Category: Uncategorized

I can breath under water.

So, I arrived in Cairns, which is (one of) the tropical paradise part(s) of Australia. To go back a bit, right after I wrote last I went to sleep, got up super early, caught a train back to Sydney and then hopped a flight to Cairns. As we came in to land I could tell I was going to like it here right off. The mountains come right down to the stunning beaches and you can see right to the bottom of the ocean the water is so clear. It’s wonderful.

I picked a hostel out of the LP (Lonely Planet), gave them a ring and set up a room. I stuck to my word and got a dorm at $25/night for 3 nights with a 4th night free. Much more affordable, and I would need affordable for my next trick.

One of the main reasons, and probably really the only reason, I came to Cairns was to learn to scuba dive. They have this little thing called the Great Barrier Reef that I had heard good stuff about so I thought I’d like to check it out.

After I checked into my hostel (Global Palace, highly recommended) I went down to the travel desk and started looking into diving courses. I was offered three options, from extravagant to budget. I’m sure you can guess which one sounded good to me. I’ve never been much for budget. I went with a company called Pro Dive which is a PADI 5 Star certified instruction school and I went with their best course. It offers me 2 days in the classroom and pool, and then 3 days and 2 nights living aboard a 30 meter boat on the Great Barrier Reef, at sea.

I’m getting ahead of myself a bit, let me go back just a few hours. The day I arrived the hostel told me they were having a huge party the next night and that sounded like a good way to meet people so I picked up a ticket for $10. All you can eat and drink for $10 sounded solid to me. So I had a pretty early night that night although I did go wander around town a bit and checked out The Lagoon which is a giant saltwater public swimming area right on the main strip.

I guess there is not a lot of swimming in the sea in Cairns because of all the dangerous critters, so this was built to keep everyone cool. Nice place too. The next day I donned my awesome tropical swim trunks and headed down there. I wanted to pick up some sun so that I wouldn’t be the great white whale from beyond when I started my dive course, so I picked a spot, hit the water for a bit and then settled in to crisp. I also walked past three stunningly gorgeous girls sunbathing nude. Twice. I walked past twice.

Now then, back to diving. I headed back to the travel desk and got things rolling, then I wandered down to the 24 hour public health clinic to get my diving exam. Apparently you have to be in decent health for scuba. Lucky for me I had a spare $100 in my pocket and passed with flying colors!

I kid, I kid. I passed with my own actual health, although it was a bit dicey. The doctor wasn’t crazy about my slightly high blood pressure, my weight and my shortness of breath at high altitudes. I can’t blame him. Neither am I. My lung and ear test were both just fine, with no worries. So I passed, and I assume he wouldn’t pass me if I was going to flop over dead in the water, although after today I wonder if he was perhaps drunk.

So! I finally got it booked. They had an opening to get started today (tomorrow, the next day from the day I was just typing about, also known as Friday) so I took it and got ready for the big, big party.

The party was cool, but not really my thing. It was very frat party and I guess I’m just not very frat. The beer and hot dogs were good, but after like 15 minutes they started in on the games to get people in the spirit. The first was beer bong championships. The second was this deal where five guys had to line up and then four girls (randomly) had to get on their knees in front of them. The guys put their hands behind their heads (like that commercial we’ve all seen) and the girl had to work a piece of wrapped bubbled gum from the guy’s ankle area out his waist. In his pants. Shame I was wearing shorts, cause that looked pretty awesome. The final part was that the girl had to unwrap the gum and blow a bubble. Whoever blew first (heh!) won.

Soon after it started to piss down (as they say) so I decided I had enough and went in to call it a night. I had an early morning coming up! After I had settled in and was reading to go to sleep I heard a key scratching around in the door and a moment later I had my first roommate! Matt moved in, and surprisingly he’s an American. He’s from California but has been living here for about 6 months. We chatted for a few minutes about some interesting Aussie styles and flavors and then both settled in. He was doing an intro dive the next day and had to be up even earlier than me.

So now it’s today. The big day when I earn my gills and fins and breath like the fishes for the first time. I got picked up at my hostel at 8:25am and met the rest of my friends for the next 5 days and we headed to the training center. Nice place. We settled in for about four hours of classroom time and lame videos (where many shots were taken at the Americans who made the videos) and then hit the pool.

The first thing we had to do was to prove we knew how to swim. I figured this would be quite easy! I swim all the time. I love to swim!

I guess I don’t usually swim 200 meters at a time. 🙁

We had to do 16 laps of the fairly small pool and honestly, I barely made it. I day dreamed the entire time of my walk of shame when I gave up after 15 laps, gathered my things and went home. I finally made it, and I wasn’t the last person in, but it was really hard for me. My cardio vascular health just sucks. It always has. That’s what comes of sitting on your ass for 15 years, I guess.

We then had to tread water for 10 minutes and tell the dive master a bunch of personal details like where we were from, favorite food and so on. I wasn’t sure if that was to pass the time faster or for them to see how out of breath we were. Either way, I had no problem with that at all. It’s easy to float when you are fat.

So I passed the test, although I wonder if I should be sticking with it. I guess the upside is that once I am certified I can go at my own pace and not be under a “training” regimen, but on the other hand I wonder what will happen if a rip pulls me out to sea.

Actually, I know full well what will happen. I will die and the sharks will eat (extremely) well that night.

The rest of the day was hard, but very fun and rewarding. We quickly learned about the gear, how to set it up, get it on and get in the water. We learned how to find your regulator if you lose it and a few other things and then we put our heads under water and breeeeeeeeeeaaathhhhed! THAT was a weird feeling. I got used to it really fast, but I felt like I was breathing too hard and too fast all day. Turned out I wasn’t doing any worse than anyone else. I talked to some of the guys after and they all felt the same way, and I ended up with the same amount of air leftover as everyone else, so that’s good.

We practiced a lot of the basic skills you need to dive: Clearing your regulator, clearing your mask, adjusting your buoyancy, constantly hiking your weight belt back up cause it just barely fits (that one was me only), swimming with flippers and loads of other stuff. Not a lot later we went to the deep side, which is 4 meters deep and hit the bottom!

One of the things I had the hardest time with was wanting to constantly surface to breath. We’d be sitting on the bottom practicing skills and while the other guys were working on stuff I would find myself holding my breath and thinking “Hurry up, so I can go up and breath!” and then I would think “That’s what this giant pacifier in my mouth is for” and I’d remember I can breath under the damn water! Crazy! I got well used to it by the end of the day and was perfectly happy sitting around on the floor of the pool being awesome.

And that was about that for day one! I have homework tonight (really!) and then tomorrow it’s right back in the pool. After we wrapped up I spent a few minutes chatting with the dive master (who was different from the instructor) about some of the struggles I had and he said not to worry. He said he went through the same things and they would help me some tomorrow to get me better outfitted. He’s a big guy too. The biggest problem I had was keeping my weight belt up (it was just too short for my fat gut) and keeping enough weight on me to get me to sink. That was pretty embarrassing. I had like twice the weight of everyone else on my belt and in my pockets to keep me down. Instructor said “You must have huge lungs” but what he meant was “Cheeseburgers float well”

And that’s all for now! I am utterly exhausted. I had a quick dinner at the Night Market (which I’ll tell you more about later) and now I’m catching up online before I start my homework. I am gonna some serious sleeping tonight, I know that.

Oh, last thing. I was the only one there with facial hair, and I noted to the instructor early on that my mask kept filling with water every time I breathed out. I had a pretty good idea why, and he confirmed. It has to go. The hairs on my upper lip make it impossible to get a good seal on the mask. So tonight, I will shave again for only the second time in like 3 years. Fear!

No pictures just yet, and probably not any till after I am back from my dive trip. Although, I can guarantee it will be worth the wait 🙂

Well, Sunday I had a leisurely morning around the hostel and eventually headed downtown for some brekkie. That’s right, brekkie. They really do cutesy everything up over here. You got your blueies and your salties and brekkie and Tassie and mozzies and so on. Why say something normal when you can make it sound so endearing?

Anyway, brekkie was an expensive affair of a cup of coffee and two slices of french toast. I don’t understand how people eat out over here. Perhaps they only do it on special occasions cause there is no way you could do it every day, every meal like many people in the US do. That meal I described came to around $17 AUD. I decided right then it was time to embrace the backpacker and start making my own food. More on that later.

With a (utterly not) full belly I started walking towards Echo Point, which is kind of the jumping off point for many of the walks and activities for the area. It turned out to be a longer walk than I expected so my muscles got nice and warmed up for the torturous day to come!

I spent some time gawking at the incredible view at Echo Point and taking a bunch of pictures that completely failed to capture it. I keep seeing all these places where the landscape (or mountain-scape in this case) is just breathtaking and it just doesn’t fit on a camera. Oh well. Let me tell you, it’s gorgeous. I actually gasped when I came around the corner and saw the mountains spread out in front of me. Go there.

I was feeling good and even though I hadn’t come prepped for a long walk I wandered over to the information stand to ask about some of the walks from this area. I had read about some of them in the LP (Lonely Planet) and in some of the stuff I had picked up when I arrived and I was interested in a few hour walk. The Giant Stairway sounded cool, but everything I had read made it sound too hard for my level of fitness, which can best be described as “mostly dead”. The information guy didn’t make it sound so bad so I decided to give it a try.

As I walked down to the start of the Stairway I met two girls traveling from Jersey (the English one) and London and chatted with them for a few minutes. We walked and talked until the first set of steps which is where they gave up and turned back. I pushed on! Like a fool!

As I climbed slowly down the nine hundred and something steps my thighs started to complain and I noticed just after the half way point that whenever I stopped for a second my legs were shaking. Not good. I eventually made it down to the last set of stairs where a woman and I guess her daughter were slowly going down… backwards. I have no idea why, but I assume it made it easier.

Eventually I made the bottom and found a sign saying “Scenic Railway 2.5km —–>” and that’s where I was headed. Now it was time to see if I could make it that much further with my legs already complaining.

I’ll cut this short a bit; I just noticed I am actually starting to bore myself.

Anyway, I made it just fine, with a few much needed breaks. I entered Scenic World at the bottom of the valley and took the Sceniscender back up. It’s a cable car that goes at an angle right up the cliff face and it was really sweet. There is also the Railway and the Skyway, which I decided to save for later. I had a lunch of yellow curry and rice ($18!!) at the top and then starting to try to figure out how to get back home. Unfortunately I had not planned well and ended up without a good way to get back to my hostel, which was now about another 3km away. Poor little legs.

After limping back home and taking a shower I went grocery shopping for the first time; intent on not spending another $17 on a light meal. With french toast on the brain I picked up a loaf of bread, eggs, milk, syrup, peanut butter and jelly. All for about $12! When I got back I had lovely french toast with free hostel coffee. I figure it ran me about $1.50. Much better!
So, that was Sunday. Monday I woke up and my legs were extremely pissed off. I took it easy all day. French toast for breakfast and then a little shopping. I found a used bookstore and picked up a few new (old) books for cheap and then had a lovely lunch of steamed rice and soy sauce (Mmmm!) for just $2.50. I was starting to get the hang of this budget thing.

Unfortunately, towards the end of the day Dan sent me a link for Desktop Tower Defense and completely ruined my entire trip. All I’ve done since then is play it! I’m addicted! I see creeps in my sleeps! You can see all my scores here if you’d like. Courtney was giving me some shit about playing a Flash game when I was in a foreign country and had spent a lot of money to get there, but it’s okay. I’m enjoying myself. I just can’t imagine sightseeing every day for 6 months (or even a week) and these days where I sit around doing nothing are great. I don’t consider this to be a vacation. It’s too long for that. I consider this living somewhere else for 6 months and I’m still a computer geek 🙂

Anyway, today I did a lot of the same with a few notable exceptions. First stopped by a travel agent and booked a ticket for what I believe will be my last stop in Oz; Cairns! Cairns of the Great Barrier Reef and diving and beaches and tropical weather and all that. I have to get back to Sydney in the morning by train and then hop my flight up to Cairns where I will finally have to wear something besides jeans.

After I booked my flight I headed back to Scenic World (taking a much shorter path) so that I could ride the Skyway, which is a cable car ride straight across the gorge and the Railway which is a miners coal rail converted for people fun. Both were spectacular and the Skyway even featured an LCD floor which was opaque when we started but turned clear half way into the ride. Over the gorge. Very, very scary and cool. A miserable, all up hill walk back to the hostel and some bad Chinese food later and I’m settled in for the night for an early morning. I walked up to the cinema earlier to see if there was anything good playing to waste the evening on, but it was Spiderman 3 (only) and I was two hours early.

So that is my trip to the Blue Mountains of New South Wales! It may sound a little boring, but I’ve had a wonderful time. I really like it here. The town is very laid back, people are friendly, the scenery is amazing and the weather is nice. If I wasn’t so out of shape I’d like to have walked more in the mountains, but I’ll have to save it for next time. Tomorrow I am off to Queensland, sun, beaches and finally… dorm living. That’s right, I’m going to give up the last vestige of privacy and start living in the dorms. It’s either that or come back months early. I am spending too much every night just to sleep.

So, see you in Cairns! Till then, check out the pictures!

In the book Snow Crash, the narrator notes that there are only three things America is still good at: pizza, movies and software although I think he uses cooler words than that. I mentioned in Seattle about software, and as of movies there’s no question. Australia has finally shown me that it’s true about pizza too. What the HELL is with the pizza here? It’s awful! It’s like someone told them “Well, you put down some dough and then put a bunch of shit on it with some cheese and cook it till it cries.” except they didn’t bother to tell them the right kind of shit you put on it so they put stuff like eggs and chicken and BBQ sauce on it.

Damn.

Anyway, I finally took a little time to wander around Sydney and see some of the sights, but I have to admit I was feeling a little down about wandering around another city and looking at it’s buildings.

The area I was staying in, Kings Cross, is apparently the “evil” capitol of Sydney. That’s where you go for your hookers, your drugs, your booze and your crazy people. I never liked the vibe there at all. Once I finally found my way around a bit I headed down to the harbor by train and checked out the Opera House area by night. It’s really very beautiful and I don’t think my pictures captured it very well. Sydney got their harbor spot on. The whole place is gorgeous.

The next day I headed back, wandered around a bit more and then took the ferry to Manly, which is about 45 minutes away. I read in the Lonely Planet guide I am carrying that it’s a cheap way to get a nice harbor tour and it definitely was. The whole way there is very pretty, and you even pass the inlet (I think that’s the right word) where you get some actual ocean waves. That’s actually the first time I have been in a large boat on ocean water and the swells moved it around quite a bit. A little scary, but I got into it pretty quick. My love for the sea grows. I think it’s this eye patch. It’s very fetching.

Manly was your standard surfer town, and as I didn’t have a wet suit I only got to look at the water, not touch. I only stayed long enough to have a slice of awful pizza and headed back.

I’m a little sad to say that’s about all I did in Sydney. I just wasn’t into it. I did have a run in with the craziest person in the world this morning while eating breakfast and it scared the hell out of me and the rest of the patrons of Joe’s Cafe. So that sucked.

That cemented my idea to head out of city and go to the Blue Mountains, which was the main reason I wanted to come to Sydney at all. I mean, the Opera House is lovely, but I wasn’t there to take in an opera so it was of limited use to me.

This morning I had a nice, if somewhat terrifying breakfast, did some laundry (I have been sweating like a pig and my shirts were awful), booked a room in Katoomba and bought a train ticket to same. The train ride was awesome. I’d love to see it from the ground we traveled over as the cliffs along the edge of the tracks sometimes seemed to be inches away.

Now I am settled in to The Katoomba Mountain Lodge, which is very clean and nice and I’m thinking about some dinner. Tomorrow I’ll either do some hiking or try to book a tour to the nearby caves for some caving. Till then, I give my warm thanks to Mr. “NETGEAR” who is a wide open wireless access point. The first of this trip. Hooray!

Sydney is insane. Crazy, crazy busy. But that’s for later.

I wrapped up my time in Melbourne by getting absurdly drunk in the hostel bar with my new friends Katie (the bartender), Rubin (her boyfriend) and eventually Jones who might have been called something different, but I couldn’t tell through his accent.

The bar the hostel was completely dead, but I had decided I needed to meet some people and have some drinks, so I saddled up to the bar and ordered a pint of Tooheys. After I asked how to order, of course. The various sizes in Melbourne are a pot, which is about a half pint, a pint which is a pint and a jug which is a small pitcher. About two pints. I eventually started chatting with the above mentioned crew and ended up having a great time. We capped the night with a few games of pool, all of which I won, but I think my opponent Jones let me. Anyway, it was a good night.

Before going off to the bar to get hammered I booked a day tour for Phillip Island to see the fairy penguins make their daily attack on the beach. Every day, before the sun rises the smallest penguins in the world go out to sea to eat and eat and eat, and then all at once, as soon as the sun sets they come floating ashore and storm the beach to head back to their little homes and feed their young. It is without a doubt the cutest thing anywhere, ever.

On the way to see the penguins we stopped at a winery for a quick wine tasting. It was terrible. The wine just sucked to my taste. Sorry. Then we went to a wildlife park where we got to have our picture taken with a koala, feel up some wombats, romp around with some kangaroos and just generally bath in wildlife. The roos were of course the highlight, since we were allowed in their area to feed and play with them. All in all they were super cool but those fuckers have some giant claws on them and the bigger ones can get pretty aggressive when they want some chow.

We also saw a tassie (tasmanian) devil and learned about him. They are all dying from a disease that is passed via saliva and unfortunately the devils tend to swap a lot of saliva. They don’t really spin around in circles like Taz does but they really tear into their chow and are constantly biting it, each other and themselves. We also learned they can’t see for shit but can smell and hear really well. They move up to 30 kilometers a night in hunting and only eat already dead chow. The one we saw was in a pretty large cage, but certainly not 30km large so he ran in circles the entire time sniffing up a storm. I took a video of him, which I’ll post soon.

After the wildlife park we had a quick lunch and then were taken to an airport to have the option of a helicopter ride for an extra $60. It sounded cool, but I had already paid $99 for the tour and didn’t want to spend any more. Plus at least two people had to go and no one else was interested. So we headed off to a surf beach on Phillip Island to… waste time. It was a really gorgeous beach though, as you can see from the pictures.

Then it was off to Seal Rocks, where I saw no seals, and The Nobbies which were beautiful and then to the main attraction!

I won’t write pages about the penguins, but man they are cool. After they got up on the beach to their little huts they stood outside singing, trying to attract a mate. It was really pretty incredible and even though it’s a massive, massive tourist trap I totally recommend it. Skip the tour if you’ve got access to a car. It’s only $16 or something to watch the penguins. Oh, and there’s no taking pictures at all, so sorry about that.
So that was pretty much it for me in Melbourne. The morning before the penguins I wandered into a travel agency and picked up a ticket to Sydney. I was getting a little bored of Melbourne, and I figured if I am gonna suffer in a big city it might as well be THE big city.

And big it is! I grabbed a hostel in King Cross, which is east of the city center and had a free shuttle take me there. After settling in for a bit I found the entrance to the underground (subway, trains, whatever) and bought a return ticket for Town Hall, which is the main train interchange for the city lines. When I got there and walked out into the city I basically turned around and fled in terror. Probably not a good idea to have popped out right during the rush. It was completely crazy, and dark and I just wasn’t ready to face it just yet. So I wandered back to my hostel, got my laptop and here I sit, down the street catching up.

Tomorrow I’ll get down to Sydney proper and see what there is to see. I know I am definitely planning to go out of town in the next few days to the Blue Mountains and maybe go do some caving too. And I hear there’s some kind of opera thing on the harbor I should look at.

That’s it for now. I’m kinda beat for no good reason at all and am gonna call it an early night. I imagine I’ll be doing plenty of walking tomorrow, and maybe some bridge climbing. There is a tour that lets you scale the Harbor Bridge and it looks pretty awesome scary. Make sure you check out the latest batch of pictures. There are some good ones in there, if I can say so myself.

It takes a little while to get used to this lifestyle, but I’m getting there. You have to get used to wearing the same shirt a few times and maybe not always smelling your best. You get used to being a little grossed out by the bathrooms you have to use, and then being a little less grossed out and then eventually accepting it. I’m getting there, with much thanks to the place I am staying, which is pretty bad 🙂

Anyway! It’s been a fun few days. I guess it was Saturday that I moved up to Melbourne, and I didn’t do a whole lot that day. Wandered around town, and checked out some of the sights. Ended up in bed pretty early. I did find an Internet cafe where I could hook up my laptop, so that was great. It’s nice to be able to check my email and do downloads with my laptop and such.

Sunday morning I got up fairly early and did a little shopping. I had to get some decent shoes that would last me this trip. I had been wearing my trusty Converse All Stars, which while stylish, are not great for putting down the miles. Err, kilometers. I finally ended up paying way too much for a pair of Merrell Chameleons, which are good for city walking and some light hiking. They were expensive but my feet have been worshiping me since, so that’s great.

With good shoes I was ready to get out of the city a bit. I caught a train to Upper Ferntree Gully, which is about an hour east of the city. It’s at the base of the Dandenong Mountains and I had read about some excellent hiking. I’m not exactly Mr. Hiking but I intend to be before I come home.

I found a visitors center that gave me a map and an idea and before long I was making my way up the mountain. There was a pretty steep grade on the path I chose and I was quickly out of breath; and then I got to the steps.

There is a feature called the 1000 steps memorial walk that is basically just that. 1000 concrete steps running up the side of the mountain to commemorate what the Aussie troops had to go through to defend something or the other from someone. It was grueling, for me at least. Plenty of other people were cruising right up, but I wasn’t the only one taking breaks every 50 steps or so. Along the way I saw some beautiful fern trees and some really cool red and blue parrot looking birds munching away on them. I eventually made it to the top, and it was a really good feeling, but man I was hurting.

The path back down might have been even worse. I didn’t have to stop to take breather breaks but there were no flat spots and my thighs were killing me by the end.

When I got back to my hostel I had intended to go to the free BBQ in the bar (Roo meat!) but instead I laid down for a few minutes and just slept and slept and slept. Completely worn out. I’ll have to eat a joey some other time.

Today I’ve been taking it slow and getting some errands done. I did laundry, which was much needed, mailed some stuff back home that I didn’t want to carry any more, am updating pictures and this blog and catching up on email. I had planned to try to get out to Phillip Island on my own, instead of with a tour, but mailing the package off and all this has taken longer than expected so I might do that tomorrow. I’m in no hurry.

And that’s all for now. I’m settling into a pace of life where I can just fuck off for a day and not worry about it. It’s hard. I feel like if I don’t go somewhere or see something every day I’m wasting time, but I’ve got months and months ahead of me and I can’t be a tourist for all of it. Somewhere in there I’ve got to just sit back and live. So that’s what I am doing.

I expect I’ll be moving on in a few days. Melbourne wasn’t all that interesting to me to begin with. I was only coming here to meet a friend who ended up not being available, but I’m having a nice time and I’m not bored yet. Next up, I am not sure. I may go down to Tasmania or up to Sydney. I missed a chance at a shared ride to Sydney this morning cause I forgot to check the bulletin board when I moved into Bakpak, so that was a bummer. Someone with a car was looking to share fuel costs up to Sydney and maybe beyond. I’d like to do something like that eventually. Sounds like a fun way to travel and get to know some new people.

Bye for now!

Wow, it’s been a hell of a few days. I’ve finally found a place to settle in and do some typing so I’ll catch you up!

Tuesday was my last day in Seattle, and it was great. After catching an early ferry from Friday Harbor to Anacortes I drove back to Seattle and met up with my friend J to see what was going on. He was busy for a while do I decided to take some time and finally wander around Seattle. I headed over to the Pike Place Market, which is where they throw fish around when you buy them and sampled the mini donut shop on the advice of J. Yummy, greasy little donuts. So good. I didn’t get to see any flying fish but I did see a bewildering array of really, really fresh seafood. Neat place.

After that I just started walking northish and eventually decided to go to the Space Needle since it was visible. I walked quite a ways but eventually got there. It was… high. I’m so bad at tourist attractions, but there are some things you have to do if you are in a certain place. But really, it was a really high building and you could see all of Seattle form it. Check out the pictures.

J talked to his wife and she suggested BBQing for my last day in town, so after getting a call while at the top of the Space Needle I took a cab back to the office and we set out to Bainbridge for dinner. As we went over he regaled me with stories of how he was going to cook the best steak ever. This is the Santa Maria style Tri-Tip and it more than lived up to all the hype. With a dry rub and then grilling for around an hour it turned into one of the tastiest steak sandwiches I’ve ever had, and that’s saying something.

After a little American Idol with J’s family I hit the sack early for my very early start in the morning.

Wednesday brought a early morning crossing back to Seattle, a short drive to Sea-Tac and a (longer than I expected) flight to Los Angeles. I was there to meet S, from the same company that I talked about before, and to spend the day with him touring the city. We had a great time. We visited Venice Beach and while walking past muscle beach saw Lou Ferrigno working out a bit in front of some cameras. Not sure what he was filming. S took it all in stride, but I was pretty surprised 🙂

We then had lunch at an English pub up the street and headed towards Beverly Hills and all that goes with it. We took a quick tour of some of the stars houses and then headed to Hollywood. Since I was only in town for about 7 hours before I had to fly off to Australia it was a whirl wind tour, but we saw a lot in only a few hours. In Hollywood we saw some of the big studios, and thanks to a back road that S remembered I got some pictures of the back lots of Universal. We saw Gate 2 of Warner Brothers which I immediately recognized from a million different movies and the arches at Paramount. All fun stuff. We wrapped it up with a cruise up Mulholland Drive to the Los Angeles overlook which was very cool.

S dropped me off at LAX and it was time to check in for the longest flight of my life! Security was a total nightmare due to some idiocy on the part of the screeners. I had gotten all the way to the front of the line and then they opened up a new line and asked me to move to it. When I get in they found that the X-Ray machine wasn’t working so they moved us to a different new line. The guy that was moving us around then disappeared and we waited. After a few minutes a girl walked up, looked at us and said “This line isn’t open.” I said “We were just told to move here” and she said “Well I don’t know why” and walked away. Eventually I just pushed my way into the line I had originally started in and got through. So lame.

Anyway, the flight was about 13 hours and I managed to sleep for most of it. I had an aisle seat and the whole thing wasn’t too bad at all. I landed in Auckland, NZ and then immediately got on the second leg of the flight taking me to Melbourne, and it felt like it took forever. Beforehand, though, I met Sam and Hannah who told me loads of great places to check out in Australia, so that was nice.

And finally… I was in Australia! So far, to be honest, Melbourne could be Any City, USA with accents. This is why I hate visiting cities. They are all the same, really. Except for some differently shaped buildings it’s hard to tell you’ve gone anywhere.

When I landed I booked a room at the Base Backpackers in St. Kilda which seemed like an easy choice. I basically just wanted a place to lay down, spread out my gear and figure out a plan. Base worked for that, but it was too expensive and too trendy. I spent some time just laying around, then had dinner and then came back and completely passed out till 5am this morning. I really needed the sleep, even though I slept on the plane.

So my goal for today was to move up to downtown Melbourne, learn the transportation system, find a new place to live and try to get rid of some extra gear I don’t want to carry any more. All a success, so far. It sounds like boring little stuff, but if you’ve never been homeless in a completely foreign city you’d be surprised at how nice it is just to get the basics figured out. For me, at least.

I’ve moved into The Hotel Bakpak in Melbourne, which is right in the thick of it and it’s very nice. Smaller than last night, but cheaper (75 AUD/night for a private room) and much more to my liking. It’s still a little trendy, but it’s much more accessible. Plus I found an Internet shop around the corner that I can use my laptop at to finally upload some pictures.

So, that’s it so far. A boring start to an exciting adventure, I admit, but you have to walk before you go to Port Phillip and see dozens of fairy penguins and die from cuteness. Or something.

For the rest of today I will probably just wander around the city and get my bearings. Not sure what the plan is tomorrow, but I’d like to get out to the Dandenong Mountains and maybe do some hiking or go to Port Phillips to see the aforementioned penguins.

Briefly —

Tuesday: I spent Tuesday exploring Seattle more in depth.

Wednesday: I flew to LA and got a whirlwind tour of the city from my friend Steve and then hopped on my flight to Australia.

Thursday: I left Thursday somewhere in the Pacific.

Friday: It’s Friday afternoon and I’m in the Internet cafe of Base Backpackers in Melbourne, AU just catching up. I have pictures and stories to post but no time at the moment.

So, I’m officially on my trip 🙂

Well, before I went to bed last night I had pretty much decided to spare myself the cost of more ferry rides and to go to the Cascade Mountain Highway instead of the San Juans today. That all changed while I slept, I guess. When I woke up I decided I really wanted to see San Juan so I got the hell out of the shit hole that was the Mark II Motel and headed back to Anacortes. This time I had a ferry schedule and I arrived just in time for a quick breakfast and then the ferry ride. The earliest ferry straight to Friday Harbor was not till 2:45pm, so I took the 12:05pm one to Orcas instead. I’m glad I did!

Orcas turned out to be absolutely, stunningly beautiful. I had the most wonderful time. When I was buying my ferry ticket the ticket seller lady told me I should go to Mount Constitution cause on a day like today the view would be great; so that’s what I did. It was about a 30 minute drive to the top, but you can see from the pictures that it was all completely worth it. It’s only about 2800 feet high, but when you have a summit that looks out on islands and tons of natural beauty it doesn’t take a lot of height to do the job.

On the way back down the mountain I stopped at one of the trail heads for Cold Springs, which sounded good to me. I get a thrill from drinking from mountain streams, so that sounded like a good place to do it. Unfortunately, there was a sign at the trail head saying no potable water from here on, so I didn’t have any. It was very pretty though.

I headed back to town and got back on the ferry to go to Friday Harbor. The ride was very nice. It reminded me of something, but I can’t think of what. I feel like every time I ride one of these boats it’s taking me back to something I miss, but I don’t think I ever spent a lot of time on a boat anywhere in my life. My Dad was in the Coast Guard, and he really enjoyed it and felt a great attachment to the sea, so maybe I am channeling him. I know that the smell of salt water, and the shriek of sea gulls and seeing a lighthouse on a rocky point just pulls right at my soul and I love it.

Anyway, I didn’t have a plan for Friday Harbor, and by driving through the town I could see it was going to be pretty dead. It’s a Monday evening in the off season. Not a lot going on.

I took a drive out to Lime Kiln State Park which was supposed to be the best place for seeing whales from the coast (instead of on a boat) and I hiked out to the viewing area. I didn’t see any whales but I did see a sea lion right up close! He was maybe 20 or 30 feet away just chilling on a rock! So cool! I tried to get a picture, but when he heard me he just flopped right into the water. So beautiful.

It was starting to get darkish so I checked the little brochure that came with my ferry ride for places to stay. Under the “really cheap” section I found Juniper Lane Guesthouse which was described as “New, hip, gorgeous, wi-fi” which sounded like just the place for me. The prices were also supposed to be from $30-$165 which sounded great.

I kinda blew past the place at first cause I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. I thought about heading into town to see if there was something closer to the action (heh!) but after seeing it was only 1.3 miles away I headed back.

I peeked in the door of what seemed like the office but it was dark and no one was around. When I peeked back out a girl was walking up towards me. She introduced herself as Juniper, the owner of the guest house and told me all about it. The place is absolutely beautiful and every bit as cool as the description made it sound.

She has a nice web site with a ton of pictures, so just check that out. If you are every in Friday Harbor you *have* to stay here.

And that’s it for my San Juan Islands adventure. Today was great. I had a really nice time all day and I found a perfect room to sleep in, which is a welcome change from yesterday.

You can click the birdy at the top for today’s pictures.

Before you read about my crappy day today, you may want to go back to yesterday’s post and re-read it. I finished it up and it’s much more interesting than this one 🙂

Today didn’t turn out quite how I wanted it to. My morning started with a jolt when my alarm went off at 8am and I didn’t remember falling asleep. I guess I was so tired that I slept right through the night without a single wake up and when I got up at 8am it felt like I had just dozed off a moment before.

Anyway… I decided to drive down to Victoria to see what that was all about and then come back to Sidney later on to catch a ferry to San Juan. I set out to Victoria, which wasn’t very far away. I caught a quick breakfast and then wandered around downtown for a while. I decided I wasn’t much in the mood for a city but I did see on the map that the cruise ship port wasn’t far off, so I rolled over there to check it out. That turned out to be a lot of fun.

At Port Victoria, where the cruise ships come in, there is a giant water break that I guess keeps the waves away from the port. You could walk out on it so I did, and it was a really nice walk. On the way back I climbed down the side to walk on the big granite stones that made it up and enjoyed myself completely.

After that I headed back towards Sidney to try to get to San Juan and found out the only ferry for the day left at 11:30am. That’s what you get for not planning anything. I tried to come up with other options, but eventually ended up just completely backtracking the way I came. Unfortunately, so was everyone else and I ended up waiting in line for the ferry for around 3 hours. Then I had a 45 minute wait in line at US Customs to get back into the States and now I am settled into the nastiest motel I’ve ever been in at the junction of WA-20 and I-5. The walls are peeling, there is water on the floor of the bathroom, I can hear things in the walls and the highway traffic is deafening.

I couldn’t decide if tomorrow I will go to San Juan (I finally got a ferry schedule, and there are plenty of options) or if I will go east to the Northern Cascades Highway, so I got a room right in the middle of the two to decide tomorrow. I should have gone back to Anacortes and stayed where I stayed Friday night. Only 5 miles away and light years nicer. Oh well.

And that’s it for Sunday. Pretty much a big waste of a day, although the walk in Victoria and the ferry ride back were both very nice. Tomorrow should be a lot of fun, whichever way I decide to go.

Click the water break at the top to see today’s pictures.

I’m too tired to do a full post tonight, but I uploaded lots of pictures from today. In brief: I woke up in Anacortes, drove to Vancouver, walked across the most expensive toll bridge in the universe, saw some timber wolves, checked out downtown Vancouver and Chinatown and then took a long, awesome ferry to Sidney, BC so that I can cross to Friday Harbor, San Juan tomorrow. And now it’s time for sleep!

Click the big bridge to see today’s pictures.

And now, to finish that up! I woke up early(ish) in Anacortes and did some laundry, which was badly needed. I had had no time to get any done before I left for the trip and things were starting to get pretty bad. After all that excitement I headed to the port to try to catch a ferry to the San Juan Islands; destination Friday Harbor. On arrival it turned out the next ferry was not until 2:45pm and it was only around 11am. After a little though I decided I’d take the long way around, drive to Vancouver, check it out, then go to Victoria and eventually take the ferry to Friday Harbor from the west instead of the east.

Some of that actually happened.

I did make it to Vancouver, and it was gorgeous. On approach you see skyscrapers with a snow topped mountain backing. It’s really, really beautiful. When I crossed the border to Canada one of the first things I saw was a billboard for a walk across suspension bridge, and it looked really neat so I decided to check it out. I plugged in the address in my GPS (which has been the most awesome thing ever) and headed straight there. Along the way I saw a really tall mountain that I decided I wanted to see the top of before I left. File that for later.

The suspension bridge was ultra-touristy but still worth it. The bridge itself was really cool, and very bouncy and then the little town in the trees made me think that the designers of Kelethin in EverQuest and of the tree section of Far Cry had definitely been to this place. It was very neat. Shame I don’t know much Japanese, or I would have been able to communicate with every single person there. Very touristy.

So then it was off to find that mountain. I saw a sign that said “Grouse Mountain – The Peak of Vancouver” and that sounded pretty promising. I drove to the top and they had a cable car that would take you the rest of the way but it was $36 and I had just paid $26 to walk across a bridge, so I decided to skip it. I did get to see some real wolves for free though. They were behind a three wire electric fence, but I could have easily patted them on the snout if I were so inclined. I was not so inclined. Close up a wolf does not look anything like a dog. It looks like a killer.

Next up I had to decide what to do with the rest of my day. I had considered sleeping in Vancouver, but I didn’t really have any good reason to. Just in case a reason presented itself, I decided to check out a hostel downtown and see what happened. My GPS took me right to it and I recognized the front of the building from the picture I had seen earlier. Mostly recognized. There was some new art on the front door in the form of black spraypaint exclaiming “Die Punks Die”. I decided to hit the road.

So, the plan was to take a ferry to Sidney, B.C. (British Columbia), spend the night and then try to get to Friday Harbor in the morning. The ferry ride was awesome. It snaked through a bunch of little islands and once again, I started thinking the designer for the Siren Isles in EverQuest had once sailed the same way.

I slept in a great Super 8 with speedy Internet access which would come in to play several times throughout the next day… but that’s tomorrow’s (today’s) post!