well i’m on my way…

Yep, that’s what I look like.  I layed out by the Cairns “lagoon” yesterday for a few hours.  I put the quotations around lagoon because it is in fact, a pool.  The entire time it was very overcast and rain clouds were threatening over the mountains but I still managed to get burnt.  As as many of you know, my skin is very adamant about burning before I can even think of getting a tan.  So in all my NYE pics I am the one who looks like an apple.  I even thought I’d lie out there today too, just as long as I continued to reapply sunscreen every 20 minutes…I could feel myself frying like bacon in a frying pan so I left.  I’m going out to the reef for some snorkeling tomorrow and will be getting a lot of sun then as well.

To me, Cairns seems nothing but a tourist town with souvineir shops everywhere and restaurants of every ethnicity possible.  There is a beachfront that is more like a marsh that houses crabs and crocs (not the shoes!) and the like.  It’s just a place to party and book reservations for reef trips and rainforest trips and skydiving and anything else pretty much imaginable.  That  being said, I’m not a huge fan.  But the hostel is nice and clean and I’ve met some great people. 

Last night I went out to celebrate the coming of 2009 with one of my roommates and her friends-all Dutch!  They were very nice and went out of their way to speak English-even amongst themselves-all night so I wouldn’t feel disincluded.  We had a cheap $10 meal at a pub and went to the bar that all the barcrawls were ending at.  There was a rooftop terrace where we could watch the fireworks and I felt very inlcluded with my new friends when I could agree that these fireworks were nothing compared to Amsterdam’s.  We ended up dancing the night away and went to bed with sore feet at 3.

Although I’m not hungover, I’m going to take it easy today.  The sun is not forgiving, not to mention the humidity and I want to have tons of energy for my snorkeling trip tomorrow! 

I hope you all have/had a safe and happy new year and that all your hopes for 2009 come true!  =)    

The humidity is suffocating in Cairns, where I landed just a few hours ago.  Flying into the area was goregous, the water was turquoise and islands were everywhere.  So many beaches, so little time!  But I guess swimming here isn’t advisable since there are dangerous things lurking in the waterways like crocs, jellyfish, and stingrays…

 I guess it was the 27th when I went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  (This humidity has gotten to me.)It’s the world’s first and largest (which Australia boasts a lot of) rehabilitation place for Koalas and they house other animals as well.  Everyone (by this I mean animals) were all caged or in trees except for turkeys and lizards.  I had to ask someone what the turkeys were, and once I found out, I felt pretty stupid-that I should know what a turkey looks like.  When I ate meat, it was my favorite!  I did the tourist thing and paid the extra $15 Australian Dollars to hold a koala for a minute while they took my picture.  http://photo.koala.net/2712022970en.htm  He smelled like pine trees and was super soft!

The 28th I went to the Queensland Museum with my roommates from the hostel.  The museum had a fantastic animal exhibit and an even better exhibit on endangered species in Australia.  If anyone is ever in the area, I highly recommend it.  And it’s free!! 

Yesterday my roommates and I went to the Australia Zoo-Steve Irwin’s project.  It was AMAZING.  Although it didn’t have a huge variety of animals (only Australian animals and tropical animals like Asian elephants and tigers), it was certainly the best zoo I have ever been to.  There were so many hands-on animal shows, the animals were clearly well taken care of, their enclosures were huge and did not have the typical zoo feel where the animals are bored, stuck in a cage.  I got to pet a kangaroo and another koala!  It was so clean and you could feel Irwin’s presence throughout the place.  

I’m starting to get my sea legs again, and by that I’m feeling like myself again, going from place to place, meeting new people, leaving to meet more new people, and just doing my own thing.  

I was finally able to look at my grades from last semester today after about a week of trying:  Environmental Science-A;  Cultural Geography-A;  Spanish 2-A!!   Yay me!  I wish my community college was like CPS-where I can get paid for my grades…oh well.  I make my own money and boy, do I know how to spend it!  😉

How are the people?

The people are nice.  I know that’s  terrible descriptive word, but it’s the truth.  Aussies are very friendly outgoing people.  I did notice last night walking around Brisbane that randoms are very friendly.  Say in a big city, like Chicago or Sydney, when walking down a street, people look everywhere but in the passersby eyes.  Well here, people look at who they’re passing, and once eye contact is made, they smile.  I noticed everyone doing that.  It’s nice.  Not the typical big city mentality. 

I hate to admit but I’ve met far more people from the UK than locals, being on the backpacker track and all.  Most travelers are from Europe, and I can count the North Americans I’ve met on both hands.  Other travelers I’ve met are nice and friendly too, but have one mission in life: to get completely and utterly wasted every night.  Believe it or not, that’s not really my style. 

How’s the food?

I hate to admit it, but I don’t really know.  My budget doesn’t really allow for me to try a lot of the local cuisine.  On the blue mountain tour our lunch consisted of pie-vegetable pie for me-which was amazing.  The pie had a very thick flaky crust and inside had carrots, potatoes, and peppers.  I think that was the only local food I’ve eaten.  My diet has consisted of muesli and a banana for breakfast and some kind of pasta dish that I’ve cooked myself for dinner/lunch.  I’ve had subway a few times and stopped at a kebab joint here and there and of course my Christmas Eve dinner of Thai…What seems to be big with the pub food is steak and chips.  I haven’t eaten beef in years so I don’t know how it is, and most of you know that over here, like the UK, chips are fries, and crisps are chips.  I did try lemon and pepper crisps, a flavor one wouldn’t find in the US, and they were good. 

I hope everyone had a happy/safe/WARM Christmas.  I know I did.

Two days before Christmas I took a guided walk/trek through part of the Blue Mountains.  I got to meet a few kangaroos and walk down some steep stars cut out of the mountains.  What was really neat about it was that I walked through a couple of different vegetation zones-from forest kind of like what’s at home to rainforest.  I saw the Three Sisters and rode up the steepest incline in the world.  Once I get to a friendly computer, I will post pictures.  Sit tight, please.

Christmas Eve I went on an organized beach walk to see some of the more famous Sydney beaches.  It was a bit overcast and rained a bit, but it was enjoyable all the same.  I had Thai food for the first time that night, and tried many different curries.  I went out to dinner with a bunch onf English people I met at the hostel.  We ended the night at sidebar, the bar in the basement of the hostel.

Chrismas morning I woke up not hungover, surprisingly, and went downstairs to have breakfast-free fruitcake.  Yep, the same loaf that’s the butt end of bad Christmas jokes/gifts.  The people of the UK love it.  Another American and I weren’t fans and thought it tasted old.  Probably beacause of all the talk at home?!?!?  We moseyed our way down to Bondi Beach and layed there in the sun and splashed in the water.  The waves were amazing.  When we got back to the city we went to a Turkish place for Christmas dinner.  I had a falafel wrap and damn, was it good.  I’m sorry fam, but that had to have been my best Christmas ever.

Now I’m in Brisbane, where I’ll go to a Koala Sanctuary and The Australian Zoo, you know, Steve Irwin’s zoo.  I’m probably going to meet up with a guy I met in Krakow last year for drinks tonight.  But there’s a line of people waiting for the free internet behind me so I’ll talk to you later.  Cheers!

3 Things I’ve Learned About Animals Since I’ve Last Posted:

1) Female flies buzz around your mouth, nose, and eyes looking for mucus to lay their eggs in.  Male flies are there to hang out with the females.

2) ‘Kangaroo’ really means “I don’t understand” in a north-Aboriginal language.  When the first settlers landed, they asked the locals what that hoping animal was, and the locals responded, “Kangaroo”.  There’s actually another word for what we know as the kangaroo.  I just forgot the real one.

3) Cows will produce 200,000 liters of milk in a lifetime.

1 Thing I’ve learned about Trees Since My Last Post:

1) Some trees in Australia shed their bark yearly.  Kind of like molting.

The Most Important Thing I’ve Learned (or re-reminded myself of) Since I Posted Last:

Never take anything so seriously.  Traveling is full of pleasant surprises.  🙂

Day 4: morning

I’d first like to say that there is a bit of an adjustment process to go through beginning a trip like this.  At least for me.  I spent months trying not to be excited for this trip, because I believe that with expectations comes disappointment.  And now I’m here, in beautiful sunny Sydney, and I’m dealing with a lot of emotions that I wasn’t allowing myself to feel before, and also with new emotions that I don’t want to deal with such as missing people-but don’t mistake this for homesickness, being so far away for really the first time in my life and for such an amount of time.  I’m looking forward to this journey, but slowly.  I’m easing in slowly.  (Don’t get me wrong, I’m having a great time and am thrilled to do this.)  That being said…

 I woke up on my first full day around 5, since I’d gone to bed at 7 the night before.  I showered at left the hostel, headed down to the Harbour for some reading and sun, since nothing was open yet.  I found a market at The Rocks, the place where Captain Cook first landed and colonized.  I walked up and down the streets until I found the free museum and read everything while it rained.  The story isn’t very different from early American history: the English took over the indigenous’ land.  So after walking around for a while and finishing The History of Love I decided I needed a drink.  So I went down to the wake up! side bar and got my 2 for 1 deal on a plastic cup of Toohey’s.  

I ended up hanging out with the people from my room-all English!  I’ve met a few Irish, even less German, and English!  No North Americans in sight for miles, and the people I’ve met haven’t seen any either.  I do find this a bit wierd, since it seems to me that Australia is the American dream destination.

I proceeded to get drunk and we left for Bungalow 8-a hip bar on the harbour.  I proceeded to get drunk and once we decided to leave, I decided that I knew where we were going, and was very adamant that we were going the wrong way!  I told my new English friends that I was going to go the “right way” and I’d meet them at the hostel.  Good thing I decided to follow them-I guess my map reading abilities aren’t as good drunk!  I passed out upon arrival and woke up a quite hungover the next day.

I laid in bed until 11 to go for breakfast with the roomies.  They all ordered Chinese and Indian, while I stuck with a cheese and avacado sandwich.  Yum!  We walked around the city and took in the sights, most of what I’ve already seen, but it was good company.  I learned of Mrs Macquarie’s chair-the first mayors (??-our “tour guide” was an English guy who’d been in Sydney before, he also said that the opera house was built yesterday!) wife would sit on rocks at a high point of the coast and watch for ships coming in.  That must have been beautiful, but boring. 

We went back to the hostel.  I started reading Water for Elephants.  I’m liking taking it slow, even though it’s quite a difference from what I’m accustomed to-after running from work to school and a getting little bit of sleep so many months leading up to this, and the last time I traveled, we didn’t stay in one place longer than 2 or 3 days.  This is nice.  🙂

I’m going to head back out into the city, I’m getting back into my travelin’ groove.  And pictures, I promise, next post!  I forgot my USB cord!!  Cheers!      

Day 1: December 19, 2008 

Let me get two things straight before I tell you about Oz.  1.  Rau, my childhood doll, did not come with.  He would have ended up in 2 pieces at least, a spa day would have been way over budget for me, and I don’t have room in my pack.  Not sure what I’m going to do by way of souvineirs… and 2.  The flight from LA to Sydney is 14 hours, not 20.  A long 14 hours that might as well have been 20.  I think I slept about 5 hours total since Tuesday night in Chicago.  And it’s Friday afternoon in Sydney.

When we arrived we circled the city before landing.  It reminded me of Florence as a lot of the residential roofs were red.  It also reminded me of, well, summer.  Every car windshield was reflecting the sun.  I could see the backup from the morning rush hour traffic.  The clouds were light, fluffy, and sparse.  The sky was a crisp blue and the water on the beaches looked turquoise. 

Ah, Sydney.  (I just realized the computer I’m on doesn’t have a USB port, so sorry, no pics.  Yet.)  It’s about 75 degrees farenheit, sunny and a bit windy.  I’ve already started my sunburn on my sholders on the free city tour the hostel provides.  We walked around Sydney for four hours, taking in Darling Harbour, Sydney Opera House, the Botannical Gardens, bats, eels, and some old-ass trees. 

I am experiencing a bit of sticker shock, but I expect to get over it soon.  My lunch of fruit salad and a bottle of water cost $7.50 AUD, so I’m guessing around $6 USD, give or take, depending on the day.

I’m feeling like I’m going to nod off at the computer right here, so I’m going to head back to the hostel for a nap.  Hopefully the people I met on the tour don’t intercept me and drag me to the bar!

After the terrible snow storm last night I was afraid that I’d be grounded today…it looks like I’m leaving as planned!  *knock on wood* I have those “new boyfriend butterflies” in my stomach, not sure if I’m nervous or excited (or a little bit of both).  I can’t believe that after almost a year of planning today is the day.  It doesn’t seem real yet…

Next time I blog, I will officially be “down under” and enjoying summer.  Here’s a Simpsons-style Nelson “HaHa” for all of you.  😉