trip comming to a close.

on sat i went to go meet my uncle. he told me to be at his place for 530. i told him id be there but i wanted to take the operahouse tour first. so of course this being me and i have only been to the opera house everyday since i have been here. some days more than one. its almost like im being dragged there. one day i decided to walk in any direction. just see where i ended up. i started walking in the other way of the opera house....guess where i ended up? you guess it. i think i have been there about 8-10 times or more.anway i had to take a taxi to get to my uncles on time.it ran about 21 bucks. so we meet up and i had supper over there. later on over coffee they asked me what else i wanted to do. i said the blue mountains. http://www.bluemts.com.au/

so they ended up taking me there and paying for everything! my food, rides there, everything. something that was unexpected. i wanted to at least pay for the food but that was not going to happen. so i enjoyed meeting them, but i was told it wasnt the first time. when i was too young to remember i meet them in Saskatchewan. his face did look like i have meet him somewhere before. so i might take a day tour tomorrow if i can to the wine yards and see those. i love OZ wine and i wouldnt mind to see where it is made.

when i did the bridge climb here someone told me about this video someone made before all the security was put in. so i had to see this video for myself http://youtube.com/watch?v=OgKljHgKv9k now being up there and knowing how bad the wind is sometimes its hard for be to believe that someone would do this. i was up there but there is a path this guy didnt take. he has no safety things on him at all. this is fucked up. and also they found a shopping cart full of beer up there before the safety things were installed. i just wonder how they got it up there..lol. it would be one hell of a place to have a beer though

sydney

its been a little while since i last did one of these but then again im in Sydney and i have soo much to do in such a little time.

first night here i got in, went to the hostel that lisa liked. this time i choose to only be in a room with 4 people. what a mixture of people. there are 2 people from Brazil, and one from hong kong. been talking quite a bit to the Brazilians. they are nice,even thought one of them cant speak a word of English. then i went to get some food and the paper. i started to read the paper after putting the food away and then i thought to myself. what the fuck are you doing reading the paper. the reason you are here is to see the opera house and its soo close and you are just sitting here reading the paper? what are you stupid? so i walked down there and took some pics. i have to go back at night to get some better ones. and im going there today to get some day shots and take the tour. when i walked up there i the first night walked in to get some gifts for people ( so far i have bought a spoon for my mom from where ever i went. i have about 9 of them for her so far!) then i decided that i might as well see something from there seeing how i dont know when the next time ill be here. the first thing i asked was can i walk in the way im dressed, i thought there might be a dresscode or something from that place. but there wasnt and i went to see the serpents teeth http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/whatson/TheSerpentsTeeth.aspx
it was in one of the smaller places but at least i could say that i was there.

next day i went to get the bridge climb done and over with. the story bridge was 80 metres above sea level.and this one is 134 metres above Sydney Harbour i got quite the good pic taken of me from both places but i must say that i like the one from here better, there is just something about the opera house in the background thats great. so out of the 3 bridges you can climb in the world i have now done 2 of them and i dont think thats too bad. maybe ill go to =new Zealand to get the last one out of the way. walked around for a bit like i usually do

last night. had a great time with Kathryn. meet up with her at the town hall steps. yesterday was anzac day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANZAC_Day. so i have never seen the streets so empty in some places. i was kind of weard, i almost got the feeling from 28 days later when he walks through a busy part in London and no one was there. she took me to a bunch of places including the aquarium, a powerboat ride in the harbor. this was great the fast boat, the sharp turns , everything was great. ( if you are reading this kathryn now you can hear the song that i was thinking of when i was on that boat) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BezTAd-9Mc0.
and that day tripper song that i told you about with the day pass http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2UYRoti-tY

from there went to manly i think ill go back to have some swordfish from this one place. anyway..lol. there i was introduced to this game thats only played on anzac day, other wise its illegal. its called 2up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-up. now that was an experience. the first place we played was in the back of this bar. it was outside in what looked like a back alley. and here there was a bunch of people yelling and patting their heads and tails with money that they were going to bet. i wish i would have been able to see the look on my face because it would have been priceless. literally it looked to me like one of those gambling games where there are 2 animals in the center and people bet on what one was going to win and what one was going to die. but once you get into it and you realize that these people are honest with the other persons money i started to bet there. well the one time anway. people that bet on heads holds onto the the other persons money, sometimes it got up to 250 on a coin toss. later on when that place closed down for the day we went back to the city and tried to find some other places that was playing. at this point i was up 10 bucks. found another place just by my hostel (another place lisa said was good and now i know why) Scruffy Murphy's. i tried my turn at being the spinner....ya i dont think i should have done that. i tossed 5 odds and lost the 20 bucks i was betting on heads. then i came back and won some another 10 bucks on some more betting. so i guess in the end i ended up even on the night now that i look at it. it was fun and i have to play again. ill going to make myself a kip at home and practice so i can actually flip the coins. the embarrassment of not being able to flip the coins was...wow. anyway after that went to cheer and had a couple more drinks. i was a good night over all and one i wont forget.

ohh

at the operahouse i ate there and it was basically a buffet style there. i thought it would be a menu or something but i was wrong. i had put my stuff on a table beside a chair and someone took the chair. this older lady. so i had to eat some of my meal standing up

first thing last.

when i first got here i look a look at this little thing they have over here in the hostle. its this little thing with cards on it to differnt places. i looked at this one called ice lounge. http://www.chillon.com.au/ and i thought to myslef i want to go here. later on i found out that henry rollins was doing to do a spoken word thing here and was luckey enought to get a ticket to a 3rd show that was just added. so then i wanted to put 1+1 and get a great night out. but this was not to happen. it says on the back of the card open 7 days a week from 12pm till late. i dont know what they think is late around here but its not late. rollins was GREAT and seeing him in person is a must for anyone. he gives it his all and puts on a great show. he started just after 8 and didnt take any breaks till 11. infact he only went for his water bottle once the whole time. i bought a tshirt and his cd. then after this i went over to the ice lounge to make my night complete. but this was not to happen the fucking thing was closed. one person went to it later on as i was just about to call from outside. i asked him when it closed and he said on sunday 930 and mon-sat1030. i went on that great ocean road day tour today and that was good. took lots of pics. got back to the hosetle at about 950. just great if i can get my laundry together and then rush off i could just make it for one drink so i can say that atleast i was there for one drink. i got my things together and it was only 10. great 30 min to get there...i can do this. i make it there in 10 min flat. then its not even open. so there is one thing so far that i wanted to do that i cant., im leaving tomorrow for sydney. i cant wait.

maybe they will have some place bar/lounge thats made of ice. and maybe just maybe they will be open past 930.

so apparently im a collingwood football club supporter now

http://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/

i went to try and get henry rollins spoken word tickets for tonight, but they didnt have any. so i got one for a 3rd show that they just added. its on monday and im in t he last row. but at least im there. so i found out that the Melbourne Cricket Club was around where i was going to be.
so i decided to go to a second game in 2 days. i had fun at the last game so why not. i had to wait until 5 for the gates to be open. so i went on their tour of th building and they had a sports museum also. anway i ended up getting a general admission ticket that cost 10 bucks less and i was at ground level. i was listing to music on my ipod touch when someone asked me about it and someone else in that family asked me if i wouldnt mind moving over a seat so he can sit with his son. i said yees and started to talk to them. they eventually asked where i was from and then we got talking about football and everything else under the sun. i told them about last nights game and then they asked me who am i cheering for. i told them i went for (insert name later.) and then they told me that tonight im a official collingwood football club supporter and put a hat on my head. i thought it wasnt going to go any farther than that but then they asked for the hat back so they can sign it and then gave it to me! people i had just meet gave me a member
2008 hat for free. i still cant believe that someone would do that and just after talking to them for 20 or so min. they said i was brave that i was out here all by my self maybe that had something to do with it. so anyway my new team lost a heart breaker.later on at the end i asked them if i can take their pic ( that ill be posting later because my cellphone is charging). this moment will last for a long time.

afl(Australian Football League)

i was going to go yesterday with erin(sis's friend) but that didnt end up working out. something came up or something. i know she was going to go out of town for the weekend. it would have been nice to have someone there that actaully knew what was goingon and simple things like what team was the home side. i didnt know who to cheer for so i simply looked around me and looked for who had the most support in the area that i was in. this was essendon. the ticket said st.kilda vs essendon so im assuming that essendon was the home team. they lots 87 to 123. attendence was 49,721 or something like that..it was up there

before i went to see if to see if i can get a tecket and i did. so instead of going back to read up more on the rules i decided to walk around and see what else it there. there was a old car show thats is only open on tuesday. by the time i got back to the arrena i stil had time to kill and i didnt want to walk back. so i ate something, they open the gates early so people can watch the warm ups and stuff like that. (before i went i did read the rules for about under 5 min or maybe 5 min. i did understand the basics like how many points and basically what you can and cant do. i still dont get as soon as they passed the ball to a area (looked basically like every 10 yards) they were given room to move around untouched. they dont give people time to react if the ball goes out of play. its the ref goes to the out of play line and then tosses the ball backwards. small stuff like that i eventually got and got into the game. apparently when you go to one of these things you have to have a meat pie. so least quarter i went and got one and a beer. i think they use everything from the animal that was used for the meat pie. because i got something rubbery and looked to see what it was. and it looked to me like artery. going to try and see henery rollins tonight in his spoken word. there is also this ice lounge ( http://www.chillon.com.au/ ) still going to put in a trip to Ayers Rock and a day trip down the great ocean road

when things hit you...they sure hit you

i found out today that my grandmother isnt doing well and has weeks to live. im on the other side of the world and i have no idea on what i should do. i could cancel the rest of my trip and go home early and be with my grandmother in her final moments. they say she has about 1-2 weeks. the thought of me going home and finding out that she died on the way back home is on my mind. i dont know what i should do and whats best.im trying to get my mind off things and enjoy Melbourne at the moment...but its not that easy. when to a museum of video game history where they had lots of hands on stuff

im going to go to this Dracula cabaret restaurant tonight hopefully this comedy will be good and there is a ghost train ride thats included in the price.its ironic that im going to some place called draculas with death being close. or maybe its the eternal life thing and hoping that she will say alive till i get home.




http://draculas.com.au/


also going to try and get a ticket for henery rollins spoken word here in Melbourne if i can find the place

so the swim was worth it

it was worth it but i didnt actually get a chance to touch any dolphins. their idea of swim was to get dragged behind a boat and you are given a mask and snorkle. it still was fun and would like to do it again here. maybe actually get dragged by one would be another whole experience. there is sooo much to do here and i know that i wont have enogough time or money to do it all. ill have to come back and start off here..lol. i dont want to leave here. im going to book swimming with sharks also. i cant wait and see how that goes, that is if i still have the guts to do it when im there..lol.

thinking back on adelaide it was ok but i could have done without going there and come over here first (Melbourne) but live and learn i guess.. one strange thing that i forgot to mention about adelaide was that when i was in a bar ( couple doors down from where i was staying) someone from the salvation army walked in and asked people in the bar for donations. and the strange part is that everyone gave him something, including myself. i thought it you ask someone in the bar when they are drinking for money for a good cause.. then i guess i can give it to you.

so i spent an extra 160 bucks...ohh well

well just to swim with the dolphins there is ended up spending an extra 160 bucks to get my flight changed. i hope this works out for me. this was my way of thinging and i hope in the long run it saves me.

1) i know where the place is and how to get there.
2)i know where the location of the boat is.
3)i love where it is
4)if i had to go do this is melbourn it would have taken me time and effort to find where the place is, how to get there...ect...ect....ect and this is only an 1hour40 min extention of my time here but planning things out over there would take at least a day to do everything i already know here. and if i dont happen to see anything i end up getting my money back...so i hope this ends up saving me time over in melbourn and hopefully ill have time to book a day or 2 package to Ayers Rock. i hope i have thought this out because 160 bucks is exactly that. but then again its an extra 60 bucks if you look at it this way, i spent 100 bucks to swim with the dolphins and if i didnt go id be throwing that way.

i hope i know what i just did.

this just sucks ass

well due to a mistake on my part (sort of) i missed out on the dolphin swim. the pamplet says it takes off at 8am. they wrote on my ticket that it now leaves at 730am. so i got there a couple min after 8 thinking it would be all good. when i tried to get a refund they just rebooked me and saying that seeing how she told me aobut the time change that i wont get a refund. there goes that 100 bucks. they said i can get booked for tomorrow but here is the problem. i would get back at 1130 and the plain leaves at 1210 for Melbourne. so i wont have enought time to get to the flight. i think im going to tell the receptionest here that if anyone wants to go just tell them that they are me and maybe they can get a free swim out of this. anyway im still going to see if i can get to the shooting range and opal mine here. thats all i have left to do there. maybe ill go back to the ocean. i did buy a allday pass. might as well get my moneys worth from that.

things seem to get better here.

today i went to book my dolphin swim and had a great time walking around at the ocean. its hard to beleve that its soo nice there and sooo many old people over there. well i guess not, it would be nice to live out there when your retired and wake up to that view. but there is amazing houses out there. and there are people out there that are in their 40s im thinking.i know this is not sounding like a good post but im just trying to put as much things down before my time runs out and i have to get more time added onto my card. tomorrow(my last full day here) i think im going to spend most of it at teh beach, there is a underground opal mind under a store at the mall i think ill go check out and also there is a gun range i think ill go see what they have and maybe fire off a couple of rounds. depending on the cost. ohh ya had kangeroo today at at the ocean. its hard to describe what exactly it tastes like but all i know is that i like it and more than likey will have it again tomorrow after i get out from swiming with the dolphins. im not sure if ill blog again tomorrow after the dolphin swim or not...more than likely i will.

blah day

well i found out today that there was a aussie football game here last night and i missed it due to that jackass at the cricket gate. i was looking for something open to see if there was a football game on but no one was there. so i asked the person at the cricket table if there is anything going on in the arena today. he said nothing was going on here till the 25th. so i got fucked out of seeing football here. today was just a blah day and i did fuck all. all i did was get a new cell phone i got the nokia n73 and if i get it unlocked 6 months later it will cost 50 bucks less. or if anyone knows how to unlock a cell phone let me know. i like the nokias now. i didnt like them for some time now but this phone makes me change my mind. anyway enought about a phone..lol.

i have to call tomorrow about a dolphin swim. apparently its only a 20 min train ride so ill call and hopefully i can get in on a swim here if not there still is 2 more cities i can try.something strange came over me today with how this place looks and everything. for some reason i just thought of big brother and how there is cameras everwhere and a bunch of people that dont know each other. i find that in this place people are a lot less social than the other one.people here are more likely to stick to their own friends. too bad i havent had the expreience that lisa has had and made more friends...but im sure that will happen over time. but at least i can say that i have been to OZ the place that i have always wanted to go.

walked around a little today. found the local afl stadium and again when im here no one is playing or there is even no cricket going on. why cant i go somewhere where there is a local sporting event going on? ohh well i still have 2 cities to go to and maybe ill get lucky in that regard.

things i still havent gotten use to
1) taxi driver on the wrong side ( proper side here)
2) the way the spell bus on its buz ( at least from what i saw in Brisbane)
3) the fact that i havent seen a fosters here at all and i have walked past and been in a couple of bars. i have seen tonight a Kokanee but no fosters.
4) how people once they find out you are Canadian start to talk to you for no reason. perfect exanple is on the story bridge that once the person behind me found out they talked to me at random parts during the climb. and that i got a discount at a comic store ( had to go its called pulp fiction comics) got 4 bucks off for some reason he had been to thunder bay.


then there was that guy today i didnt tell him where i was from but i went to the arena where they play aussie foot ball (aami stadium there is another name but it excapes me at the moment.) and one person walked up to me and talked about a a statue and how americans helped to recreate it for some reason i have no idea why he just walked up to me and started to talk to me.

adelaide

this place seems ok. im in this hostle that is an older building and actually has real keys not those key cards(10 buck deposit on the key and its already bent. i think when i put it in my pocket it bent, so i might be loosing that right from the start. there is only 8 people to this room and only 4 beds are filled at the moment. so thats good. it seems a little warm here but thats just first thoughts. i don tknow but it looks like only one bathroom on the bottom floor and one shower. if im right this could be something to look for future blogs. and i have already payed for my 6 days so im in for the long hall no matter what.

looking at this adelaide guide book (depending on how to get to these places. i can take a day tour to the kangaroo island(i think ill do this) and the temptation sailing-dolphin swim.http://dolphinboat.com.au/ ill look more into that in the morning.

killing time.

its now 12:11. my flight dosnt leave till 15:35. so im killing an hour on the good old interweb before i leave for adelaide. looking back on the city i LOVE IT and would want to move here. did almost all of the city things there is to do from visiting the XXXX brewery, to the queen street shopping center. taking the citycat(taxi boat down, there is a river down the middle fo the city) down the river on both sides.went to the ZOO(look at earlier posting) walked down the river. looked at both city parks, took lots of pics of OLD buildings and everything is great.basically i walked from one end of the city to the other. looking back on things i could have gone down to the vally to drink(big part place with lots of bars.) but i didnt feel like it. i noticed that there is little travel shops that offer differnt packages to differnt places like aries rock(i still want to go there) and maybe i will if i can find a differnt package. some other palces i should look into the the gold cost and sunshine coast. get a day package or something and then go from there.

i still get a laugh of the tour guide and how afraid she is of possums and not the hight of the bridge. on the way up the bridge she told us of her fear of possums and on the stairs going back...there was 2 of them everyone elese wanted to say and pet them because how "cute" they are but not the guide. she yelled and then walked to get out of there. well i have nothing else to say and might as well look at some other pages while i still have the time.

story bridge

that was some expericence. i thought it was going to be a lot worse than what it was. i guess walking over the bridge and seeing what it had to offer kind of gave me the creeps. you will see what im talking about when i put up pics on flickr. anyway you walk under the bridge to get to the main part. even then i was thinking to myself what am i getting into. then looking up to the bridge from where you start to climb. again the feeling of what the fuck did you just get your self into. but then the steep walk up wasnt as bad as i thought it would be. its one of those things as soon as you do it you wonder why you worry soo much. its kind of like the CN tower in toronto. the glass floor (if you have been there you know what im talking about) you look and then once you done it its not bad. infact the center of the climb you had to stay up there for 5 min and the guide leader told you about the city. just looking it was kind of calming. i still dont know how i did this without spitting on traffic. there was a coupld of places where you can get your pic taken and i did. becausae my sis wasnt here i got put up the devil horns and thats the pic that i got printed out. over all i would do this again but there still is sydney and that bigger bridge i still want to do. there are 3 bridges you can legally climb 2 of them here and 1 in new zealand. so 2 of 3 isnt going to be bad. the bridge i was on apparently is the biggest bridge there. so from that stand point i was on top of the city. next stop
Adelaide tomorrow

im getting use to carrying more stuff in my pants now. books...little things on places i want to see and pens and highliters.there is a lot going on. today was a good day. talked down to the city park and looked around. NICE there...look some pics. walked over to the story bridge and decided to book a climb.http://www.storybridgeadventureclimb.com.au/..looks like fun. i wonder i wonder if im going to shit my pants in all this. ohh well....and i dont like hights..lol. this is one way to get over it. id better im not going to waste 99 bucks and not go throught with it.


thats about it. only 1 more full day and then on the 10th im out of here at 10am for the check out . i think ill just end up going over to the airport right from here and look at the next city and see what i should do there. im still not sure on if i should go to another hostle or just book at cheap hotel.or even if i do go hostle way do like i did this time and just ask the taxi driver if he knew any good ones.

time will tell what i do.

so getting back from yesterday

the fist stop from the zoo we went down this street that looked like i have been there. even thought i have never been there before. anyway i saw this sign that i remember and we went the way i thought we were going to. its strange how you can dream something and then eventually get there. and in the dream i was in a little bus things also just like the thing that took us to the zoo. i didnt put things together untill i saw the street and looked around. what a strange feeling. going to be taking a river tour of the city and then climb a bridge they have there also. there is 3 you can clim in OZ and ill be doing 2 of them. its hard to beleve a week is almost over. 2 more nights here and then im off to the next city.

XXXX

i know what you are thinking and not its not a harder version of porn. but here the amount of x's is the quility of beer. i wish i would have known this before i went on that tour...lol...j/k i knew. the tour was great. showing how beer gets to your glass and them on the convaer belt. the beer smaples at the end was good also. for the frist time i didnt actually like the stout, but i love guinness...go figure. no rugby or anything going on here maybe in the next town or something.





have to talk more about the trip home last night but onluy have 20 secsons left on this card. talk more tomorrow dejavu muhc

Australia Zoo

spent 350 or there about today. that includes the trip there and back and all the gifts for people. i spent about 10 bucks for myself. it was a good time there except for the little boy that kept on yelling for his mom and dad when he got to to the other one. so if he was with dad he yelled for mom. what a pain in the ass. i took well over 600 pics in 6 hours. the show at the main stage was great. these free birds flew past us and went over the crowd. sooo close that a couple of them almost hit me. i cant beleve how big that place is and all the walking i had to to today.but well worth every (i want to say cent but there is no penny here) dollar? not sure. but you know what im talking about. to end if off the fed agro. that big 16 foot croc...all i can say is wow. what a way to end a day and just the way i wanted to end it. if only my sis was here to see it with me. i know she would have loved it. ohh well she will have to go here one day. apparently they just bought more land is going to expand. i still cant beleve i actually pet a kangaroo,Kwala,and a Wambat. more stories later. i have to pay for the internet 4 bucks for 60 min and this time around is just about to expire. ohh well more later on when i can get more time. thats also why there is no pics yet. it takes too much time and hard drive space for me to do at the moment. ill have to look for a liabary or somewhere else other than the hostle to do it. now its 7 gal and 3 guy in my room.

supanova

went to the supanova pop culture expo today. it was ok at best. there was people dressed up as differnt characters but if i would have taken more pics i would have been arrested because of the peoples ages. i found something for my sis but i dont know if it would have arrived back home in one peace. its a autograhped pic and card of someone from supernatural. got a couple pics of james kyson lee. didnt get autograph. the line up was too big. there is always tomorrow if i have to get back.

there was only one thing there of venom. and it was a figure from spiderman 3 so i stayed away from that. nothing there that i wanted. ohh well if i end up going to that comicon in winnipeg i hope there is going to be more there.

Brisbane part 2

didnt go to the zoo today. i tried to find this beer company that gives tours. didnt find it. but founs a andy warhol art display so when to that. i like a lot of his stuff and for 20 bucks i just had to go. they had 300 things of his his. lots of letters and what not. walked down to the waterfront and foundthis wild life cuse www. mirimar.com

this and trying to find that beer company should take a day. who knows mabye try and get in a rugby game in. there is this bar i found on my walk that has live bands called the fox. lots to do here. and time so far and money seems to be plenty.

bought a couple of gifts. ones for my mom. spoons and what not a necklace for my friend dan with a sharks tooth.

zoo tomorrow



first night here. i was wrong its 10 people in a room. 7 guys and 3 gals. things went good. the others had a lot of things to talk about but seeing how this is my first hosle and big trip i had nothign to add to this conversation just to sit there and listen.


great time so far... nothing to complain about. mark if you are reading this so far no video. all they have here is the water efficent ones that the water dosnt go around the bowl. but ill find one...lol.

Brisbane

well i have only been here for a short time and all ready made a mistake. tried to get into the wrong side of the cab....lol. they should put the drivers side on the same side everywhere....that way i wouldnt look like a complete ass. there are a lot of great sandstone buildings here. have about 40 pics and i have only been here for about 4 hours. still have to get mark his toilet video. the people here are so nice and the cab driver basically gave me a guided tour on the way to the hostle. this should be weard. first time in a hostle. 156 bucks for 6 nights and thats not bad and its within 5 min of the major mall. the bad part is that there is 4 bunks set up so for the frist time ill be sharing a room with 7 other complete strangers. ohhh well


tomorrow ill be going to the Australia Zoo! if i read the little package here that it will cost 100 bucks for 6 hours of wondering the zoo. but that also includes the pick up from where ever you are staying in Brisbane. so ill be taking lots of pics and getting stuff for people that asked for it.

last post from canada. next stop Australia

well im finally doing this. im going today at 255 and i still cant believe im actually doing this. its going to be hard for me to be away from my family and without a safety net. they only people i know i (3 of them in total) i haven't actually meet. i talked to one on the phone and talked to the other on facebook. the other is my sis's friend. so its going to be a big change for me. fuck im even going there without a place to stay im going to tell the taxi driver to drive me to a hostle thats open and go from there. anway its going to be on fucking long flight and hopefully its going to be a good one.