Daniel Alcinii
Unit 22/52-62 Newstead Terrace
Newstead, Queensland
4006, Australia
Shitty camera phone updates again! I'll get my actual camera pictures up soon, I just need to edit them. In the meantime, here you go:
SYDNEY
Seriously, if you're ever in New South Wales, specifically the Sydney area, do yourself a favour and eat at Moo Burgers. It's definitely the best thing in NSW if you're not a vegan/vegetarian. Anyway...
This is the absolute first thing that I saw getting off the plane in Sydney was, of course, a Canadian Club ad.
Our (Melissa and I) first day in Sydney. I had a one hour flight, and Melissa had a 23 hour flight, but I insisted that we both head out and take a walk down to the Quay to check out Sydney, otherwise her sleeping schedule would be incredibly fucked. Also, because I'm a selfish asshole and would have been bored exploring alone (get stoked on day one in Brisbane, Stepha). We did so, and started that off at a restaurant out by the botanical gardens where we saw this bird for the first time:
We then made our way (it's about a 10 minute walk, but it took us maybe 40 minutes of walking in circles to get here) to the below images:
The Opera House, obviously.
BONDI BEACH
We were supposed to meet up with Ashlyn, Steve, and Scott on this particular day to head out to Bondi, but happened to miss them at their hostel by 15 minutes. Melissa and I decided that we would still head out to Bondi to possibly try and find them. When we got there, we stopped off at Moo Burgers (fuck yes. Seriously, eat there) and then attempted half heartedly to find the aforementioned. We didn't see them (and I didn't know what they looked like at this point, so I kept pointing out the elderly and extremely Asian tourists asking if that was them).
COOGEE BEACH
This was the day that Melissa, Ashlyn, Steve, Scott, Michael (our German one day friend), and I decided to head out on a three hour coast walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach. The following was seen on a cool, windy and overcast day (of course - Sydney sucked for weather that week after a week long heatwave of 35+ degree weather):
And the coast walk officially begins!
And then this happened...
It was just a hole in the rock, with a little lip underneath so that you can climb down and stick your head or head and arm combo through it. It's highly advisable that you stand no where near the cliffs as you saw from the sign above, but fuck that. We were four Canadians, an American, and a German.
The cemetery overlooking the ocean.
Nearing Bondi Beach and the end of our walk:
The Blue Mountains in Katoomba:
Following our three hour coastal hike, we (Melissa, Steve, Ashlyn, Scott, Chet (from Seattle), Monica (from Ottawa), Monica's German friend who's name started with a V, and I, decided we'd take a two hour train out to Katoomba and hike some more. When we were leaving Sydney, it looked like a great day to head out to the Blue Mountains. When we got there, it was drizzling misty rain (like at Niagra Falls, where you get soaked after 2 minutes) and you couldn't see anything from any of the lookouts. We read all of the placards for the Three Sisters and what not, but couldn't see anything aside from extremely dense fog. It was a fun day regardless though, especially the train ride back into the city where we were all delusional and insanely tired laughing about things like "Food costs money, I'm a backpacker. Babies are free to eat", the amount of money you can get fined on a train for cursing and a "cursing chart" (by the way, the fine is anywhere from $400 to $1, 200), and playing the card game "Bullshit" (which could have netted, we assumed, a $600 fine) with two decks of cards. At one point after Chet placed down his stack of 7 Queens or whatever, it prompted Chet to turn to me and say "Is this blowing your mind?!", where I responded by saying "No. Cheat." It's way funnier if you were there, trust me.
Oh yeah, the German girl thought she was going to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney. She hated heights and walking, so she was fucking enraged when she found out we weren't going to the zoo, and in fact were going on a mountain hike. I'm not kidding about this, she actually fell off the train on the mountain side and into some bush. Had that bush not been there, she'd probably have died. No joke. AND instead of walking back up with the rest of us, she decided to take a trolly that crawls steeply up the mountain side at an impossible angle. Worst day of her life. Funniest day in New South Wales.
These were the best pictures I could get. We have pictures of all of us at the look outs standing next to a white background, it's pretty funny. This was at the bottom of our walk before we returned up the mountain.
Ferry ride to Manly Beach (but no pictures of Manly itself for some reason...)
Steve has some pictures that I will steal and claim as my own. No one will know the difference.
These pictures of Manly weren't really good at all, but trust me it was a beautiful ferry ride.
THE GOLD COAST
This was the day that I had to take Melissa down to the Gold Coast airport so that she can make her flight to Thailand for the week to meet up with her boyfriend, Adam. My parent's weren't too pleased about it. Also, Melissa initially booked a two day $800 return flight to Phuket accidentally, hahaha retard. The Gold Coast looks beautiful, and I feel as though I should have moved their or the Sunshine Coast (which I haven't been to yet, but still!) instead of Brisvegas. Oh well, I'll be back. We didn't get much time here, we got there at 4PM and I had to be out by 8PM to make the bus and train back to the city. We ate on the beach, had a quick swim in the warmest ocean water I have ever swam in (seriously, so nice) and then walked over to her YHA hostel that was apparently so fucking far from where we were. When I left at 8PM to the bus stop, I waited about a half hour for the bus before realizing that my bus wasn't coming. I checked the schedule, and the last one was at 7 something PM, so I take the next bus that comes all the way to Pacific Fair Mall, transfer there, and take another bus to the Robina Town Centre where the train station is. Then as I'm sitting down to wait 40 minutes for the train into the city, the BIGGEST FUCKING COCKROACH crawls down my leg. I freaked out, shook it off, got up, said "Fuck that!" and walked to the other end of the train station like if it couldn't walk there... As I get on the train, the conductor says that due to maintenance we would have to get off the train at South Brisbane, take a bus to Roma Street Station, and then take another train to where we wanted to go (Ferny Grove north to Bowen Hills Station). All in all, I left the Gold Coast at 8PM and I got home to my apartment at 12AM. It was absolutely the worst return trip I have ever taken, hahahaha fuck. Anyways, here's three pictures of the Gold Coast:
There will be more pictures of the Gold Coast after March 3rd when I pick Melissa up from the airport. Hopefully the Sunshine Coast / Maroochydore soon, too!
And finally....
BRISBANE
My new apartment in Brisbane (well, Newstead):
The kitchen, dining room, and living room. Hahaha.
The living room (where I currently am):
The view from the balcony. This is our courtyard:
The Brisbane River (or Breakfast Creek as it's called in our neck of the woods) is just beyond that building to the top right. So rad!)
There's a pretty nice pool behind that white wall that I have yet to swim in:
Our living room again, with all of David's things and his nice TV. I really like that banner and black globe to the left of it, too.
A better view of our (relatively messy) kitchen:
The hallway with the laundry room to the left, David's room in front of you, and then my room and the bathroom to the right of that:
My bathroom:
My room with three suitcases and shit spilled all over the floor. I haven't really moved in yet:
My rooms pretty plain, I only have a bed side table and a bed in it, and David has a little balcony in his room, but I get a view of the city from my room (again) which is pretty rad!
I really like this poster of New York City (hanging in David's room...)
