February Of The Penguins

Melbourne, Victoria

Australia

Currently going on a month in Urban Central, a fantastic hostel. I give it five stars, and a heartyrecommendation to anyone visiting Melbourne. Free pasta, rice, seasonings, milk, tea, coffee and breakfast (if you manage to get up in the AM). And free towels -- love the fluffy. Not to mention rooms of only four, and the bar. There's a bar. Where they hold daily happy hour and themed nights: karaoke, ladies night, competitions. All forms of mayhem.

And a personal victory: I scored a bottom bunk. No but seriously, my bunk is prime. It’s ridiculous the things that make you happy when you’re backpacking. For example: I got to the room first so I got the bottom bunk – so I don’t have to climb the ladder to get into bed every night AND I can hang my clothes from the top bunk AND I can keep my suitcase under my bed. PRIME. AND my night light works AND I got the locker closest to my bed AND my bunkmate is super cool. Livin' the dream, right?

Melbourne is great. Now THIS is my favorite city. The main thing I love is the good vibe. It’s busy and there are tons of young people, everybody’s super friendly, lot’s to do, CRAZY nightlife.Although I still have a lot of exploring to do because I have been staying near the hostel (but there’s so much even here!)

Since I got to Melbourne I have become penguin obsessed. That’s right, penguins. Now you may be saying to yourself, “I didn’t know there were penguins in Australia,” and you see, this is where the obsession begins.

In Melbourne, you can go down the pier in an area suburb called St. Kilda, and watch the penguins waddle out of the water and climb into the rocks on shore. This is such a thing to do, even the Australia’s go to see it. So me and Garrett, went to go see the penguins in St. Kilda and had been warned that it get’s really cold out on the pier at night. Heading the warning and clad in pants and sweaters and a bag of wine in our backpacks we set out on our adventure. That was one of the hottest days Melbourne has seen this year. It was literally about 110* F out, even after the sun was down it was still hot. We’re out on the pier just sweating and drinking hot wine and watching penguins waddle up the shore.

They were adorable! About a foot tall and roughly 2 pounds each, I wanted to steal one!!! Even more than I wanted to steal a koala, I had plans to case the zoo and steal a koala. They’d waddle up sometimes two at a time, into their little nests where they feed their even tinier and fluffy baby penguins.

That was round one of Mission “See more penguins than you even cared to.” Round two was about a week later. We decided to go again because last time we didn’t get there until 9:30 PM so we thought we might have missed something. We didn’t. This time we got there an hour and a half before the penguins did and it was freezing and I had to pee and I was with a big group of guys who thought this was hilarious. Fun.

But that’s not all! Oh no, there’s a round three! Round three was going to Phillip Island where

they have the Penguin Parade – this was truly impressive. But first it should be explained that we were on a tour so did a couple of other activities before the Penguin Parade. For one, we went to this look out because there are usually penguins in that area even during the day. However, there were not because it was so heinously windy that day. Now I had been cold that whole day so I went and bought another sweater to put on top of the one I was already wearing and pants to wear underneath my dress. I know, sexy. Actually, I kinda looked like a penguin, like, a cold penguin.

Not the point, so now I’m finally warm and kind of cocky about it, teasing my friends about how cold they are, like I do. We take this long trail up to the lookout and even though there were no penguins, it’s just breathtaking. We do the tourist thing and take a bunch of pictures, when out of nowhere it’s just starts pouring. And remember, it’s already crazy windy, so when it begins pouring it’s rough and it hurts. My ear was giving me trouble the rest of the night because the rain had been assaulting it in what we so euphemistically call a “shower.” Everyone totally freaked out and went running for the bus and people are slipping and falling all over the place like we were racing down a Slip’n’Slide, the rain just pummeling us the whole way. We finally get back to the bus, only to realize that now we’re going to wait for the penguins outside, in the cold, in soaked clothes. Can I just say, less than ideal.

Frozen to the core, the 700 penguins marching out of the water and up into the hills made it worth it. And they walk beside this boardwalk that we walk on, so you’re literally a foot away from them.At this point it’s cliché and kind of redundant, but I can’t help it: They’re soooooooooooooo cute!!!!! They run like in little packs together, and even when they pooped midrun it was adorable – sounded like squirting ketchup on a hot dog.

It was just really really cool. That day we were we also went to a beach (which was a frigid kind of cold), a chocolate factory and the “Australian Garden.” The Australian Garden was really beautifully groomed and there were like themes and modern architecture throughout . One of the coolest gardens I’ve been to here. Keep in mind they have gardens here like Foster City has parks -- we’re talkin EVERYWHERE.

And the chocolate factory. Oh the chocolate factory. Chocolate everything, including chocolate penguins (seriously, I never need to see another penguin for the rest of my life). Chocolate shoes, chocolate village, chocolate mural - impressive. And they give you all these free samples while you tour the place, and you get to make your own chocolate bar – including the option of wasabi chocolate. I passed on that one. Mmmmm.. I need to go buy some more chocolate. And penguins.

I also went on another tour where I went swimming with seals and dolphins. It was really sweet because they’re wild animals totally in their natural habitat, and then we're just there, swimming in the ocean.

That was a hell of a day. We got out there and first we went snorkeling. Now I love snorkeling, but I truly wish we hadn’t gone snorkeling that day. It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cold. Oh. My. God. Now we got in the water three times: to snorkel, to swim with seals, and to swim with dolphins. And I wish we hadn’t gone snorkeling because I had no idea how ferociously cold it was until we hopped in, then I had to get out and KNOWINGLY subject myself to the shock another two times. I mean we had wet suits, but even once I was in I wasn’t willing to put my head under because I was already so cold. It wasn’t snorkeling so much as it was just swimming around in circles whimpering.

But then we went swimming with the seals and that was really cool. They’re so adorable and funny. What it is, is there’s this platform that a bunch of seals gather and sit on, and then we just swim around it and them. They’d swim around you and dive under you. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to touch them because it promotes the spreading of disease, but they were still cute. But oh baby do they stink. And their breath is, well, there’s no way to describe it without being profane. So take my word for it: it stinks.

And then we went swimming with dolphins. At this point I was so borderline hypothermia that I did not even want to go in, but then they get you all ready and you have to jump in on their cue, so there was no time to think about backing out. So I went for it, and it was pretty similar to the seals, they play and swim around you and dive under you. They are one of THE most graceful animals I’ve ever seen. But what I really enjoyed about that part was sitting on the boat and spotting dolphins because they’re everywhere. Even though there was this big huge sailboats race, they just swim alongside the boats and they love playing in the wake of the boats. That part may have even been better because I got to take off my wetsuit and put on my sweater.

And the sail boat race was really cool, too. As we were coming back from the dolphins I’m looking out on the water and I see a white flag. And I don’t think anything of a huge white flag in the middle of the ocean until I look back and it’s suddenly smaller. It was a sailboat sinking.

Take it in, reread it. It was a sailboat sinking.

The “flag” was the sail. It was crazy how quickly that thing went down, too. I mean kind of frightening. So our boat high tailed it back and picked them up until the coast guard came and took the stranded back to shore.

And the people didn’t even seem that freaked out, although they might have been in shock.There was one guy was all freaking out about where it went down, because he wanted to try and get it back. I guess these boats run about seventy grand, and if you can get it back you can restore them and race them again. Crazy.

In other news: I am currently, reluctantly, looking for a job and an apartment. Very reluctantly.Honestly, I’ll be a little more enthusiastic when something turns up, but for now the hunt is on! (because the money is low!)

Love you guys, and miss you a boatload!!!!!

XOXO

Now THAT'S A Tan Line

Melbourne, Victoria

Australia

Now sure, we all love a little summer Coppertone Baby tanline, but this is serious. This is my friend Wim's foot, and he acquired this tan line by religiously attending the Australian Open sans sunscreen. So top up the Coppertone or jump on the Banana Boat, whatever you have to do because I'll have you know, I wasn't the only one who whipped out a camera to capture the magic.

It's My Party

Sydney, New South Whales
Australia

I was talking to a fellow traveler about how much it sucks to be away from home around the holidays. As I whined, "It's just not the same..." he smugly replied, "We'll isn't that why you travel, because it's not the same." I do not care for this insensitive bloke, but I guess it not being the same did give me more of an appreciation for the holidays. I always looked forward to and enjoyed them, but having Christmas and my birthday without my family was a harshly different experience.

TOP 10 REASONS

"IT'S MY PARTY AND I'LL CRY IF I WANT TO"

-- Lesley Gore

1) I was sick.

2) No birthday cake.

3) No birthday presents.

4) No one bought me a drink all night.

5) I bought others drinks all night.

6) The friends I invited never showed.

7) The friends the other birthday girl invited did show and had no idea that it was my birthday.

8) There was another birthday girl.

9) The guy I was seeing was a jerk.

10) Only later would I find out that this was because he had a girlfriend.

TOP 5 REASONS

"IT'S ALRIGHT, HAVE A GOOD TIME, 'CAUSE IT'S ALRIGHT, WHOA IT'S ALRIGHT"

-- Huey Lewis And The News

1) My mom sent me a birthday brownie.

2) My mom sent me presents.

3) I bought myself a hot dress for my birthday.

4) I heard "I Come From A Land Down Under" for the first time in Australia; and the Aussies got wild on the dance floor.

5) I'm 24 now.

When this song first came on, to the great dismay of my new Aussie friends I didn't recognize this opening riff to the song. By the time even Deiter the Cheater was off the wall, I knew it was a big deal.

"Land Down Under"

Men at Work

Traveling in a fried-out combie

On a hippie trail, head full of zombie
I met a strange lady, she made me nervous
She took me in and gave me breakfast
And she said,

"Do you come from a land down under?
Where women glow and men plunder?
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover."

Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six foot four and full of muscles
I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"
He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich
And he said,

"I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover."

Lying in a den in Bombay
With a slack jaw, and not much to say
I said to the man, "Are you trying to tempt me
Because I come from the land of plenty?"
And he said,

"Oh! Do you come from a land down under? (oh yeah yeah)
Where women glow and men plunder?
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover."

Sunburnt Christmas

Sydney, New South Whales

Australia

Only moments after landing in Kingsford Smith Airport, I was on my mobile coordinating the nights debauchery. That night some

cabbed it, some walked and some even found ferries to Stone Wall on Oxford Street, the hub of the gay scene in Sydney. Another great night of Lady Gaga and Screwdrivers.

I was lucky to find a great group of kids on the Whitsundays trip, who were all going to Sydney for the holidays. By the way, ALL of Australia and New Zealand go to Sydney for the holiday season.

A post from my Facebook wall, from a friend I met months earlier at Gagaju Bush Camp:

Remove

Farhan Kazi hey happy new year. how was it? i think i saw you in kings cross last week sometime, you were walking near the coca cola with a box of beer, only after you walked past i realised it was you. anyways hope the travels are going well. x

January 4 at 8:31am · Comment · · See Wall-to-Wall

EVERYONE goes to Sydney for the holidays. Therefore, it's wise to make accommodation arrangements sooner rather than later. Most people book holiday accommodation around August, being as I was only booking my flight in August, I was not most people.

Therefore, if you do wait until later, you risk ending up staying in an overpriced but rundown hostel, located in King's Cross (the Red Light District), directly above a strip club, next to a 24-hour McDonald's, for two weeks. Welcome to the Sugar Shack!

I ended up with a pretty chill room (of ten), but I was lucky. There are reports of prostitute roommates, syringes left out in the bathrooms, cockroaches and of coarse the 7AM cleaning crew; the cleaning crew is unfortunately a reality even for my room. The cleaning crew is comprised of one girl who busts in at 7AM only to vacuum the doorway, flush the toilet and slam the door behind her. 7AM has become our midhangover wakeup call.

Yesterday, my friend Anand convinced us all to take a surfing lesson at Manly Beach. Manly Beach is the known for being the best surfing in Sydney, and Sydney for being the best surfing on the East Coast.

We all dragged our hungover butts out to Manley Beach at 11AM, only to be met with the coldest, windiest day I've ever attempted to surf. In the past I've been able to get up on my board, but it was so choppy, I could barley even get out to where the waves were breaking.

Standing in a row at the water's edge, we watched our classmates throw themselves into the break, red-faced from the harsh cold water, flailing trying to fight the cross currant. As we watched in horror, Anand was like, "It's like going to war." I didn't think we were doing to make it past wading that day, but then the hot instructor dragged us each out int the rip roaring waves, letting us fight for our lives only to be washed up on the shore.

As we emerged from the water, snot-nosed with bloodshot eyes and shivering we all agreed that that was the most interesting Christmas Eve we'd ever experienced. Maybe just hot cocoa nest year.

After the surf lesson, we went to Wake Up!'s own Side Bar, where I spent my first weeks (nights) in Australia. Such good music, like from home and there was a massive countdown to Christmas. I also have to privilege of meeting Santa Claus picked me up, spun me around and wished me a Merry Christmas. Special.

Today, we went to "Sunburnt Christmas" on Bondi Beach in Sydney which should have been spectacular. It was meant to be a huge beach party for all the travelers and students in the area on Christmas. DJs posted along the beach and all the party goers clad in bikinis and Santa hats.

But in the end it rained the whole day, so we were forced inside for the festivities.

The boos were pretty pricey, as was to be expected, but then then they ran out of food. So we went to McDonald's. On Chirstmas. And by that point I was so ill I left my friends and just back to the hostel and back to bed. I tried.

Merry Christmas, miss you all!

XOXO

The Mighty Atlantic Clipper

Whitsunday Islands, Queensland

Australia

Diving in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef

Lady Musgrave

Rockhampton, Queensland

Australia

My first day here some friends and I went to the Great Keppel Island. My travel agent had recommended that I do the Great Keppel Island INSTEAD of Lady Musgrave Island because it was cheaper for pretty much the same experience. Fortunately I got to do both because of my day of "work," and I'm so glad I did. They were both islands, but wildly different experiences.

The Great Keppel Island was exceptionally beautiful.

Walked off the ferry felt like we were walking onto a movie set. White sand beaches, bordered by palm trees swaying in the wind with a single boat anchored at the water’s edge. Picturesque.

We came on shore and rented some snorkeling gear because we heard there was exceptional diving off of Monkey Beach. So with our gear we made the 45 minutes hike through the bush to Monkey Beach. Now, I can’t tell you enough, hiking here is not like hiking at home. Because you spend most of your time on the coast or on islands in Australia there is sand everywhere. So when you hike your often hiking on sand. But a challenge as it is, it becomes downright uncomfortable when your doing it in a went bathing suit and flip flops.

But this was all expected and would have been alright, except I didn’t count on the flies flying in my ears and on my face the entire hike. Some people have their conscious on their shoulders, pirates get parrots, and I got “Buzz” and “Woody.”

That’s right. These two flies were with me for so long that I named them. “Buzz” for obvious reasons, and “Woody” so as to create a “Toy Story” Disney-like theme to my slow hike towards insanity.

Of coarse I was doing the “Aussie Wave” the whole time: this is when you shoo flies away from your face or body. Because the insects are so rampant and overgrown here this is affectionately referred to as the “Aussie Wave.” Charming.

Well we finally got to Monkey Beach and it was just as picturesque as the beach we arrived on, except we had the whole thing to ourselves. Pretty ideal. I was a little disappointed in the snorkeling though, we were out there for a while and hardly saw fish and saw many rocks but none of the colorful coral like I had seem at Lady Musgrave.

After a few hours of quiet, we hiked back and, loyal as dogs, the flies were back. And for the return trip I was wet and sandy and sticky from suntan lotion so I was feeling much less tolerant of our new island buddies.

By the time we got back to the main beach, I was literally running for the water tearing off shorts and shirts and properly jumped back into the water. I kid you not I heard those damn flies until my head was underwater. But it felt so good. It was like a gum commercial; REEEfreshing.

The Great Keppel Island was beautiful, but I would definitely recommend Lady Musgrave Island. Again we set out at 7:30 that morning to catch the ferry over to the island. So we get on the boat, and the Captain is introducing the crew and going over safety regulations when he goes, “… and in between your seats you’ll find your breakfast bag.” And I’m thinking, “Sweet, I didn’t get to eat breakfast,” so I dive in between these seats looking for the Breakfast Bag. The Breakfast Bag is a barf bag. Captain made a funny. And I was still hungry. Now on the brochure, that I know by heart, they had a list of things to bring and warned us to take seasick medicine if we needed it. But you see, sea sickness is a tricky thing in that you never know if it’s gonna happen to you until your on the boat. And of coarse at that point there’s no turning back.

The boat was called the “Spirit of 1770.” Impressive name, right? Ship was a roller coaster. The second we hit the big water I knew I was in trouble, and this was only the first ten minutes. The first ten out of an hour and a half voyage. And of coarse, I was sitting in the front like you do in a car to avoid getting sick. Not the same. About half an hour in my friend was like, “Are you okay?“ And the second I said to him, “I think I might be sick” I reached for my “Breakfast Bag.” I really thought I was going to lose it.

Now I should take a minute to appreciate the luck I have. In my travels I often find someone who I think of as a “mother.” Now these people are not always actual mothers, nor are they necessarily older than me or women.

Mothers (noun) Kind, maternal people that for some unknown reason take care of me. Bless them. Also see: Ariel San Jose

To be clear...

.

Best Mother

So friend takes me to the back of the boat because apparently it’s a smoother ride. I thought I was about to lose it anyway so I went with him so that if nothing else I could lose it over the back of the boat. As it turned out it was a smoother ride, but at this point I felt so nauseous that I thought I was going to be sick anyways. Fairly sure of this, I urged Mother 1 to leave me alone mainly because it would have been embarrassing to throw up all over him.

At this point I’m just outside of the bathrooms, bracing myself on the back rail of the boat, a certain shade of green I’m sure, when Mother 2 swooped in. She was this really sweet woman, maybe mid 40s with her husband. She came over to me and knowingly brought me over to the side of the boat. It almost immediately cured my seasickness. And we saw dolphins and flying fish! I had no idea that flying fish could fly that far. Super cool. Eventually we got the Lady Musgrave Island.

Now the island itself is pretty, but not like the Great Keppel Island. The island is inhabited by Naughty Turns which are these really cute black birds that build their nests low enough in the trees that we would even see the baby birds. As we were on this hike through the island, all the women as cooing over the baby birds until people started to get pooped on. Suddenly the women who had been taking dozens of pictures of these birds were out of that forest like a bat out of hell. And the shores aren’t sand but instead this white coral that the sea cucumbers have it broken down into. It was weird to walk on, but really beautiful in it’s own way.

And YES! I went diving for my first time.

*** prune hands ***

It’s one of those things that I thought to myself, “I had no inclination to do this at home.” But then it is the Great Barrier Reef and I can’t come all the way here without seeing it. Diving was such an unnatural feeling. When I first jumped in the water and put my head under I got scared and ripped out my mouth piece and came back to the surface. Totally freaked out. That was definitely the hardest part: remembering to breathe. At one point when I was at the bottom, I had somehow gotten my body into a pretzel and was trying to get out of it. So shaken up was I that I had been holding my breath and completely forgotten to breathe. I went between “Breathe, breathe, breathe” to Dori’s from “Finding Nemo,” “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.” I am a college graduate.

While we were down there the instructor had a bottle of fish food that squeezed empty and the fish just swarmed. It was scary but in a good way. These fish were each a little bigger than my fist and were completely surrounding us. But they were absolutely stunning and beautiful. I mean there were single fish that looked like rainbows. I’ve never seen anything like that. We also swam along the reef at the bottom and there were just entire schools of these black and white stripped fish everywhere.

And our instructors were so good. There we four of us in my group, none of whom had ever dived before, and they were like, “You can hold our hands if you get scared or nervous at any point, even the boys…” I totally would have taken them up on it but we ran out of instructors so I was on my own. As we were swimming I found it really difficult to keep my body horizontal, like everyone else. I kept coming down and getting dangerously close to crash landing on the coral – which in case ya didn’t know, is a big NO NO in this crowd. A couple times I kicked my friend in the face as I was trying to steer myself; accidentally, in case that wasn’t implied.

Still so much fun. The perfect place to take my first dive: relatively warm, not to deep, no currents. And I didn’t see anything scary: no sharks or stingrays or octopi. Only the friendly creatures of the sea like turtles and fishies.

I would say that snorkeling was much more visually impressive.

I did that for a couple hours and it was like “The Little Mermaid” with the colorful coral and the fishes everywhere. I half expected Sebastian to pop up and break into “Under the Sea.” My words can’t even do justice to what I saw. It was just breathtaking. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. It’s kind of like the salt-water tanks you see in the fish store, but like a hundred times better. At one point I just followed this little turtle down the edge of the reef.

And the whole staff was so great. The instructors were so enthusiastic and encouraging, the tour guide was incredibly well informed and familiar with the area, the crew was just funny and nice to be around. Totally worth my one day of work. Would have been down to do two days of work for how good this trip was.

And the bottom of the boat had little submarine portal windows to look out of. This was mostly good for watching people swim by, but the fish were cool, too.

There was this glass bottom boat that we went out on, and initially I thought we wouldn’t see anything. I mean you can see to the bottom because the water’s so clear, but you’re still in a

boat with a motor. But it didn’t matter, we saw a ton of fish and coral and this one massive turtle just chillin on the reef. I was just very pleased with the whole day. And then I slept the whole way back so I wasn’t seasick.

Definitely in the top five of the coolest things I’ve done in Australia. And I’m going to get diving certified in a couple of weeks when I get to Magnetic Island! I guess I’ll be getting over that whole scared of sharks and octopi thing.

XOXO