to an exit row window. I had 6 feet of leg room, and no one sitting next to me. I would've lied down, but the stupid arm rests didn't go up :( ! But, being an adventurer, I made a sling out of an extra blanket and tied it to a handle right next to my seat, so I had my legs held up by the sling. I slept most of the flight, which I think will help me with the time change. It's just before eight am out here, and I feel wide eyed and refreshed, so hopefully I don't crash once I get to Cairns.
So I just went to purchase a bottle of water, and didn't have an AU dollars. So I tried buying it with my credit card, but it was a 10 dollar minimum, so this aussie guy behind me said "that's alright mate, i've got it", and paid for my water. I thanked him, and we parted ways. All I know is that no one in the US would have done that so, so far AU 1, USA 0.
Hope you all are having grand ol' days. I'll talk to you later.
So I just went to purchase a bottle of water, and didn't have an AU dollars. So I tried buying it with my credit card, but it was a 10 dollar minimum, so this aussie guy behind me said "that's alright mate, i've got it", and paid for my water. I thanked him, and we parted ways. All I know is that no one in the US would have done that so, so far AU 1, USA 0.
Hope you all are having grand ol' days. I'll talk to you later.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
The First Post.
I'm not sure how many of you will read this, it'll probably be mostly family, but I figured this would be a good way to keep people (who care) updated on my year off. As most of you know by now, I graduated last May -- a year early, and am taking off this next year to do some serious traveling. This includes, but is not limited to, Australia, Scandinavia, Roadtrip to Michigan, a move to Chicago for a few months, and Antarctica. And this is all that will happen by next February.
So travel number 1: Australia. My flight takes off in nine hours, I fly from San Diego to San Francisco; from there to Sydney; and then on to Cairns, where I begin my month stay with a 4 day/3 night dive trip along the Great Barrier Reef.
I'm not bringing my laptop or cell phone with me, because I'm traveling super light out of a backpack. However, the hostels I am staying at should have computers, and if not, I'll find internet cafes to keep people updated.
I hope everyone is having a good summer!
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