Hostel Living

All of our nights here in Australia have consisted of sleeping in a hostel.  Some nights we share a room with 3 to 4 other guests, other nights its just me and Julie.  For the most part the people we encounter are friendly and harmless.  We have shared with Canadians, French, German, Italian, English, Australian and one American (Conner from Georgia).  I thought the English blokes were the most friendly while the French were the most reserved.  The Germans just like to party.  We have stayed exclusively at Youth Hostels of Australia (YHA's).  They are a chain of hostels, privately leased or owned but all with the same membership.   4-6 share mixed dorms are about $25 AUS/person a night.  The Private Double bed rooms we have recently been getting are about $50-$65 AUS/ room per night.  We have stayed in the following YHA's: 1) Sydney Central YHA. 2)Sydney 'Glebe Point' YHA. 3) Byron Bay YHA. 4) Maroochydore YHA. 5) Hervey Bay YHA. 6) Airlie Beach YHA.  Friday we will depart for Mission Beach YHA set in the rainforest about an hour south of Cairns.  If you looked at these YHA's on a map you can see the progress of our northward journey.  *Try this link: www.yha.com.au/hostels/map_popup_overall.cfm

*Remember, we are traveling up the east coast in Queensland.

A couple of memorable moments in YHA world.  

Sydney Central: Our first hostel in Australia. This was a big hostel and supposedly the creme de le creme of hostels. It was clean and the bathrooms (communal of course) were big easy to get ready in. We roomed with an english couple our first night that were nice, but kept to themselves for the most part. Our second night we roomed with a canadian girl and a guy from Belgium who swore a lot as he unpacked not knowing we were napping in our respective bunks. It had good kitchen facilities and a cinema room with cushy bean bags and pillows scattered throughout. A 15 minute bus ride brought us to our next hostel stay; Glebe.  

Glebe YHA: There was this older Aussie fellow who walked around with no shirt on.  He was very hairy.  I commented to Julie on the state of his nakedness in the kitchen.  At least put on a shirt if you're gonna cook some eggs with everyone else.  We had to switch rooms for our second night there and guess who we get roomed with?  Sure enough, naked Dave.  As it turned out, Dave was a very friendly (and very shy) person.  We enjoyed our time befriending him. Where the normal person would get a point across in 20 seconds, Dave would take 2 minutes.   Glebe Ultimately ranked high on our ranking system of YHA's.  Good kitchen, nice TV room, and fun hangout area on the rooftop.  And a library nearby with free wifi.  Allow me to just comment on how much of a luxury it is to find free wifi near the hostel.   

Byron Bay YHA:  A definite party town, and thus a party hostel.  The hostel was great for its proximity to the beach and local shops.  It provided free boogie board and bike rental; we took advantage of both.  Julie has the scars to prove it, hahaha.  We went to a local pub that had really good food and live music, a place called The Rails (Much better than the shady alternative, 'Cheeky Monkey').  We roomed with two German guys who were quite rambunctious.  They were definitely entertaining to say the least.  They turned us onto Maroochydore for a good place to find farm work.  We also roomed with three 7 foot tall English guys who had arrived on a 12 hour bus ride from New Castle.  They were very nice as we chatted about the cost of living throughout Australia.  They said Perth (west coast) was really expensive.  

Maroochydore YHA:  Using the advice from the Germans we went to Maroochydore looking for work.  Upon arriving we immediately felt cozy and comfortable.  This particular YHA was very small but had good facilities which is the most important aspect.  We mainly rank on Kitchen, Bathroom, TV room, and overall ambiance (ie: pool, hammocks, etc.) An added plus; free breakfast.  They front desk managers helped us get our first farm work experience, picking ginger.  We will elaborate on that day later, but let's just say it only lasted one day.  There was a bit of a french click at this hostel which kind of turned us off because we felt an inability to connect.  After three nights at this hostel we moved on to the next stop of our choice Hervey Bay.

*(Note: Sometimes there is a method to picking which YHA we go to and other times it is quite random.)

Hervey Bay YHA:  An immediate feeling of a relaxing secluded resort atmosphere, which we were in need of.  Set up quite differently than our other accommodations; this YHA had Bungalow type rooms. This was the first time we took advantage of the private room, it seems to have gotten less expensive for this type of stay as we have moved north. It's kind of a novelty to share a room with strangers as you back pack, but nice to be able to have peace, quite and privacy on occasion. Hervey Bay had it's own restaurant and bar (inexpensive and good). It had a beautiful pool, hot tub, and great hammocks. We also enjoyed feeding the ducks that took up a home on the pond in the center of the hostel grounds.  After a nice bike ride on Monday we came home in the afternoon to find the Oscars on.  We watched the last hour and were pleased to see Sean Penn win best actor and Slumdog get best picture.  Seeing Ben Kingsley introduce Mickey Rorke as a nominee was just bizarre, I don't know why.  

Airlie Beach YHA:  Nothing 'amazing about this YHA but it does have good kitchen facilities and we share a bathroom with only one other room.   Tomorrow we are taking advantage of a one day speedboat and snorkel adventure.  It's really hot here.  There is no swimming in the ocean because of deadly 'stingers' or jellyfish.  We respect that fully, so we visit the local man made lagoon here in town.  It's just a giant pool, but nice.  And when we go snorkeling tomorrow we will be wearing stinger suits, so don't worry people.  While here we happened upon a health food restaurant where on the bulletin board we found a very interesting post.  A couple north of here in Innisfail, one hour south of Cairns, is looking to provide accommodation in exchange for household chores (ie: gardening, cooking, etc.).  They will also help us get banana farm work.  Julie called them and it all sounds great.  We will arrive there late this weekend, but not before stopping off at Mission Beach YHA in the rainforest!  Thats all for now folks!

T & J

New South Wales to Queensland!

Hello, Family and Friends

We have come up with a rough plan for our Australian adventure. We were in Sydney, which is full of activity and back packers galore; the job market is tough there. We have enjoyed our time taking in some of the sights, Sydney Harbour was beautiful. We saw the famous Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, which you can see in our photos. There is a tourist activity that people partake in that was pretty cool to witness; you can actually climb the bridge and we saw a large group of people climbing on a very windy day! We also saw an “Aboriginal” guy playing an instrument and trying to sell CDs. He was encouraging all the onlookers to take photos of him, which of course we did. We met a native Melbournian who gave us a very unbiased and intelligent education on aboriginals. Apparently, with the setup of ‘reservations’ they exist in a fashion much like that of Native Americans. Some are integrated into mainstream society, while most remain in their own territories. But we digress…the plan!:

We have purchased a “get on get off” bus pass from Sydney to Cairnes. We can get off and on at our own leisure within two months but cannot back track. So, we will work on farms as we migrate north towards Cairnes where we will make arrangements to experience the Great Barrier Reef. We currently are in Maroochydore (our second stop after Sydney). We stopped in Byron Bay on Monday. We had a fun time there which included such activities as 'boogie boarding', toured the local town, went bike riding, seeing the lighthouse on Cape Byron; the most easterly point of Australia. We left Byron Bay on Wednesday, just as the rain arrived and headed north to Maroochydore. Maroochydore is a quiet little suburb with all the fun things every town seems to have in Australia - beach, surf, snorkeling, kayaking, etc. We may have a farm job here in the coming days. The full season kicks off in March so we are hopeful. We want to work here for a bit and then make our way to see some koalas and go sailing - http://www.koalaadventures.com/. We get deals through our organization. Internet isn't always easy to come by, so bare with us. Tons of pics to come.

Julie and Tim

Next Blog entry title: "Hostel Living: A day in the life of a mixed dorm"

Hello Everyone

Julie and Tim are in Sydney baby! We had a wonderful time in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lots of interesting people and yummy food to be had. We saw Sea Lions on Pier 39! Jaden would have loved it! They barked at each other and were either fighting or love making (video to follow). We went to four yoga classes in about five days. They love to chant in the yoga classes out there. Kevin and Devin were wonderful hosts, we really felt at home with them. Kevin will look after the car while we are away. He will use it for his friday night drag races on San Pablo Ave in Emeryville. We left the 'city' Sunday night and braced ourselves for a 14 hour plane ride...yikes! We were served dinner (Salmon)on the plane at about midnight, California time. Through a restless night sleep in an upright seated position we somehow awoke early Tuesday to find that we only had 3 hours to go, and that we had traveled forward in time skipping Monday the 9th of February 2009 _(Thanks for the Adavan Devin - Julie). The flight overall went by quickly. We found our contact at the aiport after a short search and were lead to a van taxi with some other travelers. We were driven to the YHA Central (Sydney's best Hostel in town). Since Tuesday we have been living out of our backpacks, searching for employment and a place to live. I think we have tentatively decided to move away from the cities and try to find work on a farm where we can save a decent amount of money for travel fun later. We will let you all know what is happening in the coming days. Our number is 0450432757. Dial the following:

011 61 2 (Sydney's 'City Code') 0450432757

That should work. You'll all have to figure out how you want to pay for that if you decide to call us, we hear calling cards are the way to go.

Julie and Tim

California

We made it into Mountain View, CA late Wednesday night January 28th. Tim's friend Jeff Lang welcomed us to his home to stay for a couple nights. Jeff is a freelance yoga instructor in the area and we are very envious of the lifestyle he leads. He took us to breakfast on Thursday morning and we explored Silicon Valley. In the afternoon we met up with Jeff's friend Lauren and got yummy felafel. After lunch we went to a fish/reptile store where we witnessed Jeff fall in love with a yellow and pinkish striped "king snake". He would later go back and buy it. After a busy day of walking around and taking in the sites we were looking forward to one of Jeff's yoga classes. The style of yoga he teaches is bit unorthodox to the usual flow styles that we're used to. We did the spider and frog crawls; definitely a fun and challenging class. After yoga Jeff took us to a delicious Ramen noodle restaurant - that's right, Ramen. This is not your average cup of noodles. The dishes are elaborately prepared and quite tasty. The next day we met up with a friend of Julie's, John Hawley. He took us up a very windy mountain, where we would eventually arrive at the state park Big Basin. It was so amazing to see the very old and tall red woods. A cross section of one of the trees indicated that it was almost 2000 years old! We took a hike through one of the trails before heading down to grab a bite. Very hungry, we quickly spotted a large Whole Foods where we scarfed delicious burritos. We capped the night off by having a few drinks at a local Irish pub, Scruffy Murphy's. Fun times in Sunnyvale! Onward to the 'City'...

Scary Road

After Las Vegas we set out destined for California. Upon reaching the State line we ran into a road block on I-15. Rather than taking our chances on waiting it out we turned around began searching for a way around the closed section of the highway. Looking at the GPS, it seemed clear that if we simply went back to the last exit, hopped on route 161 and headed west that we would eventually arrive at I-15 ahead of the road block. So we made our way down this desolate stretch of road hoping it would not take too long. The road did not have many labels on it so we quickly became confused as to where we were. We were at least headed in the right direction - west. Then we happened upon an intersection, again with no labels. A woman in a white car was also at the intersection coming from the other direction and she stopped to roll down her window. We rolled down ours as well. We explained we were looking to get back to I-15. She said all we had to do was go straight ahead; the road would turn to dirt for a bit and it would pop us right put to I-15. She seemed trustworthy enough so we went straight, toward the mountainous incline in the short distance. As we drove on we went through a little town with very few homes, one church and not a human in sight. We began to think that our surroundings were very similar to that of the horror movie "The Hills Have Eyes". As the incline became a bit steeper it forced us to slow down to about 15mph. Dust was engulfing the car as we chugged along the dirt and rock, praying we didn't get a flat. As if we needed any added suspense, we suddenly approached a house on the right with a human sized dummy hanging on a tree limb by a noose tied to its' neck. (It was a white doll, so I don't think it was a racial thing, which was my first nauseating thought). I was thinking "oh God, our killers are gonna pull up on ATVs and hold us at gunpoint and....." you get the idea. Active imagination. With no cell phone reception I truly felt like we were helpless to even call for help. Nonetheless, we were confident that the road was going in the right direction. After about a half hour of this off road expedition we FINALLY came to pavement on the other side of the mountains and saw signs pointing to I-15. Unfortunately we did not capture any footage of what we learned later is called 'Kingston Road' in Sandy Valley, NV. All Internet accounts describe this drive as very scenic and enjoyable, assuming of course that one has a proper vehicle for such terrain. But no stories of anything bad happening or anything like that. Just another normal desolate dirt road to the locals I'm sure but to two native New Englanders something much more nerve racking.

California happenings to come soon....

Julie