MelBURN, BrisBEN, SydKNEE

Due to the fact that we were driving an unregistered car lacking license plates, we decided to leave it in a carpark for the week in order to freely explore the city. We moved parking spots everyday so as to not appear suspicious...though I’m not sure if that made it look less sketch ha.

We stayed for two nights at a couchsurfer named Deepak’s place. He and his roommate just moved here from India less than a year ago and lived on Darling Harbour with the most gorgeous city view. They were so welcoming, where other couchsurfers declined us when they already had guests, Deepak didn’t mind opening his home to six strangers (us and 4 german girls) as long as we didn’t mind sleeping on the floor. Gotta love the couchsurfing community for the caring and open nature of everyone!

We explored the city on Thursday, Deepak met us all for lunch near his office and we devoured the best (and cheapest) seafood I’ve had so far this trip. Later, we all went out to a three story club and danced the night away. On Friday, we met some other couchsurfers for a journey to find a hidden natural waterfall/swimming hole. By following a crudely drawn topographical map that one of the guys was given after few drinks with a mate at the pub, we bushwacked our way on a grotesquely overgrown path. After about an hour and a half, we finally found the falls, and everyone jumped in to the icy water.

Joe and I treated ourselves to a dinner in Chinatown that night (a place we visited at least once a day throughout our Sydney trip) and visited the public pool for a much needed shower.

Over the weekend, we rented a car and hostel room with (you guessed it!) more couchsurfers to explore the Blue Mountains. Jespal (a Kiwi), Aurturo (Spanish) and Brooks (American) hiked and climbed what is probably the most beautiful sight I have seen here in Oz. The name refers to the blue hue that the first settlers noticed in the distance when they landed. They didn’t realize however, that this is a phenomenon which occurs all over the continent as the gum trees secrete an oil which mixes with the air and refracts the light and science!

Believe it or not, that is not photoshopped!

After a fun night in the hostel introducing the boys to Cards Against Humanities, we rode the steepest railway in the world (52º!) and drove the scenic route back to Sydney. Joe and I met two awesome cousins of an Atlanta friend in Chinatown (where else?) for dinner and slept in the car, setting an alarm to watch the superbowl at 10am the next morning cause America!

The Traveler Struggles

When I was younger, I always said I would retire in a ranch style home with a wrap-around porch in a small town where everyone knows each other and the local pub knows your order as soon as you walk in the door. Until the week of camping, I had not been out of a city for more than a night, in the past 5 years, and I was okay with that. As much as the camping was fun, the hustle bustle of the city is where my soul (or lack thereof) thrives. 

Arriving back in Melbourne was like landing back home after a vacation where you leave your cell phone and computer off the entire week. It was so refreshing to be back between tall buildings and purposeful strides. I booked an airbnb for the night in a woman’s quaint hippie esque home, and Joe and I got some much needed rest on an actual mattress!

Cause headless monks make great decor 

The following day, we were s.o.l. though, as a three hour long stolen-wifi fueled search led us to the conclusion that the cheapest available accommodation was over $100 for the night. The Australian Open was at the semi-final level in the city’s state-of-the-art tennis facilities, so every hotel was booked full. We decided to hit up the local Couchsurfing meet-up and thankfully met two incredibly generous New York expats that let us crash on their couch that evening.

There's a rampant skateboarding rhino population in Melbourne

We met up with our previous Melbourne roommate, Ben, for breakfast and he let us steal his super comfy couch that evening. We left his place Sunday morning to meet up with two travelers who were selling a car....and decided to buy it! It is the cheapest overall option since we can sell it back before we fly out and it gives us free range to go see all the beautiful sights that lay just outside all the city centres. Best of all, it is a station wagon, so fold the back seat down, thrown in a mattress, and boom - instant carbed!

(just like the one my big bro had as a kid ha)

We had to get a permit to drive the car back to Brisbane, where we wanted to register it, and needed a couple more nights to get everything in order. My father’s cousin Bill and his wife Lynne were so welcoming and opened their extra bedroom to us for two sleeps. They shared their family dinner, fed us breakfast, and made sure we felt right at home. I am so thankful to be part of such a hospitable and warm family!

Oh and my family has incredible taste in art (that's a signed Banksy print fyi)

We drove to Sydney throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, and the adventure continues! And so we go.

Over the horizon

We slept at the town hall again, where Meegan decided not to battle the elements and crashed in their car. One thing you don’t think about when its dark out, though, is the direction that the sun comes up. Apparently they parked facing sunrise, so they got a nice wake up call and a bit of a burn before they even knew what was happening. We went back to the beach at Wilson’s Prom, I took a nice cat nap while everyone explored the giant rocks. I kept thinking how. directly out from the beach we were standing on, is Antarctica. So unreal!

The water was freezing here, but that didn't stop Martin!

Our plan was to drive to Phillip Island to see the penguins that come up on the beach at night, but then we found out it cost $20 and no pictures were allowed. We chose to take a fraction of that cost and buy goon for a fun night of drinking. Goon, or boxed wine, is known amoung travellers as the cheapest, quickest, nastiest drunk you can experience. $10 for four litres, goon is not even allowed to be labeled as wine because it contains everything but. We taught Meegan and Martin the game of King’s Cup, and the night was made.

The first tent I ever set up all by myself!

We drove to Mornington Peninsula in the morning and spent a few hours beachin for our first day above 30ºC. We had learned our lesson not to test the power of the sun (I wonder if the Egyptians thought a sunburn was Ra, the sun god, smiting them), so we lathered up in gooey sunscreen. After just thirty minutes, I was sweating so much, my towel was essentially soaked and I hadn’t even touched the ocean! The water was absolutely gorgeous though, perfect temperature, and you could see straight down to the floor and pick out every detail. It was a nice reprieve from the heat, especially because the sand literally burned your skin after a few seconds. I have such calloused runners feet so I had never felt anything like that, but just taking three steps barefoot was more than I could handle and had to sprint to the ocean.

We gave up sunbathing not long after, I think Matt went through three applications of 50 spf sunscreen in an hour and still got burned! We grabbed lunch and I got a milkshake for dessert. Come to find out, Australians take that term literally, as I think they just shook milk with some flavoring and call it dessert. Man I’ve never craved Chick-fil-a Icedream more than I did after that disappointment.

We ended the day watching the sunset on the beach, a perfect way to end the week of new friends, new sights, and new experiences

Off the grid

I honestly cannot remember ever camping. Like actually cooking fire over a fire or hotplate, sitting on giant logs swatting away the mozzies, or even sleeping in a tent that was pitched by someone in my company. I’m sorry, Dad, if we did all this and I just forgot, but the closest remember to “roughing it” is the log cabins that I slept in at Daddy-Daughter Girl Scout retreat. So needless to say, I was anxious how this would turn out.

Thank lord Matt and Keegan (Meegan?) purchased a bundle of camping equipment from an online ad because they graciously shared their stove, table, chairs, pasta, sleeping mats, tent, etc.

We drove (Matt had bought a car and did all the driving, again thank heavens for that) out to a random campsite. Of course we had a vague map and no cell service so by the time we got there, the sun was beginning its descent. We boiled some noodles and topped with dollar pasta sauce for dinner...yum..and set up our tents haphazardly. The kookaburras laughed us to sleep, and if you have never heard the sound a kookaburra makes, please click here. Then imagine them all around you as you try to sleep through rain and wind in the middle of nowhere. Creepy.

We packed up and went to climb the “1000 Steps.” It is a memorial to the Australian soldiers who, in WWII, had to march the 96 kilometer Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea amidst their grueling fight.

We also were able to wander the William Ricketts sanctuary where, in Thoreau fashion, a man lived in a cabin in the woods and dedicated his whole life to creating sculptures that embrace Aboriginal spirituality and respect for nature.

For the next two nights we camped in an abandoned town hall lot, which was sanctioned on their website as a camping ground due to its disuse (we’re not bums, mom, I promise). It was crazy windy, dropping the temperature. I could have sworn I came to Australia so that I never had to wear a jacket again, boo. We ventured during the day to Wilson’s Promontory National Park. As the clouds cleared up, I was able to snag so gorgeous panoramas. Now this is the Australia I was hoping for!

As my computer is dying, our camping adventure will continue in the next post. I’m missing all my friends back home and sending warm thoughts your way. I can’t wait to see the American parties that AU throws for the superbowl, which airs live at 10:30am (getting my day-drink on!) Go Patriots!

Y2K was fifteen years ago!

I know, I know, I fell off the face of the book. I chose to stop checking my facebook page for many reasons, but mostly to get the most out of my experience abroad. I love all my friends back home and though they are not in a foreign country, they are still doing wicked cool things. Unfortunately, they will be having their own crazy adventures whether I am there or not, so it just seems a distraction to be trying to follow their lives while keeping track of my own!

Joe and I lived in Brisbane for a month because the holiday season is the busiest time for restaurants and we were able to easily secure a job until the new year. We spent New Years Eve at work, thankfully our job has a huge patio directly in front of where the council shoots off it’s celebratory fireworks from the middle of the river.

I really wished our work was open on New Years Day, because on public holidays, the service industry gets double time, aka, paid literally $50 per hour. I clocked out at 12:15 NYE, so for those 15 minutes, I was paid $14...not bad.

So we flew to Melbourne the following week, stayed with a totally awesome guy named Ben, who makes incredible crepes. We saw crazy rad street art and beautiful botanical gardens, got our first sunburn (which to me means summer has officially started), and was introduced to the wonders of pintxos (a Spanish tapa that is a small piece of toast with unique toppings).

We also were able to meet three awesome travelers, Matt and Keegan from Wisconson and Martin from Denmark, who were all in the same boat as us. We all wished to escape the city, see the Australian countryside, and maybe be enlightened with what direction our nomadic life should take. Obviously they were perfect partners to start a camping trek across Victoria (the Southeastern most part of AU). And so we go.