Collaroy Beach

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Day 10-17

I’ll try to summarize the last week because I’ll probably forget the order of events! Tuesday was Australia day but we didn’t really do much, Australia Day eve was the big outing. Tons of families were on the beach for the holiday when I went to lay on the beach for a bit. I went with my friends Charlotte, Ryan and Joe. Me and Charlotte laid out while the boys went surfing. I still haven’t mustered up the courage to try it, every time I see someone have the board flip over on top of them it really doesn’t give me much motivation to try it! The weather has been a little cloudy on and off with some rain but it’s stayed consistently 80-90 degrees. Even though that sounds hot there’s been days it’s been 95 and I thought it was around 80, very different weather. Later that night I went for a walk on the beach with friends around a cove and past some beautiful houses. The beaches here are really incredible!

Everyday I’ve basically laid on the beach at some point, trying hard to get my pale skin tan! I finally got to see the movie 2012 in the TV room with some of my friends…let me say, it was the worst movie I have ever seen! Good thing I didn’t pay to see it, John Cusak is definitely not meant to play the hero…he should stick to stupid cheesey movies, those he’s fantastic in! Anyway the movie was incredibly cheesey from start to finish but I watched it till the end kind of like not being able to take your eyes away from a train wreck.
Last time I was in Sydney I didn’t get to see the Taronga Zoo so me and a couple of my friends took the bus over to check it out. The zoo itself is right on the harbor overlooking the Sydney skyline, Opera House, Sydney Bridge and all! The zoo is huge so I’m sure we missed some animals but we saw Lions, Tigers and Bears! Also a bunch of different marsupials, including lots of kangaroos and my favorite was this big blue bird I named Fred. We went through this aviary where birds were flying around our heads and all of a sudden this giant fat blue bird with crazy head feathers appeared! I lured him to me by throwing sticks he thought were food and then he started biting my water bottle. So while he was distracted, I came up behind him Steve Irwin style and pet him! I then got a little braver and played with his head feathers. I then got even more courageous and pulled on his tale like he was a cat. It’s a miracle he didn’t bite me but it was a very enjoyable and entertaining experience for all!

On the way back from the zoo we didn’t exactly have the right information on which bus to take and ended up walking a very long while and eventually paying $30 to take a taxi back to the hostel! At least there were 3 of us to split it!

We returned pretty exhausted and decided to go get some Chinese food. Chinese food here is so much better than in America because Asia is right around the corner! Usually at night everyone hangs outside around the pool. There is a grill, a bunch of picnic tables under a little overhang with cloth hammocks.
There is a really funny boy, Sam, from London, with an extremely strong cockney accent! Sometimes I can’t understand anything he’s saying. Apparently in London, people will make up rhyming phrases to substitute for what they’re really saying. The words will have absolutely nothing to do with what they’re talking about but somehow they all understand each other. That’s why, I’m told, a lot of great rappers (or MCs as they call them) come out of London…interesting fact of the day for you!

Sam is also deathly afraid of sharks and getting attacked by them in the ocean. So, the day he decided to learn to surf was pretty funny. Still haven’t tried myself but maybe by the end of the 3 months here I will manage to make it onto a surf board. Surprisingly Sam was pretty good at surfing and picked it up very well. I just laid on the beach, soaking up the sun as usual, watching the boys get crashed by waves.
One day there was a free BBQ on the beach hosted by a church just up the road. There was sausages, “bacon,” onions and all the fixings! But I have to say, the “ketchup” here is nothing like American ketchup. Here it’s called tomato sauce and the name is fitting because it’s almost as thin as hot sauce. At least it’s always available though because I looooove my ketchup! Before the BBQ a bunch of the guys from the hostel went to play “football” (or soccer) so when they arrived they looked like they had rolled around in dirt. Two of the boys didn’t have sneakers (or trainers as they call them) so they played without any shoes…this means their feet looked like hobbit feet. Cuts and dirt everywhere…boys are weird all over the world it seems!

Anyway, as we were finishing eating the people hosting the BBQ passed out Backpackers’ Bibles. It’s the New Testament with some stories of fellow backpackers who have travelled around Australia, New Zealand and more. I find it very interesting and am glad to have it!
I believe this may have been the same night that all my English friends decided we should watch 28 Days Later. For those of you who don’t know what that movie is, it’s about humans in the London area getting infected with this virus or whatever that basically turns them into zombies and they start eating people…for those of you who don’t know me, I hate scary movies quite a bit. So after trying hard to watch it at some point when where was blood and attacking and chasing children I said “Goodbye I don’t want to watch this anymore!”…See Brendan and Emily, even adults can get scared by movies and decide not to watch them regardless of what other people may think!

The next day was another beach day followed by a bike ride to the super market to buy food for “tea.” I’ve learned that in England lunch is dinner and dinner is tea…doesn’t make sense to me but hey I got a boy to cook me dinner so I’m fine calling it whatever they want! At first I thought he said he was making a Spaghetti Ball but what he said was Spaghetti Bol meaning Spaghetti Bolognese meaning Spaghetti with meat sauce…so confusing these English! Hopefully I’ll meet some Australians or other nationalities as I continue to travel because right now I feel like I’m in England!

I was supposed to go to the outdoor movie, with the ticket I purchased about a month ago, but I didn’t know I’d have friends then and the bus ride to Sydney from Collaroy is about an hour so I decided, on my last night with these folks, I’d skip the movie and hang out with them. After some packing we all hung out and had a few drinks by the pool and then some of us went to the beach with Ryan’s guitar. We sang a few different songs and I taught him the chords to “Always Keep Them Guessing,” so it was a fun time. We ended up just talking and laughing while Ryan serenaded us and got some good pictures!

After saying goodbye to everyone I went to bed. Now you’re all caught up! I’m currently sitting on a train on my way to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains for a few days. It’s a fantastic feeling to travel by yourself and have the freedom to go where you want, when you want. I only wish I had a real backpackers back pack because my bags are getting in the way a bit. Not to mention I get made fun of and told I’m not a real backpacker  Well that’s all for now, I’ll be by myself in the Blue Mountains so I’m sure I’ll have more time for blogging!

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