Trip of a Lifetime

Farewell, Australia

G'day mates! How's everyone goin'? I'm leaving Sydney tomorrow, embarking on the last leg of my trip - New Zealand. I'm used to the backpacking now - just hopping from place to place, going wherever the wind takes me - but I'll definitely miss Australia. This country is a place of many faces - a place where everything can kill you (From the spiders that could drop a horse, to 8 meter crocodiles, to the 50 degree summer heat in the outback), but where usually, nothing does. A place with some of the finest beaches in the world, with ski hills two hours away. A place with the most interesting assortment of people I have yet encountered in my travels. Especially Sydney. I've never seen/met/ran from/laughed at so many odd people in my life. From the time I got on the bus in Byron Bay up until now, I've met very interesting - and some freaking weird - people. In fact, as I write this post, there is a strange man singing at the top of his lungs into a microphone he made out of a styrofoam cup, in the middle of the sidewalk, just outside. Like I said, some freaking weird people. On the bus ride down, I sat next to a large Irish man who felt he needed about as much room as an African elephant, squishing my poor body into the aisle, making it difficult for anyone to get by without having to kick me a few times. I was glad to get off that bus, 13 hours later, and I walked into the bus terminal in Sydney and called my hostel for a pickup. The lady on the other was completely loony. "Allo." "Umm yeah, is this the ambassador Hostel?" "Yep." "Yeah I heard you guys do pickups from the bus station?" "Yep." :Well I just got in from Byron and I have a booking at the hostel..." "Right then. Rooms all ready, anytime ya want!" "Awesome.... Awesome.... Right, so could I get picked up from the station?" "What station? Get off the bleedin computaahh!!!! Sorry, not you, the other one. What were ye sayin'?" "Oh, the bus station please" "Uhhh, yep. Be there in 10 minutes!" I turned around, a little bewildered, and sat down with my ipod for a bit. I looked up to see a strange squinting man looking at me and mouthing something. I couldn't hear him, because of my music. I took my headphones off, and he said clearly "So, what kinda nurse are ya?" Blank stare. "Ummm... Sorry, what?" "WHAT KINDA NURSE ARE YA" He bellowed with a smile, enunciating every syllable. "Uhh, what kind of nurse? What... huh? I don't follow ... What?" He then pulled out a bag of small prescription bottles and thrust them at me "I was wond'rin if you could help me with me eye drops mate! Can't put em in meself!" "Oh... uhhh.. yeah, what the hell. Sure." And so I helped a random man who called me a nurse to put eyedrops in his eye. I didn't really talk to him after that, I was happy enough just moving along to where I was about to be picked up by the crazy lady on the phone. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later a large woman in a mumu with wiry black hair screeched to a halt in a van in front of me. She threw my stuff in the back and off we went. We had a wonderful discussion about how her roof looked much better than the other roofs that were next to hers. She had been up some tower the day before, and she was so happy with her roof that she wanted to shout it... Well, from the rooftops. Her rooftop, I guess. We got there and I settled in, my room didn't smell great but it didn't smell that bad either - at least it was cheap. That night I went out for some McDonald's, to sample what Australia has to offer as far as McDonald's specials go. The only Australian thing on the menu was called the McOz. It looked okay but not great, like everything else in McDonald's, so I tired it. I was sorely disappointed. It's just a cheeseburger with a bloody beet on it. A BEET. Why? There is no need for a beet on a burger. I should have complained... Maybe I would have, had I not been so distracted by yet another absolutely insane individual. I looked up to find a man dressed in black leather cowboy boots, black leather pants, a black leather biker jacket and a black leather cowboy hat, dancing in the middle of McDonald's to whatever music happened to be playing at the time. I really wish I could remember what song was playing, just for context, but you can still get the picture. The McDonald's management paid no attention to him whatsoever, which lead me to believe he was as frequent there as happy meals. On his way by my table, he noticed I'd finished eating (I was mostly just staring at him, unable to look away - it was like watching a train wreck), and he kindly took my tray for me. When he returned he tried to get a random guy to roll a joint for him, and seeing I would likely be next, I took my cue and left. Most of the people in the hostel are also quite odd, though I can't say any of them sang into a styrofoam sup, or asked me to put their eyedrops in for them... I guess I should count myself lucky? Of course, the sightseeing didn't stop at strange and interesting people - Sydney has more sights to see than I could even fit into my four days here. Vanessa and I (Vanessa has joined me for these last few days of Australia, having been to Melbourne and back) walked past all the strip joints and hourly hotels (We're in the not-so-posh part of Sydney... Like I said, at least it's cheap!), through some gorgeous parks and fields, and made it to the opera house, probably Australia's most famous landmark of all (other than the kangaroo, I suppose). Here's come pictures of the place, and some pictures of the Harbor bridge, which is just a bigass bridge I took pictures of. Apparently it took them something like 12 years to build, which was ok because it was going to be the biggest bridge in it's category in the world. But when they opened it, they found out it was 12 inches shorter than one that was opened about 3 months earlier, somewhere the States. TWELVE INCHES. BURN. I mean that is a monumentally massive heinous roast of a burn. Still, it makes for a nice picture! http://www.geocities.com/spiker43941/P5190084.JPG http://www.geocities.com/spiker43941/P5190092.JPG http://www.geocities.com/spiker43941/P5210114.JPG http://www.geocities.com/spiker43942/P5210120.JPG As you can see we walked up onto the bridge, which offered a very nice view of things. Of course we didn't actually walk over the bridge, like these people. http://www.geocities.com/spiker43942/P5210116.JPG Apparently it costs about 200 bucks, but I guess it would be worth it for the view. When we came down from the bridge, we explored a little region of Sydney called The Rocks. It's sorta like Eau Claire in Calgary, except the shops are much more expensive, and there were about 37 weddings going on at once, in various settings. We walked by one of them, and then by a Rolls Royce, and ended up in a shop that had no price tags, presumably because they would have to use too much paper to actually advertise a price so large. I felt thoroughly out of place with my "No Money No Honey" shirt and my backpack on. After quickly exiting the shop before security was called, we found a small but useful map, and after looking at this map we discovered with happiness that we were a mere four blocks from the Canadian Consulate! I decided that I wanted to spend a few minutes on Canadian soil, so we walked over to the building. I was hoping maybe they'd greet me with a warm smile and say "Ah, a fellow Canadian eh?! Well it's just great to see ya, we've got some KD on in the back, and some reruns of old NHL games playing on the foyer! Just pop yourself on the chesterfield and grab a Kokanee!" These dreams soon crumbled to dust. When we got there, to my dismay, the Consulate was closed. http://www.geocities.com/spiker43942/P5210125.JPG That's probably because it's Saturday... I guess I didn't really think this one out very well. After recovering from my sadness, we went to a few markets, one of which was actually very good - I ended up buying some sandals, since my last ones were stolen (Who steals 10 dollar sandals... Seriously...), and I got some warmer wear for New Zealand, which is going to be colder than I was hoping for. We also saw about 39213 Japanese tourist busses driving around, unloading and loading passengers in tight groups. I call them pods. I got a picture of one such pod. http://www.geocities.com/spiker43942/P5210123.JPG What you see is many Asian people right after a picture was taken of them (They all gave the peace sign. Every single one of them. Even the 90 year old lady), by an Asian man, who was himself being filmed and photographed by an Asian woman, who's not in the Asian man's picture. I guess Australians aren't the only weird people in the world. Besides, Australians have the trump card of all trump cards - they created one of the most amazing things the world has ever seen (though most of the world is unaware of their existence). http://www.geocities.com/spiker43941/P5210105.JPG Ladies and gentlemen, I'm talking about Tim Tams. If you don't know what a Tim Tam is, you should probably go book a flight to Australia. They're that good. And they don't sell them anywhere else in the world. Not that I know of, anyway... I tried to get some in Canada, but I couldn't find any anywhere. But here in Australia, the Tim Tams are bountiful and fresh sealed for your convenience. They're basically a two little chocolate biscuits with a bit of creamy stuff in the middle, all wrapped up in sweet milk chocolate. Sounds a lot like some other chocolate bars, right? WRONG. Tim Tams are like nothing you have ever tried. What you do is, you bite off opposite corners of the Tim Tam, put one end of it into coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, and you suck the liquid through the Tim Tam. Heaven. And then, while the Tim Tam is just starting to melt from the warm goodness of whatever you're drinking, you pop it into your mouth and just let it dissolve (I believe the Tim Tam then bypasses your stomach and goes directly to that part of your brain that makes you happy, stays there for about 30 seconds, and then turns to pure fat and settles on your belly/hips/cheeks/arse). Wow. If I can find these things in New Zealand, I'm bringing some home. If I bought some now, they would definitely NOT make it through Australia without being eaten. By me. Maybe I'll just make an offer on the company... But enough silly talk. Tomorrow I leave for New Zealand, and I'm sure I will miss Australia, the country that's been my home for the last two months. The accent, the surfing, the beautiful beaches, the great (though sometimes crazy) people - this country is worth visiting. I'm sure I've said this before, but it reminds me a lot of Canada, and I love Canada! New Zealand will be amazing, and as the last leg of my trip, I'm sure it will absolutely FLY by. As of yesterday, the countdown is at 5 weeks. Only 5 weeks left until I return to Canada. It feels like I've only been gone for a month! Then again, I can hear Kraft Dinner calling my name... And I'm missing my family and friends more every day. Maybe home won't be such a bad thing when it finally comes :) But for now... New Zealand, here I come! Spiker

posted by Spiker @ 1:28 am