Thursday, June 4, 2009
Kevins birthday in sydney..
We were given two rules we cannot break while we are here...don't die and don't get anyone pregnant
For kevin's birthday we went into sydney with meg and were going to meet some people she knew there and had a place to stay with one of her freinds. We surfed and bodyboarded all day before we went into the city, it was intense. Had a drink on the beach..they already have southern comfort and cola mixed in a can ready to buy, it fucking rocks. The ocean is so much more powerful than back at home.
I brought a backpack full with clothes, camera, money, passport, all that good stuff just incase we needed any of it we would have it to the city. Kevin "thought" he had brought 100 dollars with us to the city...turns out on the hour bus ride into the city he had 35...Keep in mind that sydney is INCREDBILY expensive(a beer 6 dollars). We got off the bus, went to a bar at a hostel "wake up". It was great fun. Tons of kids our age, tons of beer, a live band, it was great. Me and kev hit a wall at about 1 a.m. from jet lag and being up from 7 am that day. The place we were supposed to stay seemed to be falling through as the girl never called meg back
This is where it gets interesting... :)
So kevin has about 70 cents left...no debit card and the bar had closed. We have no place to stay, we are an hour bus ride from avalon, meg is off to kings cross for more drinks. We don't have the energy and certainly not the money to continue..so we decide to find a cheap hostel and crash. We get to a hostel and its going to be about 60 dollars on top of the 90 i just spent at the bar for both of us to stay....kevin still has 70 cents..Not doing that, we still have a month left and im not paying that much. Lets catch the bus home...Walk 10 minutes to the bus stop anddddd the next bus is at 7 am. Its 3. There are 2 bus benches under a bus stop, 4 hours to wait, you guessed it...were spending the night on the street! After about 30 - 45 mins of attempting to sleep on very uncomfortable metal benches, a group of roughty kids came by and just wouldn't shut up. Kevin sat up, I sat up, we looked at each other and started walking. Got back to the hostel....fuck it im just paying at this point. So we are paying and it ends up being 90 dollars after "the charge" from the card...whatever its almost 4 in the morning. As I am talking to the reception desk i feel this hot, pungent breath full of alchohol. I turn to the left before I even knew there was someone next to me and its a man with a cup full of straight vodka staring at me and much to close in my space. He starts babbling and saying random things, very demeaning ones to kevin, but the receptionist said he was cool. Alright whatever. The guy even pushes me at the desk...definately not in the mood...but we get our keys, head up to the first floor to get water, my head is absolutely pounding. We get on the elevator to go to 10 and the door open....hey its captain drunk from the desk. He walks out of the elevator....we walk in he realizes he passed another human after hes out. He turns and starts babbling again and says "Seriously guys gimme all of your change" the door start to close and he is still babbling we just say "byyyyeee" and then the door shuts. We get to our room... its a 6 person room and theres another guy in it. We shut off the lights, go to sleep. Kevin says there were coachroaches all over the ceiling and wall...I just passed out immediately. We wake up to someone coming in our room saying "reception! are you guys matt and kevin."..."yea, thats us"..."Well i know you guys got in at about 3:30 but its 10 am and thats check out so wake up and you have to get out ASAP."..."sweet, thanks..." We check out at 11 get on the street, my head is pounding and all we did was just laugh right when we got out of that hell hole..We then did a hungover tour of sydney to the oprah house were kevin clogged the toilet. It was special. But we followed the rules and we are still alive :)
For kevin's birthday we went into sydney with meg and were going to meet some people she knew there and had a place to stay with one of her freinds. We surfed and bodyboarded all day before we went into the city, it was intense. Had a drink on the beach..they already have southern comfort and cola mixed in a can ready to buy, it fucking rocks. The ocean is so much more powerful than back at home.
I brought a backpack full with clothes, camera, money, passport, all that good stuff just incase we needed any of it we would have it to the city. Kevin "thought" he had brought 100 dollars with us to the city...turns out on the hour bus ride into the city he had 35...Keep in mind that sydney is INCREDBILY expensive(a beer 6 dollars). We got off the bus, went to a bar at a hostel "wake up". It was great fun. Tons of kids our age, tons of beer, a live band, it was great. Me and kev hit a wall at about 1 a.m. from jet lag and being up from 7 am that day. The place we were supposed to stay seemed to be falling through as the girl never called meg back
This is where it gets interesting... :)
So kevin has about 70 cents left...no debit card and the bar had closed. We have no place to stay, we are an hour bus ride from avalon, meg is off to kings cross for more drinks. We don't have the energy and certainly not the money to continue..so we decide to find a cheap hostel and crash. We get to a hostel and its going to be about 60 dollars on top of the 90 i just spent at the bar for both of us to stay....kevin still has 70 cents..Not doing that, we still have a month left and im not paying that much. Lets catch the bus home...Walk 10 minutes to the bus stop anddddd the next bus is at 7 am. Its 3. There are 2 bus benches under a bus stop, 4 hours to wait, you guessed it...were spending the night on the street! After about 30 - 45 mins of attempting to sleep on very uncomfortable metal benches, a group of roughty kids came by and just wouldn't shut up. Kevin sat up, I sat up, we looked at each other and started walking. Got back to the hostel....fuck it im just paying at this point. So we are paying and it ends up being 90 dollars after "the charge" from the card...whatever its almost 4 in the morning. As I am talking to the reception desk i feel this hot, pungent breath full of alchohol. I turn to the left before I even knew there was someone next to me and its a man with a cup full of straight vodka staring at me and much to close in my space. He starts babbling and saying random things, very demeaning ones to kevin, but the receptionist said he was cool. Alright whatever. The guy even pushes me at the desk...definately not in the mood...but we get our keys, head up to the first floor to get water, my head is absolutely pounding. We get on the elevator to go to 10 and the door open....hey its captain drunk from the desk. He walks out of the elevator....we walk in he realizes he passed another human after hes out. He turns and starts babbling again and says "Seriously guys gimme all of your change" the door start to close and he is still babbling we just say "byyyyeee" and then the door shuts. We get to our room... its a 6 person room and theres another guy in it. We shut off the lights, go to sleep. Kevin says there were coachroaches all over the ceiling and wall...I just passed out immediately. We wake up to someone coming in our room saying "reception! are you guys matt and kevin."..."yea, thats us"..."Well i know you guys got in at about 3:30 but its 10 am and thats check out so wake up and you have to get out ASAP."..."sweet, thanks..." We check out at 11 get on the street, my head is pounding and all we did was just laugh right when we got out of that hell hole..We then did a hungover tour of sydney to the oprah house were kevin clogged the toilet. It was special. But we followed the rules and we are still alive :)
Monday, June 1, 2009
Sailboat and Avalon
Hey guys,
Its 1 in the morning and kev and I just got back from visiting some kids our age and having a couple beers down the street.
Yesterday we got to sail on a multi-million dollar sailboat, 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms with some very nice people in Pittwater, it was awesome. I got a faceful of the pacific though, it got kind of rough.
We went to avalon beach with this girl megan from NC today. Shes a cool girl. She is a photojournalist/conservationist and we went to Avalon beach to get some coffee and lunch with her and hang on the beach this morning. There were Cuckatoos everywhere! Same with the blue bottles (jellyfish on the beach), I think kevin stepped on one and now he cant walk at all haha
This morning at about 830 we went on a pretty long run on the beach with seb followed by a swim in the ocean to cool off, it was alot of fun.
Bella found a "bush turkey" in her backyard that we tried to catch but instead got a couple pictures of, he was pretty cool.
Then later we had dinner with Jenny and Bella and afterward headed out to get some drinks with some freinds, bought some beer and hung out at their house the rest of the night
Its amazing how nice the people are here. Jeanette, a woman down the street threw us a dinner party and trusted us enough the next day to leave her house door unlocked for us to come in the next morning.
The weather is kind of crappy...it hasnt been sunny for more than 10 minutes at a time since weve gotten here, and rains a ton, but it never goes below about 60 degrees during the day. Tons of surfers everywhere
Well we are going surfing tommorow morning. A kid bella knew (one of the girls down the street) got attacked by a shark at Avalon Beach last month by a great white, so i am a bit nervous :)
Avalon, the beach right next to us is like so fucking cool. Its the kind of place you would dream to live in...its very relaxed, down to earth, alot of privately owned cafes with cool nice people. Tons of surfers all over, parrots flying around. Kids here run around in their ugg boots (even the boys) or barefoot and there all dirty and shaggy..its just my kind of place, its just got a good energy about it.
After the beers me and kev layed out tonight on the beach and just chilled and looked at the stars, it was pretty cool
Well im pretty tired, sorry this wasnt too in depth, im drunk and tired and theres just too much to explain hahah.. if you wanna see how amazing this place is, drop what you are doing, gimme a call and just come.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Here :)
After a solid 24 hours of travel, a decade of wanting to be here, I'm finally here :)
The flight was pretty long, not as bad as I thought, but pretty bad. Got to watch the sunrise over the pacific over the clouds, that was amazing. We landed in sydney, Jenny and Seb picked me and kev up. We got out of the airport, it was actually kind of cold! But we drove to pick bella up from her freinds house, passed parrots like hanging out upside down on telephone wires and the most beautiful nature and scenery ive ever seen. Completely different than I expected. Seb drove us around and brought us to breakfast on the shore of a bay, it was awesome, cant explain the feeling of getting here and just seeing all this shit. Im not even gonna try, its fucking incredible. We got to their house, overlooking the pacific.. that you can see from both sides of the house :) We went on a long walk, hung out at the beach, went for a ride in Jenny and Sebs convertible, saw all these nuts birds...so fuckin cool. Sydney is much more "hilly" than I thought it would be...looks alot like san fran. The beach they live on isn't even worth trying to explain. No question the most beautiful beach i've ever been to with awesome surf, crazy rocks, cliffs, just nuts. Then we went to avalon to get our first legal beer, that was a cool experience. Im trying to stay awake til atleast 9 tonight, thats why im writing this and trying to keep kevin awake. I'm gonna sleep like a rock tonight, ive slept for probably 5 hours in the last 48!
Tommorow, sailing and surfing!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
2 days left!
So, two days left and I am sick as shit but feeling a bit better tonight. I'm getting to the point where I always do right before a big trip....apprehensive, scared and completely unprepared...but you got to just not think about it and go for it..It is completely worth it once I'll be stepping out of the plane in Australia. I've got about $1500 for the month...hopefully that will last me a month abroad : /
Oh well, we will see how it works out.
Oh well, we will see how it works out.
Friday, May 15, 2009
First Blog
So, I decided to create a blog to update what I'm doing and where I am so I don't fall completely off the edge of the Earth for a month. Also, I'd like to post some of my shots up here as well. Well, there are 12 days left until I leave and tonight I got some advice from my sister's friend who backpacked around the world. He told me.. "Always say "yes" more than you say "no" and "If it scares you and you're terrified of doing it, then do it." as well as some tips for what to bring and where to go.
Well, I am completely unprepared for this trip as of now, it should make it just that much more interesting :) Tommorow I will pick up some shoes and stuff from the trail house, and continue trying to make some cash at LaPaz just before I leave.. I'm a bit worried about what the hell I'm getting myself into but I cannot wait!
I looked up some alternative methods of transportation....hitchhiking.... I may like to try it while I am there. It would save me a ton of money and would be a cool experience. This is probably the only time in my life where it would be okay for me to bum a ride off a complete stranger 10,000 miles away from home..
We will see what happens....
12 days.
Well, I am completely unprepared for this trip as of now, it should make it just that much more interesting :) Tommorow I will pick up some shoes and stuff from the trail house, and continue trying to make some cash at LaPaz just before I leave.. I'm a bit worried about what the hell I'm getting myself into but I cannot wait!
I looked up some alternative methods of transportation....hitchhiking.... I may like to try it while I am there. It would save me a ton of money and would be a cool experience. This is probably the only time in my life where it would be okay for me to bum a ride off a complete stranger 10,000 miles away from home..
We will see what happens....
12 days.
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