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| Bart waiting on the train on our way to Wollongong |
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| Wrong town! |
Day 290 Sat 01/26/2013
Wollongong or Dapto?
“It is Australia Day (National Holiday here to get absolutely sideways pissed (drunk))! I packed my bags. Bart called me from the train station. Yea boi! Wollongong here we come! It was good to be back with my Dutch mate, Bart, after all of our good times on the Rum Runner.
There were two hotties on the train with us (both Aussie). Holy smokes, get off of the train this is our stop. Off here at the Gong (Wollongong). Whoops, Angie doesn’t live in Wollongong (which is a small town). Instead, she lives in Dapto (even smaller). Four more stops south until Dapto. This seemed like the middle of nowhere. We find out we are staying at Angie’s friend Kylie’s house. Front yard PARTY at Kylie’s. There were 16 year old kids riding their bikes up & down the street crushing beers. Bogans! STRAYA CUNTS!”
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| Kylie, our hostess |
We had a hard time getting picked up at the train station because no one in the town could drive a car legally. People were still pissed from the night before. That is why we were in the wrong town initially, and could barely get directions to this place. However, Kylie & Ang found a buddy sober enough to come get us. Oh, the two hot ladies on the train almost caused us to miss our initial stop too. Idiots! I am talking about Bart & I. I was talking to them when Bart saw the GONG sign. At the time we thought this was our stop. We almost missed it.
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| Bogan Aussie kids on bikes |
For Australia Day we just set up lawn furniture in the front yard and played music all day. The highlight for me was seeing the bogan youngsters on their pedal bikes riding up and down the street double fisting beers. These were just kids, but they spoke like True Blue hardcore Aussies. “You effin American cunt. If I say that are you offended?” Hahaha, I laughed and said YEA, but they were just trying me out. I will just add a picture to explain the rest of this day.
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| "STRAYA!" |
Kylie was so awesome! I don’t know about Bart, but I had really started missing the comfort of a home where I can shower in private and have a bedroom in private. Well, I didn’t miss it until I had it I guess. Thanks for making this happen Angela! Good times!
Day 291 Sun 01/27/2013
Lazy Day
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| Straya Day 2013 |
“Today was a movie day. It was raining hard outside, we sat inside Kylie’s house and played games on her iPad. Logos quiz occupied hours of our time.”
It was nice to have an entire house to seek shelter in. Bart & I were used to living on a boat, so days like this where there was not much going on you ended up in everyone else’s space all day. We had a whole house to get away from each other in IF we needed to.
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| Straya Day 2013 Party at Kylie's |
Day 292 Mon 01/28/2013
Homemade Pizza
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| Another bogan kid on a bike |
“It’s raining like crazy today and flooding all up the east coast. Bart is leaving today. Angela’s mom had us over tonight to help cook dinner. We chicken wraps & pizza that I made. Mrs Mahoney, Ang’s mom, was very impressed.”
Day 293 Tue 01/29/2013
Chopper & Parmas
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| Angela & her dog |
“We took a walk today through the rain into Port Kembla on our way to the League’s Club for a beer. I wrote in my journal lots today trying to catch up on lost time. Tonight Angela made us chicken parmas.”
If I get lost in my journal entries and forget what all has happened I can pull up pictures usually and recall past events. This is very handy when you go go go for so many days straight and have little time to write details in this journal.
Ang’s chicken parmas were so good tonight. It has been very nice staying here at her mom’s house until this bad weather lets loose. Bart has a girlfriend working at a hostel in downtown Sydney. He has a free place to stay there. I am still waiting for the hostel prices to fall. It looks like tomorrow Bart can hook me up with a cheap room where Laura, his girlfriend, works.
Today Angela & I watched a favorite movie of hers, Chopper.
Day 294 Wed 01/30/2013
Leaving Dapto
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| On our walk today I saw this sign & had to take a picture for Leah. Leah fact 142: Leah loves NASA! LOL. |
“I walked to get phone credit while Ang called to try and get work up in Innisfail picking bananas. She informed me today she sees spirits & ghosts very often. Some of her stories were quite scary too.
I saw a patch I wanted for my backpack on our walk, but my price & the owner’s price were very different. I ended up taking the train back to Sydney today. Thanks for the fun weekend Ang & Kylie. Good times! What a party! Thanks so much. <3
On my train ride back north I sat with a girl named Hannah who had an Aboriginal dad & Australian mother. She told me the story of her sister disappearing recently, & the family thinks it was the boyfriend that was responsible for kidnapping her. It was a sad story. Both of the girls are dating nasty dudes. Why do chicks do that?
Bart & Laura are staying at the Woodduck Backpackers in Sydney. He has reserved me a room there. I’ll look for work in the city for a few days.”
Kylie, thanks for having Bart & I come down to good old Dapto for our first Straya Day celebration. Bart & I were super happy to have a home again for a few days. Ang, thanks for setting this up and showing us how girls in NSW can party. You will have to thank your mom for having us as well. It was good to stay dry all those rainy days. Chopper was awesome by the way. Thanks for taking two vagabonds in for a few days.
Day 295 Thur 01/31/2013
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| WRONG! Wrong city altogether. Whoops! Bart! |
Job Interview
“Bart & I have an interview this AM for a job where we go door to door & try to get people to let us save them money on their power bill. He (Bart) went to this place yesterday for his interview, so he knows exactly how to get there. Well we waited for the bus at the bus station for 30 minutes. OK, we will have to take the train. We need to get to Parramatta Road. So Bart ends up taking us ONE HOUR out of the city by train to the suburb of Sydney named PARRAMATTA. Whoops. We were way off. I was two & a half hours late for my interview, but we had fun being lost. The boss got a laugh out of it as well. I declined the job.”
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| Bart on the train heading to the interview |
I should have stuck in there and taken the job. Bart seemed to really enjoy it once he got the hang of it. I was confused on what we were selling. The company was an energy company. This is about all I recall a year later. It was worth the trip though. Bart & I had a hell of a journey through Sydney to find this place again. I didn’t think we would ever find it to be honest. I am currently staying in a 12 share room (there are 6 bunk beds) that is full. The kids in here are all late teens and early 20’s. I am the old man in here by far. From the way these backpacker’s areas look they have been living in this hostel room for a long time. I didn’t make any big connections in my room from what I recall. I do like the German guy working here though. He is 19 as well, but very friendly to me always. He runs the place usually. He is either at the front desk working or taking care of situations throughout the hostel. I cannot believe I didn’t write his name down in my journal.
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| We did get some Pie Face somewhere along the line. Bart, remember those snot faced little bogans that left all of their trash right next to us? Brats! |
Day 296 Fri 02/01/2013
Hostel Pub Crawl
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| That is one iPhone & one small container of Vegemite |
“My iPhone (the purple dinosaur that KJ sent me from the USA) is trashed. It no longer has a working touch screen. We had a big night out tonight. I am lying low though. Last night was too good with the organized Hostel Pub Crawl.”
When hostels host a pub crawl it is usually a great way to meet everyone at the hostel, including the staff, & you get very cheap & sometimes free drinks. Don’t miss these events. I remember taking the note card with the address, phone number, mini-map, and every detail I could because I was very scared I would never find the hostel again in this city at night without a working phone.
Day 297 Sat 02/02/2013
Travel Bugs
“I woke up early to make a Vegemite English Muffin. I rode my bike to Travel Bugs for some free internet to look for work. Then I went to WestPac Bank. I spent the rest of the afternoon in the TV room trying to get this journal up to par. We went & sang karaoke tonight.”
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| Missing Hat! |
I tried to get on at this one travel resort as a mini-bike tour guide. I saw Colette’s pictures from when she had done a similar tour when she came onto the Rum Runner. This would be a fun way to pass the time and make some spending money. I made the phone calls and was given the OK. They would need someone in March. I need something NOW. I leave in April. I am running out of time fast. At this pace I will spend the rest of my time in Australia sitting around not doing anything. This is no way to live. I am full on all the time normally. This is killing me.
Tonight I got my hat stolen from me. Some dumbass chik kept grabbing it off of my head and wearing it. She thought she was being super cute and flirty. I snatched it from her and told her she would get drunk and forget she was wearing it. Well this caused a big scene evidentially, and some guys thought I was stupid to not let her just wear it to stop the drama. She got drunk and went home with some rando guy. The hat was never seen again. I tried finding another Quicksilver hat like it, but came back to the USA without my new favorite hat. Still not happy about it!
FYI: Travel Bugs is an adventure tours booking agency where backpackers and travelers go to book trips, events, anything from sky diving to kayaking a river.
Day 298 Sun 02/03/2013
Dull Day
“Nothing exciting happened today. Tomorrow is the Super Bowl for us here in Australia.”
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| Adi (England) & I |
My friend working here at the hostel sent out the word my hat was taken. He figured he could spot the girl again or the hat. Bugger! I have met a guy here, Adi from England, who is a huge Ravens fan. He wants some company tomorrow during the Super Bowl. I told him I would go watch it with him. It comes on at 8AM tomorrow morning.
Day 299 Mon 02/04/2013
Super Bowl Party
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| The only American shirt I had. People asked me who I was pulling for, and I would say "AMERICAAA!" |
“Not that I cared about who was playing, but my new friend at the hostel here is a huge Ravens fan. He even has his own Ravens jersey on today. So we got up early in search for an American bar to watch the game. We found the CHEERS bar.
We met one gal from Michigan who was missing half of her arm. She was a an awesome gal and had just married into Oz. Baltimore beat San Francisco, & it was a train wreck of a day afterwards.”
Day 300 Tue 02/05/2013
Girls from Denmark
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| Adi coming down for a surf sesh |
“We had a beach day today, & I took the bus down to Bondi Beach with Adi & Tomino. We played in the waves & slept on the beach until Astrid & Mie joined us. There were hot topless girls lying all over the place.
Astrid & Mie cooked us dinner. They are too sweet. Cecilie comes back from her quick trip to New Zealand on Friday.”
I am missing two good stories in my journal. Either they come later on, or I have somehow forgotten to make notes on them. First story (maybe this happened today): The Danish girls are down on the beach with me today. They remove clothes and get down to their bikinis. We start to hear cat calls coming from the road or parking lot. There is a van with about a dozen English fools lining up along the railing yelling at the girls. Wait I remember. The girls are doing yoga on the beach. I’m not going to lie, when something like this happens you are supposed to just take it in. You do NOT want to start yelling and whistling or you risk shutting the whole event down. The girls were not going to continue their morning yoga with this going on.
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| Typical day at Bondi Beach |
I was nearer to the horn dogs from England than I was to the Danish yoga team, so I looked up at them and told them, “Idiots, you don’t yell from a distance. You go talk to them!” I get up from my towel and go straight up to Mie, Astrid & Ceci and take them down to the water. Little to the punks knowledge, I had known these girls for two months now. It didn’t matter because the lesson was still the same. Oh, and never travel the world in a pack of a dozen dudes. Where the hell are you going to find TWELVE girls that are going to listen to all that crap? Singlet wearing dip shits.
Second Story: Well I should have led with this story and ended strong with me giving the youths a lesson. We had one entire day where we played beach soccer with a ton of Europeans down here on Bondi. There was one strong player from France who though he was untouchable, until I smoked him. We soon united and crushed everyone in sight on the pitch. The Danish ladies are all awesome soccer players too. Not THAT is hot. They asked if they could join and I thought this would hurt our winning streak. No! Not at all. They were all awesome. Mind was blown.
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| This is my room at the Woodduck Backpackers. My bed is center stage there. |
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| View from the rooftop of the Woodduck Backpackers in downtown Sydney |
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| Han Solo with Adi's Moose (I think this was Adi's moose) |
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| Astrid playing in the water off of Bondi Beach |
Two months left in Australia. I get my act together again soon and can go diving. Next blog will be the first time I get under the surface in weeks. New hostels, new friends, old friends, and maybe a beer or two. Thanks for reading, and if you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it up for the first time then POST a comment or a like or something. I can barely tell if anyone is reading this crap. Thanks! J -McNair
