Saturday, May 29, 2010

To Darwin

The sun has set for the my time is Brisbane.  Tomorrow I fly north to Darwin where I will be making my way across Australia back towards the East Coast.  It will probably be at least 2 weeks until I make another update, but until then, you can rest easy knowing I'm seeing the interior of the country and packing plenty of sunscreen.   The general plan is.... fly to Darwin, rent a vehicle, drive towards Cairns while seeing the sights and then take a train back south to Brisbane.  Wish I could write more, but I need my beauty sleep for tonight.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Land Down Under

Well, well, well, long time no update.   It's been almost one whole week since I've been here in Brisbane, and let's suffice it to say that things have been amazing.  Upon arriving last Thursday, my friend picked me up from the airport.  I'm staying with him and 2 other Americans in a friends house of theirs, located about 15 mins. from downtown Brisbane.  My current situation is going to spoil me for the rest of my trip.  In the house, I have my own room and all the other amenities you could ask for.  For the time being, I'm hanging out here at the house while my friend works one more week at his construction job to earn a little extra cash.  By the beginning of next week, we will be taking off for some other area of Australia and eventually New Zealand.  Right on.  I apologize for my lack of communication, especially when I have the means here at this house.  I suppose this is a good test for those who might worry (Mom).  I'm not always going to be next to a computer so this is quite a luxury.  Enough jibber jabber though, let's get to some of the highlights of what I've done so far.

My first weekend here, my friend and I travelled up the coast to the town of Noosa.  Although a bit cloudy the first day, the weather and temperature for the majority of the weekend was incredible.  We stayed at a friends beach house (for free; cha-ching!) and had an incredible time.  I attempted to surf, saw a koala, and soaked up lots of shade to prevent myself from getting skin cancer early on in this trip.  On our way back we stopped by a friends place (friends of my friends) and had an Australian BBQ.  T-bone steak, hamburger, sausage, bacon.  Holy smokes, it was incredible - especially since I'd hardly eaten anything all day.  After the weekend trip, as I kind of alluded to, I've been chilling at the house while my friend goes to work.  I've walked around and seen some cool birds (look up "galah") and even some neat insects.  I've quickly learned that there are a million and one Aussie slang words.  Kim, it turns out it's stubby cooler, not stumpy cooler, which is a coosie.  A  "Doona" is a blanket and "rooding" someone is having sex with them.  Since I mention that, I'm reminded that my mother requested I keep this blog PG as I have some, how shall I say?, more mature readers, who might be offended or put off by certain things I type.   Certainly I don't want to reflect poorly on myself nor do I wish to offend any of you.  That being said, I'll do my best to keep this fairly PG, but let's be honest with ourselves here, sometimes the PG-13 stuff is the more amusing stuff in life, and sometimes it's the truth.  I'm sure most of you will be ok with everything and I'm sure we can all get a nice chuckle out of the things I write, but if you ever have a problem with something, please don't hesitate to let me know. 
   Well that was a bit of a tangent.  I'll wrap it up by saying that my time here in Brisbane is going incredibly well.  I would write more, but I don't want to bore you to death and I should probably get going on my day.   Oh, and for the record, I recently got a skype account.... j.meyer72   I'm not sure how much I'll use it, but if proper arrangements are made, I can probably make a skype date with you... if you're lucky :)  Keep in mind, I'm a day ahead of you.  If you are on the west coast, subtract 7 hours from your current time, then add an entire day.  That's where I'll be.  Until next time! 

Monday, May 17, 2010

To do List

It's the night before I leave and I thought I would post real quick the several suggestions some of you have made for things I have to do while I am abroad.  Here's the working list so far, feel free to make further suggestions.

  • Eat Kangaroo Tail
  • Have Tea with Geisha
  • Hit someone with a boomerang
  • Try Dim Sum in Hong Kong
  • Ride up to Victoria's Peak - Hong Kong
  • Take a stranger on a date (and pay)
  • Swim in Dead Sea in your speedo
  • Smoke Turkish Tobacco out of hookah
  • find an Apocolyptica CD from Helsinki
  • Go on Amanda's Chicago Tour
  • Take a tour in Hong Kong and find out what "fire and ice" is...
  • Go to the top of the space needle
  • Sing the "Istanbul is not Constantinople" song while in Turkey
  • Get a tattoo in one of the countries you go to
  • Visit Steve Irwin's grave
  • Purchase Byron's Bay T-shirt
  • Eat gross native cuisine in each country

Oh, and I think this is good time to start my "Speedo Picture" of the month.  If you stick with this blog log enough, you might be able to get the entire calendar. Enjoy May! 




This Photo was taken with a Canon Power Shot SX100.  No make up was applied, as unnaturally white as I may seem.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Here goes nothing

I believe this is my first official blog.  Personally, I've never been too turned on by the whole idea.  Who really wants to hear/read all the nonsense I have to write?  No offense to people who blog, but usually when I imagine someone blogging, I imagine someone who likes to complain or talk to themselves.  And in that last sentence I think I've completed both of those criteria. For most of you, this blog might be something you look at once a month, for others it might be something you never look at - and that's ok.  After travelling a fair bit I know that it's hard to keep up with people.  Out of sight, out of mind right?  Right.  Anyways, for those who hate reading long paragraphs of BS (cough - Mike), I'll summarize the important points of this posting....

  • This was my trial run to see if this actually works
  • Please comment and let me know how easy it was for you to do so (comment that is) - the settings/security is a little confusing, so you might have to get a gmail account or who knows.  Let me know.
  •  Complaint about "blogging" - see above
That's it for now.  Until we meet again