Cairns!

So I haven't updated a while because I have been buuuusy. After Brisbane, I spent a few nights with Leanne's son Shaun and his wife Chrissy. They were great, really hospitable and just super fun. I had a good amount of XXXX Gold, which I have since come around to. I love canned beer! haha. Anyway the highlight was going to a rugby game. It was the Gold Coast Titans (home team) against the Canberra Raiders (my team.) Anyway I wore the away team colors and took heaps of shit for it. Shaun had the hook ups and we sat in a corporate box from his work. It was like normal seating, but has a cooler full of beer which I helped myself to. Haha. I got fairly loaded and cheered louder and louder for the raiders with each passing brew. Anyway Raiders lost in the end :( Good times anyway. Then I took a lovely 30 hour bus trip to Cairns in far north Queensland. Cairns has been the town of crazy adventures and mixed blessings. I can't write in full because my laptop batter is low and I am at the McDonalds using the wifi. Yesterday I got pissed at how touristy it is here and took a city bus about half an hour north to Trinity beach. I didn't swim since it is stinger season and decided to hike up this hill with no trail. There were heaps of trees and sedges that were taller than me. Half way up I thought to myself "this is how tourists die" but then firgured I am a Washingtonian and we don't go out like bitches. Well getting up was a challenge, but getting down was a nightmare! I couldn't see where I was stepping and on a few occasions dropped 3 or 4 feet straight down. There were heaps of spiders too, and some got up my shorts and kept biting at my leg. Anyway after that at the hostel I played Kings Cup with some Danes and French people. I got WAYYYYYYY to drunk on cheap goon, threw up a couple times and passed out. The next morning I got up at 5 a.m., dropped my laptop on the floor hard, and headed to the dock to get on the reef tour I booked. The tour was awesome. We went a couple hours out to a little sandy island and snorkeled above the most amazing coral reef with all sorts of cool fish, rays, coral and other underwater buggers. Then we went to another reef without a beach and snokeled over more reef. The second reef was better but the waves were bigger so it was harder to swim there. So amazing though, I can't even describe how epic it was. Now I am going to get my free dinner and hopefully buy a ipod charger somwhere.

This will have to be a quickie. I am paying for internet because I couldn't be bothered to walk to McDonalds in the rain. I am in Brisbane, I had a great night out last night. Went out with two Scottish guys, danced with Aussie girls at the club. Not too shabby. My last night in Newie was epic too. Impromptu fishing trip on the beach at night. Drinking Bundaberg rum and cola. I really was sad to leave because I had made some good friends there. I will have to go back. Gotta run.

Newie

So I am in a city north of Sydney called Newcastle. I have been here before, last time I was in Oz I came here with my sister. I am staying with a couchsurfing.com host who is a really cool dude. He works with computers I guess, but he is a DJ by night and last night he played at a brewery and I went and watched. It was good times. He also does home brew and I had some of his Bavarian wheat beer. I have been chillin a bit, skating a lot and I went to the beach today and read. My nagging ankle injury has returned, it always does when I skate a lot. I am watching a rugby league game now, I guess it is raining buckets in Melbourne. Tonight I am going to a pub and I leave tomorrow night, overnighter on a bus then a hostel for two night in Brisbane. My sister wants to meet up with me there so we can go to the theme parks and the Australia zoo. After that I am going to shoot up to Cairns, which will be a long friggin bus ride but that is okay. They make the trips from city to city overnighters, which is cool because it is like a free accommodation for the night lol. But then I crash hard the next day. By the time I make it from Melbourne to Cairns I will have spent 3 nights on that bus. fuckin' hell. Well I am going to write a beer review for me beer blog, which, by the way is http://aussieusabeerblog.blogspot.com/ check it out.

I will be back in the states in 5 weeks.

Sydney take two

Well I am back in Sydney til Tuesday. I am staying with someone from couchsurfing after one night in a lousy hostel. I am starting to get kind of sick of the whole back packer culture. It is fun for a while, but I really prefer couchsurfing people. Last night my host took me to an Abba tribute show at a footy club in West Sydney. Out of the group I was the youngest by 15 years and the only white person. It was hella fun though, and everyone in the group was really nice. Also I met a guy who looked like an Obama clone! Apparently since the election people have mistaken him for Obama on many occasions. His wife was a really big twilight fan who thought it was great I was from Seattle. Anyway I am leaving Sydney on Tuesday, I am sick of this town. There is a big duality it seems, it is either really fancy/rich/posh/etc. or just shit. There are exceptions, Newtown is cool, and maybe I haven't seen enough of the city to judge, but from my experiences I like Melbourne way more, and Canberra is easier because I have a good support network there.

Anyway, headed to Newcastle next, or I might just skip it and go to Byron bay. I gotta figure that out now. Cya all.

Wollongong

A couple days ago I left Batemans Bay and went to Wollongong, a little college town south of Sydney. I got to the hostel, and it was this massive old Victorian era building. It was run by a family who also lived there and the backpackers staying there were nuts. It was party central. At night we all got stinko and then me, a pom and a kiwi went to a club for drinks and dancing. Earlier in the day I also won 5 bucks on the poker machines, woo. The club was kind of a meat market which was annoying, it was more fun just drinking at the hostel. The next morning I got up and the aussie, a german and I did jaeger shots. I couldn't refuse free booze. So before noon I had 3 shots of jaeger and a beer and was nice and buzzed. I checked out and met up with my host for the night from couchsurfing.com he is a really chill Swedish ranga and he took me around town and stuff. Around dusk we went to the ocean for a swim. There were definitely jellyfish in the water, lots of them were washed up on shore, but they weren't the kind that hurts. Swimming in the ocean at dusk was really fun, and the coast was really beautiful.

After that, we went to a brewery that I spotted on the walk down. They had pretty cheap beer, live music and it was nice and chill atmosphere. My host Simon new a bunch of people there so we got a pretty good sized group, and one of the girls from that group that knew Simon knew someone in the headlining band. I guess they were getting paid in beer and food, but the guy didn't drink so he just got pitchers and gave them out to his friends. I ended up getting a lot of free beer and pizza out of it. Pretty sweet! Then I watched the band and they were REALLY GOOD! I have seen a lot of live music since I got here but this band was amazing. It reminded me a lot of early White Stripes, so I bought there cd. It is a good listen! Afterwards we went back home and crashed. I woke up a bit hung over today and went to the bus stop and came to Sydney. I am staying in a hostel in a bad part of town tonight, then going to stay with someone from couchsurfing.com til Tuesday, then I reckon I will be done with Sydney again and head up the coast. I am thinking of going to the beach for a swim now. I have about a million pictures to put up on facebook sometime too. Dunno about the internet here though.