Got into Sydney pretty early Saturday morning and headed straight to Bondi beach. It took pretty long to get there and with my pack. By the time I got there I only had about 45 minutes (thank goodness, I was so burnt in such a short time) before I had to find my way back to a train station to meet up with my first couch surfing host, Art. The whole way to the meeting place I laughed, almost out loud, at the school uniforms. They looked very old school. They did look good. Made it out to Davidson which is right on Garigal and Kur-ing-gai Chase National Parks. The view was amazing, you could see the city in the distance and overlooked a forest. The house was amazing, great wood floors and the most amazing bed I've slept in in over a year. The bedroom had a Hollywood theme and had a Wizard of OZ poster in it...Love the Wizard of OZ and all jokes that have put Kansas on the map.
Over the next three days I visited Manly beach, the Quary area with the Sydney Harbor and Opera house. Manly beach is beach volleyball central. There were so many nets set up, it's a shame that the weather wasn't very good and there weren't many people playing. I did get to over-the-net pepper with a native indigenous guy and it made my day. At the Quary area/Sydney Harbor I saw some street performers, did some shopping, and found out the embarrassing way that the UFC was in town. Ran into a few of them thinking they looked familiar but couldn't figure out why. I actually went up to one and asked if they were the wrong name...I'm an idiot. Met a girl from Germany who was staying at the same couch host as I was. Ate some great food in the local pubs and tried many different beers. Ate a kangaroo steak that was rare and so unbelievably amazing!!
The last three days in Sydney I stayed in Newtown with Lisa. Newtown is known as the "colorful" area of Sydney. Many places that had live music. So many coffee shops and pubs. Shopping galore, second hand/vintage stores were everywhere. Visted Coogee beach.
Week 2: Brisbane/Gold Coast/Byron Bay
I didn't buy a flight before hand because the were cheap and left almost every 30 minutes and I was flying out on a Thursday. Who would have thought that almost all would be sold out by the time I got there Thursday morning. I ended up paying double what I had originally expected and waiting in the airport for 3 hours, but I did make it to Brisbane. Not really paying much attention to detail, I was planning on waiting for my next couch surfing host at the beach. There are really no beaches in Brisbane only an hour away by train on the Gold/Sunshine Coast. So I headed into the city center where I relieved a little stress with some reading and a nice cold beer. Finally getting a hold of my host, he informed me that he thought I was coming in next weekend and that he was out of town. Thank goodness I had written down some hostels and addresses. Got to my hostel and dropped my bag off and relaxed for a bit before heading back into the city to meet up with Dave and Geoff, two guys I worked with at Lake Powell almost 2 years ago. We had some drinks and talked about Powell. They asked what my plans were for the weekend. I planned on hauling all my stuff down to Byron Bay for the weekend and then possibly heading back to Sydney early so I could just sit at the beaches there. They offered to drive down the coast with me and said we could stay at their grandma's on the beach and that I could stay at his house because they had an extra room. Friday morning, while listening to 7 swedish travelers talk, I packed my bag to put it in a locker at the hostel till I could pick it up later and meet up with Dave. Spent the day eating Subway, drinking redbull, and reading down by the river on the grass. There were a couple of showers during the day, but it was still amazing.
We headed down the coast on Saturday morning. I got to meet Marie (pronounced Mar-e) and drop off some stuff. Continued down the coast to Byron Bay where we did some sight seeing, ate some amazing meet pies, heard some live music, laughed at some surfers that wanted to wait for it to stop raining before going back to the surf, played in the surf (kinda scary but a lot of fun), and did some boogie boarding. Sunday we took a drive into the mountains and saw a rainforest. Monday and tuesday I sat on the back porch and read, moved to the pool for a bit, and the headed down the hill to the river for the rest of the day. At the river I just watched the birds fly overhead, clouds go by, leaves rustle in the trees, read, slack-line, and listen to music.
Your true traveler finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty-his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure. Aldous HuxleyWednesday I helped Geof move into his new apartment in the city. It had the most amazing view of the city with a huge rap-around roof-top balcony.
The people I met in Brisbane were so welcoming. I couldn't thank them enough for inviting me into their homes. I was very thankful that things didn't work out how they were planned, had they worked out I wouldn't have had as much fun or been able to relax as much as I did.
Overall the trip to Australia was amazing. I will live there/travel long-term there at some point in time. The only thing is that all public transportation was ridiculously expensive. I felt like almost every time I got on a bus or train I would pay with a five and not get much change back. It was hard to leave and come back to cold rain, but on an upside I got to see my family and my Luna!!
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