Spring Break Installment 1

September 17-19

Spring break (yes it's spring here on the opposite side of the equator) had come and our plans for an epic trip along the tropical NE side of Australia were finally to become reality. We flew to Cairns, Queensland on Thursday night to find a humid, hot, Miami-like town on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. A bit of exploration the next day revealed that every other shop in the CBD was either a cheezy souvenir shop or an adventure booking company urging us to go snorkeling, scuba diving, skydiving, bungee jumping, four wheeling, rafting, etc. etc. There was also no beach. Their substitute was a man-made swimming lagoon complete with saltwater and real sand that set on the edge of the ocean (this may have been beneficial considering the ocean off Cairns is teeming with more things that can kill you than I can name: saltwater crocs, sharks, poisonous jellyfish, poisonous shellfish, you get the idea). If you've ever seen Seven Pounds with Will Smith, he kills himself with one of these box jellyfish. They're terrifying and apparently put you through the worst pain UNimaginable before you die. However, I didn't have to rely on any of these terrible creatures to make me sick, for I had arrived with a sore throat and clogged ears that wouldn't pop for a few days after flying. Oh well, at least I didn't have to listen to the screams of drunk tourists at night.

I did have the pleasure to listen to a number of buskers throughout the CBD, both at night and during the day. I have to say some of them sucked. I swore I saw some people actually take money OUT of their turned over hats and guitar cases they were so bad. However, Friday night we found John Butler's twin outside the local McD's.

The next day, Chris and I killed time in the morning and then rented two banana yellow scooters for the afternoon. This was probably the best use of $40 I'd ever come across. We zipped around town, on the left side of the road which is ridiculous, and then took off into the hills. It felt like we were driving through Nam. The rain sporadically poured on us as we meandered through sugar cane fields, large open expanses of farm and fields, and eventually made our way into the rainforest. Our destination was Crystal Cascades, where a creek cascaded through the rainforest. This was the first true tropical rainforest I had been in, and it was an incredible experience. The density and complexity of vegetation was mindblowing. Once I got over that, I began to look closely at the things I was passing, what was on the ground, growing on the trees, etc. and found a whole nother world of life. In the creek, schools of some kind of spotted, bass-like fish swarmed the pools and investigated as we waded into the clear but brown-stained waters. On our way out of the forest, the rain began to pour harder than I have ever experience and I realized why it is called the rainforest. However, it was incredibly enjoyable and cleansing, even despite my lingering cold.

The following day, with nothing planned, I set out on foot to explore the marina and new parts of downtown. I ran into some exotic birds along the way, but what was most interesting was the batcave I came across. It wasn't actually a cave, more of just the day time hang out for thousands of large fruit bats known as Flying Foxes. They were stationed in only a few trees in a small park corner of downtown but made enough of a racket to be heard from blocks away. At dusk, we watched as they all flew up into the hills, towards the rainforest we had visited the day before, to feed. Sure enough, they returned the next morning at dawn to rest in their daytime downtown abode.

Next installment: snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef

Cathedrals

September 12

Took a few hours out of the day to visit some huge, very old cathedrals in Melbourne. Made it to two of the three I wanted to visit, here are some pics of the first, the most beautiful and, I believe, oldest:

Blog 9

August 22 - September 3

Still on the hunt for Australia's best beer. James Squire IPA still holds title so far.

Sunday the 22nd we ventured down (and by that I mean were lazy and rode trams) to the beach town of St. Kilda. This was my second time there, as it was the first place we went after getting off the plane back in July. A second, extended look proved to be worth it. We wandered around the main streets, their downtown I guess, peeking in and out of shops. The street was lined with bakeries, cafes, bars and miscellaneous shops all tightly packed between graffiti-filled alleys. Very cool. On our way back towards the trams, as a huge storm front hit, we walked along the beach. The bay was filled with windsurfers, some of whom were catching huge air (2o ft.) off the wind-driven waves. We walked out St. Kilda pier to find a small penguin sanctuary at the end. We managed to see two Little Penguins hiding among the boulders at the end of the pier (see pics). First time I'd seen a penguin in the wild I must say.

The following Friday our Arcadia guide/coordinator/cool Aussie dude Lyndon took a group of us on a wine tasting tour in the Yarra Valley, northeast of Melbourne. This proved to be a great experience. I increased my knowledge of wine about 50 fold, tasted some amazing wines from places like Domain Chandon and Yering Station (both good, I highly recommend them), and saw the process of actually making wine.


Midway through the day, we stopped for lunch in the town of Healesville, where I grabbed some dim sims and chilled with a couple kookaburras (yes they were sitting in gum trees).

The day ended with two more wineries, perfect timing since much of the group was getting drunk...all but three of us slept the whole van ride home.

The next week, on Thursday the 2nd, I rode a train up to Watsonia, a somewhat distant suburb north of Melbourne. Although I got no pictures, the fences and walls along the railroad were covered with various graffiti along the whole way. My destination was Gresswell Forest, a wildlife preserve a few minutes from the La Trobe University campus. I walked around looking for some plants for my botany class and ran into some forest inhabitants.


The next day, three of us took another train, this time heading east from Melbourne to Upper Ferntree Gully. Here we walked up into the Dandenong Ranges, a section of rainforest and foothills that resembles Jurrasic Park, as the pictures below show. I wish I would have taken some more on our hike up the Thousand Steps trail, which cuts straight through the heart of the rainforest gully and is surrounded by massive, prehistoric looking tree ferns, cockatoos and various parakeets.

After hiking around for awhile, we trained one more stop up to a small town at the foot of the mountains. Here we found a nice BYO pizza parlor decorated with US license plates, album covers and mob movie posters. Definitely the place. Enjoyed a bottle of Yellowtail Cab Sauv (incredible for $10) and a chicken & garlic 'za before heading home for the rest of the night.
Things you won't find in Australia:

1. cheap beer (there's shitty beer, but it's by no means cheap - I'd kill for a PBR)

2. biscuits & gravy

3. regular bacon

4. country fried steak

5. regular ketchup or worcestershire sauce (ketchup is 'tomato sauce' and tastes different, worcestershire sauce is watered down and more like soy sauce)

6. mexican food (there are 3 mexican restaurants in Melbourne, the first we tried was pitiful - someone please send me a box of chipotles or taco del mar or something)

7. bento (weird since we're closer to Asia...)

8. a frosty or blizzard

9. good bagels

Blog 8

August 18-20

Thursday night I rode home in the back of a cop car. Friday I went to court. That night I lived like a bum, busking the streets of Melbourne with my guitar to make some change.

Now let me put that all in to context. Thursday night I left the multistory bar "Cookie" to walk home. I hit Elizabeth St. to find two cops trying to push a stalled station wagon out of the middle of an intersection. They weren't getting anywhere. I offered them a hand, we got the car out of the road, and they insisted they could give me a ride home rather than waiting for the next tram. So, I hopped in the locked-from-the-outside backseat of the squad car and got Melbourne's version of a safe ride home. Great deal.

Friday, I met up with a few peers to head to the Magistrate's Court where we had to listen in on a court case involving an armed robbery. Unfortunately, we were supposed to listen to a case involving alcohol or opiates, so it was a complete waste of time.

That night, since I wasn't going out anyways, I took my guitar downtown to one of the busiest streets and began to jam, leaving my case open with a few random coins tossed in to encourage the mostly intoxicated bar/club-goers to toss in their chump change. Made bank, some new friends, etc. Overall, an awesome experience. I'm going to have to revert to that strategy a few more times since nobody seems to want to hire an American for 3 months.

Some interesting facts....

100% of energy from alcohol is absorbed by the body compared to:

95% for fat

92% for protein

Blue agave (TEQUILA!!) is being studied as a potential alternative fuel source.

Friday Eye Candy

August 14th

Took some time Friday afternoon to explore in the Central Business District/North Melbourne with the camera. Here are some highlights, click to enlarge:

Blog 7

August 6-8

On Friday morning, I mean early morning, Chris, Brendan, Katherine and I waited in the rain for a taxi that wasn't coming. We found another and were soon on our way to the airport. As I sat half asleep in the back seat, I noticed the driver was enclosed in a cocoon of plexi-glass. Now either he was in a mobile quarantine with swine or thought that one or both of the people in Victoria who carry guns was after him. A quick flight (which seemed deathly long because of the baby behind me and couple that couldn't stop touching and making out beside me) to the Gold Coast brought us to beautiful weather and sandy beaches lined with opal water. We traversed the beach of Kirra and had lunch at a local cafe, all with this view of the Gold Coast city.

The Arcadia bus picked up us and a large group of other study abroad students and made its way to the ferry across to North Stradbroke Island, or Straddie, where we would stay for the weekend. Straddie is no walk in the park vacation land, however. It has 8 of the top 10 most venomous snakes, the most venomous octopus, jellyfish, spider, shellfish, and probably more. Anyway, that night we had dinner at a local restaurant and listened to an old aboriginal man tell the story and history of the aboriginies on Straddie. His people had a special connection with the dolphins, who some of the elders could actually call (a phenomenon he had seen with his grandfather). He told a story of how they would fish the mullet run each year, calling the dolphins who would push the enormous schools of fish into shore where the people would net them. They would make piles of fish 8 feet high on the beach, then give back exactly half to the dolphins. I wish I had a dolphin to make fishing easier.

In the morning we went out sea kayaking and saw a whale (either gray or humpback I think) within five minutes. While playing closer into shore, Hughesy and I flipped our kayak a few times (mostly intentionally). Well, one of the times he came up with a purplish tentacle thing on his arm that gave him a bit of a sting. He lived, it wasn't a box jellyfish (which would have killed him in minutes) but he also didn't have the balls to pee on it, which you're suppose to. After that, we were driven off road up to some sand dunes overlooking the ocean (where we saw more whales) to do some sandboarding. We all figured this would be as easy as it sounded, like snowboarding but in the sun. The difference is you cannot control a sandboard. There's no carving, no cutting, just going down, which is where we went the first couple tries. My first fall sent me falling backwards down the hill and taking a mouthful of sand that sprayed up from my legs. We eventually got the hang of it and had some sick runs on the slopes...dunes...Here's Hughesy being the man.
After sandboarding and dinner we set out on a koala search. We patrolled up and down a eucalyptus filled road until giving up by a beach where we knew we would find dolphins. We found them, and it so happened that the koalas were in the trees right above them.
That night we wandered over to the local bar that turned out to be a masonic club. We stuck out. Bad. All of the locals there were already hammered and we could hear them talking and laughing about us. Turned out it was a birthday party for some local, and soon after we sat down a three man band started jamming out American country songs and Kings of Leon. Sweet. On the way back, a group of tourists passed us. Andy exclaimed, "Guys there's an animal following them!" Me: "Yeah Andy it's a dog. In fact it's a lab."

The next morning we woke up early and hit the surf. The adventure company set us up on goofy long foam boards as we were mostly beginners and set us loose on the waves. The sets were totally gnarly and the beach was shoobie free. Life was great except that most of us only got up on a wave a couple times and fell off shortly after.

After surfing and lunch, we went on a nature walk that took us to these spots overlooking the ocean. There's not much to say, other than that I couldn't count the number of dolphins cruising by and whales playing out on the horizon.
Our last destination was Brown Lake, a lake that sits on top of the saturated sand island. The water is clear but brown because tea tree leaves fall in and soak, staining the water brown. The aboriginies believed this was a spiritual lake with healing powers. The tea tree oil does actually heal and clean the skin, and after swimming in the lake I felt like after a snake sheds its skin.

A quick ferry took us back to the mainland, but we will definitely be going back to the Gold Coast.

Here's some more cool stuff.