As of 16 June

16 June: Wow, it's been a minute since I wrote in my blog. Much has happened, many people have been met, new things have been done. I will try to move as chronologically as I can through the last month and a half.

Early May: I was staying with my friend BJ, her husband, Greg and their new born, Morgan. I did some work for about three weeks at YMCA Camp Yarramundi, which is located about ten minutes outside of Richmond. Richmond is a small town on the out skirts of the Sydney metropolitan area about an hour and twenty minutes from the center of Sydney by train.

I was doing mostly logistic support and maintenance for them. While I was there, I moved equipment and did some gardening. Some of it was hard, but it all paid off in the end. I met a lot of great people, and didn't want to leave. Working around little kids in a camp environment can be a little taxing at times, but very rewarding at other times.

When I wasn't working, I would go to the city center and surrounding areas to explore. I came to the conclusion very quickly that all the hype about Bondi Beach you may have ever heard, could be sadly mistaken. To me, it just seemed like another beach. However, perhaps I just didn't stay long enough. Also, it may be rather unfortunate that I am just not into the surfer culture.

Other places I explored in the area were the the center, George St, Darling Harbor, The Rocks, The City Harbor, where the Sydney Opera House is located, Manley, Newcastle and the Blue Mountains.

Sydney is a very nice city in my opinion. I had a great time while I was in the area. I think I have figured out that I enjoy less crowded areas. They city was great for a little while, but I really enjoyed exploring Katoomba and the surrounding area to include Springwood and Wentworth Falls.

From Katoomba I looked out over the Blue Mountains and the three sisters, a rock formation. I went for a hike on this trail form Katoomba and ended up in Wentworth Falls several hours later and after about 25kms. It was a beautiful day. I was all alone, walking through an endless eucalyptus forest in this big valley. It was very peaceful.

Late May: Because there was heavy rain in northern New South Wales, and southern Queensland, there was flooding. I didn't want to chance anything, so from Sydney, I flew to Brisbane. In Brisbane I met the sister and her boyfriend of a friend I had while I lived in Norway. I was great to see a semi-familiar face. I say semi-familiar because the last time I saw Hannah was eight years ago and she was fourteen at the time. Paul, her boyfriend was from New Brunswick. They met during a holiday in Thailand.

I wasn't feeling Brisbane. It didn't seem like there was all that much going on there. It was just another big city. I thought the best part was going for a run along the river. It was great. It was the first run I had done in nearly a month. I hadn't run since I was in Melbourne, so it was very nice.

I was planning on leaving Brisbane the next day. While I was walking out of the hostel, someone asked me if I wanted to work for a day moving office furniture. I told the receptionist that I would. So, Ingo, a German guy and I helped this big guy, Peter, haul furniture for that day. He paid us cash in hand which was nice. I didn't mind spending an extra day in Brisbane after that.

From Brisbane, I took the train to a swanky little town about two hours north of Brisbane, on the coast called Noosa Heads. While I was staying in a hostel there, I met two girls from Denmark. We hung out for a couple days because was were trying to decide if we were going to go on this sailing trip from Noosa to Airlie Beach. It would have been great, but the guy was a little too unorganized. We ended up scrapping the idea and just drove. They had a car so things were easy.

While I was in Noosa waiting, I went on a couple walks through the small national park they have there along the coast. I was great. I got to see koalas, not in captivity. The last night I stayed in Noosa, I slept in a park under a roof housing some BBQs.

The Danish girls, Lisa and Anne and I picked up a couple German guys along the way. They were quite interesting and had done a lot. One guys said that he had traveled over land from Germany to India which I thought would be amazing. Then, he said he lived in India for two years after that. Amazing.

We stopped for the night in a little place called Yepoon, which is on the coast, east of Rockhampton. The girls slept in the car, and the two Germans and I slept behind a building under an overhang. It was a great new way to travel. I wish I had other travel mates that wanted to travel like they did.

We left the two Germans in Yepoon per their request and continued north. We made it to Airlie Beach that night. I didn't want to pay for accommodation after those last couple nights. When I went to a hostel, they said that if I booked a Whitsundays cruise with their travel agent, I would get three free nights, so, I did. Of course, I'm sure I ended up paying for it with the cruise, but it seemed alright to me.

I spent nearly a week in Airlie Beach total. It was a nice place, but I was ready to get out of there. I hung out at the lagoon most of the time. I went running a couple days also. I met a Colombian guy, Tori, who had been in Airlie Beach for over a year. He had been at the hostel over two months.

Something strange about a place with a name like Airlie Beach. The beach there was one of the worst I've ever seen. That's why everyone hangs out at the lagoon. It's just a really big, nice, clean public pool where everybody congregates.

I'm pretty sure a majority of the temporary population of the East Coast of Australia is comprised of somewhere between 30% English or UK, 30% German, 10% Dutch, 10% Canadian, 10% Irish and 10% all other nationalities. That includes Americans in the all others. In the six out of eleven months that I have been traveling outside of the US and Canada, I have met the fewest number of Americans travelers. With a population of over 300 million, you'd think there would be more Americans traveling. I have met far more Israelis, Swedes, Norwegians and Danes traveling than Americans. Having forgotten to include the percentage of Japanese and Korean travelers in these numbers, changes them also. There are a lot of Asian travelers.

So, I went on a cruise around the Whitsundays for two day and two nights. I had a most amazing time. I met tons of great people. I saw some amazing things and got to do some diving as well. Most of the people on the boat were English. It was great. Everybody got along really well. The crew was excellent and the weather was brilliant.

We went to Whitehaven Beach which is a spectacular beach. It's sand is something like 98% silicon. It's white and it makes noise on your feet.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end though. We pulled into port and all split. We got together that night for drinks, but after that, it was really mostly over.

A couple days after that, I hitched up to Cairns. I didn't think I was going to make it in one day, but I did. I took the bus from Airlie Beach to the highway, then stood around for about 30 mins. A skinny, tattooed guy driving his mother home from the hospital picked me up and drove me about an hour north to Bowen. I waited around for another hour and a guy, Pete, picked me up and drove me about 20kms farther. He dropped me off in the middle of nowhere at a turn off he was taking. Less than five minutes later, a girls, Lucy and her boyfriend, Steph drove me to Home Hill. It was about 4:00pm and the sun was getting low. I was still south of Townsville.

As I was walking to the outskirts of town, I noticed a van across the road that had passed me two other times during the day. I thought it would be funny to talk to them, so I did. It was a Spanish girl, Rosa and an Aussie girl, Sarah who were driving an old hippie, painted Toyota van. It was packed full of stuff. They said that's why they didn't stop before. As we were talking they finally offered to drive me north. The three of us squished in the front seat and headed north. Then, they said they were actually headed to Cairns. So, I spent the next five hours in the van with Sarah and Rosa.

10 June: They said they were only going as far north as Gordanvale which was about 20kms south of Cairns. They were turning off the highway to visit a friend before a music festival. I said that's fine, so, they dropped me off and we went our ways. I was really tired to I was looking for a place to lay my head for the night. Five minutes later I heard a vehicle roll up, it was them again. They said, they were going to Cairns in the morning and that I should go to their friend's place with them. When we arrived, I was amazed. It was this huge beach house right on the bay. It was big and open and airy. I slept on a couch like seat on the veranda. It was so cool to wake up listening to little waves wash up on the coast. There wasn't much of a beach, but it was right one the water over looking the bay and Cairns.

Sarah drove me into the city that morning. Because Hannah and Paul were done with Brisbane, they said that I should meet them in Cairns as they were there for a few days before they headed to North America, the States and Canada. I hung out with them a couple nights and then got a good deal on a dive boat.

I went out to the Great Barrier Reef for three days and two nights. The crew and the people weren't nearly that same as the people were on the Whitsundays trip. But we were there for one thing, to dive. We ended up doing 11 dives in total. Two of them were night dives. That was an unforgettable trip. Who needs an aquarium when you have this?! It's amazing from 18m under the water. I saw fish and creatures you just didn't know were there. The colors are brilliant! The coral and the fish come in endless shapes and sizes. We saw sharks and string rays, turtles, I saw dolphins on the way out to the reef. So many different fish.

On the way out to the reef, a few people got sick as it was a bit choppy. That's when I decided that I think I was meant to be on the ocean. I want to work on a boat one day. I wish it could happen sooner than later, but it looks like it's going to be later.

The only person on the boat that I really sort of got to know was my dive buddy, Ben, an English bloke for Manchester. He was a big guy, and had a nice underwater camera setup. We talked about all the diving he had done and working in Port Douglas where I think I will head soon.

I don't have much more time here. I was going to not come home on my return flight because I got a working holiday visa for Australia, but I got a job with a American company back home, so I am coming home on 1 July as planned. I have less than two weeks left. I will probably head north to Port Douglas for a night or two and then maybe as far north as Cape Tribulation. I'm looking into a tour of Daintree National Park, which is supposed to be the oldest rainforest in the world and to have survived the last ice age. After that, I will probably head to Sydney briefly again to hang out with some friends. Then, I need to fly to Auckland, New Zealand where I get on the plane back to LA.

All good things must come to an end, but I'll be back here in a year. Well, I hope.

1 May 09

23 April: I met my friend James at the train station in downtown Melbourne. It was great to see him because we hadn't seen each other since 2001. Before we even went back to his place, we met up with some of his friends, Dave and Stacey for dinner at the Vegie Bar on Brunswick St. I had a tasty burrito and a beer. Dinner was followed by some gelato that we got across the street.

24 April: Walked around in the center of the city again. Didn't really even see a whole lot. The weather was pretty crumby. Later that evening, James and I went to a couple parties at friends' places. This was the latest I had stayed up in a very long time.

25 April: Recovered from staying up too late. Later James' sister Georgie and I went to walk around the local Saturday flea market. I didn't buy anything because I already have enough stuff. It was ANSAC Day also. Which is kind of like Memorial Day for the States, so nothing was open.

Later that evening, we had dinner with Liz' (James' mother) sister, Angela and her husband Charles. We had steaks which were very tasty. This was the first actual steak I had eaten since between Christmas and New Year's of 2006. After dinner, James and I headed out again to another house party. That was fun, and we stayed up even later. I don't know that last time I stayed up until 4:00. It was actually kind of fun.

26 April: We didn't do anything. The weather was blah and there wasn't much going on so we just hund out at the house.

27 April: I went for a run for the first time since I was Te Anau. That was kind of refreshing. After my run I went into the city and checked out the Melbourne museum. They had the largest selection of bugs I think I have ever seen in my life. The only place that my have had more is the Museum of Natural History in New York City.

On my way back to the train station, I heard some jazz playing in Federation Square, so I headed over to see what was going on. The Melbourne Jazz Festival was going on, so I stood and watched Hoodangers play for about an hour.

Once I arrived back at James' place, they were getting ready to have Marie and her boyfriend (both coworkers of Liz) over for dinner. We had a lamb roast that was delicious also.

28 April: I went to the Queen Victoria Market this day to wonder around. It's pretty much a big flea market only instead of used things, they're new things. I ended up buying a new wallet. I have been looking for a wallet exactly like my old one for several months now and couldn't find anything. Then, out of the blue, there it was! Exactly like my old wallet.

I walked around a bit after that and walked to the Shrine of Remembrance. The Shrine is to honor all the fallen soldiers of Australia over the years. While walking back from the Shrine, I walked along the Botanic Gardens. I didn't go in, but they were still nice looking. I stopped at Federation Square again to watch FLAP! play for a bit before heading back to the house.

29 April: I went to the Center of Contemporary Photography with Georgie. It was really nice and it's nice to see the work of other people. It just reminds you how many, better photographers there are out there. Perhaps they're not better, they're just different.

After checking out the CCP, I went to the National Gallery of Victoria, International. Here I looked at some really old Egyptian and Oceanic artifacts. The more I see artifacts from Papua New Guinea, and the tribes in that area, the more I want to go there. We'll see what happens:)

30 April: I had a little bit of a head cold so I stayed in the whole day. I did go for a run later in the afternoon which felt really good believe it or not. Later, James and I had $4 pizza at some restaurant with Dave, Stacey and some other people he knows.

1 May: I won't be doing a whole lot today either. Just resting and recovering. I feel better than yesterday, but still not 100%. I fly to Sydney tomorrow to meet with another friend that I worked with more than 10 years ago at Camp Michigania. That will be pretty fun. She said she may have some work lined up for me, so I'm going to see what it's all about.

I decided to fly to Sydney instead of take the bus. It just doesn't make that much sense to me to pay AUS$77 to sit on a bus for 13hrs when I paid AUS$82 to sit in a plane for an hour and twenty mins. Does that make sense to you?