46 hours in sydney

Caroline and i mastered the public transport in sydney and arrived at the bus stop near nicola's without drama. nicola gave us tea and toast and a squeaky bed with lots of doonas. although there are six of them that live in the sharehouse three of them were away so we had lots of room to ourselves.

the next morning we got up at 9, well we meant to, i slept in for an hour. and then cruised over to surry hills for a vegan cafe and vintage clothes shops. caroline was the baller with the monies who had intentions to buy up big but surprise surprise i spent more money than i can afford and cazza didn't buy anything.

but i had to. in one vintage shop i found a piece that i need for my birthday party. as you all know the theme is tarantino and i stumbled upon this leotard that was half leather, the top half which was sleeveless and has a massive zip down the middle. teh bottom half is all lacey. the thing is almost impossible to squeeze in but i could not resist. not sure which character i will be but i will use this piece as part of my costume no matter what.

then we went on to bondi beach. nicola dropped in that the boy she has been seeing lives around here, cazz says how does he afford it, nicola says oh he plays football, cazz says oh? nicola says, sydney swans, cazz says how did you meet him, losing her composure, all in a fluster of excitement and envy. nic tells us she is doing nutritional work experience with the sydney swans. it takes cazz a good 12 hours to recover. we also go past two of the apple stores. one with trees in it and some other massive one that we had to stop and go into, up onto each floor.

Nicola has work in the afternoon. cazz and i go to the supermarket to buy food and come homewith hair die. i meant to go blonde and cazz wanted to go light blonde. no idea why we wanted to, probably after being around helena's beautiful blonde curly hair in byron. not that ours would look at all like that but still.

stupid me, did not think about the fact that i had red and purple dye in my hair already. so now i have copper hair on the bottom and awkward blonde in the roots. cazz's colour wasnt strong enough to do anything. fail of a dye sesh.

yesterday we met up with south african ben, who we met in byron and went to the sydney bienali which was on cockatoo island. there were all these cool art installations. my favourite one being of all the dead communist leaders in glass caskets and then castro on his death bed with slightly breathing lips. it was so lifelike. they were waxy sort of. it was so so cool. we also saw lots of multimedia works and short films. such a day well spent.

that night we ordered agoodbye feast of thai takeaway. it was devine. and then cazz took me to the train station and we said our goodbyes.

caroline, please add some sydney photos to this blog post for me.

oh those cheeky little monkey's

A night that began with a game of 6 dollar wine kings and ended in perversion. After doling out our left over food (cazz and i were headed to newcastle to stay with nelson and lisa and then sydney to stay with nicola so we wouldn't be needing it) we bought the cheapest alcohol we could find and began the dreaded game that always ends memorably, or would if someone took enough photos.

Tristan watched while Helena, Jen, Ben, Nir, cazz, me and our new dorm friend KC played. Tristan was committed to his early morning surf plans. Cazz and i intended to see Diane, who we met in Darwin but at 10pm, when we were supposed to be meeting her, we were all still sitting on the couch picking cards. Paul, a very stoned, very confused boy tried to join the game with no alcohol and no sense, we spent the rest of the night taking turns looking after him and trying to shoo him away.

we finally got on the arts factory bus just after 11. And guess who was in line of sight as soon as we walked into cheeky monkey's, DIANE. it was brilliant. a lot of horendous dancing ensued.

Oh and we bumped into Jordi from Barcelona who had been wearing a skirt during the day and who should not be allowed to play have you ever. That's cazz, jordi and diane.

We went home at about three, bumped into paul again, not sure what he was doing waiting outside cheeky monkey's as we had been in there for hours and he was never allowed in but oh well, he climbed on the bus with us. When we got home we decieded to be cheeky monkey;s and have an illegal spa (shuts at 10) so we went up to our dorm and started getting changed until caroline decided that paul should not be able to come in the spa as he would be loud and ruin it for all... so she started saying very loud and slow that we were all going to bed, it took a while for everyone to catch on and stop yelling 'no we arent we're having a spa' but eventually paul was taking to his dorm and tucked in (maybe, not sure).

we all climbed in to the spa, made a whole lot of noise as we climbed in because all the water went out of the spa and into the pool, it was pretty much half full by the time we were all in. No one could stop laughing, blame it on the heat of the spa, it goes to your head, and although we were all starving no one could get out because the fun of being in the contrabanned spa was just too much to say no to. eventually the night watchman discovered us but seeing out pathetically tame we were being decided we were allowed to stay. not the same after that.

most of us got out and had showers and got all snug for bed and then ended up meeting on that bench outside our dorm. Someone points out that two of the team are still in the spa, the joker of have you ever and little british friend. Caroline says how long til they kiss? then they do. before we know if clothes are off and there are mysterious sounds coming from the spa. well not so mysterious. No one seemed to think that this was not a spectator sport and so we stayed, not quite until the end as the show ran overtime, impressing everyone after 45 minutes. eventually, sobering up, we decided it was time to go to bed. at the time there were no moral qualms, the next morning however, we were all guiltridden, hiding our faces as our two special friends greeted us good morning.

Not the Merlot

Presently in Sydney, staying at Nicola's share house in Leichardt. Nic is at work at her local pub, cazz and i just cooked dinner and now we are about to lose all dignity dying our hair shades of blonde. She is back in Melbourne next week so she will have to face being laughed at while i will be hiding on the other side of the country for the next month. Silly Cazz. Nicola's flatmate that she doesn't like is practicing his claronette, it's a comical backdrop.

This blog post, however, is about our journey to newcastle and our day there with lisa and nelson. We arrived just before 10pm in new castle and were met by lisa and nelson and the train station. The 10 hour bus trip was unpleasant, after our night at cheeky monkeys we were feeling a little bit under teh weather. plus we missed the shuttle bus from the arts factory into town so we had to run in the heat with our packs on. cazz was wearing her pleather and felt nauseous for ages after.

As we were running Helena and Nir passed us by on their bus to Nimbin. we were sad to see them go and a bit sad that we weren't making it to nimbin. The greyhound usually stops every couple of hours for snacks but that day we went nearly four before we were allowed to stop off for food. When we finally got to the truck stop place cazz got a pie and i ordered a burger. we wolfed that all down and then i ordered a pie and cazz ordered a burger. being a slow eater i didnt have time to finish my pie and had to throw it out. soul destroying. When we finally arrived so many hours later we were looking forward to a tea and a chat with anybody else. But bloody lisa and nelson provided much much more. we walked into the house to the smell of a roast chicken and vegetables. then there was apple pie and custard for desert. Nelson is a big master chef fan. caroline and i appreciated that, a lot. They offered us their bed, but we could not accept, so we slept on blow up mattresses and sleeping bags on teh living room floor. Lisa played the digeridoo for us, surprisingly good.

the next morning we hired a car and drove out to the hunter valley for wine tasting as nelson thought this was the best way to spend a day around new castle.

we paid $5 for an hour long tour at one of the vineyards, forget the name. overall we drank far too much. had to have numerous snack stops. we packed so much food in the back of the car and ate almost all of it. at the last vineyard we stopped at we discovered outrageously cheap massive bucket things of port. apparently some uni student had been buying it, packaging it and selling ti for huge profits at the uni. also popular amongst fishermen apparently.

We wanted to make sushi that night for dinner after seeing some of the wines saying that they go well with sushi and whetting our appetites. but the fishmonger said it wasnt sushigrade so we had to choose something else. natural resort back to pasta and garlic bread. but lisa caramelised bananas and we had sticky date pudding sara lee ice cream which was so yum.

That night we got back on the bus and headed down to sydney, leaving at 9.20 and arriving at 11.40. but that is another story...

byron bay, what have you done to my camera?

Useless Caroline Downes did not bring her camera cord with her and now my camera is misbehaving so we have no way of getting photos off cameras and on to the screen for all the avid readers out there.
While this is distressing, i need to stay on the computer to charage our ipods, so i will write another blog post just to waste time. We have a 10 hour bus ride tomorrow to Newcastle to see Lisa and Nelson, friends we made in Alice Springs. With flat ipods that journey would be horrendous.

So yesterday was thrown away. We did not achieve much at all. Today, however, has been fun. We are fully recovered and spent the day at the beach with new friends, Tristan, Ben, Helena, Nir and Jennifer. The boys went surfing while they girls lay on the beach (very puberty blues) Cazz and i had a frolic in the sea for the sake of beach hair and because we could not resist acting like seals in the shallows.


Some kids had built a mermaid in the sand and then another kid had ruined her face so we decided to fix her up, make a merman and a merdog as well, to keep her company. It was laborious but the end result was magnificent, i think our street art may start being commissioned. Although the merdog, my creation, ended up being a merkangaroo, the overall result was fab. Just as we were about to leave for falafels caroline says 'look rom, its steve and aj' poor troody was left off the list. Surprise surprise. Later on we also see will with his girlfriend. May bump in to them tonight at cheeky monkeys or the buddha bar.


the afternoon was spent in a falafel bar playing backgammon and listening to Nir sing along to Israeli songs. Guy from brisbane is somewhere in the arts factory at the moment, i should have a look for him. We're also hoping to see Diane tonight.

Riding in Cars with Boys

Will add photos tomorrow. In Byron Bay at the Arts Factory. Struggling with difficult/temperamental keyboard. Looking forward to a six dollar butter chicken for dinner at the hostel cafe. Had veggie lasagna for lunch, tres delish,. Today has been thoroughly wasted. We only have today and tomorrow really here and today - gone. nothing achieved except for a walk to the supermarket 20 minutes ago to buy emergency snacks for hungry campers.
Since Myella, we have been in Noosa, Brisbane and now we're in Byron. Noosa was great for our health. We stayed with my youthful grandma De and two of her good friends, Di and Wince. They grnadma'd us, fed us up, let us have access to their washing machine and taught us about the history of contraception with a focus on the 50s. Delightful. Caroline and iI arrived in noosa after a 14 hour bus trip from Myella to rockhampton to brisbane and then back up again. We were dropped at the bottom of the hill separating us from beds, at the bottom of Hasting street. The climb was hell but we had naps until three and then woke up to Deidre' classical salad, the best lunch in the world.
Caroline got her hair cut by chatty american sister hairdressers who convinced us that we should go and see the latest twilight. we obliged. There were boys everywhere in that cinema, bizarre. We joined the hairdressers exclusive club entitled 'Die Bella Die' (ps not baby sister bell, you can live a while longer) Jacob, what a babe. On our last day in noosa we also saw my other gran who was also up with two friends. Honestly, it was a long weekend of grandmas, we were indulged by six grandmas, it was heaven.


We had an 8am bus from Noosa to Brisbane, the toilet was broken so it was a couple of hours of torture for me. We stayed in a big aqua blue hostel called Chill. There were 10 people in our dorm, when we arrived there was just a big sleepy redheaded scot who smelt like last night's beer. We made friends with a pretty german boy with lovely long curly hair and decided to have a bit of an explore. Of course we found a cheap bookshop and bought three for $25 and then found a cafe for lunch. There were free postcards which was exciting, we hadn't seen them for ages. We found a gorgeous cafe in the middle of the city that was like a closed in rainforest, well not quite but you had no idea you were in the city sitting in with all the green.

That night we saw Clare who we met in Central. We explored southbank, had pizza and cheap wine, cazz and clare bought matching owl bags which are beautiful, they both could buy the same ones considering they live on opposite ends of teh world. Bundle i know you arent reading my blog as you are in NYC but if you were you would also know that we bought you your birthday present here. Clare also gave me her Global Gossip card, that is how i am writing now my pretties.

The next day we had an indulgent sleep in and then went to the super market, bought lunch ingredients, and strolled over to the botanical gardens. We had a picnic and got harassed by the birds who wanted caroline's sandwich. We went to the cinema because the weather wasn't nice and saw animal kingdom which was enjoyed. We sat at the palace cinemas cafe for hours after the film having coffees, brownies and hot chocolates, writing post cards, writing in journals and reading. Caroline is reading a Paulina Simmons and although she protests about the book often, is rarely without it.



We meant to go to the supermarket to scavenge around for a cheap dinner, turns out teh coles in Brisbane shuts at 5pm on a saturday, who knew. We went for a walk and found lots of nice little bars but no supermarket. We went back to the coles to ask a waiter at the restaurant opposite. He didnt know but a short boy with brown hair introduced himself as AJ and offered us a lift to the iga. Now we all know that you shouldnt talk to strangers, or get in their cars, especially when they are a sort of fluro bluey green but he told us of his troubles in making his boyfriend home made mandarin cordial and we decided he was harmless enough. WRONG. Listen to your parents kids, auntie caroline and i are lucky to be alive.

His friend zooms past us in his flamboyant car. AJ borrows cazz's phone to call him to say he drove past us. 10 minutes later we get in the car. the driver is not particularly friendly at first. He zooms off as soon as both my legs are in the door, door still open. He is playing loud screamy music, i feel anxious. He is literally speeding up to 40ks over the speed limit in little brisbane streets and then slamming on teh breaks. The boys tell us they are going home to be housewives, that is what they do full time, and to take copious amounts of drugs. They ask us how we feel about party drugs, impartial we say, being diplomatic, they tell us they like them but dont drink, cazz asks what their poison of choice is and the driver answers straight faced 'crystal.' We miss the iga because the driver wasnt listening to Ajs directions, we do some more hooning before arriving. They kindly offer to drop us near our hostel as they are headed back in that direction anyway, not wanting to die but ages away from home we say yes thanks.

Trying to contain our laughter, we do our shopping and get back in the car. AJ seems to be struggling in his hunt for the ingredients needed for the cordial. While we wait for him his friend, the driver tells us he got his lisence back today, having lost it for driving under the influence of crystal meth on the night of the lady gaga concert, he didnt even get to see the end because during he went to get more and that's when they got hime. He didnt seem to mind though because he hates Queens, at Gaga was full of them. He says they deserve to get bashed. He didnt seem to have much time for lesbians either. Then he worried we might be and checked that we werent. Turns out for being off your face on meth you only get a $200 fine and lose your license for a month. Before illegally stopping on a highway to let us out he tells us to find him on facebook, 'Vagina Rose' facebook me girls!

That night we were hoping to see a family friend of mine but due to me and her being useless at organising anything that never ended up eventuating. Instead we drank wine on the roof of the hostel, went to a couple of backpacker bars with new friends and eventually scoped out the infamous valley.

Arrived home at 5, setting alarms for 7 was soul destroying but we made it. Most of our dorm was happy to wake up when we did anyway, wanting to discuss the soccer.

Just before we pumped into our friend Diane in teh supermarket, not knowing she is in Byron. We might go to Nimbin with her tomorrow. Anyway, dinner time.

horsing around myella

On uor last morning in Airlie cazz and i went and got smoothies, this turned out to be a brilliant move as the lady in the shop told us that the local surf shop around the corner was giving away free clothes, shoes, bags etc because it was their 21st birthday. We were skeptical so caroline minded the bags while i went to investigate. it was pandemonium! Every visitor to the shop could take one free thing and then everything else was 50% off. That morning i had been eyeing off a girl in a maxi dress knowing that i wouldnt be able to excuse myself buying one. Thank you god, i found myself a nice one for free! I tried calling cazz but as usual she had her head in a book, and while she is always glued to her phone whenever i need her she never answers! I went back and shook some sense into her and then she came back with some fun shorts.

From Airlie Caroline and i set off on a long bus trip from airlie to Rockhampton. The bus took 7 hours. These two boys that had been on our greyhound before tried to get on without tickets, just with a recept from NAB. They argued for almost an hour which was painful because it meant we had a whole extra hour on the bus. There was also a boy who went to caulfield in the year above us on the bus who we spoke to for a while which made things a little less dull. This is caroline snoozing on the bus.


We spent one night in Rockhampton with locals constantly telling us to be careful and that the area was pretty rough. The next morning we had a 6am bus to Myella where we were staying on a farm. Myella was great, they had two birds that lived with them, one of them with that disease that makes all its feathers fall off, he actually looked like a toy with blue skin and google eyes. A family owned it, it was a cattle farm that breeds the cowes that make the marbled meat that is sold to japan for $1000. We were there for three days and two nights. There were all sorts of characters there. This father and daughter, the daughter was a bit of a winey princess, she was our age and thought she was a horse riding expert. Her father ray though was the most irritatnig person in teh world. Always trying to 'help' cazz and i, tellnig us how to pour water properly from teh billy and how to cut crusts off the bread for jaffles. He tried to saddle my horse (of course i had teh crazed horse) and nearly got trampled (highlight of my life) Cazz also had a derangde horse on the first day but wasnt man enough to keep him, poor cazz, what a weak soul she has.



I made her wear this helmet, telling her the helmet chooses the rider. hahaha. poor cazz, such a battler.

This is cazz when we were learning how to ride motorbikes. They teach you and then grade you and if you get a C you're allowed to ride up to the lookout on your own to see the sunset, the first day cazz and i got Ds so we were only allowed to go around in circles on the little track but we improved the next day.

Our cow milking skills also improved over the days, the first day i was useless, cazz was ok at it but it was quite embarrassing as the 4 year old french boy was better than us.
That is me with my devil horse, barnaby, he used to race in japan and apparenly they were quite mean to him so now he is very difficult.

Oh, this is the sunset from the night that we were finally allowed to cruise up there on our own. Actually, Liam, the 12 year old grandson of the owners 'felt like coming with us' but i think they actually sent him up with us to watch us, caroline was useless at stopping and i battled at starting.

This hen here was sitting on 8 eggs, it was very scary having to put our hands under her and feeling around for eggs while she pecked at our hands.

After Myella we got a two hour bus back to Rockhampton, had an hour to get dinner, had a bus from 7pm until 6am, then had to go back up to noosa as the bloody greyhound doesnt go through the sunshine coast on teh way south, this added like 5 hours onto our trip. At about 2am i realised i had no water and the tap on the bus wasnt working so i stayed awake until our next stop and then went looking for a tap thinking i would find one in the bathrooms, but they were locked, luckily i went for a bit of a jog and found a drive through maccas that was open. No one was around and i had no idea if the bus driver knew i had gotten off but i ran over to the drive througfh and lined up behind the cars. all the hungry drunks were very confused by me, yelling out silly questons. At the time i was very frustrated and still half asleep but now i realise that a girl wanting tap water in pyjamas at two oclock in the morning without a car would be a bit strange.

this blog is now probably about nine weeks of lurking australia

my nomadic desires are battling my financial planning. i am really really tempted to have a bit of a cruise of the west coast before coming home. i'm not sure if i've mentioned but caroline and i are now tour addicts. we love them. the painful bus music, the awkward people who loiter around you while you cut up the onions. the irritating ones who refuse to even rinse their bloody tea cups. we're hooked. and there is this 21 day tour across the west coast. it will make me outrageously in debt to the commonwealth bank, take just under three weeks of uni off me and it is incredibly cool to pay for a tour in your own country, and yet, temptation is getting me.

We're in Airlie Beach at the moment, arrived in the afternoon yesterday and we're leaving just before lunchtime tomorrow. almost everyone here is going on sailing tours but we decided against, mostly because i've done a couple of family sailing trips up here already and also because apparently you dont even really sail. not too sure if cazz wanted to because i think i just assumed we wouldnt but she doesnt seem too upset.

tomorrow we are headed to rockhampton, getting there at night before setting off on our farm stay the morning after for three days. cazz and i are stupidly excited. we're quad biking around a cattle farm, we actually have no idea what we will actually be doing but we're looking forward to it alot. lucky i have my beautiful akubra so i can be cattle farm chic.

magnetic island was strange. they had just had a half moon party a couple of days before. we were there for tuesday and every tuesday they play bingo. we nearly won the first round which had a prize of a free jug, we only needed one number. the third round prize was a double room in stead of a dorm and the fourth round was like $200. naturally the game was very tense. we were sitting by the beach complaining about the trance music being played at 11pm when an awkward english boy who was 18 took a liking to cazz, trying to impress her with him music knowledge, she destroyed him with hers, his was notably underwhelming, then we went to bed thinking we would be first... but turns out our whole dorm was asleep already,.

In Airlie we;ve met up with Lewys, the welsh boy we met in port douglas snorkeling. he is staying in the same hostel as us and might even end up being on our bus tomorrow. he isnt coming to the farm though, i think he is off to fraser island next.
Apparently welsh girls don't drink beer so lewys was impressed with our efforts and subsequently, we've decided to be adored in wales.




















In Airlie they stop doing jugs after midnight so after moving from bar to bar and even spent a while in the irish pub listening to bad live music and watching a drunk girl trying to seduce the singer we went for a walk that culminated in tree climbing and playing at the park and ultimately mcdonalds.I know this is against dorm etiquette but i couldn't resist this morning snapping a photo of the pantless annoying girl who came home in the wee hours and woke everyone up...