Great Ocean Road!

Tuesday, 9 October, 2012 Great Ocean Road

                The wonderful Bob Laslett drove me to the Nunawading train station at 6:45 am. I caught the train into the city. I had to catch a bus for the Great Ocean Road tour at 7:45 outside a hostel in the city. I got into the city - panicking a bit when my train went the opposite direction around the city loop. It went to all the same stops, though, thank goodness.

I hopped off the train at the Southern Cross Train station to walk about five minutes down the street to get to my stop. Unfortunately, coming into the train station from the other direction got me all turned around inside the station. I got out of the building trying to figure out how to get the correct direction.

                I stood there panicking for about five minutes (and I only had ten until the bus was to leave). I called my daddy and his omniscient GPS workings. I made it to the bus stop (Thanks, Daddy!).

                However, the buses that stopped in front of my bus stop were all from different companies! I was struggling to stay calm when a guide came around the corner and asked if I was Megan - Haha! Perfect! It turned out they parked on the other side of the building. I hopped on the very, very full bus (24 people in 24 seats) and set off.

                We headed out to our first stop, Campbell's Beach! Our tour guide (Campbell) started telling us about the Melbourne Zoo, and he answered a question that has been burning Kylen and my brains for about....three months.

                The elephants all around Melbourne are large sculptures of elephants with crazy designs and patterns and colours. Campbell told me that the elephants were placed to commemorate 100 Years of the Melbourne Zoo. Whew - makes me feel better to know.

               

  The Great Ocean Road is divided into three different areas; the surf coast, the green coast, and the shipwreck coast. Our first stop was a short one in Campbell where at the edge of the woods we found a herd/group of grey kangaroos! It took me quite a quite to actually see them off in the distance, but I got some distant pictures of Wild Kangaroos! Pretty exciting start to the day:) 

We piled back on the bus and headed toward Bell's Beach - a perfect place for surfing! We also had morning tea (supplied by the company) and took some fabulous pictures on the spectacular day (weather was BEAUTIFUL all morning). 

After about fifteen minutes we hopped back onto the bus and headed to the great Great Ocean Road Sign.

                There's a huge sign and statue commemorating the men who built the road right at the start of the GOR proper.

                After WWI, the soldiers came back from war, and the War Committee put them to work building the road. Seem s a bit rude to me, but apparently it was pretty therapeutic for those men coming back from the war.

                After taking some silly pictures there, we headed toward Lorne - stopping off periodically to take some pictures and look at the beautiful coast.

                Lorne was  acute little beach town with pretty views. A really interesting thing about Lorne is that it's the home of the Pier to Pub crawl. Three decades old, it's a tradition in which a group of people jump off the pier, swim across the bay, run into a pub, and skol (chug) a beer.

                The beer part of this practice has been phased out, as there were 2,000 participants in the Pier to Pub Swim this year. It is a big event in the area, if not outside of Lorne.

                Next we headed toward a little caravan park called Koala Point (or something akin) where we walked around the wooded area. We actually saw five of six koalas floating around in the trees. Most were sleeping, but one was feeding and moving around quite a bit! I actually got a video, but it was on my phone, so it wasn't too great. But that was definitely pretty fun to see.

                We next went on to Apollo Bay, where we had lunch at a pretty great Greek Restaurant. People said the other stuff was good too, but I got a fabulous salad. The food was nice at the restaurant, but the ice cream down the road was magical! They made their own and had very original flavours including Vegemite (which I did NOT try). I got a safe double scoop, one of vanilla, and one of mandarin, and had a wonderful creamsicle ice cream cone!

                After lunch, Campbell took us to Otway National Park and we went on a beautiful temperate rainforest walk. Since most forests here are gum forests, that dark brown of trunks and deep green leaves that I'm use to are much more rare. I felt very at home there, even more so than in the Blue Mountain rain forest.

                At the tail end of our walk, it had started to drizzle, and when we took off for th 12 apostles, it was beginning to actuallly rain.

                In general, I don't mind the rain - I like it, even - but I'm generally not trying to look at one of the wonders of the world. It was very, very wet and windy. In fact, I convinced myself and a fellow tourist (Gavin, from wales) to buy ponchoes - mostly to protect my camera. The rain, I am sure only fell upon us because I didn't bring my rain coat. That morning the weather was promising (even at 6:45), and so I chose the other jacket, much to my dismay.

                The 12 Apostles is a misnomer, first of all. Not only are there not twelve, but they look nothing like apostles, and it is not a religious monument in the least. They are impressive, thouhg. Beautiful orange and yellow limesotne formations raising out of the (today) very rough waves. When looking back at the cliffs themselves you'll see the same gold and sunset layers in the ground on which you are standing. My british friend and I took turns taking photographic proof for each other as evidence of our attendance at the National Monument. We stood more grimacing than smiling on the edges of the lookouts. ALthough you couldn't see more than about 100 meters out to sea, the rain hadn't quite blotted out the rocks we were there to admire.

                After we had taken enough proof, we trudged  back to the bus to find the previous (and better) name for the 12 Apostles: "The Sow and Piglets". I think the experience would have been less miserable is I knew I had been looking at bacon.

                Our next stop was the also Iconic London Bridge. Unfortunately, London Bridge in Australia has fallen down, and there's quite a story to go with it.

Firstly, London Bridge is another limestone rock formation in the shape of a bridge with two arches. Prior to 1990, it looked like this:

Now, it looks like this:

                Campbell told us the story of the day London Bridge fell.

                It was a Tuesday, so the Bridge wasn't particularly crowded. There were only two couples on it. (Before it fell, tourists were allowed to go out and stand on it!). The couples chatted for a bit and one of the them decided to come in. Almost immediately after they had crossed the closer of the two arches, they all heard a deep rumbling sound, and then a huge splash as one of the huge archways crumbled away and fell into the surf below. I can't imagine the astonishment and then panic of the couple still standing and now stranded on the outer arch.

                Fortunately, one couple was already on solid ground. After talking to the stranded two, the others jumped into their car and headed for the nearest town (Apollo Bay) which was almost two hours away.

                When the couple finally found a pay phone, they called 000 (Australia's equivalent of 911), through which they found there was only one helicopter designated for rescue services, and it would be around eight hours before it would make it to the London Bridge. However, the 000 operator was smart and quick on his feet. He called the Channel 7 News, and told them about the 'story' on the terms that they take the helicopter out and rescue the couple. Channel 7 jumped on it! However, being a news agency, they did some circles around the rock and terrified couple perched atop it before actually picking them up. So naturally, they were a little ticket, and didn't want to do an interview. The man originally said he didn't want to because he had called in sick from work. Ha! Campbell went on to tell us that it came out later that the couple was having an affair.

                After telling us that part, Campbell said, "Okay, that was a lie. Lots of rumors circulated, but they were just a married couple out on the Great Ocean Road." Not sure about taking a sicky though, that may have been true.

                Then we drove the two hours in the dark in dumping rain, and I desperately tried to fall asleep on the wet, sticky, smelly, and bumpy bus. Overall, it was a grand day and tour!

Monday, 1 October

After dropping off our luggage, we walked a few blocks to Paddy's Market - very similar to the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, but a bit smaller I think.

There, we finally got Melissa to start buying things like souvenirs, etc. Yay!

After a bit over an hour there, we dropped our purchases off in our locker and headed down Pitt Street, which took us straight to Circular Guay, home of Captain Cook Cruises, street musicians, performers on the rocks, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and, of course, the Opera House.

On the way to the quay, though, we passed an awesome band playing in an arcade. Would you believe I actually bought their cd? Hh! After listening for a bit we continued on. We made it to the ticket booth for our cruise about a minute too late for the earliest, so we had to wait a half hour. We went on a lunch hunt and walked around. 

The cruise we got on was a hop-on, hop-off cruise all around Sydney Harbour. It stopped at Fort Denison, Shark Island, Watson's Bay, Taronga Zoo, Luna Park, and Darling Harbour. The first time we decided to get off was Watson's bay - a little peninsula so skinny you could stand in one spot, look to your right and have a full view of the ocean (first picture), and then look to the left and have a full view of the harbour including the bridge, opera house, ferries, and sailboats (bottom picture). 

Super Cool!

We wandered back to the wharf to catch the next boat to Taronga Zoo - a very cool zoo built right into the hillside. We got there pretty late, so we had just barely two hours, but we got a discount - pretty cool!

We didn't get to see everything, but we did get to see some highlights like: elephants, gorillas, chimps, wallabies, lizards, and a peacock!

There were two high points to the zoo. One, Melissa had never seen a peacock in real life before, so she went absolutely nuts! It was so funny to watch and I think she got some good pictures. And two, there was a toddler gorilla that would not let up. He was in the enclosure with a male, two females and two adolescents (I think) and he was really wanting to play. He was moving so quickly the others were getting annoyed. So periodically one of the other gorillas would have to just pick him up and move him away. It's hard to explain, but it was awesome!

Anyway; although the night was late and we didn't have a lot of time it was good and we're quite glad we did go. When we got back to Circular Quay we got some wonderful Ice Cream and walked our way back, stopping at Coles to pick up some dinner to make in the communal kitchen. The communal kitchen is something that's very interesting to me. There are all utensils; pots and pans, dishes, stovetops, etc. so we made a spectacular spaghetti dinner, and then wandered our way up to an early night.

Kylen left at five am for the airport shuttle to go back to Melbourne for one day and then head back to the U.S.!

Melissa and I decided to have a slow exploration day on Tuesday, and we started going up Pitt Street toward the Quay, and just ducking into any store we found interesting. On the way we found an Aboriginal Cultural Centre that we decided to investigate since we're both in love with traditional aboriginal painting styles and art. We spent a while there, where the guy tried to sell me some $400 + paintings. I got a few little treasures there, but I could have spent a lot more time and money.

Next we continued toward Circular Quay and decided to check out several things 1) the Harbour Bridge, 2) the Rocks, 3) the random pirate ships we saw floating in the harbour and 4) the Royal Botanical Gardens.

First, we headed to the rocks to stumble into the Museum of Modern Art. Free admission, so we said, "Sure!".

The art was cool and interesting for a while, but we both got over it pretty quickly, and headed up to the top floor to check out the view of the harbour from above - it was magic! I got some great shots of the opera house (below) as well as some of the Harbour bridge, ferries and sailboats.

Next, we found our way to a little arcade with some antiques and artwork. There we got a lecture, and then were given a map of the Rocks, and some ideas.

So, our next stop was Harbour Bridge. It's a really momentous sight, but a lot of stairs. We accidentally took the wrong stairs and went up some extra flights, too. There are some pretty misleading signs....

Eventually, we made it up and enjoyed the views and the spectacular sights. It really is huge!

Heading down the bridge, we moved toward the botanical gardens, which was quite a walk.

After finally finding an entrance, we moved through the very green gardens, taking pictures of trees, birds, and flowers. After about twenty minutes, though, we started looking for a way out. It was much harder than it should be, and we were stuck for another about thirty minutes hunting for an exit. Finally, we found it!

We did a celebratory high five, and started toward the beautiful Art Museum. The woman at the store had told us the museum was open until nine on Wednesdays so I was thinking we had all evening. We only had just gotten in when Melissa informed me it was only Tuesday! Which meant they would be closing in fifteen minutes! Damn!

Vacations almost always muss up my understanding/recognition of the days of the week.

We decided to look for a few minutes as there was no entry fee. It was actually pretty cool - especially when I found a painting of a woman that could be my cousin. Wow. I even took a picture of the painting.

After they closed up, we moved back toward the city centre, past St. Mary's spectacular cathedral, a park, and the setup for the SYdney International Food Festival before we got to the base of the Sydney Tower Eye. We decided to go up and take a look at the price. $25 wasn't bad, so we decided to go on up. Aside from the tiny, smelly elevator, the view was pretty cool - itjust so happened as well that is was sunset! The colours were brilliant sna dif there weren't 400 people crammed up against the windows who weren't even looking out, it would have been very pleasant!

We headed back down a bit later and had a magical chef salad dinner to finish off our lettuce, marinara sauce and salad dressing we bought the day before. Played cards for a while and then headed to bed.

Wednesday, 3 October

On Tuesday morning we had booked a tour for Wednesday of the Blue Mountains. We did have to get up quite early and meet the bus across the street at 7:10 am.

It was a fifty minute ride (ish) to the Featherdale Wildlife Park, and our guide, Graham, was quite awesome. He says, "'ello!" the same way Bruce the shark does in Finding Nemo, which endeared him to me immediately.

The Featherdale Park is a bit of a sanctuary for animals who have been hurt - they are all more or less running amok for guests to intermingle with. There are, however, animal sanctuary areas for the animals to go to get away from the people.

And I FINALLY got to see a wombat that was AWAKE! Winner! I petted one, even though the sign said, "We bite!"

I held a beautiful owl with only part of his wings, and petted a Kookaburra with only one eye.

And then, the highlight of Sydney, especially for Melissa, was that we got to pet some Koalas!! Yay! At feeding time you can come by and take a picture with them. Melissa was so excited she nearly had a cow. It was hilarious and adorable. Also, the Koalas were adorable. Did you know they have two thumbs?? That's what I'm figuring out in this picture...

After that, we hopped back on the bus and headed to Leura, a cute little mountain village with a killer candy shop. At the Woolworths we got some food for lunch and spent a while in the candy store. 

Hopping back on the bus we headed for a short walk near Katoomba Falls before going to lunch.

It turns out lunch was at a golf club, and you could have purchased a buffet (that we didn't know about, but looked delicious), so we ate out on the terrace in the beautiful sunshine.

Then, we headed to 'Scenic World', where the Blue Mountains stuff really actually happens. We took the 'Skyway' (crazy high cable car) across the valley, and another one down into it. We went on a long walk through the temperate rainforset at the bottom and enjoyed seeing some awesome trees, greenery, and actual vines!

We headed back up to the 'Scenic Railway'. It's the steepest railway in the world at fifty-two degrees. For future reference, that's TOO STEEP.

And, little did we know, you go through a tunnel. A tunnel that is so small you would have to duck to go through it if it weren't for the cage around the top that keeps you from falling out. 

As we were surprised by the tunnel (going up through it backwards, by the way), and grabbed Melissa's arm, hard, and I may or may not have left some grip marks. :/ Sorry, Melissa!

Unfortunately, we had to wait in a really long line to get onto the railway, and so Graham had to come and find us. He guided us the quickest way back to the bus, and everyone there heaved a sigh of relief. 

Back on the bus, we headed out to Echo Point, a pretty lookout with an Aboriginal Cultural Centre!

Both Melissa and I really enjoy traditional Aboriginal Art, so we had a lot of fun looking at the work. They also had a wall available and paint, and a guide of which symbols mean what, so you could paint! I did some fabulous work about a campsite/waterhole, a river/fire, Kangaroo tracks and some Men/women:

I also dress a non-traditional tree, and some of the traditional paint got on my pants. Melissa says it's magic paint and won't come off ever. Ugh.

We hopped back on the bus and went on the hour long drive back to Olympic Park, where we would be catching a cruise home. We were on the cruise at sunset and it was absolutely gorgeous!

We also met a guy from San Fransisco! He had just gotten to Sydney the day before, so we chatted a bit about what we enjoyed doing, etc. The cruise pulled in at Circular Quay so we started walking down the now familiar path back to the hostel; stopping only long enough to get pizza from Pizza Hut for dinner. our new roommates when we got back were Melbournites, who actually live about ten minutes from me in Melbourne. Hah!

Thursday morning we woke up slowly, got our things ready and headed down to check out. We locked up our big bags in a luggage locker and headed to St. Paddy's Market to burn a few hours before our 12:05 airport shuttle. 

I hate Sydney. Full stop. We got to the airport relatively quickly because our shuttle was completely full, so we didn't have to make anymore stops. We got off at the domestic terminal because we aren't leaving the country.

We tried to check-in at a Kiosk, but the Kiosk said, "No, eff you!". It told us to go to the service desk.

The service desk people told us we were at the wrong terminal. Apparently our flight was an international flight. So, in addition to the $12 we payed for the shuttle that we could have ridden all the we to the international terminal, we had to pay a $5 ticket to get to the international terminal. This also meant that we had to go through customs and border crap and intense security.

I have no idea how long it's going to take to get out the other side...blurgh. In all, we had to ride a train, go on two lifts, and up and down eight escalators, then walk to the very end of the terminal. Literally, the next gate is the actual end. Now we wait for two hours. 

Let me reiterate: I hate Sydney.

The flight was relatively quick (other than the fact that my seat AND tray table were broken), so we landed and pulled up to the jetway. We were all standing in the aisles as people do on airplanes, and waiting to squish out through the bottle-neck door, and finally, the captain comes onto the intercom and says, "Sorry for the delay, but they are having a problem with the jetway. They had to call for help. Thank you for your patience."

I wasn't patient - and I had to pee! And we didn't know how many customs, etc, we would have to deal with coming through the gates. Thank god we didn't check any bags. We ended up landing early - by six minutes, but sat on the plane for THIRTY. Holy crap. Thank goodness Bob and Archie were there to rescue us after the horrid Sydney-itis. 

Back to Melbourne, a comfortable and wonderful place:)

Wednesday, 26 September

The bus ride from Brisbane was nice and scenic and gave us a chance to relax before getting to the beachtown, baby!
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...

The Beginning...

Tuesday, 25 September

The rest of Monday and Tuesday were mostly spent preparing for and wasting time before our holiday trip! It's really boring, so I'll leave it at that.

The ever obliging Blake took us to the airport. Our flight wasn't until 8:00, so our plan was to leave the house at 5:30. This turned out to be a gross over-estimate of the amount of time it would take to get through security. I had checked us in the night before, and we weren't checking any bags, which cut off almost an hour from the time we needed. We literally walked straight through security - pausing only long enough for Kylen to get randomly searched. Friendly Australian security people are wonderful!
Unfortunately, the speed with which we got through meant that by the time we got to the gates our flight hadn't even showed up on the departures board yet. We found seats and waited for about an hour. After a while, I got up to have a look around and see if our flight was up on the board yet.
Nothing.
Wait a bit longer.
Play Egyptian Rat Screw, got my butt handed to me by Melissa, and then we all got up to walk around, toting our suitcases. We got about halfway down the terminal before we found our flight would be leaving from the gate at which we had just been waiting for an hour.
Go figure...
Anyway, the flight was relatively uneventful, save for the awesome girl sitting next to me reading "Clash of Kings" (second game of thrones book). We talked for a bit about how incredibly depressing and addictive they are nd how George R.R. Martin is probably a sociopath who just is doing a mass psychological experiment to see how many people will waste hours of their lives reading depressing stuff - just as long as it has some boobies in it.

After the flight, we verified where we needed to meet our morning bus before grabbing a taxi to go to bunk backpackers in Brisbane. The ride was the normal amount of awkward including a quiet cab driver and long, awkward silences punctuated by someone (usually me) making a comment about the flight or scenery.

Made it to the hostel where we were greeted by the "DOON-CHA, DOON-CHA, DOON-CHA" of the attached bar. It looked like it was hoppin', but we had a early bus in the morning.
The very busy front desk attendant was fabulously sweet and impressive. One of those people helping five people at once and everyone feels like they're getting her full attention. Thank god she was smart, too, because it turns out the airhead on the phone I talked to to reserve the room didn't actually reserve it. They had no record of my name or reservation.
Panic.
It was 11:00pm, we were in the middle of Brisbane, we had a bus leaving from the airport in 8 hours time, and had just spent $40 on a cab to get here.
She must have noticed the panic on our faces because she said it sounded like it was their fault, and she would see what she could do.
After a few more minutes of silent panic - she rescued us! She gave us a four person room for the eight person room rate on the condition we only stayed one night.
Saved!
We made our way up to room 404. Spacious, two bunk beds and individual showers and toilet. Sweet!
Finally getting over the adrenaline rush we headed to bed for an early morning.

Wednesday, 26 September

Alarm at 6:30 am. I just went to bed! Stumble for toilet, contacts, and teeth brushing.
We stripped the sheets off of our beds and headed downstairs (choosing to avoid the questionable elevator we had taken up the night before), hopped in a cab, and made it to the Sun-Air bus with enough time to get some breakfast at a cafe inside the airport.