TravelStream™ news feed for member marietherese on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/marietherese en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 15 Apr 2009 23:33:57 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1233289740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1233289740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1233289740/tpod.html Wed, 15 Apr 2009 23:33:57 -0400 Leaving Ireland to do a bit of travel...

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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

We arrived in Melbourne with the rising sun. The sun may have risen, but there was no heat in it - we were frozen! We had to get two trams to where were staying. We were lucky that we were hitting it before rush hour. I had checked with Michelle, who was in Melbourne since early December and had stayed in a few hostels, where was good to stay. She recommended a few places but the Miami Hotel was the best one. It must the cheapest and best accommodation in all of Melbourne! We got a twin room for AU$56 a night. They have daily housekeeping and are right across from a tram stop. It's about a 20 min walk to the city/10 mins by tram but we're used to walking at this stage. The only negative is the kitchen. They only have a toaster and a microwave so dinner time is a bit of an issue. We somehow managed to be creative enough with meals to keep them cheap and filling. Not the most ideal but worth it for the extra comfort at backpacker-friendly prices.

We went out for a guided drinking tour with Michelle that night to get acquainted with Melbourne. We had food first and went to Chinatown. We couldn't find a restaurant we liked so settled for an Indian restaurant because we felt sorry for them. We ordered just one set menu between us because we weren't all that hungry. The cheeky beggars came out with 3 meals instead of one eventhough we were very clear on what we wanted when we ordered. We let it pass and picked at our food and drank the wine Michelle had picked up on the way.

When it came time to pay, we saw that corkage was 3 times the amount advertised. That was the final straw. I gave the waiter a big lecture on false advertising and the fact that they seemed to deliberately fleece us with bringing out 3 meals instead of one. He was either playing dumb or simply didn't understand. I can't remember the name of the restaurant but if you're going to Melbourne, don't go to the Indian restaurant in Chinatown!! I understood then why there wasn't a soul in there! After a more expensive start than we had planned, we hit some bars and drank the pain away.

We chilled out over the next few days and purchased some tickets for the Australian Tennis Open. I'm a tennis fan so this was a treat for me. On one of our wandering days we bumped into friends from Sydney that were just about to leave Melbourne for their return leg to Ireland and were having a BBQ by the river to celebrate. We weren't busy so we joined them and had food and drinks as the sun set. Once the sun was down, however it was freezing. I was in shorts and a t-shirt as we had popped out to go to the internet and get food for dinner and planned to be back in the afternoon. Ever the gentleman, Simon gave me his jumper and suffered on for me!

Before the open started, we rented ourselves a car and decided to tackle the Great Ocean Road. This a coastal drive along the southern coast of Australia that has great views thanks to the constant erosion techniques of the wind and sea that belts the coast all year. Before we left, I had located a camera repair shop that agreed to look at my camera (seemingly the only one in Melbourne!) so I was hoping to get that fixed by the time I got back. We set off on a nice sunny morning and made our way out of Melbourne without any difficulty. This is an unusual feat in any city so hats off to Simon as chief navigator!

We drove through Geelong and as far as Torquay, the official start of the Great Ocean Road for supplies to keep us going for the 3 days. The first stop after that was Bells Beach, a famous surfer's beach. We stopped there for a few minutes and then were back on the road. It was nice to be driving again - it's good to have control of your own pace, especially with our short attention spans! We cruised along for another while before we hit the real ocean road. From then on it was one view after another. There were lots of places to pull over along the way along which was good because the road was so windy that I couldn't look left a lot. I had to depend on Simon to let me know when any good places were coming up that I had to pull in for and we pulled into random lookouts along the way too. We had lunch at Point Danger and passed though Anglesea, Lorne and Apollo Bay. Soon, the ocean gave way to the forest and we had a bit of a drive back down to the coast to Cape Otway where we stayed the night.

We got up ridiculously early to make our way to the Twelve Apostles before the crowds. We were back to driving through the forest which was a bit depressing because it was raining but we saw some wallabies on the side of the road feeding which was a bonus. I pulled into a precarious lay-by to watch them but they disappeared as soon as I did - the curse of being the designated driver for the trip! It wasn't long before we were back to ocean views and we beat the tourist hoards to the Twelve Apostles, which are a series of sea stacks and arches resulting from sea erosion. As you can see from the photo's, the weather didn't clear up that much. The rain held off but the wind was blowing and it was freezing! Back on the road, we decided to spend the night at Port Fairy. There were numerous viewing stops all along the route. We got to Port Fairy in the afternoon and pulled into a car park to have lunch. There was an island with a colony of mutton birds on it so we walked around that and that was the subdued end of our Great Ocean Road experience as we were to go back by the inland road the next day.

We set off early the next morning but were running low on petrol at this stage. When we got the car we paid for a full tank of petrol at the rental place because it was cheaper per litre and you bring the car back with an empty tank. The guy behind the desk said a tank would get us to Port Fairy and back but it was all lies!! To make things better, we had to fill it with a special kind of petrol called Ethanol E10, a special form of unleaded petrol. It's new on the market here and not all the petrol stations do it so we had to go to the next town of Warrnambool on the way back to look for it. We tried a few places and finally got directions to one of the two places in the area that did it. We put $20 in it and hoped for the best.

The return trip was fairly uneventful and we got back to Torquay in reasonable time. We stayed in Torquay that night and planned to go back up to Melbourne in the morning. I was back down to one bar on the petrol gauge and was starting to worry about getting more petrol. We were hoping not to have to put any more petrol in the tank so decided to set off and see what happens - we only had an hour to drive. When it started flashing it was time to get petrol except none of the stations along the road had any E10!! We were cruising in along the motorway into Melbourne with the skyscrapers looming out of the early morning fog and I was starting to think we actually might make it, eventhough the gauge was flashing furiously at this point. Not to be. As I went to overtake a slow mover, the car started to move with considerably less pep. I swung back into my lane and scoured around for a place to pull in - had our luck run out? Not quite, Simon pointed out a petrol station up ahead and we went for the slip road to it. I was going to pull into the lay-by as I had the accelerator to the floor yet was barely moving and didn't want to just stop dead in the middle of a road! Simon, however, didn't fancy pushing the car so we kept going and willed the car to get over the slight incline we were attempting to get over. We made it to the top and the momentum carried us to a pump that sold E10 - hoorah!! Blind luck or excellent time management? It was definitely a fortuitous placement of premises and I parted with $5 to get us back to the city.

The Great Ocean Road was beautiful, definitely worth seeing. We took loads of photos on Simon's camera as mine was still out of action but managed to get it fixed a few days later for a cool $200. It seems I got sand in the lens when we were at Manly beach in Sydney. I could have bought a different camera for that as the prices for electronics have come down a lot but I really love my camera and it was still quite a bit less to fix than to replace the one I have.

St. Kilda beach is backpacker central so we popped out to see what all the fuss is about. I didn't think much of the beach and the constant bustle from the main road right beside it wasn't a good match for a relaxing day. The day was a bit blustery so we just took a walk by the beach. On our way back, we noticed they had a scale model of the solar system so we educated ourselves and got some sea air at the same time! It was really interesting, especially the part where it tells you how a human would fare in the different environments - not well if you're wondering. We got as far as Neptune but decided to give Pluto a miss as it was ages away.

It seems even the world's bad times had stretched to Australia. Any backpackers we had spoken to were finding absolutely no work in Melbourne and a lot were moving on. Michelle had been looking for work for nearly 3 months but to no avail. We were looking for the fruit picking work but with a combination of poor crops and loads of workers, there was little of that work available either.

After the excitement of the Great Ocean Road excursion, we were ready to check out the tennis. We had ground passes and were to meet Michelle on the second day of play to check out some matches. When we got there, we decided to upgrade our tickets to one of the main courts as nobody we knew were playing on the outer courts. The first match we saw was Elena Demeteva, which seemed to go on forever. The temperature that day was 38 degrees Celsius and we were nearly passing out watching them play so they must have been under some serious pressure on the court! We also saw Venus Williams thrash her opponent and Giles Simon who was the 6th seed in the men's.

We also had tickets for the 4th day in the Rod Laver Arena which is similar to Centre Court in Wimbledon. These were third round matches and we were hoping for a bit more action and competition. It wasn't as we'd hoped, though we did see Rafael Nadal play which was good. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very challenging match for him so there weren't any of the great displays you can normally see from him. Due to the lack of action on the main court, we had a walk around the outer courts and saw a few good matches - all in all a few good days. We watched the rest of the tournament on TV as a backpacker's budget only stretches so far! All this tennis has me thinking about Wimbledon - not that I'd ever get tickets to it....

Anyway, the price of accommodation had taken a surge with the tennis on. There was also a BMX competition starting and a few other things which all culminated in us being left with no roof over our heads for a few days. I didn't want to impose on anyone while on my travels but it was time to go looking for a favour. Luckily there's always someone who knows someone and myself and Simon were able to stay with my sister in-law's brother's girlfriend! We were able to stay with Jane for a few days and continue on our search for fruit picking work. We finally hit gold with that one. We tried not to be too much trouble! Jane was packing her life up to move to Ireland so she was fairly busy but she was an excellent hostess and made us feel right at home.

Whilst staying with Jane, a massive heatwave struck Victoria. It was a debilitating temperature. Everyday was well into the 40's and there was no relief at night either with the temperatures still in the high twenties. There was a scorching hot breeze that came everyday that you could feel burning at your skin. One day as I was coming back from the supermarket that was a bit of a distance away, I had to call Simon to come meet me - I was suffering from some serious heat exhaustion. Simon had to be a big show off and arrive to my rescue jogging!! I had to get over my nausea before we could go back to Jane's. When we got back I saw myself in a mirror - I had a big red face from all the exertion! It was all very funny (certainly to Simon anyway!) but could be very dangerous. That day was so hot that I had put ice cubes into my bottle of chilled water before I left the house and they were completely melted 10 mins later.

A note on fruit picking for anyone who's thinking of doing it: the National Harvest Line is useless unless you have your own transport. You need to get in with a "working hostel". They are hostels that only take people who are doing harvest work and will get jobs for you and transport you to the farms. We just kept ringing all the hostels and they were always full. We finally got onto a waiting list with one of the hostels on a Thursday in a place called Mildura. Later that day we were called and told to pack our bags - we were to get the early morning train the next day. We'd finally gotten on the harvest trail! We were feeling lucky and swiftly got on the phone to book our train ticket. Our luck stretched even further - the tickets were free!! As compensation for all the breakdowns due to the heatwave, all public transport was to be free the next day. We booked ourselves into first class seats and rejoiced in our mounting luck.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1231410540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1231410540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1231410540/tpod.html Sun, 12 Apr 2009 05:30:45 -0400 Leaving Ireland to do a bit of travel...

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Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Getting ourselves sorted for Canberra was all a bit of a rush. We were supposed to meet with relatives of mine while we were in Sydney. They were in Victoria but making their way back to Sydney on the day before we were due to leave so we were going to stay with them for a day before moving further south. They had an issue with their car however and were stranded in far south Victoria! They were going to be in Canberra that night so we planned to meet up then.

We went online to book the bus and accommodation. We hadn't planned to spend too much time in Canberra but we were having a bit of an issue with scheduling. We could get a bus to Canberra that afternoon but the only bus that didn't go from Canberra to Melbourne via Adelaide was 3 days later! The other issue was that there was only one hostel in Canberra and it was fully booked. I could have stayed the 3 nights but it seems there was no room at the inn for boys! We had to book a motel quite a bit out of the centre for more than we would like to pay. Once we had accommodation organised, we went back to book the bus. The bus we wanted was filled so we couldn't leave until the later bus which meant a late arrival in Canberra. That put an end to meeting the relatives and we were stuck in Canberra for 3 expensive, non-refundable, nights!

All reports of Canberra were to give it a miss, that it was boring and not worth a stop over. We still wanted to see it, you can't travel all across Australia and not visit the capital! We got there late at night and Simon left me with the bags, and a slumbering homeless person, to find the bus stop that would bring us to our accommodation. We practically crawled with our bulging bags to the bus stop and when the bus came we stated where we were going only to be told we were at the wrong stop!! The bus was going the other way but the driver actually got out of the bus with a map and tried to show us where we needed to go. A good start to Canberra I think, people aren't usually that nice and helpful. It was getting late at this stage and a half an hour wait for the next bus so we forked out for a taxi to our accommodation instead. I rang my uncle to let him know we weren't calling over and had a chat. I don't think he realised how late it was because his son came in mid-conversation complaining that he wanted to go to bed! They were leaving early the next morning so we didn't even meet up at the end of it all.

The one good thing about the motel was that we got free breakfast so we were up early next morning to fill ourselves in true backpacker style! We had toast and cereal and fruit with cream, orange juice, apple juice, tea and coffee (tea for Simon, coffee for me)!! After properly checking in, we headed out into the Canberra heat in search of political landmarks. Canberra is, of course, the purpose-built capital of Australia and is where the house of parliament is situated. We decided to walk to Capital Hill from our motel which was a great idea to begin with but it wasn't too long before I was trailing behind, the heat getting the better of me!

We finally got there and wandered around looking at the various displays. There were portraits of all the past Prime Ministers and we went into public gallery to have a look at where the government sits. I decided I might as well take a photo and whipped out my camera. As I turned it on I heard a crunching sound that was my lend jamming. My camera had ceased to function and no amount of teasing with the lens would bring it back to life - damn politicians!! I spent the rest of the day in a barely concealed foul mood. We did the rest of the house of parliament. It had great views of the uber-symmertical city, not that I could take any photos of this - grrrr!!

We went to the National Gallery and walked into the city centre via the Captain Cook water jet that spouts a jet of water into the air from a lake every few mins. We went online in town (internet is seriously expensive in Canberra) and had a walk around the shops the next day looking for a camera repair shop. Apparently such a place doesn't exist in Canberra - they send all repairs to Sydney. A niche in the market if any entrepreneurs are reading this! Looks like I'd have to wait until Melbourne, one of the shops gave us a shop that might take it. We had to organise accommodation in Melbourne which was fairly booked up with the Australian Open about to start but we got a place in the end that didn't sound too bad. Melbourne hostels as a whole seemed to have the worst hostel reviews we'd seen in Oz - dirty carpets, horrible kitchens, lax security etc.

On our last day we were getting a late bus so we had our free brekkie but had to do something about our bags before we checked out. The weight we were carrying was crippling so we had to make some hard decisions. We had only sent a box of stuff back to Ireland in Sydney so it was hard to dump the things I had kept a hold of but I needed to be able to walk so we gave two carrier bags of things to the only charity shop in Canberra. After that we stuck our bags in storage and went out to the Australian Institute of Sport. I wasn't particularly interested but Simon was keen to go so these are the sacrifices we have to make! It was actually ok. The AIS was set up after a dismal effort if one of the Olympic Games - the dates washed over me but it's fairly well established. We had two guides, a long jumper and a volleyball player. They showed us around and told us how much training everyone has to do every day.

After all that athletic information we grabbed our bags from the motel and treated ourselves to a Subway (nice change from McDonalds!!) as we waited for our overnight bus to Melbourne. I really liked Canberra, the people were all really nice and it was easy to get round. It does look so obviously planned and so is a bit clinical but was definitely worth a visit.
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Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Ah Sydney, it's like a comfortable old shoe!! It was really nice getting back to Sydney. Trundling over the familiar harbour bridge in the early hours with the opera house shimmering in the sun. There's a lot to be said for familiarity and it was a welcome change to arrive in a place and not have to get your bearings and glare helplessly at a map that doesn't have your street on it.

We were back in Sydney for New Years celebration, just like every other backpacker in Oz!! As such, all the reasonable accommodation was well gone and we had problems finding a place way back in November when we started looking. It was so expensive that I could have gotten a one-way flight back to Ireland for the same price!! Luckily, Claire and Stephen (our friends in Newtown) came to the rescue and let us stay with them for the festivities. Our bank accounts breathed a sigh of relief! We were happy in general to be giving hostels a bit of a miss for a while too. I'd had enough of snorers and drunken idiots and generally selfish and insensitive individuals to warrant a break.

So, we hopped on the train from the CBD and made our way out to Newtown before Claire was off to work. I was wrecked and fell asleep on the couch for a few hours as soon as I lay down. After having a sleep and a shower, myself and Simon were on a mission to find a turkey. Claire was having a New Years day dinner and needed something to go with the giant ham she's bought! We tried Newtown and when that failed we went into the city. No turkeys worthy enough there so we went to McDonalds to replenish ourselves. I know we shouldn't go there as often as we do but it's so damn cheap! €7 for two large meals! While there we were summoned back to Newtown (ie. Kelly's) to meet the gang for drinks.

If Sydney is like a comfortable old shoe, Newtown is the comfy socks and slippers you wear around the house. It was great to see everyone again and see what everyone was up to. Kelly's is like our Cheers - we know all the regulars, all the bar staff know not only our names but what we drink so we don't even have to ask for our drinks at the bar because they're already on the way. It's like our home away from home - I think it's one of the reasons we'd been considering doing fruit picking to get our second year visa, with a lot of strong arming from Claire!!

The next day we managed to source a turkey that would feed 15 people - Claire likes to do things on a big scale! We went for a walk around the city and had a few drinks before going back to Kelly's for more catching up. We didn't go too crazy as the next day was New Years Eve and we were looking forward to seeing the fireworks.

We decided not to go to the Botanic Gardens, eventhough it's the best viewing point for the fireworks display, for 2 reasons. 1. You have to queue for about 5 hours to get in there, and 2. You can't bring in alcohol there. I wouldn't want anyone to think I was a big alcoholic but the thoughts of sitting in a park for 8 hours on New Years Eve without a few drinks to celebrate would be a very long stretch indeed! We decided on a place in Pyrmont which is on the harbour and across from the casino. We had a good view of the bridge but not of the opera house. Shame but it was a good spot and we could drink freely. There were 5 of us there - myself and Simon, Claire, Sean Og and Katie. The rest of the group had seen the fireworks before so had a BBQ back in Newtown and were going to watch the local fireworks instead.

We spread out our blankets at a good viewing spot and relaxed with a few drinks. The boys were sent off in search of snacks after a few hours and we settled in for the night. It wasn't the most comfortable but it was well set up with porta-loos and security on the perimeter. The children's fireworks were at 8/9 and they were pretty good but we were still waiting for the main event.

It was starting to fill up at this stage but we still had space. Michelle, a friend from college was up from Melbourne to see the fireworks and she joined us to ring in the New Year. The fireworks were pretty cool but I wasn't that overwhelmed! Once that was over everyone was packing up to leave. We were all a bit worse for wear and had to stop off at the casino for a bathroom break. Katie reckons she saw Brian McFadden but I was too busy looking at the shiny gold chocolate in the glass case to be bothered!

Two hours later we got back to Newtown! We were wrecked the next day but ever the morning person, Claire dragged me out of bed to go to the shops for brekkie. I have to say I was feeling the worse for wear and a greasy fry up didn't make me feel any better! The fact that it was roasting outside didn't help either - it was something like 35 degrees! I didn't have much time to wallow in self pity as I was on peeling duty for dinner. Once that was over, I flaked on the couch while everything cooked.

Half the people that came weren't really able for dinner but we all made a good attempt at it!! We all went down to the pub for the table quiz and I shuddered as I looked at the mess that would await us when we got back. After the quiz, myself and Simon said we'd head back and Stephen came too. It took us 2 and a half hours non-stop between the 3 of us to tidy up!!!

The next day we had planned to go to Manly beach but it was, of course, raining!!! We settled for the Australian Museum instead and whiled away a few hours there. It was a good museum and had lots of interactive displays but we arrived a bit late in the day and had to leave before we'd seen it all. One good item was the wild life photographer of the year display which had the finalists of a photography competition. The photographs were of everything from lions and elephants to tiny organisms and everything inbetween. Well worth seeing.

We finally managed to make it to Manly the next day! We got the ferry over from circular quay which gave great views of Sydney and its landmarks. We got some lunch there and spent the rest of the day on the beach. It was a roasting day and we chanced a bit of a dip - the water was ice-cold, it must have been one step away from ice-berg status.

On our last day in Sydney, we spent the day sorting through all the things we had left here the last time we were here. We filled a 10kg box with bits n pieces and stuffed the rest into our bags somehow. We also did a bit of searching on the internet for seasonal work as we had decided to give the fruit picking a go. Things are all going a bit crap in Ireland and with job losses seeming to be the norm, we're thinking that getting a job when we get back could be a bit of an issue. If we get the second year visa we might as well weather the storm in sunnier surrounds! So the next stop is Canberra, the capital of Australia. It's sad to be leaving Sydney again but we're feeling recharged and ready for pastures new.
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Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia

We arrived in Coffs Harbour for a two day stop before the madness of Sydney on New Years Eve. We were lucky we had booked ahead because a lot of places were booked out by the time we got there being this time of year. The hostel we stayed in was fine and the town seemed ok. I will admit that we didn't see much of it because every time we left to do something it rained - it's like it follows us!! We had contemplated doing a dolphin encounter show where you can swim with tame dolphins but it was really expensive and we were preparing to blow the budget in Sydney so put that idea aside.

As a result of the rain, spent our time watching films and eating the free popcorn!! After the two days, we got a bus to Sydney at midnight. The bus was late and we had to wait at a cockroach infested bus stop until it arrived. I'm not a fan and stamping your feet does nothing to alter their course. Once the bus came and I roused the girl sprawled across our seats, we were on the long journey back to Sydney, arrival time 7am. It was not a comfortable journey!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1230368700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1230368700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1230368700/tpod.html Sun, 12 Apr 2009 04:10:11 -0400 Leaving Ireland to do a bit of travel...

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Ballina, New South Wales, Australia

We arrived in Ballina early afternoon after passing through Byron Bay (where were supposed to be staying before our hostel blew away!). We were dropped off at the Big Prawn a bit of a way out of the town and the owner of the hostel collected us from there. We settled in and went for a look about the town, it was nice enough and not really a tourist town which was a nice change. We checked out places for Christmas dinner but they were a bit on the expensive side so we decided to throw our lot in with the hostel owners who were putting on a spread for $35 each - bargain!!

Anyway, as it was mine and Simon's anniversary, we went out for dinner. I had a real craving for Chinese so we went to one of the restaurants on the main street. I'm obviously not used to being fed anymore because after the starter I was full! After picking at the food for a bit we decided to get the rest of our food as takeaway - that was lunch sorted for the next day!

On Christmas Eve we made our way to Byron Bay to check out what we were missing. We were supposed to be staying at Nomads but a storm took away their roof and by the time we found out it was too late to get somewhere to stay that didn't cost a fortune. We just wandered around the streets in search of Christmas decorations to prove it really was Christmas as we baked in the sun. We found one lonely (fake) tree at an intersection so I took a photo of Simon as proof! After that we made our way to the beach. We walked half way down the beach and had enough of being windswept so made our way to the bus stop, stopping an ice creamery on the way to cool down. We were also on a mission to find Santa hats but to no avail. Simon went on a last dash to a few shops while I kept a look out for the bus but he had no success either.

We had a stop on the way back to Ballina at Lennox Heads. This was a real surfer's beach and was full of kite surfers that were catching some waves and sailing through the air when they got a good gust of wind. There was one guy there in a Santa suit!! We just sat there and watched them for a bit. Simon even helped one of the guys put his equipment away which involved catching the kite mid-air. We had a walk around the town and waited for the bus to take us back to Ballina. By the time we got back, it had started to pour rain, starting to feel more like Christmas!! We ran to the bottle shop for supplies for the next day and then to Woolworths for a few other bits n pieced including the last two Santa hats in the region!!

It was around this time that Simon started pointing and laughing at me. It seems factor 30 wasn't enough to protect my face from sun/wind burn. My face was bright red - sunburned at Christmas! The next day I was even happier to have my Santa hat so I could pull it down over my face.

Anyway, Christmas dinner wasn't the usual turkey and ham fare but salads and roast chicken and boiled potatoes and cold meats. It was still good food and we had some goon to go with it all! It all started off with a champagne breakfast which is a tradition with the owners. It's a great start to the day and a tradition I think I'll be introducing to my household in the future!! We had a great day, most of the people staying in the hostel joined in and we all had a good feed and a good chat. It wasn't the usual eating to excess that is customary at Christmas but we were all close to full, except Simon who could have eaten it all again!

There was a girl from Switzerland who had a fiddle with her. She had spent a lot of time in Donegal and had learned to play there. She knew loads of Christmas songs and Irish songs so we all had a bit of a sing song and a few more drinks. It was a really good day and night and everyone got on really well. We both spoke to our families wishing everyone a happy Christmas as the bats flew over our heads. Then it was time to call it a night. It was a good Christmas day but it didn't really feel like Christmas. It wasn't quite what we had planned either as we were hoping for the Barbie on the beach but it was fun and different, we met some really nice people and had a fun day.
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Coolangatta, Queensland, Australia

The Gold Coast is sort of like the Las Vegas of Australia but with beaches and not so flashy. There's high rise buildings blotting the skyline, loads of hotels and gambling all day long. It's all a bit tacky for me and it's a shame that some of Australia's nicest beaches are located here. We decided to give Surfers Paradise a miss and stay in smaller Coolangatta just down the coast. It hurts me to say, but at the tender age of 26 I'm just too old for drinking all day and all night which is the general mantra of the Gold Coast (and if you can combine drinking and gambling at the same time, all the better!).

We didn't really do much here as it was a few days before xmas and we wanted to save both our energy and our money. We were staying at the Coolangatta Sands hostel/hotel and our room was over the bar that stayed partying til the early hours. That wasn't so bad, what did bother me was the couple in the bunks opposite us who came back in the early hours and decided to have at it. Who says romance is dead??! To be honest, I think it was only a matter of time before we encountered this particular problem as many other backpackers had regaled similar stories (though this seems to be an exclusively Australia phenomenon?)

Action had to be taken and I was very grumpy so I plodded down from the top bunk making as much noise as possible. I made even more noise opening the door to the balcony and telling Simon to get me when they were done. Hopefully I ruined the mood - how disgusting and rude is that?! If you want an audience go somewhere else. Of course Simon just went back to sleep so I was left shivering on the balcony in my pj's until I thought it was safe to return.

The next morning we had a very grumpy American in our room. We of course went to reception and asked for another room citing our 2 issues and got another room at the other end of the building....over the smoking area!! It was even noisier than the other room but no budding porn stars so better on the whole.

We left for our Christmas destination of Ballina on Dec 23rd on the first bus out of there. The bus was half an hour late because of all the seasonal traffic and there was one woman who hadn't confirmed her booking and there were no seats left on the bus. She was pretty angry and delayed us another 20 mins. I'd be angry too if I was stuck in Coolangatta! The driver did get her onto the next bus so she eventually let us be on our way. That was our last stop in Queensland as we were making our way back into the top of New South Wales. Ballina is our destination for Christmas celebrations!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1229767560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1229767560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1229767560/tpod.html Sat, 04 Apr 2009 01:52:17 -0400 Leaving Ireland to do a bit of travel...

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Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

We were staying in City Backpackers in Brisbane and got a weekly special rate to stay 7 days. When we got there, we couldn't check into our room because one of the previous occupants was too sick to check out. We had to stay one night in one of their other hostels in another part of the city. It was a bit of a dive but it was close to the night life and as it was Saturday night we decided on a night out. There was only one problem - I had no shoes. My fantastic sandals of many guises that could be worn both day and night had fallen prey to the sand on Fraser Island and were replaced by the only available option in Hervey Bay - haviannas/tongs. These would not get me in anywhere so we had to make a mad dash around the city centre shops to find shoes I could walk in. This was an additional problem - I haven't worn a heel of any variety in over 6 months and my feet are now a bit on the fragile side. Time was running out and shops were about to close. Simon led me to Nine West (who knew he had an eye for these places) and I picked out the only pair I could visually and physically live with five mins after the shop was closed!! At least they made a sale.

Simon cooked dinner and once we had filled up on goon, we set out to see what Brisbane had to offer. We hit a few bars and generally wandered round. We were supposed to meet Chris and Rose, friends from Mission Beach, but they got lost and spent the night wandering the streets. They left the next day which was a shame as it was our last chance to meet up with them. Anyway, I had my inevitable problems with my shoes and had to take them off. I shouldn't admit this in print, but I ended up wearing Simon's shoes (note I was wearing a dress) and he walked down the streets in his socks until we got to a place that we wanted to drink in, when we swiftly changed back! Isn't it amazing the places pain and alcohol will lead you to! Needless to say, we got a taxi back to the hostel!

The next day we checked into our proper hostel and checked out the city centre properly. It was nearing Christmas and there was a fake tree up and carollers' singing underneath it, but that was all in the way of decorations which we thought was a bit strange because at home the decorations would be up everywhere.

Not much else to report on Brisbane, we were tired from all the travelling down the east coast so we relaxed and took advantage of the free internet in the hostel. Just as well we had easy internet access because we got an e-mail from the hostel in Byron Bay that we were booked in with for Xmas telling us that the roof had blown away in a storm and we had to find alternative accommodation. I spent hours online looking for someplace else but they were either fully booked, too expensive or too far away. I eventually booked us into the YHA in Ballina (half an hour south of Byron Bay). We had to pay a 50% non-refundable deposit to secure our beds. Of course, a few hours later Nomads call to say they've found accommodation for us in Byron Bay - little too late guys! Funnily enough, when ringing around the other hostels none of them had experienced this storm and the hostel was only due for completion on Dec 1st...not that I'm of a suspicious nature.....

I was to meet a friend from college in Brisbane one night but it only lasted 10 mins before she had to bring her drunk friend home for the night - not quite the college reunion I had hoped for but it might have had something to do with their trip to Nimbin the day before!! Myself & Simon finished our drinks while desperate backpackers faked orgasms in the background for some freebies.

We went to the museum one of the days and mostly chilled out and recharged our batteries. I was supposed to meet some relatives but time kinda slipped away and before we knew it, it was time to leave and go to our only Gold Coast stop - Coolangatta.


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1229158080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1229158080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1229158080/tpod.html Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:51:06 -0400 Leaving Ireland to do a bit of travel...

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Noosa, Queensland, Australia

We had planned to do quite a few things from Noosa but by the time we got there we were sick of going places and doing things so we decided to relax. Dolphins, the hostel wasn't too bad. It was a bit outside Noosa Heads but close to the beach and national park walks and had a regular shuttle bus into the town. The downside was we were staying with the staff. We had booked a 4-bed dorm but the 2 bottom bunks were occupied by 2 couples each. We were annoyed at having to share with twice the amount of people in a small 4-bed dorm and it became worse when I woke up from the heat the first night to find one of the couples had focused the fan in on their bed leaving the rest of us to sweat it out. I stretched down and changed the setting and decided to complain to reception as soon as I got up the next day.

Usually I forget about these annoyances after a few hours but I was still raging the next morning so set out for reception on my high horse with my list of grievances. When I got to reception, who was there but the fan-hogger couple from the room working reception desk. You can't exactly complain about the state of affairs in your room to the people you want to complain about! I grumbled back to the kitchen and had brekkie.

One of the activities we did partake in Noosa was a trip to the Australia Zoo of Steve Irwin fame. We had heard that it wasn't that good but it's one of those things you have to do. They do a free shuttle to and from the zoo as it's over an hour away. As soon as you get there, there's larger than life-sized images of Steve Irwin everywhere and you can even get one of those blue screen photo's taken next to him. It's all a bit much and they really flog his image to point of tacky, the man's dead - leave him with some dignity please. On the other hand, there is a display of tributes to him from around the world and details of all his achievements which is a nice touch.

The enclosures aren't all that great but the shows that they put on are worth the entry fee. There's a bird show where they let out various exotic birds and they fly around a stadium. They also bring out crocodiles for feeding which is very cool. Staff members walk around with various snakes and reptiles that you can hold and ask questions about. We fed the elephants and quite a few chubby kangaroos and wallabies but the highlight of the day was definitely the tiger show. There were 3 Bengal tiger cubs (about 2 years old) that were brought out to play. The rangers had toys made for them and we watched them splash about in the water and up trees behind a glass panel. I really could have watched them for hours. It was fascinating watching them and their different facial expressions as they played with the rangers and eachother. It's hard to imagine that people hunt and kill this endangered species. The photo's we got were amazing, most of the ones here are Simon's as my camera struggled with the glass barrier.

The other downside of the zoo is the Bindi (Steve Irwin's 10 year old daughter) music being blasted out at the crocodile and alligator enclosures. Bindi & the Croc Men - watch out for it! She also has not one, but two fitness videos out - is it just me or is that completely wrong/insane/extortionate/all of the above??! The girl is clearly a money making avenue and is living her entire life in the spotlight.

Anyway, less about child exploitation, more about Noosa. When we got back to Noosa Simon was approached by a guy trying to give him a bible study kit - he obviously hadn't seen how packed our backpacks are. We gave him some money for charity (which is very generous seeing as we're broke backpackers) and finally managed to send him on his way. Still clashing with our roommates, we decided to get out of our hostel and spent our last day in national park land. We walked down the beach (still jellyfish season so no swimming) and climbed up a steep hill into a national park track. We saw some nice views and teetered past a nudist beach along the way and got back just before sunset. Was woken by drunken roomies focusing fan on their bed, made incoherent grumbling noises as I rectified the situation from my bunk and was delighted to be checking out the next day!

Noosa itself was quite nice, if a bit expensive, and the hostel wasn't bad besides the sleeping situation. To be honest we'd reached a point where we'd seen much of the same thing already and are kinda sick of this constant moving around. Next up is Brisbane where we'll be staying for a full week so that might sort us out.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1228812240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1228812240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1228812240/tpod.html Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:46:24 -0400 Leaving Ireland to do a bit of travel...

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Rainbow Beach, Queensland, Australia

We decided to stop off at Rainbow Beach for a dolphin viewing kayaking trip which we had booked with the other trips in Cairns. Rainbow Beach does most of its business as another transfer base to Fraser Island as it's the closest to it at 10 minutes by ferry away. The hostels are all in a row and ages away from the beach. Our dorm was right across from the bar where there was a didgeridoo contest on during our first night - made for a great night's sleep.....

We stayed at Fraser's backpackers and it was the dirtiest place I've stayed in since I've started travelling. The kitchen was like a bomb-site and the bins were hardly ever emptied so the smell of rotting food piled high was enough to turn even the strongest stomach. The hostel wasn't totally to blame, the people who were staying there were total pigs, leaving their dirty dishes piled high in the sinks. The only good thing was the fact that someone had the entire final season of Father Ted on DVD so that passed away an afternoon.

The reason we were stuck in this place was to see the dolphins. Were up early, after being deafened by backpackers torturing the didgeridoo all night long, to find that the sea was too choppy to go out in the kayaks. Finding ourselves at a loose end, we decided to have a game of tennis to pass the time. I got beaten 2 sets to 1 and at the end of it all got a tennis ball whacked into my leg by my opponent. So much for a gracious winner!

We endured another night and headed out for our much anticipated dolphin kayaking event. The kayaking was on but the weather wasn't that much improved and all we shivered on the beach in our swimwear before making for the ocean which was strangely warm. Anyway, long story short - there were no dolphins, no marine life whatsoever, and it poured rain on us for most of the time we were out there. We got back to the hostel very disappointed, we had given up a free boomerang painting class to go kayaking the second day and were stuck in Rainbow Beach for nothing. A few wasted days but Noosa was next on the agenda so forwards not backwards!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1228619820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1228619820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marietherese/1/1228619820/tpod.html Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:24:44 -0400 Leaving Ireland to do a bit of travel...

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Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia

On the bus from Agnes Water to Hervey Bay we met the English couple from Mission Beach again - this really is a small stretch of coast!! They were on their way to Bundaberg (home of Bundaberg rum or "Bundy"). We reached Hervey Bay in the afternoon and after we checked in, we went for a walk along the beach and checked out the town. We bought some water in a supermarket and I nearly came to blows with the cashier over the price - it was nearly twice the price because it came from the fridge. Nice to see consumer rights are alive and well!

Anyway, our reason for stopping off here was as a jump-off point to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the world's largest sandbar island and has a rainforest growing in the sand. It's also a world heritage site and we were about to attack it, like so many other backpackers, 4 Wheel Drive style! We had booked our trip on Cairns with Fraser's Backpackers and our vehicle was quite distinctive, it being bright pink!! This was a self guided, self drive, 3 day 2 night tour so we met everyone the night before to sign our insurance waivers, get an idea of what we'd be doing on the trip and get to know the people we would be spending the next few days with.

The next morning our group got up early to check out and be shown around our pink 4WD, how to use it and the repeated warnings not to drive into the sea or we'll lose our $1,000 bond!! There were 2 groups of us altogether, 9 in each 4WD and ours was called Rollie. We set off to Woolworths to buy groceries and a smattering of alcohol (one cool box for food, one for drink!!). Paul was driving and it looked like this was going to be a difficult machine to manoeuvre - then we realised he still had the handbrake on! On the way to Woolworths, the other group were pulled over by the police - driver not wearing seatbelt, $250 fine!

Once all the disasters were over, we stocked up and headed for the ferry. We had a strict budget to stick to and only went over by about 40cents each so not too bad. On the island, we drove through these inland sand tracks that were really bumpy. Central station was the first stop to fill up the water tank. A very nice family having a BBQ gave us all sausages/snags and then we were on our way to Eurong, a small village with a few shops and the entry way to the beach. Once on the beach, the going was a lot easier.

We changed drivers on the beach and after a few dig outs for the jeep, we drove to the freshwater Lake Wabby. We walked through a forest trail to get there but my sandals kept filling with sand (they're getting on a bit and there are holes in them but they're still great!!). I ended up having to go barefoot if I wanted to get there at all. It was worth it though, the water was clean and cool and we had catfish swimming around us. Nobody can swim in the sea because it's full of sharks and other nasties so this was a welcome cool down spot. Some of the guys ran up to the top to the sand dune and rolled back down. I preferred to stay in the water rather than burn my feet on the sand. Simon decided to brave the sand in search of the perfect photo. He made it halfway before he had to hot foot it back for his sandals!

Once we were all cooled down, we made our way back to Rollie and drove to Eli Creek, where our two groups were to camp down for the night behind the sand dunes. There was a crazy English girl driving with a heavy foot but we all survived! Once we got there, we had to put up out tents in the rising winds. I must confess, I'm not much of an outdoors person and I had never actually put up a tent before so this was a first for me. Luckily, one of the girls I was sharing with (it was 3 to a tent) was an expert and we had it up in no time!

That done, we went about starting dinner. We had gotten a backpackers special at a butchers so we had a BBQ with sausages, burgers, steak etc. As it was a BBQ, we naturally had all the men do the cooking while the girls sorted themselves out with some drinks and put some make-shift seats out. It had started getting dark by the time we finished eating and the reprieve we had gotten by not cooking was replaced by the dirty dishes. We had to boil water and dig a big hole to pour the dirty into afterwards. The hole had to be elbow deep so the water would be broken down properly by the island's ecosystem.

We put down some tarp so we could sit on the ground near our only light source and it must have been soon after this that we realised we were surrounded by a family of dingoes. Dingoes are native to Australia and are kind of like a wild dog but their habitat is shrinking and Fraser Island is one of the few natural environments they have left. We were warned not to feed them or run away if we see them. They tend to not attack, but if they do, they go for small children. They kept to the outskirts of the camp and were probably drawn by the smell of the food. Every time we shone a torch into the dark, we usually saw a dingo staring back at us! One of the girls was scared because she's afraid of dogs but other than that we were all fine with it.

There are no toilets on Fraser Island so when we needed to go to the toilet we had to go a reasonable distance from camp to dig a hole. Girls have to go in groups or at least pairs because apparently, when we bend down we can look like children to the dingoes! We spent the rest of the night having a few drinks and batting away the giant flies.

We were up soon after sunrise the next morning because it was too hot to stay in the tents once the sun was up. We went down to Eli Creek and used the facilities. You can walk beside the creek along a boardwalk and wade back through the creek. The friend of the crazy driver from the previous evening was driving but got nervous when she got stuck in the sand and I had to take over. It was good that it happened that was as I didn't have time to be nervous about it myself! Driving on the beach is so cool!! It's really thick sand so you can't go too fast but not too slow either or you'll get stuck. I drove all the way up to Indian Heads which took about an hour and I was very proud that I didn't get stuck once!! My system was to stay in as high a gear as possible so if Rollie started to get stuck I could go down a gear or two to keep it moving without stalling. It seemed to work anyway!

For the most part, I could drive on the firm sand near the surf (but not in it!) but there were times when I had to move into the softer sand to avoid the sea or other drivers. It was mostly smooth going, there were occasions when we suddenly got caught in other cars tracks and rollie would veer off in that direction but nothing none of us couldn't handle. There were washouts to look out for too. These were streams, and sometimes rivers, that were flowing into the sea and some of them cut really deeply into the sand. They were hard to notice too so every now and then someone would shout out "dip" and we'd all hang on!!

We got to Indian Heads without any dramas thanks to my wonderful driving!!! This is a far as we were allowed to drive so we all got out and climbed up the rocks to see the view of the ocean from the rocks. We did a little shark and dolphin spotting and then set off for Champagne pools a bit of a trek away. It took ages and the first part was the worst as the sand is so deep that it makes walking almost impossible. We had to try to walk in the tyre tracks of the jeeps that could go down there because the sand was a bit firmer there. We finally got to a beach so we could walk on harder sand but it was still long walk to the Champagne Pools but we had it on good authority that they were worth the trek so we persevered. To say we were disappointed when we got there was an understatement. It smelled really bad and wasn't as picturesque as we had been led to believe. We also ran into the problem of no water and no drinking water available for the long walk back. Some of us resorted to rations, others took the plunge and filled their bottles with not for drinking water. I took the rations approach as I didn't even like washing my hands with that rank water!

Once we made it back to our pink beacons we had lunch, drank the rest of our juice and had a game of rounders. Then we set off for the nearest place with clean water. Once we were all re-hydrated we headed back down the beach with a stop at the Pinnacles coloured sand rocks and another stop at the beached shipwreck which we'd passed earlier in the day. After a few photo's we drove on to our camp for the night.

Dinner was spaghetti bolognese. Nobody was too enthusiastic about cooking after the day's activities so I decided to step up and do the cooking. One of the Japanese girls helped and I found out after that she's a chef at home - she very politely ate the food all the same! We had another night drinking but without any dingoes for company and, not being able to keep up with all this drinking lark, I fell asleep at one point. We played good old-fashioned charades and a few drinking games.

The next morning we had an early start. We were going to Lake McKenzie and wanted to beat the crowds. I was first up and as I was walking from the tent one of my shoes gave up the ghost and came undone! I was none too happy to say goodbye to my very versatile sandals but into the bin they had to go and I was left barefoot. Barefoot may be a little dramatic as I had a pair of trainers with me but they're not much good in the sand! I made my way over the sand dunes in my bare feet to catch the sunrise that was already in progress and watched a crab beside me clear its nest of sand. I managed to grab a bowl of cereal due to my early rising but everyone else had to pack up and leave quickly so we could leave on time.

The trip back along the beach was nice but turned bumpy as soon as we headed inland. We got there without too many injuries - the day before Simon got the hotplate down on his toe and my fingers got caught between two crates to mention a few. When we got to Lake McKenzie we were greeted by an inquisitive dingo obviously used to people. The lake was a short walk away through a forest track that I had to now tackle barefoot. We weren't exactly the first there but near enough. The lake is surrounded by silky, white sand and the water is cool and clear - definitely worth the bumps and scrapes on the way!

We found a good spot near some trees and chilled out for a bit. The lack of breakfast was telling and everyone started to get a bit peckish. It was decided that two people would take rollie to Eurong (about 45 mins away) to get pies and sausage rolls for everyone. Six people ended up going for one reason or another and the rest of us waited at the lake. We waited for ages and eventually we had to start packing up our things as it was getting near the time that we had to head to the ferry. They showed up eventually and we started for the ferry. We were further delayed by a fender bender in front of us where the guys involved wouldn't get out of the way. We finally got aboard and back to Hervey Bay, toilets and no sand in your food. My mission after that was to find an infinitely inferior replacement for my sandals and try to get the sand out of my hair, shoes and clothes. I have to say that Fraser Island was by far the best thing I've done in Australia so far and would recommend it to anyone. It does depend on the group you're with but we were lucky enough that everyone was on the same wavelength. Moving on to Rainbow Beach.


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