So sorry that this is so late in getting posted – Argentina has been full of adventures so we’ve been getting back pretty tired. Also – I know blogging is going to take a lot of time and effort, so I avoid getting around to it when I can. These next blogs WILL be split into parts – I have a journal entry written on the plane ride from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia that covers up to that point, but after that there is no journaling. So up to that point will be a nice meaty full blog and after that point will be a starved blog. Sorry.
Tuesday was spent in Brisbane again, this time visiting the museums and art galleries, thought the most fun was the art museum. The regular museum had an anthology of swimsuits which was pretty amazing, and the art museum had an anthology of hats. After seeing all the hats there was an opportunity to make your own out of construction paper and tissue paper. Which we of course did. And then wore while walking around the area. We got a few odd looks, but we’re used to that. We ended up leaving them in a bathroom in one of the museum-y places. After that, we walked around the area of Brisbane that houses the Cultural Center and museums/art gallery and found a bookstore that Sarah had wanted to check out (this was achieved by asking people if they knew where the “warehouse type store with ‘art sale’ and ‘book sale’ signs in the windows” was).
The night was spent at the Englishes again, and in the morning we took the train up to the Gold Coast. Jana picked us up and we met Trudy (one of the girls that lives in the area) for brunch. We ended up going to the beach but not going in the water, then walking down to Surfers’ Paradise from wherever we were, and deciding that we didn’t want to try surfing because the waves looked pathetic and it was chilly. Also it would involve renting wetsuits and boards which seemed just a little too involved at the time. We eventually wandered into a bookstore and wound up asking for a used bookstore, after which we were directed to Broad Beach – another lengthy walk. We found the bookstore by asking random strangers where the used bookstore was. Everyone knew what we were talking about… Dan (one of the guys who lives in the area) came to pick us up and bring us back to Jana – he was the one that was supposed to give us surfing lessons until we changed our minds, though he decided to come and surf anyways – eventually agreeing that the waves were pathetic to nonexistent.
The next morning we flew out to Sydney and got day passes for public transportation around Sydney. The YHA that we stayed in wound up being right in the harbour area which is AWESOME. The YHA was built in an area called “the Rocks” apparently? -and wound up being right on top of an excavation site for the area originally settled by the first people that arrived in Australia – convicts, I think, from England. I should really pay more attention to the history aspect of things when I’m learning about them, so that when I actually attempt to use the information I’m not all, “I think” and “supposedly, I guess?” so yeah. Anyways, the area has a lot of stairs hidden randomly between buildings that you have to use to get places quickly, and some places seem to be only accessible by using the stairs. We were quite confused at first. After getting rid of our bags, we wound up getting food at a little French café (amazing!) and crossing the bridge. It’s big and kind of ugly, but the engineering/architecture seem to be pretty interesting, so of course we enjoyed that. Then we used our transportation passes to take a ferry back across the harbour and see the opera house that way. I’m unsure of how many miles we’d put in by this point that day and over the course of the trip, but my feet were hurting, and my Toms have a hole worn in the toe (now patched with electrical tape). We went back to the French café to have more food and read our books till after dark, then went to see the opera house again at night, this time up close. All in all, the last day in Australia was quite enjoyable and rewarding.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
"Let's start a blog for a trip where we will not have a computer, and we will have very scarce internet access!!!"
I know that it's been a while, but as I'm sure I mentioned before, internet access and computer access (put together) is basically non-existent. :( Right now I'm staying with the Enlgishes (Alan, Sharon, Tom, Ebony, and Eloise) who were in Canada for a year several years ago. It's been good to catch up! Now let me catch you up on my happenings, Dear Reader.
Leaving Melbourne was INCREDIBLY sad. The Birds were amazing to stay with and took care of us like their own children... as Beatrice said, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." When we first got there (to Melbourne) I couldn't wait to get out of the cold south, but when we did leave, it was too soon! Our last day in Melbourne was spent clearing out the van and our rooms and then we headed in to the city to meet Andrew for lunch before we left. One of my favorite things about Australia: I can walk into any burger joint, big or small, gourmet or ordinary, and order an absolutely fabulous meat free meal. They have lentil patties and veggie patties and awesome burgers. Yeah, I'm impressed. Our flight out of Melbourne was not without it's adventures. It was delayed two hours. And THEN when we got to the Gold Coast and called Chris to come pick us up, he was at the Brisbane airport waiting for us. Oops. So Jana calls Dan to come get us, and he says sure. She calls Chris to say so, and he says, "No, I'm on my way; this will be easier." She says, "OK" and calls Dan back. Then Chris calls and says, "Oh, I'm in stop and go traffic, better let Dan come get you." So Dan came to get us. An hour or two after we arrived at the airport, plopped our luggage down outside, and sat on it like homeless people. As you can tell, hilarity ensued. (Dan is a friend of Jana's, Chris is the guy Jana works for.)
We arrived early Friday morning to the Gold Coast (Clara got some sleep and flew out later Friday morning for home), and Friday night we went to "the girls' place" to hang out with "the girls." These are the girls that Jana lived with for the majority (I think) of her stay in Aussie this year. We went out to eat at a posh restaurant and then went to see a movie. It was a pretty nice night, just relaxing, except for the "spending more than $40 Australian on dinner and a movie per person." Ridiculous, I know. But the seats were really nice... Saturday was Jana's going away party, with the girls and a lot of the young friends in Brisbane/Gold Coast area. It was on a beach, which was nice :) We woke up at 11 and it was supposed to start at 11:30, half hour away. We got there at 12:30. That night everybody went back to the girls' place to hang out. Once again we were late - other people left earlier, but Chris decided we should have a game of hacky sack in the parking lot. Four people, only one of which is actually good at the game. Yeah. And then we had to get food and go to the supermarket before going to the house. Taking "fashionably late" to a whole new level! On Sunday we went to special meetings in Brisbane (we were almost late - does this surprise you?) and they were wonderful. We left halfway through the second meeting to get to the airport on time, though, dragging Chris, Jana, and Jess (ooh! another person to insufficiently introduce you to!) with us. Jess is a friend of Jana's and Sarah's - She and Jana met on an earlier Aussie trip of Jana's, and then Jess came to the states to visit and met Sarah at that time. I think that's how it goes. If not, I'm sure I'll be corrected but I'll leave that here, because it doesn't really matter to you. The flight to Airlie Beach area was without adventure.
And now: Airlie Beach. *sigh* this is SOOOO LONG. I contemplated breaking it up into several smaller blogs, all done today, but decided you could read this in bits and pieces just as well. Though it might be more terrifying :P
We got checked into the YHA in Airlie Beach, got our own 2 bedroom twin bed room. This enabled us to A) not have to put up with strangers walking in at all hours of the night and B) storing our stuff during the day and not worrying about locking it up. It was nice and clean, and we stayed there after the sailing trip as well. (Though the first day I did "trip" over a cockroach... and then it was wiggling there on its back for the longest time, looking pathetic, while we skirted around it.) Once again, supper consisted of an extremely tasty veggie burger. I can't wait to get home and try modifying some of these on my own. Aussie burgers are kind of famous.
[At this point there is an 8 day break in my journaling, where I got lazy and then had to recall everything at once. This may be a little sparse for details for a bit - which you, Dear Reader will rejoice at, I am sure.]
Monday we got checked in for our sailing tour, which was to leave at 1 pm and went to buy ugly bags with no zippers for use on the boat. This kept us from bringing everything we had with along, which was a good thing because of the extreme lack of space on the boat, even in our own cabin. We did get free storage for our backpacks, which was extremely nice. Our cabin space consisted of a bed and a bathroom (which included what they called a "shower" though that could be debatable) and 1 1/2 square feet of floor space. We were very glad to have our own cabin though, because those who didn't slept out in the "dining area/living area/socializing area," the scariest part of which being the "socializing" part. Our skipper was Steve, and our "hostie" was Sarah. There were 10 other passengers on the boat besides us: 5 Irish girls, a German girl, and and English girl (who all came equipped with loud, high pitched voices for the hard of hearing/earplugged!) and Irish couple, and a German boy. The first day, we went for a snorkel in an alright area off of the Whitsunday Islands (which was the point of this sub-trip - to see these islands and do fun things. Like go sailing). We also sat out on the deck and tried to get tans. Tuesday was better for that as we went to Whitehaven Beach - one of the top ten in the world - for a couple of hours. White sand, blue water, hardly any people. Awesome combo. The beach is reached mostly by boat, and those boats have to be smaller and have permits to get into the area - mmmmmm..... :) We now have awesome tans. Hopefully mine will survive Argentina. We got two more snorkels in, both on Tuesday, though Sarah and I (and most of the people) only did the first one, because it was REALLY cold. We saw clown fish and really old clams. The beach and the sailboat were the most awesome parts of that trip. Wednesday was a lazier affair, leaving where we had spent the night later and getting back into Airlie about 10:30AM. We spent the rest of the day walking into and out of shops and chilling at what they call the "lagoon" which isn't a lagoon at all. It's basically a free public pool that all of the backpackers go to, with grass or sand around it instead of cement (but it has a cement bottom). I don't think we took any pictures but it was very pretty and very populated. We also were able to go on a walk/hike outside of Airlie for a bit. Thursday our flight left pretty late so we had till 4:30 in Airlie - Once more, hiking, except for longer, then chilling at the lagoon, working on our tans :)
That night, the Englishes picked us up from the airport, which we were not expecting them to do. It was (is) greatly appreciated. This part of the trip is what I refer to as "Englishes #1" which is before the beach house weekend. Friday we took public transportation - City Cats and buses - out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. (City Cats are which are basically ferries on the river that are frequent and probably even more useful to the commuter than buses.) The sanctuary had all the Aussie animals, plus lectures throughout the day about the various ones. I was planning to name this post "Wallabies, Kangaroos, and Wombats, Oh, My!!!" But then figured I should apologize for my lack of posting. :S We saw those, and Aussie birds of prey, Aussie snakes, a platypus, a crocodile, emus, Tasmanian devils, (no echidnas - their place was being renovated, and they were supposed to be hanging out in the wombat enclosure - hiding, of course.) That night, Jana and Chris came from the Gold Coast to pick us up and continue on to the Sunshine Coast. We were able to coordinate supper (tea) at the Englishes, which was very tasty. Once again, we were late. Noticing a pattern here?
We stayed at what was basically an apartment-type resort in Noosa. We went to the Eumundi Markets on Saturday and walked around there after having brunch with the bunch (sorry haha!), and then sat by the pool and waited for supper to be prepared. Swedish style fondue... Really good, but really really rich. Our fairly large group of people was split up into two groups - Saturday supper and Sunday supper. It seems a lot of the weekend was spent eating. We were part of the Sunday crew, which decided on Japanese food. I'm fairly certain that we had more chocolate and other junk food than actual food in the apartment. And downstairs one of the couples had a deep fryer. YEAH. Steven and Russ would have loved this weekend. Monday we went for a walk around Noosa and then up the boardwalk for a while. We then headed back to Brisbane and got there around 5 PM and had a two hour wait until ROCK CLIMBING!!!
Chris decided to sleep in the car while we walked around the area. I absolutely love that river and how the residents of the city live with it. We all climbed up, except for Chris, who stayed wrapped up in his sleeping bag but did come out of the car. It was pretty terrifying, because this wasn't just a climbing wall made for indoors - it was a legitimate cliff face that runs parallel to the river, but doesn't go right into the river. It was also free. !!! To climb, you have to have gear, but a couple of the guys had the stuff that they let everyone use. It's a pretty organized event for the young friends in Brisbane. :) Monday night we went back with Ebony and Eloise to stay another night with their family. Tuesday, we went into the city with Sharon to go for a walk with the ladies and then spent the day in museums and art galleries and walking around that part of the city. The art museum had a hat exhibit - pure amazingness. All sorts of funky designer hats, and then at the end, you could make your own out of construction paper and tissue paper. This happened to be one of the middling things we hit up, so we wore our hats for quite a bit wandering around the city. We were supposed to get back to the Gold Coast tonight, but we're heading up tomorrow morning instead and staying with the Englishes one more night.
If you've read this entire thing, well done! Sorry, that's all you get. Laters!
Leaving Melbourne was INCREDIBLY sad. The Birds were amazing to stay with and took care of us like their own children... as Beatrice said, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." When we first got there (to Melbourne) I couldn't wait to get out of the cold south, but when we did leave, it was too soon! Our last day in Melbourne was spent clearing out the van and our rooms and then we headed in to the city to meet Andrew for lunch before we left. One of my favorite things about Australia: I can walk into any burger joint, big or small, gourmet or ordinary, and order an absolutely fabulous meat free meal. They have lentil patties and veggie patties and awesome burgers. Yeah, I'm impressed. Our flight out of Melbourne was not without it's adventures. It was delayed two hours. And THEN when we got to the Gold Coast and called Chris to come pick us up, he was at the Brisbane airport waiting for us. Oops. So Jana calls Dan to come get us, and he says sure. She calls Chris to say so, and he says, "No, I'm on my way; this will be easier." She says, "OK" and calls Dan back. Then Chris calls and says, "Oh, I'm in stop and go traffic, better let Dan come get you." So Dan came to get us. An hour or two after we arrived at the airport, plopped our luggage down outside, and sat on it like homeless people. As you can tell, hilarity ensued. (Dan is a friend of Jana's, Chris is the guy Jana works for.)
We arrived early Friday morning to the Gold Coast (Clara got some sleep and flew out later Friday morning for home), and Friday night we went to "the girls' place" to hang out with "the girls." These are the girls that Jana lived with for the majority (I think) of her stay in Aussie this year. We went out to eat at a posh restaurant and then went to see a movie. It was a pretty nice night, just relaxing, except for the "spending more than $40 Australian on dinner and a movie per person." Ridiculous, I know. But the seats were really nice... Saturday was Jana's going away party, with the girls and a lot of the young friends in Brisbane/Gold Coast area. It was on a beach, which was nice :) We woke up at 11 and it was supposed to start at 11:30, half hour away. We got there at 12:30. That night everybody went back to the girls' place to hang out. Once again we were late - other people left earlier, but Chris decided we should have a game of hacky sack in the parking lot. Four people, only one of which is actually good at the game. Yeah. And then we had to get food and go to the supermarket before going to the house. Taking "fashionably late" to a whole new level! On Sunday we went to special meetings in Brisbane (we were almost late - does this surprise you?) and they were wonderful. We left halfway through the second meeting to get to the airport on time, though, dragging Chris, Jana, and Jess (ooh! another person to insufficiently introduce you to!) with us. Jess is a friend of Jana's and Sarah's - She and Jana met on an earlier Aussie trip of Jana's, and then Jess came to the states to visit and met Sarah at that time. I think that's how it goes. If not, I'm sure I'll be corrected but I'll leave that here, because it doesn't really matter to you. The flight to Airlie Beach area was without adventure.
And now: Airlie Beach. *sigh* this is SOOOO LONG. I contemplated breaking it up into several smaller blogs, all done today, but decided you could read this in bits and pieces just as well. Though it might be more terrifying :P
We got checked into the YHA in Airlie Beach, got our own 2 bedroom twin bed room. This enabled us to A) not have to put up with strangers walking in at all hours of the night and B) storing our stuff during the day and not worrying about locking it up. It was nice and clean, and we stayed there after the sailing trip as well. (Though the first day I did "trip" over a cockroach... and then it was wiggling there on its back for the longest time, looking pathetic, while we skirted around it.) Once again, supper consisted of an extremely tasty veggie burger. I can't wait to get home and try modifying some of these on my own. Aussie burgers are kind of famous.
[At this point there is an 8 day break in my journaling, where I got lazy and then had to recall everything at once. This may be a little sparse for details for a bit - which you, Dear Reader will rejoice at, I am sure.]
Monday we got checked in for our sailing tour, which was to leave at 1 pm and went to buy ugly bags with no zippers for use on the boat. This kept us from bringing everything we had with along, which was a good thing because of the extreme lack of space on the boat, even in our own cabin. We did get free storage for our backpacks, which was extremely nice. Our cabin space consisted of a bed and a bathroom (which included what they called a "shower" though that could be debatable) and 1 1/2 square feet of floor space. We were very glad to have our own cabin though, because those who didn't slept out in the "dining area/living area/socializing area," the scariest part of which being the "socializing" part. Our skipper was Steve, and our "hostie" was Sarah. There were 10 other passengers on the boat besides us: 5 Irish girls, a German girl, and and English girl (who all came equipped with loud, high pitched voices for the hard of hearing/earplugged!) and Irish couple, and a German boy. The first day, we went for a snorkel in an alright area off of the Whitsunday Islands (which was the point of this sub-trip - to see these islands and do fun things. Like go sailing). We also sat out on the deck and tried to get tans. Tuesday was better for that as we went to Whitehaven Beach - one of the top ten in the world - for a couple of hours. White sand, blue water, hardly any people. Awesome combo. The beach is reached mostly by boat, and those boats have to be smaller and have permits to get into the area - mmmmmm..... :) We now have awesome tans. Hopefully mine will survive Argentina. We got two more snorkels in, both on Tuesday, though Sarah and I (and most of the people) only did the first one, because it was REALLY cold. We saw clown fish and really old clams. The beach and the sailboat were the most awesome parts of that trip. Wednesday was a lazier affair, leaving where we had spent the night later and getting back into Airlie about 10:30AM. We spent the rest of the day walking into and out of shops and chilling at what they call the "lagoon" which isn't a lagoon at all. It's basically a free public pool that all of the backpackers go to, with grass or sand around it instead of cement (but it has a cement bottom). I don't think we took any pictures but it was very pretty and very populated. We also were able to go on a walk/hike outside of Airlie for a bit. Thursday our flight left pretty late so we had till 4:30 in Airlie - Once more, hiking, except for longer, then chilling at the lagoon, working on our tans :)
That night, the Englishes picked us up from the airport, which we were not expecting them to do. It was (is) greatly appreciated. This part of the trip is what I refer to as "Englishes #1" which is before the beach house weekend. Friday we took public transportation - City Cats and buses - out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. (City Cats are which are basically ferries on the river that are frequent and probably even more useful to the commuter than buses.) The sanctuary had all the Aussie animals, plus lectures throughout the day about the various ones. I was planning to name this post "Wallabies, Kangaroos, and Wombats, Oh, My!!!" But then figured I should apologize for my lack of posting. :S We saw those, and Aussie birds of prey, Aussie snakes, a platypus, a crocodile, emus, Tasmanian devils, (no echidnas - their place was being renovated, and they were supposed to be hanging out in the wombat enclosure - hiding, of course.) That night, Jana and Chris came from the Gold Coast to pick us up and continue on to the Sunshine Coast. We were able to coordinate supper (tea) at the Englishes, which was very tasty. Once again, we were late. Noticing a pattern here?
We stayed at what was basically an apartment-type resort in Noosa. We went to the Eumundi Markets on Saturday and walked around there after having brunch with the bunch (sorry haha!), and then sat by the pool and waited for supper to be prepared. Swedish style fondue... Really good, but really really rich. Our fairly large group of people was split up into two groups - Saturday supper and Sunday supper. It seems a lot of the weekend was spent eating. We were part of the Sunday crew, which decided on Japanese food. I'm fairly certain that we had more chocolate and other junk food than actual food in the apartment. And downstairs one of the couples had a deep fryer. YEAH. Steven and Russ would have loved this weekend. Monday we went for a walk around Noosa and then up the boardwalk for a while. We then headed back to Brisbane and got there around 5 PM and had a two hour wait until ROCK CLIMBING!!!
Chris decided to sleep in the car while we walked around the area. I absolutely love that river and how the residents of the city live with it. We all climbed up, except for Chris, who stayed wrapped up in his sleeping bag but did come out of the car. It was pretty terrifying, because this wasn't just a climbing wall made for indoors - it was a legitimate cliff face that runs parallel to the river, but doesn't go right into the river. It was also free. !!! To climb, you have to have gear, but a couple of the guys had the stuff that they let everyone use. It's a pretty organized event for the young friends in Brisbane. :) Monday night we went back with Ebony and Eloise to stay another night with their family. Tuesday, we went into the city with Sharon to go for a walk with the ladies and then spent the day in museums and art galleries and walking around that part of the city. The art museum had a hat exhibit - pure amazingness. All sorts of funky designer hats, and then at the end, you could make your own out of construction paper and tissue paper. This happened to be one of the middling things we hit up, so we wore our hats for quite a bit wandering around the city. We were supposed to get back to the Gold Coast tonight, but we're heading up tomorrow morning instead and staying with the Englishes one more night.
If you've read this entire thing, well done! Sorry, that's all you get. Laters!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Here comes the sun!!!
So the sun has finally come out! Which makes us a lot happier! No more rain, no more fog, ...!!! So we finally got to Melbourne, and i finally got a calling card! Friday night we met up with some of the young friends in the area, most of whom Jana already knew. That night Clara and I stayed in a hostel, and Sarah and Jana stayed in the van. Saturday we went to the markets on Victoria Street (amazing fun, though we didn't buy much!) where they sell about everything you can imagine in a tent. We then walked down to the shopping district (Brunswick Street). Future roomie Kelly would love this place! So would Jenn! Saturday night we went out for Thai food with the same group of young people, and we were invited to stay the night with one of the guys (Andrew Bird) and his parents (Beatrice and Alan). Amazing family!!! We are SO THANKFUL to have them to stay with! They have the most adorable dog, Bella, a Poodle/Bichon Frise mix. She's very active and the cutest thing ever. We went to meeting with them on Sunday, of course, and then came back for a pretty big dinner afterwards. Very tasty! We went to gospel meeting (called mission) after that, and the young people came over for pizza.
On Monday, we went back in to Melbourne and Brunswick Street. I got three new scarves and a book to put the pictures from this trip in. Hopefully I will have mine, Sarah's, and Jana's pictures. We got to take the tram and the train to get in and out of the city. We made "tea" (supper) for the Birds because of all they have done for us. I got fresh orange juice. They sell it in three different sizes at that store. mmm... tasty! The green curry we made for supper was also tasty!
Today (Tuesday) we went to Phillip Island and got to see little penguins!!! We went on a walk there, and then went to watch the Penguin Parade. We weren't very impressed with the commercialism of the Island, especially the penguin area. EVERYTHING costs money. Everything was built up, pay extra money to get food and scrappy trinkets. If the money was going to a good cause/preserving the area, sure, but I'm fairly certain that it's not. Though we were glad to see the penguins, we felt that it was rather invasive and rude.
Clara's allergies are clearing up, and we've all come to love Melbourne. We're still looking forward to warmer weather though!
On Monday, we went back in to Melbourne and Brunswick Street. I got three new scarves and a book to put the pictures from this trip in. Hopefully I will have mine, Sarah's, and Jana's pictures. We got to take the tram and the train to get in and out of the city. We made "tea" (supper) for the Birds because of all they have done for us. I got fresh orange juice. They sell it in three different sizes at that store. mmm... tasty! The green curry we made for supper was also tasty!
Today (Tuesday) we went to Phillip Island and got to see little penguins!!! We went on a walk there, and then went to watch the Penguin Parade. We weren't very impressed with the commercialism of the Island, especially the penguin area. EVERYTHING costs money. Everything was built up, pay extra money to get food and scrappy trinkets. If the money was going to a good cause/preserving the area, sure, but I'm fairly certain that it's not. Though we were glad to see the penguins, we felt that it was rather invasive and rude.
Clara's allergies are clearing up, and we've all come to love Melbourne. We're still looking forward to warmer weather though!
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