Spot X to Byron Bay

Spot-X




The Pie place

The past few days have been epic, I don't even really know where to begin. The other day we checked out of our hostel in Sydney at the happy hour of 6:25am and set our sights for a surf camp called Spot X. On the OzExperience bus we have 2 mandatory stops that are included in the package and one of them is the Spot X stop. I wasn't really sure what to expect out of this place but from what the others had told me, it was going to be a really good time. We didn't get there until about 5pm but we stopped at several places along the way including a place called Fredo's Famous Pies where they had, well, famous pies. Not pies like apple and pumpkin pie, but something similar to chicken pot pie. Except these ones were filled with meats like crocodile, kangaroo, emu and camel! So here at this stop I tried my first "pie." I wasn't quite balsy enough to try the exotic ones so I opted out for some thai chicken one. Pretty good!

Taking a bite out of my first pie!

Since Spot X is kind of in the middle of nowhere, there are no bars in the area. So on the way our bus driver, Thunder (yes his name is Thunder), stopped at a liquor store so we could stock up on some goon (boxed wine-always keepin it classy). Me and some other girls bought 2 boxes to share, uh oh. After a long day of driving we finally arrived at Spot X where we showered off and had some dinner then got ready to become acquainted with all the others. We were informed that our surf lesson was going to be at 8am the following morning so we thought it would be wise to avoid partying too hard. That plan didn't last too long once the goon was flowing!



People getting acquainted

Everyone was having a great time and we made a bon fire on the beach. We sat around telling stories and meeting people from all over the world. I managed to even meet a few fellow Americans. A couple guys who work for Amazon but decided to take off on vacation and another guy from LA who was there for work. I guess he is in the film industry and works for a place that makes promotional travel videos and they were going to do one in Sydney. He got there a week earlier so he could travel around a little bit and see all that Australia has to offer! Once it got dark outside the night sky was AMAZING. Seriously, I have never seen something like this before. You looked up and could see all the constalations, and it just looked like stardust sweeping across the sky. I was literally in awe-so beautiful.

Thunder let us stop and take pictures
at one of the most eastern points of Australia.
Jordan and I posing by some important rock.

In the morning I managed to roll out of bed around 7 in time for breakfast before our surf lesson. Everyone was looking a little rough, but nothing a little morning surf couldn't cure. Our instructor was this guy named John who had leathery skin from years worth of sun exposure and several missing teeth. I was a little skeptical of him at first but turns out he is the MAN! John has been surfing for like 40-something odd years and was ranked number 2 in the world. Pretty awesome. Who knew I was going to be standing infront of a surfing god?



After our morning surf sesh we showered off and got some lunch then hit the road again, this time onto Byron Bay. The original plan was to find jobs in Byron Bay and live there for a month and a half or so but turns out they don't want to hire backpackers, understandably. Bummer. So we have been looking online at tons of places that need farm help (fruit picking is huge here) and apparently there's a couple places we could work right near Surfers Paradise, which is our next stop. We called them up and they said they should have some work for us. Guess we'll see! So in the meantime we've booked a weeks accomodation at this place called Backpackers Inn. This place is really chill. It's $24 per night and it has a pool and this lawn right outside that is sprinkled with hammocks and hippies lounging around. The beach is literally a 30 second walk away and it's white sand beaches. We went for a walk on it the other day and it feels like you are walking on hot snow. The sand is so fine that it makes this crunch sound when you walk on it, it reminded me of the crunchy feel when you walk on snow.

The next day was Australia Day! It's pretty much just another excuse for people to party, but it is a national holiday! I met up with a few of the others at the beach and there were tons of aboriginal people doing some crazy interpretive dancing. It was really fun to watch though. The rest of the day was spent chilling at pubs listening to live bands play and me and the other American guy from LA taught everyone how to play flip cup. They loved it.

Welp, there you have it. My last week or so here. Hopefully everything continues to go smoothly and I'll be sure to keep everyone updated on my travels.



Cheers

Goodbye Coogee, Hello Sydney

Toga attire for the pub crawl!

This has truly been an amazing week, but all good things must come to an end! The last few days that I've been with OzIntro have been great. On Saturday we did a pub crawl to 5 different bars around Sydney on a party bus. This wasn't just your ordinary party bus, it even had a DJ on it! As the brits would say, it was ACE! Each of the OzIntro groups did a theme and my group did toga. We all purchased some bed sheets and random accessories then got our crunk on. Sunday we had the day off to nurse our hangovers then yesterday we hiked the Blue Mountains and later in the evening had our farewell dinner in this rotating tower in downtown Sydney.

Sweet Waterfall

The Blue Mountains was beautiful. It was almost like going through a rainforest. There were waterfalls everywhere, I saw the nest of the most poisonous spider in the world, and got really freaking muddy. About halfway through the day we stopped and had a little picnic and made sandwiches then explored around more. Once we got to the bottom there was this lift that took us back up and it is the steepest lift in the world. It was kinda sketchy/awesome.

After hiking we all went home to shower and got ready for our last night as OzIntro-ers. Trent picked us up around 6:45 and we headed into downtown where we got to try some yummy buffet food. I ended up trying some crocodile sausage and ate way too many random foods. Overall it was a really good night, ended with a sappy speech from Trent. Turns out we are most likely his last OzIntro group since he is focusing on other projects now such as expanding the ThaIntro program. After we all got our goodbye hug a group of us walked over to the Coogee Bay hotel to grab a few drinks and talk some nonsense.

Now that it's over what are my plans you ask? Well, good question. Today we are checking out and heading to downtown Sydney and checking into a hostel called Base. I plan to be there for about 5 days to wait out the flooding that's been happening around Australia then start traveling. I booked my bus transportation up the east coast with a company called OzExperience. It's basically a bus that runs from Sydney to Cairns and it's hop on hop off. It has all these stops along the way and you can get off and stay for as long or as little as you'd like then get back on whenever you're ready to start moving again. It's pretty much all backpackers so it's a good way to meet people who are doing the same thing as me. I'll keep you guys posted on how everything turns out. Until then...

Cheers

OzIntro week thus far



My family/OzIntro group this week



At last I finally have some time to blog! Warning: this is probably going to be all over the place since so much has been happening.

So the flight wasn't too bad. All in all it took me about 26 hours to make it to Sydney which sounds terrible, but after hour 11 or so it all just kind of blurs together. I was most excited for my flight from San Francisco to Sydney because I was expecting that I would get one of those little personal TVs that are in the head rest infront of you where you can pick from a plethora of shows and movies to watch. After waiting a dreadful 5 hour layover I boarded my big plane to discover that there were no personal TVs. What the hell?? Is this a joke?!!! That's like cruel and unusual punishment not to provide me with endless hours of entertainment on this ridiculously long flight. Rude. Anyway, after I got over that little shocker it wasn't so bad, I slept for most of it.

When I arrived and got through customs the company that I'm spending my first week with, OzIntro, was there to greet me with a welcoming hug! OzIntro is basically a company that helps you get settled your first week in Sydney. They set up your visa for you, get you phones, get you your tax file number, do fun things like surfing, jetboat on the harbour, barbeques on the beach, help you find work, provide you with discounts, and give you loads of advice about how to travel in Australia and all the places to stay. This has seriously been one the best weeks of my life. The staff is awesome, they treat you like family and everything we have done has been just an awesome experience.

There is a group of about 56 of us backpackers, most are from the UK, one from denmark, one from sweden, one from canada and me. They split us into 3 groups of 17ish so it won't be so hectic but we all go out together in the large group at night. The hostel we are staying at is right on the beach and the first day my group had off just to relax, which was nice after that long flight. We went to the beach and lazily walked around the town of Coogee (that's coo and gee as in gee thanks) discovering all the little shops and restaurants.



Me and Steve(s). It's all fun
and games until they attack!



The next day we drove into Sydney and walked to downtown. On the way we walked through all these botanical gardens and our tour guide for the week gave us all some bread and told us to stand under this tree and to wait for Steve. Who the hell is Steve? We were all standing there kind of confused yet intrigued and all the sudden about 8+ cockatoos flew down onto us trying to eat the bread! This was really exciting at first but then 4 or 5 of them were starting to get on me and I started getting flashbacks of the movie The Birds which I recently watched, and I started running around until they got off me. It was really cool though. Then we went jet boating on Sydney Harbour. This. Was. AWESOME!!!!! You get on this jet boat that has this bar in front of you to hold on to and seat belts. It goes about 80-100 mph and the guy would slam on the brakes and do a crazy turn and everyone would just get absolutely SOAKED. It was so much fun. We would stop occasionally so the guy could point out facts about random buildings that nobody really cared about. This little kid in the front kept chanting, "more wet! more wet!" and I was thinking that I totally agreed with him. The guy got the hint and shut up and kept driving around. After that me and my group unloaded off the jet boat totally soaked and walked around to the famous Opera House and took a few touristy pics. When in Rome, right? 

The next day we went surfing. The beach we went to was about 45 minutes away and 5 minutes into our drive there we got into a wreck. Oops! These Aussie's are so laid back though, we thought we'd be sitting there for an hour waiting for them to sort out all their insurance and stuff but the driver was back in like10 minutes. Anyway,  Let's just say I won't be going pro anytime soon... but I still had a blast! The tour guide asked if anyone had been surfing before and I was the only one who raised my hand. Sidenote: I have been surfing once 4 or 5 years ago and don't remember anything. I told the group this but they kept asking me for tips and were looking at me like I would be good. That was kind of awkward, the pressure! Then half of them were better than me, how embarrassing. hahah oh well.  



Posin infront of Bondi Beach



Yesterday was pretty chill. We took a 10 minute drive to Bondi Beach and just layed out, played in the waves and walked around. It was about a 45 minute walk back to the hostel but it was beautiful. We passed 3 or 4 different beaches, one of them being the town that Heath Ledger lived in :). Then we stopped to play some beach volleyball, went snorkeling and had a barbeque (Barbie). By the end of the day we were all sunburned and tired so we went back to the hostel to have a relaxed night.

Anway today I am just hanging out and have a meeting later today with my group leader to talk about what I'm going to do after this week. You know, make sure I'm not wandering the streets/sleeping in gutters and all. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted!

Cheers