TravelStream™ news feed for member hamblce3 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/hamblce3 en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Mon, 17 Jul 2006 10:45:12 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1153019580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1153019580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1153019580/tpod.html Mon, 17 Jul 2006 10:45:12 -0400 Study abroad at the University of Newcastle...but mostly other places

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Lansing, Michigan, United States

Okey dokey...a few setbacks later and I'm finally back to finish the entry! Got into Newcastle a few minutes late, missed the bus. Sat around chillin for a while. Caught the bus into town, caught the bus home. When I got home there wasn't anybody around, so I packed up a bit and went to Woolies to get a bottle of conditioner and maybe some Tim Tams with my leftover change. When I got to the conditioner place, I found that they were on sale and I had enough coinage to get two bottles! But no Tim Tams. I bought them and I had 55 cents leftover so I made a donation to the hospital. Then I went home and finished packing. Then I had a few hours until Carissa was coming over, so I watched the Tour de France. I realized I didn't recognise ANYBODY this year!
Around 11:30 Carissa came and we stayed up talking until 1:30! Then we took a few goofy pictures and she went home. I finally decided what time I needed to leave the next day then set my alarm and went to bed. At 6:50. I woke up and lugged my luggage (hehe) to the bus stop. I waited 15 minutes until the bus came and lugged my luggage up to the handicapped place. Then I watched carefully so as not to miss the train station, but there was apparently someone else going there too, so they pushed the button and helped me carry my luggage in! Then it was the fun part of getting the stuff on the train! I had to take up all four seats because my big bag wouldn't fit on the floor properly. About an hour and a half later, some woman came and told me I should move my luggage so more people could sit down. Sigh. I rearranged enough that two more could sit down, uncomfortably. At the next stop, half the train got off anyway so I'm pretty sure she could have just lived. Finally we got to Central where I had to switch to go to the airport.
When I found the platform, all I saw was stairs, so I sighed and started lugging everything up. A few ladies came running up behind me to help. When we reached the top of the stairs, they asked me why I hadn't used the lifts. Gosh I don't know, probably because I didn't see it! Oh well, they got a chuckle.
To get from the station to the check in counter it took four escalators and a long walk. Then I had to wait in line to get a pre-security screening. The family three in front of me had a game called pass the bomb. Why in the name of all things proper would you bring ANYTHING with the word bomb to an airport, even if it is just a game!?!?!?
Then I got in the other line and waited for the next available person. When she weighed my bag, it weighed .7 kgs too many. I took some travel pamphlets out and put them in my bookbag and I was golden. I needed to collect my bags in LA to go through customs and then they will recheck them for me. Okey dokes. Up to the gate to wait for a while. But they wouldn't let us in the gate. They apparently run security checks at the gate as well, so they keep everybody out until they're ready. Okey fine.
We got on the plane, did the whole sitting around bit, taxi, then take off. I checked out the movies, and they looked pretty good. I wound up watching Candy, the second part of March of the Penguins, the first part of The Pink Panther, and the first part of Ice Age 2 as well as an episode of The Office. I played one game and slept for a few hours. For dinner, they gave us a beef dish, and I went ahead and ordered wine to go with it. Mmm. I hoped it would knock me out for a little while, and it did, but only about 30 minutes. In the night, they brought us Hot chocolate, apples, and snacks. For Breakfast I had Raisin Bran, a sultana brioche, pineapples and melons, juice and tea. I also ate the rest of my granola bars and Coles tim tams. I didn't finish my other biscuits, but they were cheap and I was stuffed, so I thought I'd survive.
Customs was fun. He asked me what I had. And I told him (even though I had written it out on the back of the form, just like you're supposed to!) He was a little stumped by the milk powder, but as long as I didn't bring any of the plane food, he was ok to let me through. Then I grabbed a trolley (they're free in LA) and waited for my luggage. It all came through, then I walked through a door and took the lifts up, then walked through a hallway and another door and someone stopped me and asked me where I was going. I said Chicago, and he pointed to a place to put my luggage, then sent me off. I toodled around a little bit, having quite a few hours to go, but eventually I had nothing to do. I called home. Nick answered and we talked for quite a while. And then the conversation sort of stopped. So we both agreed it was time to go on about our days and we'd see each other in a few hours. I called Mel to catch up too, and by the time I was done I only had another 2 or 3 hours to wait. As it turns out, sometime since we booked those tickets this flight changed from 1:30 to 3:00, so I had a good long while to wait. I also checked my next flight and found out we were supposed to land 15 minutes before my Detroit flight started boarding. I figured that would be fine, since you can be a little late for baording (they gave me 45 minutes!). Hang around, wait, change a few gates (three by the time they were done), and get a small thing of Pringles to eat, and finally the plane was boarding.
It was the trashiest plane I've ever been on. The seats were old, it was claustrophobic (after the spacious Qantas plane I think anything would have been), and I was in row 31. The second to last row and the one with the jet right outside the window. And to add insult to injury, I asked for aisle seats that morning in Sydney, and this just happened to be the window seat in the aisle. Grrr.
Well, I managed to sleep despite the jet (I was purty tired), and woke up a few hours still before we reached Chicago. I read my book for a little while, but I stopped early because I didn't want to finish it before Detroit. We actually landed a little early, 8:40. I noticed immediately that the sun was still upish! I think I finally got off the plane around 8:50, and checked with the guy at the desk about where the next fligth was. He wrote it down for me and I charged off to find that gate. I kidna wish I hadn't, because my flight had been delayed from 9:45 to 11. Man oh man! I called Mom, but they already knew. As I was talking to her, the time changed again to 11:10! Sigh I was never going to get home!
It turns out that we were waiting for flight attendants to arrive, and we didn't actually get to take off until 11:45, but it was scheduled to be a short 45 minute flight, rather than the 1 hour 11 minute flight originally scheduled. We got in at 1:30 and I finished the last page in my book as we taxi-d into the gate.
We walked across the empty airport to the baggage claim area. I found Mom quickly, mostly because it was just our flight getting in. Then the bags came rolling through. My box showed up, but not my suitcase. Hmmm. So we went in the little room to claim it and headed to the hotel.
Nick was already asleep, but I was needing to shower very very badly, so I hopped in. When I was done, I sat down on the end of the bed to keep Kuro company. two hours later I woke up and thought I should relocate to the top of the bed. I woke up in the morning around 10 am and we all headed home. I knew I wouldn't be able to stay awake unless we did something, so Mom took me shopping. We came home hours later with four movies from Blockbuster and one new bra. We then proceeded to watch Eight Below. Then we thought maybe it was dinner time, so I started to whip up some Aussie burgers and their add-ons and we ate. They seemed to go over pretty well.
We waited and we waited for my luggage and around 9:30 it finally came. All wrapped in platic wrap. It had come open. I ripped it open and searched through everything. One uni mug...containing one watch. One shoe, containing two necklaces. One CD case, containing 12 DVDs and my iTunes backup CDs. Suspicious? We thought so too so after I stopped crying a bit, I called American to report it. She told me the only thing they would probably be able to cover was the shoes. Not the electronics and DVD stuff. So I cried a little more. And I emptied the dishwasher.
This morning I got up and Mom had called the credit card company. They said they could cover things up to $1000 on the traveller's insurance. So I was a little relieved about that. They need to see official claim forms, so I called American again. At first I don't think she was going to send them to me, but I told her the damage was over $200, so she agreed she should. Then she asked if my bag was broken. I said yes it was completely busted. Apparently I can go buy a new one and they will reimburse me. So that's good and it looks like everything will be replaceable. Sigh. And I was so close to having a perfect trip!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152760500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152760500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152760500/tpod.html Mon, 17 Jul 2006 10:42:24 -0400 Study abroad at the University of Newcastle...but mostly other places

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Los Angeles, California, United States

Well I'm writing today from the second of my two July 12ths. Yeah, the dateline does weird things to you. As far as my body is concerned it's 5:30 am tomorrow and as far as the watch and the rest of the people in the airport are concerned it's 12:30 today. And I can't tell if the floor is shaking or if it's just me.
Catching up, I got up about 20 minutes too early for the shuttle on Tuesday. Then everything went as planned to Brisbane. I got in at 8:10 and my next flight wasn't until 3:30, so I had quite a few hours to sit in front of the Jetstar counter watching other people check in for their flights. I think I got about 30 or 40 sudokus done, even though I had bought and started Digital Fortress. I didn't want to finish it too early...I still had essentially three days of travel ahead of me and I knew it wouldn't last the whole time if I started it right away. I got bored and my calves, still sore from Saturday, cramped up, so about every hour I walked around until I could move them properly and the sat and stretched them out again. I also devised a method for getting in and out of Newcastle in time to catch the earlier bus home.
If my flight was on time, or even better, a little early, and I managed to get my luggage quickly, I might be able to catch the bus into town at 4:42, otherwise I had to wait until 6:35! I decided I check in early every time and my luggage is almost always the last one to come through. So I decided to sit at the counter and not check in until I could be guaranteed a silver boarding pass, meaning I was one of the last people to check in, thus my luggage should be last on the plane, and thus first onto the luggage-people-reuniting belt at the airport. I was successful in my acquisition of the silver boarding pass, which also guaranteed me an aisle seat. I got through security (and got scanned for explosives again), found my gate, browsed the bookstore, and did even more sudoku before my flight was ready for boarding. Then I made sure I was one of the last people in the boarding line. I was quite proud of myself, I got a seat in row 5 on the aisle! Not even next to the children (there were tons in the lounge area, but I don't know where they wound up)! As we were sitting next to the runway (like the turn before you're actually taking off), the pilot got on and explained that we were having to wait to make sure we could actually land in Newcastle. Apparently the airport had shut down earlier due to some wire malfunction on the tarmac. Yikes! I had to get home that night! No mistakes! Fortunately, a few minutes later we were off.
It was a pretty smooth flight...oops gotta go they're changing my gate!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152587820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152587820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152587820/tpod.html Mon, 17 Jul 2006 10:41:07 -0400 Study abroad at the University of Newcastle...but mostly other places

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Cairns, Australia

Holy cow I can't believe it's my last day already! I forgot to say about my visor yesterday. I did succumb to the souvenir shops and purchased an Australia visor. But I had my reasons. First it caught my eye. Then I walked around and told myself I didn't need a visor, I already had a hat. Then I realised my hat says Captain Morgan and won't be appropriate for coaching kids, or even for playing during preseason (I know coach gave us those hats but I doubt we'd be welcome to wear them at practice). So I spent $10 on a visor. I'm actually pretty proud of myself.
As for today, well I had allocated the whole thing to finding a bathing suit. I thought I'd start off at the mall across the road, and then head out into town. That way if I found something early but moved on, I wouldn't have to hike across the world to find it again. I tried Target, they had a whole bunch of tops, but hardly any bottoms, let alone mathing ones. Then I moved on to a little shop with a huge sale going on...ie $9.95 for a top and the same for a bottom. That definitely fit my price range, so I tried a few on. I found a beautiful top that fit me perfectly. The bottoms were a problem though. I had a few problems actually. I know my hips are bigger than my top, but are they still as big as they were two weeks ago or did I lose weight? Should I buy the right size or a size smaller? Do I actually like brown as a colour for a bathing suit? And what the hell am I going to do with the rest of my day if I've already found a perfect suit? Well, I couldn't find any bottoms to fit properly and match, so I kept moving. I walked around the rest of the mall and only stopped in one other store, but their bathing suits were $75 for a top and something else entirely for bottoms (didn't bother checking at that point).
So I headed up the strip. Conveniently, I found the same shop I had already been in this morning, but further up the street. To me it said, stop in, find a bottom that fits. I don't know if that was really the store or just my head, but I listened anyway. I found a few bottoms that worked just fine. One was solid brown and the other had a pink band and pink flowers. I know, I'm not much of a pink person, but a little colour couldn't hurt. I decided to break the tie I should look for a top that mathed the bottoms (aside from the one in the other store). If there was another coloured top, I would get the solid bottoms. Otherwise, I'd stick with the pink trimmed ones. Well, there were other tops, but they either didn't fit or looked rediculous, so I went with the pinkies. Then I went back to the first store and got the top. All this and It was only 10:30 (and I'd only spent $19.90)!
Well last night I finished Taking Lives (thank goodness, I'm not sure I could have stood much more), so I headed to the bookstore to fill out some time until lunch and find a new book to read on the way home. I looked and looked, and most of the books were more than I wanted to spend (I figured since I had only spent 20 of the 40 I planned for the bathing suit I was ok for another 20 on a book). As I walked into the general fiction section, I remembered that Dan Brown has at least two other books I haven't read, so I headed for the Bs. Indeedy, $19.95, then I just had to choose which one I wanted! I chose the one about the NSA rather than the one about Antarctica. Then I headed back to the hostel (it was 11 and I don't like to be out in the sun from 11-1). I forgot the kitchen closes at 11 for cleaning, so I couldn't fill up my water bottle. But I sat outside doing sudoku until 12:!5 when the kitchen opened, then I made some spag and sat down with Woman's Weekly. I read and ate and giggled at the silly things they published in the magazine. By the time I was done it was just after one, and I thought I'd go to the lagoon. All excited about my new swim suit, I put it on. Then I realized it was going to be a trick to put on all the sunscreen I would need, and hoped nobody would come in when I was attempting it. Especially since it involved untying parts of the suit at various times. Well, I got lucky, and I think I got everywhere covered.
At the lagoon, I finished another necklace. Now I have four shells with no home, but I have plans for them, just not firm ones yet. Then I fixed my own necklace, because it had stretched out something terrible in the last few weeks, so I cut it open and tied it closer together. I like it better now. I did some more sudoku (btw I'm only in the 60s now), then the sun was coming out and it was too bright, so I put my shirt over my face and laid down. I kinda drifted off, but I did the holy-shit-you're-not-breathing-are-you-dying? full-body twitch to wake me up. By this time it was after 3:30, and the clouds were moving in like it could rain (though I doubted it actually would), and it was getting a few degrees cooler. So I packed up and headed home.
The light went off three times in this shower, but not because I took any longer a shower than normal, I think the timer changed. So I hopped out stark naked twice to wave my hand at the sensor. Fortunately there was nobody in there at the time!
I also called the Sun Palm bus company to confirm my departure tomorrow morning for hte airport. Pick up is at 3:55! Damn homie! I checked with reception as to what I needed to do, and the laundry thingy will be out so I can drop my sheets there and slip my card under the door. Cool. I posted Judith's electrical converter to her along with the last of my Michigan gifts, the Petosky stone angel (since they still had their Christmas tree up in March I thought it was pertinent). Tonight I'll pack up my stuff and make however many more pbjs I can with my bread for tomorrow.
So yeah, my time in Australia is pretty much up. Tomorrow it's flying and airports, Wednesday it's most of the forms of public transportation and flying and airports. And a hotel. Then homers. Being that I'm travelling alone I've had a lot of time to think to myself, and I realised that this was pretty much my only childhood goal. So basically I have to make grown up goals now. It's kinda sad. I had also planned on finding the man of my dreams and marrying him after graduation next year, but kids can't get everything right. Speaking of the man of my dreams I did actually have a man-of-my-dreams dream last night where we met and were dating seriously in a span of about 12 minutes. It was great. He was tall dark and handsome too.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1153019940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1153019940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1153019940/tpod.html Mon, 17 Jul 2006 10:37:06 -0400 Study abroad at the University of Newcastle...but mostly other places

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Port Douglas, Australia

When the alarm went off this morning, I popped up and scrambled for it. Not really because I was awake, but mostly because I didn't want to bother my roommates too much. Quick breakfast then pack up and head outside to wait for the shuttle. There was already one out there, so I wondered if it was mine, but no. He was going to Cookstown if that helps. Mmmm not so much since I have no idea where Cookstown is, but thanks anyway. Back to the stairs. A few minutes later my shuttle showed up and took me and a mother-son combo on our way to Port Douglas. There were 5 or 6 other stops along the way, but we made it to PD by 8:30. I headed straight for these markets and walked around. They weren't anything special that I could tell. So I just walked around. Then I thought I'd try to find the beach. It's not actually 4 miles btw. They named it after an aboriginal woman, and it's really only about 2 miles. Still a pretty far way, but otherwise unremarkable. The thing I found interesting, like yesterday, was that there was palm and rainforest right on the beaches edges. I walked around there until about 10, then headed back up the strip to check out the shops (which weren't open on the trip down).
I was looking for possibly a bathing suit and definitely a change purse for Mom. I saw one in the Newcastle souvenir shop around March, but had forgotten about them until yesterday, and now couldn't find one anywhere! The bathing suit is, of course, optional, but if I get one it'll be a bikini and in the $30-40 range (ie on sale). The first place I went was a really classy bathing suit store with people to help you pick shit out and all. I tried on one, it fit pretty well, but then I looked at the price tag...$115 for the top and god only knows how much for the bottom. Yeah. Over $100 for something that looks suspiciously like a bra, no fancy beads or anything. No clasps even. So I tried to appear like I was just shopping around, and return them and RUN from the store. But the woman asked how I liked it and I said I was just trying it on to see if I liked the colour and it didn't really suit (I've been waiting to write that in my journal all day). So she gave me another colour to try. Dammit. I went in, put it on, and took it off again. This time I said I was new to bikinis and not sure about them and I'd shop around today and come back, I have all day you know. And then I make my break for it. I probably tried on about 10 bathing suits today, and I only found one that did actually suit, but not that well. The top was perfect, like someone made it for me, but the bottom had a fold down bit that wouldn't stay folded down due to the abruptness of my hips, and it looked a tad stupid as a result. The lady in that store tried to find me another bottom, but there weren't any in my size. It was probably okay since the set was $73. Grrr. Those were the only two experiences worth discussing, the rest were pretty bland.
As for this change purse, apparently nobody likes those types, and I saw every kind BUT the kind I wanted. I was at the next to last store in the mall type thing, and I thought it would be a long shot...something about outback in the name. I walked in and low and behold, right there on the front counter just waiting for me was a stack of brightly coloured change purses!! I told the woman how very happy I was to find them again and that she was the only store in the whole of Cairns and Port Douglas who carried this type and it was perfect and exactly what my mom would like. She seemed pleased, and even gave me a gift bag since it was to be a gift. I had the biggest grin on my face when I left the store.
Speaking of grins I meant to write the other day about something I saw at the night markets in Cairns. Everytime I think about it I giggle, no matter the current location. There was a shirt and I haven't been looking at shirts, but I just went in to walk around and I found a navy blue shirt with tiny writing in the chest. Like where they would put the little croc, or the guy playing polo or the guy smashing a golf club. Teeny white letters saying You're a nosey fucker...aren't you? Bah ha ha ha ha ha. Yup I"m laughing again. That's okay though, I'm alone in the room.
Anyway, back to today. I tried this morning to switch to the 5pm shuttle back, but it was really windy and overcast today so the beach was kinda cold, and there is only that one strip of shops that I had walked around about 5 times when it was 2:20. So I perused the bookstore until 2:40, then went over to the BTS tours office to wait until the shuttle. Finally it did, and I got on. I must have passed out a little because I remember going over a bump and hitting my head on the window and being woken. We went past the Tjapukai centre. I actually remembered it more distinctly than I thought I did. I was the first stop in Cairns, thankfully, and I went to my room and read for a little while. Then I realised that someone had been in to clean (4 of the 5 roommates left today), and my shampoo and other shower essentials (all of them) were on top of my locker this morning and were no longer. And my hand towel was MIA. So I got down from my bed to see if I (or they) had put them in my locker for me. Nope. Shit. How am I going to shower tonight? I'm sure as hell not going to Coles and buying everything new TODAY! I'm only here another day then I spend two days in transit before I get home! The moral of the story is that they had moved it to anotehr roommate's locker top, and I could shower or dry my hands if I wanted to.
So about this being in transit thing. Yeah I leave Tuesday morning at 4 am for the airport, leave Cairns at 6. Get into Brisbane at 8, leave Brisbane at 3:30 and get into Newcastle at 4:42. There is a bus that leaves at 4:45, but I'm guessing that the flight will be a few minutes late, and then you have to add 10 minutes to get your checked luggage, so I'm guessing I'll miss that one unless it's seriously late. Then next one comes sometime in the 6 o'clock hour, and I'll get home around 7. I'lll want to shower and have to finalise packing. Get some dinner somewhere, and either sleep in Jen's room, at 22 Heaton (the guys now live there), or hope that Carissa gets out of working and I can sleep at her place. Then it's up at 6 to catch a cab, catch the train to Sydney, change at Central, get to the airport around 9:40. My flight leaves at 1:25 and gets into LA at 9:30ish am, same day (yeah, it's freaky). My second flight (to Chicago) leaves again around 1:30 and gets in around 7 (I think-this is all off the top of my head), then my final flight leaves at 9:25 and gets in at 11:46PM. Then a night in a hotel with Mom and bananas and Taco Bell. Then an hour drive home to hang out with Kuro! And the cats, if they remember me. I might email Mom and tell her we could get home before 11 if she picks me up in Chicago. Don't know what happens to my luggage then. I'll possibly pay for internet tomorrow and do that. For now, reading and sleep (it's only 7 and I'm pooped...something about two early mornings in a row)!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152415260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152415260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152415260/tpod.html Mon, 17 Jul 2006 10:27:58 -0400 Study abroad at the University of Newcastle...but mostly other places

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Fitzroy Island, Australia

Well just after packing up last night I realized I didn't buy an extra water bottle for today. And I didn't know how much civilisation was going to be on this island, so I hoped like crazy that Coles wasn't closed yet (it was just after 8). Thankfully it wasn't, and I spent 70 cents on a 1.5 litre water bottle. Then I read for a while and thought I was tired. Alas, no. I stayed up for who knows how long, but when the alarm went off this morning, I wasn't too chipper. I flew through breakfast and packing lunch, and was off by 7:30.
I found the building just fine, and even found my line eventually. And then we stood there for 30 minutes before the line even moved. Grrrr. Paid the rest of my fare (the lady yesterday missed a $5 levy for who knows what, so I'm glad I didn't bring exact change!), and headed off to find the boat. The wharf was easy enough to find, right outside the door. And then I had to find the boat. Not so simple. But I did it. Then I sat on it for about 30 minutes.
Finally we were on our way (20 minutes late)! It was pretty, but I didn't want to take many pictures because there was a spray from the ocean. So I just enjoyed it for myself (I'm a little selfish sometimes). Then I was really glad I put the camera away. I was sitting on the top shelf, but a huge spalsh came out of nowhere and soaked us. And again and again the whole rest of the damn trip. To say that the water was a little choppy would be like saying Australian money is a little different to American money (I saw some for the first time in 6 months today...it looked really weird). At one point the driver turned off the engines so that we could at least stay upright as we went through this one wave. I kinda felt like I was on Poseidon ot Titanic, only I was in the middle of paradise. And we didn't sink. I guess it's a small difference to keep track of (wink).
Soaked and freezing (wink) we arrived at Fitzroy Island. Thank goodness it was sunny and a little windy to dry me out pretty quickly. First thing I wanted to do was head up to the summit and lighthouse. So I headed in that direction. Apparently they were doing work on the lighthouse trail, so it was straight up the summit trail for me. It started off pretty cool, like a rainforest. Then it got a little bit like a desert (although a really lush one). Then there were boulders. Then I found the top. There weren't any real lookouts from the top, the rocks were in the way. So I took a few goofy pictures of myself instead. Then I had to decide between the lighthouse and the resort (Welcome Bay where we came in). It was still early, so I chose the lighthouse. I'm glad I did, because the scenery was spectacular! You'll just have to see the pictures. They don't quite do it justice, but you can imagine what it was like looking at them (and the sheer volume of them helps too). It was also extremely windy (beyond the helpful wind from earlier. When I finally got to the lighthouse, I was pretty sure the wind could blow me over. Not really a comforting thought when you have to walk up to the top of the island again. I took a rest and drank a lot of water. Then I started off again.
Now my legs were pretty tired on the way up the hill, but this second go round was even worse! I had to stop twice, and even then the calves were doing that flipping out thing they sometimes do when you climb too many stairs. Once I reached the summit, there were more people heading up (12 noon seems like a really bad time to start things like that to me, but there ya go). Then it was all downhill from there! Wooo hooo!
In the last few meters, I saw a cockatoo, so I stopped and walked really slowly up towards him so I could get his picture. Then I walked by him and made him fly away. I tried to get a picture of that too, but it didn't work out so well.
I stopped by the toilets to change and apply sunscreen, then I headed off to Nudey beach. I know what you're thinking-and no it's not a nude beach. The only thing I hadn't considered was that I would have to walk through a rainforest to get there, so I felt like a bit of a tool wandering around in only my swim suit and bookbag. Oh well. When I arrived, I looked around and wondered why it would be world famous. Except for having large amounts of coral (that you can't take with you because it's a national park), there was nothing special about it. Then I walked around the corner, it was really pretty (maybe not world famous pretty, but not as sad as I had first imagined). I spent the early afternoon eating lunch and working on another necklace. Then I went sifting through the coral for nifty ones to take pictures of. Then I walked around to the other side of the beach to lay out in the warm and hopefully less wind-I think my first spot was a wind tunnel-lined in sand, of course. I pretty much passed out for a little while, then popped awake worried about missing the ferry at 3:45. Good timing, so I sat around a little more and marvelled at the fact that I was the only one on the beach, took a few more goofy pictures, then packed up and headed back to the dock. And I sat there for a while, waiting in line so that I could get a seat inside-in the dry-for the ride home. Lots of people came, but I got my wish anyway. Since we were heading due west, I closed my eyes and might have slipped off again. The sunset was ok, nothing worth pictures (not that I had any room on my camera for them anyway), and then we were home! It was getting cold so I powerwalked home, and headed straight for the shower (ok, I had a tim tam first). Brushing my hair out was loverly-between the salt water and the wind it was a royal pain in the ass/head. But it was sooo good. I think the hot hot water might have run out, because I turned the cold all the way off and it wasn't that warm. And the light went out on me again...grrr. This time I was in the middle of shaving, and thought a light would be really helpful, so ran out in my towel and got it back on. Then a nice dinner of spaghetti and bread, then journal, and now I'm thinking reading and bed. Early start tomorrow-6am, leaving the hostel at 6:45 for Port Douglas!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152328920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152328920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152328920/tpod.html Mon, 17 Jul 2006 10:13:59 -0400 Study abroad at the University of Newcastle...but mostly other places

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Cairns, Australia

Another spendid day in paradise! I started the day off with a nice breakfast of toast, an egg, and a mandarin. One of my new favourite things about hostels is the free shelf. Today I found canola oil so I didn't have a half scrambled half over hard egg, but a properly over hard one. I also found some extra bread and butter-like spread and I made some toast.
First stop for today was the information centre to book two trips I liked the look of. I got a nice lady, but it was her first "case" and her trainer wasn't very good at training. She seemed pretty set in her ways and corrected the lady everytime she did something slightly off-key, like using the mouse to highlight boxes instead of tabbing. I felt pretty bad, but she did a good job. I had to go and complicate things by bringing in a brochure not from one of their member companies, so they had to do a few searches and call a few places to get it worked out. So the travel plan is: tomorrow I'm going to Fitzroy Island from 8-5. This costs a grand total of $42. It's 94% national park, with a nice walk through the forest, and spectacular Nudey beach. The trainer lady suggested I do the walk in the morning and then hang out on the beach in the afternoon. I might just do that. On Sunday I'm going to Port Douglas, home of the 4 Mile Beach. I leave at 6:45am from the hostel, and I leave again at 3, but I'm going to ask if I can stay until 5 (because what else am I going to do on a Sunday evening in Cairns?). The shuttle is $40. The ladies were pretty excited for me to go on a Sunday because there are markets. So I suppose I'll do those in the morning and go to the beah after that (4 miles is a lot to explore too, so I might need until 5). I'm pretty much one excited puppy.
Then I was off to find a pair of sunnies, because today was extra sunny and I hadn't found any yet. I wound up going to a pharmacy and spending $20 on a sleek pair, but I really like them and they came with a case. When I thought about it, my last two pairs of sunnies cost me $22 in total, so I figured it worked out to $11 a pair and I shouldn't worry too much about it, that's right on par with all my other pairs.
Afterwards, I went to find the terminal where the tour leaves tomorrow. I found a second mall on the edge of town, and then the terminal. Big signs. Can't miss it type. So that's good. I walked through the mall and found big tents outside next to the lagoon. I walked around, and I sat under the really really big tent listening to some music. I pulled out the necklace project and started doing my thing. Then I found out I was in the middle of a Black pride week celebration. I tried not to stick out, but I think even as tan as I am I can't pass for indiginous. I hung around for a short while, then went home for lunch. I made spaghetti again, and had my two tim tams. I also found earl grey tea in the free shelf, so I made me up a cup of that. Then I realized I didn't buy any milk this week. Hmmm. Hopefully there's some dry stuff on the shelf or a little of the real stuff in the fridge. Alas, all I had to choose from was black tea or soy milk. I tried a little black tea, but it wasn't that good, so I braved the soy milk. I put as little in as I thought reasonable, and went to put the milk away and found there was a teriyaki-type sauce in the middle of my white shirt. There must have been some on the bottom of the fridge, and thus the bottom of the milk. So before I ate, I ran to my room to change my shirt and hopefully wash the brown spot out. It took two scrubs, but it appears to have worked. Finally, it was lunch time. My spag had cooled down sufficiently, which was good because it was bloody hot outside. I sat doing sudoku and eating lunch until there was a sudden splash of water from above. As it turns out, they were cleaning the deck over us. Seemed like a good time to move, so I went back to my room.
Nothing else really to do, I decided to go to the lagoon again. So I changed and packed up my stuff and headed out. It was about 1:30, and I figured around 3:30 I would go home and change to go for a run. I was a good blondie and put on sunscreen, then realized all I brought to do was the necklace, so I should probably have had clean hands, but oh well. I finished right up to the final bead, but then I realized I had a small problem. The last bead is the one that holds the necklace shut, so it should be skinny and long, which mine was. But it also helps if it's got a hole through the skinny part rather than the fat one. Mine are cut the other way, so it would probably just slip right off again. I guess I'll need to go to a bead store at home and find the right bead. Or maybe not...I just thought about a few possibilities for making it work. So I'll look into that later.
Then it was back to the hostel for this run of mine. Well I got a little sidetracked on the way. There was a place having a $9.95 sale on bathing suits. I thought for $20 I could use a new suit. The colour I really liked wasn't in my size, so I tried on a few I probably wouldn't have normally. I liked a brown top, but there were no bottoms that went with it properly, and $10 for a top with no bottoms seemed a bit pointless. I kept walking home. I was just about to decide not to go running, but I was already dressed, and I had tied my shoes too, so I decided I was definitely going. I looked at the map and planned out a route that looked long enough to sustain me. Then I set off. I was going really well at first, but after about 25 minutes I felt a little sick and thought I'd better stop. No sense in passing out on the Esplanade, people would notice that. A runner just blends in. Last time I felt that was I chalked it up to dehydration, but today I had already had three bottles of water, so I thought maybe that wasn't it. No idea. I walked home.
Then it was time for my favourite part of the day (on days I'm not cooking something exotic)-the shower! Woot! I think I must have taken a really long one today because the motion sensor lights went out as I was finishing up. So I had to bathe in the darkness. No biggie. I got dressed and made some dinner then thought I'd go all out and use the hair drier in the bathroom before I left again. Well I looked absolutely stunning to go to the markets, if I do say so myself. There are these night markets I thought I'd check out this evening. They were pretty much tourist stuff (go figure). I tried on a few more bathing suits, and there was another close one, but the top had clasps but was too big so I'd have to tie it anyway, and the cups were a little goofy looking. I thought I could hold off. On my way home I found a bead store (PS it was really exciting to see places open after 5pm again!) and stopped in to see if I could resolve the issue. I looked at every bead and closure mechanism in the store and didn't find anything that suited me. I asked the woman if she had anything she would recommend and I was unsatisfied with her response too, so I left.
The rest of tonight consists of reading, setting my alarm for the morning, and going to bed. Big times, eh?
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152242640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152242640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152242640/tpod.html Mon, 17 Jul 2006 10:08:48 -0400 Study abroad at the University of Newcastle...but mostly other places

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Brisbane, Australia

Yesterday was a wholly relaxing day. I did the morning bits, then I packed up to check out. The hostel could indeed hold my luggage for the day, so I left my bookbag and my Ireland bag there (hoping of course that they wouldn't be squashed or thrown about-especially the bookbag with my computer in it!) Then I headed off for a big day of sitting in the gardens doing sudoku. Well, I started off by looking for batteries and shampoo. Queensland apparently doesn't do go-lo, but they have crazy clark's which is essentially the same. I got a small botlle of Pantene for $2, and went to Woolies for the batteries.
I arrived at the gardens and walked around them first. All of them. It wasn't as big as the ones by Mt. Coot-Tha, but it was still quite a hike. Then I found a sunny bit and sat down to do sudoku. A little bit later, a father and his three daughters came and had a picnic, and a little later a mother and her two sons. I could tell it was the day of the last state of origin game because the boys were pretending to be Queensland playing New South Wales. Around 12:30, I was getting hungry, so I set off for KFC (I found one in the Myer centre near the Target). It was kind of a long line, but that was ok because I had to find something cheap that was also going to be tasty. I settled on a 6 nugget combo. I don't know if KFC does this at home (but I'm interested to check) but there is a seasoning (11 secret herbs and spices) that they use and it is absolutely to die for. I headed back to the gardens and found a new sunny spot to eat lunch. It took me 20 minutes, since I was still doing sudoku and enjoying my lunch very much. It started to get shady in my part of the woods, so I headed to another open space with plenty of sunshine. Maybe an hour later a guy came up and asked if I could move because the kids really wanted to play soccer and I was sitting right in the middle of where they'd like to play. No worries, I just got up and found another sunny spot. By this time the sun was starting to dip behind the buildings, and the whole park got darkish. So I got up to go home (at least to catch the sunset on the other side of town, but got distracted by the Queen Street Mall. I popped in a few stores (including the bookstore...I can't resist!) before deciding to call it quits. And of course, by the time I got to a place where I could see the sunset, the sun had already set. I took a picture of the city in pinkish hues.
Then it was off to pick up my gear from the hostel and to the airport. Now let's do the math here: The sun sets around 5:05. I was right near the hostel and it take ten minutes to get to the Brisbane Transit Centre from the hostel. The next train was coming at 5:35, and it gets into the airport around 6. My flight leaves at 9:25, so the check in doesn't even start until 7:25. How many sudokus can a girl do in that time? A lot to answer that. The interesting thing about it is that no matter how many I do, I'm still eager to get the next one, and even though I'd done about 25 that day, I was still eagerly doing them until I got on the plane!
Well, I had taken care of the screwdriver situation, but it seems I can't get through security without having to explain something, and this time it was a trash bag. I had made a sandwich in the bread bag, and then put the old batteries and wrapping in. So yeah, I guess taht could be suspicious. I explained myself, and he said oh alright. Now I could see a rubbish bin right behind him and he didn't even offer! Pooh! I headed off to find my gate. It was, for the first time in my life, the closest one! Like leave security, turn right, sit down and wait. In that extremely long walk, I did manage to miss a rubbish bin and had to turn around and catch it on the flip side. But then I was free to chill. And chill I did. The flight to Newcastle leaving before us had enough room on it that every passenger that had booked a seat could have the entire row to themselves, so I was hopeful for mine too. Silly rabbit, trix are for kids. Nobody wants to go to Newcastle in the daylight, let alone the butt of night. People always want to go to Cairns! My flight was packed, but since I was an early bird, I had an early boarding pass and I was able to get a window seat (to sleep a while). I did sleep a touch, but between the captain and the jets, I didn't actually sleep that much. The captain came on to announce that with 4 minutes remaining the state of origin was tied at 14 all. Then a few minutes later (though not 4 by any means, more like 15) he announced that there was a penalty and Queensland had converted to win it by 2. A few people cheered, then we went back to our respective activities. Mine was reading by then. This book is kind of hard to read because it changes between a few stories and time frames in no particular order and with no transition. So I find myself going back to figure out what part of the story I'm in. And it's kind of a murder mystery (in the loose sense of the word, because of course, we know who is actually taking the lives and what he's doing with them), but it's really boring about those parts, and more into this museum director's part which is bloody useless. Basically I'll be glad when it's done, but it wastes enough time that I don't feel bad reading it.
Anywho, back to my story. Got in to the airport at 11:45, it was all nice and palmy there. We were naturally the only people arriving in the airport, but there were a host of people waiting to escort people to their accomodation. Not me, of course, being the budget traveller I am, I don't get luxuries like free airport transfers. But that's ok because there was a stand for a bus company that takes you where you need to go (and for a $15 round trip ticket will drop you off at the airport again too). I almost got off at the wrong hostel, but the driiver was paying attention.
Then I got to stand outside and push a button and the night manager would let me in. Only I wasn't sure he was coming for quite a while. Eventually he did, he gave me my key and sent me to my room (in a nice way, of course). I was the last one in, and it was awfully late, so I felt bad when I put my abgs down, shuffled through them to find my contacts stuff, shuffled to find my CD player, creaked to get up to the top bunk (if they'd stop taking the bottom ones this wouldn't be such a problem you know), and pushed a few buttons to get my CD player actually playing. Then I tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep!
I guess I must have eventually, because this morning I popped awake at 8am...yayyy. I tried in vain to go back to sleep, but it was light out, so I sighed and got up. I was the first one up, so I felt bad shuffling through my bag to get my purse and passport so I could check in properly, then coming back and leaving again and coming back with groceries, and leaving to take a shower, and coming back because I forgot clean clothes and leaving again. But it's their fault for sleeping fo damn long!
For breakfast I had an egg and a mandarin. The egg was somewhere in between over hard and scrambled, because there was no stick-preventing liquid to use and I ripped it open trying to flip it, not to mention half of it was stuck to the bottom of the pan and needed scraping off. Then I headed off to explore Cairns (the big ole metropolis that it is...kidding, of course). I distinctly remember asking Mom if there were beaches and getting an affirmative type answer, but I didn't find any, except the lagoon (another artificial beach). There appear to be a bunch that are a $15 bus ride away though, so maybe I'll go to some of them. And maybe not! Who knows! It was kind of pretending to spit rain dow around lunchtime, so I came home and had spaghetti, then I was going to spend the afternoon in the giant mall across the road, but it was sunny again, so I walked around town again. Then it was spitting, then is was sunny, then it was spitting, etc. The whole day was pretty much confused. Around 2 I headed home to change into the batehrs to sit in the sand by the lagoon and be warmed by the sun. Yeah, life is rough here. This whole winter thing. Only problem is the sun goes down earlier, but it still gets nice and hot!
Tonight's plans include looking through the travel brochures I picked up today for day trips and eating dinner, and probably sitting around the TV. Nothing huge, just the way I planned it. I did want to go see Pirates of the Caribbean, because it's out here today and it won't be out until tomorrow in the States, which is really 2 days behind, but since I have to pay for internet, there would be nobody I can say hehe, I saw it earlier than you did because I was in Australia (in a playful and friendly way, of course). And that takes some of the fun out of it. The rest of the fun is removed by not having anyone to go with and not feeling like paying for it. Oh well. Off to the kitchen to make dinner I suppose...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152070020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152070020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1152070020/tpod.html Mon, 17 Jul 2006 10:02:46 -0400 Study abroad at the University of Newcastle...but mostly other places

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Brisbane, Australia

Happy Independence Day! Far from a BBQ, I had a bowl of cocoa puffs and three PBJs today. I think I might get KFC for lunch tomorrow, because I really like their commercials (ie the food look good and I know damn well it tastes good too).
Yesterday consisted of me sleeping in, getting up, and going to the south bank. My hostel is right next to one of the 35 or so bridges connecting the two halves of Brisbane, and it was right at the edge of the city, so I figured I could walk all the way across and back again. Well, yes indeedy I could. Along the way I found the city beach (Streets Beach), the Goodwill bridge, and many many runners. Streets Beach is a man made beach in the middle of the city. Lifeguards and all! I also found the Nepalese Peace Pagoda. While I was trying to get far enough back from the thing to get a picture, a guy started sneezing...just like Lia...20 or so little sneezes instead of a really good one. I had the biggest grin on my face, so I'm glad I had my hands and camera in front of my face. I pretty much walked from 9:30 to 2:30. Oh and I started out the day at the bank. I finally closed my account. The lady asked for my account password and I was like uhhhhh. She said, it starts with a P. uhhhhhh. It's unusual. OHHHHH! Reason for closing the account. I'm going back to the states. The usual after that, and I got my $42 dollars.
I got back to the hostel around three, showered, and headed downstairs to claim a tv for Neighbours and Big Brother. Yeah, I know it was a few hours early, but it was important to me. While I was sitting there an English guy came and started talking to me. I had a hard time understanding him, I'm not sure what part of England he's from, I couldn't make out what he said. He kept talking at awkward parts of the program, until finally more people came and he started bothering them. Right as Big Brother came on a guy got up and asked if we wanted to watch it (ie he wanted to change the channel) we said yes and he said it was on in the other room (thankfully-I think we would have had a minor problem otherwise). Watched Big Brother, then I went upstairs to read. I fell asleep around 9:30, and was the only one in the room!
I woke up this morning at 8 to get going. I went to Mt Coot-Tha today. It's basically a lookout point up on a mountain where you can see all of Brisbane. Thankfully it also has walking trails, so I picked one to go on. It was about a mile one way, and there was an additional trail off it with Aboriginal artwork. It actually turned out to be a pretty good work out, because you want straight down for the first mile, walk around a little, then walk straight up again. I was sweating when I got back to the lookout. I piddled around the gift shop for a while (I found a spiffy thong-lighter but as I have no real use for a lighter, the novelty wore off once I figured out how to work it). Then I went out to wait at the bus stop and did a few sudoku puzzles. Finally the bus came and headed back down the mountain. I made a split second decision to also hit up the botanic gardens while I was up here and having a day pass for public transport, and it was only 12. I'm glad I did. I walked around to most of the themed areas (although I missed the conifers and the American stuff and a little of the Australian stuff). They had a bonsai house which was FABULOUS! I got lost in the Africa section for a while, but eventually sorted myself out with the cunning use of map. And on my way out of the fern house a kid was staring at me, then told his mother that he'd seen me before-twice! I cracked a big old smile as I left.
I got alllll the way over to the Australia section, and told myself as long as I left by 3:00 I'd be okay to get back for the last bus at 4:15 (I had no idea how long it would take to get to the other side of the park). Around 1:45 I started off (maybe I could catch the 3:15 one). I arrived at the bus stop at 1:55. Looks like I'll catch the 2:10 bus instead. Since it was still so early when I got back, I thought I'd try the ferry. Maybe go to UQ, maybe even stay on long enough to watch the sunset! I started off in the opposite direction to the uni (North Quay where I got on way in the middle of the route), went all the way to the end of that, then went all the way to the uni (the other end of the route) and back to North Quay. I did get to see the sunset, but the most spectacular colours were right as I was getting off, and you couldn't really see them from the wharf. Maybe I'll catch it tomorrow when I have nowhere to go and time to kill. But then I had the slight problem of getting home and it getting dark out. I told myself I didn't want to be walking around a city after dark while I was here, and even though I was close to home, I power walked all the way. I was comfortable though, becaues everyone else in the city was out powerwalking home too, so it wasn't like a silly tourist was just doing her thing all alone in the dark.
I showered once again with my all-purpose bar of soap (my hair feels really funny tonight) and headed downstairs, hoping someone would be watching Neighbours. Success! The only problem was Sarah. She introduced herself last night and I realized immediately that she has some kind of mental problem. Dunno what it is, I feel like torretts would be a good guess, but she's loud and she talks all the time. And when everyone else left last night, she got in my face to talk to me, and anyone who knows me knows I'm not good with in the face type people. Well, she was there again tonight talkling right on through Neighbours and Big Brother, so it's a good thing I pretty much knew what was going on my the action. I left asap after Big Brother was over and headed up to do my journal, then read for a while before falling asleep.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1151897340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1151897340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1151897340/tpod.html Mon, 17 Jul 2006 09:44:55 -0400 Study abroad at the University of Newcastle...but mostly other places

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Brisbane, Australia

I set my alarm for 7:45 the other day, and that seemed like a reasonable time for today too, since I wanted to get up and going on the grocery thing pretty early to get the day going. I waited until 8 to actually get up, then I was out the door by 8:30. I walked and I walked and I walked, and finally I got to Queen St. I walked down and found Coles, went down the escaltors, and found they didn't open until 9 (it was 8:47). I went back up the escalator and went in the souvenir shop (the only thing open) for a while, then back down to Coles. True to my word, I got milk, bread, peanut butter, and jam. I also needed soap, so I got a bar of that too. I contemplated sunscreen, but Dana gave me some so I figured it could wait until Cairns. $7.27 (really7.25 the way they do it here) later I was on my way home again.
Had some breakfast, made two sandwiches for lunch, and headed back out for the day. I planned out a little route for myself, not covering too much, but enough that I could spread the rest of the city out over the next two days. It turns out I may have a shit ton of time on my hands. I did everything I had half planned to do today and half of everything I had planned for the other two days too. I could leave Brisbane today and say I've done the whole CBD. I walked up one street, down the next. I saw the windmill that's not a windmill, I saw St. Stephen's Catherdral (Brisbane's first church), found a whole slew of other cathdrals, visited the Anzac Square Memorial, Chinatown, walked along the riverside, and found one set of markets there.
The interesting things that happened: I knew it would an eventful day when I got a nosebleed at the Anzac memorial. I walked to Central Station, which was right there and seemed a likely place to find a toilet. I walked around for a few minutes and decided there was no toilet in the station, went to leave, reconsidered, went to leave, reconsidered, went to McDonalds to at least get a napkin (up to this point iIve had my thumb shoved up there). I went to the information desk and asked if there was a toilet. Apparently you have to go through the gates to get to it (and to get through the gates I correctly surmised that you needed a ticket). I guess a nose bleed is as good as any ticket, and the guy let me through. On the way out he was supposed to check my ticket again, but I said thanks and he remembered who I was, so that went ok.
At St John's cathedral I noticed the notice board said there was an organ recital this afternoon, so I figured I could finish up everything before then and hit that up (bound to be cheap entertainment). Up to the windmill, lunch in the park, down to the riverside, and up to Chinatown and I still had an hour and 15 minutes before the damn thing. So I sat in a random park that I found until 20 minutes before it was to start, walked over, and found that I had to pay $15 dollars to get in. I told them I had to run to the ATM but I would be back. And headed home.
I hadn't showered in a few days, so that was the first thing I did. I first realised I had been carrying around my soap all day. Then I realised that I needed shampoo too. As I was rubbing the block of soap on my head hoping for lather, I also realised that my shower wasn't draining and I was flooding the bathroom. So I prayed that nobody shy was in the room and jumped into the next stall over to check if it worked. It did, so I moved all my stuff over and finished showering there.
All this running around and I had only had one bottle of water today, so I went downstairs to fill up and noticed the world cup was on, so I watched that. Then I watched the France Brazil game. It was taped, so they had already announced the semis, but I was watching the quarter finals. It toook me a few mintues but I realised that France had to win this match, because they were in the next round. Excited to see that, I stayed tuned for the whole match despite being cold. France played clean whereas Brazil had a few bad moments, and that was all the difference in the match. France won by one goal.
After that, I headed up to my room to finish my journal. I was about halfway done when my newest roommate came in. She's from Arizona an she just got in today and she's starting her semester here and she didn't want to go to sleep yet and I was only the second person she'd talked to all day and aren't people in hostels supposed to be friendly? because she trusts everyone, maybe she shouldn't, but did the other roommate get a lock for her locker? I pretty much sat there and listened to her talk adding in about 1/8 of the syllables said in the entire conversation (and I'm not including all the "likes" that happened either) for about an hour. Then I got up to brush my teeth and she said she'd proabbly be asleep when I got back (that's what I was thinking too-wink) and have a good night. I finished the journal and pulled everything together for bed. Tomorrow I plan to go to St. George (I found the branch on Queen St and they're open at 9). I might not bother setting my alarm tomorrow, because I only have one thing on the agenda and it's not that serious a time-investment. I told Christine (the American) that I would probably chew my own foot off out of boredom. I think I might go running instead, but I liked the statement anyway.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1151811060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1151811060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hamblce3/australia_06/1151811060/tpod.html Mon, 17 Jul 2006 09:35:20 -0400 Study abroad at the University of Newcastle...but mostly other places

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entry & travel map

Brisbane, Australia

Muscles came in to say goodbye, just as he said he would, with a granola bar. I don't know why, but it was a good kind, so I didn't complain. I moved to Dana's bed because she and Lia were leaving to take Muscles to the train station (he left today). At 7:45 my alarm went off and I thought, I don't have anything to do today, I might as well go back to sleep. A few seconds later I thought...stupid! You're LEAVING today! So I got up.
I got everything together for a scrumptious breakfast of oatmeal and coffee and put water on to boil. They can't use their hot water pot and all the heaters, because they blow a fuse, so I was boiling water in a pot on the stove. Everything was going just fine until I picked the pot up to pour out the water. I picked it up too close to the heated part and got a really really good burn...right in the crack of the second knuckle on my pointer finger! Youch!
The girls got back before I was done breakfast and we all sat around talking (it's what we do). They decided to go into town and thus take the same bus as me and see me off too. I needed to catch another bus at the Mayfield Woolie's, but I wasn't 100% sure I knew where that was, so I had them watch for it too. I'm so paranoid...it was really obvious about a stop and a half early. So we said our goodbyes and I hopped off. When I got to the other side, I was a little concerned that my bus wasn't listed on the timetable. It's a private bus company though, so it was on it's own separate list. Same time as I had written down, and I had about 15 minutes to spare. The other few times I've been on a Port Stephen's bus the driver was a maniac, but this one drove slowly, stopped at a reasonable pace, and announced when we got to the airport. I was pleasantly surprised.
I was in about 2 hours an 10 minutes before my flight, so the check in line was due to open in about ten minutes. One lady was lined up, but the woman from Jet Star told her to go sit down. Apparently they're trying to prevent us from having to wait in lines by refusing to let us make them. So I sat down. And another group made a line. She asked them to sit down, so they moved back to where the ropes started and essentially formed a new line. Then people started clogging the doorway with the line. Finally they opened the check in counters and I got up to wait in the line too. The reason everyone wanted to get in line is that JetStar doesn't do assigned seating. There are three sets of boarders though...orange for old people and little people, blue for early check-ins and silver for the rest of the people. So there is some seating benefit of checking in early.
I checked my bag and headed over to security. Took out my laptop, laid everything out flat (I've done this how many times now?). Walked through the little archway, waited. Apparently I had something of interest in my bag. Was it my nail clippers? No. There's a screwdriver in there. I said no, I had one, but I lost it a long time ago. No PDA. So I pulled apart my purse for them. Nope, tampons, pens, wallet. Other pocket...can't see one, digging around...oh shit! There's that screwdriver! You can't get on board with that, go back to check in and see if they will put it in your checked bags for you. So I did.
I got back in the shit long line only to find out they couldn't track down my bag, I would have to check something else. Well, I couldn't check my bookbag, because it had my computer in it, and my platypus bag isn't going to hold the screwdriver in anyway. Resigned, I went to the trashcan. As I held the little guy up over the tub I thought about how much I liked that screwdriver and how it was pretty expensive as far as screwdrivers go and now that I had found it I didn't really want to lose it for real this time. So I made the command decision to repack my bookbag to not include anything I would be SOL without...pens, books, the screwdriver, and my cocoa puffs. I went through the line one more time, then headed back to security. As I passed through a gruff woman asked if she could scan my stuff for explosives. Do I look like a terrorist? From now on, I'm not travelling in sweats, I swear that's why they do it. I say I won't, but I know I will (like on Wednesday when my flight leaves at 9:25 at night). Everything done, I had about 30 minutes to lounge in the, well, lounge before takeoff, and so only about 15 minutes before I could stand in line (the one they let you make to get on the plane). Our flight was actually late, so I'm a little thankful for that. I only had Rent and the airline magazine, so I was really relieved that the flight only took an hour.
When we got in, I was a little concerned that my bags (one or the other) would have been lost and I would be one miserable cookie for this trip, but eventually everything came through. And I was off to figure out how to get to the city. Well it was pretty easy: taxi or train. The first thing I did when I got off the plane was take off my sweatshirt...winter here is even better than winter in Newcastle. I decided to go with the train, since I knew how much it would be and that was for a return ticket as well. I called Lia and Dana from the platform, then said one final goodbye as the train pulled up. It was 20 minutes to the stop I was hoping was near the hostel. I was looking for Upper Roma St, and I got off at Roma St station. I negotiated leaving the transit centre, then looked around for a sign from god telling me which way to go. Well, maybe there is a god...right across the road was a sign that said "Hostel 600m." Beautiful...and hopefully mine! As I walked along I noticed more and more people with big ole backpacks looking at maps and figured we were all going to the same place. I finally found a place, Cloud 9, and I stopped in to see if it was the right one. Nope, but the YHA is just a little further down the street. Thanks. I went to the next one, nope, not YHA, then the next, and finally (the fourth hostel in the line) I found the YHA. There was a family ahead of me not having luck convincing the front desk that they had reservations. Thank goodness I booked something already because they had no vacancies tonight! Yikes! She checked me in ($14 fee for not being a YHA member and $10 key deposit) and gave me a map of the hostel. I asked where the nearest grocery store was...she flipped over my hostel map and there was a Brisbane map. She highlighted two places for me and said they would close at 5...it was 4:36, so I guessed I was having dry cocoa puffs for dinner tonight.
I was the last one in my room, and thus got the only top bunk in the place. I felt kinda bad because the girl below me was napping or something, and everytime I climbed up or down I probably woke her up. Oh well, I was the one having to climb up and down to get to bed! I pulled some things out of my suitcase and a picture fell out...Dana had slipped it into my bag and it was a picture of us making goofy faces on their back porch. So sweet! I tried to call again, but no reply. After a while I realized we were right next to train tracks, and that the train goes by about every half hour. Yay! I sat with my map and list of things to do in Brisbane and planned out my week. Then I went downstairs to eat cocoa puffs and write in my journal and watch soccer. Then I went back to my room, climbed up to bed, and read and did Sudoku for a while, then passed out. I left Rent playing all night (a good choice as the train goes by all night) and the lights on, since one of the roommates was still out. I remember rolling over quite a number of times and the light was still on, but when I woke up this morning the lights were out and the roommate in, so I guess I must have missed that step.
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