Update #2 - Mostly about Brisbane

Hooo, boy!  A lot has happened in 10 days, that's for sure.  I'm writing this from an AirBnB in Gold Coast, a beautiful city about an hour south of Brisbane.  I'm here for the next few days as I try to re-orient myself and plan for what is next.  Spoiler:  I don't know what's next.  But at least I have time to get down everything that's been going on for the last week and a half or so.

After Sydney, I did indeed buy a bus ticket up the coast.  That worked out pretty well at first.  I stopped in Newcastle, where I stayed with a nice couple (supposably - I never actually saw the guy, and like ten reviews about that place also mentioned that the guy was MIA).  I only met Jayde, the female, on my way to catch a taxi back to the bus stop on my last day (I stayed for two nights).  She saw that I was eating cadbury chocolate for breakfast and wouldn't stand for that, so she ran out literally seconds before I jumped in the cab and gave me a bag of grapes and a banana.  So that was nice.  During my stay in Newcastle, I decided to try hitch hiking to Nelson Bay.  Actually, I was just wanting to head back to the house I was staying at, but these girls who picked me up said they were headed to Nelson Bay and I said "That sounds more interesting than home.  Can I come?"  And they obliged.

So I spent a couple hours wandering around Nelson Bay.  Had a delicious cheeseburger.  I don't know where Aussies got the idea that beetroot belonged in cheeseburgers but I can't say that I minded it too much.  Even the McDonald's hamburgers here have beetroot in them.  A few hours later, my new friends picked me up and took me back to Newcastle.  Emma and Ruth were their names - Ruth from Tasmania, Emma from... Sydney?  I don't remember.  Those are boring details anyway.

Then I decided to catch the bus to Byron Bay, which is supposed to be one of the greatest surfing locations around.  I don't know if that's true for a couple of reasons.  First, I never made it to the beach.  Secondly, the weather kind of sucked so I probably couldn't have gone anyway.  I also inadvertently wandered into the city in the middle of a gigantic festival, which sounds like it might be fun, but in reality was not fun at all, because every form of accommodation was booked for miles around.  I ended up staying in the bridal suite of a historic mansion-turned-hotel 20 miles from Byron Bay.  And the bed wasn't even that soft.  Terrible place for a honeymoon.

So I guess I just didn't want to deal with that place anymore, so the next morning I just continued my bus trip into Brisbane.  Brisbane is a beautiful city which is clustered all along the banks of the Brisbane River, which apparently is full of sharks.  It's also completely brown and you can't see a thing, so there you go - a recipe for a nightmare.  But only if you fall in.  If you stay on land, it's quite lovely.

No one told me how gigantic Australia is, and since I, for some reason, refused to look at a map of the world until now, I just assumed I could get where I wanted in a matter of hours.  Not the case!  It's a full day from Sydney to Brisbane.  It's taken me three trips to get here, two legs of which were over ten hours long.  So it's going to take about that long again to get to Cairns - my last stop for the east coast.  That's also where I was planning on doing most of my diving, but the guy whose house I'm in right now told me that Byron Bay is actually the best place to go, so tomorrow I think we'll take a trip and see some creatures.

Oh, and I bought a car!  That's actually why I started the previous paragraph; Australia is so huge that I decided to get a car and get places on my own timetable and at my own speed.  I got a killer deal.  It's a 2001 Holden Astra (yeah, I had no idea what that meant and still don't really).  I met the owners who gave me all kinds of receipts for replacements and maintenance work that had been done fairly recently, and even called a guy to come inspect it while I was looking at it with them so they could give me what is called a "Road worthy certificate", which essentially is the same as a safety certificate.  It has 3 months of registration left, a new timing belt, new tires, and a bunch of other stuff.  It's also a hatchback, so it has plenty of room for my packs.  I paid 1,600 AUD, which is like $1,200.  And my tax refund covered it!  So that's nice.

I forgot what building this is, but it's in Sydney and it's cool.

My first AirBnB experience.  Greeted with chocolate and candle light, which was a confusing mood to set for a stranger, I thought.

How great is this picture?  This is Jax, the Overly-Friendly Dog.  He immediately started licking my shins when I walked in.  I thought that was adorable, so I decided to get a picture with him.  He pounced on my chest at this very moment.  You can see by my expression that I had no idea what he was planning.

Neat tree I found in Brisbane.

This is Newcastle.  I don't know why I took a picture of what appears to be a normal road.  I have even less of an idea as to why I thought I needed to be pictured with the road.

Strange women who picked me up.

Nelson Bay. Geez, I loved that place.

A delicious roast chicken with red wine jus in Gold Coast

Neat lantern-tree in Brisbane.

I think this is in recognition of the Anzac Treaty. I dunno, I just like fire.

Brisbane Botanic Gardens.

Winged creature.

Some models I painted at a place called Games Workshop

My new car!

More Brisbane

Jade Buddha - a swanky restaurant on the river - Brisbane Bridge in the background

Daytime view of the bridge.

The guy I'm staying with just talked to me for like an hour about what I need to see around here.  He grew up in D.C. and retired here.  He seemed to have the whole spiel memorized, because it had a definite beginning and end, and I think I said three words the whole time.  His favorite word is the F one.  His wife, or partner, or something was the one I met when I arrived though.  Her name is Sahlee, which I wish I'd paid more attention to when I was reading it online, because I had a bit of an embarrassing moment when she showed me the room.  I introduced myself and she showed me where to put my bags and then gave me a key and said "I'm Sahlee, by the way", but her accent is kind of strong (she is of the latina persuasion) and I thought she said "I'm sorry, by the way".  And I said, like a freaking moron, "Why?".  Then it got real quiet for a few seconds as we both tried to process what the other just said.  She said "So... I'll be studying in the next room if you need anything." And after she left, I figured it out.  I feel like apologizing but I think too much time has passed.

So I'm here for a few nights.  From here, I'll be heading up the coast toward Noosa, probably, but I don't know yet.  I've also semi-started looking for jobs, but it's not a focus at this point. 

4 More Years! 4 More Years!

...and then a new post on this ancient blog.  I can't believe I was in New Zealand 4 years ago!  I toyed with the idea of doing a brand new blog just to dump photos and videos onto.  But then I'd have to, you know, make a new blog and stuff.  You might be asking, "Why would you talk about Australia on a blog so clearly named for adventuring in New Zealand?"  Good question.  The answer is that I don't know.  Except that I've decided I'm definitely going to try to make a NZ trip happen at some point while I'm in this neck of the woods.  Plus, the few number of posts on this blog depresses me.

My first day in Australia was rough.  I thought it might be, and all things considered, it could have been worse.  But hooo-boy!  It started with customs.  That went okay and fairly quickly, thankfully, because I had just had the worst plane ride in recent memory and really just wanted to see if I remembered what lying on my back felt like, so I was eager to get to my hostel asap.  I got to my hostel in Sydney at about 11:00 AM.  I couldn't check into my room until 1:00 PM, so I had a couple hours to kill.  I started talking to someone who was using the same charging station as me.  Her name was Mirjam, from Holland!  My first Dutch acquaintance.  She was really cool and we really got along.  Probably talked for a couple hours.  She was headed to New Zealand later that afternoon and gave me lots of good advice as far as places to see in Australia.  She's doing an eight-month journey across Oz, NZ, and Asia. Her plans sounded much cooler than mine.

Then I checked into my room and met some Chinese fellows who were sharing a room with me.  They all made up names for themselves to make it more convenient for traveling, which I found interesting.  Jason, Ivan, and Simon.  Haha - those are good names, right?  They invited me to a cruise around Sydney harbor with them and I accepted.  I had no idea that it was actually a nightclub on a boat.  Which sounds cool, but was much less cool when I realized after two hours that I was sick of dancing on a boat and I had two hours more to go.  One person got so sick of it that he jumped off the boat onto a pier we passed!  I told him, "Don't do it!"  You know, sort of as a joke about suicide.  He turned to me and said really dramatically, "I have to," and off he went!  I remember wishing I had done the same thing later, when my jet-lag caught up with me and I felt like passing out from lack of sleep (I probably slept two of the fifteen hours I spent on the plane).

But despite the rain and the cold, it was a pretty spectacular thing to cruise by the city.  The lights started coming on and the clouds nestled themselves into the higher parts of the city, creating this really mystical fog effect which was reflected on the water.  I took a few pictures, which suck.

I met people on that boat from six countries! Canada, Germany, England, Japan, China, and NZ.  The guy from Japan was called Yohe...?  He liked following me.  He didn't talk much either, so it made for some PRETTY awkward scenes.  But he was a very nice fellow.

After I disembarked, I decided I was done for the night.  It was around 8:00 PM and there was an after-party at a casino or something, but that really didn't sound like my jam and I was SO tired, so I made a beeline for the hostel and pretty much passed out when head hit pillow.  When I woke up, my Chinese friends were gone, headed back to Shanghai to finish their medical degrees.  ALL of them are studying medicine.  I remember asking Jason, who is probably the one I spoke to most, if he liked it.  He said "Well, we all have to do SOMETHING."  Which I found hilarious.  It sounded like "Well, we gotta pass the time somehow, might as well become a heart surgeon."

So that brings us to this morning, where I am waiting for a female I met on Tinder to pick me up and take me to breakfast.  I tried to have breakfast at the hostel, because they told me it was free.  I fixed up a plate of eggs and bacon and was about to sit down when some lady approached me and grabbed my food from me and said "This isn't for you".  So that was surreal, and embarrassing, because it happened in front of like ten people.  So when this Tinder girl (Amelia) asked what I wanted to do, I said "You know, I haven't eaten yet, weirdly, and unintentionally."  So she'll be here in a few minutes.

So I just got back hanging out with Amelia, who goes by "Milly".  It was a great day!  You probably won't see her since she desperately avoided my camera and made it quite clear she didn't want me to take her picture.  She took me to a delicious breakfast place in a place called Cronulla, which is a suburb of Sydney.  Then we went to Symbio Zoo, which is wonderful!  I got a picture with a Koala (you aren't allowed to hold them anymore, as protection has increased dramatically over the past few years).  I have never in my life touched a softer thing.  I highly recommend petting a Koala.  Then we fed kangaroos, which were actually quite friendly and ate right out of my hand.  We also had a great presentation about meerkats.  Did you know they can store energy from the sun in their bellies for later?  Amazing.

Inland Taipan - the deadliest snake in the WORLD.  One bite could kill 150 humans.  But believe it or not - NO recorded human deaths!

Sydney from the harbor cruise ship

I had to photograph my Asian friends photographing seagulls.

Some boats.

On the cruise around Sydney harbor

Feeding a kangaroo!

Curious meerkat!

Picture with Koala! Even to get this close I had to pay $20.

Then Amelia took me to get a few things at the store and dropped me off a few minutes ago.

The place I was supposed to get oriented at is closed and will be until Monday, so it turns out I came at the perfect wrong time.  Unlike the states, Easter is celebrated for FOUR DAYS.  It's frustrating for a newly landed traveler.

I took a little break just now to talk to some people sitting at my table in the hostel.  They're doing a bus tour where they can hop on and off all over the country.  That sounds like something I'd be interested in, so I'll talk to the peeps at the travel desk about maybe buying a ticket.  I'll let you know if I do!