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!