Youth is wasted on the young (and wasted)

I can't believe how many of the people I am surrounded by on a daily basis drink their trips away. Most of the travelers spend their nights drinking and partying, and their days hungover and sleeping. I told someone I was going running in the morning and they said "of all the people I have met, no one has ever told me that!" As I moved my way up the coast of Australia I was introduced to a new word, which I hear at least 20 times a day, "goon." This drink, which Americans know as boxed wine, is 14% alcohol and taken with backpackers everywhere they go. Forget the beautiful white beaches of Fraser Island, or the scenic landscape of the Whitsundays, people care if there will be enough goon to last the entire trip. I find myself saying things like "I'm too old for this", and the fact of the matter is that I am one of the older travellers on the backpacking route, and because I don't drink am considered an anomaly by most. I suppose if I were in my early twenties (it hurts to admit that I'm not anymore) like most of the travelers are, I would too have been seeing the world from a bar stool. Thank God I am older and wiser now (and that may be the last time you hear me say that!)

I am not a good surfer. My surfing lesson in Byron bay was fairly successful, I think only because the instructor basically holds you in place until you catch a wave. I made friends with one of my instructors, Danny (from California) and he hooked me up with a board for the next two days. Watching me surf would be like watching America's Funniest Home Videos over and over again. I try to get to a wave, and get knocked over. I try to get up on the board, fall off and get hit with the board. But I was persistent and managed to get a little better as the days went on. Byron bay is a cute little hippy town on the coast with beautiful beaches, a lighthouse overlooking the ocean and a bar that offers $5 dinners and wet t-shirt contests every night called "The Cheeky Monkey" ( I couldn't pass up $5 dinners, so I was there two nights in a row!) Since I heard bad reviews on Surfer's Paradise I stayed an extra night in Byron Bay and went from there directly to Brisbane. At first glance I thought Brisbane was kind of a deserted city, but once I got a little further into town I found it to have some pretty neat things to offer - an amazing modern art museum, a large public pool and a farmers market. After some Indian food (I get cravings for it) and a horrible George Clooney movie in the TV room I went to bed early.


From there I took a bus to Hervey Bay, which would be the kick-off to my two night Fraser Island excursion. When the travel agent told me the trip would be "self roving" I didn't understand exactly what that meant, but I soon found out that I would be matched up with a group of 8 other backpackers (I had a fantastic group which consisted of 1 Irish,5 English, 1 Australian and 1 Israeli), stuck into a large pink Toyota land cruiser and we would then have to make our way around Fraser - the largest sand island in the world. When they tell you Fraser is a sand island they mean it - not only is there sand on all the beaches, there is sand for roads, sand in the Forrest's, and even sand in the wind (which results in sand in your food, hair, ears, and basically everywhere else.) I may not be a good surfer, but I was made to drive 4x4 vehicles. The only thing I could think of when driving was the Simpson's episode when Marge buys an SUV called the "Ranchero" and starts driving over things in her road rage. Of course none of the foreigners knew what I was referring to (most of my jokes are lost on them) but boy was driving on the beaches fun! We had a pink car convoy with about 25 people total (I was the only American) and we drove and camped all over the island. The Island was filled with Dingoes (they look like cute dogs, but apparently go Cujo on you if you feed them) which were made into the latest drinking game (anytime we saw one we'd yell "Dingo" everyone would have to drink); Mosi's (also known as Mosquitoes); massive amounts of sharks and jelly fish in the ocean water (which you can't swim in it, but fortunately Fraser has the MOST beautiful lakes I have ever seen); a shipwreck and swimming pools that fill with ocean water known as the Champagne Pools. After two days on the island we were all ready to head back. We took the BEST showers of our lives and danced the night away (and somehow I managed to fist pumped my hand into a ceiling fan while dancing on a table, and cut it, but still had a blast). The next morning we took a walk to the Shark Show, this two-room shark exhibit with clippings all over the wall of all the peopel who have died from sharks. Uhh, why did I pay $12 for this? Either way, the Fraser Island trip was by far was one of my best experiences I have had while being away!

After another night bus (woo hoo, I save $ on overnight accommodation), I arrived in Airlie beach. Like most of the places I have seen so far on the east coast of Australia, this town is no exception - it is a beach town, with cute little surf shops, crazy night-life and public pool called "The Lagoon" because the oceans are too filled with Jelly fish to swim in. Unfortunately, which no one seemed to tell me until I got here, it is the rainy season, so like Florida Summers, the beautiful afternoons are interrupted by the most random and ridiculous downpours.

The next morning, I got all my stuff together to do a two-day sailing trip through the Whitsundays - gorgeous islands located off the coast. It turned out that one of my friends from home, Matt, was on the same sailboat as me, The Freight Train, along with 17 other peopel and 3 crew members. As I sit today restfully in my bed, still mentally rocking from the last two days on the ocean, I will do my best to articulate what I did and didn't like about sailing. I loved the ocean, I loved the feeling of moving up and down on the waves, I loved the scenery. Scuba diving was amazing - fishes, coral, large objects that looked like brains and clams and mazes. I loved getting cooked for - we had three meals a day and snacks in between! We all learned on our first night why the boat may have been called The Freight Train - our skipper, AKA captain Mark, snored like a hippo, keeping everyone below deck up all night long. Even with my earplugs in (I cannot live without earplugs and a face mask these days), I could still feel the mammoth vibrations coming through. I didn't like the snoring. I didn't like how hot it was under the deck (with 18 people sleeping on beds made for children it was hot!). I didn't like the group of 6 Italians who used up all the fresh water taking 3 showers a day, when the rest of us didn't take any. I didn't like the smell - after just a couple short hours everything smelled like sewer. Even when dinner was being cooked I would think "mmm dinner smells good", then "ewww poop", and that would go back and forth depending on how the boat was rocking. I didn't like the roaches I kept finding scurrying around in my bed. I ended up sleeping on the deck both nights (because of the a for mentioned conditions), and with that came its own downfalls - hard ceramic floor, waking up soaking wet from the rain, tornado-like winds and of course the smells still creep ed their way outside - but at least I steered clear of the freight train hippo.



I am back on dry land and showered up, ready to meet my boat crew tonight at the Beaches bar for free drinks and some dinner. Tomorrow I leave on another overnight bus to Cairns where I will do my Great Barrier Reef dive!!