Melbourne

I went to Melbourne for a weekend in May, unfortunately yet another camera broke at the end of my roadtrip so I couldn't get any pictures but thought I'd fill everyone in on what it was like. It was pretty cold and rainy when we went so not the best conditions but it was still a really cool place to visit. I wish I'd had more time to go so I could have gone up the Great Ocean Road but oh well. We went shopping downtown the first day, it reminded me a lot of Montreal. Really artsy districts and funky architecture, a lot younger crowd than Sydney as there's a lot of universities in the city. Could have just been the area we were in but that's what it seemed like to me. The big distinctive thing about Melbourne is the trams, streetcars to us I guess, you don`t really see them in any other cities here. We went to a comedy show on the first night, it was hilarious. Luckily Aussie humour is a lot like ours, he only made one Canadian joke and it wasn't too bad. There was an American in the audience so he kind of got picked on. The next day I went to an AFL game, Aussie rules football, which was pretty cool. It`s a strange sport, kind of a mix of soccer, football and rugby. I had a lot of fun in Melbourne, it`s weird because when I was deciding to come here I had to choose between Melbourne and Sydney,who knows what it would have been like if I`d chosen Melbourne! My computers being really slow so I can`t get any pictures off the net but if you google Melbourne architecture you can see some of the cool buildings.

The adventures of Papa Bear continue

Here are the new additions to the continuing adventures of Papa bear from the roadtrip!

There was a friend for him at our villa

Roadtrip!

For Easter in Australia it was a five day weekend because of Anzac Day (kind of like our Rememberance Day) so I took the rest of the week off after and went on a roadtrip up the coast with Tim. I flew into Coffs Harbour and met him and his friends there and we set off the next day. We went to a few places I'd been on my Contiki trip that I hadn't gotten to see enough of and some places I'd missed. The first day we went to a water park near Brisbane but it absolutely poured, there were some sunny parts but when we were leaving we got absolutely drenched.

After a mad dash to the car!

After a few nights out on the way back to Sydney we stayed a night in Yamba, a small beach town up in norther New South Wales. I've heard about it from a few people so I figured we might as well check it out. It ended up being a lot of fun, not exactly the most exciting place but it was a nice break. We went to a movie in town and it was the smallest theatre I've ever seen. It was a small little cinema with only one screen and chairs all set up, very cute. Here's Yamba's very own cinema!







We made lots of stops along the way whenever the sun was out as it rained a lot along the way. When the sun came out and we saw a beach we would stop and soak up the sun until the rain came back. Here's some shots from our stops.

For my birthday Tim surprised me with a villa in Port Stephens for the weekend. It was a really nice weekend and we went on a dolphin watching cruise on our first day. The ironic part is that we saw more dolphins later that day at the beach then we did on the cruise. I think photos do it more justice...

And last but not least I bet you didn't know this but I actually spent my birthday in Toronto..

Out in Castle Hill

I agreed to go out with a girl from work one night around where she lives, Castle Hill, not knowing really where it was. I found it it's an hour outside of the city, kind of like the equivalent of the suburbs around Toronto. It was a cute town, a lot like Oakville in some ways, but it was so weird being at her house because shes a year younger than me and still living at home. It was the first time since I got here that I'd been in a family situation, made me so homesick! She lives with her mom and 4 brothers, they were all really sweet. We went out to a local bar near her and everyone was wondering what the hell a Canadian was doing in their town, not exactly a tourist hotspot! It was a lot of fun though, here's just a couple pictures from Emma's phone. I'll update more soon, too tired to put up any more right now!

The Adventures of Papa Bear

If any of you have ever seen the travelocity ads with the traveling gnome you'll get the idea. I brought along one of my (many) teddy bears from home. I got him when my papa was in the hospital so fittingly named him "Papa Bear" he's come with me on many trips through the years and this time he's getting a spotlight. Tim came up with the idea to take pictures of him while we were camping and I've decided to continue on with it so we'll see how many places I can get a picture of him! Here are the ones from Jervis Bay.

Camping at Jervis Bay

This past weekend I went down to Jervis Bay with Tim. If any of you have been in contact with my mother I'm sure you know all about him :-P We left Friday night after work and got there about 10:30 pm. Putting up a tent in the dark wasn't exactly ideal but we did manage to get it standing! We probably would have been screwed if it rained but it did stay up. Once we had the tent up we had a few beers and checked out the stars which were amazing, just like being up north back home. After freezing through the night we got up and checked out the beach during the day - so gorgeous! Bright white beaches and clear blue water, the sun was finally out after weeks of rain. We went swimming and layed in the sun for a while then checked out some beaches near by, it's all in a national park. We tried to get to one by walking but at one point we had to walk up over a hill to get around and as soon as we peaked over the top we were greeted by a man and woman in uniform asking for ID. Apparently we'd stumbled on the Australian Navy base, whoops! It rained Sunday so we left early and took the scenic way home, definitely a nicer drive. Overall it was an awesome weekend, one of the hidden gems of Oz.

Our beach at the campsite

A lovely, flattering photo Tim took while I napped on the beach

Hyam Beach

Cave Beach

Hello Again!

I have been VERY bad at updating this recently. I haven't had a camera or decent internet access and not really anything to update on but I guess I should keep it going. I've just started working at a call center in Sydney doing customer service for a weight loss company.. fun! Not. It actually isn't that bad, everyone I work with is really nice and they're all travelers like me for the most part. It's mostly Irish people actually, there was one other Canadian but she quit today. The company is called Igea life sciences, theres three products they sell: Bodytrim (a lifestyle program that tells you what to eat and do to lose weight, no miracle pills or anything) Super Slim (a shake you drink to feel full before meals, ya like that works) and Skin Physics who sell an age recovery system and a cellulite reduction system. I HATE the Skin Physics phone calls, basically the products don't work and therefore everyone calls to complain and send it back to get fixed. The other calls are all pretty straightforward, obviously you get a few nightmare calls but it's not really that bad. Other than the job I haven't really been up to much, trying to keep it low key so I can save up some money. I did go to Manly beach a few weeks ago so here's some shots from that! I will update again soon... I promise!