Adventures in the Land of Kangas

Psychedelic Nimbin

2010-03-14T01:06:00.000-08:00

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Nimbin!!! Nimbin was this psychedelic town about an hour from Byron Bay. In the 70's, a major Australian student union threw a huge folk festival called the Aquarius Festival. It was reminscent of Woodstock...Free love, anti-war activists and the consciousness movement. Anyways after the festival, all the hippies caught on that the land was cheap so they moved into Nimbin and started a community.

Anyways, that's how the quirky little town that it NImbin came to be famous for hippies and pot. You step off the bus and there's people asking you if you want "cookies" ;). Haha. We went into this shop and the dreadlocked shopkeeper says to us "have a pipe of this. it's friendly, I promise". Haha. There's also a really cute museum there that is really awesome. Paper mache and murals throughout twisting hallways, low lighting, egg beaters and ties on the ceiling, covered in cob webs. Really interesting town! Heaps of crystal healing shops and stores like "High Happy Herbs". Haha. Anyways yeah Nimbin was a really really cool place! It's worth the hour drive.

Ummm well I don't wanna ramble on too much about Nimbin so that's it.

<3

More Noosa then to Brizzy and Byron

2010-03-10T20:23:00.000-08:00

So we ended up spending an extra night in Noosa after having met these really cool people! Zenith and Curtis have been some of the nicest people I've met on this trip. We just kinda walked up to them on the street while Zenith was busking, playing guitar with his dog, Roxy wearing a nappy. The dog was wearing a nappy, not the guy. Haha so we struck up a conversation and ended up hanigng out with them for aw hile that night, and again the following night. Noosa was quite nice but I never did get that surfing lesson in. Also, the hostel was super expensive and there were SIXTEEN people in our room. THE RAIN IS FOLLOWING US.
So we did Brisbane next. We stayed in this hostel called the Yellow Submarine which was this ramshackle little house with creaky stairs and writing all over the walls from people who had stayerd there and fell in love with the place. It was an okay hostel. We met some nice French people (There are so many french people in Brisbane) who we played cards with most of the night. Brisbane is cool because the town is built on a river that snakes through the city sdo there are lots of beautiful bridges (that I can't take photos of because I forgot my damn charger in Sydney). It's also really cool because the museums and art galleries are all free. Every backpacker I spoke to said that Brisbane was boring and I know why they said that. They said that because it's nightlife is a bit more relaxed than say, Sydney's. Personaly, I don't consider Brisbane boring at all. IN fact, I quite liked it! While we were there we also went to the movies and wandered all around the city. We must have walked 20km. We got lost heaps of times but yeah we got to know the city just a little bit.
So now I'm in Byron Bay for a night at this groovy (huge) hostel called the Arts Factory. It's got a cinema and restaurant and recorrding studio - yeah, it's that big. Then tomorrow I'm headed to Nimbin (the Woodstock of Australia) and then taking the overnight bus to Sydney tomorrow night.
So I guess that's my trip of the Australian east coast. What's next??? I dunno!!!! What I do know is that nothing will be next if I don't get a job. My account balance as of today is $150.00 which is part of the reason I'm only spending a night here in Byron. EE! Anyhow I guess that's it. I'll make another post once I get to Sydney about NImbin, which should be really interesting (read: psychedelic).

SEND MOTHER NATURE YOUR RAIN RAIN GO AWAY VIBES.

Thanks,

Stooph <3

Wooosa Noooooosa

2010-03-07T00:13:00.000-08:00

So here I am in Noosa! It's nice here. It's kinda like Oakville though. Really rich and everybody seems pretty pretentious. The main shopping drag is full of boutiques that no backpacker could ever afford and apparently the guy who started Google has a summer home here somewhere.
Yeahhhh.
Wre spent yesterday praying for sun and checking out the town. It wasn't much of a day...
Today was a bit more interesting.
I went for a hike in Noosa Nation Park. It took about 4 hours to do. We saw a goanna, a koala, and lots of penises. Ahaha. We were walking along and decided to tak e alittle detour to a secluded-looking beach. We got down there and noticed that there were some naked people, which was fine. I'm cool with nakedness. But then I noticed that they were all men! which was alittle disconcerting only because we were the only women on the beach and everybody had their weiners flopping around. So we decide to peace out of there after poking a couple of jellyfish and so we're walking, trying not to make eyecontact with anyone and talking about cous cous when a man approaches us and askes the time completed in the nude. I'm fumbling around in my purse trying to find my phone so that this interaction can end but I can't find it lol. It was pretty hilarious. It's not every day that you get asked the time but a fully naked man.

Haha.

Anyways that it for today. I'm trying to get a surfing lesson in if the weather holds up but its not looking good. I think we're headed to Brisbane tomorrow. It will be weird to get to city again.

<3

Fraser Island: 1, Stephanie: 0

2010-03-04T23:11:00.000-08:00

Sooooooo wow.
Hervey Bay was alright! We took at 28jkm bike ride along the seashore the second day we were there which was pretty awesome. We saw all these little soldier crabs. Like, hundreds of them and they move in formation which is pretty cool! But on to the cool part:

We decided to go on a three day, two night stay on the world's largest sand island, Fraser Island. It's a world heritage site and the only way to access it is using a 4 Wheel Drive becaus ethere are only dirt tracks on the island. REALLY BUMPY dirt tracks. So we assembled a group of 5 people that we met at the hostel to go over with on a self-drive tour. It was myself, Sarah, a lovely German couple, Angelika and Fabian, and a German guy, Marcel. So we took a ferry over to the island. The weather wasn't looking too good but we didn't get our spirits down....YET. The island is really nice, it's got a number of different kinds of forest ranging from tropical rainforest (think Amazon), to subtropical forest (Eucalypts and stuff?) and GORGEOUS lakes with white sand beaches and crystal clear water. There is so much I could say about the Island!! We drove around the first day and passed Moheno Shipwreck, a huge, rusted out shipwrecck on the beach. It was really eerie to be there and wonder what must have happened to it. We saw heaps of wild dingoes, which the island is famous for, and we were constantly warned by signs and brochures that they can be dangerous and we should NEVER approach or feed them. But it was really cool to see some new wildlife.
The first night was rather interesting. We were camping but it was SO SO windy and rainy. Wind and rain like i've never ever seen. I decided to sleep in the 4WD because I didn't like thel ook of the weather, and the tents that were provided to us were canvas (thus, not at all waterproof). In the middle of the night, the German couple come into the 4WD and tell me that their tent has blown away. I'm like WTF! ANd I look, and their tent is pretty much gonezo. So they slept in the truck with me. THREE of us sleeping inthe car lol.
The second day, the weather was worse. It didn't stop raining for a second. Camp that night was better since we camped illegally in a more sheltered area. I slept in the car again though because we were now down a tent lol.
The third day was alright! THe highlight of that day was seeing a HUGE, gorgeous sea turtle on the beach, making her way down to the ocean. She must have weight 150lbs and been 100 years old. She was so beautiful. Turtles are my new favourite animal.
When we got back to Hervey Bay, we were informed by the 4WD guy that that was the worst rain that the area had seen in 8 years, and the the winds were 90km/hr. And we were camping on the fucking BEACH PEOPLE! WTF!?
Needless to say, EVERYTHING I owned was drenched and smelly from being wet for 3 days.
Also, a huge pitfall of Fraser Island were the bugs. The minute you stepped out of the vehicle, you were legitimately AMBUSHED by sandflies and viscious mosquitos. It really made it a lot less enjoyable. I am so uncomfortable right now. I counted, and I got 98 mosquito bites on my arms, legs, ankles and feet in 3 days. How outrageous is that?! I even went to the chemist today to find out wtf I can do about the itch.
Anyways I"m out of time.

I hope you enjoyed living Fraser Island vicariously. At the time, I really wans't having all that much fun on account of the weather and bugs, but in retrospect, it was such an adventure and we lived through something that most Australians havn't even lived through which is cool. But I really do wish I could have seen Fraser in all it's sunny, blue-skied glory.

The End.

Love!

WTF TSUNAMI??

2010-02-27T23:38:00.001-08:00

Soooo we rolled into Hervey Bay after a really uncomfortable 13 hour bus ride from Airlie Beach to a phone call from my sister saying "There's a tsunami warning in effect for the east coast". So I naturally shit myself and when i got to the hostel I asked about it. They said they didn't know what to expect but just to stay away from the beach. Okie dokie, done eand done. As far as I know, nothing happened so meh.
Anyways I don't have much to say about Hervey Bay because we havn't really done anything yet. Just hung out at the hostel mostly. Swam in the pool, played some tennis with our newfound German friend. Anyways, we have a group of people set to go on a self-guided Fraser Island tour which is kinda exciting. There are five of us so yeah it won't be too crowded nor too expensive. Fraser Island, I hope, will be really cool. It's the largest sand island in the world and it looks like it has some really beautiful lakes and stuff so I'm pretty stoked. BIG HOCKEY GAME TOMORROW!!!! WAHOOOO. I'm soe xcited to watch it!!! Anyways When I have more to write about i guess I'll do it then because this blog sucks.
LOVE

Whitsunday Islandsss and Airlie Beach

2010-02-26T23:47:00.000-08:00

Sooooo from Mission Beach, where Sarah went skydiving (and where I was painfully bored), we hopped a bus to Airlie Beach which is a cute, albeit uber touristy beach town. Wew didn't stay long here, but we caught a ferry over to Long Island, an island in the gorgeous Whitsunday islands to stay there. We stayed for two nights. It is GORGEOUS there and is probably my favourite place so far on this trip. The beaches are gorgeous white sand, the water is blue and crystal clear, and the islands rise up like lush forest covered moutnains all over the place uot of the ocean. It really is a beautiful place. The beaches are lined with palm trees and banyan trees. I really never watned to leave. The place we stayed at was a big resort with a hostel in the back (out of sight from the tourists who paid ilke $500/night to stay there). So we stayed back there but we had access to all the awesome resort amenenities! Sweet! Sarah's friend Alyson works and lives ont he island so the first night we stayed with her. The island is untouched aside from the resort, as are the other islands in the Whitsundays so it really is a gorgeous sight to behold. There are bush turkeys that are everywhere, as well as heaps of wallabies, cockatiels, lorakeets and all kinds of wacky animals. Seriously just beautiful is the only way to describe it. We didn't do much while we were there. I had a bit of a headcold so it was more like R&R time, especially since it rained the entire second day! We played some scrabble, trivial pursuit, and trivia with other people on the resort. We also met some nice people from Whitehorse!!!

Anyways this is long enough.

It's off to Hervey Bay and Fraser Island, the world's biggest sand island tonight.

PEAS <3

I HATE LEECHES

2010-02-22T01:00:00.000-08:00

WELLLLLL the last couple of days have been mindblowingly busy and filled with waterfall swimming, mountain bking, rainforest walking, platypus spotting and all kinds of fun stuff. We booked a tour with "On the Wallaby" Adventure tours where they took us up to a rainforest mountain town called Yungaburra. From there, we went and visited the most incredible strangler fig tree. It was really impressive and had these long, strong, beautiful roots. That day we swam in a waterfall that was SO COLD but so beautiful. There was a catfish called Wanda that kept biting everybody's ankles. That night, after a lot of bushwalking and swimming and learning, I was tuckered out. The hostel we stayed at was BEAUTIFUL. It had the cutest little dogs running around (big dogs) and some really quirky people.
So that night I didn't sleep very well as we were sleeping in the rainforest and there are HEAPS of mozzies in the rainforest. I woke up with a swollen half face, dunno why. So that day I was pretty busted and it was a pity because that was the more active day of our tour. We went mountainb iking through the rainforest which was absolutely spectacular. It poured rain that day but biking through the rainforest in the rain actually had some great charm to it. Our guide taught me a lot about Aboriginal culture here in Australia which was wonderful, as well as a lot about the general environment and our surroundings. BUT, as I found out, in Australia there are these sticky litle creatures called Terrestrial Leeches. Thats right. Leeches that live on the ground. There was the most beautiful bit of rainforest that we wandered through and I ended up picking up a leech or two on my feet. GROSSSSSS. Anyways yeah. The last two days have been pretty good. Tomorrow, we're headed down to Mission Beach where we'll stay foor one night basically only so that Sarah can do her skydive which she has been waiting for. Anyways, I'm out.

PEACE AND LOVE,
Steph

GREAT BARRIER GOD!

2010-02-18T23:02:00.000-08:00

I had a life-changing experience today. I snorkelled at the Great Barrier Reef. It was one of the best experiences of my life! I saw all kinda of amazing things like giant clams, lots of beautiful fish, amazing corals and most awe-inspiring, SEA TURTLES. They were so beautiful and watching them just made everything else around stop. The best part was that as I was stalking one of them, it came up for a breath right in front of me. It was incredible. I think sea turtles are my new favourite animals.
I also take back everything bad I said about Cairns. I was just looking at it from the wrong perspective. Coming back into the city from the ocean was so beautiful. The mountains were draped with clouds and even though it was cloudy, it was still so colourful. The mountains here are beautiful. Nothing like the Rockies but just different. They are covered in thick, lush rainforest. From that angle, Cairns is really one of the most beautiful cities I've been to. I wish I could have taken a photo that did it justice, or even upload one of the ones I took. But alas, cannot. Anyways, gotta go;.
STEPH

A La Cairns

2010-02-17T22:25:00.001-08:00

Soooooo Cairns eh?
Sarah and I finally arrived after a long night and a short flight. THe flight was perfect an I wasn't nervous! :) Haha. Anyways Cairns is a small town with big city amenities. It's got nice mall and lots of palm trees! But it's suuuueper humid. I constantly feel like I'm swimming and I'm not in any water. Our hostel room is STIFLING hot but it's okay I guess. We havn't met our roomate yet but I spied a maple leaf patch stitched onto his backpack haha.

I don't have much time to write this so I guesss it's gotta be snappy. Today we went to check out the city and the esplanade. Like I said, it's a nice town. I feel that they rep the Aboriginal culture a lot more here, and I've also noticed a lot more Aboriginal people which is great. I notice small patches of ABoriginal art here and there worked into the decor of the mall and of shops and of the general city.

The biggest pitfall of Cairns is the "beach". It's ridiculous!!! A Complete joke! It's called "the Lagoon" and all it is is a kiddy pool (like that of Coronoation Park in Oakville) with sand at the bottom. It's chlorinated and happens to be right ON the beach, but it's not the beach. Also, the real beach that is on is dirty and gross. It's filthy!!! Lol.

Anyways that about it. I've booked my Great Barrier Reef tour for tomorrow!!! I'm really excitd. I'm goign to three different reef locations and it's gonna be a blast so long as the weather holds up. Anyhow, thats it for now.

BYEZ!

echidna |əˈkidnə| noun a spiny insectivorous egg-laying mammal with a long snout and claws, native to Australia and New Guinea. Also called spiny ante

2009-11-18T20:41:00.000-08:00

I'm really not in the mindset to do this right now after having spent roughly an hour posting photos to Facebite but I'll try anyways.

Whats new with us???

Went to the Blue Mountains where we stayed in a really charming little hostel called the No.14. We were there for two days. on the first day we went on a 3hr long bushwalk into the beautiful blue mountains, aptly named due to the blue haze given off by the eucalyptus trees over the mountains. That day was a scorcher at about 33 degrees. The second day, we woke up to the smell of rain but it's alright because we had booked a trip to the Jenolan caves, about an hour outside Katoomba. Really beautiful caves with a really annoying droning tour guide! But seriously, really pretty and highly recommended. (I'm soooo hungry!). Katoomba is a cute little town speckled with art deco buildings, as if much of NSW that I've seen thus far. OH and we saw an echidna. SEE title. (and see facebite)

Other than that, just enjoying the weird city quirks that come along with living here. We also went to the Glebe Fair which was pretty cute. They close the major street that runs through Glebe, the boho suburb where we originally were staying with Tanya, and ahve all kinds of booths. We got some Lebanese food and corn on a cob on a stick. YURM.

Also, it was recently my birrrrthdayyyyyyyy but I worked that night so it was actually really uneventful. We stuffed our faces with sushi in the afternoon. YURM.

What else what else?E
-Visited Bondi for the annual Sculpture By the Sea art show. Gorgeous. (See Facebite)

Also, quirky Japanese roomates giving me massages on the floor. LOL. Yoko-san is the greatest woman alive.
AND our japanese vocabulary is expanding to include roughly 10-20 words. And our Ndebele (Zimbabwean language that has a CLICK SOUND) vocab includes.....well, one word.

THE ENDDDDDSKI.3

S-BUCKS

2009-10-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone
So the last week has been somewhat nightmarish haha.
So we move into our house, the one I wrote about in the last post, and realize it's so not what we thought. The people that live there don't clean up, smoke directly outside our window all the time, and party unti wee hours of the morning. They all get super plastered every single night and Tim and I decided that we left that kind of place behind in residence lol. One night they stayed up til like 3am completlely hammered and HOWLING red hot chilli peppers. Annoying, n'est pas? So needless to say, 3we went looking for a new place. We found one on the 14th floor of a really shiny, nice apartment building shared with 3 japanese girls and one Zimbabwean girl. It is cleannnn and the girls we live with are very respectful so we both like that a lot. They are quiet and all very nice, unlike the people we lived with in the last placee. The location is great too, a bit further from where I'm working but still walkable, and VERY central and urban which I like too.

Anyways yeah. So that's that.

What have we been up to?

Really just learning the city. Haggling at markets. BTW Paddy's Market is amazing! We bought a week's worth of fruit and veg for roughly 20 bucks. Amazingggggg. You can get everything there super cheap and so I'm kinda in love with that place lol.

Urmm what elseeeee?

We've gone to a couple of bars which has been funnn. So far Scubar and the Landsdowne Hotel. Scubar was that typical bar with the annoying ditzy, stuck up girls, and the annoying jock boys heh. BAD MUSIC. Awesome thing though, was that they had CRAB RACES ahaha. it was so much fun. For a dollar, you could bet on a hermit crab. You could name it. So Rose-Anne was my crab and she WON SECOND PLACE. Amazing little lady, she was. So I won a party bus ticket lol and a hat, both of which i gave away lol.

THe Landsdowne is our new favourite bar so far. It's grungy but they have live music which is always a bonus. It's reminscent of the Townehouse in Sudbury which was both Tim and myself's favourite band.

ANYWHO Gotta run....

Heading to the Opera House because its free to get inside there today! Yay free stuff!

Ta.

KINDA HATE ROACHES

2009-10-15T03:36:00.000-07:00

Helllloooo all, it's been a while I suppose.

What's happened in the last two weeks? You're probably expecting me to say "WHOAAOOA WE WENtttt to the outback and rode kangarooooooooooooos covered in vegemite!"

But no.

Not THAT cool but we've been doin' well!

We've been in Merrylands, NSW the last two weeks housesitting for a friend of my Nick's named Babar. His flat is pretty nice but this suburb is shadddyyyyy. If I were to compare it to an area at home, I would compare it to Brampton but the size of Milton. It is very ethnic which is really cool because there are all kinds of people and all kinds of places to eat. The problem is that I wouldn't eat at a single one because they are all kinda (really) dirty. In fact, Nick has this app on his iPhone that lists the restaurants and cafes in the area you're in that have been cited for health violations. Nearly ALL of these Merrylands places were on the list. Good side to that is that we've been saving some money eating in. So that's good. But.

I BLOODY HATE ROACHES and they seem to be everywhere in this apartment! We set bait out when we got here and I thought they were working til tonight when Tim had to pretty much chase a roach around the apartment and trap it in a cup while I squealed like a girl. Lol. Give me mice, rats, snakes, whatever but I don't do roaches. NO ROACHES.

We have officially waged war against the roaches.

Everybody says they are "a part of life" in Sydney but eff that!

Anyways, we visited our travelmates in Bondi Beach where they were lucky enough to be housesitting as well. Bondi is BEAUTIFUL. It's one of Sydney's most popular beaches and is probably the most well-known. it's gigantic. Too bad the weather has been LOUSY and it rained for the entire week they were there. It was at least sunny on the day we left haha and we managed to catch an amazing sunset there as well. Bondi is a hotspot for surfers and though the water is too cold for regular swimmers right now, there are always lots of surfers in the water safe in their wetsuits. OMG PHOTO!

We have been really busy trying to find a flat as well! We've seen some SERIOUSLY bad places, including, literally, a closet with a matress and a hot plate, as well as a room that was above an Indian restaraunt in which you shared the KITCHEN with the RESTAURANT. Wtf!? Lol. I'm really pretty sure that's illegal. Anyways, after having seen that kitchen, I prob wouldn't eat there anyway!

We found a place in an area of Sydney called Ultimo. It is really urban and near beautiful Darling Harbour. Actually, it's really close to everything. The CBD (Central business district), Glebe (where Tanya lives), Chinatown (where our travelmates live) and pretty much everything! It's a nice enough place with a few other people. We share a bathroom, kitchen and living space which we are pretty used to considering we're coming from University haha. And at 280 dollars per week (CHEAP in the city), we can't really complain. So we have to be there for 3 months so it looks like workin' life for the next three months!

Anywhooooo I suppose that's it! I have some more stuff to talk about but I think I'll save it for the next post.

Hope you're all keeping well!

Steph xoxo

Weird Aussie Things and Things.

2009-10-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

Australia is weird. Australians are even weirder. Here are some weird Aussie things annnnnd whatever else comes to my mind while I write.

Tasty Cheese.

This weirds me out. For some weird reason cheddar, instead of being mild, medium or old, is broken down into well tastiness? They have Tasty, Extra Tasty, etc. It's kinda weird like that. Mind you, tasty cheese is effing...well, tasty?

Why do they call:

Pharmacists, chemists; Red peppers, capsicums; Zucchinis, squash; Squash, pumpkin; Arugula, rocket?

Because they're weird!

(speaking of produce, fruit here is AMAZING)

Aussies love J-walking. Why? I've seen a large number of Aussies (old, young, crippled, abled) nearly become roadkill because they love to j-walk on the crazy-busy streets. Often, you see them doing it barefoot which is somewhat comical but craaaazay.

Also, Aussies love saying "how ya goin?" instead of "how's it going?" or "how ya doin?". It's something of a combination of the two expressions and it still makes me smile when someone with a thick Aussie accent says it.

That, and "Y'alright?" Meaning interchangeaby, "You alright?" or "You're alright". They say it in response to nearly everything lol.

There are a berzerk number of brothels in Sydney, as well. Mostly they are pretty hard to identify and you wouldn't know it unless you noticed the THAI MASSAGES sign or notice the subtle exposed nipple on the poster on the door. Prostitution in this country is legal so brothels are a boomin' business! As is, subsequently, the sex industry in general. TONS of "adult shops".

Speaking of weird country stuff, Aussies are also, well, really racist! (I'll take this opportunity to say not ALL Aussies of course). Mostly towards their Aboriginal population and towards Indians and those from the Middle East, so I really havn't had any trouble at all and mostly have to deal with being called "dahling" and "love" all the time. At the contemporary art museum, though, there was this one exhibit with this weird negative space word art where there were instructions for the piece that read "Pull outer corners of eyes to see words and read aloud" and the words in the negative space read "CHING CHONG CHINAMAN". I'm like :O. Like, that was seriously the face that I made. On a less serious note, at that same exhibit there was one that asked you to pull the outer corners of your mouth and read the statement: "I am a banker". Try it. That one got Tim for sure. Anyways point is that Aussies (not all) are strangely quite racist though ironically enough, not towards me! Score! (lol)

ALSO, though prostitution is legal in this country, abortions are not. I'm not gonna get into the women's rights red flags that spring up in my mind but I found that quite interesting. And worth mentioning is the law that was just passed here that states that a Church organization is allowed to deny employment to homosexuals and single mothers.

Anywho, enough of the political stuff that will probably get me into trouble.

What have we been up to??

Well, we took the ferry over to beautiful Manly Beach where we hung out for a while until it got to be evening. I really do love beaches and that place was great. Not quite as busy as Bondy Beach and full of lots of shops and eateries. We were planning on making it back over there to partake in the Jazz Festival thats going on but the dang sky won't stop dripping on us so, maybe next time.

Next day, we headed to Luna Park and if you havn't seen the photos of that place on facebook yet, I suggest you go and take a look, though I warn you that you may experience terrible nightmares afterwards. Funny though is that we took the ferry to Luna Park not knowing that it was the first stop. We missed it and ended up at the next stop which wasnt' too far but we got to walk through this really ritzy area. It was a nice walk, about 40 minutes along streets with ocean-front properties. Beautiful!

Mmm that night we ate at a restaurant called Flying Fajita Sistas. I swear to you, this city really does not disappoint with the food! Sydney is a city known for its' amazing restaurants! And wow is all i have to say. Here, Tim had his first fajita ever (!!!) and I had this delicious mango and cheese quesadilla and lots of guacamole. YUMMMMMM. So YUM that it is seriously worth documenting!

Next day, we headed to the Sydney Aquarium where we made friends with the cashier who joked that we brought our Canadian weather with us. The aquarium was gorrrrgeous but I kinda love aquariums so I guess I'm kinda...biased. They had dugongs and lots of sharks and poisonous things.

Anywho it has been raining quite a bit so today we took it easy. Got some pastries this morning (YUMMMM) and read for most of the day. Though I wish it were sunny, I do really enjoy days spent reading books and drinking tea. Something I havn't been doing too much of lately since we've been out and about.

Thats all for now :)

STEPHANIEEEEEEE <3

??

2009-09-28T23:54:00.000-07:00

OH MY GOD WHY IS THAT SMALL CHILD/DOG DRIVING THAT CAR?!?!?!

Oh wait, the steering wheel is on the opposite side of the car.

Tims here!

2009-09-28T16:20:00.000-07:00

Stay with me as my writing skillz arent up to the level of Steph's. But I wanted to mention the money, as I have had to reorganize my brain to use small change. Bills are easy of course but for small change there is:

50 cent coin which is a little bit bigger than the size of the canadian dollar but thicker and really kinda heavy they pull down my pants
20 cent coin just a litte bit smaller than the 50 cent but just as thick and heavy

10 cent coin the size and weight of a quarter
5 cent coin just like the nickle at home

then heres the kicker, I have not seen a one dollar coin or bill there is only the
2 dollar coin which is the smallest coin about the size of a pennie but a bit thicker

*EDIT* apparently there is a one dollar coin i just barely ever see it. It doesnt turn up much and its about the same as a 2 dollar coin except a big bigger.

I never realized how much I used 25 cents on a daily basis that I have had to reorganize my brain to used this crazy money

lastly job search is going quite swell i might actually be able to get an IT job here but a big shout out to Nick for helping me with my cv and search, actually if it wernt for Tanya and Nick we probably would not be doing so well here so a big thankyou to them

oh lastly I forgot to mention that there is no 1% or 2% milk here there is just milk. It smells rather like cream actually i dont know how it tastes i only use it in my really strong coffee (and no its not cream its milk that i am using)

ta for now

cheers
-Tim

Zooooooooo + Thoughts

2009-09-28T01:49:00.001-07:00

Soooo today Tim, Sarah, Hilary, Alyson and I mozied on over to the Taronga Zoo. It was awesome!!! The trip there was really great too because we had to take a ferry that went right through the Sydney Harbour and gave as amazing views of the Opera House and the Bridge as well as of course the beautiful Sydney skyline! Then when we got to the zoo, we took a cable car up over the zoo to the top of a mountain and worked our way down. We saw tons of cool animals but couldn't get as close as we did at the Aussie Reptile Park. Great day none the less though.

For breakfast this morning, Tim and I hit up a place called Naggy's Cafe which is just up the road from Tanya's. ORdering coffee has proved to be a tremendous challenge here because there is no such thing as well, a plain old filtered coffee like we have at home. Mostly all they have here is espresso so all their coffee is stupidly strong. So here is the Aussie Coffee Translation Guide:

Short Black = plain shot of espresso

Tall Black = two shots of espresso diluted with water...

Latte = Latte, duh

Flat White = Cafe Latte with no foam (my order of choice)

Americano = closest thing to a black filtered coffee.

Apparently Aussies like their coffee really strong. Even the Starbucks' here have mostly gone out of business because they don't make it strong enough! The one Starbucks we did visit had an option of adding extra coffee flavour shots if you didn't find their coffee strong enough. Much different than at home.

The lingo here is also rather interesting. It has proabbly been the biggest adjustment we have had to make. That and looking the opposite way when crossing the street lol since they drive on the left here. Further, cars have the right of way here but for some bizarre reason, Aussies LOVE to jaywalk. It's insane.

Lol anyways, it's been fun.

Ta, mate!

Steph

Meeting Kangas and Koalas

2009-09-26T04:07:00.000-07:00

So today, we went to the Australian Reptile Park which was super coooool. Cool because there are, incidentally, all kinds of creatures running around the place!! There were wallabies and kangaroos just hopping around the place with little kids chasing after them. We got a number of great photos with the animals which was cool. There was an emu running around too but I was somewhat afraid that it was going to hurt me or cut me with it's enormous talons lol. I think it liked Nick, though. We met some Dingos as well; they really just look like skinny labs, haha. The guy that runs the shows there is a lot like Steve Irwin, what with playing with lethally venomous creatures all day long. We watched that guy feed a 170kg croc with a chicken tied to the end of a 2ft stick! We also watched him piss off a Sydney Funnel Web Spider, one of the most lethally venomous spiders in the entire world. I swear, just like Steve Irwin. The place was a lot like a zoo but it let you get a lot closer to the animals, which was really cool. Before we went there, we ended up eating at this absolutely terribly cafe thing. I ordered a tomato sandwhich (to-mah-toe, not to-may-toe) and a medium fries. The fries ended up being seriously HUGE. It probably weighed 3lbs, no joke. It was photo-worthy as I have never seen a larger portioned order of fries.

After the reptile park, we went to Umaima Beach which was beautiful. It was on the Central Coast. The drive there was really nice, nice winding roads up hills and through valleys. That place reminded me of what I imagine Hawaii to look like. Little surfer kids running around everywhere and a picture-perfect beach. So picture-perfect that apparently Nicole Kidman has an island that you can see from there. Haha. Yeah. We ended the day by going to a Japanese restaurant here in Glebe which was great.

Speaking of Glebe, I guess I havn't taken any time to describe it. Glebe is a very laid-back, old area of Sydney. The type of place where everybody knows eachother. There are pastry shops, fruit markets, a couple of "hippy stores", book stores, cafes and the like. It really is a cool area of Sydney and really is the most relaxed suburb that I have been to yet. Everything is easy to access from here, as it's only about a ten minute bus ride to the CBD. It is a bright and colourful neighbourhood where the people smile and say "g'day". I do like it here and I think I'd like to live here if the opportunity arose. Hopefully it will!!

Steph

Flights and First Days

2009-09-24T15:53:00.000-07:00

Hey ya'll. I'm sure people really aren't THAT interested in our day to day doings in the Land of Kangas but I thought I'd do this anyways. I'll try to devote at least a bit of time each week to update you on what's going on and to assure you that we havn't been bitten by anything. D :

So here's how our flight went.

Departure was fine but it was sad to say "see ya later" to moms and dads. But exciting because we were gonna be doing something fantastical!!! Our flight was broken into three legs and worked out (to what was supposed) to be 24hrs in flight, and 36 hours with stopovers.

First was an hour and a bit's flight to Chicago. The most uneventful leg of the trip, but actually come to think of it, I'm pretty thankful for that. Tim and I were seated in the first row so we had plenty of leg room which was excellent. The fun started when we landed in Chicago and had to figure out O'Hare Airport. NIGHTMARISH. Everybody was really unhelpful and we were sprinting around trying to get to somewhere we weren't even sure we needed to be. When we tried asking one of the employees where we needed to go she said "gates change all the time". Yeah, real helpful. So with twenty minutes to spare before boarding time we finally made it to our gate. I had to smuggle pasta and cheese through customs which worked out just fine, but our water bottles created quite a stir, as did Tim's harmonica which was certain to be a disguised weapon. So we boarded our Japan Airlines flight to Tokyo; the longest leg of our trip which was a whopping 13 hours of FUN!

First off, big props to Japan Airlines (JAL) because they were awesome. We were kept fed and entertained with the personal televisions which had these little controllers that you could play games on and stuff. Twas good. Smooth and uneventful as a plane ride should be. It was just really, really, REALLY long.

Thennnnn we landed in Tokyo/Narita with nearly 6 hours to spare but as we found out, that wasn't enough time, unfortunately to get out and see any of the city. So we hung out at the airport, got some food and watched some sumo wrestling. Food turned out to be an interesting challenge to due my allergies (haha, imagine that). First I asked if anything had nuts, thinking that I could just explain it in English. Not happening. After my attempted explanation, the lady actually tried to sell me some cute little bags of nuts. So I busted out the card that my sister gave me that says "I am allergic to blah blah blah". She looks at it and laughs a little. Then she goes into the back and gets the chef who comes out and says something like "oil soy oil" and I say "huh?" Lol. So then, the lady comes back and writes down on a piece of paper "Oil made from soy beans". Then I say "OK" and order fries and edamame because that's all I feel safe eating. Anywho, Sarah and I sat in the restaurant and ate our fries and soybeans and then proceeded back to the gate where a few people were sitting around a TV watching sumo wrestling. That was quite entertaining; does anybody actually get that sport?

Next we got on the plane to Sydney, FINALLY. This flight was probably the most eventful of the bunch, but not in a good way. First of all, the turbulence was insane. The whole plane ride, there would be announcements saying "turbulence is expected" but they said everything in Japanese first so we were kinda confused. In the air, we got to watch the sunrise which was beautiful...This bizarre red colour that was unlike any sunrise i have ever seen, and soon I found out why. So fast forward to about half an hour before ETA when the pilot comes on and says "blah blah we are about to commence our final descent". So we start the descent, all the while watching the little icon of the plane on the map that tells us where we are. Then, we notice that the plane is turning around. Huh? Then a long announcement comes on in Japanese and then English saying "Due to poor weather and high winds in Sydney, we have been diverted to Brisbane International Airport". NOOOOOOO, I think. After spending 24 hours in a plane, 20 minutes before landing, we're diverted an hour North? BLarhghghhg. Now the landing in Brisbane was pretty much the worst landing I've ever experienced. We were up and down and side to side and I'm almost certain we landed on one wheel. People were throwing up and Tim even had to open the barf bag and make sure it was accessible lol. I nervous laughed all the way to the ground because I was so terrified!!! So we finally get to Brisbane, spend about 2 hours sitting in the plane on the tarmac, then take off back to Sydney.

When we landed, we found out that we had landed on the day that the worst sandstorm in 70 years decided to hit Sydney. LUCKY. I guess that's why the sunrise was so red. The air when we got here was still dusty but somewhat normal looking. So that was our adventure en route to Sydney. In total I believe the flight being diverted tacked on an extra 5 hours onto our trip, so in total it ended up being about 29 hours in flight. Yikes.

The first day we just kinda hung out, saw the ocean and what have you. Jet lag was a killer and I felt tuckered out most of the day. The next day, we did some touristy must-do stuff. Checked out the Opera House and the SYdney Harbour Bridge, The Rocks, which is a really old part of Sydney, Newtown which is a trendy area comparable to Queen West in Toronto annnnd the CBD, the Central Business District, the Botanical Gardens where we saw some really huge bats annnnd yeah I think that's it! The third day was spent relaxing. We went for a walk and in the evening, my sister and Nick hosted a dumpling party so we got to meet some of the neighbours which was fun, and the dumplings were delissioso.

WOW this blog ended up being really long and I'm sorry if it was somewhat boring lol. Hopefully the next one will be better!!!

Steph