Made My Way To Sydney...

When I landed in Sydney, I just... I didn't want to be there! The people were the same, the problems were the same, and the only person I really wanted to hang out with was on her way to Brisbane! I'm sure some of you can understand the predicament I was in.

I knew I didn't want to be in Sydney and would much rather be in Brisbane, but nothing could be done the night I landed in Sydney. When I checked with the train pass I had, I could arrive in Brisbane at 1030pm the next evening which would mean that if I could get a hold of Zoe to surprise her, I would still have to figure out where she was. Oh yeah, minor detail. If I was going to do this, I was going to surprise her, and little to my knowledge, she didn't have any cell credit on her phone. Awesome! More on that in a minute...

So I did what anybody would do if they wanted to see someone 900kms away. I got a plane ticket for 9am the next morning; figured I would land in Brisbane around 11, give Zoe a surprise "I'm in Brisbane" call and hope for an invite to her party. If only life was that easy.

Excited to go the next morning, I did what all backpackers would do. I opened some duty free Gin and partied with fellow 'packers' until the wee hours of the morning. A little tired, I slept on the flight over and when I landed in Brisbane, I figured I needed a place to stay so I went to the Brisbane YHA.

Once settled in at the hostel, I decided to call Zoe. When I called, it went straight to voice mail. Shit! So here I am, in a city a little further north than Byron Bay, where I was headed in 2 days and no way to get a hold of Zoe. With no real way of getting a hold of her, I figured I would try leaving a facebook message and hope that she got back to me. A couple of hours later, while reading my book on the rooftop patio overlooking the city, my phone started to ring.

It was her. Against all odds, she got my message, gave me a call, and invited me to her last night in Australia party. I was stoked! She told me she was in a suburb of Brisbane 45 minutes, so I got on the train and made my way to Beenleigh. Sure enough, 45 minutes had passed and there I was, hanging out at the Beenleigh train station waiting to get a ride to the party.

When I got to the house, I was greeted by some of the nicest people ever. When working in Australia, Zoe lived with her friend from home Sarah and her husband Carl along with their children. We had a fantastic dinner with loads of conversation and I knew I was in the right place when out of nowhere, Sarah and Zoe started singing kareoke in the living room! What a wicked night!

The next day, we all woke up early in the morning and drove to the Gold Coast Airport, because it was time for Zoe to leave.  Once again, we parted, only this time it was at the airport, but luckily for both of us, Carl doesn't believe in long good-byes, so he put her bags on the curb, gave her a hug, got in the car and started the engine. I really enjoyed having the oportunity to spend that night with everyone in Beenleigh. The one thing that you learn when you travel, is that you always want to be good friends with locals, because they will always show you the best time. That's anywhere in the world!

Bummed again that Zoe was gone, Carl, Sarah and I drove back to their house where we would all attempt to get a couple hours sleep before we tried to figure anything out for the day. After some great hospitality, Carl drove me to the train station so I could get back to Brisbane, and told me I could visit anytime. I'm going to hold you to that! lol

Back in Brisbane, it was time for me to plan my travels to Byron bay, because The Byron Bay Blues Festival was starting the next day and I needed to be there!

Next Stop, BYRON BAY....

Peter

FROM VANCOUVER TO FIJI!!!!

I did it! I got back to Australia and I couldn't be happier. Only this time when I landed in Sydney International, something was different. I knew how to get around, I didn't like that, I already knew what this city was all about, so I couldn't wait for the 2 days to be over to catch my flight to Nadi, Fiji.

You should know that when I planned my trip to Fiji to stay at a resort, I didn't plan on going alone, I planned to go with Zoe, whom I met in Melbourne on "Australia - Round 1".

I landed in Nadi at 3:30pm on the 6th and very kindly, Zoe was waiting for me in arrivals. It was nice to know that this time when someone was going to meet me at arrivals, there was good news when I arrived. We had to leave the airport ASAP because we had to catch a sea plane from Nadi to the Blue Lagoon Resort on the Yasawa Islands within the hour or we would have to stay on the main land and we were already booked in at the Blue Lagoon, so we said our quick hello and jumped into a cab and made our way to the Sea Plane. We got on the plane with limited problems and by 5 o'clock our plane was touching down on the very calm ocean and we got on our boat to get to the resort.

We got to the Blue Lagoon just before 6 and as we were unpacking and getting ready to go for a swim the sun was just starting to set. We got into the warm water and for an hour swam around catching up all while watching the most amazing sunset we saw all week with all different reds, pinks and oranges. It is definitely one of the nicest ways to get reacquainted with someone.

Over the next few days, Zoe and I were having a blast, meeting new guests at the BL and spending time with the staff, both while they were on and off duty. We would spend our days on the beach and in the water, snorkelling and kayaking. The BL also had some organized volleyball for the guests so I part-took in that. It was a great resort, it accomidates 70 people, but when you are on the beach you feel like it's all there to yourself. It was nice to have communial dining, well I guess I should say it was more amuzing than anything else, because every night we sat with new people and everyone always had the same question, "So how do you two know eachother?" or "So when did you and your counterpart meet?". The first two nights, Zoe through me under the bus and didn't even answer the question, she immidiately took a sip of her drink waiting to hear what I had to say.

Dinner conversations went from, "Oh, well... to be honest with you, we met in Melbourne at the Australian Open, really hit it off and decided to go to Fiji together.", to "Well, I actually run an Escort Service out of Canada and the lovely Zoe here, chose to acquire my services for her trip to Fiji.". You can imagine that after I dropped that story, Zoe immediately took charge of the question and answer period about how we met. Needless to say, dinners were always a lot of fun and we met some really great people. We also met some real bogan people.

We were regularly at the beach bar, chatting with the staff and friends and more times than not, shutting the bar down with our most amazing bar-tender Moses and Luke the bar manager. Because we were so close with the staff, Moses chose to befriend us and told us that he would take us to his village in the following days. We were so excited that we were going to see his village, because near the BL are 2 villages where the locals live. The larger village has approximately 65 houses and 400 people and that is were the tourists are taken when they visit the village from the BL. Moses' village "Malakati", is about 30 minutes further than the main village and has about 30 house with 290 people. It was amazing to see how people with so little have so much. The electricity was powered by small gas powered generators, and the closest thing to a store is going to someone you know who has something you want and you buy it from him. Such a different world. It was amazing. Moses made us lunch and took care of us and we played with the local kids in the rain before we returned to the BL. 

So much more happened when in the Yasawas, but I figure I can keep on going for pages. One of the more exciting things that happened was actually on the day we left. After we got hit with our bar bill, and waiting till 4pm to catch our boat back to the sea plane, both Zoe and I went back to the main office and noticed that they had accidentally at noon, taken our luggage and put it on the boat with the other guests on their way back to the ain island. I was left with nothing on the resort! Everything was gone, my passport, my wallet, my clothes... all I had was board shorts, sandals and a towel. Luckily, Zoe had her wallet, so we did what any self-respecting person would do when put in a state of such vulnerability, we went back to the bar to wait till the boat left.

The picture of Zoe here is a reaction shot after she took a look at our bar bill! lol

When we arrived to the plane pick-up point, Zoe and I had nothing but 2 towels and a purse to get on the plane, and luckily we were the only two on the evening flight back to Nadi. The captain of the plane asked which one of us would like to sit in the co-pilots seat, and without hesitation, Zoe volunteered me to sit up front, but asked that I try not to fly it! As we were flighing over the ocean on our 30 minute trip back to the main island, the pilot was showing us some of the islands and reefs on the way back to the main land. When we were about 15 minutes away from land, he turned to me and pointed to the steering column and let me fly the plane. It was so cool to be able to have that opportunity, because I know how rare it is for someone with my `Top Gun`qualifications to be able to even fly any plane. After the pilot let me have my fun, he took over and landed us back in Nadi safely and we off like a hurd of turtles to get our bags from the marina.

When we got to the marina, remember that I still only have board shorts on because I have to clothes, we quickly realized that we were in the richer area of Nadi. Golf courses surrounded by million dollar homes, fancy restaurants, shops everywhere and me, walking around with my new Fijian tan, some white shorts and a pair of sandals. I didn`t care! I needed to get to the boat where y bags were so I could be in posession of my passport and wallet again. When we finally got our bags, that were locked in the Captains quarters, the biggest weight came off my shoulders, and I was ready to celebrate our final night in Fiji.

After checking into our hostel, Zoe and I decided to head back to the marina for dinner. We were showered and clean, I had clothes again and we were ready to hit the town. We had dinner at this nice restaurant on the water, where we talked over a couple glasses of wine till once again, we shut the restaurant down. We had such a good night, and we knew it was our last in fiji, we just didn`t want the night to end, but as all things do, we headed back to the hostel, put on our night masks and called it a night.

It really sucked having to be the first one to leave on the afternoon of the 18th. My flight was heading back to Sydney at 4pm and Zoe`s flight was to Brisbane at 9pm. We both knew we wanted nothing more than an extra day together, but sometimes, even when life throws a curve ball at you, you have to do what you have already chosen and we had to go our separate ways.

Gutted, I headed to the airport to board stupid Jetstar`s flight back to Sydney with no real idea of when I am going to see Zoe again.

Thank you for one of the best trips ever. Great nights at the beach bar, hilarious snorkelling adventures and fears, no stop laughing, the only other girl that wanted to drink the carva with me, and really making me feel awesome about me.

For those of you that don`t know what Carva is; Carva is a root that is crushed into powder that the Fijians drink. It looks like mud water and at first tastes just as bad, but not only is Carva good for you and your insides, it also numbs your body. After the first cup, your tongue goes numb, then after the second your lips, until you have as many cups as you please, you just get to the mellowest place and sing songs with the locals. Carva is drunk out of the Carva bowl and served in coconut cups. 3 sizes of cups; low tide, high tide and tsunami bowls.

Hope you enjoyed the read!

Peter

My Feb. 13th, Your Feb. 12th... Isa - Aug. 22, 1942 - Feb. 12, 2011

So I'm writing this blog in the Steam Works Brewing Co. and if you knew my dad as well as I did, I think I'm writing it in the perfect setting... so here we go

So as you were reading, I was having the best Sunday Funday I have ever experienced. I was in the amazing town of Byron Bay, hanging out with new friends and old and really starting to get what I wanted out of life and that's when it happened.

My sister called me, around 2:30pm and the second I picked up the phone, I knew what had happened. She didn't say anything, she didn't have to, I could hear the distress in her voice and at that moment, I knew that my best friend was gone.

My dad and I had a friendship that was stronger than anything in the world. We did so much together and over the years, he tought me so much. From bringing me to bars around the world at a young age to going to bar with him around the world when I could drink with him, we had this true bond that I wish everyone could have with their parents.

The next 36 hours were the hardest hours I have ever had. I had to catch a bus, a train and a plane from Byron Bay to Toronto, and in no way was it nearly as hilarious as when John Candy and Steve Martin did it in, "Trains, planes, and automobiles."

To make a sad story short, I went back home to Canada to do what I had to do, for myself and my family with the intention of returning to Australia and finishing my trip, whenever that was going to happen.
I miss him and I think about him every day, but the world's still spinning and I need to leave my footprint, just like he left his. So while some may think that I am leaving home too soon, his memory will always be with me and now it's time for me to start my story.

So Isa, from the Steam Works Brewing Co., I raise a glass and drink to you...

Byron Bay - Feb. 11-13 (Fri-Sat)

So I finished surf camp and it was amazing. I met tons of great people and even got to ride some waves! One of the reasons I chose to go to surf camp was because I could make my way to Byron Bay and see Erika, a friend from Toronto.
When I arrived to Byron Bay, I showed up in the Surf Camp bus, with all the other surfers that part-took in the last weeks festivities in the ocean, and we were ready to party. Once in my hostel, I decided to call Erika and let her know what my evening plans were. She quickly told me that my original plans were not the plans that people of our caliber are really interested in. I mean, who wants to go to a bar called funky monkey (or something like that) and watch young beautiful travelers with no inhibitions, part-take in wet t-shirt contests and even further, perhaps remove their tops. Not me! I was raised better than that!! You guys aren't buying it are you? Well, while i would have loved all that, the weekend Erika had planned was way better.
Friday night we went to this great bar called, "The Beachie", where I met some of her many friends, listened to live music and even danced a little. From the beachie to another bar, and then a kabob before I went to bed, my first night in Byron was exactly what I was looking for.

The next morning, Erika had texted me to let me know that she and her roommates were going to the beach for a bbq, and chilling. Turns out, we were all feeling pretty crappy from the night before that instead of going to the beach, we chose to spend the day, hanging out in the backyard, tan and drink beers. Mid-afternoon, we decided to do the lighthouse walk. The lighthouse in Byron Bay is the most easterly point of Australia and the views are amazing. What a fun walk! We almost even got to see the sun set. Our evening was to end short on Saturday because Erika and I were on an adventure the next morning to do some sea kayaking pretty early, so Mark her roommate, cooked us some kangaroo and we had the perfect chill evening.

Sunday Funday (Sunday February 13th... the 12th back home)

What an amazing morning! Erika and I got up as planned, walked to the beach and by 9:30am we were paddling in the Pacific Ocean.  We were looking for dolphins, but instead found some "small" sharks. "5 footers" our guide told us. i don't know about you, but if it is a shark, and it's bigger than my arm, I'm not happy! After paddling for about 2.5 hours, our tour ended and we were on our way back to Erikas, to get ready for Sunday Funday!!!
We hung out for a couple of hours in her back yard with her roommates listening to music, talking about how great life is in Byron and just enjoying life. That's when I got the call...

Australian Open - Sydney - Get your Mojo!!!

Get a coffee, because this is going to be a long one!!!

The last time I wrote you, I was in St. Kilda, making my way to the Australian Open to watch the Men's Finals with my partner in crime Mike. Now seeing as we are backpacking, buying a $300+ ticket to watch the game inside the stadium was not going to happen, and also would have been pretty shitty, because we all know how loud I like to get at a sporting event and there is a strict no yelling policy inside the stadium while the match is being played. So we did the next best thing, the Heineken Beer Garden where you can buy 4 beers at a time at the fair price of $7.50 a beer. We surrounded ourselves with the Murray supporters, which in hein sight, was probably the wrong choice, but the right croud to party with. When sitting in the beer gardens, Mike and I ran into some friends Roxanne and Zoe and waited for two of our friends Carrie and Anna from our hostel. With a 2 to 1 ratio of women to men, Mike and I were the team to be. After watching the tragic loss, the six of us were on our way to hit the town. From one bar to the next, we showed Melbourne how to properly throw down a night of drinking and by 3am we made our way back home. Two days later, after some much needed recovering, we moved out of St. Kilda, and made our way back to the original Melbourne Hostel to do some more sight seeing and obviously rip the city apart once more. We walked the city, through the Botanical Gardens and made our way to some war memorial area. After the sight seeing, we made our way to the bar to plan what the evening festivities would be.

We decided that the best and most affordable thing to do was to go to the grocery store, get some bbq meats and enjoy the roof top patio at the hostel, obviously with drink to flow throughout the evening. We were thrown off the patio around 11pm and while some decided that the night was over, others, including myself, mike, and some of the ladies, decided that there was a bar calling our name and we were not going to let it down. Mike and the girls from Norway (Karrie, Anna) decided to hit a club, the much wiser Zoe knew that following the party animal and bad influence that I am was a much better choice. Needless to say, we found ourselves in a Kareoke bar and made the party run till the we mornings of 4am. At the bar, I ran into some friends that I had made in Sydney a couple weeks earlier and they contributed to getting me up on stage to sing whatever I would agree too. The next two days were the worst hang over I had experienced in a very long time, and it was time to make my way back to Sydney for a couple of days, for recovery and preperation for surf camp.

Sydney

After being in Melbourne for 10 days, it was apparent to me that Sydney was a boring town with little character and I couldn't wait to hit surf camp. If you remember reading about my trip to Katoomba where I met the Irish, you will not be surprised that when in Sydney I met with them once more and on the hottest god damn day in the history of my trip in Australia, we bared 41.4 degree weather and went to the beach. At first we chose not to drink at the beach, but once we made our way to a grassy area where we could bbq some lunch, it just seemed to make sense to suck back some beers and goon while chatting in the sun. Oh man, a little beer and a lot of sun will really put you in an inhebriated state in no time!!! Following the beach, we made our way back to our respected homes and went out later in the evening to some going away parties and then once that ended some solid night clubbing. Thanks to Dean, the leader of our night club ventures, we ended up in this smashing night club where we had our own room for dancing, changing shoes and a solid photo shoot. It was on this night that I had to call Liis to walk me home, because little did I know, but Kings Cross is the red light district of Sydney and there were some real characters out there. I had one more day to spend in Sydney and I had so much to get done, with little time and with a call to have an afternoon pint with some friends, I found I had even less time to prepare for surf camp. Luckily, I have some self control and after another solid afternoon, I got all my stuff done, had a great dinner and made my way to bed early because the next morning at 6:15am I was to be on the MojoSurf bus to make my way to the first camp in B, on my 5 day surf adventure. Knowing I had to get up so early in the morning, I found myself wide awake till just past 3am dreading my alarm to go off at 5 to 6.

Mojo Surf Camp

A wise man once said, " The best thing about Sydney is the road out of Sydney."

I did it! I made the bus and I was on my way to rip the Australian Oceans apart. We arrived at surf camp just before 1pm on Monday afternoon, and let me tell you this place is stellar! There is no internet, no phone service, just a wicked camp ground and some awsome beaches. Once we got here, we had a theory lesson and then out to the water. When i say theory, I really mean, how to be cool, because as a surfer, you have to be cool. NO NERDS ALOUD! Day one in the ocean, was not as spectacular as I thought. I got up once and got eaten by waves for 2 hours. Well maybe I got up more than once, but I definitely lost on day one. After our surf lesson, we had an amazing meal and then we hit the beach to have an evening bond fire and the night went on. Today was day two of the trip and I would say that I got up about 60% of the time and loved hitting the waves. It's almost 11.30am and we are waiting for lunch and then back out to the water around 1:30pm. Like anything, this sport will take time to master, the only question is, "how much time do I need?" Tomorrow we will be heading to "Spot X" and we have another 4 lessons, and then Byron Bay.

That's basically all I got for you now, wait a couple more days and I'll hit you up with another blog. Hope you enjoyed the read. Talk to you soon.

Peter

Melbourne

So with little happening in my ways of planning my trip any further than knowing I was going to be in Melbourne for Australia day (January 26th - my new favorite day) on Tuesday evening of last week I jumped on the train and took the over-nighter to Melbourne.

I arrived downtown Melbourne just after 7 in the morning, and to be honest, it had been a long time since I had seen this un-godly hour. I got off the train and found myself a map of the city, as unlike in Sydney, my hostel was not next to the train station and I knew I was in for a hike. I figuring I had some time to kill before having to meet my friend Mike, who I met in Sydney and chose to travel further with, rather than just taking the street car, i decided to walk the early morning streets of Sydney. It was dead! It took some time for me to process why a city that claims it will be bigger than Sydney by 2020 was not busy, but then I remembered...Australia day! Like Canada day, eveeryone has the day off. So here I am, parading around town with my massive backpack on my back and my day-pack in my my hand trying to find my hostel. While Sydney is kind of built like New York City, grid patterned, Melbourne city map may as well have been drawn up by Picasso himself! Streets criss-cross, round-abouts everywhere, what was I to do but jump on the tram and get to the hostel ASAP.

One on the street where my hostel was located, I noticed Mike walking in at the same time with some friends he made in Bondi. Seeing the three of them all groggy from being on the Grey Hound all night, I new that getting a train pass was the right move. We all checked in the hostel, and decided, that we should walk around town and see what this city had to offer, or better yet, what we had to offer the city.

AUSTRALIA DAY EVENING...

Mike and I had decided that to show Australia and Australians that we were here to celebrate their holiday as Ausrtralians and not as some laid-back back-packers, so in honor of Australia day, we bought ourselves some flags, and wore capes for the evening. At the hostel, before we went out on the town, we met an English couple, who after realizing how much fun a night with Australian Pete and Kangaroo Mike might be, joined us in our adventures to find a bar and celebrate smashingly.

We found this cool bar with live music and boat-loads of partiers, and decided that if anywhere was right for us, this was the place. Don't ask me the name of it, because I can't remember, but what I can say is I knew evvery song the band played and it was an evening sing-along. After making our way back to the hostel, just shy of 3am, we decided that we had done this country a favour and celebrated in an Aussie way.

Thursday morning (haha, not really morning) found us realizing that we wanted to perhaps stay in at the hostel and make a nice dinner, have drinks on the patio, take it a little easier and save some money. Well, we didn't spend as much money, we had a great lamb dinner with a really nice greek salad and we partied a lot harder. Only this time we did it with friends we made at the hostel. While the day went on, we enjoyed tanning on the roof-top patio at our hostel, which over looks downtown Melbourne, enjoying some beers and conversation with new friends and for some, even a 9pm jog through the parks near the hostel. The party once again went on till 3 am where we decided once again that we should make our way to bed, because checkout was at 10am and we were making our way to St.Kilda, to a new hostel, 400m from the beach.

St. Kilda

When arriving to the hostel, you can see that they have a great PR and Marketing team that build their website. Don't get me wrong, it's an ok hostel, but for the price, I would have expected a little more. None the less, in St.Kilda, there is a beach (not a great beach my any means - think Lake Ontario), there is a cool strip with shops, coffee shops and some galleries and a tram that can take you back to downtown Melbourne.

We spent the majority of the afternoon yeasterday at the beach and in the parks and I am so burnt I look like a firetruck! After realizing how burnt I was, I went straight to the Chemist, spent $25 on 100% aloe vera and a spray can of Solar Cane. Slowly I am getting better.

Friday night, Mike and I went to see a friend of mine from Toronto, Tiiu. She has been out here for about 8 years, and before last night, I don't think I had seen her since one of my epic, KJ last friday night parties from about 10 years ago. We met up with her and her friends at this cool brewery, The Little Creatures Brewery, where for the first time in a long time, I got to enjoy a proper beer at ok prices in a very chilled out restaurant, rather than being in some backpacker type club. Catching up was nice, and meeting new people was also great, we got invited to a house party tonight which sounds like a great time.

Other than that, I can't really think about anything to say. Nadal is out, Federer is out and Murray is the only one left worth seeing (in my opinion) at the Australian Open, so maybe that will be tomorrows entertainment. Hope all is well with you, I'm having a blast.

Till next time,

Peter

The Luck of the Irish, and a New Yorker

So if you have been following my blog, you would be fully aware that I am hiking in Katoomba, also known as the Blue Mountains. I started hiking on thursday with some friends from Sydney and decided to make my way back for the weekend. It's called the Blue Mountains, because when the sun hits the mountains, they look blue. Pretty cool I guess.

The Blue Mountains is a little bit like Port Sydney in Muskoka. A very small town, with a grocery store, and two bars. There is probably more, but the general pace here is much slower than anywhere else I've been too in Australia (Sydney). After been in Sydney for 2 weeks, I figured the best way to plan more of my trip was to get out of the city, somewhere remote where I would have the chance to do some research about the land down under and maybe plan my next couple of months. What better place to do that than in Katoomba. There probably won't be many people to meet, let me rephrase that, there probably wouldn't be many people that would want to party and drink till all hours of the night. Man was I wrong.

After arriving to Katoomba friday afternoon, a little hung over from partying in Sydney the night before, I placed my luggage in my room, put my food in the kitchen and had a lonesome beer on the sun deck, where I figured I could start my planning. It couldn't have been more than 5 minutes when a group of girls asked me to take there picture. Being no stranger to photography or interested in meeting new people, i quickly obliged and started my photo shoot. Seeing that I was on my own, these lovely ladies invited me over to chat with them and this is really where the stories begin.

Where in the begining there were only 4 of us, our number quickly grew to 7, then 10, and in the end there was easily a crew of maybe 20 travelers, ready to enjoy a weekend in Katoomba. When you find yourself traveling on your own, and you are in a big group of people, you quickly realize who you vibe with and who you don't. The English travelers, really chose to stay within there own group and that left me with the wittier, more enjoyable Irish. Now, I've never really hung out with the Irish, except for an old boss who spoke "wit a tick aksent", and I'd been told that the women talk so damn fast, if you aren't 100% into the conversation you're lost. Most of this Irish knowledge I'd had was accurate, but once you start chatting and drinking with them, you pick up the accent quickly and partying with them become easy.

So here I am, Friday night in Katoomba with an original plan of detoxing and planning my trip and by midnight, I find myself in Katoombas only nightclub with 9 Irish drinkers and a single Aussie. With drinking and conversation, I volunteer myself to walk with these new friends of mine into the Blue Mountains the next day (Saturday) and show them around.

SATURDAY MORNING and INTO THE AFTERNOON

FML, it's 10:30 and these Irish are ready to go walking. I'm not the kind of guy to leave my partying Irish to travel through the woods on there own, so as promissed, I decide to, wait a minute, Lara the New Yorker (an English teacher in Oz with both an Irish/New York accent), changes my name from Peter to tour guide for the next 4 hours. After another great hike through the Blue Mountains, with 6 of my Irish comrades, we get back to the hostel and decide we shall have a BBQ. After going to the grocery and more importantly the liquor store, we get back to the hostel, and start our evening off with "crisps" and beer.

While some would love a nap after such a long day, the Irish, the new Yorker and the Tour Guide decide that enjoying the weather and beer was a much more enjoyable way to enjoy our Saturday evening. Well to make a long story a little shorter, our party went on till 6am Sunday with highlights such as:
- an evening bbq with beer and 5L of goon
- a visit to both bars in town, obviously with the night club being the last stop

- a kitchen break-in, which included scaling a wall to get our booze from the fridge

- a fort build only out of couch cussions, which was invaded on more than once

- and Brian the story-teller, keeping us laughing for hours on end

I wouldn't change a thing from this weekend. I met some great people I'll visit and party with again when I make my way back to Sydney, and really that's what this trip is all about for me. Meeting great people, having a good time, and enjoying myself to the max! Thanks for the memories guys!!

As far as my travelling plans are concerned, I know that I am booked in Melbourne till the 3rd. Which gives me lots of time to plan my trip further, and write more about my adventures in this blog. Hope you enjoyed the read.

Peter

KATOOMBA!!!!!

Three guys go hiking in the forest, minding their business and suddenly they are captured by this aboriginal tribe. The tribe members bring the three men to their tribe leader. The tribe leader explains to the men that they have travelled over sacred grounds and unless each man can bring back 10 pieces of the same kind of fruit back to the leader, he will have them killed. The three men agree to get the fruit and set out to the woods.
The first guy comes back with 10 apples. The tribe leader tells him, " If you want to live, you must with no facial expression shove all your 10 fruit up your ass and we will let you go." The first man knows he has no choice, so without facial expression gets the first apple up, then the second, but come the third apple, he lets out a single tear and the leader instantly kills him.
The second guy comes with 10 grapes. The leader explains the rules of survival and the second man starts his task. He inserts the first grape, then the second, third and fourth. By the time he gets to the 9th grape, he bursts out in laughter. The tribe leader kills him instantly.
At the Pearly Gates, the first man asks the second man, " you were so close to survival, 9 grapes in, what the hell could have been so funny that you had to laugh?"
The second guy tells the first, " I saw the third guy coming back with pineapples!"

Katoomba is a beautiful place to hike and enjoy nature. Located just 130kms outside of Sydney, a 2 hour train ride, you can enjoy the mystical Blue Mountains and walk trails for 7 hours if you like. Today will be my second day doing the walk. I did it on Thursday with some friends from Sydney and figured that I wanted to get out of town and try something different. Thursdays walk included seeing the Three Sisters, 3 massive rocks in the middle of the "jungle", many waterfalls and all kinds of birds. I met some people here in Katoomba that are staying at my hostel and want me to "guide" them around. Today should be another adventure with loads of walking. Hope you enjoyed the joke. More to come later. I'm off for a hike!

Peter

Too Tired...

Well, I got bored so you get to read a little more. Originally I planned to be out of Sydney within a week and here I am almost 2 weeks in and finding myself in the black hole of this YHA hostel. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving every minute of it, but now is the time to start planning on where I will be heading next.
One of te reasons I am still in Sydney is because I have to wait for the bank to send me all my work papers and bank card. I guess I could have filled all the papers out last week, but to sum it up "too tired!" I went to the work and holiday office today to get the ball rolling and they have informed me that my bank card and other final papers will be ready in 3 business days. That means I will be around Sydney till at least Tuesday. The good news is, that I have found cheap ways to drink, and carouse the Sydney surroundings.
Tomorrow I will be going to the Blue Mountains with some friends, which will be great. The Blue Mountains are about a 2 hour train ride outside of Sydney and there is tons of hiking, swimming and maybe even some rock climbing. As of right now, I am only going to be there for tthe day, but if it is worth going to visit for the weekend, I may consider staying there till monday night. You see, I am only booked at the Railway hostel in Sydney till friday so tomorrow is a great day to explore other areas that aren't too far from the downtown core.
Following Tuesday, I plan on making my way down to Melbourne where if I'm lucky I will be able to get some tickets to the Australian Open. Trying to get a hostel in Melbourne is next to impossible right now, because of Australia Day and the Tennis, but hey, what are you gonna do? I guess I will just have to role with it.
I also picked up this amazing cd of a guy playing the didgeridoo with some mixed in house, dance and trance. Dan you would really like it. I will see if I can post it on Facebook. Hope all is well with you guys, but for the time being I am going to melt myself in a bean bag chair and enjoy watching some solid tennis.

Peace out Hommies,

Peter

Burnt!

Well it has been exactly a week since I have arrived to Sydney and every day is a better day. I have made some great friends from everywhere in the world, and even some locals from Toronto. The last three days have been great, mostly because we kept going back to Manly Beach to enjoy the hot sun, the warm water, and some great places to eat and drink. I found a Bavarian pub that serves proper beer, not just the Australian stuff, a German food store that has got some great prices, and it is all located in the wharf at Manly. Awesome!!
When we went to the beach yesterday, we had a group of 13 people from the hostel and the ocean was wild. Some of the waves were 2-3 meters high and it is tough to swim with the rip pulling you around. After about 30 minutes in the water, it was time to call it quits and enjoy the sun. I can't help but think of the Simcoe tanning crew, which really was myself and the ladies, and Momo's brother when he was in town. Tanning in Australia is a totally different beast! They don't sell any tanning lotion less than 30+ because the ozone is so thin, you will just fry. I did 2 days of basing myself, and today still applied my 30+ and I am crisp. The good news is that I'll have a solid tan in a week or two, but for the time being, no matter how hard I tried not to be in this situation, I am applying Banana Boat Aloe spray to my entire body, especially my forehead! Shit!!! Factor 30+, Factor 30+!!!
Momo, if you ever come to Aus, Factor 30+ :)

Another great thing that has happend is that my bag went for a swim with my towel, hat, camera (waterproof - best purchas) and cell phone. Great! I've ruined my cell phone in less than a week. It's amazing how fast the tide comes up on the beach and how little you notice it happening when you are playing frisbee. lesson learned, don't spent money on expensive phone! I didn't buy a super expensive phone, but I still spent over $100 (idiot). Today i went out and bought a new phone for $39 and I already like it more. :)

All my friends here are great and we spend most of our time drinking and partying at the hostel. We have a solid crew and while some are already gone to other towns or cities, we all plan to meet again before we depart this amazing country. Late nights, good friends and loads of conversation, what more could you ask for?

Till next time,

P

Stupid Cold...

Well here I am on day 3, and I have a brutal head cold. No big deal really, I guess I will just have to take it easy for the next couple of days. Luckily I brought some tylenol cold with me, so self medication is well on its way.

Today was one of the nicest days so far. There was virtually no clouds in the sky and the temp felt like it easily could have been in the 30's. It kind of sucks that this col has chosen my path on the first day of sun, but what can you do? I went to the Coles (Australia's Metro) and got boat loads of Vitamin C and some food so I can eat at the hostel rather than going out. After a sweet pasta and salad dinner, I've decided to do nothing but sit in the lounge area; watch movies on my computer, surf info about Oz and leave another post.

I think I am going to be in Sydney till next Wednesday, and then I will see where I am going to go. Perhaps you can help me. Inspired by Norm, I think I am going to list 2 places that I want to visit next and you can tell me which you think would be more fun. I'll have to do my research and get rid of this cold, but in the next couple of days you can expect to see some sort of post where you can vote on where I should go.

It's awful to think that most of you are waking up to go to work. I hate to rub it in, but I can't help but want to let you know that not only am I not in bed yet, I am sitting next to the pool on the outside deck in a t-shirt and shorts, with the whitest feet in the world.

Have you guys heard that Brisbane has been evacuated. It's so crazy. They are saying it is the worst natural disaster in over 100 years. Hopefully everyone north of me is ok, but the city is shut down and there is no traveling north of Byron as of this morning. So you can expect that I will be heading south in the next couple of weeks.

Well I am beat and it's time to take some tylenol. Enjoy your days...

Peter

Leaving and Arriving...

I remember a couple of years ago (at least it only feels like a couple of years ago) when my sister left for Europe to live in Brussles. I remember saying good bye to her in the airport with my parents and having this feeling of excitement for her because she was going on this amazing adventure, but while I knew that she was super excited to go on her European adventure, she seemed sad to be leaving. It wasn't until January 8th, 2011 that I could truly understand why she seemed sad at the Airport. Was it because she was scared to go on her trip? Nope, she seemed very excited about living in Europe. Was it because she didn't know if she was making the right decision in moving to Brussels? Nope, Dan was there! So why do people get emotionally effected before embarking on a trip, big or small? Well I don't have the answer yet, but I believe it has something to do with you. The people that are ready my blog and my story.

Family and friends are what make you emotional before you travel anywhere. It doesn't matter if you're 18, leaving your home for school in another town, city or country; or if you just decide to pick up and get the hell out of dodge, you will always miss the people that are in your life that you are (for lack of a better term) "leaving behind".

On January 8th, it was my turn to experience that feeling both of sadness and being super excited at the same time and let me tell you something, so far it is more than worth it!!!

JANUARY 8TH

I'm not going to bore you with the nitty gritty of my travels in the planes to get to the other side of the world, but I will give you the condensed version. Toronto - Shanghai took 15.5 hours in the air. Air Canada has some pretty comfortable seats. Food was meh, and the movies good. Shanghai - Sydney took 10.5 hours in the air. China Air has awful seats and I'm pretty sure someone got caught for smoking in the plane. China Air's solution to the smoking bandit was to make the rest of it's passengers enhail about 3-4 spray bottle of a chinese rip off version of febrees. Are you also wondering if inhailing 4 cans faux-brees is better for me than smelling a little smoke? Yeah me too.

JANUARY 10TH

I'm here! I've made it to my destination, I am now in Sydney and f#*k is this place expensive!!! I am staying at this cool hostel which is next to the train station, tucked behind some building so it's kind of like a secret location. AWESOME! After getting my bags to my room and feeling a little adventurous, I decide to trek out to the Sydney harbour. From my hostel, it was about a 35 minute walk where I come to the corner of George St and Alfred St and between 2 massive palm trees I see the Sydney Opera House. WOW! It was cloudy out, but i still got some pictures.(i haven't loaded them yet) After a tour around the harbour, where meals average $45, i decide that eating here is not the best choice for someone that would rather not work on his trip! I decide to move on and make my way throught the Botanical Gardens and follow my hunger to a bar called Scruffy Murphys where i enjoy a beer and chicken sandwich for a mere $18.50. Did a mention that beers here aren't even full pints. They are those childish 3/4 pints you find at a University pub.

This place is so chilled out and relaxed, I can see why Tank to me I would love it. After a solid 2.5 hour walk, I made my way back to the hostel, enjoyed a solid 3 hour nap, woke up and found the closest pool hall. IT'S JUST DOWN THE STREET!!! More has happened, in my 2.5 days here, but for the time being that is all I am willing to write about. The city is awesome, the people are great and the sun has finally come out. Talk to you all soon.

Peter