Danielle's Blog 'n stuff

Mayo Again!

2010-11-01T19:53:00.000-04:00

Still working on this =) Its getting there though I think, slowly but surely. Just been focusing on the bald angry guy for the time being.

Haven't touched the other character in a long time, he's next. Nor attempted to animate the props on the tray yet. Those are in line after blond guy.

So yeah, any thoughts on angry bald guy are most appreciated =)

Mayo Again from danielle moore on Vimeo.

More Mayo

2010-07-13T12:41:00.000-04:00

I'm attempting to get this shot done enough to put on my reel for SIGGRAPH.

I know I'm not going to get it as done as I want before then, but I'm pretty sure this shot, even in its current unfinished state is better than what I got on my reel right now. Learned a lot working on this one.

Right now my goal is to get it done enough to put it on my reel without it being an embarrassment.

Any feedback would be awesome. I've looked at it so much the last 2 days my eyes are dead to it=/

Untitled from danielle moore on Vimeo.

Mayo!

2010-06-21T22:22:00.000-04:00

Still working on this shot. Its been a long drawn out pain in the butt.

Anyways. Brussels still hasn't been touched for the 3rd shot yet. Lip sync is just the jaw for the moment. Whole face still needs to be tied together.

But yeah...would love any feedback anyone has for me. The good the bad and even the downright ugly feedback.

Thanks =)

Untitled from danielle moore on Vimeo.

Mayo - Blocking Again

2010-04-27T12:48:00.000-04:00

More and hopefully better blocking this time.

Still a bit rough in spots. Still needs breakdowns and overlaps and all that good stuff. Just want to get some feedback on how its going before I go too much further.

Mayo - Blocking Again from danielle moore on Vimeo.

Mayo - Blocking

2010-04-14T20:32:00.000-04:00

Some rough blocking for the latest shot I've started on.

Still needs a lot more work for the blocking but I wanted to get some feedback on how it is so far, before I spend any more time on it.

Its a bit of a mess. Trying to rely less on stepped blocking this time around.

Main character is having a horrible day. Nothing is going his way. I'm think maybe a lawyer who just lost a big trial and is now getting a bite to eat. Green guy is his assistant.

Mayo- Rough Block from danielle moore on Vimeo.

Hopefully have some new progress on the mom shot soon. Still working on polishing that one up.

Mayo - Rough Layout

2010-04-05T17:43:00.000-04:00

Still working on my old shot, but going to start focusing a working on something new too.

This is and incredibly, super rough layout for what I'm planning on working on next. Just trying to a get a feel for how people think its working before I invest too much time. Basic rough ideas and cameras.

Imagine they are holding trays. With burgers.

Main character is having a horrible day. Nothing is going his way. I'm think maybe a lawyer who just lost a big trial and is now getting a bite to eat. Green guy is his assistant.

I was going to give the 11 second club another try this month again, but just wasn't getting excited about the clip at all. I've been thinking about this clip though for while. I like how he starts out nice and reasonable and then explodes at the end.

Suggestions are much appreciated.

Feb 11 Second Club Update

2010-03-30T22:19:00.001-04:00

Still hacking away at this one.

I like the first half, right up to where she finishes cleaning his face. Hopefully getting close to being finished on that part.

The second half of the shot definitely needs some more love. Floaty in places. Poppy and stiff in others. Haven't really touched any of the faces in the second half either. Still so much work left on this section, and I've already spent so much time on it.

Crits are most welcome.. I've been looking at this way too long.

11 Second Club Entry

2010-03-07T19:37:00.004-05:00

Here's what I submitted for my entry. Didn't get it nearly done as I would have liked. Hoping to improve on it and eventually finish up.

Any comments or suggestions would be awesome.

Feb 11 Second Club Entry

2010-03-02T19:11:00.000-05:00

Finally submitted an entry to the 11 Second club this month. I wasn't able to get my shot nearly as finished as I would have liked to by the deadline. Parts of it were very unpolished compared to other parts.

Although I didn't get it completely finished by the deadline I did have a lot of fun working on it and I think I took a lot away from it. I think some of the areas I've been struggling with finally started to make a whole lot more sense. Hopefully all that new found knowledge will help me out with the next shot I tackle.

I'll post what I submitted for an entry later in the week. Critiques would be most welcome. I really hope to finish the shot as I could definitely use a new piece on my reel =)

Also mildly toying with an idea for the sound clip for March. I've wanted to do a new dialogue shot for a while but I take forever to find a clip, and almost always one that is too long. Plus I think having the pressure of a deadline for the contest really helps me stay focused. So we'll see.

Feb 11 Second Blocking Plus

2010-02-22T22:39:00.003-05:00

Blocking plus. For the most part I think I'm liking where this is going.

Timing definitely gets a little sketchy towards the middle right up until the end. His arm gesture I want to tone down some. Originally was going with a 'ta-dah' kind of motion, but am thinking a 'what' gesture would fit better. The bow tie fix and the kiss need some serious breaking up of the timing right through there for sure.

Figured I'd post in anyways. At least to get a feel for what people think of it so far.

Critique your hearts out!

11 Second Club- Blocking

2010-02-15T22:29:00.000-05:00

Finally. Some blocking. The timing still needs a lot of love, but hopefully the poses are working or at least heading in a good direction.

11 Second Club- Rough Layout with Camera Moves

2010-02-10T14:53:00.000-05:00

Giving the layout a try with some camera moves. When I tried camera cuts, it felt too jumpy. I think I like this better but is it too much?

The heights of the dad and kid are not making things easier.

11 Second Club- Rough Layout Pass

2010-02-09T23:28:00.000-05:00

Still toying with this idea. After some suggestions I tried to cut back some. Mostly at the beginning and the end. Did a rough layout pass to hopefully get a better feel for whether it fits in the frame range or not.

Thoughts are most appreciated!

11 Second Club Planning

2010-02-09T00:51:00.001-05:00

Gonna try and start using my blog again. Hoping it might be a way to keep me motivated and focused.

Anyways, and idea I'm toying with for the 11 second club.

My sketches are horrible but hopefully with some notes makes sense.

Mom drinking coffee. Gets up quick to see family out the door. Wipes kids face. Kisses on top of head. Husband shows off his crooked tie. Mom fixes tie. Kiss. Husband leaves. Mom goes back to her coffee.

Not sure if its working or not or if I even want to go forward with it. Very wishy washy about it. Need some insight from others.

Final Animation Mentor Progress Reel and the Current State of My Short Film

2009-06-26T00:39:00.000-04:00

Final Animation Mentor Progress Reel and the Current State of My Short Film

And the reel:

Just My Short Film!

AM Classes 3 and 4

2009-01-20T16:45:00.000-05:00

I got really bad at keeping up my school updates.

Class 3 was rough. Not really happy with anything that came out of that class.

Class 4 was possibly even rougher. But wow did I learn a lot.

I'm totally not happy with how the "Billion Dollar" shot turned out. It came along way from where it was in Class 3, but its still pretty awful and needs a ton of work. "The Foot" isn't where I want it to be yet but I'm really happy with how far it did get. A few weeks into the project I had a bit of a meltdown and had to relearn how to approach a shot. It was rough but I think I'm better off for it.

I'm slowly working on going back through and updating all my old shots. Started on "The Foot" today. Am hoping to have fixed up all the big ones by the end of March, just in time to start animating on my short film. We're working on our stories this term so not a whole lot of animating happening for this class.

Current Progress Reel

Face Poses

Credits:

Billion Dollar Clip is from the Movie "Elizabeth Town
She Stole a Foot Clip is from the Tv show "Six Feet Under

AM Class 2 Progress Reel

2008-06-24T01:19:00.000-04:00

Everything from class 1 and class 2 =)

AM Week 7-8

2008-05-29T00:12:00.000-04:00

Assign 2: Jumping Across a gap

Latest version of my second assignment. This needs to some more tweaking still but its probably going to be another few weeks before I get to it so here it is for now.

Assignment #3: Sticky Door
And this is the lastest assigment I've been working on. Stewie trying to open a sticky door. Or 2 doors in this instant.

AM Class 2 Week 1-6

2008-05-07T11:49:00.000-04:00

I've been a slacker on the AM updates. We just finshed assignment #1 about 2 weeks ago, and I figured I might as well wait until I has finished the revision.

Also got the very beginnings of assignment #2

I've been a slacker on the AM updates. We just finshed assignment #1 about 2 weeks ago, and I figured I might as well wait until I has finished the revision.

Also got the very beginnings of assignment #2

Assignmen #1: 180 Degree turn

The planning. All kinds of terrible drawings of Ballie with notes to make it look more impressive. And remind me of everything my drawings didn't get across.

And the turn

Assignment #2: Stewie Jumping a Gap with no Arms
Look I can't draw Stewie either!

AM Class 1 Progress Reel

2008-03-25T19:40:00.000-04:00

Here's everything I did from class 1. All the revised assigments together at last. This has been one of the most awesome experiences ever.

And for comparision sake and a good laugh, lets watch my demo reel from AIC. I tried to find my old bouncing ball assigment to see the diffrences from then and now but couldn't find it. I did find my demo though and watched that instead. Wow. I can't believe how terrible it is in nor how awesome I thought it was at the time I made it. Even more proof that going to AM has totally been worth it.

Animation Mentor Week 11

2008-03-25T19:35:00.000-04:00

Personality Walk Splined:

And revised:

This week our Stu pose was balance.

And revised

Animation Mentor Week 10

2008-03-17T22:32:00.000-04:00

This week shall be remembbered as the week of the meltdown. I was in a state of pure panic when by Tuesday night I still hadn't settled on a walk and kept struggling with the initial planning stage. Wedenesday was slightly better than Tuesday but still nothing got done. Finally during the wee hours of Thursday morning I finally had an idea and stuck with it. I'm really happy with how its turned out so far. Hopefully my mentor will like it just as much.

Personality Walk Blocking:

This week our Stu pose was exhausted.

Animation Mentor Week 9

2008-03-17T21:51:00.000-04:00

Knee pops are the bane of my exsistence! And they drove me nuts all week with the splining for the vanilla walk.

Vanilla Walk Splined:

Vanilla Walk Revised:

This week our Stu pose was concern. I really like how this one turned out:

And the revision:

Animation Mentor Week 8

2008-03-07T22:07:00.000-05:00

This week was tailor week. I was wicked excited about doing this animation. Turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it wouldbe."

Ah. The dreaded walk cycle. Did this assigment twice =/ And that's not even counting the splining phase I've been working on all week.

Vanilla Walk Planning:

Vanilla Blocking:

This week our Stu pose was strength. Really had a hard time with this pose. I'm still not completely satisfied with it but my mentor liked it and had no changes for it so I guess I'll leave it be.

Will put up the tailor revision after I'm done revising it again. Actually all these back logged revisions will probably just be saved until my progress reel. Only 1 more to catch up on !

AM Week 7

2008-02-24T15:43:00.000-05:00

This week was tailor week. I was wicked excited about doing this animation. Turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it wouldbe."

Tailor Planning:

Tailor In Action:

Pendulum Revision:

AM 1.6

2008-02-24T15:18:00.000-05:00

Behind with updating again! Oy! This week the pendulum and the wonderful world of overlap.

Pendulum Planning:

And the pendulum in action:

Did a revison on the obstacle course this week too but it still needs more revising so I'll wait to put that up when I'm actually done with it.

AM Week 5

2008-02-10T21:51:00.000-05:00

And now we'll be all caught up.

Obstacle Course planning:

And the obstacle course in action:

Devestated Stu Planning:

Devestated Stu:

Revision on the light and heavy ball:

AM Week 4

2008-02-10T21:39:00.000-05:00

I swore to myself to keep this updated weekly and I'm already starting to fall behind. Bad me. Shall try to be better. This week was the light and heavy ball bounce. Took quite a while to get this one right. Just when I thought I was done there would be a bunch more things to tweak.

Also some slight changes were made to my high five pose from week 3.

AM Week 3

2008-02-03T00:08:00.000-05:00

All my stuff from week 3. Little late with this one considering I'm almost done with week 4. Oops. Realy struggled this week, trying to find a good pose for excitement that I hadn't seen a bunch of times already. That and bouncing balls are harder than they look. Especially when you are doing it right.

Excitement Sketches

Trying to find the right Stu to run with

Decided to go with the high five and made some drastic changes

Someone pointed out to me it lost all the energy and feeling the original did. Looked to ballerinaish. I agreed after a second look so ended up going with this as the final

Ugly bouncing ball planning

And the bounce!
Had to post a link because blogger does not want to post my video =(
http://dmayhem.com/update602.mov

And my revision for week 2.

Animation Mentor Week 2!

2008-01-19T18:05:00.000-05:00

So I'm just finishing up my 2nd week at Animation Mentor. So far it has been the most overwhelmingly awesome experience ever! There is such a feeling of community. Everybody is constantly showing everyone else thier work and everybody is tossing ideas and suggestions back and forth. Its amzing how far my original sketch came before it became what I'm turning in for the final.

I was hesitant about signing up for AM because its so expensive and seriously how many times does one person need to go to school. I'm glad I decided to go because I think its going to be totally worth it. Its only week 2 and I have learned so much already its insane. I watched all the basic Maya training videos and I found myself constantly asking "why didn't I know that already!?!" Its fantastic.

Here's the stuff I've been working on this week:

Sketches from the mall and the bookstore

First Attempt at making Stu poses from sketches 8 and 5

Revisions

Pose I finally turned in

From Nov. 28th (last one!)

2008-01-03T13:37:00.000-05:00

*yawns* Sleepy. Back in the US now. Got back late Friday night. That was a ridiculously long day. Got up at about 7:30. Was on our first flight from Brisbane to LA at noon Friday. Got to LA at about 7 or 8 in the morning, on Friday. Flew out of the LA at noon and got to Boston at 9pmish on Friday. So far no jet lag. Got up at 10 yesterday morning after staying up too late with the Yarb, Wayne, and Kristin laughing hysterically at my new stuffed wombat. Was pretty good all day, just a little tired. Made the mistake of going to bed too early lat night and as always regretted it. Went to sleep at 9 pretty fast, woke up at 1 in the morning. Took forever to go back to sleep. Woke up again at 4. Couldn’t get back to sleep again and was super restless. Finally crashed around 8 and woke up again at 10:30. NO early night for me tonight. And hopefully I’ll sleep good. I better. I have to get up at 6 to pick up my brother and bring him to school and I’m up early the next day to head to NY. Anyways back to where I left off.

After Kuranda we flew to Brisbane. Got in late afternoon. Being a Sunday night there wasn’t much to see or do. Had some dinner and made a trip to the bus station and failed to get the info we wanted as all the info stations were closed. Did some exploring.

Brisbane Day 1
Monday we tried the bus and train station again and got what we needed and planned our trip to Australia Zoo for Tuesday. Got a day pass for zones 1-2 of the city and explored a bit by bus and ferry. Went to South Bank only to realize that unless it’s the weekend not a whole lot is happening there, especially since the man made beach was under repair. Ended up roaming aimlessly and finally catching a movie with dinner since they had this awesome $16 dollar deal. Saw Elizabeth.

Brisbane Day 2This was Australia Zoo day. By train its 2 hours away and a $17 train ticket. Ouch. Zoo was really nice though. Keepers walk around with lots of different animals letting you get up close to them. All the enclosures are really spacious and unzoolike. The Crocoseum how was almost painfully cheesy but it was aimed at kids so it was to be expected. The croc of the day was uncooperative and really wasn’t interested in food so that didn’t help matters any. I’m also insanely jealous of the tiger keepers at this zoo. They each get cubs when they are born and spend pretty much every moment with them in the enclosure. Playing with them. Petting them. Napping with them. Whatever. That way they build a really deep bond with each other and can continue to interact together when they are full grown. Not a bad life spending your days sitting on the a nice green lawn in the sun or splashing around in nice clean warm water playing with tigers.

Although it’s a really cool place its also got a real sadness to it. Pictures of Steve Irwin are everywhere. Videos of him and his voice are used in the shows. They have a huge wall full of pictures of him with his family over the years and a hall full of the shirts people signed with messages when he died. You find yourself randomly tearing up all day. The place is so much him that you can’t help but feel the loss.

Brisbane Day 3 and 4
Wednesday and Thursday were more days of aimless roaming and finishing up of souvenir shopping. Getting tired at this point. Not a lot to do in Brisbane. Everything was a $20 and a 2 hour bus or train ride away. That’s not counting any sort of admission prices and man, like the koala sanctuary were very similar to things we’d already seen or done so just not worth the effort. It was nice to just relax for a change though.

Thursday we ended up visiting the museum for a few hours. They had a really cool display of stuffed animals that showed the size relations between everything and we got to touch a stuffed echidna. Pokey! It was a pretty small museum though so it didn’t take long and there were a bunch of misbehaved field trips which made you want to rush. I lost count of how many times ‘Darcy’ almost ran me over.

Also had quail at a Turkish restaurant. I knew I ordered quail but for some reason my brain was picturing pheasant. I got my plate and started eating when I noticed after a few bites that my plate was covered with what looked like a bunch of baby turkeys. Yeah. Couldn’t eat it like that. Couldn’t even look at it. Had to have the Yarb break it up for me, laughing at me the whole time. Otherwise it was pretty good but just not worth the effort. I got my laugh revenge later though when we found a giant cockroach on the sidewalk. I decided to give it a wide berth but for some reason Yarb decided to try and charge it and scare it off. Didn’t work so well then the bug charged her back.

Friday was 40 hours of travel and now I’m back.

Overall it was an amazing trip. Its actually kind of surreal to be back to normal life. Its almost like I saw a movie or something. I have to stop everyone and a while and remind myself that “No, you did that. You went and saw all those things.” Its kind of insane. I’ve wanted to go on this trip for years and its crazy to think that now its over. Absolutely amazing and I can’t wait to do it again. =)

Selected Photos

Brisbane

Casino in the Middle of Downtown

Myer Christmas Window Display (almost everything moved!)

Bird we helped a lady to catch so she could bring it to a resuce place

Cool Bird we saw at a South Bank Park

Australia Zoo

I want his job!

This guy...

Kept Stealing this guys food

Croceseum Show

From Nov. 17th

2008-01-03T12:58:00.000-05:00

Cairns. Three days here. Hostel is quite decent. Nice big private bathrooms are always a perk. Nice pillow too. I missed having a pillow during the camping. Anyways…

Cairns Day 1
We got in so late we didn’t get a chance to explore that first night so we did it the following day. Our first full day in Cairns was spent completing some souvenir shopping and eating what has to have been the most expensive meal of my life. It was excellent though. Kangaroo, emu , and crocodile. Emu was the only thing on the plate that I had never had before and it was fantastic. I guess it sort of tasted like streak but I’m not sure that is accurate. Just imagine the softest, most tender, and most juiciest steak you’ve ever had and I doubt it would even compare to the emu. Also had a dessert called ‘the chocolate slut’ which was equally delicious. It had a flourless brownie with 2 scoops of the best chocolate ice cream I’ve ever had, with a chocolate torte laid across the top of it all. Amazingly good. Other than lunch it wasn’t a very exciting day and pretty short with a lake morning and a early evening.

Cairns Day 2
Another early start to the day. This time to catch our boat for the reef tour. We actually got upgraded from the $100 cruise to the $180 cruise. Reef was alright. The boat made the Yarb a little sea sick and the water was really rough so I was not so keen on snorkeling since I can’t swim in the first place. So no snorkeling for us. They had a semi submersible boat which we did get to go on though which was pretty cool. After seeing photos of the reef and aquarium displays the actual reef is somewhat disappointing as it lacks all the vibrant colors due to the water. I knew it was going to be that way but it still lessens it.

Overall the cruise itself was just alright. Boat was way too big for my tastes with way too may people. Older, rich European tourist. The only young people were about 3 Asian couples and a family with 3 teenage boys. This was out of at least 150 people. I’m guessing they got upgraded from the same cruise me and the Yarb were originally on. There was one large group of Italians that were particularly rude. It was even more disappointing since our last group tour had been so amazing.

Cairns Day 3
Found out there was a $6 roundtrip shuttle bus to the Kuranda rainforest village so we cancelled the rental car. Way easier and the Yarb didn’t have to practice during on the opposite side of the road in a downpour. Spent a few hours walking around the markets which was nice. Felt a bit like a Renaissance Faire. The highlight and purpose of this little excursion though was Birdworld, a huge open aviary with about 50 types of birds. Even 2 cassowaries! Even got to feed them! So exciting. They are my most favorite birds ever. They weren’t roaming free like the other birds, they were separated by a fence but you could still easily reach over and feed them. I’d been dying to do this ever since I heard about it online.

And of course one again the Yarb got in a fight with a bird. This time and Eclectus parrot. He bit her arm multiple times and her ear. He kept jumping from person to person trying to get all the food and just would not leave some one alone once he got perched on them. Also very cool was getting to pet a Tawny Frogmouth, which I think are adorable. Also got a free cassowary magnet out of the trip. She had a broken one because a parrot had thrown in on the floor and gave it to me since I like them so much.

Selected Photos

Cairns Man Made Beach at night

Island for Snorkeling

A comparison of the reef in various forms

Cg Reef:

Aquarium reef:

Reef in Person

The Reef Photos with some assistance from Photoshop

Birdworld

Feeding a Cassowary!

Baby Lorikeet

Tawny Frogmouth we got to pet

From Nov. 16th

2007-12-29T15:25:00.000-05:00

In Cairns right now, actually only have 1 more day here. Time is starting to go fast. But anyways, back to where I left off…

Darwin Day 3/Alice Springs Day 1
We actually didn’t have a real 3rd day in Darwin, just the morning before we left for the airport around 10ish. Regardless much excitement happened that final day and around the hour of 3 AM. I was woken from a sound sleep by this continuous banging noise. Turns out it is the guy in the room next door trying to get back in, he’d been locked by his girlfriend. He keeps banging and banging on the door until some guy comes out to yell at him. They start arguing and they both sound really drunk. The 2nd guy decides the best way to reason with guy #1 is to demonstrate how stupid it is to bang on the door. This of course ended up turning into a fight. The 2nd guy’s girlfriend tries to tell them both to knock it off because people are sleeping and what not. The 2 guys then start slapping each other. We could hear this all quite clearly since it was right outside our door. Slapping of course turns into punching.

Eventually it ends and someone down the hall called security to help make sure everything stayed settled and to clean up the mess. Once it was clearly over we ventured out into the hall to use the bathroom and you could just smell alcohol everywhere. There was blood everywhere! Darwin is crazy.

Next was airport fun time and then we were in Alice Springs. Had to wait almost an hour to get to our hostel since their shuttle bus had to wait to pickup both flights. Of course this resulted in the shuttle being way overcrowded and I got to enjoy the whole ride being elbowed in the side by some German girl who felt the need to text message the entire way. It took another hour to check in because they like to give a “yay! We’re awesome” speech and tell you about everything. This was combined with tons of questions about what each person checking in was planning on doing and trying to book them on tours. This was quite frustrating when all you want to do is get to your room, shower and find some food.

Once everything was finally finished with check in we found quite the pricey little restaurant considering what we had been spending and finally got to try some kangaroo with a sweet potato mash. Fantastic! Kangaroo tasted kind of like a chicken/steak hybrid. The more cooked it was the more chickeny it tasted. Center pieces which were much pinker had more of a beef taste.

Wayward Bus Tour-Day 1
The easiest and most cost effective way to see Uluru is by tour. I’d been dreading this part of the trip for weeks since I hate awkward and forced socialization. It actually turned out to be the most amazing time and one of the true highlights of the of the trip. Got on the bus at noon and met our guide: Kiwi, aka Simon. We stopped at the store for people who wanted alcohol and at the train station for our final passenger. That gave our bus a total of 9 people if you included Kiwi. Was very nice that it was such a small group as it made the bus quite comfortable. If it had been at its full capacity of 22 it would have horribly crowded. Our group consisted of me and the Yarb of course. The tour guide, Kiwi. A strange guy from Switzerland. Two snotty and aloof guys from France (the Frenchies), who were determined to race around everything as fast as possible. A guy from Italy who got sick and was hence referred to as Fluey. And finally couple from Wales.

The first day was mostly a lot of driving. Did stop at a camel farm and got to take a 30 minute ride. It was really awesome because you were in complete control of the camel. It was just me, the Yarb, our guide and our camels. Its was lots of fun and I wish we could have had time for a longer ride. Camels are difficult though. They are constantly looking for something to eat and if they happen to get a nibble its no easy task to get them walking again. My camel was pretty good, I can only remember one really bad incident with a tree. The Yarb’s camel was a bit of a pain in the butt.

That night we had spaghetti with a touch of vegemite in the sauce. And then we camped in the bush. Seriously, in the bush. We turned off the one light we had at our camp site and everyone was just blown away by the stars. I thought I lived in the middle of no where here in NH and had some pretty good start viewing from my backyard. Yeah. This was phenomenal. Also we could hear a pack of howling dingos quite close by.

This was officially the worst night of the entire 6 week trip. We all had sleeping bags and swags to sleep in. Swags are basically personal tents and are really quite comfy. This 1st night of camping though was it was pretty hot outside and the swags get quite warm. Bugs were terrible so you had to keep your face covered with the flap of the swag making it even hotter. I alternated trying to sleep with the flap over my head to keep the bugs off and keep it off my face to try and keep cool. Neither worked. As soon as I would start to doze off a bug would buzz up my ear or nose or the flap would touch my face and I would kind of panic from some degree of claustrophobia. I didn’t sleep at all. I watched Orion cross from one side of the sky to the other. To make matters worse I had to make multiple trips to the restroom. Normally this is not a big deal but this was scary. No lights made it very hard to see where you were going and 1 wrong turn could seriously get you lost. It was a very long night.

Wayward Bus Tour-Day 2
Breakfast was cereal and then it was off to King’s Canyon for the 4.5 kilo Rim Walk. Not walk wasn’t too bad except for Heart attack Hill, which is the starring point of this walk. Kiwi said it really wasn’t all that bad. Kiwi did this walk at least once every 2 weeks. I didn’t think it was so bad either until I realized what I thought was the end of the hill climb was actually the halfway point. It was agony climbing up that with no sleep. And it was really hot! This was further compounded by the fact that I was still recovering from my nasty burn and had to make sure all skin was covered. Once surviving the hill the rest of the walk was really quite beautiful. The little bits of climbing throughout the walk seriously wore me out.

Once its gets to be about noon in the outback its really to hot to do anything to intense so it was time for lunch and a little down time. Then we did a short half hour walk around King Canyon’s Creek. I forgot to put sunscreen on my neck and the one small area of skin that I left exposed received a nasty sunburn. Again. There was another short walk around Kathleen Springs but I took a nap because I was just too tired from all the walking and not sleeping and the hear was making me nauseous. The Welsh couple sat this walk out too. This was followed by more driving.

We finally got to Uluru just in time for the sunset. The viewing spot was great because you got a clear view of Uluru and KataTjuta. It was really amazing to finally find myself there after years of wanting to be there. Dinner was steaks and sausage on the barbie cooked by the Yarb with lots of salads. It was much cool and way less buggy so I got to sleep this night which was awesome. Yay! But by the end of the night before I even got in my swag I had 22 bug bites on 1 foot.

Wayward Bus Tour- Day 3
Up at 4:30 to see sunrise on KataTjuta. It was very pretty to see the color change on the rocks. Kiwi had the tour guide thing down to an art. Our group was always the last group up every morning and the first to get where we were going. All of the other groups had to go back to camp after sunrise or sunset to get their meals. He got ours ready right at the viewing site so we could eat right in the national park.

After sunrise we did the Valley of the Winds walk at KataTjuta which was about 7 kilos. Not as much climbing as the day before but much hotter. We saw some dingos right before we started the walk that seriously couldn’t have been more than 30 ft away from us. And during the walk I spotted a kangaroo hopping across the bottom of KataTjuta. This was followed by a stop at the Aboriginal Cultural Center and a short walk around a portion of Uluru where Kiwi told us all kinds of Aboriginal history, facts, and stories. We finished the night off with sunset at Uluru and a stir fry dinner followed by few hours of silliness that included: blasting dance hits of the last few decades down the round while switching all the light in the bus on an off, certain members of the bus mooning another bus as we passed it, Kiwi doing the YMCA dancing while driving and a bunch of really corny Aussie jokes. Minus the koala one which was actually quite funny.

Wayward Bus Tour-Day 4
Up at 4:30 again for sunrise at Uluru followed by a bacon and egg breakfast right at the site immediately after. The fancy expensive tour groups were all quite jealous of our Uluru sunrise breakfast. All they got were boxes of muffins or some equivalent.

Next was the walk we’d all been waiting for, the 9.2ish kilos around the base of Uluru. This was fabulous except for the heat. Uluru is amazing. Pictures don’t do it justice. It can’t be explained it seriously just has to be experienced. I never thought I could ever be so amazed by a rock. A giant, gorgeous, stunning rock. It really can’t be described how just amazing it is.

After the walk was lunch and then me, the Yarb, and Fluey were dropped off in town to catch a bus to the airport for our Cairns flight while everyone else headed back to Alice Springs. It was sad to not be going back with everyone. We hung out with Fluey while we waited for our flight.

Selected Pictures

King's Canyon

Heart Attack Hill

KataTjuta

KataTjuta Kangaroo

Uluru

Reminded me of Cookie Monster

Mount Connor (doesn't if just give you this bad feeling?)

Dingo in the parking lot

Giant Animals from a cattle station

Wild Horses

And a post just wouldn't be post without a bird pic

From Nov. 9th

2007-12-11T23:34:00.000-05:00

Perth Day 3

Went to Fremantle on the train on this 3rd day in Perth. Christina and I were both immediately blown away by the gorgeous blue water and the white sand. Looked like we’d been magically transported to the Caribbean. We decided to hit the beach immediately, rather than exploring the town. Was lots of fun. I built a sand lump. Lots of dogs peed on it. Some had to take it a bit further. Then built a good sized sand castle with a big wall. More dogs peed on it =( Sat in the water some. Got a terrible sunburn, pretty much everywhere. Its starting to peel now and is quite gross. By the time we got back into town most everything was closing so we didn’t get to see a whole lot. And of course dinner at the Queen’s Garden with the ducks and swans.

Perth Day 4
We were supposed to go to Caversham Wildlife Park but my sunburn was too bad. We got up nice and early to catch the bus. I out of bed for about 5 minutes before I felt like I was going to get violently ill all over the floor any second. Had a cracker and some water and went to back to bed. Woke up again at 11. Luckily when I got up the second time the sick feeling had gone away. Since it was so late in the day we didn’t have time to really go anywhere so we took it easy and wandered around. And I bet you can’t guess where we had dinner? If you guessed with the ducks and swans your right =p

Perth Day 5

Finally made it to Caversham on the last day in Perth. Caversham is a small zoo/wildlife park that just has native animals. Lots of birds and lots of lizards. Best of all though it was very interactive. I got to pet a wombat and a koala. Best of all though was the kangaroo area. They had a huge enclosure you could just walk around and pet and feed the kangaroos. They had a huge bin of pellets that you could take handfuls of food from, for free and feed whichever kangaroo expressed an interest in eating. Spent a couple hours there. They also had all your typical petting zoo animals. It was a really fun place. And of course we ended the day with one last visit to the Queen’s Garden. Really, really, liked that park.

The next day was spent traveling to Darwin from Perth, with a short stop over in Alice Springs. We got 2 meals and 2 snacks out of the deal, pretty good considering both flights combined were just 5 hours. Also flying from Perth to Alice Springs you fly right by Uluru so we got a fantastic birds eye view of the rock.

Darwin Day 1

We got into Darwin so late at night we didn’t get to explore that day like normal. So the next day, the first full day in Darwin was exploring day, Too hot though! With in an hour exploring was over and it was back to the room for naps. We ventured back out later in the day and had more luck. Did some shopping and exploring. Darwin is pretty small and there isn’t a lot to see. There were a lot of things we wanted to do to pass the day away instead of aimless wandering but none of them were reachable with out joining overpriced tours. Not only were all the tours expensive, most of included lots of stuff we weren’t interested in.

Darwin Day 2
Yay! I’m actually writing about something the day it happened. Today went to explore some of the areas neighboring Darwin on the bus. Not very exciting. Luckily it was just took up the 2nd half of the day. The first half had been awesome already. We started the day off at Crocydylus, Darwin’s equivalent of a zoo but mostly just a crocodile farm/museum/research facility. Was wicked cool. There weren’t very many animals but the enclosures were nice and you got to be pretty close. Finally got to see an awake wombat! So adorable.

The main highlight of the park is the 60-90 mixture crocodile feeding tour. Its starts with the guy putting chicken on a wire that goes across a big lagoon. Turns out this lagoon has 77 smallish female crocodiles. At first glance it looks like there might be maybe 30 in there. I also must add that you could easily stick your finger through the wire fences surrounding the lagoon. We got to see a few of the lady crocs jump up to grab the meat.

Next you move over to the breeding pens. Each have a full grown male crocodile and a full grown female croc. The guide feeds one of the crocs in the first breeding pen and then as we get to each new pen he picks someone from the crowd to feed the next croc. To feed them you hold out a long pole with string and a piece of chicken attached to the string. You reach out and dangle the chicken over the croc’s nose enticing it to jump up at it. I got picked to feed the biggest croc they had, one just shy of 16 ft. Wicked awesome.

Next you move on to see the freshwater crocodiles and the American alligators and the baby salt waters, all the while being fed tons of crocodile info. They are really quite fascinating. Then everyone got a turn holding a baby crocodile.

Selected Photos
Fremantle Beach

Coolest sand lumpn on the beach

This dog really liked it. At least 4 times.

Yarb and the Castle

Caversham
Me and Big Bubs

Yum Yum Time

Awww...cuddles

Glass Yarb pulled out of her shoe

Tweakers! She didn't want food. Just petttings.

My Wally the Wallbies mascot keychain. Isn't he the cutest?

Are we at the Malfoys?

Crocodylus

I fed this guy

And he was happy

Best Museum Display ever

A close up of my favorite part

My new friend

What is left of Darwin's old town hall

From Nov. 8th

2007-12-10T12:42:00.000-05:00

In Darwin. Just 2 days and I’m going to have to say yay for that. I’m one of those people who like heat. I hate being cold but it is way to hot here! Ridiculously hot, humid, muggy heat. The Yarb and I took a walk around the beach that also happens to be a sort of remembrance walk for World War 2 with all kinds of plaques and signage about the war and Australia’s part. IN about 10 minutes we were sweating like mad. When we finished the walk and returned to the hostel we were so tired and worn out that we could have sworn we had been walking at least 2 hours, maybe 3. Turns out it had only been an hour, which was ridiculous considering how totally wiped out we both were. Way too hot.

Prices
Before I get back to the excitement that was Adelaide I figured I’d talk about money stuff first before I forget. Again. Basically right now the US$ to AUS$ exchange rate kind of sucks. Our dollar is equal to about AUS $.90. Its been fluctuating ,of course, but that is pretty much the average. Then almost everything here is more expensive than it is in the US. I had to buy more camera batteries today since I’m on my last set and I don’t want to run out at Uluru. They cost me $60. At home the most I’ve ever spent is somewhere around $30. Its an extreme example, but also the most painful to date.

Soda car or a small juice with your meal? At least $2, usually $3, but I’ve seen it as high as $4. Pepsi is kind of hard to find here, in some cities more than others so when I find it I get kind of excited. I hate Coke. Imagine my joy when I found at the grocery store liters for $1.50 and 2 liter bottles for $2.50. Now every time the hostel has a fridge a bottle of Pepsi is purchased. Cans are still pricey at the store. I saw a 24 pack for about $13 and that was a bargain, usually they run $18-$21.

I’m also quite relieved that I brought toiletries instead of purchasing them in Australia to avoid travel hassles. All beauty products here are wicked expensive. I can’t think of anything specific at the moment but almost everything you can think of is double what we would normally pay, sometimes triple.

Adelaide Day 3
Adelaide has at least 4, but maybe it was 5 wilderness sanctuaries in the area. I really wanted to go to one on our last day in the city. Yeah. Totally struck out on each and everyone of them. Most of them you could not get to without a tour group package or a rental car. The few that we could get to by regular public transportation would not get you where you were going until about 11 and you had to catch the return bus as 2. Really not worth it to me to spend $20 to see a fraction of a park because I have to catch a bus. Not to mention the cost for the bus. Heck, if the park has a good bird area that’s 2 hours of park time right there. Since the wildlife parks were out the day was spent relaxing and wandering shops instead. Spent quite a while in a Borders reading about things to do in Perth so maybe we’d have more luck there than what was had in Melbourne and Adelaide.

Perth Day 1
We got to Perth on Nov. 2, by way of another lovely Quantas flight. A whole 3 hour flight complete with lunch and dessert. Spent this first day as usual downtown exploring the shops as that’s about all there was time for that first day. The new hostel looked like and old converted office building. The first night wasn’t very good because the walls were very thing and everyone parties on Friday night. Luckily everyone was relatively quiet the rest of the nights there. Turning on the far also helped cut out noise considerably.

Perth Day 2
This day started out with me and Christina realizing we totally failed at getting our bus and ferry info that first day as we had planned. To fix this we spent the first part of the day checking out all of that. We decided to skip Rottenest because not only was it expensive to get there but there was also the cost of renting bikes and snorkeling gear on top of that. Plus with having to catch the ferries there just wasn’t enough time on the island. The ferry got to the island around 10 and left at 4.

They day was awfully hot so we ended up just walking to the King’s Park, which is massive. Here we had lunch, read, and tackled post card and journal writing. This followed by some quickly purchased dinner at the grocery store by our hostel. Not wanting to eat at the hostel we wandered about 2 blocks down the road to the Queen’s Garden, which is a tiny, yet adorable park. Lots of ducks and a swan family. One of the sets of duck parents were not so bright as they kept trying to get their babies to jump out of the water where it was just way to high for them to jump. They lost one to a turtle in the pond while we where there. They freaked out of course, but then continued to keep bringing the babies over the turtle’s spot over and over again.

Selected Photos

Perth

London Court, cool little area in the Central Business District

Nifty Kangaroos Statues in Perth

Cool Tree and flowers at King's Park (and a bird)

Bird we watched while eating lunch day 1

Swans and Ducks

The really dumb ducks

And a final bird with really cool feet

Darren Hayes (again)

2007-12-07T23:28:00.000-05:00

So today was the Borders show and in store signing in Boston. Went much better than the one in NY. Things were much more organized. When you got to the store you either bought a cd and got a signing line ticket or you could take your already purchased cd and show it to a cashier for a ticket. Ended up being in group B which was pretty good considering there were only 30 people per group, and we got there an hour later than we wanted to.

The show looked like it was going to be kind of bad since so many tall people were in front of us and this Borders didn't have a raised platform. They tried to find a taller chair for Darren to sit in but no luck. Realizing that no one could see and he couldn't see anyone he asked if the front rows could sit. Worked out really well because everyone could see better that way. This in store performance wasn't as good as the NY one because the regular guitarist, Steve Young, had commitments in London and couldn't be there. The replacement guy was good, especially since he just learned all the songs the previous day. You could tell there wasn't the same cameraderie between this new guy and Darren as there was between Darren and Steve. Much less joking around this time and less time between songs.

After was the signing. They said Darren would only be signing the cd books and couldn't take pictures with anyone. Luckily this wasn't the case. He was in a great mood and signed anything you put in front of him and was talking to everyone. He signed both the posters the Yarb and I printed out and the cd booklet. He asked where we got the pictures from and then we talked briefly about both of those shows and how he would be back in March and how he misses his big fancy stage. He noticed I was wearing my Time Machine Tour shirt and asked me when he had signed it. We talked for a good minute and a half to 2 minutes and he shook my hand twice. Super, super nice. Totally made up for his lack of enthusiasm when I saw him last week. We were at the end of a 2 hour line though and he had said he's only slept and hour so totally understandable. Buy yay! It took 10 years to finally meet him but it was awesome and everything I hoped it would be.

Unfortunately the photo that I took with him when we're both supposed to be smiling and happy my camera kind of froze up so it took forever to a picture. So yeah, it terrible. My smile was pretty much dead by the time the camera caught it and I was mid blink so I look terrible. One of my worst pictures ever. Blah. Luckily you can't tell too much when its really small.

Pictures from all 3 events

NY Borders

Darren Signing My Shirt

NY Canal Room

Darren and Steve Young

Darren telling his story about a flight attendant giving him a hard time

Fake Call for security to remove a lady he was joking with

Scanning the crowd

Photo we printed that Darren signed in Boston

Borders Boston

Me meeting Darren and me looking terrible while doing it =)So need to do something about my hair.

From Nov. 7th (continued)

2007-12-03T18:39:00.000-05:00

Adelaide Day 1
Adelaide was an instant improvement over Melbourne from day 1. We got off the plane and a very nice airport lady helped us locate the bus and then started telling us about all the different things she thought were fun to do in Adelaide. The bus driver was also friendly which was a nice change since most of the airport shuttle drivers so far barely acknowledge your presence. We got to our hostel and were quite concerned because it looked and felt just like the place we stayed in Melbourne. Luckily it wasn’t as bad. A little louder at night than we would like but tolerable. As usual our first day was spent exploring what we could of the city by walking. Adelaide isn’t a very hopping place so it was a short night. It is a cute city though. We found a café with wireless when you make a purchase and we also learned that the state library had free wireless so we made full use of both of those.

Adelaide Day 2
Since we missed out on the penguins we decided to book a dolphin tour to make up for it since it was the same price. Got up at a ridiculous hour to make our way over to Glenelg to catch the boat. Wet suits I learned are very difficult to put on and equally difficult to remove. I missed the first jump in the water because I wasn’t quite ready yet. I was still getting the hang of the snorkel as it was the first time I had ever used one. Also would be my first time getting in the ocean. No big loss missing the first attempt at a dolphin swim because while the dolphin swam by everyone in the water was looking the wrong way and missed it.

The second jump in the water I was ready for though, especially with Christina’s reassurance that the wetsuits really do keep you a float without effort. The day was wet and cold and rainy so I knew the water was not going to be pleasant. Breathing with a snorkel is difficult as it is so when I jumped in the water and all the really, really cold water rushed into my wet suit I totally lost my breath. It was that cold and I just couldn’t seem to catch my breath, much less use the snorkel anymore. Panic ensued, making catching my breath even harder to do. I quickly climbed back on the boat. It ended up being no loss though since it was a false alarm anyways. Dolphins never came near the swimmers that time.

The water was just way to cold to go back in and Christina couldn’t see anything without her glasses anyways so we decided to give up on the swimming part and just watch. Watching ended up being much better anyway. After 1 more false alarm jump pretty much everyone else had given up on swimming too. The one time the swimmers actually did get near a dolphin only 2 people were in the water and it was super quick, blink and you miss it kind of thing. It ended up being much better to just watch from the deck. We saw quite a few different pods, some with a couple baby dolphins and an occasional seal passed us by. It was amazing to get to see dolphins in the wild.

After that we walked around Glenelg for a while. We thought about visiting the shark museum but decided to save our money since there was hardly any info on the place anywhere so it was questionable whether it would be any good. When we got back to Adelaide we made more use of the free internet and then stopped by the Southern Australia Museum for a free hours since it was free. They had tons of exhibit space on Aborigines and neighboring islands that we kind of rushed through since we’d spent hour looking at that in Canberra about a week ago. They had a lot of stuffed animals at this museums and a huge area devoted just to birds which I loved. They also had a small but interesting Egyptian exhibit which was cool because I’d always wanted to see one but never had. Most disturbing though was the life size replica of a giant squid that was positioned vertically so each floor of the museum you could look at it from a different height. Fascinating but disgusting. Those things creep me out! They also had some nifty rock and fossil stuff. Also did a quick (like 30 minutes) of the art museum after as they were getting ready to close soon after we arrived.

Selected Pictures

Dolphins, I think the one in the back might be the baby

Jump!

Can you see the seal?

Museum have tons of these butterfly cases

And tons of these birds cases

Baby Wedgie

Big Wedgies

Cassowary Skeleton

The Squid from the 5th floor I believe

From Nov. 7th

2007-12-03T01:09:00.000-05:00

On a plane again. Perth to Darwin. Yay for Quantas being a fabulous airline and serving lunch because I’m starving. Going to miss Perth. Second best city so far. Sydney is first of course. Anyways, back to where I left off…

Melbourne Day 3
This day, October 28th I believe, would qualify as the worst day of the trip by far. Got up really early for the Penguin Parade and set out for where we were supposed to meet our tour bus. Being paranoid I made sure we had at least 90 minutes for what we were guessing was a 45 minute walk. I believe we left where we were staying shortly after 9. We got to where we were going and I checked the time on my phone to see how long we have to wait since our bus is due at 11:15. I was guessing it was slightly after 10, due to a quick coffee stop. Phone says 11:18ish. Panicking we ask some waiting for the crosswalk signal for the time. They confirm it. Full out panic ensues. There was no way that we walked for 2 hours so what had happened to all of the 10 o’ clock hour.

We had clearly just missed our bus so we called to see what could be done. I kept a look out for the bus on the off chance it was running late while Christina called. She came back from the phone to tell me that they’ll come back around for us as it was of course daylight savings time and lots of people had the same problem we did. We waited for an hour and still no bus when we finally called back again. We were informed that our bus had been by again already and picked up 8 people so they didn’t know what had gone wrong. Come to find out a bus that pulled up across the street while Christina was on the phone with the tour company the first time was our bus. Why they didn’t tell us the bus was right there when they checked with the driver while Christina was talking to them will always be a mystery. Also why they told us to look for a bus that said Adventure Tours when the bus actually said Autopia is also beyond me.

They told us they could put us on a tour for the next day but we decided to cancel instead. We really didn’t feel like dealing with it anymore. We had already wasted a good chunk of a day on it and didn’t want to repeat it. Instead we walked around some. Did a little shopping. Walked through a craft market. Sat by the Yarra river for a while. After that back to the B&B to relax on the patio. Another unexciting and frustrating Melbourne day.

Melbourne Day 4
Determined to do something while we were in Melbourne we set off the zoo on the tram. Yay! Finally a successful day in this not so wonderful city. The Melbourne Zoo is apparently one of the oldest zoos in the world and its really quite nice. They had a huge aviary that took you through 4 different habitats. They had really nice large enclosures fro the other animals too, especially the elephants and orangutans. We got to see the tiger cubs playing and we got to the zoo early enough to see the entire reptile house before it was over run with field trips, which was a nice change. Also finally got to see a wombat. They had a really awesome set up letting you see their outside enclosure and also down in their burrows. That’s especially nice because underground is where wombats spend the majority of their day it seems. So cute. Wombats are infinitely cuter in person than they are in pictures.

Most entertaining though of our trip to the zoo was seagulls vs. the raven. One seagull found this huge tasty morsel of food and flew on top of the gift shop to devour it. Of course in minutes every other seagull wanted in on it and soon they are all fighting with the first one. Then all of a sudden a raven flies over, snatches up the food from amongst the bickering gulls and then takes off . It takes the gulls a little bit to realize what just happened and they all left the original gull standing alone on the gift shop looking totally perplexed. It was hilarious.

Crazy Canadians
And writing about Melbourne would not be complete with out mentioning the crazy Canadian lady who was also staying at the B&B. Every time we went in the kitchen she’d show up and talk our ears off. She was really nice, but weird. She had apparently come to visit her sister or something yet was not staying with her and never seemed to leave the B&B. Visiting the sister was the only reason she’d come to Australia so it seemed really odd for her not to be spending time with her. She also cringed at spending any money. She asked us about the penguin tour and was horrified by the cost, confessing she really hadn’t bought anything since arriving other than a salad. Every time we were in the kitchen she’d appear. When we lingered in the hall for a minute there she was. Laundry time? Yup. She was there too. It was almost like she was following us. It got a little creepy. Was nice to leave her behind in Melbourne.

Selected Photos

Ack! Headless Ostrich!

Don’t you wish you had a neck like that?

Something yummy?

Someone’s tired

Aren’t I adorable? (tree kangaroo)

Holy tusks!

Colobus Monkey with baby. Love their tails

From Nov. 5th

2007-12-03T00:25:00.000-05:00

In Perth still, rocking what is probably the worst sunburn of my life. Shoulder, back of my arms, back of my legs, most of my back and even my hands are all burnt. Lower back is the worst. Really, really sucks. Trying to keep out of the sun and treat it with aloe to hopefully help it heal faster but wow does it hurt. Hurts so bad we ended up canceling what we had planned for the day because when I got up this morning, after about 5 minutes or so I thought I was going to be violently ill all over the floor. Went back to bed and tried getting up again later, luckily with better results. No more feeling sick, just stiff and sore all over. Now back to the update.

Melbourne Day 1
We left Sydney on Oct. 26th for Melbourne. A whole 1 hour flight. Short flights suck. They make me kind of queasy and you spend more time waiting to get on the plane than actual travel time. Quantas once again proved superior to American Airlines by giving us full bottles of juice for the trip and a nice pastry for a snack.
When we got to Melbourne we called our hostel for our mostly free airport pickup. They told us to go across the street from the airport to meet our shuttle which would arrive in about 30 minutes. After an hour the bus we were told to look for finally showed up but no where near where we were told to wait. We raced back across the street to catch it only to find out that they don't have us on their list of people to pick up so they can't take us. We called back the place where we were staying and they told us they had called a shuttle so the guy must have just not bothered to come. We were told to get on the next bus which took us to the in city bus station, rather than right to our hostel door. Was quite a long walk with all our luggage.

When we finally reached the hostel it seemed really nice at first. Quite impressive lobby in comparison to everywhere else we'd been so far. That's about all that was impressive, the rest was kind of ghetto. The room was alight but the mattress was terrible with really thing pillows and blankets. The bathroom was on the opposite side of the building and it was a long building. Not a fun walk at night. Also the walls were really thin so you could hear everything going on in the neighboring rooms and the hall. Not cool since it was a big party hostel so people kept coming in late and had a tendency of making tons of noise in the building . Plus they were pretty much all drunk. After 1 night we decided to find a new place.

Since getting in to Melbourne took most of the day we spent the little bit left of the afternoon wandering around. We heard that there was a Pixar exhibit at the Australian Museum for the Moving Picture but alas, it had ended shortly before we got into the city. Really disappointing because I really wanted to see it. I was hoping it may have been extended and extra week or so and that the brochure was wrong but no such luck.

Melbourne Day 2
Most of our 2nd day was spent lugging our crap from one end of Melbourne to the other. Maps of Melbourne are very misleading. Things that are close really aren't and things that are far really aren't that distant. Luckily our new place was really cute, a bed and breakfast that had a super friendly staff. The new room was also way bigger and nicer. They had a good free breakfast and our room had a patio where we spent most of our time. After settling in we got some lunch and saw a bit of the botanical gardens where we spotted 3 weddings, two which were about to happen almost simultaneously, across the pond from each other. Once again not a very eventful day.

Selected photos (a whole 2!)

Yay. Melbourne

Eel at the Botanical Gardens

Also have fixed my comments now so people don't need a blogger account to comment and I get e-mailed when I get comments so I actually see them. Genius I know.

Darren Hayes

2007-11-30T23:06:00.001-05:00

Meet and greet with mini-show at Borders with Darren Hayes= Fantastic

After 10 years I have finally met Mr. Hayes. Somehow with the way the line ran I was at the very back and by the time he got to me he was so tired all he said was "thanks" after signing my stuff it was still awesome. It was amazing how nice he was to every single person despite being exhausted. Hopefully, I'll have a better place in line Friday in Boston.

Darren Hayes show at the Canal Room = Friggin' Amazing

Best show I've even been too. Hands down. It was a totally acoustic set. Just him signing with Steve Young on guitar. Fantastic. Best seats in the house for sure. In fact the table next to me and the Yarb was the one that had been reserved for the opeing act. Yeah. That good. He gave an amazing performance and the crowd was awesome and loved every second of it. Its already floating around on Youtube. As am I in at least one video since every time someone takes a flash photo in the video you can see the back of my head :P

I have pictures from both nights but I'm gonna wait to put them up after the pics from Boston.

I'm back

2007-11-26T06:02:00.000-05:00

Back from Australia. Got into Boston late Friday night.

Still recovering. Have apparently lost the ability to sleep. Go to bed at a decent hour or normal hour for myself and about 4 hours later I wake up and can't get back to sleep. Tried to fight it yesterday and after waking up at 4 got to sleep again around 8:30. Woke up at 4 again today but ended up just getting up at 5. I have to be up by 7 anyways and knowing my like I'd probbaly doze off around 6:45. Blah. This would be awesome if it could continue and I could function with so little sleep but I know anyday its all going to come crashing down. Probably while I'm in NY (Tuesday-Thursday). Luckily everything going on there is pretty late in the day so hopefully can work around it.

Australia blogs that I wrote in my little journal while I was away will continue shortly. I've got my own computer back (and working) now so typing them up should be much faster. Just need to burn a DVD of all the pictures off the Yarb's computer so I have copies for myself.

From Nov. 3rd

2007-11-17T03:34:00.000-05:00

Sitting in King's Park in Perth, trying to relax and catch up on all this writing nonsense. Just wrote up 3 postcards today. So far Perth is nice, pretty laid back city. Caved and bought Wally the Wallaby at the airport, the national rugby team's mascot. He's freaking adorable. I finally resigned myself to the fact I would only find him at the airport after much intensive hunting in 2 previous cities. Of course I found a cheaper one yesterday in the city right after I bought him. Then I found an even cheaper one in the city again, only with a different colored outfit. Blue and gold instead of green and gold. Oh well. He's wicked cute. Anyways, back to where I left off.

Sydney Day 4 and Wildlife World
Our 4th day in Sydney was Oct. 23rd. Woke up and it was gray and wet and rainy. Looked like a cold unpleasant New England day so we decided that the ferry to the zoo may not be the best choice for the day. Decided to sleep in a little instead. Since it had been go-go-go for so long we were of course exhausted and much needed the extra sleep anyway. Of course when we finally got outside around 10ish it was was to find out that it only looked cold and wet. It was actually one of the warmer days we'd seen in Sydney, only gray with occasional drizzle.

Did some shopping around for souvenirs over at the Rocks which is the oldest part of Sydney. Stuff wasn't really bought bought as its mostly aimed and rich tourist which we are clearly not but we had fun looking anyway. The best was this cure little puppet shop tucked in a downstairs corner. It had 4 rooms of the cutest puppets and toys, mostly handmade and some extremely old. Spent probably a good 90 minutes in there.

We then headed over to Wildlife World, a smallish little zoo thing right next to the Aquarium at Darling Harbor. It was nice because it was open late so we were able to go after school was out for the day so didn't have to experience the 20 or so field-trips normally going on in places like this. Got to see the feet of a baby wallaby and our first echidnas and bilbies. It was kind of small but cute and you got in for a pretty decent price with the aquarium combo pass.

Sydney Day 5 and Taronga Zoo
The 24th was yet another grey, wet and cold looking day. We refused to let it put off our zoo trip again. Of course this time it actually was cold and it did end up actually raining. We took the tourist boat over to the zoo, which is located across the harbor since the ferry cost about the same. Plus the ferry you couldn't on and off of and didn't really do a Darling Harbor pick up for the zoo that I could see. The boat was really cool as after it picked us up from the zoo it did a full on tour of the Harbor, pointing out all places of interest. Some of these included where Russell Crowe lives, where Nicole Kidman lives, and a house they are filming part of the movie Australia in. Also got my first look at the Pacific Ocean. Much fun but cold.

Taronga Zoo
The zoo was set up on a hill across the Harbor. You took a cable car up from the docks and walk your way down the zoo back to the docks. Had a gorgeous view of the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. Almost got to pet a a kangaroo but didn't because some kid wouldn't get out of the way. A kid complaining about how he had pet much bigger and better roos. Quite unfair as I have never petted one.

This shall be remembered as the day of the frisky animals and the camera crapping out, again. Kangaroos, elephants, and zebras were all intent on trying to further the species. This was also the first Tasmania Devil we.

The zoo also had a wicked awesome bird show. It was actually the debut show for their new baby condor which was really awesome because I love condors. Prior to the show we'd spent about 15 minutes looking at the 3 condors they had. It was probably the best bird show I've seen. The birds fly in really close. They have this 1 bird, a galah I think which they have take a gold coin from an audience member and then return it. They went on to tell us that sometimes they've been asked to switch out the coin on the return trip for the bird with an engagement ring which has to be just the best way I've heard of proposing ever. Seriously, the best idea ever. They say its quite stressful for them because they never quite know when a bird might just decide to take off. And while we're on the topic of birds we also got to see a baby pelican. Cute yet highly disturbing. It looked a lot like a chicken you would buy at the grocery store only with its head still and moving.

Sydney Day 6
The last day in Sydney we took it kind of easy because it was cold and gray yet again. We tried to get the camera fixed but failed. Did some window shopping. Had some food. Packed our stuff. We also stopped at the Maritime Museum which was actually much more interesting than we thought it would be. There were lots of model ships which I've come to realized I'm somewhat fascinated by and a cool jellyfish display. Since we didn't have a lot of time there we decided to skip going on board any of the 4 ships that they had. Also checked out Sydney Harbor at night.

Selected Photos for your enjoyment

Beer Can Boat at Maritime Museum

Sydney at night

View from Taronga

Ibis eating the salad it stole off a table in the food court

Replica of Captain Cook's Ship Endeavor at the Maritime Museum

These gelatinous blobs can kill you, at the very least hours of agony

Jellyfish Chandelier

Cassowary

Condor

Echidna

Koalas

Reptiles

Baby Pelican

Kangaroo I almost go to pet

Tasmanian Devil

Wallaby

From Nov. 1st

2007-11-17T03:33:00.000-05:00

In Adelaide right now. Actually getting ready to leave tomorrow for. Pretty cool city but pretty frustrating too. There were at least 4 wildlife parks that we wanted to go to but they were either inaccessible by public transport or by the time you got there it was almost time to leave again. When I pay to go somewhere I want to stay until I'm done, not just a short time between buses. Kind of disappointing when you've got tons you want to see but can't actually see any of it. Big Adelaide perk though is free wireless. Yay. We found a cafe that let you use their wireless as long as you made a purchase. That worked out great for lunch and morning coffee. Then we found out that the state library also had free wireless. Super awesome because I finally got a chance to post a couple of these long drawn out entries and hopefully got my financial aid for school taken care of. Also found out about the Darren Hayes show in NY and bought tickets =) Bad me. Anyways, back to where I left off...

Canberra
Took a Greyhound to Canberra early Sat. Oct. 20th and got in early that afternoon. Canberra is weird but it grows on you. Its a totally planned out city and its where all the government stuff is since its the capital but it feels and looks like a park. Quite a contrast to city Sydney since its so slow in comparison.

Lovely public bus system. Day passes were reasonably priced which was good because you really can't walk anywhere since everything is so spread out. The whole city has this kind of stuck back in the day feel to it but not. Its hard to describe but its nice and relaxing and the place just grows on you after a while. Its also got a huge shopping center like every other city has had so far but its so tucked away that you don't realize quite how massive it is. Our bus that took us to our B&B stopped running at about 7 so were were kinda limited on what we could do each night after 6.

Victor Lodge
Since Canberra isn't a super tourist spot there weren't many lodging options so we ended up at this cut B&B. Very nice. Much calmer and more relaxed that the hostel in Sydney. Sink in the room and a tub in the bathroom. Breakfast was a wide choice of cereals and bread with juice, tea or coffee, pears and yoghurt. Staff kept it constantly stalked so everyone got to eat. Really nice place to stay.

Aviary
Second day in Canberra we took the bus over to some far reaching part where the aviary and reptile park was. Well worth it. We spent at least 2 hours, probably closed to 3 at this place and it was small. Maybe the size of 2 school buses put together. You go in and get a tray of apple slices to feed the birds with which is really fun.

The little birds don't really eat the apples but the bigger ones get quite aggressive in their attempts, climbing right on your arm or into the basket. The rainbow lorikeets got kind of mean, pushing any other birds out of the way. Christina had a bit of a fight with one trying to keep it from stealing the apple from another bird she'd fed.

They had probably about 30 different birds, maybe more. We got to see some pheasants chase each other around in the attempt to make more pheasants and a mom bird feed a baby. Lots of pictures. Our most intensive picture stop to date.

Reptile Center
After the birds we went to the reptile center. Was a lot smaller than I thought it would be but still cool. An older gentleman worked there and he was crazy about snakes. Probably talked to us a good 5-10 minutes about the awesomeness of snakes before he let us break away into the museum.

First half of the museum was all pictures and fossil casts demonstrating the history of reptiles and the differences between them and mammals, amphibians and fish. They had a a nice big replica of a T-Rex skull which was quite impressive as it was the first time I'd seen any dino bones, much less to scale. Quite impressive.

The second part had about 10-15 different snakes, most of them highly venomous. We both held one snake, some type of python but I can't remember which. Didn't realize how heavy they got. Also got to witness the "world's deadliest land snakes making more of the world's deadliest land snakes" as museum man put it. I had a feeling that was what the tweaking out snake was attempting to do and museum guy confirmed it.

Canberra Day 2 Zoo/Museum
We had to catch the bus back to Sydney the evening of our 2nd day. The bus left late enough though to give us enough time at the zoo. Got a day pass and took the bus from the B&B to the central bus area to catch the bus to the zoo. Found out then that the bus that goes by the zoo only runs on weekends and holidays. Closest bus that ran during the week would leave us an hours walking distance away from the zoo. Not an option considering we had to haul all our luggage around with us that day.

Instead we ended up going to the National Museum since it was free. It was actually a lot more interesting that I thought it would be. The displays were all very informative but also fun to look at. I've always pictured museums as boring and stuffy but this was nothing like that at all. Turned what was going to be a crappy boring day into a pretty decent on. After the museum we got on the bus to Sydney.

790 on George
On returning to Sydney we got a new hostel. The Funk House had been decent but we didn't enjoy dealing with the red light district at night nor walking forever to get back at night. This place was pretty okay. Nice city view, comfy beds, no construction, good showers. Only problems were that it was a little noisy and the sheet on my bed had questionable stains. Sheets were luckily not an issue since they gave us each an extra set so yucky ones went on the floor. Was also just a block away from the bus station which was very welcoming since bus rides make me sleepy.

Coles in Sydney and Groceries in General
To save some money we've been buying meals here and there at the grocery store. There's a Coles under a huge Coca Cola sign right before King's Cross in Sydney. We've been to others since this one so they're not all like this first one. This one had 2 floors and a funky smell. In the US people totally wouldn't shop there. Very limited selection on everything and eggs weren't refrigerated.

Other shopping news is that everything closes early 5-6ish, except on Friday nights when its 8-9ish. Except in Sydney, there the late night is Thursday. Everywhere has security cameras and reserves the right to check your bag which I'm betting seriously cuts down on shoplifting. They also really push being environmentally friendly, encouraging people to bring their own reusable bags. One places charged for plastic bags. They also charge to use shopping carts at a lot of places. If you put the cart back you get your money back. One grocery store even gave their cashiers really comfy looking chairs to sit on. They're also huge on markets here too which I find a tad overwhelming. One shopping center we went to had stores for various types of food: fruit, veggies, meat. The meat shop had huge carcasses in see through refrigerators that you could see as your strolled down the middle of the mall just waiting to be cut up.

Selected Photos

Canberra

This may say something about Canberra but I'm not sure what

Aviary
This is one of the mean ones

Feeding time

Me with bird

Reptile Center

Me with Snake

Christina with Snake

From Oct. 27th

2007-11-17T03:32:00.000-05:00

Still in Melbourne, kind of taking an easy day. We've got the penguin parade tomorrow and the zoo Monday so we figured we'd relax today. Most everything else we want to do is way outside the city and we figured we'd be better off relaxing than trying to figure out how to get where we want to go. Save some money too. Actually worked out really good that we decided to relax today because we we decided to switch where we were staying and that took hours of walking. On the map it looked quite close to where we yesterday. On a different map it ended up being a good 3, maybe 4 times further that we thought it was. Its been worth it though. The new place is such an improvement but I'll go into all the details when I catch up to writing about Melbourne. Anyways, back to where I left off...

Sydney Day 3-Blue Mountains
Decided to get away from the city and go to the Blue Mountains for the day. Catch the train and then ride around the bus up there. It was a 2 hour ride so we got up nice and early to get a good jump on the day. We ended up missing the train we were trying to catch because the train info guy sent us to the wrong platform. When we finally realized that the train we were on wasn't going anywhere we got off only to have a guy ask us where we were going. He told us that we should be at platform 14, rather than 6 which is where we were originally sent. Since it was another hour before the train would show up coffee was had and then we proceeded to platform 14. It was getting pretty close to the time for our train to arrive but our platform was still empty. The guy who told us platform 14 then told us our train was about to leave so we should hurry up and get on it. Our train was actually at platform 15. We hurried and got seats in time before it left.

Train was nice but made me terribly sleepy both to and from Sydney. Upon arriving we got talked into buying tickets for the cable car, steepest railway and something else. Luckily it ended up being well worth it because I think they were the only way into the Katoomba Park which was gorgeous. All the rides were very short but offered spectacular views and they weren't joking about the railway being steep! It was insane. I don't know the actual degrees or what not but it was intense, especially when it unexpectedly goes into a dark cave.

I'm really glad we ended up going because it wasn't something we were originally planning to do since it was so pricey. It was a lot of fun. Only complaint is I'd wish I'd known how nice it was because we would have planned to stay at least 2 days. We really didn't have enough time to see hardly anything at all. They had all these fantastic hikes through the rain forest and we only got to do a tiny fraction of one and the generic basic tourist walk along the boardwalk from the railway to the cable car. The boardwalk was nice but it would have been even cooler to break away from all the tourists. Large groups of Asian tourists get really frustrating really fast. They need to stop at everything and take a picture with everyone and then all stop and look at the picture. Really frustrating when you are trying to cover a lot of ground in a short time and you can't get past them. Luckily we eventually broke away. Amanda and Mark if you ever find yourself in Australia definitely plan a few days here, you'd love it.

A few pictures

From Oct 26th

2007-11-17T03:26:00.000-05:00

On a plane again, on the way to Melbourne. No more Sydney. Makes me sad =( I love Sydney and I think Melbourne is going to have a very difficult time trying to top it. Pretty sure I could stay in Sydney forever. Also I have an absolutely ridiculous sense of direction in Sydney too. Normally I get turned around super easy but the whole time we've been here not once did I get turned around. Always had a pretty good idea of where I was and where I was in relation to the rest of the city. Four years in Denver I could get disoriented at any give moment and the 1st day in Sydney I was totally comfortable with my surroundings and totally knowing where I was. Gonna miss it.

Anyways, off to city 3 now. Penguin Parade to look forward to on Sunday and probably the Melbourne Zoo on Monday. The zoo is supposed to be fantastic so pretty excited about that. But anyways, back where I left off..

Disaster Continued
So with both camera lenses dead we figured we got a do something since the whole reasoning Christina had for purchasing the camera when she did was because it would be great for the trip. In Canberra we were able to find a camera shop and determine that yes it was definitely the lens that was the malfunctioning part and bought one to replace the 1st lens that went at a decent price.

So yay, for a whole 3 days no camera problems. Not to worry though, our camera woes weren't at an end yet. On the 24th I believe, while we were at Taronga zoo the camera itself stopped working, right in front of the zebras. Mysterious error 56. It refuses to take a picture, just keeps popping up the error. We're trying to find a Sony service place so they can take a look at it but no luck yet. Also e-mail Brittany to see if any of her professors might know something about it since its the same camera they suggest for all the photo students at her school. So hopefully we'll be able to figure something out. We still have my camera working but I'm missing the small memory card. I can only take 80 pictures a day as opposed to Christina's 950 so we're gonna have to carry the laptop everywhere and empty my camera every time it gets full.

If money and cameras weren't enough trouble already all the walking has resulted in major foot pain. For the first part of our Sydney visit Christina's feet were killing her. She had some funky pain in one foot while mine just ached. The 2nd time to Sydney her foot just ached and my right foot had had a nasty pain through the top center of foot through the front of my leg. Its usually not too bad until late at night so I've been coping. We both did relatively well feet wise yesterday and we walked all day so hopefully we're getting past that.

Also quite fun is the cold I got our 3rd day in Sydney, right before we went to Canberra. Been pretty much a fountain of snot for the last 4 or 5 days. Today hasn't been so bad so hopefully I've beaten that down.

Update on feet/colds (Nov.5) Feet are doing good for both of us. Cold has finally gone away. Yay for that. Only 2 took 2 1/2 weeks for both.

Darren Hayes Show
Finally, the 1st big thing we did on the trip. I was quite disappointed going to the show because I had 5th row seats to to the cancelled Canberra show. At the last minute I bought tickets for the Sydney show. Seats were just about sold out at the point the Canberra show was cancelled so we ended up 2nd row from the very back of the theater.

We were promised by Mr. Hayes himself that there were no bad seats in the theater and luckily for us that wasn't just him trying to sell 2 extra seats. We actually could see really well from where we were. Not as close as I wanted to be but still able to enjoy the show just fine. Actually our seats ended up being in an excellent spot for sneaking pictures as we were right behind where the camera ninjas were watching. Lots of really good pictures.

Really the only bad thing about the seats were feeling somewhat disconnected from it all. Standing wasn't allowed in the back half of theater because it was so steep and no one was singing in the way back you just felt kind of far away. Regardless it was a fantastic show. Very theatrical. Really glad I caved and bought the tickets. It was a really long show too, about 2 hours. Really wide variety of songs, many from earlier albums which I wasn't expecting as I figured it would be mostly new stuff. Can't wait until the tour hopefully comes to the US so I can hopefully get my up close seats. Until then I shall just look forward to the stop he's making at Borders in Boston to promote the album in the US. Probably the only thing I can say bad about the show was that there were 2-3 songs I was really hoping he would perform but with so many songs to choose from I'm not surprised.

The giant moving origami crane was amazing as were the use of the projection screens for ever changing backdrops. Lasers were also awesome except for constantly hitting me right in the eye over and over. Was also a tad bit exhausted by the time we got to the show so during slower songs I found myself sometimes starting to doze off.

Sydney Day 2- Aquarium
Managing to avoid jet lag entirely (are we not awesome) we set out for the aquarium the 2nd day to see if it was as awesome as it was claimed to be. They had 3 walk through viewing tanks: seals/sea lions, sharks/stingrays/turtles/big fish, and a Great Barrier Reef. Every walk through tank I've ever been through has always had a moving walk way which is kind of annoying since you can't go at your own pace. Since none of their tanks had moving walkways it was really nice because you could really take your time and enjoy the animals.

All the tanks were very well labeled and informative. I can no confidently identify whether a shark is male or female and truly comprehend how massive a stingray can get. Seriously! Those beasties can get enormous. They had one whose wings/fins were probably as long as an average person is tall. Sea dragons are also super snazzy and when octopi are sitting still and are smallish they don't weird me out nearly as much as I thought they would. Also got to touch a baby shark, coral, starfish, and an urchin.

Small Selection of Pictures

Darren Hayes Concert

Aquarium

Argh!

Boy Shark

Girl Shark

Best Caution Sign Ever!

Not so Scary

Gigantic Ray

Sea Dragon

A shark that looks really scary but isn't. With a ray in the bg

Shark we touched, but much bigger

Nearing the finish line

2007-11-15T05:30:00.000-05:00

In Cairns right now. Only a week left =( Still not able to post all those posts I typed. Oh well, easy enough to post them all when I get home. Now to go get some dinner.

Not a real update

2007-11-09T22:43:00.001-05:00

Still alive. In Darwin about to leave for Alice Springs. Got 4 long posts typed and ready to go with pictures but no way to post them yet again so everyone will just have to wait in suspense =p

Eeek!

2007-10-31T04:45:00.000-04:00

So Darren Hayes was doing a mini concert with a sort of meet in greet in Boston on December 7th. Decided had to go to that as soon as I heard about it but would have to pass on the NY Borders apperance. Yeah, he just announced a club show in NY the day before his NY Borders apperance. The show is going to be at the same club we went to last time in NY which was awesome and do to crappy seats in Sydney and the very real possibility of the Time Machine Tour not coming to the US at all looks like trip to NY is in the works.

So yay, back from Australia late Nov. 23. Leave early Nov. 27 for NY, get back some time Nov. 30. Go to Boston on the 7th. This is all made under the assumption that I will have a little money left over after this trip. We'll forget about my car needing work for the time being, we'll just tell ourselves I'll find a good job and I'll find it fast. Bad me.

Give me free internet for a few minutes and look what I get myself sucked into. Oy.

Australia 2 (From October 22)

2007-10-29T23:48:00.000-04:00

On the bus back to Sydney after about 2 1/2 days in Canberra. Pretty sure its the shortest stay we have in any city, mostly because our main reason for going was to see the Darren Hayes concert that ended up being cancelled. I had wanted to see the city anyways but the concert was the final deciding matter I believe on making it a definite stop. Despite that putting a bit of a clod on the visit to the city , especially the night of the show that didn't happen over all it was quite a nice place. Very weird though but I'll get to that later. Still have to finish writing about all the stuff from the 1st stay in Sydney.

Probably the most exciting thing about the Canberra visit is 1st wild wallaby/kangaroo siting! Saw a whole bunch right here on the bus right before I started writing this. Its much too dark to see any animals now but it put a lovely close on the visit. Now back to where I left off with the update from Sydney visit 1.

Airport and the Swindle
Arriving in Sydney we got to experience the joy of customs. Quite painless actually. We were ready to leave the airport in probably 30 minutes. Unfortunately getting to the hostel was not nearly as painless. Our hostel offered quite cheap airport pickup. We got cash from the ATM and some juice so as to make change for the pay phone but could['t figure out how to the get phone to actually dial the number. We asked the info desk lady what bus would get us to our destination. Lady was super friendly and directed us where to go and what bus to take. We proceeded to the stop were were told when this guy told us to keep going and took us to the this bus/van with a bunch of other people, since it was going where we were going. It was slightly more than we had been quoted for the bus. The bus/van eventually got us where we were going for the price we were told but it took over an hour of going around in circles. The guy didn't have any actual 'stops', he just found a bunch of people to fill up the bus/van and dropped them off in the order he remembered them. Took way longer and cost way more than the cheap hostel pick up that we never figured out. Oh well.

The Funk House: Hostel #1
Upon 1st impression this place looked totally nasty and ghetto. The staff was super nice though and the room and bathroom were both perfectly acceptable and clean. Not nearly as bad as 1st impressions made it out to be. Lots of downsides though. Major construction was happening right outside our window so that resulted in a very unpleasant wake up call at am each morning. Not cool considering once we got there the one and only thing I wanted to do was take a nap since I'd hardly slept on either plane at all. That attempt at a nap lasted maybe 30 minutes. Also construction meant a new crisis each morning, one day no to limited electricity, another day no water in the morning.

The free breakfast was also disappointing and not at all worth the effort. There was a tiny kitchen with no room to move around and way too many people in it. You got a whole 2 cereal choices and if you were quick you could get a piece of bread from the 1 loaf they had available. We ended up buying bagels to eat on our own rather then dealing with that. chaos. No free internet was also sad.

Third and biggest of all it was far away from everything and right in the middle of King's Cross, Sydney's red light district. Oops. This wasn't too awful, little on the shady side but not nearly as bad as I would have guessed. Saw way more shady people that I would be scared of in downtown Denver on a regular basis.

Friday nights though were another story altogether. Friday night was our last night at the Funk House before going off to Canberra. Apparently Sydneysiders take their Friday nights very seriously and tear the city up. Seems like everyone in the entire city was about and about and almost all dressed to impress. We spent most of the night at Darling Harbor taking pictures. The streets are disgusting on Saturday morning with garbage everywhere and this is all totally normal. Friday nights as you can expect are equally hopping in King's Cross. Lots of people where just normal people trying to get home but the rest of them... whoa. We ended up getting stuck walking behind 3 super tall girls dressed to draw as much attention to themselves as possible with out totally looking like prostitutes. They succeeded too because while walking down the street one got a unexpected pinch in the rear from this little midget guy who just happened to be standing on the sidewalk.

Sydney Day 1
Since I was unable to take a nap upon arriving in Sydney we set out to explore. First we located where the concert was. I cracked the day before we left and bought the seats at the very back of the theatre but more on that later. This of course had to bring us right in to the center of the business district during lunch hour. Oops. We quickly booked it out of there and headed to an area on the map that looked like a lot of parks and whatnot an hopefully less chaos. On the way we got lunch at a little cafe. Turkey sandwich with pineapple and cranberry sauce a wonderful thing.

Also learned all about Aussie coffee and a short black vs a tall black. We got tall blacks, which is supposed to be the closest to American coffee. Whoa. Is that stuff strong! I regularly drink all my tea and coffee black but I was barely able to finish this tiny teacup worth of coffee. I'm somewhat frightened of what a short black tastes like.

Continued with our walking and found Darling Harbor which I adore. Hard to believe it was a nasty slummy area about 30 years ago. More walking and we finally get our 1st glimpse of the Harbor Bridge peeking out between some building. More walking and the infamous Opera House sneaks around the corner. We went up to see it, got to touch it. Hehe. Its actually not really white at all when you get closer and the tiles that cover the roof are actually glazed so its all shiny.

Botanical Gardens
After seeing the 2 big Sydney must sees we wandered into the Royal Botanical Gardens which we also revisited on the 2nd day. The trees in Australia are insane, massive, crazy things which I can't truly explain that need to be seen to truly comprehend. Tons of wacky birds and bats! The 2nd day I looked up in the tree and there were hundreds of bats just hanging out. Super cool. I think we'll be visiting the gardens again because there is still tons we haven't seen yet.

Disaster Time
Of course with a big trip like this stuff must go wrong. First, Christina's bank card which we were counting on for money stopped working after the 1st ATM we used. Yay, for the emergency credit card my grandfather is letting me borrow because it was the only source of money we had for the first few days. Further complicating the matter was no way to get a hold of the bank. We finally called on a pay phone only to have our change run out just as we got a hold of the person we needed to talk to. Luckily the card started working after about the 2nd day.

Next cause for concern was the camera. Christina's fancy new camera has 2 lenses one for normal range stuff and one for stuff pretty far away. When the normal range lens died at the aquarium we figured oh well we could make do with my camera and her 2nd lens. Of course her 2nd lens stopped working the following day. Not cool when 3 days into your 5 week trip and the fancy new camera is out of commission.

Pictures (just a small selection)
1st crazy australian wildlife

1st look at the Harbour Bridge

Diffrent look at the Harbour Bridge

These guys are everywhere! I believe this is a picture of the very 1st one we say, flew right in front of us at Syndey Harbor.

Luna Park and the creepy face. This is across from the Opera House and Circular Quay. We never went but still cool to see from across the way.

Bet you can't guess what this is...

What's that in the trees?

Bats! Buttloads of bats.

Another bird...Australian Magpie I think

Trees that look pretty boring considering some of the trees here

Ack! Jellyfish. Tons of these guys floating around at Syndey Harbor

Darling Harbour

Australia 1 (From Oct. 20th)

2007-10-29T23:47:00.000-04:00

So I brought this nifty little journal to write through out the trip so as to not forget things before I had a chance to type them up and post them. Oops. Its now late Saturday and I'm just writing for the first time, due to a combo of being to exhausted when I have the chance to write and just being to darn lazy to pull out the the pen and paper. Some things never change.

Anyways, yay we're here and it fabulous! The whole week leading up to the trip I was waiting for this overwhelming sense of excitement but there never was one, which I found quite strange. There was a moment of giddiness a the end of flight #2 but I think that was more due to exiting the plane more than anything else. Maybe it was lacking because I was just to exhausted to care? I don't know. Regardless of of the excitement being totally absent so far everything has completely lived up to my expectations.

So yeah, since I'm so behind on writing what has happened I figured I might as well break things down bit by bit rather than day by day so i might actually finish writing this all someday.

Boston
This crazy little endeavor started off in Boston, where we had to catch our first flight to LA. The Yarb's mom brought us to Boston on Oct. 15th. She had to bring James to an appointment at Children's Hospital that afternoon anyways so it worked out really well. So she wouldn't be late for the appointment we decided to take the subway to make things easier for all. Really this just resulted in some unneeded stress as we tried to figure out how much it would cost ($2 each) and realizing that we only had a $20, which clearly isn't exact change. Burritos for lunch quickly solved that matter.

The unexpected jaunt through Boston did give me a chance to see where my sister Kelsey is going to school, North Eastern. Quite the perk so have a subway stop right on campus. Also was fun to be amused by the art students at what I believe was Mass Art. It was amusing to see all these kids trying so hard to be "artist" and all so original with their outrageous hair and clothes and for the most part they all looked the same. Only a few were actually the individuals they were all pretending to be. Did kind of make me wish I went to a regular art school though because the whole campus environment seems so nice. That and maybe hanging out all the time with people intent on dressing funny I would be be totally unselfconscious of running around with a cape and my pirate hat, something I much desire to do.

Subway to the airport, very exciting. One of the cars on the subway we took totally looked like what you see in the movies. Dingy, dark, and kinda gross and totally where people get killed. I swear it reminded me of scene from an 80's tv show where someone got attacked on a subway. Also some how managed to really anger and Asian man because I received a very nasty glare.

Further chaos happened when we went to collect our boarding passes. Out itinerary from Qantas didn't list our starting airline. We were pretty confident it was US Air so we headed over to the counter . Of course we were mistaken and were sent off to American Airlines. Luckily AA was the proper airlines and a boarding passed where quickly received. Nevertheless that a was a moment of pure terror experiences while talking to US AIr and them having no knowledge of a flight we were pretty sure they should have.

American Airlines
So American Airlines was our carrier from Boston to LA. I highly don't recommend them. The ticket counter lady was terribly unpleasant, The flight was running late by about 30 minutes and not once did it get mentioned. The plane itself was not very comfortable. The absolute highlight of the flight was that every seat got a pillow and blanket. Not adding to the wonders of the flight was having an aisle seat since I was planning on taking a nice little nap.

The real disappointment was the snack. I was always under the impression that flights over 5 hours got meals, apparently I have been misled. No meal. Worse yet no snack at all for coach unless you wanted to cough up $3 for a candy bar or a bag of chips. AA is probably the most expensive US airlines I've ever flown with and the least satisfying. All the cheapy airlines I fly with normally always at the very least supply peanuts to everyone, more often than not a selection of potential snacks. To making the lack of food even worse, 1st class got a full on meal that everyone is couch and to sit and smell for hours. Not much fun.

The flight attendants were also very unpleasant. They loved to run up and down the aisle with the little carts, and not very nicely tell people to move their feet and elbows. Very frustrating, especially if you are in the aisle seat, desperately trying to take a nap. For the flight where the least was provided to the passengers the flight attendance ran up and down the aisle with the cart a ridiculous amount of times. Conveniently it always was just as I was dozing off too. When they failed to wake me up with the cart they'd get on the intercom system to make pointless announcements. Was really quite disappointing as this 6 hour flight was supposed to help me be rested enough to stay awake for the first 7 hours of the 14 hour flight so I could get more in sync with Sydney's time zone.

Quantas
From one extreme to the next, this flight was fabulous. Much more comfortable plane. My butt hurt way more sitting the 6 hours on the first flight than it did on this 14 hour flight. Flight attendants were super friendly, although the one working our section had a tendency to drop food on or near me. During dinner he dropped a tray almost on top of me, resulted in rice everywhere, including my shoe. At breakfast he dropped a muffin next to my seat which of course got ground into the carpet and looked quite lovely. Blankets and pillows were in every seat, pillows were much nicer than the AA ones. They also handed out packs socks, lanyards and eye masks, 2 good and quite filling meals, a snack pack with water, cookies, crackers and mints in addition to a nice warm washcloth at the end of the flight. They also had snacks available the whole flight whenever you asked. Each seat also had its own personal tv where you could watch probably a good 30 different new to relatively new release movies, a wide variety of tv shows, radio stations, and c.d. along with video games all for free. I figured you'd get so much time for free or only so many of the options they offered would be free but the one's you really want would all cost money, but nope all free.

The 14 hours went surprisingly fast, even more so considering my best efforts I maybe slept 2 hours on the flight, and that wasn't continuous. Just can't sleep in an aisle seat. People always accidently bump into you. The toddler that started screaming every time I started to doze off didn't help either. The kid was super loud and had one of those whiny voice so regular talking sounded like crying. When ever I gave up on sleep the toddler would settle down, soon as I tried for another nap the screaming would resume. extra annoying considering this toddler, who should have been old enough to know a little bit better how to behave was more noisy and trouble some than any of the infants. Would also like to make note that Quantas provided a ton of services to the passengers and only felt the need to bring the cart through the aisles maybe 5 times the entire 14 hours as opposed to AA probably 10 cart trips in 6 hours.

Still no internet

2007-10-27T04:21:00.000-04:00

So still no free internet and no wireless so no real posts yet. I've got too typed up and all ready to be posted one even with pictures, just no way to post them =) In Melbourne right now.

2007-10-24T06:45:00.000-04:00

Am here. In Sydney, actually getting ready to leave for Melbourne soon. Have not totally forgotten about blogging, just no free internet. Only have internet now for a short time because we had to get some info online. So yeah, plenty of things to type about but no time at the moment =(