...bittersweet...

Hello Sunshines,

I'm getting lots of e-mails and text messages as everyone back at home realizes that the end of my trip is here (and laughs with me about the previous post lol).  I have some mixed feelings about it on my end.  I realize that everyone at home is happy and even a bit releaved to have me back in the States (family especially).  I on the other hand actually have gotten a bit attached to some of the people that I have met here and am sad that they will not really any longer be a phone call away.  I have collected some e-mails though so I plan to stay in touch with them, and hopefully visit them in their countries or even back here in Oz.  I have even had 2 that say they will come and visit me or at least look me up when they come to the US (Adam and Sonnie I am holding you both to it guys!)

When I left from Byron Bay I actually got teary eyed as I hugged and said good bye to 3 of my roommates that I had for the week.  They were so chill and easy to talk to and hang around.  Plus they didn't take things too seriously and that is always very relaxing.  Like the night one of the girls and I walked into the room and I was covered from my shin to my neck in sand, because I fell.

The story... Jade and I went on a 3 hour walk to the lighthouse from our hostel and got back later than we intended.  We walked along the beach and it was almost pitch black since the sun went down on our way back.  I used the flashlight on my cell phone to light our way away from the ocean and towards civilization.  We climbed up the sand bags and were stepping over a fence piece when "bam", I fell face first into the sand (as in I could have easily hit my face to the ground were it not for the brim of my hat which also had sand on it).  The sand was actually quite powdery and made way for my body.  I left a lovely body imprint in the spot where I went down.  There was no playing it off because my skin is quite brown and the sand is quite light.  I once again laughed hysterically as I tried to get up.  We walked into the hostel room to our other roommates and the conversation they were having momentarily stopped as they looked at us walking in and then me... I just bust out laughing and said, "I fell."  I explained what happened and we all just laughed.

Byron Bay is not the prettiest place that I visited since being in Oz but it is definitely the most relaxing.  I enjoyed my time there and prefer it to being here in Surfer's Paradise.  This place is way too touristy and has too many high buildings.  I was at the beach today until the high rise hotels began to shade it, not exactly what I was hoping for but I got there early enough to enjoy it.

Pictures will be posted but maybe not until I get back home, so soon!

See ya, miss ya, love ya!
Me

New Shaun in my life... LOL

So most people that have heard me talk about guys from the past or that grew up with me know my long Sean story.  For those of you that don't know, he is a guy that I had a puppy love crush on for a few years growing up.  Well, let me tell you about the new Shaun...

I was in Sydney walking around listening to my music and taking pictures of the Sydney Opera House and at the harbor.  This man walks over to me and asks me if I am a tourist and I confirmed that I was.  He guessed as much since I was taking pictures.  We began talking and he told me he was Shaun and blah blah blah...  He was fresh off the ferry and headed to the Art Gallery for an exhibit.  I myself was planning to go to the Art Gallery too (anything free :-)) so we went along together.  We talked about the different art and artists and how jealous we were of their skills and all.  I believe we were there for about 2 or 3 hours and finally left where we started to walk through the botanical garden (free and BEAUTIFUL).

Before we get to the garden he awkwardly asks me if he can touch my hair...  Now, I thought it was weird but I have been asked this question more than once in my life (usually by women and not men but to each his own).  I told him he could but then it got even more weird.  He didn't just touch my hair.  He stopped walking, had me stop walking and took both of his hands and rubbed them across my hair.  Then he said, "Did you feel that?"  I asked him, "Did I feel what?"  and he said, "There was like electricity that left from you and went through me and out of my right foot."  I swear I am not making this up... I laughed so hard and was so confused because that is obviously not a normal thing to say.

We proceeded to the garden and sat down in the grass.  I hinted at the fact that he was sitting too close to me so he scooted away.  I'm thinking, "Okay, he respects boundaries, good."  The next thing I know my new acquaintance, Shaun, is sitting behind me with his legs in a "V" and is rubbing my hair!!!  It was so quick and I was so confused.  I told him flat out that it was "weird", that I was "uncomfortable", that it was "awkward" but he just kept rubbing my hair LOL!!!  Finally, he stopped and tried to cuddle me!?!  Like he put his hands around my waist as he sat behind me!?!  I unwrapped his arms, turned around and faced him, still sitting down.

I said, "I don't understand what just happened and need to process this with you.  What made you think it was okay to start rubbing my hair and hugging me after I just got done saying you were sitting too close?"  He looked completely perplexed and a bit confused, as if I was the one that was being a weirdo.  We had a short awkward conversation but I was reminded by yet another guy... I am too nice and my kindness is GREATLY  mistaken by men.  Remi just happened to call as I was confronting him and he was then really embarrassed as I, in his face, recounted what had just taken place.  His face blushed a bit and he got up and left, not before saying bye and shaking my hand though.

Good story none the less though right!?!

btw... I did just try to post pictures with this post but the computer I am on is blocking outside devices from being installed without administrative approval.  I will try another day even though I have only about a week left here in Oz!

...Sydney is no New York City...

I bet you can guess why I haven't been updating you all since I've apologized a million times already for it...
Anyway...


I was in Sydney for a week and stayed downtown close to Chinatown in a hostel.  Not my favorite hostel but I should have known better since I am in a big city and not a town or small city anymore.  I'm pretty sure the man that slept in the bunk below me would be homeless were it not for this hostel.  He smelled and had a street look to him.  Nice guy but clearly no traveler...

I was told that Sydney was similar to New York City and I totally disagree.  I haven't been to NYC a ton of times and am no expert on the place but I do know that when I was there I was overwhelmed and intimidated.  I had no such feelings about Sydney and was by myself so that in and of itself was an indicator to me.  I liked it there and found it quite clean for its size.  Everyone was running everywhere, and even in the middle of the work days.  I found out that the Sydney Marathon was about to happen so that explained that for me. 

I took a lot of pictures of the scenery including the Opera House, harbor, bridge, botanic garden, Bondi Beach, etc. but can't upload them onto this computer so I'll have to do that on a later date.

I have since made it to Byron Bay via Greyhound and am headed out soon to go onto my next east coast stop before I head back to you all.

Love to you,
Me

A night in jail, wild animals, and other shenanigans...

LOL... No worries I did stay the night in jail but it was an old jail that was converted into a hostel :-)  It was actually my favorite hostel to stay in since I've been here.  The founders had information written around the location that gave a history of the place.  It was really cool actually, and a bit sad.

So I have a funny story... I don't know if I can make it sound as funny as it actually was but here we go.  My travel mates and I were given the suggestion at the hostel to go to a sinkhole and cave at night where we could feed possum and watch a light show in the 2 different locations.  We went to the cave first and thought it was nice but not that great.  When we got to the sinkhole with the possum we each grabbed a slice of bread.  Only one of us had a proper "torch" (their term for flashlight here).  It was extremely dark but there were some decorative lights.  Long story short, we are all looking for the possum and listening to try to find them.  One of my travel mates begins to walk backward very slowly and is throwing pieces of bread in front of her.  She said, "I hear something," and that was enough for me to get scared.  I threw my piece of bread behind me and tried to take off running.  I would like to emphasize the word "tried" because I was not very successful.  I fell to my knees after about 2 steps in my attempted sprint because it was sort of a ramp/hill type cement incline. I tried to get up quickly but only succeeded in further falling to the point that I was on my back somehow!?!  I was laughing SO HARD that tears were coming out of my eyes.  There was NO WAY to play off that fall at all.  Even as I'm writing this I'm laughing because it was ridiculous.  Initially we could not spot my piece of bread but then saw it several feet away, lol.  Anyway, I scared the possum away but eventually a couple of them came out and my travel mates fed and pet the possum.

Three of us shared in the driving responsibilities to get from Adelaide to Melbourne.  Going along the Great Ocean Road was by far the prettiest and curviest stretch of the trip.  We were going up and around and this way and that way...  The scenery was gorgeous and well worth the car sickness experienced by one of the mates.  The ocean was on one side and the hills with beautiful green grass, sheep and homes were on the other for much of the trip.  It was really a lovely experience and nice to be able to stop and check out the different rock formations, waterfalls, beaches and towns along the way.   

Here in Melbourne I've not really done too much but still have a couple of days to explore.  I have gone to the market with it's amazingly priced fruits and vegetables.  I also did a free tour of one of the Sea Shepherd ships.  The travel mates and I ate in Chinatown yesterday for dinner and I'm going to head to the arts district at some point in the next couple of days.

Okay I think that is more than enough for you all... Enjoy the pics :-) 

I have finally seen some koala bears out in the wild!!!   We saw this one sleeping on our way leaving from Adelaide.

 

This is a possum... My travel mates fed and pet him while I took pictures because I just couldn't bounce back from the initial fear LOL.

 

Here they all are :-) (From Austria, England, and Amsterdam respectively)

 

So this is the sink hole at night time, you can't see much but in the day time it was amazing.  It was at night too but my camera couldn't capture the lights well enough...
 



Here is the sinkhole during the day... GORGEOUS!

There were bee hives in the sink hole hidden in the rocks...
 

This would be the old jail that we stayed in in Mt. Gambier.  Really cool history and information.

This is a view from outside of the old prison hostel that we stayed in...

Mt. Gambier has a blue lake and this is it... It used to be the opening to a volcano apparently!

So we saw a sign that said that there was a waterfall and we walked and this is what we saw and were obviously a bit disappointed that this was the end result...

Then someone saw a sign that pointed further down the trail and we came upon the actual Wannon Falls :-)

 

At the Grampians National Park in Victoria we decided to go up the Pinnacle trail walk however unsuccessfully because we thought it would be too dark by the time we got back and only 1 person had sufficient lighting to be able to get up and back...

We saw a lot of rocks like this and there was some nice scenery along the way as well...

 

There was a field of kangaroo just hanging out eating grass in the middle of the day... These were some of the biggest kangaroo that I have seen since traveling...

 

Sunset in the Grampians...

And now we have arrived at the Great Ocean Road... YES!!!

 

This was by far my favorite spot along the road.  It was beautiful and additionally we were very close to the ocean and saw a rainbow halo around the sun which was really cool...

Here is The Grotto! :-)

 My camera didn't do the best job of capturing the rainbow but you can faintly see it... Apparently it's called  a "halo."  It was a full circle rainbow around the sun.  It was not raining on the ground though!?!  SO COOL!

 

This would be the London Bridge scenery... More beautiful colors and interesting information on landscapes.

 

I think that this is the "12 Apostles"  There were 12 of those bigger separate rocks at one point but obviously this has been greatly reduced...

 

While at one of the beaches we went down (and then back up) 380 steps.  We sat and had some watermelon (Alicia ;-)) and went on a walk down the beach where there were some ship parts including this anchor :-)

 

This is a piece of the Great Ocean Road.  It does no justice to the actual road but you get an idea of the scenery that was on the opposite side of the ocean...

 

I don't remember which waterfall this was but it was pretty... lol

 

This was along the Great Ocean Road, not at the beginning or the end, just somewhere in between.  They also had some information about how it was in memorial to war veterans along with the statue beside it...

 

We were headed to the lighthouse...

 

And here it is... Not the best weather but good enough :-)

 

The sunset welcomed us to Melbourne...

 

City living once again...

 

 This amazing mosaic was by the Yarra River.  I was amazed (and jealous of how artistic I am not).

Just a close up view of the mosaic... SO COOL!!!

 

Please look up information on this organization, the Sea Shephards...  This is the "Steve Irwin" and beside it is the "Bob Barker" which is the one that I did the tour on.  It was inevitable that at some point on this trip something make me cry and here it was... They showed a video about how they saved 932 whales last year in the Arctic.  It was a cool and informative tour...

This is the ship I toured on with one of my travel mates.

I'll be here in Melbourne for a bit longer and then on to the next place.  I'm actually going to be flying domestically here for the next trip because it was cheaper than my driving excursions have been.

Love you,
Me

Before I'm on the road again...

Hi Loves,

I'm still in Adelaide but about to head out tomorrow morning to arrive at my next stop along the way.  I'll be traveling with 3 other people so that is going to save me some money by splitting costs with that many again, THANK GOD!  I've not spent too much since being here in this city and plus it's not as expensive as Perth.

I've walked around the city and gone to the beach since being here.  It has been a pretty chill week actually so not much to report. 

Here are the pictures from Perth to Adelaide...

So this is a Philly Cheese steak according to the restaurant I ordered it from in Perth!?!  It cost me $18 for the sandwich and $5 for the green tea (yep, definitely went to the grocery store after this disaster of a meal).

 

Badminton...

 

This is at Kalgoorlie's "Superpit."  It's a mining hole that has a lot of natural resources.  It was HUGE!

This is at Kalgoorlie... "The most photographed bar in Australia."  This title itself is probably the only reason it is photographed LOL

 

Another double rainbow while traveling through the outback :-)

 

We stopped along the shore while driving across Western Australia to Southern Australia.

 

Minus the annoying gross flies that attack faces, ears, and skin in general this was a nice stop along the way to Adelaide.

 

This was the view on the way down to the lookout for the Southern Right Whales...

 

More of the view...

Southern Right Whale!!!

 

Southern Right Whale!!! :-)

 

This is on the way to the beach we camped it.  You can't tell from my picture but the water to the right was actually pink in color.  I didn't notice it until the next day when we drove back over this stretch of road.

 

Here is a picture of Sonnie taking a picture of the snake that I was unwilling to go back to photograph... lol

 

Once we left and found another place to photograph the beach, this is what I got :-)

 

Shout out to Remi in France :-)

 

We stopped here along our way to Adelaide... Definitely not as cool as Uluru but free LOL :-D

 

View from the top of the rock...

 

One part of the oh so large Pildappa Rock...

 

So we stopped and stayed at this place.  I must admit that I thought it looked kind of shady but it was a pretty cool place.

 

This is the room, it used to be a classroom :-)

 

In Adelaide at one of the many, many, many parks that are surrounding the city.  (The little boy is dressed in a full Batman costume (mask and all)).

 

At the Botanic Garden in Adelaide.

 

As I was walking around downtown in Adelaide I came upon this fun graffiti :-)

 

This is a view of Adelaide from the Torrens River...

 

Sitting at Brighton Beach chillaxin :-)

 

Still at Brighton Beach... (before the flies came and attacked my face and skin again SO ANNOYING!!!)

 

This is indoor netball... It's similar to basketball but there is no dribbling.  If you have the ball in your hand you have to stop moving and either pass or shoot.  It was interesting to watch.

 

There is no backboard either...

Okay now you all are all caught up on my trip again.  I think that I'll get some more really good shots on the way to Melbourne and along the way from there.  We shall see how the posting goes though.  I really wish I were better able to keep you all in the know but am limited as I've mentioned before.

I now have less than a month to go here and quite a bit more to see.

Miss you, love you!

Me