Australia II

Hello again! I finally made it out of South East Asia and into an English speaking land again. I was really looking forward to having some of my favorite foods, using regular toilets, and getting some surfing and beach time in during my short time back in OZ. Because of the airport closure and being about 1200km away from an airport that could get me out of there, my time in Oz was cut down to only 4 days. I was going to have to get a lot done in a short time. My greeting back to Oz was a little harsh, and just short of a strip search. Karma would pay me back quickly for that, literally! After getting through customs I had to wait about 2 hours in Darwin for my connecting flight to Melbourne. I happened to be sitting at a table just across from an ATM. I noticed that there was a $50 dollar bill sitting in the tray! I started looking for the last people who had just taken money out when another person walked up and withdrew some money as well… they did their thing and took the money, but the $50 was still there! I thought maybe it was just a sticker or something… so I went and withdrew some money and reached up in the tray and pulled out a crisp $50 just for me!!

Friday morning (Dec 5th) I arrived in Melbourne and hopped on a shuttle to my hostel in St. Kilda, but as I was checking in I found out that it was completely booked up and could only have me for 1 night! I needed to find somewhere to stay the next two nights asap. I walked around to other hostels nearby, but they were all booked up too! Finally a few hours later I found one that had a bed for me for the next two nights. Problem solved. That night I went out with Wes, a guy from California I met in my hostel, to a pub called “The Espy”. It used to be a hotel on the beachfront and was converted into a pub. It had about 5 different rooms each with a different atmosphere and a live band or DJ. This place was packed and had some good band playing. I was mostly happy to try some of my favorite Aussie beers again haha.

The next morning I was up early to check out of my hostel and move to my new hostel down the road called the “Oslo”. As I was checking out I was told that there was a bed available for me that night if I wanted to stay. I had already booked the other place and felt bad if I had bailed on the new place, so I did the right thing and kept my booking at the Oslo and made the hike up the road. I checked into the new place and went to my room, hoping to get a bit more sleep in. I opened the door and was hit with a strong smell of sweaty dudes and stale beer, nice. The room was a horrible mess and I couldn’t even find a clearing to put my bag down. I said hi to everyone and just dropped my gear in the corner and went down the hall to take my morning pee. As I was coming back there was a girl walking down the hall and as she passed my room she made this horrible face like she was about to vomit. I figured it was the smell that caused this. As I turned the corner to go into my room the door was wide open and there was a dude lying naked in his bed… um “itching” himself. I thought maybe the door had come open just as the guy was changing or something and he happened to be itchy… maybe. I went into my bag to get a change of clothes, but the dude kept um, “itching” his man bits and was giggling away as his buddy watched. What the F did I just step into here? There was no way I was gonna sleep in the same room with these animals for the next two nights. I left my bags and raced back to my old hostel to see if I could get that room back! Too late, it was already gone; Fantastic. I checked a few other hostels close by and luckily I was able to get a room for the night. I went back to the Oslo grabbed my gear and checked out without saying anything to my new roomies. Luckily I got all my money back. The new hostel I found was great! Clean beds, huge kitchen and nice people. The next day I was lined up to go back to my original hostel which was great, cause I had already made some good friends there the day before.

The second day in Oz I went down to the beach and explored St Kilda a bit more and sampled some of my favorite aussie foods. I had a Mrs Mac’s meat pie for brekky, a huge burger right off the bbq with all the fixings, beat root, pineapple and lots of tomato sause. Delish. Later that evening me and Wes went into the city. He was there almost a week and didn’t even make it down town yet. I still remembered how to get around from the first time I was there so I showed him around a bit. We walked around for a few hours and ended up chilling out at Crown Casino and had a few beers. Wes is from Santa Cruz, California and had come to Oz to go surfing and skating up the east coast for about 5 months, but about 3 weeks before he was to leave he had a bad wipe out at the skate park and tore some ligaments in his knee. He could barely walk on it! So his great surf/skate trip in Oz was going to be sightseeing only… I was telling him and showing pictures about my Thailand trip and now he is thinking about going there for a month or two and chill out on the islands haha.

My last day in Oz I went to the beach with Eddie, Joanna, Rachael and Wes for a few hours. The sun was warm, but the wind was chilly, so the beach time was kept to a minimum. We went back to the hostel and had a huge bbq with all the perks - Burgers, sausages, hash browns, bacon, and eggs. While we were cooking this massive BBQ the bacon went missing! How do you misplace a full pack of bacon? Some sneaky bugger nicked our bacon! Rachael was devastated haha, she really wanted some bacon… she was really quiet the rest of the day, only bringing up the bacon when she spoke haha. We figured it was some sneaky frenchies who took it. We had a good laugh and it was a nice ending to my short trip in Oz, chilling out by the BBQ sipping some beers with some new friends.

The next morning I was up at 5am to catch my flight to New Zealand!
Stay tuned for some NZ stories coming shortly!

Bye bye for now!
Nate.