"BOOM!"

Alright y'all, it is nearing the end here in Australia and I am pretty torn about it.... I'm gonna miss the amazing people I've met, and I love Sydney, but I really can't wait to get home either! I have some funny stories from last night, and some great pictures from our last couple days, but the computer isn't letting me put up pics and I'm running out of internet time... plus I'm sleepy lol. I should have time tomorrow before we check out to give you a quick update of the past day or so- if not, I apologize!
We leave Sydney at 2:45 pm tomorrow, arrive in San Fran at 10 something am, and then spend the rest of the day getting back to Cinci. Loooooong "day" ahead! Love you all and I'll try to get somethin else up here before I get home :)

We are waiting for our shuttle to the airport and I figured I would get on here and tell ya about the last couple days. So, we ended up getting that "job" and it was the best "job" ever!!! Lol. All we did was sell scarves outside of an Aussie Rules Football game (aka soccer game), but the place we went to sell them had basically nobody walking by. Our "boss", Carl Kyle, set us up right near the gate and Kacey and I were selling machines!!!! ....for the 10 minutes we were allowed to sell before we got in trouble and were told to go a mile down the road and sell stuff there. Once we got all the way down there we realized that we had walked by every person going into the game and nobody was around- so back to Carl Kyle who was basically done with the whole selling deal and was ready to go back to the pub we started at and have an "afterwork" beer. haha. Before we left he taught us the best sales pitch ever: "Boom". It works like this- when somebody walks by and you offer them a scarf and they say no, you wait until they turn away from you and you say, "BOOM!" It works pretty well. Not. But it was hilarious!
So we went back to the Fox and Lion and were handed 50 bucks and were bought 3 rounds of beer and we split a mixed drink. After not drinking for so long and spending most of my days kinda dehydrated, 3 beers was enough to have me pretty drunk. A brown-out as my friend Emily likes to call it, haha, I wasn't blacked out, I definitely remember most things, but about 10% of that time is a little fuzzy.... I know that we learned Scottish cheers/songs and hung out with the other sales girls and laughed a lot... and then Carl Kyle paid for our cab home and we went to Scubar! As you may have put together, we never ended up attending either of the sports games we were working to earn money to attend haha. Oh well, it was fun anyway!
Yesterday, we had a really relaxed day. We woke up, had free brekky, got cleaned up, and then went to the Hay Market where we tried on wigs :) Kacey and I both can pull of blonde! Who woulda thunkit?!? It was fun and we actually almost bought them. Luckily, Kacey talked me out of it and I decided to wait til I'm back home haha. We came back and said bye to Poli, :( it was really sad, and then we got with Meagan and got cheap delicious lunch at Star Bar. We also split wedges! Yay!!! We went back out later and found Royal Theatre, which we were expecting to be really old and cool.... it wasn't lol. Its ok, we walked around and saw the city at night. The rest of the night we just packed up and chatted with Meagan and then went to bed :)
Now its back home!!!! Only 30 somethin' hours of flights and airports and I'll be back in Cinci- and then I get some sleep and see Wesley!!! Yay!!! Love you all, can't wait to talk to you all and see you again :) Thanks for keepin up with my blog and I'm sorry there aren't pictures- its really hard to load them up here for some reason. Once I get home and show the family my pictures, I will be making Facebook albums and possibly adding some more pictures to this too!

Finger Pointing and Hair Shaking

Yesterday, we woke up at 6am and got ready to catch our bus at 7:15 back to Sydney. It was a nice new bus- only problem was that they had assigned seats, but not for us, so we randomly got knocked around seats all day until we finally ended up in the very back row smelling the bathroom for the last few hours. Boo. But the bus ride itself wasn't awful. As always, by the last 2 hours I couldn't wait to get the hell off the stupid bus, haha, but it went by pretty quickly :)
Once we got here, I was literally jumping for joy! It feels great to be back somewhere familiar and it got even better when we walked in and saw Poli working the desk :) He hooked us up with some brekky and put us in a room, and after catching up for a bit, we went up to our room. We were both ready to just chill in pjs and get on the computers for a little bit, and as we were sitting on the ground floor checking "facey", Poli made an announcement over the hostel-wide system that we were back! Haha, the guy in Melbourne may have made fun of us for thinking that the YHA workers here in Sydney remembered us at all, but they really do love us! Then Ross and Pete appeared, just off work, and invited us to go to Scubar to grab a few afterwork drinks. When we went upstairs to get ready we met one of our 4 roommates, and she's from Ohio!!! Pretty cool, huh? She seemed really sweet :)
So we traveled back down to Scubar and people watched, completely entertaining, for a couple hours. We picked up some pretty sweet dance moves in the process of watching ;) And also got some pretty fun pictures- I'll find some time to put them up later for ya.
Now, our bellys are full from our brekky and we are trying to figure out a way to get into the Aussie Rules Football game later- there is apparently some guy that asked the YHA to find girls to sell merchandise for 2 1/2 hours for 50 bucks and Ross called and tried to get us spots. The guy said he was full, but Ross kept telling him he would love us, so he's gonna call back here in a few and let us know if he wants us to work or not! Fingers crossed!
Thats all for now, I'm just gonna enjoy my last couple days here and probably go out tonight with Poli and the gang :) Then back home to Wes and the fam and the beach and my friends!!! Love you all, hope everybody is doing well and enjoying the end of summer :)

Rainforest, Airport, and Melbourne

Alright, so, I slacked a bit on the blog so I'm gonna go back in time a few days and let ya know what we've been up to. Since I have a lot to write about and a terrible memory, I'm basically going to write down what I have in my journal- sorry guys, this may get kinda long, but I'll do my best to edit out the unnecessary parts :)

We hit up the rainforest 2 days ago, which was really different and pretty to see. We took the Skyrail up to Kurunda and it stopped at two spots along the way- one was a boardwalk through the jungle, and one looked out at an enormous waterfall. The hanging gondolas made me a little nervous, they would go past poles and rumble around; it was just unsettling, but a neat thing to do/see nonetheless. And check out the cheesy photoshopped picture they take LOL! Kurunda itself was a boring place- a normal tourist town. I did buy mango wine that I got to taste test and it was delicious- a bottle for Mom and Terry and a bottle for Wes. We had 4 hours to kill there, but by the 2nd we were ready to get outta there! Luckily, we were able to trade our 3:30 tickets for 2:00 and take off. The train may have been my favorite part of the day :) It was a beautiful ride with a little bit of interesting history about the building of the tracks and such. It was a relaxing and scenic 2 hour ride that dropped us off right behind the shopping centre in Cairns. Once we got back, we picked up break and cinnamon sugar from he grocery- its frustrating to go in and see all the cheap meals we could make if we just had enough time in one place to refrigerate and keep food. We had a quiet night in after that and packed up for our plane to Melbourne....

A couple of odd things about the Cairns airport- they never checked our IDs, you're allowed to check liquids, and you don't even have to take off your shoes when you go through security. I was randomly selected to be checked for explosives, which was funny, but a pretty simple process. She just wiped a bunch of my stuff and my shoes and pants with this wand and then stuck it in a machine. Lucky for me, she didn't find my TNT.... haha, what a weird little place. Another weird thing: when the seat belt light went off on the plane, everybody got up and moved around and got their bags and shuffled about. In the states, that light doesn't mean anything. Where are you gonna go? You're on an airplane? It was so unexpected for half the passengers to start moving about all the sudden lol.
Once we got to the airport in Melbourne we had to pay 20 dollars for a shuttle to our hostel- it was good and bad. We got to see a lot of the city cause we were on the shuttle forever, but we also had to pay 20 dollars and listen to the drivers sob story about how stressful his job is... what an awkward moment that was! I felt bad for him, but honestly, what do you say? A cool thing about Melbourne is that the trams go straight down the middle of the lanes of the road- cars can drive behind them and stuff! I couldn't get over how crazy that was. The YHA here is cool- its small yet spacey at the same time, hard to explain. Plus, we get a 4 person room again! We made Ramen as soon as we got to the hostel and met this guy that's really nice but awkward/creepy and he has this scary looking rash that he itches constantly....sooo that's quite uncomfortable. The bar downstairs has 5 dollar gourmet pizza and 12 dollar beer jugs, so we got dressed cute and went down there- what a cool, swanky place! I got Espanol pizza- goat cheese, roasted red peppers, and chorizo- delish! It was not what I expected from a bar under a backpackers, but it was a nice surprise :) It ended up being trivia night, which was fun even though we never won a round. Also, creepy itchy guy showed up and lingered around a few times before sitting with us. He's ok for awhile, and he knew some trivia answers, but the scratching just gets to me! What if its contagious or something?! Anywho, we went to bed early, as always and I slept great!

Today, we woke up and made toast and then showered up for the day. We booked Sydney Central for the next 3 days and we have a bus ride at 7:15 tomorrow morning- eek! We walked around the city- went to Federation Square and China Town and just saw the sights. We came back and grabbed fries and another gourmet pizza (an Athenian one this time, yummm, complete with lamb and tsaziki sauce) and then went back out on the town. We found a City Circle Free Tram that, surprise, makes a circle around the city! Haha, it was a cool way to find out more about the city and we even got off and tried to go to the Queen Victoria Markets- oddly enough, they were closing down even though it was 3 in the afternoon...riiiight. So we went into a petshop instead! There was this adorable pitbull, which by the way, are not called pitbulls here and don't have the same bad rep- they're called Staffys! I wanted to hold it but the lady said no... she explained why but I couldn't really figure out what she was saying so I just said ok lol. We got back on the bus, barely, it was packed, and then 4 stops down the line the driver just popped out of his little box and was like "Peace out, see ya later, be back in 6 minutes, better start walking" Haha, ok, not those exact words, but that was the basic gist of things. So we got off and walked the rest of the way, which was kinda long but I was all hyped up on coffee so it went quickly. Have I told you coffee here is all fancy shmancy? No filtered coffee here, its all espresso and named all sorts of weird stuff- like, an espresso with cream and sugar is called a flat white. So thats what I get. Cause I don't understand the other stuff, lol, I'm a stupid American. So yea, we came back, and I did some laundry, and now I'm here, updating all of you lovely people :) Speaking of, I need to go check my laundry! Hope you all are doing wonderfully, I miss you, and I'm hoping everything goes well the next few days and we get ourselves and all of our things back into the states soon!!!!

Green Turtle and Hillbilly Fish :)

- I'll sum up yesterday for you, chatted with Caleb, ate lunch, wandered, Casino, watched Inception, bar for a snakebite, back to hostel, got in pjs, had a beer with Caleb. The end.
Ok, so today was woooonderful!!! From the moment we woke up it was gray and rainy outside, but that didn't ruin our trip to the Great Barrier Reef at all! Our boat took of at 8 am and we were treated with coffee and chocolate muffins, plus friendly crew members :) About half way to the reef somebody spotted whales!!! They stopped the boat and we watched four humpback whales playing around the boat- I have pictures, but they really don't do the experience any justice. It was amazing to see and it made me so happy I didn't spend extra money going on a whale watching tour earlier on. Our first stop, Michaelmas Cay, was a small island, reserved mostly as a bird sanctuary, and I didn't know what to expect- but I donned my wetsuit, grabbed my flippers and mask, and took the glassbottom boat out to the cay. It only took a couple minutes to get used to breathing through the snorkel, huge relief, and as soon as I put my face in the water I started to see the most beautiful fish! I didn't know if the fish would be as colorful and as plentiful as the videos I've seen of the reef, but they deffinitely were! Look up fish that stay around the reef, particularly parrott and trigger fish, and you'll see these vibrant neon green and blue and yellow fish. It was unbelievable. Because it was cloudy, the reef wasn't super colorful, but there were still these huge clam-like creatures that were bright blue around their "mouths" and coral that looked like it had blue fiberoptics on the ends of it. I also spotted my favorite fish of the day, I believe it was a Titan Triggerfish. It was larger than the parrottfish and when it turned to look at me it had teeth like big, crooked, yellow, human, buckteeth- as soon as I saw its mouth I laughed underwater and had to come up because I filled my mask with water. I lost the fish and named it the Hillbilly fish- it was hilarious! Apparently, during this time, Kacey was following around an enormous Green Turtle, I wish I would have been at the same spot as her, it sounds like it was such a neat experience!
By the time I made it out near the boat, I was freezing and exhausted but I stayed out as long as we could because I didn't want to miss out. We got back on the boat and dried off and lunch was served! They had a buffet with all kinds of cold salads and then two choices of entree- I had tandori chicken, it was all delicious. Then they did a quick fish feeding which was another great thing to watch!!! After that, they took us to our second dive spot, Paradise something lol, which was just out in the middle of the ocean. It was sooo rough. From the moment I got in the water I was pounded with waves, and every few minutes a wave would either force water into my mask or down my snorkel- but it was still a wonder to see everything. Plus, I saw another Hillbilly Fish! I accidently lost Kacey's mask (I thought she was holding it and she thought I was holding it, hard to explain) and we went back on the boat- they called everybody in just few moments later and I was getting tired so it worked out well :) The whole way back we hung out with some of the crew and some other guests and we played riddles and watched card tricks- a really fun ride. And, after a little while, when we got close to being back, they served us all coffee, tea, and cookies. We landed, said goodbye to the crew, and walked back to the hostel completely covered in sand and saltwater, hair completely a mess, completely exhausted, and completely ecstatic about the day :) This was my favorite day since I've been here, for sure!!!!

So, Its a Cold Bubbly Tub?

We arrived in Cairns yesterday and discovered that it is a different kind of place than where we've been so far. There's one main street/strip with a huge shopping center on one end and the bay on the other. Our hostel is near the shopping center. In between, there are endless restaraunts, bars, souveneir shops, and clothing stores. On the bay side, there is a huge infinite pool open to the public and a "promenade" that goes along the water, or mud, depending on the tide. Its pretty touristy, but its nice for a change, too. So many of the food places smell gooood when walking by, but a lot of them are way too expensive too! Last night we were lucky and found a 10 dollar meal deal at a pub and I got to eat my first full meal since I've been here :) I had roast beef with gravy, Yorkshire pudding (which is really just a fluffy roll thing, like those egg puffs mom makes sometimes), roasted potatos, and steamed veggies, plus a whisky and coke! I was stuffed 1/2 way through but I couldn't let it go to waste so I pressed on and finished it all- yummm :) Its odd because the last two days we did the least walking and its when I've eaten the most! So much for the Aussie diet lol.

We also stumbled upon a Casino and Kacey tripled her money at the slots!!! -she started with one dollar and ended up with four- We bought gelato, as if we needed it, and ate it on the promenade; pretty romantic, haha. The next on our list was to get back to the YHA and get into the hottub, so we suited up and went downstairs and turned on the jets.... and the hottub was cold. After looking for a temp. switch, Kacey went to ask if it was broken and she was told that it wasn't a hottub after all... It is a cold tub. That bubbles. If any of you know what the purpose of that is, let me know! haha. We played some cards instead and then I ended up passing out at 9, sorry bout that Kacey- she wanted to go back out and I was debating changing clothes and I fell alseep! Oh well, at least we're both super rested. Today is just a relaxing free day, should be nice, even though its super overcast and rainy :)

Ninja Bird and Our New Baby!

So, back to yesterday- We got to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and ended up only paying 25 instead of 28, which made me very happy! We started out looking at bats, and birds, and a platypus and then moved on to the main attractions- koalas and kangaroos! I HAD to do the "cuddle a koala" picture dealio even though I had told myself I wouldn't if it cost extra... it was just too great to pass up. Kacey and I took the cutest little family photo (featured above lol) and I even got pooped on! Horay! The koala was definitely sick of being held and the handler kept making this weird oo-oo-oo sound to make it hug us... and then eventually gave up. I don't blame the poor furry little man, he's forced to hug strangers all day, I wouldn't wanna do it either!

After that, we bought Kangaroo food and entered this huge enclosure full of emus and wallabys and kangaroos; this was definitely my favorite part of the sanctuary! All you had to do was walk up and hold your hand down and the animals would take the food from you, some would let you hang out with them and pet them, too. The kangaroos have zero expression on their faces but they are still so oddly adorable and fun to be around! I found my favorite roo before we left the enclosure area- he looked kinda old and never opened his eyes all the way, he had a spotted little nose and he let me pet him and cuddle him just like Nevada does! He's the one on the bottom right, I loved him :)

We saw other animals there, like dingos and wombats, and they even had a barn animal area that cracked me up- 2 enormous pigs, some ponies, goats, chicks, and then enclosures with, you would never guess this, guinea pigs! hahaha. Goofy Aussies, thinkin' guinea pigs are cool enough to put in a zoo, lol. We had an hour to wait for our bus when we left so we sat down to relax at a little cafe by the river. I decided to munch on a granola bar, when all of the sudden, this black and white devil-ninja bird flew into my face, distracted me, and stole my bar!!! It was probably hilarious to see from a distance, especially when he dropped it in the dirt right in front of me and casually pecked at it... what a jerky bird! haha.

We finished the day with some really awful Japanese food back in the city and then a trip to the grocerey. When we got back to the hostel, we had time to kill, so we rested and planned a night in. Eventually, I went to make my corn and bacon chowder (more exciting than it should have been after noodles all the time) and the two guys from the game room the night before were cooking too. We all sat down at the same time and they asked Kacey and I to join us- yay new friends! More people joined and we ended up spending the evening drinking wine and German beer with Alex and Daniel from Germany, Marcus from Austria, Danya from Canada, and these two obnoxious guys from Canada. It was fun! We eventually got kicked off the 5th floor for being too loud and all piled into somebody's room to hang out until everybody went to the bar (Kacey and I had to be up too early and it was way tooo cold outside to join). This guy came back to his room and we were all in there- the two Canadian guys didn't realize they had a new roommate! All in all, it was a pretty amusing night, and we finally went to bed at midnight when the others all went out to "make a party." It was a great last night in Brisbane!

Now I'm in Cairns after a 29 h0ur Greyhound ride and I'm ready to go find some numnums! Missin all you at home, love you muchos!

Time is not normal here...

I want to start out saying that Kacey and I stayed up super late last night watching Cast Away in the TV lounge area of the Cooly YHA.... we went to bed at 11:00 pm!!! GASP!!! Its crazy, but that literally is the latest we have stayed up except for the salsa dancing night, and it was rough getting to that point- I was exhausted!
This morning we had free breakfast, a huge deal for us, and then got Matt/Brian to shuttle us to town for our next greyhound ride. The bus ride was only 2 1/2 hours but it seemed to take forever, no matter how much time I tried to kill by sleeping or writing in my journal, we just kept on driving. That happens all the time when on a car ride, so I didn't think too much of it. We had quite the aerobic exercise goin on when we walked from the bus station to our hostel, and we finally arrived at the newest YHA in Australia around 11:15 am. We stored our luggage (our room wouldn't be ready until 2) and headed out on our normal wander.
At this point, I was still in my lounge clothes from the night before, because I got ready for a quick exit from Cooly the night before and planned on changing once we got to Brisbane. This was not an option, so walking around the city in bright yellow sweat capris commenced :P We stopped in a souveneir shop, where I finished my gift shopping and then continued to explore the city. We found a little market area with some free samples and then an outdoor/indoor mall square with hundreds of stores and a high school jazz band performing. We searched for an electronics store for what seemed like forever, following two different sets of directions but never getting to where we were supposed to get. Finally, we found one on the top level of the mall, and I then had to debate on buying a "cheap" camera that would probably suck and cost me loads of money in batteries and a memory card, or a camera for about $100 more that was an upgrade from my old camera (no extra costs necessary). I went ahead and bit the bullet- I bought a spankin' new, shiny, fancy, expensive, Fuji digital camera. I knew I should have looked on the bright side- a new camera is so exciting!- but like my horoscope said today, "even in sunny skies, a storm cloud will hang over your head", I couldn't help but think about the more important things I needed that money for...
To make myself feel better, it was time to eat. The cheapest food possible. Enter the always amazing sushi stands that are everywhere in Oz cities- even in the mall food court! $2.00 for any roll, even the really hilarious ones like Fried Chicken and Tuna salad. I made fun of what I call the "fake sushi" until today when tuna salad just sounded really comforting. After $4.00 I was stuffed and a tiny bit happier. That's when we realized the time. I'd like you all to take a moment and look back over all of our activities, keeping in mind that the center of town is at least 5-10 minutes away from our hostel. It was 1:00 pm. Literally an hour and 45 minutes from when we arrived in Brisbane. "Impossible," you say!?! It is apparently very possible here in Australia. I don't know how to prove it, but time is definitely slower here.
Anyway, to sum up our day, we wandered into a Museum, checked into seeing a play (too much $), and then walked through two Art Galleries- I love how the arts are mainly free in cities here, its really too cool. I was pretty grumpy all day, my backpack was heavy, I was wearing the wrong shoes, and my legs are sore. Plus, I'm just missing some of the comforts of home- a car, a bed, no luggage, no endless bus rides.... Enough of that though- I'm on the most amazing vacation!!! The rest of the evening, Kacey and I hung out at the hostel, ate some Ramen, played Wii and then debated on going out (we didn't lol). Tomorrow should be a really great day- we're going to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary!!! I can't wait! And I'm thinkin that storm cloud will definitely blow over by then :) Love yas!
Aussie Facts of the day: Kacey just informed me that the government encourages euthanasia for anybody over 80, McDonalds is called Mackers, and everything here is shortened into something cutesy, ex: Facebook=Facey

COOLangatta???

Soooo... today has been a day. I woke up early and got everything together to catch the bus to our next YHA (I ate Ramen for breakfast, come on, great start, right?)- the day seemed to be going well...at first... All hell broke loose once we got to a little town called Coolangatta. We got off the bus and realized that the area we had to kill an hour and a half in was pretty umimpressive, but no biggie, we just wandered to a smoothie place. As I'm sitting there, enjoying my Brunch Blend Smoothie, I realize there is water pouring out of my backpack. No exaggeration. Pouring. Like a waterfall coming out from my zippers and soaking the table.

I unzipped my bag, pulled out the plastic bag my water bladder was in, and quickly discovered it had completely burst and filled my backpack with probably a liter of water. This normally would not have been an issue, except for I had put my camera in the pocket above the bladder when we were on the bus. Water+Digital Camera=broken digital camera :( We took it apart to try to dry it and I fumed around about this being the most frustrating day ever. I should have known when I said, "Nothing could make me upset on this trip except loosing my camera, or breaking it," that I was totally jinxing myself!

Once I sat and sulked a bit, we decided to put some stuff in Kacey's bag and then move on to an internet cafe- I mean, what else could go wrong after that? We arrive at said cafe, only to realize that the internet was possibly the slowest internet left in the 21st century. Also, the mood music was terrble 80's tunes. Don't get me wrong, ask anybody that has been in the car with me long enough- I looove some bad 80's music. This stuff was awful even to me. "Smooth Operator" was skipping along in the background for about 5 minutes. Put yourself in this place, people. I was not a happy Ali, lol.

We finally decided to give it up and go to the bus stop for the half hour til our shuttle to the hostel came. After what seemed like the longest thirty minutes of our lives, the shuttle came and it was back to all smiles- and then laughs when we realized the beach was ONE BLOCK up from where he had been sulking around. I felt bad for dissing Coolangatta so soon- we were the idiots that didn't find the beach! Since we've been at the hostel, we discovered we are sharing an 8 person room, which is ok, its only one night, and we've gone to the beach. The beach was a blast- there are photos to prove the amount of fun we had :P Then we ate wedges with sourcream and thai sweet chili and the best burgers ever in a little convenient store (btw, they put beets on their burgers here and it is delish!) I am happy as ever!

There are no plans for the rest of the evening except a shower and maybe a movie, then off to Brisbane tomorrow for two nights. I'm crossing my fingers that the bad luck has left and I can find a cheap digital camera to buy once we get there. Here's to hoping none of you had the same kind of day I started out having, but have all had as much fun as I had during our beach photoshoot! Much Love ;)

"Drugs are illegal in NSW"

We started the day with free pancakes- fabulous. Then we booked our Great Barrier Reef tour for once we get to Cairns (!!!!) and the Happy Coach to take us to Nimbin. Happy Coach was quite a fun experience- it was rainbow-painted on the outside and smelly on the inside with music blasting the whole way there. Basically, it was perfect :) We stopped at a waterfall first, which we could only see from the very top, but it was still neat. Then we drove foooooreeeever to get to Nimbin- but as soon as we got there Hilary greeted us at the door with a loud trill and big hugs. We went to a cafe where I ate a delicious roasted vegetable wrap and then we started our tour of the tiny, one street town. I bought some more gifts today- I got somethin for you, Darcy, and I bought something thats for Wes and I, and a dress for me! I got a little spending happy, but I love everything I ended up with :) Hilary's house was neat- it had a pretty garden area in the back and a lot of space. It was a rushed visit to get to the bus in two hours, but I'm really glad we decided to go see it there. It is definitely a one-of-a-kind town!
Hilary also bought us a tall-neck bottle of Cooper beer for the ride home, which we couldn't open, but saved for when we got back to the room and could borrow a bottle opener from the YHA kitchen. We drank it down and got ready to go out to dinner, which ended up being a fun event once we both got a tiny bit tipsy :) We walked the streets for awhile and decided on eating at this hotel that serves homemade pizza; its been tempting us since we got here! Unfortunately, it was split up into three rooms inside and we couldn't figure out how to get our food! Haha, it sounds pretty pathetic on our part, but its not the same here as it is at home. People don't really tip, so you don't really get served the way we're used to, you just have to find where to order and then find somewhere to sit and when there is a bar and an extra random smoking room involved it is hard to figure out what to do! We gave up and went back to the bar we went to last night because they had a restaraunt and it ended up being a great choice! I got tempura beer battered fish and chips- soooo tasty! It was super filling- I haven't been that full since I got here and it felt so strange to get so full so fast. My stomach has definitely shrunk and it didn't feel too good to stretch it back out, even though the food was great! We also each had a snakebite (the cider/beer/grenadine mixture) and then sat outside by a fire. All in all, it has been another great day here in sunny Australia!!!
We take off tomorrow for Colangatta YHA on the Gold Coast :) Hope everything is all smiles at home!!! Love you all, keep in touch!

Wankers and Rooting...???

Yesterday, I woke up feeling really rested after having a quiet night in the night before. After we got everything ready to checkout, Pauly let us store our stuff (thanks Pauly!) and then we went out in the city again. Caroline took us to Glebe, a Swedish part of Sydney, to go to the Glebe Market. I loved it! It was a Bohemian vintage flea market of sorts and I could have bought all sorts of things if I would have wanted to spend the money- I did buy gifts for Theresa, Emily, and myself while there :) I think you two girls will like them!
Afterwards we went into a small bookshop with a cafe in the back, where we ordered the best hot chocolate I've ever had in my life- we really don't make anything like that in the States! From there we went to Newtown and wandered some more, which was a huge walk, but we got to see the University of Sydney, Victoria Park, and part of a Rugby match on the way. Rugby is so crazy- it is the coolest sport to watch, and honestly, way more intense than American Football!
We eventually made it back to the hostel and then went to Harry's, the "famous" meat-pie place where Colonel Sanders ate, haha. I got a pie with beef inside and mashed potatos, mashy peas, and gravy on top. It wasn't the most delicious thing I've ever had, but it was tasty and warm and filling. A nice change from what we have been eating, lol. Ross took us to check out a tattoo parlor when he got off work, but it was super expensive, and even the small tattoo Kacey wanted would have cost her about 250! Crazy! We ended up down at Scubar hanging out with Ross and Pauly just waiting for our bus. Heads up, Cider (like Woodchuck at home) mixed with grenadine is sooo yummy! They also had bowls of rice crackers at the bar, my favorite! What a surprise that was! Ross also introduced us to two new words- they are kind of crude so I apologize if it offends, but we learned wanker and root. I'll explain to those of you that want to know- they are so funny to use, I can't wait to get them started in Morehead, haha!
Today we have been in Byron Bay, after a 12 hour bus ride, which wasn't that bad at all! Plus, I saw my first Kangaroo (well, live Kangaroo) during the drive :) Yay! We checked in and showered up then went out wandering, as usual. Grabbed a cheap sushi lunch, it was pretty good, no Kyoto or Moto, but still pretty tasty, and then headed for the beach. We of course couldn't find it and ended up wandering towards the lighthouse instead. Just when we thought we had reached the lighthouse, we found steps to the beach! It was beautiful! I can't wait to show you all pictures :) After relaxing for a bit we got back on our way towards the lighthouse- which ended up being a billion miles away uphill! Like Caroline said, we are on the Aussie diet, eating a little and walking a lot! The lighthouse was worth it once we got to the top- like I said, I will have to add pictures soon. After finding our way back home (a completely different and faster way than we walked there in the first place) we came into the computer room to update everything. I guess next on the list is noodles for dinner and maybe trying to come up with a plan for the next week- we don't have anything booked after tomorrow! I miss all of you and would love little updates from home :) Much Love!

*Alpine Fun with Winter Magic*

As we headed out to Bondi Beach, we were met with a lot of familiar faces! Katie, Kim, Danny, and Caroline were all going- the only new person was Rich, a guy from Canada. We spent the walk to the bus laughing about our adventures from last night- especially once everybody heard the story about Hollywood calling me "thunder and lightening". If only I wouldn't have been trying so hard to ignore him at that point maybe I would remember why in the world I am "thunder and lightening"! haha. Despite the fact we were all, at the least, tired and, at the most, really hungover (Danny), we made it to Bondi!
The beach was gorgeous- teal waters, surfers galore, and soft sand. If only it wasn't so cold! I definitely can't wait to be at similar beaches in warmer weather :) After taking in the sites for a bit, we decided to check out the German Winter Festival, which was blocked from view. We found out why when we went inside- it cost us $4 and there were 4 food stands.... and a skating rink... that cost extra to use... We kept searching for the advertised "Alpine Fun" and "Winter Magic," but quickly realized that it was nowhere to be found, even in the form of tiny sugar topped pancakes. We left the Winter Wonderland and ate lunch on the beach. Btw, potato wedges with sourcream and thai sweet chili sauce are sooo yummy- if you can find those things, you have to try it!
The rest of the day was really laid back- we booked our Byron Bay hostel for the 18th and 19th and we may have time to spend a night on the Gold Coast too before heading up to Cairns! We check out of Sydney Central tomorrow at 10 am and plan on going to the Glebe Market and Newtown- Kacey and I HAVE to buy some jackets, we can't tough it out anymore! I am so excited that we've made fun friends in this short amount of time at the YHA- it makes it that much better to be coming back at the end of our trip :) Now it is bedtime, I miss all y'all and hope everything is going well back in the states!!!
P.S. We finally got somebody who instantly brought up KFC when we said we were from Ky, haha! He told us that Colonel Sanders ate at a restaraunt here called Harry's so we are going to eat there tomorrow. Btw, his name is Polotoni (aka Rigatoni).... American names are so boring here!

Did you pet kangaroos?? Nah, we just ate one.

Yesterday was Thursday the 15th here in chilly windy Sydney, and we had literally the most Australian day/night that we could have had, I think. We started out making our way toward the Harbour under the lead of our roommate Caroline ("If you all keep walking this pace it will take you an hour!"...eh, we're southern we don't care) and stopped at an Australian McDonalds along the way. I was really curious to see if their menu was different than ours, which it is, but not in a really exciting way- but I was sucked in by it being the cheapest food we have seen yet. So yes. I ate lunch at McDonalds yesterday. Don't judge, you would have done it too!
The most exciting thing happened right after I ordered, too.... Wes called!!! We chatted the whole walk down to the harbour and he was even on the phone when I got my first glimpse of the iconic Sydney Bridge and Sydney Opera House :) After doing the tourist picture deal we got in a line for a Free Ferry... to somewhere. We just wanted a free ferry ride! Once on the boat, we found out we were on our way to Cockatoo Island where there was the 17th annual art exhibit- which was also free and only occurs every 2 years! Basically, we got really lucky, yet again, by just doing random things.
Once we got back, we walked around The Rocks and made our way back towards the hostel, stopping to pick up some groceries. Let me tell you. I thought I hated the grocery at home...I now know what it is to hate a grocery. This place was PACKED! I'm used to 5 people in the whole store, here there were 5 people running into you, pushing you from behind, and standing in front of you at all times. Plus, there was no order to the shelving at all- ex: pasta and pickles right next to each other.... riiiight. Our trip was brightened by the fact we found really cheap store brand Ramen noodles and a girl wearing pink overall "janties" (jean shorts that are sooo short they show half your business, like panties) on our way home. Use your imagination, haha,we laughed for about 4 blocks.
We then traveled over to the Railway YHA to test out some Kangaroo burgers- they were delicious! Apparently, the meat is super lean and has more protein than beef, so it was really good for us too. We definitely needed a good meal. Geo made fun of us for eating kangaroo, suggesting that most tourists want to pet furry animals and not eat them, but this is the thing- where else would you ever get to eat a kangaroo!??! I mean come on! It was a must-do sort of thing, and there are more, I can pet a different one later! We asked the Aussie YHa worker where a good bar where locals went was and he invited us out with a whole group of the workers for one of their birthdays.
We all met up and went- and as promised, it was epic :) We started out at a very upscale bar that was pretty chic, full of business men, and very expensive (14.50 for a jaeger bomb, no thanks). Then we went to...... A SALSA BAR! A for real people shakin their hips, music blastin, arms flying, girls twirling salsa bar! It was the coolest bar I have ever been to, for sure. Some of the guys with us knew how to salsa and I got to learn how- it was a complete blast. The night finally came to an end and Kacey and I made our way back to the hostel by taxi :) Hopefully today we will end up just as fortunate as we have the past two- we're getting ready to head to a German Christmas Market at Bondi Beach (yea, I don't get it either, we're just goin) Love you all~

"I feel like you're my boyfriend.... you pooped on me!"

So Day 1 was the longest day in the history of mankind, but it was also pretty great! We had another cool coincidence, this guy Geo that had sat down in the wrong seat on the plane to Sydney next to me for a few minutes before he realized his mistake actually showed up at our hostel yesterday! He is really funny, and he really reminds me of Craig, so it was nice to have almost a familiar friend as soon as we got here :)
Kacey and I got to shower and it was very clean and nice and private, it felt aaaamazing. I bet everybody was relieved once that happened.
*side note* We are on the 4th floor in a 4 person room- glad my lucky number is showing up so soon in the trip!
Our two roommates are really sweet- one is 19 and from Sweden, she has dreads and is just out of highschool spending a year in Australia alone! Way cooler than me, in other words. Our other roommate actually leaves today :( she's from Beijing and goes to college here in Australia. We got very lucky with our first room assignment!
So, back to yesterday, we took off from the hostel to go exploring and went on a four hour long wander. It was really great! We found Market City right by our hostel which is a normal mall on top and a huge market on the bottom- there was fresh fruit, food stands, tons of souveniers, and cheap clothes! From there we just started walking again and went through a small park and into a little suburb area that was super cute, it made me love Sydney, which by the way is a very clean and friendly place, so far!
We then found our way into Hyde park and into the Botanical Gardens. The sign basically summed up our love for it "Please walk on our grass, hug our trees, etc." This is the place for us! We found huge bats hanging in trees and sometimes flying overhead, honestly, even though I love bats, it was a little creepy when we were standing under the tree taking pictures of them hanging and two turned their little fox heads down and stared right at us! Yea, that for real occured, I have picture evidence, haha.
The next area of the gardens we entered we saw a group of people with huge white birds landing on them! No, not pidgeons or seagulls (both of which are all over the city, funny enough) but actually some sort of Cockatoo! At least thats what I think... I'll put up pics eventually and you bird experts can let me know what it really is. Anyway, really cool birds, in the wild, just swooping down and landing on people's arms and heads. One hung out with Kacey for a long time (hence the title of this post) and it was love at first sight... until he pooped on her leg. I hate when romances end that way..... :P
While playing with the birds we met two boys from an African island that go to college in Perth- yes, there are people from everywhere here! We chatted about our different homes and got some coffee from a really nice shop owner that gave us all sorts of tips about what bars to hit up and what cities we have to see during our travels! Everybody really is so friendly! We talked to this guy for about 35 minutes and learned so much :)
We went our own way from the boys with talks of maybe seeing eachother before we all leave the city and ended up warming up at the hostel and getting ready to go out with our roommates. We hit up two hostel bars and then Kacey and I were just way too exhausted to stay out a minute more so we came back and passed out in the hostel. Seriously, I was falling asleep sitting up at the bar! If I was about 30 years older it would have looked really tragic and pathetic. As it is, I just looked pathetic, haha. Anywho, it is now about 10 am on Thursday so I am going to get dressed and try to wake up Kacey :) Hope all is well with all of you!!!

We Made It!

We are in Sydney Central YHA (which is pretty amazing, btw) and, as Kacey says, we smell. Like really, I truly smell. It's gross. But it is about 10 am here in Australia and our rooms and showers won't be ready until noon, meaning Kacey and the other poor travelers, and myself, have to deal with my stench for a little while longer. I just scream sexy, eh? The 14 hour flight wasn't too bad and I actually slept a lot, although I woke up a lot, too. We sat next to a really nice man the same age as Terry; his name is Owen. He gave us some nice tips about the Sydney area- Free Art Exhibits in Sydney and Melbourne and there is a ferry to Manley Beach that goes through the harbour: awesome because it saves us the cost of doing a boat tour of the harbour and it gets us to a pretty famous Sydney beach! We actually also met a guy from Manley Beach on the flight to San Fran. Who knows, maybe we will run into him again!
Customs confiscated our sandwiches and my beef jerky. Something about bringing in pests to the country they don't like... I really don't know, haha. I'm just glad that we admitted that we had food in our bags because if they found it themselves it would have been a $200 fine. Yes. I would have ended up paying $200 for an airline sandwich and a bag of jerky. That I wouldn't have even been able to keep. We even asked if we could eat the food real quick... I think he thought we were joking. Oh well, ya win some ya loose some!
Well, Kacey and I are both feeling a little bit woozy- no we are not drinking... yet. Probably just jetlag but we're gonna go eat some pancakes just in case :) Love you all and miss you already!

72 Hours... Yup.

Alright, so, I don't know when I went from 2 weeks to a little over 2 days, but that's how time goes, right? I've been doing small stuff everyday and it looks like all I have left is packing (which I have obviously been putting off until tomorrow, or maybe the next day, or maybe.... ok, yea, I don't have time after that)! The biggest hassle has been getting this international phone ready to go- uuuggghhh. If it was up to me, I wouldn't have a phone at all, but I understand it's probably smart to have one for emergencys and so my mom doesn't create an emergency trying to get ahold of me over there. I can only imagine the panic.... Yep. A phone is probably a good idea.
For those of you that don't have the phone number (basically everybody except my mom- that thing is expensive and so complicated to use), I really will be updating this everytime I use the internet and I'll be on Facebook and all those other options for communication that the wonderful interwebs allows. Email... Skype... Aim... whatev, if you wanna send me something, please do! I'd love to get messages over there, although I'm definitely not making promises about speedy responses- I need to be out there makin' stuff happen so I have funny things to tell you about when I get home!
I guess one last note for ya is that if you want my skype name or email or any of that, just Facebook me and ask for it. And if I like you I will give it to you :) Haha, I just don't want to post it because who knows what random creeper is gonna stumble across this oh-so-exciting blog and try to talk to me. Haha, as if anybody other than you all would spend their time reading yet another travel blog :P But just in case, nobody wants that drama. I've seen the news. I've read Cosmo's scary "informational" stories about stalkers. I know people are weird....er than you and I. So yea, no personal info up here please, but I would love comments if you wanna make a Google account and do that.
Oh- speaking of comments, does anybody object to me making some money off of putting ads on this blog? I figure you all can ignore them.... Oooor if you wanna act interested and click on them and make me money that would be cool too.... either way :) Let me know if you think that would be really obnoxious of me to do.
Wow, this is really long and I'm not even there, nor am I even saying anything that interesting.... but I bet you all are still reading hoping that the time will go faster behind your desk or that I will share something worth while aaaaanytime now... Not gonna happen this post, wait for the next one, haha. That is, unless you're interested in knowing that Australia time is 14 hours ahead of Ohio time.
That is all the rambling I feel the need to do today :)
Hope you all are healthy and happy--enjoy life today and make plans to enjoy tomorrow (I'll try to help by keeping this thing interesting)!
Much love <3

2 Weeks til Departure!

My green flip-flops :)

The departure date has snuck up and we are now less than 2 weeks from when we board our plane to a wonderful world of beaches, accents, and new people to meet!
Yesterday I picked out some "necessities" for the trip, and I couldn't be more excited about them- plus, I was lucky enough that my mom purchased everything as a late graduation gift :)
I am now the proud owner of a green Patagonia day pack, green Patagonia flip-flops, and a pair of 5Fingers "shoes"! I'm really excited to try them out and I'm planning on wearing them just about everywhere to break them in before we go- if you haven't seen these frog-feet lookin' things before, you really should check them out. I'll post up some pictures of my new stuff soon.

Also, I now have a loose itinerary of Kacey's and my trip that we came up with after a lot of research and collaboration. Like I said, this is a loose itinerary and I'm sure most of it will change before the trips over, but this is at least our guideline:
Arrive in Sydney on the 14th.
Sydney the 15th, 16th, and 17th.
Travel to Brisbane on the 18th.
Brisbane the 19th and 20th.
Spend a day and night in Byron Bay on the 21st.
Travel to Cairns the 22nd and 23rd.
Cairns the 24th- the Great Barrier Reef/Rainforest trip the 25th, 26th, and 27th.
Fly out of Cairns to Melbourne on the 28th.
Melbourne the 29th and 30th.
Travel back to Sydney the 31st.
One last day in Sydney on the 1st...
and we Depart for Cincinnati on the 2nd!!!

It is a very packed schedule so the most important thing to me right now is making sure that we get to spend enough time where we want :)

I'll try to keep y'all updated on when I make new posts- there may not be another until we actually get on our way, so wish us luck!!!

my 5Fingers from the side