Last Update

Well, the inevitable has arrived-- I am back home in Cary, IL, literally 100 degrees colder than I was a few days ago. Luckily we crammed a lot into our last few weeks in Australia, which explains why I haven't updated in several weeks. 

After Fraser Island, we spent a couple days in Noosa, home of Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. The zoo is small but well done. We got to pet koalas and feed elephants and kangaroos, which thrilled Shana since she had yet to see a kangaroo. We also saw Terri Irwin host the crocodile show, though unfortunately her wannabe Miley Cyrus daughter Bindi couldn't make it. All in all I'd say it was one of the most wholesome days we've ever had, since we went home to Julia's divine homemade macaroni (our roommates were shocked by our portions and even more shocked when we calmly finished them & tucked into our XL chocolate bars....just doing our part to uphold the piggish American stereotype.) The next day at Noosa was spent at the beach, then we Greyhounded down to Brisbane, spending the night at our British friend Jamie's apartment. It was strange to say goodbye to him, because he is the only person we've seen throughout our trip, and now we'll probably never see him again. Ah, well, such is life.

One more Greyhound trip later, we were in Sydney, where we dropped off our luggage and immediately departed for a camping trip in the Blue Mountains with the boys we met in Bondi Beach at the very beginning of our trip. The boys were super-nice, the food was good, and the scenery gorgeous, but the sleeping situation was grotesque. Our tents were....sub-par, and our preparation skills were less than mediocre. It was absolutely freezing and we didn't have enough sleeping bags....and this was compounded by the fact that it poured the whole night, resulting in me & others "sleeping" literally in a puddle all night. It affected our moods negatively, to say the least. We had a good time, but I sure was glad to get back. 

I had a much better time surfing the next day. I was nervous about this, since Julia spent hours trying to teach me how to body surf in Noosa and I never got the hang of it. Looking back, I'd say I was right to be nervous. Julia, I believe, is part mermaid, and born to be in the water-- she was really good. Shana was excellent as well. Meanwhile, while they were casually sitting on their boards and waiting for a choice wave, I was being pushed into waves by the instructors and alternately bellyflopping/backflipping off the board moments later. After 5 hours of this, we all hobbled back into our hostel feeling like shit but agreeing we had a great time. 

And that's it. We spent our last day on the beach and our last night hanging out with the Bondi boys, and then we flew home. My immediate plans include Mardis Gras in a few weeks, then finding gainful employment for 6 months or so before heading off on another adventure abroad. If my life is exciting enough to keep updating this thing, I shall do so, but chances are it shan't be. Thanks for reading, everybody!

News

Update: Pirate just friended me on facebook!! His real name=Mladen Rakic.

Review of the Whitsundays and Fraser Island

Did you know that Julia's hair changes from blonde to dark brown when it hasn't been washed in several days? Or that Shana can suffer a horrendous sunburn in only five minutes? These are things I learned whilst on our sailing trip in the Whitsunday Islands and our camping trip on Fraser Island, where we were outside and filthy all the time. General discomfort and beautiful landscapes basically sum up the trips, but as I am wont to do, I will break it up and go into more detail than is appropriate.

Whitsundays: Basically it was a 3 day, 2 night trip on a catamaran with 23 other people. It was.....alright. The first day and half was pure hell. We excitedly climbed aboard to meet everyone, and unfortunately no one was cool-- all were very immature and ready for a booze cruise, which sucked a lot because they drank all the alcohol they had brought, and then all the alcohol we had brought. The worst was a tall, skinny, Dutch freak whom we named "pirate" because he wouldn't stop screaming "YAARGGH!!!!" and trying to climb the mast. We hung out with the crew mostly, who were a lot cooler and more mellow. Sleeping consisted of placing mats on the deck of the catamaran, which would have been great except that it was pouring rain and freezing. Furthermore, the drunkards, led by Pirate, were carousing 10 feet away, one of them choosing to prance on Shana's back. In frustration I moved to the luggage closet to sleep, and Julia chose to sleep in the mattress storage closet. We were awoken at about 5:30 to rough seas, and the remainder of the morning featured about 8 people lining the decks, vomitting over the side. One of them was Pirate, who was decidedly less enthusiastic about the booze cruise as he crawled ever 10 minutes or so to retch into the beautiful cerulean water. Another one of them was Shana, who had turned the truest shade of green I've ever seen on a human face. We got a break around 10am, when we finally arrived at the beautiful Whitehaven Beach and played in the enormous waves for a couple hours. Later that afternoon we snorkelled around and fed giant fish, which was pretty cool. The best thing, I think, was that the place we anchored for the night was full of phosphorous plankton that glowed when agitated, and we watch schools of fish glowing and gliding all over the bay. The second night passed without incident, and in the morning we went ashore to take a look at some 2300 year old aboriginal paintings, followed by a swim in the bay. I was pretty nervous about the swim, since it was really deep, and I became horrified once I got out and a girl told me that it was called Shark Bay because there were so many hammerheads in the water. Yikes. Anyway, all we had to do after that was head home. It was an okay trip, I'd say, and it would have been a lot more fun with better people and better weather.

Fraser Island: Fraser Island was A LOT more fun. This was a 3 day, 2 night trip that consisted of 11 people in a truck driving around the island and camping. The group was a lot better. There was an Irish couple, a German girl, two Dutch girls, two Swiss guys, and an Israeli girl. Everyone was more mature and laid-back, except for the Israeli girl...but we just sort of ignored her most of the time because she was annoying. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world, and the most visited place in Australia, yet it was not touristy and fairly secluded for how many people were there. On the first day we went to Lake Wabby, which was this neat little lake right in the middle of enormous sand dunes. That night was spent casually drinking beer and hanging around chatting, which contrasted with the crowd on the booze cruise, was a great time. The next day was spent at Lake Mackenzie, which is absolutely gorgeous. The sand was pure white and the water was the brightest blue I'd ever seen. Julia was upset because there is a picture of us in the water and it looks like a manufactured pool....but it's not. On the third day we went to Indian Head, which is the easternmost point of Australia. It was pretty romantic for Julia and I, since we had previously visited the westernmost point of Europe together (Ireland). Then we visited some shipwreck that I'd like to give a rave review but I suspect it was just a tourist trap. Maybe I'll google it and find out for sure. The best part, I think, was just the people and the general scenery. The ocean was beautiful but laden with enormous jellyfish. Julia disobeyed the rules and went in anyway, and then a huge tiger shark was spotted, so she didn't get in after that.

Now we're in Noosa, about to go to the zoo. Should be fun. As we head south it gets much cooler, and we felt that we needed sweatshirts last night...then looked at the temperature and realized it was about 75 degrees. Chicago is going to be rough when I get back (in less than two weeks) (sob sob).

Whitsundays & Fraser Island

First of all, happy New Year, everyone! We celebrated it about 16 hours ahead of you, which was pretty weird. We did some weird bar crawl thing, which guaranteed us "the best time ever." It was pretty fun, but unremarkable, I'd say. Eager to leave Cairns, we attempted to book our flights to Uluru, only to realized that tickets have gone up in price about four hundred dollars. So instead we walked into a travel agency about an hour ago looking for some advice, and now we're booked to sail on a boat around the Whitsunday Islands....and then camp on Fraser Island for a couple days more. It's very whirlwind and exciting, and fits in with our new gameplan of having no gameplan. We're leaving Cairns in about seven hours, so there's a lot to do, like take a shower for the last time for at least a week.

Also, in the excitement of spontaneity, we very nearly cancelled our tickets home and bought new ones bound for Thailand.

Talk to you all in about a week.