Australia: finally

After four years of dreaming about coming down under, I’m finally here. My interest for Australia started when I was young with all the unique animals, existing only on that continent. It grew after I met a few aussies and came to learn that there wasn’t an aussie I didn’t like. When I bought this ticket, it was out of spite, anger and frustration going to show that good things can from bad.

Boarding the plane in LA was beyond exciting, I called the people who matter most one last time and I didn’t look back. The 11 hour flight was amazing thanks to a very large ambien cr pill. I slept like a rock for 8 hours straight and woke up with no grogginess. My layover in Fiji went well too, the airport people ushered me through a short cut because I was one of the few that had a continuing flight. I bought a water with a 5 dollar American bill and ended getting back 4.50 Fiji. Nice exchange rate there! The flight from Fiji to Sdyney went well also, I thought it was funny that the fruit that they served us with our meal was all tropical fruit since we had just left Fiji. I got through a majority of 1984 on that flight, finally getting to the good parts of the book. Flying into Sydney I saw the opera house and THAT was something that put a smile on my face. Actually seeing something so famous and monumental with my own eyes was exciting.

So everything was going great..until.. Sydney airport. I had decided at the last second to skip Sydney and go straight to Melbourne to meet up with LJ, so I had to schedule a separate flight. After getting both my bags I went back through the airport to check into my flight with JetStar to Melbounre. When I got to the counter and out my bags on the scale, she said the bags have to be 20kg and mine being a total of 50kg. I said fine, I’ll pay the extra fee, I was surprised they didn’t charge me in LA and it so bound to happen. She got out the calculator (weird I thought) and after a few punches of that she said, “that will be 530 dollars”. WHAT?! How is that possible?? Apparently its 10 dollars A KG that you have extra. Wow. So she pointed me in direction of the storage which I ended up declining because that was outrageous priced as well. So I decided it would be cheaper to throw stuff out then to pay that outrageous fee. So here is this American in the corner of the airport throwing out perfectly good shampoo, shoes, t-shirts etc and putting all my heavy stuff in my backpack to make my bags lighter .This cute Asian girl walked by and I asked her if she wanted my ADORABLE red Steve Maddens (because they weren’t about to go in the trash) and her friend ended up being the same size shoe as me and grateful took them. When I got back to the counter I put my bags up and it totaled to 40kg, perfect! Nope. It was 20kg total, not each!! So I ended up paying 200 dollars to get my fucking clothes to Melbourne. Not happy.

The flight was only an hour and a half and I was more then ready to be there. LJ looked exactly the same and we made quite a seen as we both squealed and jumped on each other at the airport.

LJ, being the thoughtful muffin she is rented a hotel room in Melbourne for two nights, before we headed to Geelong, which is where she lives outside of Melbourne. We quickly got ready and went out to eat at this cute Italian place and paid for it all. We met up with her friends, went bowling and had drinks bought all night! Her friend Liz even brought me vegemite and crackers with my name on it. They were so thoughtful and excited to meet me, it felt good to know that LJ had obviously spoke highly of me to them. We went back to the hotel the first night a bit early, obviously me being tired and expecting to suffer from jet lag with waking up 5 times that night to come. Well let me note I’m the worst when it comes to jet lag, the worst. Even when I went to camp every summer at the east coast it would take me the whole week of staff training to adjust to only a 3 hour difference. Thailand and Europe were obviously worst from that, getting sick both times and always being tired. Well that night I woke up once and slept until 8am. Amazing! That whole next day I wasn’t tired at all, I took a short nap and we ended up going out and everything. I didn’t suffer from jet lag at all!!! It’s honestly a miracle.

The next day LJ and I explored Melbourne which is like.. New York City and Portland had a baby with some Hawaiian roots. I loved it, cafes, art, small restaurants, museums, parks, such a cute city. Lots of culture, clean and old and new buildings just like Portland. The café we ate at also reminded me of Portland with the menu being a bit more gourmet and the décor being modern. At breakfast I learned that coffee doesn’t exist. Only drinks made with espresso which comes in small glass cups, and not your normal porcelain mug, odd.
The rest of the day we walked around, went to a sunday market and enjoyed people watching. We went to the Eureka sky building which is one of the highest buildings in the southern hemisphere. It was quite amazing and a great way to see most of Melbourne. We also went to the art museum and had a good collection including an Andy Warhol. LJ and I shared a sandwich at federation square and threw the extra bread to the birds. We named our favorite seagull Henry, who had quite the talent. He caught the bread where ever we threw it! Haha. After that we went to the "bottle shop" to buy some vodka which was $40 for 700ml which is smaller then our standard bottle (a fifth). I was so shocked, so friends if you want to send me something.. send me alcohol.. haha. LJ and I got ready and met up with her two friends Liz and Shaun and went to the casino where we lost 50 dollars. boo. We met a bunch of boys at the casino who I expected to buy us drinks, but apparently that's uncommon here, I'll have it get use to that.

The next day we headed to Geelong where LJ lives and goes to school. It's a little beach town and a lot smaller then Melbourne. Her house is old and she shares it with two other girls and two fluffy cats. Theres a big back yard with a place to have a garden, which I am very excited about. So far I'm having a hard time going from 95 degree weather to 55 degree weather. Although it's not necessarily cold, its a big change. I love the weather though, it rains for part of the day then its sunny, which makes it very beautiful and crisp. I hadn't seen the rain since I left Oregon, so I was very happy to see it again. Sitting on the wrong side of the car and driving on the wrong side of the road feels extremely awkward as well. It's as though I'm in an upside down world. Even when I wake up in the morning the sounds are different, the birds are more squawky and the cars are more buzzy. All in all, I'm so happy to be here. It's as though LJ and I never left each other and our friendship is still solid and strong. All my worry's have seem to drift away and I haven't thought about home once. It's only been three days and I think I'm already in love with this land of kangaroos.. which I still haven't seen yet.