Guest post from Alicia.

This post was written by Alicia with a few inputs from Mitchell and I. It was created on the afternoon of our second day with the RV. It's taken me awhile to get her to forward this to me, as we are stuck in a hotel for a day I talked her into passing it along. So without further a due...

How to have a true OZ Road Trip Experience: 

Step 1: Drive through the heart of Sydney in Saturday traffic with a 6 berth vehicle. Extra Points: Use the bus lane and ask people at the crosswalk where the campground is. 

Step 2: Stop for a Mrs. Mac's Beef Chili and Cheese or Steak and Cheese pie at a gas station en route. Be sure to get a few packets of tomato sauce to go with. Extra Points:  Burn the roof of your mouth for being impatient. 

Step 3: Get a flat tire on the highway only a few hours into your trip. Extra Points: Struggle with a jack clearly used for go-carts and wait an hour for a couple of true Aussies training for the iron man to pull over on their bicycles and offer assistance. Wait for support crew of bikers to arrive with a proper jack before continuing on. 

Step 4: Run on fumes 30 minutes from destination in the middle of a rural area just before midnight. Take a 30 minute detour to the nearest village to find petrol. Extra Points: Stop at the police station for assistance as the only shell station in town is closed. 

Step 5: Arrive in the early am after office hours at your reserved camping location. As you don't have a phone, use the pay phone to try and reach the after hours number. Let pay phone eat your money as the person on the other end can't hear a damn thing your saying. Cuss loudly. The night keeper will hear you outside and come to investigate. Crisis averted as he lets you in the locked gate. Extra Points: Back up into your lot and serenade the other residents ('beep' 'beep' 'beep'). 

Step 6: Once situated prepare a meal and have a near heart attack as the glass stove top explodes. Nothing goes better with eggs and bacon than shards of glass. No extra points for being incompetent. 

Optional Step 7: Ditch the RV and stay at a hostel. This camping bullshit is overrated.

The Great Barrier Reef Experience

I Yesterday we woke at 6am to get ourselves ready for the bus pickup at 7:10 in front of the Best Western. We had booked a Great Barrier Reef tour the night before and today was that (drum roll, please) exciting day! A day we got to do something that most people have on their bucket lists! 

We arrived at the peir in Cairns boarding the catamaran around 8am with about 40 other adventure seekers. 

Sam and I having morning tea on board.

For $185 I received transportation to and from the hotel, breakfast, lunch and a late afternoon snack on the boat, choices of snorkeling, an intro scuba dive, certified scuba dives and a glass bottom boat ride. There was a professional photographer in the water with us taking photos to sell at $15 each or we could rent an underwater camera from him for $49 and have all the pictures we took put in CD. There was a marine biologist on board to give talks to us as well.

Informative talk as we headed out to sea.

I never anticipated that to see the GBR one would have to go out with an organized group and pay a fair amount of money in doing so. I'm actually not sure what I expected. 

Alicia and I rented a camera and split the $49 charge. By the end of the day we had taken around 300 photos that were put on to a CD for us. We gave the CD to Sam since he was with us and took photos for us. He's taking it back to Sydney with him to load onto his computer and share the photos with us. 

So I don't have any colorful underwater photos to share with you just yet. Stay tuned...

I'm a strong swimmer thanks to my parents, putting my siblings and I in swimming lessons every year.

However when it comes to competitive lap swimming and snorkeling I have a problem breathing properly. 

In the last 2 years I took an intro to scuba class in a pool in Portland and found my breathing was difficult to control with scuba too. Eventually I got it under control.

I wasn't really excited to snorkel or scuba but I was excited to see the reef. I informed Alicia and Sam of my breathing issue before hand and Sam stayed with me for quite a bit in the water giving me pointers until I pretty much got it down. At the end of the day I still struggled a bit holding my breath with the snorkel and going down deep but I was getting better. 

I snorkeled the majority of the day and took the intro scuba dive. The intro dive was AWESOME! Words can't describe how great of an experience that was or how beautiful this underwater world was! 

I think that all the snorkeling I did before the dive helped get my breathing in check. 

I scuba dived like a boss, in other words! 

I saw a turtle but never saw the reef sharks that a few others caught sight of. By the end of our second reef location my jaw was tired of having the snorkel in my mouth so I climbed aboard the boat. We only had 15min left in ocean before we were to head back to land. 

Me, doing dips at the bow of the boat as the boat headed in and Sam supervised. 

To give you a bit if a visual of the are:

The reef is off the shore far enough that when we were out at our dive locations we couldn't see land. From the boat, looking into the water you saw the beautiful blue of the ocean and then where the reef was you could see a color change. The color I remember seeing the most when looking at it from above was more of a mustard yellow with the oceans transparent blue washing over it.  

You can see the reef n the horizon line but also in foreground and middle ground. 

The underwater life: the variety of different coral was incredible. Just the coral alone was captivating. It wasn't as colorful as I thought it would be, the coral was more muted with bursts of purple, green and orange here and there. The fish is what was really colorful. We found Nimo, the clown fish and saw lots of parrot fish among others. 

I found myself floating above areas of the reef several times, lost in thought. Many times I thought of the paintings that this experience is going to create for me. Color and texture was all around me and that's what my paintings crave. 

We met Matt on the boat, a guy from Missouri who is in the Army and currently stationed in Hawaii. He was alone in a 9 day holiday. So we did what we always do and pulled him into our circle of friends. The 4 of us went out for dinner, drinks and 2 LONG games of pool that evening. We called it a night around 9:30 and headed back to the hotel, running into 2 backpackers on the way. 

The waterfront area of Cairns.

In their 20's one backpacker girl was from Norway and the other from Germany. They looked lost with their oversized packs and rolling suitcases and exhausted! We asked if we could help and they accepted. They were lost looking for their hostel. I looked at the German girls phone and we pulled up google maps and plugged in their hostel. They were a block away. 

Excited to hear they were so close they still didn't look eager to walk so I offered for the 3 of us to carry their bags for them and walk with them to their hostel. And so we did... Paying it forward and helping out fellow backpackers. 

Good bye to the RV lifestyle

Since arriving in Australia I have made it a mission to hold a koala bear. Truthfully it's been a childhood dream to be that close to one of those adorably small grey bears. Now that we have arrived in the state of Queensland this was going to become a reality! 

The last sanctuary we visited was closer to Melbourne in Victoria state where it's illegal to handle koala bears. The sanctuary itself was great but obviously there was no holding or even touching koalas. 

We also paid $12 to have a 10 minute encounter with kangaroos which was incredible but it was over in the blink of an eye! I knew the search wasn't over for finding a place where I could hold koala. I looked into a Australian zoo, home of the crocodile hunter, Steve Erwin. It's the zoo he either created or worked out of, I'm not sure but the prices were outrageous! One regular  adult ticket was around $54! 

I kept looking... 

The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane had been recommended to me by several and it was fairly touristy; attracting famous people like Taylor Swift, John Travolta and family, matchbox 20 and so on. 

I had no idea until arrival that you could also walk amongst kangaroos and emus for free and for $2 you could purchase food to feed the kangaroos. There was a student rate at this sanctuary just like the last one so I got in for something like $24 and then I paid $16 for my photo to be taken with the koala. 

There are kangaroos surrounding me! 

You can hold the koala for free but if you want any photos taken with it, you pay $16 for a professional and then you are also allowed to take personal pictures with your own camera. You ARE NOT able to take personal photos unless you are buying the $I6 photo. This was okay with me because the money all goes  back into helping the koalas and their habitats. 

Loved every second of this! 

We didn't spend all day at Lone Pine as we had at the last sanctuary. Mostly because the weather was a bit more humid and it was sprinkling off and on. But we spent a lot of time with the kangaroos and koalas. 

Once we left, the search for a place to park the RV over night was on. Brisbane was much bigger then I had expected, it was a city! Alicia and Mitch wanted to explore the area but by public transportation not RV so we found a residential neighborhood just on the edge of an industrial area. We parked in front of a house so it looked as of we might know someone here. 

Ferris wheel in Brisbane. 

Mitch and Alicia went out on the town while I stayed back. It was his last night in Australia so I let them do their thing. I explored the area we had parked in and found some wifi to text with my dad and message Sam (from Sydney) regarding picking him up at the airport in the morning. Did I mention in any previous posts that he offered to fly into Brisbane and drive with Alicia and I after dropping Mitchell off? 

Well that was the plan. 

The waterfront in Brisbane. 

Waking up to a 6am alarm clock the 3 of us drove to the airport to pick Sam up. We had breakfast together at a nearby tavern and then dropped Mitchell off at the airport. 

Then it was time to clock in some miles for our final destination. We had to return the RV in Cairnes, by Friday at 3pm. It was Wednesday morning at this point. 

Ridding as Sam's passenger.

I rode shotgun and Sam drove the majority if the day, I drove for 3 or 4 hours on roads that were straight aways. Flash flood alerts after every song on the radio, Kangaroo road kill and seeing a wallabie at night standing alive but frozen still in the road for on coming traffic... That about sums up day 1 with Sam. 

We pulled over at 1am across the street from a truck stop and slept amongst a few semi's and a couple wicked vans (backpacker rental vans) to sleep thru the night. 

I don't know if I mentioned this in an earlier post but we opted out of using the toilet in our RV because none of us wanted to clean out the tanks when we were done. So we were all about sleeping near anything that was open 24hrs where we could wake up to a bathroom. Sleeping here, we had no idea they'd have clean and FREE showers to offer us in the morning. Total bonus! 

We were just about to drive the RV across the road into the truck stop parking lot when Sam noticed the wicked van. These vans are all very unique. Each one decorated on the outside by a different artist. This one had a life like cardboard person in the back window wearing only animal print underwear. We were laughing at it when we realized that if we really focused on the van, it was actually rockin'! Which made us laugh harder! We drove slowly by its steamy windows and pulled into the truck stop parking lot. 

When the van is a rockin don't come a knockin'.

We got our showers in, had breakfast in the trailer, ran out of water in the trailer so we washed our dishes in the bathroom sink of the truck stop bathroom. While Sam and I made breakfast Alicia washed her clothes in the bathroom and hung them in the trailer to dry. It was still very humid out and we were finding ourselves a but sticky even after washing up. Thanks to Alicia's good timing we also had wet clothes to doge in the RV for the next few hours. 

Alicia looking after her clothes. 

Our backpacking neighbors in the wicked van pulled in next to us and were doing about the same as us. Cooking breakfast on camp stoves on the outside of their vans instead if the inside though. As far as I could tell the passengers were German girls no guys. Maybe they were all just changing their clothes at once. 

Sam informed us as we headed out on the road again that we were clearly in the land of Bogans (Australian term for backwoods/ trashy people). He could tell by the houses we were passing and the people we could see. 

it was still raining but the flash flood warnings had lifted. 

For the majority of the drive we saw. nothing but Sugar cane fields... everywhere! Sam wanted to pick me some to try raw even though I was certain I had eaten it in Hawaii. We continued driving as many of the fields were flooded. 

Sugar cane. 

While driving I saw a sticker on our window that got a conversation going. I asked Sam how he spells "tires" and he shook his head as if he knew what this conversation held for him. He responded, I know there is 2 different ways to spell it but I don't know which way is the right way." As he said that I was pointing at myself as if to say, the American way is the right way. This NZ and Australia way is crazy! I've never seen it before visiting these countries. I ended up telling him this while we laughed about it. They spell  it tires but more often then not you see it spelled "tyres".

The sticker.

We stopped at a grocery store in airlie beach to stock up on snacks for the road. Our shopping experience was like every other but I have to mention it because I found it funny! While the 3 of us were perusing the produce dept. A guy in his 30's was picking out the perfect zucchini when he had a bit of a mishap. Suddenly, just as I looked in his direction, the guard holding the vegetables broke off! It was like something out of a movie as he scrambled to try and catch them. Realizing he couldn't as 100's rolled at him, all tumbling out onto the floor, he gave up.  I've never felt my mouth drop open so far in my life! I just stood there shocked and thinking how funny it was at the same time. The guy looked back at us and kinda laughed saying, I didn't do it. 

Like a Good Samaritan I laughed with him and then Alicia and I helped him pick it all up. 

A tree in the grocery store parking lot. Do you see the 3 giant moth/ butterfly's? 

Once we were officially at the beach

we strolled thru the town and looked out to the whitsunday islands where a cruise ship was anchored. Sam shared his tales of travel out there. 

He bought a pair of shorts since he forgot his in Sydney. Only packing jeans for his 4 days with us and again, it was humid as heck out and I felt sorry for him wearing his jeans! Alicia got her wifi fix at McDonald's while Sam and I shopped around. We went back to the RV to cook chicken and veggies up for lunch before hitting the road again. 

After only a few miles we pulled over to fill up with petrol. Alicia went across the street to McDonald's (again) for wifi and Sam and I went into a workout supply store so he could find some liquid chalk. I caught a glimpse of dumb bells and off I went to get some bicep curls in, wearing my sun dress! The way every lady should dress when lifting weights. 

Sam saw me, finding it a bit funny he said, "ahh come on, really?" 

"Yep!" I replied, laughing. 

It's hard to workout when your traveling like this! I failed to mention this in a past post but I got a full workout day in during my Sydney stay and LOVED it! 

Alicia and I did a 5 mile run in the morning along the beach walk and then Sam picked me up and took me to his gym to lift weights with him. He had to train a guy after me so I just stayed and worked out on my own until he was done. That was a great day, for a gym nerd like myself. Yeah, perhaps it's a bit sad that I enjoyed a full day of working out while in Australia but I was happy. 

Back to my current story:

on the road again, leaving Airlie beach we missed our turn off and ended up on a dirt road surrounded by sugar cane. Sam decided to be a little "Bogan" like, as he left the drivers seat of the RV to wade out in the ankle deep mud (from the flash flooding) and break off sugar cane for us. Yum! 

Illegal Sugar cane picker. 

We drove for several hours into the night looking for a good place to stop and make dinner. Guess where we ended up... Yep! a McDonald's parking lot, AGAIN! They are in every town and the free wifi is the bonus. So while I cooked dinner Alicia went in to use wifi and Sam walked around outside talking on the phone. I made Kangaroo steak, crunchy salad, and pumpkin soup with sugar cane for desert! Delicious! 

Truck stop #2 with showers was our next destination even though we didn't know how far away or where that would be. 

It was about 1am when we found it. This one required a $10 purchase to use their showers and Sam really wanted one so he topped off the RV and took a shower. They were nicer showers then we had that morning. When he returned to the camper we moved it across the street and up the road just a bit. That's where we parked for the night, in between a backpackers rig and a semi that ran its generator all night! 

Our back window of the RV leaked a bunch of rain water in while we had been driving. It was right above Sam's bed so I helped him strip the bed and but a dry sheet on it. It was to hot for any more bedding then that. I could hardly sleep it was so stuffy in the trailer, even with the windows all opened. I crawled up into the bunk above the drivers seat and went to sleep next Alicia. 

In the morning we made breakfast, drove to a shop to top off the propane tank and I saw my first aborigines people, of Australia. Sam had talked about them before and how for the most part they are all effected by alcohol. That was clear as day to me with each one of them I saw. It's a similar situation to the Native Americans of the states, I'd say.  

We headed out of town as today was the day we had to have the RV delivered to Cairnes by 3pm. The drive was scenic, reminding me of parts of Hawaii and when I mentioned that to Sam he said he had just been thinking how it reminded him of parts of South Africa. We saw a surprising roadside attraction that made Sam and I both want to turn around to go back for a photo! Alicia was asleep in the bunk above our front seats but she woke up when we slowed down. It was so random to see this house all alone on the side of the road with this amazing landscaping! 

Roadside attraction. 

We stopped again just 4k's further down the road for a light lunch of a smoothie and coffees as well as a meat pie that Alicia and I shared. 

Meat pies, a smoothie and coffees. 

We pulled into Cairnes at 1pm. At this time we learned that Sam hadn't had good experiences with hostels and he was wanting to get a hotel. And he had no problem paying for it or the majority of it. 

So we booked two nights at a best western, compliments of Sam and the ironic part was that the room was just as nice as some of the hostels we have stayed at along the way. Sam if course didn't believe that. 

We then returned the RV to the company where things got really interesting. 

They greeted us at the counter and were very kind. Overall we had 3 people helping us behind the counter and in brief, here is what happened: 

We told them we filled the diesel tank and the propane tank up. We confirmed the broken stove too when we were asked about it. The guy smiled, kind of chuckled and said that happens often. So often in fact that they don't replace the glass when it breaks SO WHY DID THEY QUOTE US $200 when we called it in!? We questioned it and so they ended up keeping the $50 they were going to reimburse us with for Diesel instead of charging us $200. We were okay with that. THEN... We mentioned the flat tire and after they checked it out they tried to charge us $400 saying we destroyed the tire beyond repair! We knew that wasn't our fault either. We were also told we should have called it in as soon as it happened and they would have sent someone out to help us. We told them we didn't have wifi when that happened so we couldn't have called. So we argued that one... We argued that with them for just over an hour with several phone calls being made between bosses and managers. Guess who won... Yep! We did! We got so incredibly lucky... Again! 

The tire we apparently destroyed. The bottom part of the tire had bubbled.

We were so grateful that we took 2 of the people that worked with us out for a beverage and they drove us in their company VW sedan. 

I love Australian hospitality. 

So long old friend. 

Reflection

Yesterday was a day of reflection and meditation for me. 

It really began after breakfast when I left Alicia and Mitchell to meet up with Shasta. The night before she had asked if I'd go in the ocean with her and get her out past the second surf break. 

So we met half way on the beach yesterday, between her hostel and my campground. We laid in the sun for a bit learning about each other and how much we have in common. The reasons we both decided to travel in this manner and about the toxic people who had been in our life's prior to leaving home. 

The conversations continued in the ocean as the waves pummeled us. I also gave her some pointers on surfing since she's wanting to learn but wasn't exactly ready to start that day. The water was warm and salty and the sun kissed our skin as time crept past us.

I was invited to go to a 5:30pm yoga class at her hostel that evening. She'd been attending for a week or so and was feeling a change not to mention the instructor was incredibly good looking, according to her. She was right. 

We parted ways for a few hours that day. We needed lunch and to relax on our own. I would later meet back at her place for the class.

Later that day as I walked along the surf to Shasta's amazing beach hostel, I instantly started reflecting on my life. It was a peacefully relaxing time alone to begin my meditation and reflect on my life in Oregon. The toxic people in my life, who I am and who I want to be. What I would like to change about myself, the people in my life who inspire me.  

All these things came to mind. 

I arrived at the hostel just in time to sign in at the front desk for the class and walk to the back of the property with Shasta. We entered the Yoga tent. It was beautifully zen like, making me think of a yoga retreat. 

It was a large white tent that one might have set up for an outdoor function. However the inside had tapestries hanging along the walls and draping across the ceiling. There was a palm leaf on the floor in the middle of the room with a fresh flower and a glass lotus candle holder complete with a candle burning inside. 

Russell, the instructor came into the tent as well as one other student making for a very small class. 

This was definitely one of the best yoga classes I've ever taken. The sound of the ocean, birds in the trees above our tent, paired with Russell's instruction was pure therapy for my soul. 

When class was wrapping up Russell closed by telling us to eat healthy, drink lots of fluids and get rid of the toxins. The toxins in our body and the toxic people in our life. To be free from letting them and our possessions hold us back from anything. 

Shasta spoke up sharing with Russell that her and I had been talking about that subject matter earlier that day. 

The 3 of us walked to the front office together while Russell told us a little about himself and where he comes from in life. 

He's from Perth and has traveled a lot in his life. About 2 years ago he had a ticket to visit Hawaii for the first time but he felt a strong calling to India. It was so strong that he gave up the ticket and went to India and studied yoga. When he returned to Australia as a yoga instructor he went back to Perth but didn't feel anything there. He left and was pulled towards Byron Bay, a known place to the aborigines of Australia for healing. He told us there are crystals under the land and mothers would come to this place to heal after just giving birth. The men could stay in the nearby town while the women stayed there. 

He then told us how many people feel a natural pull to Byron Bay because of these crystals and their power to heal. 

Myself, Russell & Shasta 

The evening continued with Shasta and I going back to my campground to eat a light dinner with Alicia and Mitchell before we went to grab a few sushi rolls and a scoop of gelato. 

Mitchell and Alicia met up with us at a pub called the Ginger Pig for live reggae music. There was a live band first which Alicia didn't care for so her and Mitchell left. Then a DJ took over and 2 guys sang over the mixes while Shasta and I danced until 12:30 when the music stopped. The place was packed! 

The live reggae band.

I had a guy from chili tell me how very strong I am. Haha! 

Infact he wouldn't leave my side for about 25min. He was drunk and just kept telling me that I have a very strong back, shoulders, & arms. I finally got him to leave. 

Shasta and myself dancing into the night.

The pub was closing but it had started raining, I mean dumping! Not only that, there was thunder and lightning. We waited with just about everyone else until they kicked us out. Running a few blocks we found a bakery that was open 23 hours and took shelter in there for an hour. 

We talked about meeting up in SE Asia and spending some time traveling by motorcycle together. When the rain turned to a sprinkle we left and made our way home, around 2am thanks to the weather. 

It was overall a great day with a terrific new friend! 

Headed up North

The day I hoped I wouldn't see again has arrived. On Saturday the 22nd of march we picked up a Maui 6 person camper van in Sydney and headed north. The final destination will be cairns with planned stops at Byron Bay, Brisbane, lone pine sanctuary, and maybe somewhere in the Gold Coast. It's a road trip though so we'll see where we end up. 

This is the one!

The point is that I will be driving on the wrong side of the road... Again! 

This vehicle was a re location rig we found online. Sydney is a major drop off area for these rentals and Carines is a major pick up point and they were either running low or someone reserved this particular one needing it moved up north. 

And north is the direction we were heading. 

Looking towards the back.

Looking towards the front.

They give us $50 towards gas, which isn't much in Australia. and we have 7 days to get the van from the pick up location to the drop off site. 

We only pay $5 a day for it and if we want it for any additional days its $75 per day. There is also a $1,000 insurance bond that they charged one of our cards for and we get it back if there are no accidents.

Because Hitch hiking is illegal in Australia and to get to these other destinations of ours we'd have to buy plane tickets as well as ground transportation and accommodations. This way we will save a bit of money and have all those needs taken care of. 

Mitchell has spent a good amount of time driving in New Zealand and Australia so we had him for the first leg of driving. He sat in the lobby while Alicia and I did the paperwork for the camper. We opted out of taking toll roads because basically the process was a mess and we wanted to save a few bucks. You can't stop and pay you have to register a credit card online and when you go through the toll you automatically get charged. 

Meet Mitchelle. 

So we decided to take a route that was only 12 min longer. We didn't realize that the way we picked would take Mitchell right through the heart of Sydney on a Saturday in a 6 birth van! Mitchell was unaware of the toll roads option until

we were actually on the road. He didn't like the desicion we made for him.

Ill just say he was a bit stressed as we drove through Sydney. 

About 4 hours into our trip Alicia swapped me spots in the back so I became Mitchell's co pilot. 

About an hour later the van was shaking pretty bad and Mitchell and I started wondering what was going on. Pulling over to check it out, I discovered the front passenger tire was flat! Prior to this we had been making good time. 

It was a team effort with Mitchell working the jack in the front and Alicia and I on our hands and knees at the rear of the van releasing the spare tire. It was surprising to me that the cars passing by where only able to see us girls while Mitchell was out of sight. Yet no one pulled over to see if they could help us. 

We jacked the van up and had the tires ready to swap but we couldn't get the jack to go high enough. There was a lot of frustrated words coming from our 3rd team member. He was not a happy camper! 

I stood back and continued to keep my eyes on the approaching vehicles, hoping someone would stop. Two cyclists were coming up on us, slowing a bit so I waved them in and asked for their thoughts. They were training for the iron man in Australia that was 6 weeks away. Soon their support car arrived and she had a jack that we borrowed. While we kept at it the cyclists got on the road again and had the support lady call another cyclists who was approaching, to come assist. By the time he and 2 others arrived we had finished the job. 

This dirty handprint is the aftermath of our flat tire adventure. 

Before the lady left she told me of a koala hospital up the road. It was free to go into and there were lots of wild koalas in the area. I would have loved to have seen that but it's going to have to be on my next trip. We were behind schedule now. 

We soon had to stop for our first gas fill up and since I owed Alicia money I filled the tank, with diesel. I'm pretty sure she owes me money now. 

This thing is a gas guzzler! 

Mitchell paid for the next round of fuel when we were a mere 30min away from our destination and truly running on fumes! It was around 10:45pm and nothing was opened not even a gas station! We asked a couple on foot, Alicia ran across the street to the police station and Mitchell flagged down a taxi to ask the driver. 

The open station that was referred to us was in a near by town. We didn't know if it'd be best to just park on the street where we were, waiting tell morning or attempt the drive. We attempted the drive and we made it, coasting into the station. 

We arrived after hours into the camp ground with the gate closed in front of us. Alicia knocked on the door and no one answered. Then she went to the pay phone and called the after hours number. The man on the other end couldn't hear her so she hung up, frustrated. Mitchell and I watching from inside our home on wheels. A guy came out and asked her if she had just called. He gave her some instructions and then she came running back to the rig. "Okay Casey stay down for just a bit. I forgot to mention it was extra money for more then 2 people."

We parked, backing into our spot right next to the office and in a sleepy campground. I'm sure everyone enjoyed waking up to the back up beeping noise our monster of a camper made as we parked. How embarrassing! 

The next morning was an eventful one! Alicia got us officially checked in and we made sure all the windows facing the office had the shades closed in order to hide me. I laid in my overhead bed messaging a few people while Alicia started breakfast. 

Suddenly there was a loud explosion! 

I looked down at Alicia in the kitchen and saw our glass cook top shattered! It had JUST been lit, she set the pan on the burner with a bit of olive oil in it and stepped to the side to begin beating the eggs up. Nothing else happened to cause this glass top to explode! Nothing! 

This is craziness! 

Mitchell was outside setting up the awning when this happened. He stepped back in already talking to us and looked right at the damage. Not noticing it he continued to talk and then eventually stopped in disbelief. I believe he said, "well that's not good."

So our dear Alicia used her Skype minutes to call the number we had for the rental company. It took talking to 3 people before being connected to the right person. The lady she was connected with told Alicia that unfortunately we were going to need to pay for it. 

We were apparently supposed to lift the glass top up and cook with it up. How were we supposed to know that? 

The 3 of us watched an instructional video before leaving the rental office yesterday and none of us remembered that being mentioned. They gave us the video on a thumb drive to watch again if we needed. We WILL be watching it before we return it to confirm that we didn't miss that part. We did a walk thru with a lady to check the rig out before driving it and it was never mentioned with her. There were 3 instructional stickers on the glass surface as well. One of them was a picture that looked like it was telling us NOT to lift the top up while cooking. We have a picture of that as we plan to do everything we can to dispute this charge! 

I took the beat up eggs and bacon to the campground kitchen to cook while Alicia continued to deal with the company. Mitchell had already started cleaning the shattered glass.

The outdoor campground cooking area.

When I returned with breakfast Alicia told us that the somewhat good news was the quote for replacing the top was only $200. She offered to pay it herself, why I don't know. I joked with her telling her, yes! You were the one cooking so the blame is fully on you! 

Then of course said no we'd be splitting it 3 ways if we ended up having to pay it. 

There's nothing one can really do in a situation like this. Shit happens and you move on. Things always get better. 

Mitchell played "don't worry be happy" over the speakers while we had breakfast and we all sang along and laughed. 

He had a craving for a chia drink the night before and when we made a grocery stop on the way to Byron I bought a $6 bottle of delicious goodness for us to share with breakfast. It was a apples, banana, cinnamon, chia made by an Aussie juice co. 

I'll miss this when I return to the states. 

Yummy juice and Mr. Bobby Mcferrin singing "don't worry be happy" to us over the cabin speakers turned out to be a great way to re start the morning.

We completed our day of much needed relaxation with a walk thru the town of Byron Bay and some time in the warm ocean water.

Just a portion of Byron bay.

And I finally met up with a friend I have I my known over Facebook! Shasta was introduced to me via FB by our mutual friend Monica. Shasta has been in Australua since January and she has a big as true planned as well so Monica paired us up. We both just happened to be in Byron bay. She's a definitely being added to my collection of friends! We already have plans together for tomorrow! 

Shasta and I. Picture taken for Monica.

The Australian story, continued.

Continued...

After we said good by to Sarah, Alicia and I went into the city and walked around killing time.

We had heard the couch surfing house had been invited to an adult warehouse party that night which included a bounce house, basketball court and a few other major attractions. It sounded fun but we both were lacking motivation to go out and party. We were in fact very tired and we were flying to Sydney the following evening. 

We agreed we'd stay at the house and and get some extra sleep but things never work out that way. Once we arrived at the house the gang was right on top of convincing us to come out! It sounded like a load of fun but I really needed sleep and I had a few couch surfing requests to put in for byrom bay. So I stayed home with one other girl while Alicia went out with 9 others from the house. 

I did my couch surfing requests, cleaned the kitchen and the living room and then met Sam's live in girlfriend for the first time when she got home from work. I could tell she wasn't a fan of this party house.

My delightful bed on the couch was call in for me just after 1am. Around 3am Chapman and Bianca showed up. They had been in the city at the two very large art museums. Each as big as the Pdx art museum if not bigger and both free, of course! It was an all Melbourne artist show in both buildings that they described as incredible! 

We visited on the couches for an hour, all 3 of us fighting to keep our eyes open while we talked. It was nice to finally meet travlers my age and that I clicked so well with. I've found that most travlers are in their early to mid 20's and also NOT from the states. 

They asked where everyone was so I told them about the party. I figured we had probably 2 more hours before they arrived. We all agreed we should go to bed but just as we were all falling asleep I heard chapman call out, their home! 

Crap! 

There was no going back to sleep now. They all came in stumbling and talking loudly, laughing, jumping on the couches around me and then the stereo was turned on. Anyone who might have been asleep was now defiantly awake!  I decided to stay laying down on my couch or I'd lose my spot. I made the right decision and I did the next best thing to partying with them. I video recorded the group of them that stayed closest to me. I wish I could post it instead of a picture but I don't think a video will work. It was funny, ill just leave it at that. 

This is from the first night of our stay. They were playing Jenga - the drinking version.

The house went to sleep finally, at 5am and daylight came quick but I was up making breakfast and packing my bag soon after the sun came out. Alicia and I were going to spend the hours we had left in Melbourne at the art museums. Due to the great feedback we had heard about.

Once she was awake and ready we got a group/ family photo and hiked out to the train station and rode into the city. 

The red bull can' see are holding were photo shopped in and the writing on the wall... I'm not sure what it means. 

We only had time to see one art museum but I agree with Chapman and Bianca. It was an overall pretty incredible show! There was a cake frosting exhibit, a taxidermy exhibit, paintings, a life size and very realistic human sculpture and so on. Chapman & Bianca even ran into us towards the end as they hadn't finished the building we were in 

I'm curious to know what I missed in the 2nd building. 

Cake frosting carpet! 

Detail. 

Our flight to Sydney was fast approaching. 

We got our packs from the museum bag check where we had left them and headed across the street to the train station. The train dropped us off at the bus stop that was our only bus to the airport, late! Which meant we missed our bus and it was the LAST bus of the day! 

I left Alicia with my bags and went to re-look over the route boards and then ran across the street to ask a bus driver how to get to the airport. A taxi was the only way he said and it'd be about $50. A girl from china was waiting for the bus we missed too. She approached me about the situation and we decided the 3 of us would split a cab. It was working out alright after all. We flagged a driver down who was a very kind Indian man living, working and finishing up uni (university) in Australia.

He was very honest with us and drove us straight there with the total bill being only $25.

The three of us headed for check in with Tiger Air. This would be mine and Alicia's first time flying with the discounted airline co. and probably our last! 

When we approached the ticket counter we dropped our small bags in front of us that we had stuffed full of all our heavy items. We each placed our big packs on the scale so the guy could make sure we were within weight. 

He asked Alicia and then me, when it was my turn if we had any other bags. We both told him no but when he asked me a third time I replied, well only my personal bag. He was totally on to us, he already knew we were trying to sneak something by him. So we both had to weigh our small bags and that put the both of us overweight. 

Big lesson learned that day. Our 

plane ticket cost us each $60.24us and now we were being forced to check one bag and they charged us $74.70us for! 

Krikey! 

This put Alicia in a very bad mood but I knew there was nothing that could be done about it so we needed to move on. We paid more for a bag then we did for a single plane ticket. 

So a note to any future traveling friends of mine: only fly tiger air if you are traveling light. 10kg is what they allow for your bag(s) to weigh and go on board with you. The bags weighed TOGETHER must be 10kg. We were each over by 5kg. 

Once we got into our airport terminal they announced that the flight before us was going to be delayed due to weather. Apparently there was a thunder and lightning storm outside. 

Then it was announced that our flight was delayed. After an hour and a half we boarded our plane but as soon as we were all loaded the entire Melbourne airport closed due to the storm. 

We all had to stay on the plane, waiting. Alicia and I visited with our neighbor, Dong (spelling?) from Vietnam. She lives in Australia now and was very kind to us. She shared her tangerines with us and told us of things to do in Sydney and Vietnam. Then she offered to give us a ride to our accommodations after we arrived at the airport. I thought her generosity was wonderful! We didn't need the ride though as Alicia's friend of a friend, Scott was picking us up. 

Dong also invited us to dinner at her favorite Thai restaurant any evening in the next 3 nights. It was her treat she told us, when I asked how expensive it was. She said she wanted to give us a good impression of Australia and if she ever came to the US we could return the favor. 

Fair enough! 

Finally we arrived in Sydney, hungry but we were here and greeted by Scott and his roommate Sam at the gate. This was the start of another great host(s).

They carried our bags to the car paid for the parking and then offered to get us dinner. I had been told to go to Harry's cafe de wheels so I suggested that but it was a bit out of the way and neither of the guys had heard of it. On the way to their house they drove us through key parts of the city so we could see it lit up at night. 

When we got to the house we met Alicia, the 3rd roommate and then Scott showed us to our room. Actually his room that he had given up for us. We had his queen size bed AND a nice blow up queen size bed at the foot of his bed. He took the couch. We tried to tell him we could share a bed but he insisted. They offered us to whatever we needed in the house including food. We ordered 3 pizzas for dinner that Scott went back out and picked up for us. After dinner they took us out to a Sydney night club on Darling Harbor where Scott even paid our cover to get in. These guys were spoiling us! 

The next morning after we made breakfast the guys, Alicia (we started calling her Lee) and I headed out for a full day walking tour of the city. Alicia their roommate had to go to Uni to study so she didn't join us. We drove into the CBD of Sydney and it started lightly raining. 

They showed us some districts around the CBD so we could see other areas of the city and not have to walk around in the rain, just yet. Finally we parked and when we were a good ways away from the car it of course started raining harder! We embraced it, It was still warm out just wet and a hair windy but then it got worse with thunder and heavier rain fall. People were looking for places to duck into tell it passed. We took shelter in a flea market that took up more time then we would have liked due to the weather.  

We walked just over 8 miles that day. 

Basically we looped the city, went thru the CBD into darling harbor, stopping at the fish market for lunch then under the harbor bridge and around thru "the rocks", circle quay, the opera house, botanical gardens woolalamoo and back into the city to find the car many hours later! 

Scott in the background, Sam in the foreground. 

In the botanical gardens Alicia found a palm with these beautiful berries and picked one. She squeezed it and said to me that it was like an onion when it squeezed out. She must have grabbed another because she handed one to Sam and he squeezed it, instantly grossed out and loudly stated that it was like snot on him. Alicia fell to the ground laughing and rolling in the grass. Sam threw the oozing berry at her and the slime wiped onto her chest. She was soon up right frantically fanning herself and practically whimpering, that it was stinging! 

Scott, Sam, nor I knew what to do but Sam was feeling responsible. She then ripped her shirt off now only in a sports bra was walking franticaly in circles around the grass. Sam decided to find her an aloe plant in the gardens and off he went. It didn't take long before we got some on her and were able to continue our walk. She was still stinging a bit and she definitely had skin irritation on her chest. 

Sam trying to help Alicia. He's holding plumeria flowers I picked. 

We stopped in Woolamaroo for drinks at a corner pub and then up into the city, back to the car to go home and make dinner.

This was our last night with Sam, Scott, and Alicia. 

"Lee" had a friend, Mitchell, who was flying in to visit us from Oregon for 10 days. 

The next 4 to 5 days we would be staying with Mitchell's friends. we were starting at Katie's place one block away from Bronte beach. Possibly my favorite beach and beach town in Sydney. Again another fabulous host! She was a total sweet heart and I really enjoyed her company. I think I'll add her into my collection of friends. 

After "Lee" made Sam, Alicia and I all a yummy, stuffed French toast breakfast, we packed our bags. Sam drove us to Harry's Cafe de Wheels (the meat pie place I was told to go to) which was delicious and very popular with celebrities and everyone else. Then he dropped us off at Coogee beach to meet Mitchell.

Harry's pies.

Mitchell was waiting at a cafe with a box of oregon's famous Girl Scout cookies on the table for us. 

Yum! 

A sweet taste of home. 

He ordered us a few rounds of coronas and then we spent some time on the beach before making the long hike with our full packs from 

Coogee beach to Bronte beach in the mid day heat! 

Mitchell offered to call a cab but the budget(er) in Alicia and I said, let's walk it! The walk was beautiful! It's a long ocean stretch walk that starts at Coogee goes to Bronte and ends at Bondi but passes several small beaches along the way. 

The coastal walk. 

By the time we arrived at Katie's my pack and the sun had teamed up and soaked my shirt, anywhere the pack had been resting, I had a sweaty impression of the bag on me. Katie's first impression of me was that I was a sweaty mess! The light tangerine color of my shirt didn't help to hide the pack marks. She offered me a shower. 

We made spaghetti and salad for Katie and ourselves that evening and she introduced us to grilled halloumi cheese which was great! Lemon and parsley sprinkled on top made it even better. 

Our next day was a beach day but we got it started right with an Australian big breakfast or big breakky if your Aussie. This to was recommended for me to try. It was good and the breakfast is different at every cafe but they are all big. However when I say big I mean big for Australia. The breakky I had was nothing bigger then a brunch item anywhere in a Pdx cafe. Food portions are a bit smaller in Australia. 

Poached eggs, bacon, sausage, sundried tomatoes, spinach, beans, and artisan toast.

After laying in the sun for a bit we continued the ocean beach walk from where we had previously left off. Walking to Bondi beach with a goal of getting Mitchell gelato that he had a craving for at a popular joint. Bondi is one of the more popular beaches in Sydney but I prefer Bronte because it has more charm and is less crowded. 

At the gelato place whose name I can't remember, we sampled flavors off pop cycle sticks. Some samples were so small you could hardly taste anything but wood and others were heaping! Not only that but they weren't thrilled about giving samples either. With the unique flavors they had listed I didn't want to buy anything until I sampled. 

This joint needs to take notes from pdx's salt and straw. I ended up having a scoop of salted coconut mango salsa. 

We walked back to Bronte and the 3 of us caught a bus to Mel and Ben's apartment in Maroubra and stayed with them the next 2 nights. Mel was also a friend of Mitchell's who was getting married to Ben in 10 days. So she was very busy. 

We met up with Sam the next day and he drove us to Manley beach but also showed us Shelly beach. His favorite and less crowded beach. As we walked from Shelly beach to Manley, Alicia discovered a blue tongue lizard/ dragon on the side of the pathway. It looked like an iguana, big like that too! 

It was just after lunch so we decided to have some drinks and snacks at a place overlooking the ocean in Manley. Then spent an hour or so in the water, I didn't go in past my knees! 

The town was very picturesque with lights strung up around the outside, cobble stone walkway and full of backpackers as well as people with money. There was something for everyone. 

Something I wasn't expecting in Australia was cooler ocean water temperatures much like New Zealand. I haven't been in the ocean as much as I had thought in either country, yet. I've been told that the further up the coast we head the warmer the water will get. Especially as far up as the Great Barrier Reef. I'm looking forward to that! 

On our way home from Manley we stopped for another one of Harry's pies. This would be Mitchell's first though. From the minute he arrived in Australia he has been on a non stop Australian food splurge! 

You (the reader) may have noticed Ive been talking about eating out and just eating in general a lot more lately. Mitchell can take full credit for this but it has been fun getting to eat out a bit more. He's treated Alicia and I most of the time as well so our budget shouldn't be affected. 

We stopped at St. Mary's cathedral on our way home thru the city. It was a city attraction Sam really enjoyed and very beautiful at night when it's all lit up. So the four of us ventured around Australia's largest cathedral checking out one of the worlds finest English style gothic church's made of local yellow block sandstone which is what Sydney is built on. 

St. Mary's

Our planned museum day, the following day turned into a half beach day back at Bronte as we had to move back to Katie's place for the night. 

Thank goodness too! Sleeping was brutal in Maroubra. It was very warm at night so we left the windows open and I'd say there was only 2 hours of quite time outside, each night. The rest of the time was spent listening to people at the bus stop, aggressive street sweepers and morning rush hour traffic. The last night Alicia woke up with her back hurting so I offered her my couch and then I curled up at her feet to sleep with the room that was left. 

I've discovered that Alicia doesn't function well on little sleep or little food so I do what it takes to make sure she's a happy backpacker whenever possible.

After our beach time we headed into the city to meet Sam and go to the art museum. On the bus we met 2 guys from San Diego who told us that the Westfield mall was a must see. They had never seen a mall like this. So we jumped off at Bondi junction and sent Sam a FB message to meet us at the mall instead. I don't know if that was the mall the guys were talking about but it was huge and pretty cool but nothing special. 

I did however enjoy the best chai frap of my life in this mall. Sam bought me one when he bought a coffee. I wanted something cold and the baristas didn't understand me when I asked for an iced chai or a blended chai. So in the end I just ordered a chai latte. I thought I'd get a hot beverage. Then I saw them pull out the blender and a few of them discussing how to make it. So a blended chai frap is what I got. I asked them if they had ever made that before and they replied, no. I told them it was amazing so they tried what was left in the blender and were impressed! They said they might have to put that on the menu.

Well you should, I thought. Most of America already has it on their menus. Haha! 

Our day ended with 4 free tickets to the center point sky tower. A $75 value p/p that a friend of a friend hooked us up with. This is the tallest building in Australia and designed to attract lightning strikes so that the buildings around it would be safe. It looked a lot like the Seattle space needle but taller. It had an inside observation deck, a rotating restaurant and an outside observation deck where you wear a jump suite and you are harnessed to a rail the entire time you are outside. The tour began with a short 4D movie, from there we moved up to the indoor observation deck. Sam had to leave for work before we went outside. So at 7pm it was just Mitch, Alicia and I putting our jump suites on and heading outside with a small group. We were not allowed to bring cameras or anything else with us that could be tossed over the edge so I have no pictures from there to share with you. It was pretty cool and definitely worth the price! 

A view from the indoor observation deck.

Mitchell wanted to take a ferry ride at night so we left the tower and took an hour loop through a few different harbors, including Darling Harbor. I sat on an outside bench and visited with a German guy about Dubai. Needless to say, Dubai is defiantly on my list of places to visit now! Maybe not this trip but sometime soon. 

Opera house at night. 

I hadn't eaten since lunch and it was now past 10pm and we were in the bus making our way back to Katie's beach house. I was hungry but not voicing it, I just figured I was out if luck as everything seemed to be closed. A guy on the bus was chatting with the 3 of us about his experience in Bali. Just before he got off the bus he turned to me and said, are you hungry? I perked up! Yes! Thinking he was going to tell me of a place to get good. Instead he pulled out a small bag of corn tortilla chips and a container of roasted tomato salsa! None of it was labeled very well and when it was first placed in my hands I thought he had gave me a bag of black licorice and chewing tobacco! I was very confused and a bit delirious I guess you could say. It was tasty! The man got off the bus and I looked at Alicia, across the aisle from me and said, again, how do we get so lucky!? 

Our last night with Katie at the beach. In order: Ingrid (Katie's sister), me, Katie, & Alicia 

I come from the land down under

It seems like it's been a long time since I last posted any stories. 

Traveling life hasn't dulled down at all, that's for sure and we are now in Australia. This is a place I thought of going to for my 30th birthday, two years later and I'm finally here. 

We arrived at the Melbourne airport and went through Immigration and baggage security checks. There was a good majority of Asians on our plane and others that had just landed. In fact there is a good chance half or more of the people in line with me were Asians. Before I go any further let me just say, I'm not racist at all and I have many friends who are Asian.  

Now... After my Melbourne airport experience I have seen a huge difference in culture. The ones we were in line with for about 2 hours were so rude! They were pushing into us from behind while we slowly made our way through the maze of barricades. They also cut in front of us if we weren't looking, especially the men! They clearly didnt understand what a single file line means. Alicia and I had to stand next to each other and basically make ourselves as wide as possible to keep them from passing us. It was incredibly frustrating. 

We had a Melbourne contact through my cousin, Fran. The contact was a dermatologist named Jim, his anesthesiologist wife, Gail and their 20 year old daughter Sarah. 

Alicia had a place (friend of a friend) where we could stay in Melbourne but it fell through. The back up plan was on my end.

I emailed the Dr. to ask if we could stay with them for a few nights. 

Long story short they put us up in an apartment style hotel just a block away from them for 2 nights. It was luxury compared to how we had been traveling.

We had a queen size bed to share in a bedroom with a nice bathroom, a small kitchen & dinning room as well as a living room. When we arrived at the hotel we had good intentions of dropping off our packs and heading right out to explore. The reality was, we were pretty tired after the airport craziness. Then there was the transporting by public bus and 2 trains in a new city and the rain mixed with humid temp. to find Jim's office, so we stayed in & relaxed. 

Jim was a very well known dermatologist in the area, much like my cousin Fran is in Portland. He is extremely considerate but also a little quite and was a bit hard for me to understand. Meeting him for the first time was interesting. I didn't know what he looked like and his office was in his home. He owned two (kind of Victorian) homes connected to one another. One side was his home and the other (downstairs) was his office and the (upstairs) the guest apartment. The apartment was where Alicia and I would have stayed but their daughter Sarah was currently living there. 

Jim had recently broken his arm playing Royal Tennis. It was a bad break (I say this as an expert on broken arms) as he had it operated on and it wasn't going to be casted due to the swelling. So the broken arm, we found out was a reason he didn't want to have us staying in his home.

**Royal tennis is the sport American Tennis was born from, so Jim tells me. This type is indoor with similar rules but when you serve, you serve up on a sloped wall. There is a lot of strange rules to the game, in my opinion. 

Inside the royal tennis club.

We were invited by Jim, to come out that night for trivia, food and drinks at a local pub (with high quality food). I had goat and Alicia had duck, to give you an idea of the menu. Trivia was fun and we met Sarah and her boyfriend as well as Jim's wife and a few of his friends. We also saw a more relaxed side of Jim. Sometime during the night he asked me if we had found accommodations for the nights following our 2 in the hotel. I told him I was working on it and by that I meant we'd stay in a hostel or couch surf but I didn't tell him this.  He handed me a sticky note with some info on a house to rent for only $160 a night but we needed to book it right away. He did mention that he didn't know if that was in our budget or not. 

Nope! It wasn't at all! 

I graciously took the paper from him anyways. 

After dinner the 3 of us walked down to his tennis club so he could show us around and teach us a bit on the sport. We had a fun time there trying to learn the sport and seeing Jim's sporty side. 

Alicia and I went on a 6 mile run from Richmond to St. Kilda the next afternoon and in the early evening we went by street car to the Queen Victoria night market in the city. The night market was amazing! 

Standing outside the main covered area. 

A market similar to pdx's Saturday market but 3x bigger and around 60 food carts of food from all over the world! We had dinner plans with Jim and Sarah, again that night but we couldn't resist the exotic foods so we bought some tasty Turkish eats to hold us over. Good thing we did too! 

Our Turkish dinner! 

We headed back to Jim's with plenty of time but got seriously lost on the tram system! We kept asking tram drivers and locals for help to Jim's address and everyone thought they knew but didn't! The last tram driver actually drove us to a police station. We arrived with a load of people in the tram and the driver said, go inside and they will help you.

We went inside, looking at each other thinking we don't have time for this! If anything we need wifi to message Jim and tell him we were on our way and safe. 

So we walked in (this was 9pm) and when no one came out we decided to leave. As soon as we walked back on the street the tram was still sitting there and the driver yelled at us to go back in. "Wait" he said. "They will come out, just wait." Ugh! We didn't want to! But we went inside and waited and a female officer came out. Turned out we were now within walking distance from Jim's. 

All the people on that tram probably thought we were in some kind of trouble when the driver dropped us off there and then made us go back in! 

Arriving at Jim's, the door was open and he and Sarah were sitting in the living room worried about us. We apologized abd told him our story then walked a few blocks away to dinner. 

Our feet were so tired! 

Dinner was at an unexpectedly, very nice place! There was a large group of retired professional Australian football players eating in the corner that caught everyone's attention. Well, everyone except for the 2 American girls who had no idea who they were. 

Jim told me that this was John Storrs (Fran's late husband) favorite place to eat when he visited. He then proceeded to tell me a few stories from years back when Fran and John would visit together. 

While looking the menu over we were informed that this would be a 2 course meal. I was a bit confused by his comment but soon learned that he wanted us eating a lot. He must have thought that we were dirt poor and starving! 

We each ordered an appetizer and then he ordered an additional for everyone to share. We each had our dinner course and then he ordered 3 deserts, not to mention the bottle of wine he and Alicia shared. 

When Alicia couldn't finish her seafood platter I took it over (I love seafood) not wanting it to go to waste. Being the only one left eating dinner I made a funny comment about being Alicia's food disposal and he said something back, along the lines of "well this is good, eat more. I don't want you on the streets starving."

I found this funny. He was getting such an interesting first impression of me. Much different from the impression he would have had he met me in Oregon. 

On our third day in Melbourne we took the bus out into the country to visit the Healsville animal sanctuary. We had to wake up early and be out the door walking with our packs to the bus by 8am. This was the bittersweet check out day from our nice hotel. 

We had about a 15min walk to the train station and then we would have 2 busses to catch until we arrived at the sanctuary. 

Alicia and I stood on the train platform waiting for the lilydale train that the digital screen said would be arriving in 3 min. 

Then we noticed 5 min had passed and our train didn't come! Or did it? 

We panicked a bit as we had scheduled the sanctuary arrival time perfectly so that we could have a kangaroo encounter. 

An Aussie next to us on the platform overheard us and mentioned the Lilydale train doesn't always come. What!? How does a train say it's going to be here in 3min and then just not show up!? Well, that's just what it does. 

I don't think that would fly in Portland, if the max just didn't show up sometimes. 

So we caught a different train and 

thankfully the buses were right on time so we arrived with a few minutes to spare until it was time to feed the kangaroos! 

The admission was cheap compared to waft it could have been. 

$30 and $25 with a school ID, which I had so the lady assumed Alicia had one to and she let us both in at that price and $12 each for 10min with the kangaroos, feeding & petting them. The lady took our big packs thru her small ticket window, they barely fit and then held them there for the day. 

Feeding the kangaroos was an incredible experience! They were so cute and had funny personalities. I spent most my time with one little lady in particular. She liked to put her hands on me and occasionally would grab my wrists and pull me closer to her so she could take giant bites out of the food I had. 

My little friend for all of 10min.

They had a koala bear encounter as well as others all for $12 each. Koala's were the ones I really wanted to pet and hold but in Victoria (a state of Australia) it's illegal to handle the little grey bears. In the state of Queensland it's allowed so perhaps ill get another chance then. 

The bear I couldn't touch. 

We spent the entire day outside on the beautiful property of the sanctuary. We did every exhibit, had lunch, went to almost every talk about the animals that were offered and even found a wifi spot. They had a few fun playground structures for kids a couple cafés, an animal hospital with a viewing area for visitors, and even an area for weddings and bbq's on site! 

We saw Tasmanian devils, wallabies, a platypus, emus, koalas, kangaroos of course and many other Australian animals. 

A wallabie 

The park was closing down and we ended up missing a bus by only a few minutes. So we had only one more bus to catch or we would have been a bit stranded. 

We did end up catching the last bus and traveled back into town. This night and the following night we were staying with a couch surfing host. The location wasn't ideal as it was way out of town a ways and kind of reminded me of Gresham, OR.

Kind of nice but a bit ghetto! 

We caught a train that dropped us off a stop to soon but it was the express train so it wasn't even going to stop where we needed it to!  There was a girl and a guy around our age on the train next to us. They weren't together but they both engaged with us in conversation. The girl was asking us about backpacking and where we were traveling. She told us the name of some place just as she was getting off the train and said, go there, you'll like it! 

The guy started chatting it up with us, when he realized we didn't really know where we were going. He was from Wyoming and moved to Australia 2 years ago now, with no intentions of ever leaving. He has a music degree and makes really good money teaching and told me one can start anywhere from $45,000 to $70,000 a year teaching music at a college. 

He said he's got more of a future in music here then he would in the states. 

It's expensive in Australia but it just depends how you spend your money. The minimum wage here is around $14 but most get paid more then that. 

He also told us that the place the girl on the train told us about was a place for free food. 

What!? 

We thought it was a museum or a tourist place. It was where you go to eat for free, basically and then you pay them what you think it's worth in the end. 

It seems everyone thinks we are starving ourselves. 

The Wyoming guy walked with Alicia and I for a few blocks while he looked up the address to the couch surfing house we were going to. We had the address and had taken screen shots (pictures of the screens of our phones) of the map to get us there. 

Now we were at a slightly different area since we had taken the express train. 

As we continued to walked he also told us this wasn't the best area of town. He's telling us this as it's almost 9pm and we are walking with all of our belongings.  I was Convinced that he would have invited us to come stay with him had he not been on his way to music rehearsal. 

We walked, now just the 2 of us for about 45min, hungry, somewhat lost in the dark and in this weird industrial area. We felt like we were getting closer because we stayed on the street that followed the train line. When we saw the station we should have gotten off at we turned away from the station and started walking towards a neighborhood. 

We were walking along the side of some fabrication building that blocked the moon light from lighting our sidewalk. I was looking down at Alicia's path just as she was stepping down and I yelled at her! "Rat!" She jumped back screaming "oh God!" And then a "is it alive?" As we had already scrambled past it. It was clearly alive, very fat, standing up right and suspiciously not moving. 

The house WAS just around the coroner. Finally! 

It was dark up at the front of the house but I followed the lights around to the side and saw a lot of young people hanging out inside. We knocked and when the door opened we asked for Sam, who wasn't there. No one seemed to care that he wasn't home or who we were so we just went in and they pointed to a bedroom for us. It was like a Tetris game of beds and a pull out couch inside the room. 

It was a nice place but a total party house. It reminded me of a fraternity house in a college town. 

5 people lived in this house and they had one bedroom dedicated to couch surfers only. This house thrived off travelers. 

It was a night of games, funny stories and meeting new friends. For me it was a couple from Houston, Texas; Chapman and Bianca. We were all off to bed after a bit and I quickly claimed the couch in the living room. I didn't want in on the Tetris action of the bedroom. 

Only 4 people in this picture actually live at the house. The others were surfing. 

I don't totally understand the writing that was photo shopped in, either. It's got a long back story to it. 

Alicia and I woke up early to catch the train and meet Sarah at her house. She offered to give us a driving tour of the city since she had the day off. 

originally we had planned on doing the great ocean road tour but we were talked out of it due to the beautiful beaches that are ahead of us on our travels. Saving $99 each and we didn't have a lot of time to see Melbourne so this gave us a better look. 

We arrived at her place and left in her Subaru right away. 

It turned out to be a lot more driving then Alicia and I thought it would be. 

We started out by going to the USA foods store. Sarah thought it'd be funny to show us the store that sells American things you can't get anywhere else in Oz. The prices were crazy! $9 for a package of Oreo cookies, as an example! 

We saw a lot of places but Sarah didn't want to walk around as much. She mostly just drove us through the outskirts of the main city. Overall though it was low key and fun to see with her. We went to Huxtaburger for lunch a place Sarah raved about and said it was quite popular. 

It was good but nothing compared to Ferg Burger. 

Well that sums up this blog post. I have more to write so expect another post soon! I'm surprisingly getting messages from friends and family back home asking me why I haven't posted anything lately. I was taking a bit of a break and I didn't have great wifi access. 

It's nice to know people are actually reading these stories and enjoying them. Thanks for your time!