dumb dumber dumbest goes Sydney; the city

The road after Byron bay went to Sydney. We arrived tired and annoyed to our hostel on George st, on the 6.1., freaking 7 in the morning! Happy much? No.
Well we slept down in the kitchen slash common room, and around twelve we were finally able to check into our deluxe suite. Ehrm, 6 bed FEMALE dorm that is. Then Tanja came! And the 4 nights in Sydney were just the start of our travels together. We saw the city, checked out the must sees, went out somewhere in Kings Cross (and introduced Tanja to Jaegerbombs), went to the beach, and had a day in the Blue Mountains.

hectic times after melbourne

The next step we took after Melbourne was new years in Sydney. We left Melbourne on the 30.12.11, took an overnight bus and arrived the next morning in Sydney. We then cued 4 hours to get into the royal botanic garden, the park, where we then would celebrate the new year of 2012. Is was nice and chillaxed, and the sun was shining from a blue sky. After the amazing fireworks, we hurried over to some friends friends place, somewhere in the suburbs of Sydney, where we spent the night on two surprisingly comfy couches. The next day, 1.1.2012, totally hungover and tired, we were off again to our next destination; Surfers Paradise and Summa Dayz festival. We took the crappy overnight train, and arrived in Surfers the 2.1, in the morning. We got to Darren's, the dude's place we were supposed to couchsurf at, and after a two hour wait outside, we were let in by a sleepy Darren. We then got ready to go to the festival, and after some courage refreshments, we were off. Of course we lost everybody the minute we stepped outside the bus, so Lena and I were left to admire all the jersey shore people and fake boobs all by ourselves. We didn't mind though, coz people-watching just happens to be one of our favorite hobbies! But not only did we see heaps (Ozzie word!) of jersey shore guys, fake tans and way too short shorts, we also saw Snoop Dog give a very stoned concert, Justice rock it on stage with a nice lightshow, and Moby play under bad sound system. All in all, definitely a experience to remember. But I would not ever pay 150$ for a festival in Australia again. If the sound system is that bad, it's no point going to a festival.

We had another rough night that night, not going to bed before almost dawn, and the next day we were off again. We took the bus, on the 3.1, to arrive in Byron Bay the very same evening. We met up with Kayleigh, and after to nights in different hostels in Byron, we yet again took an overnight train back to Sydney. I swore never to take any overnight transport again, but you know, that didn't work out too well... Poor poorer Julie.

I don't have any pictures from new years, except for the monster cue to the garden (that I have taken with my now seriously ill iPhone), and neither any from the festival. I left my camera home for safekeeping, fearing for its well being. Kjartan, our norwegian caveman friend, took the pictures on new years, but I have yet to see them. Heard rumors about him accidentally deleting all of them...dunno.

So here are some pictures from Surfers Paradise, the city and beach.

the Yasawas - Fiji

I got to Nadi (pronounced naNdi for some effed up reason, maybe the alphabet is that complicated for some...?) on time, to my amazement coz everything here works on Fiji-time. I arrived the evening of 13.2,12. After waiting a long time for my bookings to be confirmed by the agency, I caught a shuttle bus to Tanoa Skylodge. Tanoa Skylodge is a resort, that both houses fancy to normal people, as well as poor eurotrash like myself. The dorms are clean and quiet, beds are good and the restaurant has decent food for somewhat decent prices. Same goes for alcohol, ehrm ehrm...

I know you haven't heard from me in a week (again), but I can only blame Fiji for that. Wifi is only found on the mainland, and since I have spent the last 7 days sailing and lodging somewhere on the Yasawa islands, I couldn't connect my baby (my iPad) to the world wide web. But now when I'm back again at Tanoa Skylodge, I can pay ridiculous amounts of Fiji dollars to get wifi, and to tell you what I've been up to (and to facebook, obviously).

Coolers, so, the 14.2 I yet again had to get up early, and those who know me know there's not much I hate more than early, to catch the bus to the harbor. The Fijians almost take pride in making things more complicated than they are and making things take forever, so after a check-in that lasted at least one million hours, I got on the boat to go to the Yasawas. I was going to do some island hopping for 7 days, 6 nights, but I soon found out that it was less island hopping and more just a transfer boat running once a day. So if you get of an island you don't like, well, too bad, you can only do one stop per day. Haha suckers you dumb tourists (meaning me)! Well knowing nothing about where to go or what to do, I again, after too long booking arrangements at the "travel desk", got my self booked in on Coral View Resort, on Tavewa Island. It was the farthest of all islands, and the boat took 5 hours to get there. So I had some time catching up on my sunburn and reading. I also managed to take some pics on the way up, just to give you an idea of the archipelago I have visited. The scenery; not too bad! Or as the Germans would say it; 'it's okaaaay...'

Introducing: the Yasawas.

leaving Ozzieland

I'm sitting at Sydney airport, dead tired and jet lagged. We came home yesterday, from a 4 day road trip, and after a quick shower, packing and sad goodbyes, I was off to the airport, to take an overnight flight from Perth to Sydney. I have not slept too well in a van cramped with three people and very hard mattresses, and sitting at the airport, waiting 7 hours for a flight does not fly well with my mood swings...!

I'm leaving Ozzieland today, so not only does my tiredness bring me to the edge of tears, but also the fact that my stay here is done, for now, makes me wanna lay down and cry. I have fallen in love with Australia, and I hope these last 3 grumpy, tired, cranky, cold hours won't be the last I spend here.

I know I have loads more pictures to show you, things to tell you about this spectacular country, but all in time. I did my best to catch up but there's still a lot left. So I will post some Australia posts in between my other updates, so I wont get too far behind. For now you just have to bare with all the posts coming in weird order. Until next Aussie update, I'm going to pray for some good weather in Fiji.

Destination Nadi! Today a new chapter of my life begins. Julie, forfucksake, stop crying!