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The Rest of This Crazy Adventure
16 years ago
General
Alrighty. Second half of the monster journal.
Was a pain in the ass gettin' back home, as you can see. It's nice to be back, with friends and family n all, but I definitely do miss the freedom and adventure of going to new places. Now I just gotta pay off the debt I managed to rack up from it, (ran outta money about beginning of September), and go out again, this time bring my buddies along. Definitely makin' another play for Australia, it was really awesome there.
London (4 times now):
-Did my best to stay on Tokyo time, cause it was only an hour behind Sydney, where I'd be heading in two days, so I didn't want to get re-acquainted with the UK timezone
-Went walking around Earl's Court, where I was staying. Close to the airport.
-Went to Hyde Park for the day
-Managed to stay on the Tokyo timezone by going to bed at 5 every day
-Flew out to Sydney
Sydney:
-Took 22 hours to get there. Stopped in Singapore to fuel up. When I left London, the sun was setting. When I got into Singapore, 11 hours later, the sun was setting again, but on the next day. Kinda messed up.
-Had some really good turbulance about 4 hours out of Sydney. Scottish lady beside me was like hanging on to me, she was all freaked out. I thought it was fun, like a rollercoaster. We had been talking before the turbulance, then it happened, then she clammed right up and clamped onto my arm haha.
-Got into Sydney at 5am, the remnants of that big dust storm were still in the air.
-Got to the hostel at 7am, office didn't open til 9, so I had to wait outside til then, wouldn't even let me into the place, and it was goddamn cold in Sydney, like windy cold.
-Stayed up til real late to get onto the timezone
-Drinking games everynight in the kitchen
-Saw the Opera house, took the obligatory picture of me infront of it
-Went to the Botanical Gardens
- Paddy's Marketplace and Chinatown
Gold Coast, Collangatta:
-Flew up there, cause I didn't have time to bus it up
-Stayed at a place right on the beach
-BBQ and Bogan Bingo (Rowdy & drunken Australian bingo). I told Trigger about it already, it was really something fun, I'll go into detail about that one if someone wants.
-Walked the beach everyday, was warm enough to swim in
-Went up to Surfer's Paradise, the big party location on the Gold Coast. Was gonna meet up with the Aussie girls I met in Tokyo, but never connected.
-Bought some boomerangs and aboriginal art stuff
-While I was checking out, one of the guys from San Fran, that was in my hostel in Sydney, was in my hostel and checking out too. He was heading to stay at Surfers for a night, then up to Brisbane, where I was headed.
-Took the train up to Brisbane
Brisbane:
-My hostel was huge. The kitchen at dinner, had at least 30 people cooking at any given time and no spots on the stoves, the ones that worked anyway, so I had to wait til like 8:30 to eat most nights.
-Went up to the nightclub and music bar area of town, but on a Monday, and nothing was open, so that was a bust.
-Went to the various Botanical Gardens and parks there
-Went to the Australia zoo, where Steve Irwin used to be. It was awesome. I got to pet and feed Kangaroos and Wallabies. They have "Animal Encounters" there, where you can go in with a bunch of the different animals, like the wombats, echidnas, lemurs, even the tigers, (booked like 6 months in advance and with several waivers I'm sure). I went in with the Dingoes. So I got to pet them and hang out with them. They take a bunch of pictures of them with you, so I got a couple of those printed out and sent home
-Flew up to Cairns
Cairns (Pronounced Cans):
-Got some cool pictures of the moon rising over the mountains and river mouth
-Went to the Night Markets. Bought a t shirt that's yellow, and has two lemons running with a stretcher that has a third lemon cut in half laying on the stretcher, of which the caption is, "Lemon Aid."
-Went snorkeling and scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, then got comped a helicopter ride back to town, taking an aeiral tour of the reef
-My room had roaches in it and I kept killing them everynight, but they just did not stop appearing, earning me the nickname "The Roachodile Hunter."
-Went on a 4x4 trip through the bush and jungles in the surrounding mountains. Saw wild kangaroos and giant 900 year old strangler fig trees.
-Marketplace on the Esplanade, bought myself and my buddies these melted beer bottle clocks, that I'd somehow have to cart back home with me, along with all my other crap I had amassed.
-Got up at 3:30am to get ready for my shuttle to the airport for a flight at 6am back to Sydney.
Coming back home (Oy vey):
-Flight from Cairns to Sydney, changing in Brisbane at 6am on the 12th
-Flight from Sydney to London at 5:30pm on the 12th
-Land in London at 5:30am on the 13th
-Customs lady was skeptical about why I'd been into London so many times with my flights. She coudln't get it into her retarded head that I did it to save money. She didn't believe that I could afford it working at where I did, and if I were to come back to the UK again in a short period of time they'd probably ask for proof of emplyment and like audit me or some shit. To which I tore into her about how that was actually really insulting, cause I worked my ass of for this trip, and people actually have the ability to save up money for a long time and go on trips like this. It was great, cause she just looked at me dumbfounded, stamped my passport and I walked off with the knowledge I had taken her down a couple notches and felt pretty good about it haha.
-Flight from London to Glasgow at 5:20pm on the 13th, which I actually missed, cause I fell asleep at the gate on the benchs and woke up at 5:24pm, just after it had taken off. Had to get on the next one, which luckily didn't cost anything, but when I got into Glasgow at 10pm, my luggage didn't show up, it hadn't come up with me.
-Fly from Glasgow to Vancouver at 9:10am on the 14th, delayed til 10:10am. Had to sort out my bag situation. Stayed up all night freaking out about it. Filed a report and all that crap, said to check when I got into Vancouver, cause the system is worldwide, so they'd be able to look it up.
-Got into Vancouver at just after 12pm on the 14th, found out my bag would come in on the flight the next day and be delivered. Problem solved.
So, it took 3 solid days of travelling to get home, 40 of those hours were spent in an airplane at some point, the rest waiting to get on a plane in the terminal. Including the night before I left, in the 80 or so hours to get home I got about 10-12 hours of sleep, which enabled me to sleep about 18 hours the night I got home. Went to sleep at 3am, got up after 8pm the next day. I've been having trouble getting back on the Vancouver timezone too, last night I finally went to sleep before 3am and got up at like 10am instead of after 5pm, like every day up til this point. Should probalby do that now. Sleep that is.
Was a pain in the ass gettin' back home, as you can see. It's nice to be back, with friends and family n all, but I definitely do miss the freedom and adventure of going to new places. Now I just gotta pay off the debt I managed to rack up from it, (ran outta money about beginning of September), and go out again, this time bring my buddies along. Definitely makin' another play for Australia, it was really awesome there.
London (4 times now):
-Did my best to stay on Tokyo time, cause it was only an hour behind Sydney, where I'd be heading in two days, so I didn't want to get re-acquainted with the UK timezone
-Went walking around Earl's Court, where I was staying. Close to the airport.
-Went to Hyde Park for the day
-Managed to stay on the Tokyo timezone by going to bed at 5 every day
-Flew out to Sydney
Sydney:
-Took 22 hours to get there. Stopped in Singapore to fuel up. When I left London, the sun was setting. When I got into Singapore, 11 hours later, the sun was setting again, but on the next day. Kinda messed up.
-Had some really good turbulance about 4 hours out of Sydney. Scottish lady beside me was like hanging on to me, she was all freaked out. I thought it was fun, like a rollercoaster. We had been talking before the turbulance, then it happened, then she clammed right up and clamped onto my arm haha.
-Got into Sydney at 5am, the remnants of that big dust storm were still in the air.
-Got to the hostel at 7am, office didn't open til 9, so I had to wait outside til then, wouldn't even let me into the place, and it was goddamn cold in Sydney, like windy cold.
-Stayed up til real late to get onto the timezone
-Drinking games everynight in the kitchen
-Saw the Opera house, took the obligatory picture of me infront of it
-Went to the Botanical Gardens
- Paddy's Marketplace and Chinatown
Gold Coast, Collangatta:
-Flew up there, cause I didn't have time to bus it up
-Stayed at a place right on the beach
-BBQ and Bogan Bingo (Rowdy & drunken Australian bingo). I told Trigger about it already, it was really something fun, I'll go into detail about that one if someone wants.
-Walked the beach everyday, was warm enough to swim in
-Went up to Surfer's Paradise, the big party location on the Gold Coast. Was gonna meet up with the Aussie girls I met in Tokyo, but never connected.
-Bought some boomerangs and aboriginal art stuff
-While I was checking out, one of the guys from San Fran, that was in my hostel in Sydney, was in my hostel and checking out too. He was heading to stay at Surfers for a night, then up to Brisbane, where I was headed.
-Took the train up to Brisbane
Brisbane:
-My hostel was huge. The kitchen at dinner, had at least 30 people cooking at any given time and no spots on the stoves, the ones that worked anyway, so I had to wait til like 8:30 to eat most nights.
-Went up to the nightclub and music bar area of town, but on a Monday, and nothing was open, so that was a bust.
-Went to the various Botanical Gardens and parks there
-Went to the Australia zoo, where Steve Irwin used to be. It was awesome. I got to pet and feed Kangaroos and Wallabies. They have "Animal Encounters" there, where you can go in with a bunch of the different animals, like the wombats, echidnas, lemurs, even the tigers, (booked like 6 months in advance and with several waivers I'm sure). I went in with the Dingoes. So I got to pet them and hang out with them. They take a bunch of pictures of them with you, so I got a couple of those printed out and sent home
-Flew up to Cairns
Cairns (Pronounced Cans):
-Got some cool pictures of the moon rising over the mountains and river mouth
-Went to the Night Markets. Bought a t shirt that's yellow, and has two lemons running with a stretcher that has a third lemon cut in half laying on the stretcher, of which the caption is, "Lemon Aid."
-Went snorkeling and scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, then got comped a helicopter ride back to town, taking an aeiral tour of the reef
-My room had roaches in it and I kept killing them everynight, but they just did not stop appearing, earning me the nickname "The Roachodile Hunter."
-Went on a 4x4 trip through the bush and jungles in the surrounding mountains. Saw wild kangaroos and giant 900 year old strangler fig trees.
-Marketplace on the Esplanade, bought myself and my buddies these melted beer bottle clocks, that I'd somehow have to cart back home with me, along with all my other crap I had amassed.
-Got up at 3:30am to get ready for my shuttle to the airport for a flight at 6am back to Sydney.
Coming back home (Oy vey):
-Flight from Cairns to Sydney, changing in Brisbane at 6am on the 12th
-Flight from Sydney to London at 5:30pm on the 12th
-Land in London at 5:30am on the 13th
-Customs lady was skeptical about why I'd been into London so many times with my flights. She coudln't get it into her retarded head that I did it to save money. She didn't believe that I could afford it working at where I did, and if I were to come back to the UK again in a short period of time they'd probably ask for proof of emplyment and like audit me or some shit. To which I tore into her about how that was actually really insulting, cause I worked my ass of for this trip, and people actually have the ability to save up money for a long time and go on trips like this. It was great, cause she just looked at me dumbfounded, stamped my passport and I walked off with the knowledge I had taken her down a couple notches and felt pretty good about it haha.
-Flight from London to Glasgow at 5:20pm on the 13th, which I actually missed, cause I fell asleep at the gate on the benchs and woke up at 5:24pm, just after it had taken off. Had to get on the next one, which luckily didn't cost anything, but when I got into Glasgow at 10pm, my luggage didn't show up, it hadn't come up with me.
-Fly from Glasgow to Vancouver at 9:10am on the 14th, delayed til 10:10am. Had to sort out my bag situation. Stayed up all night freaking out about it. Filed a report and all that crap, said to check when I got into Vancouver, cause the system is worldwide, so they'd be able to look it up.
-Got into Vancouver at just after 12pm on the 14th, found out my bag would come in on the flight the next day and be delivered. Problem solved.
So, it took 3 solid days of travelling to get home, 40 of those hours were spent in an airplane at some point, the rest waiting to get on a plane in the terminal. Including the night before I left, in the 80 or so hours to get home I got about 10-12 hours of sleep, which enabled me to sleep about 18 hours the night I got home. Went to sleep at 3am, got up after 8pm the next day. I've been having trouble getting back on the Vancouver timezone too, last night I finally went to sleep before 3am and got up at like 10am instead of after 5pm, like every day up til this point. Should probalby do that now. Sleep that is.
