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