Still in Townsville ...

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for your awesome and hilarious blog comments :D Daddy, I love the Lakers updates! I've been following them on nba.com and lakers.com but reading your updates is much more entertaining than simply checking the standings and the rankings. Grandma Rita and Grandpa Jan, I can't wait to hear these Woodstock stories when I get home haha!

Here are some pics of the very muddy Full Noise Music Festival:

I just wanted to let everyone know I'm loving this beautiful town in North Queensland! I was planning to go back down to Brisbane yesterday but I decided to stay a few more days. Of course, the music festival was awesome. Jenny and I danced all day in the pouring rain and made some great new friends. I saw lots of rat tails (creepiest hairdo ever ... see picture above), sweet festival costumes and a handful of NBA jerseys. :D

The next day Jenny and I hiked Castle Hill and it was so cool!! 

We did the goat track which ended with about a thousand stairs straight up the rock and it was brutal! 

Good times. I went with my new friend Ian to Maggie Island and it was absolutely gorgeous! 

We didn't see any koalas but the weather was perfect that day and swam in the ocean for hours. I had a really nice time staying with Jenny and her roommate Sam; I am back with them now after about a week of couchsurfing. I stayed with my cousin Richard's friend Matt and his girlfriend Brooke and they were soooo nice! They live in Hermit Park (a suburb of Townsville) and have two big dogs and a snake and a bird and two bearded dragons -- and geckos come into the house all the time! Matt let me borrow his bike and drew me a very detailed map showing me how to get to the river and the downtown area. I took a beautiful bike ride through the golf course and along the river and all over town. 

I got rained on quite a bit but it was warm out so I didn't mind. I couchsurfed for a couple nights with a lovely French girl named Celine and her friend Maura, another couchsurfer from Italy who stayed there the same nights as me. Celine took me hiking with her dogs at the Castle Hill quarry and later that night she took me up to the dam to look for wallabies -- we spotted about 20 of them!! Here are some pics:

We also saw an owl:

... a cute tiny tree frog:

... hundreds of (poisonous) cane toads:

... a possum (didn't get any pics of the fast little guy), and millions of tiny spiders on the railing of the staircase we were walking down (ewww). 


Maura and I went shopping downtown one day -- we had a great time and all I bought was tea tree oil for all my mosquito bites :/ I also couchsurfed with my new friend Steven who I met at the music festival when he was dressed up as a Hooters girl with four of his mates. Of course I had to get some pics of them (see above) and while we were talking, he asked me if I was on couchsurfing! I said that I was and he offered to let me stay a night or two. 


While in Townsville, I went swimming at The Strand beach in a giant "stinger net":

When I first got to town and saw that everyone at the beach had to swim inside a huge net (so the deadly stingers can't get to them), I thought "How sad!" but I was wrong -- it is AWESOME!! No seaweed, no creatures to worry about ... just unbelievably warm ocean water and small waves. It's fantastic. I swam for about 2 1/2 hours yesterday and I'm going back again later today. 


Other plans for my last few days in Townsville: at least one more Castle Hill hike, Billabong Sanctuary (I need to see some kangaroos and koalas!), the Great Barrier Reef Aquarium (where Sam works), and another trip out to Maggie as long as the weather's nice. 

:)

Townsville

Just a quick update before I get ready for the Full Noise Music Festival ...


I got into Townsville yesterday after my epic 23-hour (!) train ride. 

It wasn't bad, considering how long I was stuck on that train. There were several stops where we could get off the train and stretch, and the seats were a lot more comfortable on this train than the first two. I completely lucked out and got a solo seat for the third time, so it could have been a lot worse. There were outlets so I was able to charge my phone and camera battery, and a nice man even let me borrow his iphone charger so I could charge my ipod! The funniest part about this 23-hour train ride was that I thought it was an ELEVEN-hour train ride. Seriously. :/ I'm sure my sister is shaking her head right now, as are most of you. Somehow, in my delirious state (yes, I'm going to blame it on my lack of sleep from the first two trains, even though I booked this train journey almost two months ago), I did the math and thought that leaving Brisbane at 1 pm on Thursday and arriving in Townsville at noon on Friday meant I was on the train for 11 hours. I like to think I just couldn't fathom being stuck on a train for almost an entire day. Or I'm just bad at math. I was on the train for about an hour and as I was drifting off to sleep, I started thinking about the train, and the times, and the fact that I was arriving in Townsville at almost the same time of day as I was leaving Brisbane, and it occurred to me that I had been a little off in my calculations. HAHA! I could not believe I had another 22 hours to go. It was more than a little disappointing. But it was actually good because it gave me a lot more time to sleep, and I was able to get almost entirely caught up so I wasn't totally exhausted by the time I got into Townsville. And the guy who got on the train at the second stop and sat across the aisle from me was really cool. We talked throughout the train ride when we both weren't sleeping, and he assured me I'd see some kangaroos when we got farther north, but it rained most of the way up and the kangaroos never came out :( I still have yet to see a kangaroo, wallaby, koala, crocodile or dingo, but I'm planning on going to the Billabong Sanctuary while I'm here so hopefully I'll see all those creatures soon. :) 


Townsville is really awesome and the scenery is gorgeous. There's a beautiful mountain close to my friend Jenny's place called Castle Hill and we plan on hiking up it tomorrow. Apparently there's a "goat track" where you can walk mostly up steps. Yay! Stair climbing in nature! The closest beach (The Strand) looks out at an island called Magnetic Island (the locals call it "Maggie"). I'm going to take a ferry out there next week to hike and lay out at the awesome beaches there, as long as it's not raining. 


We're getting ready to go to the music festival soon. Daddy, it probably will be like Woodstock because it's supposed to rain sometime today. :D Sweet! Should be lots of fun. I'll post again soon to let you all know how it went. 

BRISBANE

Hi! I only have a few minutes and then I have to get out and explore a little more of Brisbane before I get on the train to Townsville. Just thought I should give everyone a little update since I my last blog was so emo haha I'm feeling much better today. Brisbane is awesome!!! I've been here since 5 am but I haven't seen much of the city because from 5-8, I was just sitting at the train station, reading and waiting for them to open their luggage check office so I could get rid of my large bag. When I finally left the train station, I walked through Roma Street Parkland, this huge beautiful park right behind the train station. I felt like I was in the rainforest!! Here are some pics (not mine):

Then I went to the public baths and took a shower and swam for about an hour. =) When I came out, it was starting to rain and I needed to dry my towel so I went to a nearby hotel and they let me use their dryer -- I also charged my phone and camera. woo hooo! When I came out, it was POURING!!! I think I bring the rain with me to every city I visit! I asked a guy who was standing outside if he thought it would stop soon (in which case I would just sit down under the hotel's awning and wait it out) and he said yeah, probably in 20 minutes -- and he was exactly right. I sat down and talked to the guy while I waited for the rain to stop and when I did, I got up and the back side of my backpack was all wet. I had put it on the ground, not realizing that the roof was leaking and the water was going down the wall and collecting under my backpack. grrrrrrrr. For about an hour, I carried it around by one strap, which is a lot harder than wearing it on my back. :/ but it finally dried so I can wear it the normal way now. I've gotten to see a little bit of the city, but I didn't get a chance to go to the Eagle Street Pier so I'll have to check that out when I get back here in a couple weeks. I'll be visiting my cousin Deb for a couple nights and couchsurfing for a few nights after that. and I just booked a night at the hostel where I'm using the internet. I'm also gonna book a brewery tour (through the hostel it's only $22 including 4 beers) at XXXX Brewery. Yay! Can't wait! Well, I'm off to explore the city and grab some lunch before my train. Talk to you all soon.

***LAKERS UPDATE: Lakers 78 Pistons 56

LET'S GO LAKERS!!!!

I do not like Sydney (at least not today)

Again, I'm sorry Calli!!! :( Let me explain. Yesterday, my last day in Melbourne for a while, was wonderful. Richard dropped me off downtown around 8 am and I checked my large bag at the Traveler's Aid office at Flinder's Street Station (which is awesome by the way! They pretty much help you with whatever you need, and they'll hold a bag there all day for $5, which is super helpful). I spent about 9 hours walking around Melbourne: I went to the Carlton Gardens

and the Melbourne Museum,

and wandered all over the city to parts I hadn't seen before and parts I had seen many times before (like Fitzroy Gardens, St. Patrick's Cathedral

and my old home, the Hyatt). I also bought shampoo and stopped in a book store and read the last 50 or so pages of Enduring Love. :) Then I went to an internet cafe down the street from Flinders Street Station and I was able to upload my pictures (some of you may have seen them), which was rad but it took FOREVER! I had to upload them onto the computer there, then upload them to facebook, and it took about an hour to finish everything.

This is where things got crazy. I was supposed to go to Southern Cross Station (one stop away from Flinders Street) 90 minutes before my train left, which was at 7:55, so I was supposed to be there around 6:30. I had planned on being there with plenty of time to spare but once I got going with my picture uploading mission and it was taking way longer than I expected, I rationalized that the 90 minute thing was just a suggestion and I waited for the rest of my pics to upload before I ran out of the internet cafe, back to Flinders Street, and then got on a train to Southern Cross. Well I was right and I was wrong. I should have been okay getting there 10 minutes early but when I showed up at Southern Cross and went to the window to redeem my Ausrail pass for the train journey, they told me the BUS had already left. Uhhh ... what??? It was only 6:45 so I should have been 45 minutes early, but the woman explained that they were doing work on the rails so the train had been replaced by a "coach" to Albury (3 hours away) and then we would switch to a train the rest of the way to Sydney (7 more hours!!!). But I had to find other transportation to Sydney because they had already left -- since the coach takes a little longer, they had to leave an hour earlier, and they had called me to tell me about the change. Only I had my US phone shut off. When they had originally e-mailed me and asked me to provide a phone number in case they had to get in touch with me, I e-mailed them back and explained that my phone would be shut off and I didn't know what my phone number would be in Australia, so their only way of contacting me would be e-mail. They wrote back that they would make a note of it, and asked me to write back and provide my Australia phone number when I got it. I forgot to do that, and apparently no one ever made a note that they should e-mail me instead of calling so I never got the call. So I was freaking out at the train station, telling them I needed to get to Sydney, no matter how they did it -- I didn't care, but I wasn't going to pay extra, and I really needed to get to Townsville by Friday so I wouldn't miss the music festival. The women picked up the phone and called the bus driver -- and they were still there!!!! It was a Festivus Miracle!!! Some crazy lady (I found out later) had delayed the bus for her own crazy reasons, so I lucked out. I had to RUN,  carrying all my stuff, about 200 yards to the far, far end of Southern Cross, where the bus bays are. I made it!!! :D

The bus ride was pretty cool. I tried to sleep a little, read a little, listened to music, and for the last hour or so talked to the bus driver and another kid who was riding up front. It was good times. Then I got dropped off in Albury and got on the train and it was terrible! Thankfully I had two seats to myself so it really could have been worse, but the seats were terribly uncomfortable, I could not sleep at all (maybe 3 hours total, like 20 minutes at a time, during the entire 7 hour trip, and I was already exhausted from the day) and there was a baby crying in my train car for at least the first 45 minutes.

I arrived in Sydney this morning at 6:55 am EXHUASTED and cold and needing a shower. People had asked me what I was going to do in Sydney for 8 hours and I was like "I'll walk around the city!" (How fun, right?) It never occurred to me that it might be raining the entire day. So I walked in the rain to a hostel to see if I could shower and use the internet ... nope. Tried another one ... nope. Okay that was my fault; I should have known they don't want random people who aren't staying overnight just hangin out, jeopardizing the security of the place. Fortunately the hostels were right across the street, and the guy at the second one suggested I go down the street a few blocks to the aquatics center -- "it's only $2 to use the shower, pool and sauna all day." That sounded great!! I could last 10 minutes in the rain. It was over a mile and it took me 20 minutes because of the rain and the fact that I backtracked once. :( Okay, yes, I am directionally challenged, but I this city is confusing!! I miss the perfect grid of Melbourne. I was completely soaked when I got to the Ian Thorpe Aquatics Center but I decided to make the most of it and get my $8.20 worth (yeah, it wasn't $2, but oh well). I locked up all my stuff, took a shower and then went back and forth between the jacuzzi (which was more like a semi-warm pool with jets) and the steam room for about an hour and a half. Then I took another shower and got ready. Mercifully, it wasn't raining anymore when I started walking back to the station. I was so happy! But then it started raining again when I was about halfway back (of course). Terrible times. and I could have checked my large bag at the station before that whole thing but I needed my bathing suit and a change of clothes and shower stuff so I decided to bring it all with me. Ugh. I'm still sleep-deprived and now I'm completely exhausted physically. I really hope I'll be able to get some decent rest on the train to Brisbane today. Wish me luck please!!  

I'm planning on coming back to Sydney in a few weeks, and if I don't make it then, I'll be back here in January. I really hope I begin to love this city ...

Last night in St. Leonards (for now)

Tomorrow morning (6:00 am!!) I leave St. Leonards and go back to Melbourne for the day, and then get on the train to Sydney. I'm only going to be in Sydney for a few hours -- my real destination is Townsville, way far north, which I've heard described as "the Tennessee of Australia." I can't wait!! I'm going to amusic festival up there this weekend and visiting my friend Jenny, who I know from SLO. It's supposed to be hot and humid up there and I'm sooo excited! It's been very cold (and at times, raining) in St. Leonards, but I've had a wonderful time.

I've been staying with my cousin, Richard, and his wife, Diane, and they are such lovely people. They've been so kind and generous, cooking the most amazing meals for dinner (so much fish, pasta, and always wine. yum), and taking me out to do fun things in their beautiful little beachy, rural town.

me, Richard, Diane and James

Richard is a farrier and an avid fisherman and today he brought me along to watch him shoe horses at three different farms all over town. He was putting new shoes on race horses at one farm, and the other two farms he was taking care of the hooves on three small ponies.

It was really interesting to watch him work and I was stoked because I got to pet the adorable ponies! Yesterday Richard took me fishing in Port Phillip Bay, right near their house. It was cold and as soon as we got the boat in the water, it started raining, but we were dressed for cold weather so it was allright.

He drove us out about 10 kilometers (I think) where the water was about 20 meters deep, and we were checking his GPS to find the right spot and another machine (some kind of sonar thing) to see if there were many fish nearby. It didn't look like there were many fish so he drove us back closer to the shore and we started fishing -- the fish (snapper) were biting right away! As soon as he got his fishing rod in the water, he got a bite, and then I got a bite! It was awesome! We were just reeling in fish (he quickly taught me how) one after the other. Since I don't have a fishing license, we were only allowed to take 10 fish, but we caught close to 20 -- we kept "upgrading" by throwing back smaller fish when we caught a bigger one. I think he said most were around 1 kilo (?) and some were close to 2 kilos. We ate some of the snapper we caught yesterday for dinner tonight and it was delicious!!

                                   *not our snapper

*our snapper :)

In addition to fishing and petting ponies, I've gotten to play with some really cute dogs, and the other day I got to feed a 2 week-old baby lamb! Diane took me over to her friend Carol's house where baby Timothy (the lamb) lives, because she adopted him after his mother rejected him. So sad! But not really because Carol is super nice and loves adopting animals in need. She let me give him a bottle of warm milk and I held him on my lap and it was sooooo cute!

She also has an adorable little dog named Tyson who I loved!

Since it's been cold and rainy most of the weekend, I haven't been able to hang out at the beach like I was expecting, but it's okay because I'm going to be in the hot weather in a couple days, and I've taken advantage of the cold weather by raiding Diane's book collection -- I read an awesome Ian McEwan book (On Chesil Beach) and I'm halfway through another one (Enduring Love). I hope I finish it tonight, otherwise I'll be left in suspense because the alst thing I want to do is carry another book with me, especially one I can't give away after I finish it. (*if anyone's looking for a great book to read, both of these are fantastic!) I know Sarah and my parents will be very excited about this next bit of news ... in 15 minutes, Criminal Minds is going to be on!! We saw a commercial for it the other day and Diane is so sweet, she remembered and tonight she said to me, "Don't forget -- Criminal Minds is on at 8:30." Yay!

So tomorrow morning I'm waking up at 5:30 and Richard is driving me into Melbourne on his way to work on a farm north of there. I'll have about 10-11 hours to kill in Melbourne and then my train departs for Sydney. I'll arrive Wednesday, have a few hours in Sydney, and then I'm taking a train to Brisbane. I'll arrive in Brisbane on Thursday, spend a few hours there, and then I'm taking a train to Townsville. (Don't worry, in a couple weeks I'll be taking the train back down to Brisbane to actually see the city, and soon after that, I'll be spending some time in Sydney.)

It's going to be a loooong trip up north but I'm looking forward to watching the scenery pass by, sleeping, reading, and listening to music -- and if I can afford it, drinking some wine on the train. :) Unless I can quickly find an internet cafe or hostel (or an Apple store haha) in one of the cities I stop in, I probably won't be updating my blog until the weekend so I hope everyone has a great week and I'll talk to you when I can.

<3

St. Leonards with the family

okay my friends, it's time for another blog update :) I just got to St. Leonards, which is a beautiful little beach town south of Melbourne. Yesterday after my couchsurfing host dropped me off, I caught the train back into the city and had some beers with my buddy Jon who couchsurfed with me in LA.

He had a comedy show last night at a bar in Northcote and he was awesome! I didn't have a place to stay so he was sweet enough to let me sleep on the couch in his kitchen (true COUCHsurfing). When he headed off to work, I left and walked in the rain (with my two 30 lb. backpacks!!) to the tram stop closest to his house, asked someone if that tram went downtown and they said no but pointed me in the direction of one that did. When I walked up to that one, I found out I still wasn't at the right tram stop so I walked a few more blocks and finally was at the right one. I took the tram to Flinders Street Station downtown and caught a train to Geelong (pronounced "Jah-Long"). While I was waiting for the train I started talking to a French girl named Matilda who is also backpacking through Australia. She's been in the country for a month now and has already been to some of the places I want to go: Perth, Adelaide, the Great Ocean Road. When we got to the train station at Geelong, my dad's cousin Richard met me there and offered to drive Matilda to the town she was headed to, Queenscliff. He showed us around the little beachy town of Queenscliff and then took me to a pie (meat pie) place for lunch, and then to his house in St. Leonards.


I love it here! It reminds me of a more rural Avila, and the beach is only two blocks away. Other than when we were in the car I haven't been down to the beach yet. I think I'm going to walk down there in a little while. I won't be able to lay out at the beach this weekend because we're supposed to get a ton of rain and wind and the temperature tomorrow is probably going to be around 18 degrees (64 F) but hopefully the reports are wrong and it will clear up sooner.

Cranbourne

I left the city yesterday and took a train south for about 45 minutes to the town of Cranbourne. I thought the place I was going to was called Merinda Park but that's just the name of the train stop. It was pretty tough walking to the train station in Melbourne (Flinders Street Station) from my hotel with my two heavy backpacks. I might have to offload some more stuff one of these days. My host, Rick, picked me up from the train station and took me with him to his study group at a friend's house. They are training to be vertical rescuers, like for people who fall off cliffs or roofs. It was pretty interesting and all his friends were very nice. After the meeting, we went home to his house. He's really nice and was generous enough to bring me with him to the gym today ... for 2 1/2 hours! I got a great workout, especially because we biked to the gym and back. Thankfully I didn't get hit by a car, which is always my fear when riding a bike; I didn't even have any close calls. :)

Now we're at Rick's mom's house. She's on vacation but her adorable little dog is here. I got to give him a bath earlier today! 

I miss Ty Ty!!! Ok we're heading out soon so I gotta go. Just wanted to give you a little update. :)

This one's for Sarah =)

Sarah wanted one last blog post before I say goodbye to the lovely Hyatt business center so here it is =) Yesterday I walked around downtown for a long time, and then watched a really funny street performer in Federation Square, across from the awesome St. Paul's Cathedral.

Then I went down to the Yarra River at the south end of downtown Melbourne and treated myself to a 2-hour river cruise.

It was really cool and I got lots of great pics. I also met some very nice people. I talked to Alan, a really nice Adelaidean gentleman, for a little while and he told me he had an extra ticket to see Robin Williams at Rod Laver Arena and asked me if I wanted to go with him and his son Mark. Of course I accepted! I was stoked just to be inside Rod Laver Arena, and seeing Robin Williams there was even more amazing. He was hilarious and totally offensive as always. Alan and Mark were lots of fun and so generous for bringing me with them! It was Robin Williams' first time performing in Australia, and the crowd loved him. I also got to see two Aussie comedians called The Umbilical Brothers who opened for R.W. They made sound effects into the mike while tap-dancing, fighting, driving imaginary tanks onto the stage ... I know it doesn't sound very funny but I promise you it was. Their choreography was timed perfectly with their sound effects and it was pretty impressive stuff.

Guess who else was in Melbourne this weekend ... Hillary Clinton! I didn't see her but I did walk right by her motorcade -- only I didn't find out who it was until right after they passed. Oh well, pretty cool anyway. I heard she was staying at the other Hyatt in town. I wonder if her room was as sweet as mine ...

Okay I'm out. I'll try to post again soon but I don't know what the computer situation will be like in Merinda Park or wherever I go after that. I hope everyone is having a great weekend and I miss you all! Thanks for reading my blog =)


*****UPDATE*****
My phone number, for anyone who wants to call/text me, is 0411319242. (If anyone in the US wants to send me a super expensive text -- I wouldn't recommend it but just in case -- I believe you dial 61411319242). In other news, I bought a train ticket for Merinda Park and it was only $5! yay! 

Melbs!

I'm so excited! I just found an NBA game on TV -- Miami @ New Orleans -- and I got to watch it from my ridiculously large bathtub. I love that I can't afford to spend more than 75 cents on dinner (I had a granola bar) but I have a giant bathtub with a TV. Awesome! :D

This has been a great weekend so far. Yesterday after I checked into my hotel, my buddy Matt came and picked me up for lunch in downtown Melbourne. We walked/took the tram back to his 50-story building, which is the 3rd tallest building in Melbourne, and after we ate lunch, we went up to the top floor and looked down at the entire city in every direction. It was so cool! (Thanks, Matt!) I took lots of pics.

After that I walked all around the city for a couple hours. I covered a lot of ground and saw lots of really cool churches and other buildings. Melbourne is so beautiful! There are gardens everywhere. I explored a couple of those today: The Alexandra Gardens, near the Yarra River, and the Fitzroy Gardens, near my hotel and Parliament Square. I walked around a lot again today and saw the Flinders Street Train Station,

Melbourne Park tennis center and the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. The tennis center is under major construction and there's only 2 1/2 months till the Aussie Open!

:D Tomorrow I might try to go to the National Sports Museum at the MCG (it was already closed by the time I got there today). I also want to take a river cruise tomorrow and check out more of the gardens. The Fitzroy Gardens were amazing! They reminded me of Golden Gate Park, but much smaller, of course.

That last pic is of a little model village. So cute! Today I also tried to get a phone but that didn't work out. On my way back to the hotel I passed the treasury building and there was a photo shoot going on with FIVE big, white, fluffy dogs. Of course I stopped and snuck a couple pics.

:)