Filed under: Random Thoughts
My 26th birthday has come and gone, life is good and I’m still on the road, well kind of on the road. I have some cashflow issues due to earlier this year when it was pretty much impossible to find a job no matter how hard we tried or where we drove to and my general feeling at the time that things would work out and why don’t I just charge it all on my credit card, and hey I know I’m broke but lets still road trip into the outback and drink all the time. Yeah those where good times, but it’s all catching up to me now.
After my experience in New Zealand when I was 18 out in the world for the first time and racking up thousands of dollars in debt through my wonderful parents who were kind enough to back my up in my time of major irresponsibility I had decided that I would be much more responsibile this trip when it came to money. That didn’t happen. Luckily I have Candice & Eden who let me stay at their house rent free while I get my shit sorted.
It’s funny looking at my life, I didn’t image that at 26 I’d be broke and crashing with a friend in Australia without a proper job. I’d always kind of pictured more for myself at this age, I guess I figured by 26 I’d have done all my travelling and adventure seeking and be settling down with a real job and a real house and maybe even a boyfriend.
Candice & Eden were trying to freak me out about being 26 on my birthday because they didn’t like it, Eden likes to insist that he’s still 25. After thinking about it I realize that I really don’t mind getting older, I like where I am right now (aside from the money issues) and I know where I want to go and I’m excited about it. Sometimes the thought of getting older is scary especially when friends start getting married and having babies and buying houses and you think about all the things that society expects you to have and to do by certain ages and sometimes it freaks me out and worries me and I wonder, will I ever get there?
My travelling life has been amazing, I’ve seen and done so many cool things, and met loads of awesome people but for all the good things it’s still hard a lot of the time. Like when you have to say goodbye to the awesome people, especially if it’s someone you’ve been hanging out with for a while or someone who you felt really close to. You have to make a lot of sacrifices for this life, the people at home who envy you don’t always realize that.
It’s kind of weird being back in Melbourne a year later. Working in the same office, living at the same place, taking the same buses at the same time. It’s kind of nice though.
We spent the next week with Hayley (Sparkle) and her roommate Taylor, but as it turns out we didn’t really go to the Gold Coast, we somehow ended up back in America!
It’s the weirdest place I’ve been to in Australia. Almost everybody on that campus was from America, they had American snacks in the vending machines (Reeses Peanut Butter Cups!!! And even better Peanut Butter M&Ms!!!), at the IGA on campus they also had American food including Dr Pepper, and something called Goobers which is PB & Jelly all wrapped up in one container, there was no nightlife on campus, and nowhere to go. It’s kind of like living in Derrimut you have to take the bus everywhere.
There was a small bar in the dorm and Katie and I went there our second night while Hayley was in class and were talking to these guys who had decided that they were staying – in Australia. They’d only been here two weeks and only pretty much on campus which I mean it’s not even like being in Australia really, they don’t even realize what Australia is really like because they are in this little America zone. I mean good for them, they like Australia, but I think if I were on a student exchange there I would be really disappointed.
We had a good week there although we mostly sat around and did nothing, ate peanut butter and chocolate, drank Dr Pepper, went to Robina Town Centre which also had a little candy shop there selling all kinds of international candy, and pretty much just relaxed. It was great. After that I had decided to fly back to Melbourne, the closest thing I have to a home right now, and Katie went back to Maroochydore.
So far it’s been great. I mean I miss the beach and the weather and Maroochydore but it’s good being back here. Temping again, hopefully I’ll get a car and maybe a job at the airport. But life is good.
Filed under: Australia
So I decided it’s too hard to try and recap everything that happened. Basically we had an amazing trip, from Eungella we went on a three day two night sailing trip through the Whitsunday’s. It was so beautiful and I loved boat life, and I went snorkelling for the first time in my life, and the second, third, fourth, fifth, and probably sixth times. Needless to say we did a lot of snorkelling. We went to Whitehaven Beach the most idyllic white sand tropical paradise you could ever imagine, hiked on Koala adventure island and then got drunk at the bar there. The next morning on the boat wasn’t so awesome. I had to lie down on the deck and not move all morning for fear of chucking my cookies off the deck.
After that we stopped at Mission Beach where we hunted Cassowaries (unsuccessfully) and took a day trip up to Tully so Carlie could go Whitewater Rafting before stopping at Paronella Park for the night. Someone had told me you shouldn’t miss it and was this old Spanish Style kind of hang out or something in the 1920s it was beautiful but by that point we were all itching to get to Cairns.
It turns out Cairns was a huge disappointment. After dreaming and wanting to go there for so long I didn’t like it. The beach sucked and I was over clubbing at that point, but having a bed and electricity for extended periods of time was nice. And the Great Barrier Reef was a cool experience even though I couldn’t complete my Scuba Dive due to my ear not pressurizing properly. But I did get to go snorkelling.
We did a day trip up north to Cape Tribulation, which was really beautiful we should have spent the night. The next day we tried to organize a camper relocation through Alice Springs so we could see Uluru but it wasn’t to be so we decided to split paths. Carlie would stay then fly to Sydney and then home, Mary would fly to Brisbane to hang out with friends before going home to Germany for Uni, and Katie and I would drive back down the coast so we could use the free stay on Koala Adventure Island we had won during our Whitsunday Trip.
It was beautiful and relaxing, but kind of a funny place to stay. It’s marketed as a backpacker destination but they have no kitchen and no fridges so we brought our own food and just kept it in our room . There was nobody there, literally, the first night was supposed to be a big night because there were a bunch of guys from Hamilton Island who had come over to party, there were maybe 20 people. Overall it was nice but we both decided we wouldn’t pay to stay there.
We drove to 1770 after that and stayed at this awesome hostel called Cool Bananas. It was really homey and the guy working there was super nice and fun and they had a fire pit and we made popcorn and sat around drinking beer and chatting with the other residents. Such a nice relaxing chilled night we had, although I think we were maybe going a bit batty by the time we got there because we sat in our room cracking up about making beds and home addresses for so long after we first checked. Katie’s awesome. I love her.
Then we were in Maroochydore, I camped out near the YHA to hang out with Mary and reconnect with some of the peeps there and Katie stayed at her mates house so she could see her friends again, she was planning on flying home. I was planning on driving down to Sydney.
We were driving down to Brisbane, the three of us, to hang out for the weekend and bring Mary to the Airport, but on the way down Katie had a change of heart and decided she wanted to stay and try and make things work with her boy. I was still thinking of going to Sydney but the car was having issues again so I was starting to consider flying but wasn’t sure.
I started freaking out. About everything. As much as I love change and new places and new people I have a hard time dealing with it. It’s weird. Everything was coming to an end and they all had a plan, Carlie was going home to be with her boyfriend who she’d met here, Mary was going home to Uni and then coming back in January to continue studying, and Katie was going to go give love a chance, I had no idea what I was doing.
I was broke, I was going to be alone, I was going to give up my car, I was going to give up my surfboard, and Glen was supposed to hang out with me but he didn’t answer my call. I was pretty miserable. I didn’t want to say goodbye. I was so tired of saying goodbye after a year of having a new best friend come and go every two weeks or so and these had been around for so long. It was sad. And I was leaving Queensland which I love, it was the end of an era. I was totally miserable.
Mary decided it was time for a little bit of radical therapy and we went to this tiny park in the middle of the Valley and did some screaming, which actually helped a lot. When we got home I texted Glen to see what was up and he called me back inviting us to some hip hop gig way out in Loganholme somewhere.
Katie and I decided to go and Mary stayed and hung out with her old friends in Brissie. Best decision I ever made. We had such an awesome night out with Glen and Leyton, we ended up going to the Casino and won lots of money and stayed out all night, then watched the sunrise and went and crashed Neils house and jumped into bed with him (all 3 of us) then woke up 2 hours later and went to get the car from the pub where we’d left it. Then Glen bought us tickets to Sounds of Spring a music festival that day. It was great, I was exhausted and after a few drinks lay down in the grass and all but slept for a bit. I bought a burrito because I was hungry and then some guy knocked it out of my hand onto the ground and I stood there shocked. I can’t believe you just knocked my burrito onto the ground! He gave me $50 to make up for it. I was stoked.
The next morning we drove Mary to the airport. We made a date to meet at the coffee shop January 15th, 2010 7:00 when Mary flies back in. Katie and I hung out at Alex’s house for a while watching Mad Men which is an awesome show before she got a hold of her friend who was going to Uni on the Gold Coast and offered to let us stay with her for the next week.
So off we went to Goldie.
Filed under: Australia
It was a long drive to Eungella from 1770 and we didn’t even get close until well after dark, we’re driving out west from Mackay into pretty much the middle of nowhere. We pass a few small towns but the further out we go the smaller and smaller they get. Then as we are driving we see flames in the distance, the girls start freaking out thinking it’s a wildfire and that we’ll get stuck in Eungella and die in the fire, I figured it was probably a controlled cane fire, but we stopped and took pictures before continuing on our way. After a while the road starts going up on an incline and getting steeper and steeper and windier and windier and it’s pretty narrow but Mary was taking it slow and it was all good. Then the fog starts creeping in and before you know it we could barely see two feet in front of us. Mary starts driving slower and we all start kind of freaking out because we know there’s the road and then there’s a drop off and we can only just see where we are going. Then this car comes up behind us and he’s impatient and riding our ass, I guess he lives around here and is used to the road.
Finally the road levels off and we kinda pull over and this guy goes flying past us. We can’t see anything. We don’t know where to go. We don’t know where the camping is. Finally we see a sign for a caravan park so we turn down this road but can’t see anything, the road splits and we don’t know where to go. So I got out of the car with the torch and walked ahead of the car trying to find the right way to go, but I don’t know. I end up down this dead end road with tons of big old semi trucks. It feels like something out of Wolf Creek but with fog.
Luckily this woman drives up just then and I run over and ask her if she knows where the caravan park is. She’s local and admits that she has a hard time in fog like this too but offers to lead us to the caravan park. She tells us that Eungella means ‘land in the clouds’ oh if only we’d known we all joked. The caravan park was two seconds down the road. So we get there and get out of the car and not only is it foggy but the air is really wet and it’s kind of spitting and there’s nothing to do at the caravan park, nowhere to sit inside and be warm. Luckily they did have a laundry room with a kettle and microwave and fridge and covered eating area where we hung out and had coffee and beer. It was cold and wet and the tent and the feet of our sleeping bags got pretty damp that night.
We had to be up bright and early to see the platypuses the next morning, it was still foggy but not as bad as the night had been, but everything was still wet. So we packed up our wet gear and piled into the car to go see the platypuses. We got there, walked down to the river, read all the signs about what to do to see them and stood there watching the water. And watching, and watching. We saw a lot of turtles.. and then across the river where you could barely make anything out came a ripple in the water. The ripple we were supposed to be watching for. The ripple that was supposed to mean a platypus. So we stood there, watching the little ripple in the water for a good 10, 15 minutes and then it was gone. I felt so fulfilled.
We decided to go walk down under the bridge to see if we could see anything there but there was nothing. So we took platypus face pictures, posed with some trees and the platypus billboard. Then got back in the car and headed to Airlie Beach to celebrate Mary’s birthday.
So it was all pretty much for nothing, facing the wildfires, a terror filled drive up a twisted narrow mountain road in the fog, a miserable wet cold night, only to not see a platypus. It was still one of the best times I had on the trip.
the Whitsundays are coming up next!
The thing is I moved to another hostel where they didn’t have internet, well they didn’t have wireless internet and then it all fell apart – blogwise that is. Life became ultimately more awesome. As awesome as it can be when you are working 12 hour days packing strawberries. We complained pretty much nonstop but that’s life and part of what made it bearable to keep working. Then I got my taxes back and with 4 grand in the bank it was hard to rationalize standing there going strawberry crazy all day every day so the next day I didn’t go back, Mary played hooky as well and we had such an awesome day we didn’t go in the next day either, or the next and then we pretty much just called and told them we were done. It was fine though because we were leaving in a few days anyway for our Great Australian Road Trip. Carlie’s last day of work was Wednesday and on that day the Strawberry Farm pretty much told them all their strawberry careers were over and they didn’t need them anymore. So good riddance. Friday we packed up the car and took off for our first stop – Brisbane – to party with Mary’s friend Alex.
Brisbane was awesome, the best night out I’d had in a while, but it was only a brief stop to gear up and have some fun before hitting the road. By noon the next day we were heading north out of Brisbane, music pumping, Katie’s hand on a stick waving in the air and pointing at people out the window, and there was dancing… lots of dancing. We hit Hervey Bay that night went to the pub to have a few drinks and met these Bogan ape men and hung out with them that night before going back to the beach to set up camp. That was our first night roughing it in the car and on the beach. The tent was super easy to set up but the wind coming off the ocean was really rough and blew the tent around all night, I was sleeping ocean side and was getting whipped by the tent all night it was all on top of me, hitting my head constantly. I did manage to get some sleep but how awesome was the morning waking up with the sun and the ocean and then grabbing all the girls and going for a swim in the ocean in our undies. Good times.
The next day we went to Bundy to check out the Rum Distillery. I was driving on the way back and on this one time passing someone I don’t know if I misjudged how far away the car was or the Haybird was just slow at picking up speed but it was a close one. Nearly head on collision. I’m just glad the girls were all sleeping at that point.
Next day we drove up to 1770 for some free laundry, free internet and so Katie could rendez-vous with her boy toy Chef. It was a cute hostel though the rooms were very white and bare, we didn’t stay long and after coffee in the morning we headed off for Eungella to see the Platypuses. Kenya had told me about it and it was my must do thing.
Filed under: Australia
Today I remembered that I like it here. We were sitting outside on break and the sun was so hot and we decided we might go to the beach and sunbathe on our days off tomorrow. Then we started talking about beaches in Caloundra and I remembered Kings Beach and when we went surfing there and then I just remembered how awesome summer was.
Seriously one of the best summers of my life. Probably top 3. I mean it had everything, romance, drama, surfing, clubbing, sports, good friends, road trips, beer, tragedy… it was so good. Sitting out in the hot sun I remembered days spent on the beach tanning and surfing and sitting out at the picnic table chatting or even the lazy days when we’d curl up on the couch and watch movies. I want those days back.
I decided that maybe I need to stop hating and start re-learning to appreciate Maroochy. I mean since I’m gonnaa be here a while yet. Only one more week till I can apply for my visa but I’ll still be broke after that AND work is going to pick way way up in about 2 or 3 weeks so I may as well stick around since I have work right now. And I guess it’s not so bad here. Most of the time.
Filed under: Australia
Tuesday nights at Friday’s were meant to be awesome. As strawberry workers we get many “weekends” so to celebrate our Friday we decided to spend the night out at Friday’s. Lately people haven’t really been going out that often but yesterday we managed to get a maxi taxi and a half out to party.
Goon and drinking games are the typical start to most evenings at the hostel and yesterday was no exception. I hadn’t been to Friday’s on a Tuesday before and was suprised to find they had roped off the main area of the bar and it was full of tables the whole bar seemed to have been turned upside down.
The good thing about a Tuesday night is that it’s cheap. No cover and the charge to get into the ‘club’ section of the bar that’s upstairs and normally $15 was only $2! I had never gone up there before and it was cool to go and check it out. I was busy dancing my heart out.. or getting a beer when someone came to tell me something was wrong with Ivy. Then I spent the next hour or so trying to calm her down and deal with her drama.
I was chatting with a cool Aussie guy who had been to Van and Whistler and loved it when I found Micheal and had to ditch to go bring him to Ivy. Too bad, I think he was hot and I didn’t see him again after that.
Micheal said that Martin and Phillip were looking for me (or Ivy) I’m not sure which anymore and after that all I could think about was Phil. I went back inside found Jana and Jens and the YHA people and Josh the Kiwi guy from Strawberries and CottonTree! That’s one good thing about strawberries whenever you have a day off everybody goes out so you always meet tons of people you know at the club!
I kind of blacked out somewhere around talking to Phil upstairs in the club and came back halfway to Maroochydore as I trudged along in the middle of the night alone. A stupid idea I know. By the time I got to McDonalds I guess I was hungry because I got a large Quarter Pounder Meal and chicken nuggets.
I got back to the hostel arms full of McDonalds and looked at the locked gate and thought I can’t be bothered getting my key out so instead I climbed through the hole in the fence. Which isnt as easy as you might think because the hole is about waist height and my arms were full of McDonalds. I’m not really sure how I did it. I went to eat in the TV room where I passed out and woke up with ketchup all over my hoodie thinking where am I? What’s going on? Then I went to my room climbed into bed and slept until 11 when I went downstairs and we all gossiped about the night before.
Jens tried to walk home but ended up at McDonalds in Mooloolaba where he asked which way to Parker Street in Maroochydore. They looked him up and down and said he looked too drunk it would probably take 3 hours and called him a cab. Bart left the bar at midnight and didn’t get home until 5. He won’t tell us what happened but he also ended up at McDonalds in Mooloolaba.
Todays highlight was Sizzler! From the time I got out of bed [and stopped feeling like complete shit] it was all I could think about. We got there at 2 and stayed until about 4:30. We ate waaaaaayyyyy too much. I was pretty full after the first plate but that didnt stop me from going back for more and more and more and then desert and then more. Then I was so full and I thought I was going to explode and then I had some ice cream and then I stopped and felt really sick and thought I would throw up but it passed and then I wanted cheese toast.
It was really funny because Heidi and Yu took small plates and ate slowly and we all loaded our plates up and ate soo much and by the end we were all passed out and feeling like death and they were sitting there happily drinking coffees and still eating. The contrast was really funny.
We joked later about making a horror movie based on our lunch at Sizzler. We wanted to spend the night crashed out on the couch watching movies but of course Arthur, the cleaner who has lived in the 10 bed dorm for 10 years, was in the TV room. He let us watch one movie but we have to wait for later to watch the scary one.
We decided tomorrow night we will go to 240s.
Filed under: Australia
Leaving the Internet yesterday I was totally down in the dumps depressed. But instead of being lame and hanging out in my room playing spider solitaire I decided to go down and see what was happening at the picnic table.
Turns out a lot was going on at the picnic table. Sasha was trying to get Bart to agree to marry her and Jens was trying to get a massage from anybody and we were all joking around and laughing. I told him for $20 for 1o minutes I could give him one. Then Bart comes out and tells us he’s taken an erotic massage course. Yes I’d like the um… erotic massage please. I asked my wife Inna if she’d like an erotic massage later and Sasha was upset because nobody wanted to marry her.
We reminded her that her wife Sarah was in Germany, yes but I can’t get an erotic massage from her. You could phone erotic massage her, then we all joked about how the call would go. I’m taking off my shirt, are your socks off yet? Soon after this Bart went to his room to set up his new erotic massage business (or just to be depending on who you hear it from). Not too long afterwards Jens gets up and walks away. Guess he’s gonna give it a go. He came back a few minutes later and Jana said that was quick. We all burst out laughing.
He was confused. Worth the 5 bucks? I asked. I noticed you’re walking kind funny? [more laughter] Yeah it wasn’t good he replied. A few minutes later Marvin comes walking in with the same funny kind of walk – another happy customer. (The boys had actually just gotten back from trying to walk a 50km beach.) We all laughed some more, and laughed and laughed. The boys got up and walked away and we laughed some more. Then Adrian got up and walked away (another beach boy) and we laughed some more. Then all 5 of the boys who had gone on the walk came back in and we just cracked up even more, I was crying I was laughing so hard. It was really really good. Then we made a sign for Bart’s new business. Jens was not pleased as he was in the same room as Bart but we made it anyway and set it up by the stairs.
Later when I was brushing my teeth to go to bed I heard Max going where’s Bart? Room #5 I yelled out and come over. He knocks on the door asking Bart for a massage. Too good.
Today work was really good as well. The new girl Mary who stands across the belt from me is really cool. She was out at the Sands Tavern thursday night and we started talking. She spent most of the morning trying to convince me to move to the YHA and I have to say I’m tempted. It would be a nice change of scenery since I want something new so badly it might be exactly what I need. There seem to be a lot of pluses – if I could keep my job packing since I got it through the hostel. But at the same time it’s nice being in the middle of things, the YHA is kinda in the boonies.
Tonight I think we will all go to the Beach Hut for the $8.90 steak or fish and chips. Most of her hostel is going. I think Inna and Sasha from my hostel want to go.
Then we were told to stop talking because we were offending people! Really? All we were doing was asking each other where we were from and where we were staying. We decided on our next weekend off to go for a night out in Brisbane because the nightlife here sucks balls.
Jens said he wants to read my blog. I said that was never gonna happen. He wants to know what I say about the hostel and the people in it. I said maybe when I leave.
I spent an awesome day in bed today. Last night we played drinking games and I got smashed. I think I had to drink 2 glasses of goon within half an hour or so and I was done. So I went up to bed washed my face, brushed my teeth but I don’t remember going to bed. I was completely toasted. Apparently Michael came up to check on me but I don’t remember.
Luckily I woke up this morning with only a slight hangover and to find out that somehow during the night I had knocked my favourite yellow happy face mug off the bedside table and smashed it. Gutted. And it was only seven in the morning. I felt pretty awake and slightly hungry so had some toast, watched Harry Potter on tv for a while but then decided I couldn’t be bothered and went back to bed.
Just after I climbed back in Jana came back to the room saying how weird it was – she woke up and was the only one in the room – and nobody was in the hostel. She decided to go back to bed too. I woke up again around eleven and read in bed for a while, then went to the cheap clothing store around the corner where I picked up a cute dress for $10 then Jana lent me the laptop to watch a movie. I decided on James Bond and painted my toenails and did pore strips on my face while I watched, the movie turned out to be really boring but it was a great girly day anyway.
Then tonight was Meg’s going way dinner party. It was really good with steak and chicken, sausages and dumplings and some really good stew and salad. Tonight Inna and Sasha are getting drunk but I tried first with goon, then a beer off Bart and then Sasha let me have some Jim Bean and Coke but I just wasn’t feeling it. I just want to go to bed.
And the boys who went off and decided it would be a good idea to walk the length of this 50km beach near Noosa came back with stories of woe from their adventure. Apparently it was a really stupid idea. Could’ve told you that. But despite the agony and inability to walk properly I think they had a really good time.
Tomorrow is back to work. Hopefully there will be more strawberries and we will work longer days. Or more days.
I decided recently that I haven’t made out with enough boys in Australia – and so a great night out with Carlie at the Sands Tavern was made even better when I got to kiss someone whom I’d recently dreamt had kissed me. Not that I even really knew him or anything I’d only met him a couple times in passing, never really talking to him but that didn’t stop me from having a dream about him kissing me. The dream kiss was very nice and I wondered what it would actually be like. Then I saw him at the bar.
I didn’t go to the bar to find someone to kiss, I find when you go somewhere with the intention of doing something often you end up disappointed, but I thought it would be nice. I had just pretty much given up on the idea of finding a nice boy to kiss when Phil came up and told me to show him my dance moves. We got close fast and before I knew it we were making out on the dance floor – until Carlie & company dragged us out of the bar.
He wanted me to come back to the YHA but I didn’t really want to so he ended up coming back to mine and we continued to make out on the picnic table, against the wall, against the pillar… then went up to the TV room and cuddled and made out and kept each other warm for the rest of the night.
He seems like a good guy, he walked me home from the bar and we got a chance to chat. I think he’s young though but really cute. I don’t know if I’ll see him again, I didn’t get his number and he didn’t get mine. I’m not sure if he would have but I kind of told him last night that I had to work in the morning and that was why I couldn’t go back to the YHA with him so instead of cuddling on the couch with him and keeping him warm all morning I thought that I should probably carry through with my lie and ‘go to work’ at 6:30.
I kind of want to see him again but I think it’s more for some male companionship than that I’m really that into him.
