Bus pulled into Noosa transit at about 9:30 or 10:00 am. Oh! But on the bus ride, there was actually a singer called Nadia Colbourn! She grew up in the area and told us she give us some hints and ideas about what to do if I mentioned her on my blog. Hah. So, go to youtube, and check out Nadia Colbourn and the song 'Shooting Star'. She gave us lots of recommendations, but most of them required a rental car:(. She was really great, though!
Anyway - we got to the Noosa Transit Center, which is at the bottom of an enormous hill, and by the beach. Unfortunately, our hostel was on the other side of the hill. So whenever we wanted to go to the beach or into town, we go up and back down. It's steep enough that it takes us about five minutes to go down, but 15 minutes to go back up. We spent the day wandering and orienting, and although it was quite overcast, I still got bit of a sunburn. Crazy Queensland.
Anyway, that evening when we got back to our room, we met the other three girls staying with us - and they were, get this, Canadian Teachers! They were on a year long exchange teaching in Melbourne! So funny - they had been to Noosa for a few days, and only two weeks in Melbourne. They gave us Noosa ideas, and we gave them Melbourne ideas. We then had an early night.
Thursday, 27 September
Thursday, however, was glorious! While Melissa and Kelsey took a surfing lesson, Kylen and I are using our serious vacation skills on the beach. Who knows what's next!
The whole day Thursday was beautiful and relaxed and vacation-y. We stopped by the grocery store and bought the makings of cheese quasedillas for dinner. It was so delicious, and awesome to spend such a small amount of money for dinner. After dinner in the kitchen, we headed back to our room to chill for a while. We were slowly getting more and more tired...
we...were...drifting...
off...
I got up, deciding not to go to sleep at 8:00 pm, and decided to go up to the 'Kamel Bar' that's attached to our hostel. I persuaded Kelsey to get up and join me. When we got there, though, it was really, really dead. We got a drink, and headed to a table. After standing for a few minutes, a couple of guys tapped me on the shoulder and introduced themselves - Callum and Stuart. Callum is from Kent (in the UK) and Stuart is from Manchester. They were prety cool - that night was their first night in Noosa, so we traded some ideas of what to do and started chatting.
Pretty soon, the DJ came up and asked if we wanted to play Killer ool. Free to enter, you get threee shots to make, and earn a voucher to the bar. First shot was normal, second shot was with a backward pool cue, third shot you had to spin 10 times and then shoot as quickly as you could. He gave everyone another shot - behind the back. Those of us who made two of the shots got to compete in a speed roung. I was totally one of them! You got one minute to drop as many shots as you could. The first guy got 8! Ridiculous. Second guy, 2, Me, 5!! Other girl, 4. It was pretty awesome. I was pretty awesome. Hah.
Around then, eight different guys came in with matching singlets on. On the front they said, "Drink it like you stole it". On the back it said, "Lads on Tour" and a nickname.
I was boggled, so I approached them and asked what it was for. After trying to convince us they all worked in the mines, they eventually shared that they have been working in schools in Sydney for about three months. Five of them were Irish, and three were British. They were a pretty hilarious bunch, and we kept bumping into them all week. So, between all of our friends from across the pond and us, we had a great time dancing the night away!
Friday, 28 Setpember
Noosa National Forest
On Friday morning we headed out and took a walk through the Noosa National Forest - which was absolutely beautiful! Aside from the beautiful scenery,
awesome beaches and sand and rocks,
we also got to see several whales and a HUGE pod of dolphins! Now that I uploaded pictures, I think there were about 20 dolphins in the pod, and I got some cool pictures:)
If you look very closely in the first one, you can see a baby dolphin swimming right along next to his mum:) Pretty cute.
I caught sight of the dolphins, and in order to get the shots I wanted I climbed out probably too far on the cliff at Hell's Gates (our destination on the walk) but got the good photos I was hoping for.
After meandering our way back we got smoothies (which were magnificent) and headed to the beach for our last chance to lay in the Noosa sun. It was quite windy, however, and sand was getting everywhere (more than usual). The other girls packed up and headed out while I stayed to play in the a surf a bit and watch the footy game on the beach.
Because it was so windy, the water felt whole degrees warmer and I was enjoying myself in the huge waves.
However, I soon decided it probably wasn't prudent to swim in the ocean on a windy day by myself, so I packed up my stuff and headed toward the park where the other girls were. Cute little beach on the cove (with no real waves) but still sand, sun, and a bit of water.
At about 5:30 we toodled our was back to the Hostel (climbing the epic hill for the last time) I took a shower, we had some nachos with the leftover food we had, and I put in some laundry. It was a lazy hour or so, until we headed to subway for dinner where I was very disappointed by a pizza sub - Australian subway is definitely inferior to American Subway. Lame.
When we got to the KB, things got fun. Or at least funny.After we had gotten a free drink (for filling out a survey), we settled in a spot to stand. Almost immediately, a guy came on the microphone and started calling people to come to the dance floor in pairs for a game. I knew none of my girls would do it, so when the guy asked Ky and I if we were playing, I just said yes. Kylen's face was hilarious. He explained the game; pretty simple: In a jumble of people, find your partner and get in whatever position the caller calls; piggy backl, cradle hold, sitting on a knee, etc. The slowest pair gets kicked our. We didn't know the prize we were playing for, but we totally won! It was awesome! Unfortunately, the prize was a free three day, 2 night trip to Fraser Island (usually $275 per person). We were leaving the following morning for Sydney though, first thing! I told the guy who, incidentally was from Oakland, California! He was super excited to meet more Americans and Alyssa, if you're reading this, he knows about ORKILA! THe guy he knows is Dave Emery - do you know him? Ha. He worked at YMCA camps in California! So funny. Anyway, since we were leaving in the morning, he brought us a free jug of beer (totally comparable to a $550 Island tour). But Alas - shouldn't have planned things so carefully! Being organized has come back to bite me - probably not for the first time, either.
Anyway, the rest of the night we danced away with the Lads on Tour, and a variety of other international and national travellers.
We headed to bed at midnight, when KBs closed, and we had to get up early. It was a good last day in Noosa.
Just another Manic Saturday....
This day of travel has been carefully orchestrated so A) we can catch our flight this evening in Brisbane and B) We can watch the grand final.
The plan:
@7:00 wake up
@7:15, Megan checks out of hostel
@7:30, We walk down the huge hill to catch the 8:13 Greyhound
@11:15 Arrive in Brisbane, find a cafe for brunch, find a sports bar where we can watch the game
@2:00 watch the grand final
@6:00 grab a taxi to the airport
@8:30 Take off for Sydney
By 8:15 there were two major hitches in the plan. I brought our sheets and towels and keys to the front desk only to find they were not open yet. Seriously? Ugh. At about 7:25 I began to hear noises inside and assumed that maybe they would open at 8. I quickly ran through the scenario in my head in which I sent the other girls down with my stuff and at 8:05, after checkout, I would run down the huge hill to meet them. Fortunately, the doors did open at 7:30, and I was able to check us out very quickly and we headed down the hill nearly on time.
We got to the bus stop about 7:45, which was right on time! It was going well until 8:11, when a Greyhound going to Brisbane went straight past our stop and headed up that hill. This was where panic set in. I pull out our ticket to verify we're in the right place and look for a customer service number. Kylen and Kelsey look for a street sign or anything that might indicate where we should be. No luck. I'm starting to get pissed, because the girl at the front desk told us to get on at this stop. I call customer service, and I'm prepared for an idiot.
Fortunately, I talked to Caroline. We talked for a minute before I found out a) we were indeed in the wrong place, b) the tickets are non-refundable and c) the next bus doesn't leave until 12:15. Some unkind words were running through my head about then, when Caroline tells me we can upgrade our tickets for $42 to be on the 12:15 bus. Whew. Thank you Caroline! We still have four hours to use up, and we miss the beginning of the game, but at least we'll make our flight. Just as I finish giving the credit card number to her, our bus pulls up! Don't know how they knew or why, but all he said was, "Can I see your ticket?" and Pointed out where it said where we should have been.
We said thank you about 100 times and thankfully found our seats. Caroline says we still have $42 credit to use for a greyhound bus, but we'll see how it goes. For now, we're back on schedule. Yes!
Once we pulled into the transit station we mosied downstairs and out to Roma Street. We walked along Roma for a bit, looking for a snack, and then somewhere to watch the Grand Final.
We got a snakc at Pie Face, and then found a place to watch the game attached to another backpacker's hostel. It was a really great game, a nailbiter all the way through, and the Swans won it in an amazing comeback! It was really fun, and only a couple of Irish guys were begging for our numbers. Ha. Irish guys are friendly...
After the game we hopped in a taxi and came straight to the airport with two hours until our flight boarding. It's a lot quicker to get through Australian Airport security than American.
I wrote this bit at the Brisbane airport:
"Now I'm sitting in front of a computer where I wasted my money on a computer that's too slow to even open google. I hate public computers. Nice to know I just burned up some cash sitting in front of a screen trying to open Internet *&^$ing Explorer.
Also, all hot keys are disabled. Screw you internet."
At that point, I was getting pretty frustrated.
The flight from Brisbane to Sydney was quite uneventful. Ridiculously short, (an hour and a half), and we actually goot into Sydney a bit early! We grabbed a taxi and he took us to the Elephant Backpackers Hostel where we were booked.
We walked in (at 11:00 pm) and it was loud. The building was old, but most building in that area are, so we brushed it off.
Our first clue should have been when he handed us our pillows and sheets, because they don't leave thme in the rooms. Our second clue was the two feet of cigarette smoke floating everywhere. Our third clue was the sound the elevator made. Our fourth clue was the smell upstairs. Our fifth clue was that when I put the key in, I turned the handled and pushed - after a second, the rest of the door came up to meet the handle, but not before it had almost completely separated from it. Next clue: smell in the room; definitely boys. Stuff ALL OVER. Definitely boys. We asked for a girls' dorm. Next, the cigarette butts everywhere, then, the available beds all spread out and one of them not even having a sheet or cover over the nasty yellow mattress.
We got out of there. With the hostel itself, our only qualm was that it wasn't a girls dorm, but Kelsey was so very uncomfortable with it, and so were the rest of us - and it really didn't appear to be a safe place to be. We came downstairs to talk to the guy at the front about it. He was nice, although he was french. I spent about ten minutes talking them into giving us a full refund if they couldn't supply the room we reserved. While I was doing that, Kelsey went out to call her dad to see if he could find a hostel/hotel room for us. No luck. I began talking to my dad - no luck. We called about eight places to find out they were all all booked up. We called and texted and paced around in a panic. Suddenly, when I was on the phone with my dad I heard a shrill screech and all three of the other girls started yelling about a rat. Keep in mind, this was about 11 pm on Saturday. My dad started talking to us about some hotels/hostels in one direction, so we began walking. We continued calling places - I would estimate I called around 20 different lodgings by that time, whether wwe got the number from my dad or Kelsey's dad. While walking through Kings Cross (a very sketchy suburb) we spotted a Holiday Inn in the distance and we headed there. Unfortunately, it looked to be a mirage, because we walked for about fifteen minutes to no avail. Eventually, as if angels were singing, we came around the corner and saw the glowing green lights. Yes!
We headed in, but had to wait until someone with a key card was going in because the doors were locked for the night.
I went up to the guy at the desk and asked if he had any rooms available at all and he said no. We were so freaking exhausted it was ridiculous. I begged the guy to let us sit in the lobby for a few minutes to warm up. Our only real option, we decided, was to go to the damn airport, because airports are always open. So we could sit down, and warm up, and maybe even nap so we could be refreshed to figure out what to do.
Now, what had occurred to us about halfway through this process was three things:
1) it's the school holidays - right in the middle
2) It's Labor day in NSW
3) its' the Grand Final weekend - footy on Saturday (tonight) and Rugby on Sunday.
This forced us to concede that there wasn't a god damn room or bed available in the city, and we would go to the airport.
We called a taxi to pick us up from the Holiday Inn (thank goodness, because I think they were not happy with our presence) to take us to the airport.
Awkward, rude cab driver that rushed our tired, deplete little souls to the car and didn't say a single word the whole way. This has been super common for drivers, so we really only noticed the rude.
So, driver drops us off and pulls away. As we head over to the entrance, we notice a person curled up in the vestibule between inner and outer automatic doors.
The airport is closed.
Freaking Sydney international airport was closed until 4 am - three hours away.
So, with no other choice, we curled up in the vestibule too. We froze, and chatted back and forth, trying to keep our brains from going nutso.
(Sidenote: this next part was written when I was absolutely exhausted, before I had had a chance to sleep after this whole debacle)
*People kept showing up in our letter was the girl reading the books and trying not move so badly, because if the sensor on the door would pick up the sensor and that all would open the door and they left what mom's say....*
Anyway....after a couple of minutes, two other girls showed up - they had a flight at six. They didn't know that the freaking airport was closed either. Weird stuff. Anyway, throughout the night things got less and less funny and people got more and more (and more annoying). The worst part was the motion sensors on the doors: set to open when someone moved. The majority of our time was spent telling people to stop moving and flattening ourselves against the back wall. When there were about twnety people in there, 4 o'clock struck and the freaking doors were opened. We all filed in - unfortunately, we were the ones who didn't have anywhere to go after we got in.
A couple of hours previous (about two or three am) my dad had found a bed and breakfast kind of place to try calling. I checked online to find that they had a room available for that night - Sunday night. YES!!!
In the meantime, Kelsey had taken an earlier flight back to Melbourne (since she already saw Sydney with her sister). I was desperate to find somewhere for us to sleep that night, even though it was only five am. I asked Kylen and Melissa, and we decided to book it, because it really was the only room available in the city, and it was even really in the city. It was in Manly - a very far out Eastern Beach Subarb, but it was a room with beds. At seven or eight we caught a taxi out to Manly (the driver screwed us over, by the way) and didn't even drop us close to the place. We ended up walking across town anyway.
We made it to Manly Oceanside Accomodation eventually, but far before we could check in. The family let us store our stuff in a back room until check-in time.
It was such a beautiful day, we took a short walk to the beach and realized we wanted our baths and towels. We got all set up and almost immediately fell asleep on the beach. At this point we hadn't slept for around 26 hours.
We slept for about a half hour in the sunshine, and then decided to explore a little bit. We walked down the beach to find the 'Manly Jazz Festival' complete with music, stalls, booths, and sno-cones! I was elated!
Unfortunately, this was the first time I noticed the rash on my arms. My hands had been unbearably dry for a few days now, so they felt pretty rough. But what I noticed that it went onto my arms with dry, red bumps with no itch or sting. I decided to ignore it unless it got worse. The damn thing dogged me pretty much until we got back to Melbourne.
Anyway - on our way back from the festival we stopped by Coles to get some lunch. We took it back, checked in, ate it. Then we all took a nap that lasted for fifteen hours. Whew.
We woke up on Monday morning feeling quite refreshed and ready to go! We dawdled around slowly waking up and getting up and headed out from Manly back into the city by taxi.
This taxi driver, as luck would have it, was the first one who talked to us! He just moved here a few months ago - he was telling us all these great things to do, his impressions of Australians in general, he was absolutely hilarious! Very funny guy.
He brought us into the city and parked right in front of our hostel (another Nomads one - which we like) and helped us unload our stuff. We knew it was far too early to check in, but they told me they had a luggage room. So, we toted our stuff downstairs to find some huge lockers to rent that fit all of our stuff in.
To be continued...
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