The Ashes

As cricket is one of the biggest sports in Australia, I figured it was a must to make it to The Ashes; the worlds biggest cricket match – Australia vs. England. It took place in Brisbane; at the Gabba cricket stadium. It is a 5 day match (wtf!?) and I attended the 4^th day. The day started at 10am and finally finished early, at 5pm, due to ‘bad light’ (wtf again). Cricket was slightly more interesting then I was expecting, but still averages at a fun level equal to baseball…

The most exciting part of the day was spending my money away on the $6.60 beers and watching as the drunken, male-dominated crowd got rowdy. Although taking place in Australia, it was clear that the majority of the crowd, or at least the majority of the boisterousness of the crowd, definitely lay in the hands of the English. I actually think most of the crowd in the stands were too drunk to even watch the match by noon, and spend the rest of the day bantering. Of course, the favourite cheer of these Englishmen had absolutely nothing to do with the cricket game, but instead where singing drunken bus tour songs like Yogi Bear, and the store in Chicago! It was hilarious hearing grown men sing songs that I would only bust out if I was on some sort of Krista’s birthday related event. I noted some good ones for the next time…

I’ll leave you with the favourite cheer of the day…sang to every one of the woman in the crowd, should they be ballsy enough to leave their seats for any reason (and if you know the size of my bladder, you can unfortunately assume that throughout the day I was privy to this cheerful invitation more then a few times.)

“Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, get your tits out!”

Don’t worry…I ignored it.

Camp B'nai Byron

After almost three weeks in Newcastle we finally got out. We took a ten hour, overnight bus up the coast to the hippie town of Byron Bay. We arrived, tired and groggy, to the messiest 16 bed room dorm we have ever seen. It felt like I was taking a step back in time to my years at camp living in a cabin with a bunch of messy girls.

Little did we know though, that this week, and for the next 3 weeks, is what is nationally known as ‘Schoolies’. What is schoolies you may ask’? It is spring break for graduating high school students. So, I am partying in Australia’s version of Cancun, with high school students everywhere. As for anyone who isn’t a high school student around here, they are called ‘Toolies”…Guess that’s me!

Despite the decision to come here at a really unfortunate time, I absolutely LOVE Byron Bay. It is a really gorgeous town, filled with coffee shops, great shopping and tons of tourists. There are great paths to run on, a pretty beach to go relax, and a never ending nightlife. The hostel I am staying in, although being fairly mess and small, is TONS of fun. Everyone who comes here stays around for at least a week, if not more, so it is easy to actually get to know everyone. I have been here for over a week now, spending most of my time with a group of 4 Canadians.

Up until now, it has been raining most of the time I have been in Byron, which cuts down on what I can do while I am here…but it still has not cut down on fun. Everyone in Byron Bay seems to be the most fit and beautiful people I have ever seen, which has been so encouraging to keep healthy and fit. It is really a great environment!

Tomorrow, I will be heading 2 hours up he coast to Brisbane with two English blokes who I met here to go watch the Ashes; a 5 day long cricket match Australia vs. England.

…When in Rome!

Housekeeping

It has been almost 2 weeks now that I have been living in the Newcastle YHA hostel and working for free accommodation. The work, although unfavourable, is fairly easy; I spend 2 hours a day cleaning the hostel, from making beds (the easier job) to cleaning bathrooms (not as gross as you would think…but still sucks). Probably my favourite part of the job is that I get to laugh at Mark knocking on people’s doors and say ‘housekeeping’ and actually be serious about it. It never fails to make me giggle.

Considering people usually only spend 2 – 3 days traveling through Newcastle, I am now, in backpacker terms, considered an expert on the hostel and the town. It has been cool to be able to get to know this place a little bit better then the average backpacker and the hostel is a really homey place. I would definitely recommend a Newcastle visit to anyone!

There is also a group of 6 of us who work here together and have gotten to know each other really well; 1 from Sweden, 2 from Germany, 1 from England, Mark and I. the daily break down normally goes down like this: 9:45 wake up, work from 10-12, spend the afternoon on the beach, do some dinner, and get to gooning. It has been a pretty relaxing couple of weeks, but I am looking forward to moving somewhere new and exciting in the near future…

PS. We are EATING Kangaroo for dinner tomorrow… stay tuned for those ‘hop’penings. 

The Melbourne Cup

One of the first things I’ve noticed about Australians: they LOVE to gamble. There is an abundance of gambling bars and almost every bar has a machine in it where you can gamble, which apparently rakes in tons of money.

So, although yesterday was not a holiday, it was expected that most of Australia would be non-functioning and drunk by 3pm to watch the nation famous Melbourne Cup. Of course, we took part in the Australian tradition; we placed our bets and parked our butts in front of the TV to watch the horse race. It was great! I ended up being really successful In our hostel-wide sweepstakes, I pulled ‘Zavite’ out of a hat. In my actual bet, I bet on ‘Maluckyday’ to place. I got lucky both times!! ‘Zavite came in dead last, which got me some chocolate for my sorrows (aka best win ever!) and for ‘Maluckyday’s’ 2^nd place standing, I made myself six bones! Exciting!

A Halloween Nightmare

On our second day in Port Stephens, Mark and I decided to go for a leisurely 45 min bike ride to check out the town of Port Stephens and to hike Tomaree Head; a kilometre hike that rewards you with an amazingly gorgeous view of the bay, the town, the ocean and Port Stephens infamous lighthouse.

Once we reached the summit, we noticed that there were rain clouds rolling in. We decided that we should try and bike it back before we got stuck in the rain. Fail. About 5 minutes into our difficult, uphill bike ride, it started to thunder. And then lightening. And then rain. And this was not regular Canadian rain that I am used to, but a torrential downpour. The thick raindrops were blinding and hurt when it fell on our skin. I was praying that the piece of crap bike that we rented would make it through this mess, without being struck by lightening, hit by a tree, or simply falling apart in the stress of the matter. Thankfully we made it back to our hostel…right on time for the rain to stop.