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Published: April 23rd 2006
Wow, so my utterly fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime trip… was severely disappointing. I saw a lot of cool stuff, but so much bad happened it is pushing ridiculous. Let me start at the beginning…
I arrive in Sydney and got a little lost while looking for my hotel. Well, that was fine. I made it to my place and was in for a pleasant surprise. I thought that I was going to a hostel and it turned out to be a hotel! Which was nice because of the beds and accommodations was really nice but I was kind of looking forward to making some friends to hang out with while I was there. Since I didn't I resigned myself to walking about the city by myself. I saw the ANZAC War Memorial and Bridge, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Observatory, Opera House, toured around on a bus and boat, Chinese Gardens and Chinatown and bunches and bunches of other cool stuff. I haven't got the pictures developed yet, but give me some time, I've got a lot. A girl randomly comes into my room one night and I was excited because I thought that she was going to go out with me but she didn't want to, so I remained bored at night. I tried walking around to see if anything of interest was happening but it was kind of creepy and I always ended up back in my room. On the day that I was going to leave, my flight left at 1:30. It was a 13 minute trip by train and I had to check in 30 mins prior to departure so I thought that if I left at 12 I'd be set. After I got back from the markets to buy a bathing suit (I left it at home, guh) I got back at 11:45. I talked to the lady at the desk and she said that the best way to get to the airport is the shuttle which was 10 bucks. Well, my train ticket cost 8 so I decided to take that. It was a really quick walk to the train place and I find out that I had to pay 12 because my student card wasn't the "right" student card. So I walk back. By this time it is 12:02 and I'm talking to the lady to buy a shuttle ticket. While I was talking to her the shuttle left! The lady said it was ok because another one was coming at 12:30. So I waited. At 12:43 the shuttle finally arrived and I got in and told the guy I had a 1:30 flight and he said that I was going to make it. I'm not really sure how he felt that because we definitely stopped at every hotel in the world and picked up people who were all vying for the "who could be the slowest" world title. At 1 I'm getting CRAZY stressed and asked him again how he felt I was going to make his flight. He calls it in to his boss and the boss said I can kiss my flight goodbye. Great. By this time I'm close to tears and I get my money back so I can take a cab. Through our meanderings we ended up farther from the airport than my place was so I had to pay out the butt to get to the airport. I got there at 1:17 and the lady wouldn't let me board L. She sends me over to this other lady to discuss my options. I started crying because it was a non-refundable, non-transferable ticket and it wasn't even my fault that I was late. She must have felt bad for me and let me pay a $40 fee to get another flight. Wow. So I think it's all going to be ok until…. That flight was cancelled. I got put onto another flight…which was delayed. I'm crazy freaking out because I *had* to get into Melbourne by 7am the next day to make a tour I had booked. I finally ended up in Melbourne but they lost my bag and I had to deal with that forever. Got to a hostel FINALLY and was able to relax and let the badness leave me. Little did I know…
Melbourne trip started off and I was picked up on time and everything. We start driving out to the mountains and straight into the rain. The entire trip it rained and was absolutely freezing, it was ridiculous. Bitter wind was constantly reminding you how you are not at all dry and happy. Everything we saw was amazing and I made a lot of awesome friends, but MAN that trip would've been better if the weather wasn't completely being stupid. Definitely the worse thing that could've happened (and did in fact happen) was that my purse was stolen. My parents are constantly telling me that it isn't safe to carry my stuff around in my back pockets so I thought I would bring a purse. The Aussies also hardly use the plastic and so I had just gone to the ATM and gotten out 100. We were eating lunch at an outside café and I set my purse down next to my chair. When it was time to pay the check—no purse. That was my phone L my debit card L my 100 bucks L my school and student ids L . Everything. Gone. I was soooo upset. My friends chipped in to buying my lunch and luckily that night the hostel gave us a dinner but crap. When I got to Melbourne I called Kim cuz we were meeting up at the hostel. I told the tour driver (who up til that point I really thought was awesome because he was so funny) where it was and he said he knew where that was. I get dropped off and ask the hostel right there how to get to my hostel and he said it was a 45 min walk! I run outside to catch the tour guide and he said he couldn't drive me because it was "out of the way." Out of the way? You're going to make a girl heavily laden with bags walk 45 mins, up-hill, at night, and in a part of town that the tour books say is dangerous especially if you're a woman! OMG!!!!!!!! HOW IS THAT SENSIBLE!!!! So I walk all that way with my bags (I weighed them at the airport and they are over 40 lbs) and got so lost because I was getting crazy different directions from all these people. Saw a cabbie and he said it was up on the right, but the sign said it was straight and I was really confused until I saw that I was just looking at the sign at a funny angle. This was at an intersection where 3 roads come together so it was huge and difficult to navigate. Especially since it was way disconcerting because they drive on the wrong side of the road. Saw Kim across the street and got so excited and played a little Frogger and dodged the traffic and got across ok. The next day Kim and I got a 3.20 train pass that let us use all the public transportation all day which was an amazing deal. While we wandered we ran into the French guy that was on my tour which is crazy! What are the odds! We actually ended up hanging out with him that night which was a lot of fun and better than being cooped up in our rooms all night. Though, hanging out at the hostel was fun and we met a guy from Wales which I find extremely exciting J. I told him the stuff I knew in Welsh and I got his email so I hope we keep in touch. My fingers have been shrinking either cuz of the temperature or my losing weight and my new mood, thumb ring fell off and I was never able to find it. Argh!
My friend met me at the airport like we'd been planning for awhile and I was so nervous he wouldn't be there since I couldn't call him to verify but he was. It made me so happy to see a familiar face in the midst of all this horrible-ness and I related to him everything that had happened up to that point. He found out I had no cash and no way to get money and he gave me $100 to help me out (I will pay you back Sam!). That money saved my life…
Made it up to Cairns and got to my hostel and….::drum roll:: they lost our reservation. Kim and I came on different flights and she came in an hour after me. I got in around midnight and I really just wanted to go to bed because the dive center was picking us up at 7 am. Well, the guy couldn't find any record of Kim making reservations so I had to wait for her to get there. I lounge around trying to stay awake until she got there about 1:20 am and the guy ended up just putting us in a room and saying reception could deal with it in the morning. You couldn't have done that earlier? Well reception found it in the morning and we paid up and left. I was stoked about diving on the Great Barrier Reef and didn't think my trip could get any worse. Why is it right when you think that it totally does get worse? Apparently a cyclone was tooling around and we were just inside the "affected" zone. The boat ride out there was so intense. The chop was incredible and we'd catch quite a lot of air bouncing around on the seats. Some lady that thought she was too cool to hold onto the railing while she walked got thrown around on a big wave and grabbed my shoulder, pulling me down and making me land on the wet floor. Nice one lady, real nice. Got to the boat that we were going to be staying on for the next 3 days and it was such a difference from the crazy bouncing that was almost fun to the slow rock that the big boat had. I got sea sick L I've never gotten sea sick before. It was such an awful feeling, but after I threw up I felt better and ready to eat but all the food had onions in it so my lunch was lettuce and water. Yummadumdum. Finally got in the water and Kim and I were the only 2 certified divers on the boat. The scuba guide was a navy seals diver back in the day and he took us out for our free guide (normally it is 11 bucks a dive). The visibility was so crappy that we had to hold on to his BC (he told us to) because we could've gotten lost. How crappy you ask? 1 meter! That's about 3 feet! You could hardly see your feet! After that dive we had about 2 hours before our next dive and we decided to watch a movie on my laptop. I brought my laptop with me because I knew we were going to have a lot of downtime on the boat and I had an assignment due a couple of days after break is over and it was going to take awhile. Yea… I take my comp out and turn it on. The screen was broken. When we got on the boat I handed my backpack to the guy taking luggage and told him that it had my laptop in it and asked if he could put it somewhere to keep it safe. Apparently in Australia keeping something safe means for it to be irreparably broken. The spoiled icing on a moldy cake. Our first night dive was cancelled which I was really disappointed about because I've never done a night dive before. The next day we had a guide again even though you had to pay because it was still so murky we didn't want to go by ourselves. After a couple of guided tours we were seriously out of money (we had to pay a $35 reef fee, $20 for the hostel and $10 for dinner the other night) and we decided to try and go by ourselves. We were really nervous about it because it was the first time we'd ever been without a guide. And with my luck going as it has been I really and truly believed we were going to get so lost. I can't even describe the euphoria of surfacing and seeing the boat about 20 feet away. You couldn't see anything under the water, let alone a hulking boat so to find it was terribly exciting. The viz gradually cleared up and we were able to see 7 meters. Oooh. Normally you can see like 18 or something. Stupid Hurricane Monica. I think that whole trip would've been a dud if the crew and people on board weren't so awesome, especially since I couldn't do homework or watch movies to occupy my time. Saw some sharks, turtles and a lot of crazy fish. We were able to rent an underwater camera for $35 for 3 dives. Naturally on the third dive the battery died in the middle of the dive. I saw the camera guy underwater and showed him the dead battery so he let us take it out on a 4th dive which was really nice. And since we had such a hassle, that's why he charged us $35 instead of $55 and threw in pics that he has taken which should've cost us $20. When we left Kangaroo Explorer (big boat) I stood up to take a pic of everyone waving good bye to us and a huge gust of wind blows my sunglasses off my head and into the still murky waters of the Great Barrier Reef. Not that I needed them at the time (I hadn't seen the sun since Sydney) but I would need them later. Got into Cairns and was finally able to access a computer (wasn't able to get to one for a long time and even when I could, I didn't have any money…this one was free for hostel residents) and was excited about reading emails to cheer me up. I got a message saying that one of my friends at Maryville had been killed in a head-on collision on his way home. As terribly sad and how weird and upsetting it is to go back to Maryville and have to deal with that, I also felt so guilty about not only teasing him about his driving when we'd go places but that I felt like my life has gone to hell in the past couple of weeks. It still hasn't settled down about JC being gone, but man that is not the kind of email you want to get after such a bad fortnight.
I get home to my dear Toowoomba and catch up with the roomie we left behind. Apparently the weather for the two weeks I've been gone has been amazing and the rain clouds only just starting collecting this morning. You know…when I landed in Brisbane. ::Le sigh::
So in recap!
What I started with and came home without:
A lot more money gone than I had budgeted for
Dry clothes
Debit card
100 bucks
Phone
Id cards
Mood thumb ring
Functioning laptop
Sunglasses
A friend
Pretty good trip, eh? I'll write up what actually happened for good on those two trips if I can access the stuff on my laptop. I kept a blog while I was on the road. Plus I'll be able to upload a crap-ton of pictures. I was luckily able to nab some from fellow travellers that had digital cameras because I was pretty sure my disposable pictures aren't going to turn out so fabulously.
Rest in Peace JC… you deserve it.
~C
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Emily
non-member comment
CARLY!!!!
roomie! I hope all gets better! I leave for france in about 35 days, and I am petrified....I'm sorry the diving sucked. When you get back to the states, we have to get together. Good luck finding everything! We are enjoying reading about your escapades here at Maryville. Have a good one, ttyl ~ Emily