so europe....

ya internet in europe costs $$$$$ so i haven't been updating everyone, but i will when i get home. i would just like to say happy harry potter day to all from florence, this trip is AMAZING. iput a few pictures up, more to come later!! i love you all

naked germans... heehee

so as i am feeling better, today mel and i went to the lake with kendra and jessica for some sun and lounging and a little bit of swimming. i didn't do much of the latter since i'm still a bit ill but it was a nice lake to spend the afternoon at. it was also a naked people lake, though we were on the shore with proprotionaltly more clothed people. it was just funny. here are some lovely pictures of us at the lake haha (above?).

so tomorrow brandon will be coming to munich, though since the trains were full he'll get here a bit late, but then we'll head out to prague, followed by vienna. i am so excited! omg i'm so glad i'm not sick, i would have hated myself for going home haha. anyhoo i'll update when i can form here on out, i'll at least be back in munich with bird in like a week or so. much love!

getting better and plans...

so i went to the doctor's on thursday, and she didn't want to test for mono because she thought it was unnecessary and expensive, and she said it was probably a viral thing that turned into bacterial bronchitis. so i'm on antibiotics that seem to be doing the trick, along with some mucus thinner (she was so german and cute - when you have the mucus, what color has the mucus? lol) and pain killers so yay drugs! i felt better yesterday but crashed pretty hard at night again. mel took me on a walk of the gardens by where she lives and we had tea at jessica's, and today we'll go to martkauf (spelling?) to get some more food. i've been drinking lots of tea and continuing to force myself to eat so hopefully that will speed the healing :)

as far as my planns for europe go, i'm not headed home any time soon. i am, however, skipping ampsterdam to stay here and recuperate, imposing on mel's room a bit longer than expected but she is so good to me :) and i'll be meeting up with brandon and going to prague either monday or tuesday. so thats cool. i'm so upset i'm sick now, we'd be having so much fun here! but i'm saving the rum for when i return to munich to see bird and the plan is that it won't make it to itally because that thing is heavy lol. also i'm excited for when i can finally have some german beer.

anyway i hope to see a bit more of munich, though i know mel has work to do and such. keep you all posted, much love!

townsville to brisbane to munich and sick

SO i am sitting in mel's room in munich :) she is off to class and i will be entertaining myself for a bit. i got here yesterday morning and haven't done any touristy things yet, mainly because mel actually has to go to school still and because i am quite sick. i got sick, starting with a massive sore throat, the day before i left brizzy and have gotten progressively worse. i was that anoying sick person on the plane you know you can blame for everyone else getting sick within the next week (though there were 400 people on the plane so i wasn't the only sick one...). i am deffinately concerned that it is mono and have a doctor's appointment with a guy approved by the american consolate so hopefully i'll know soon. if it is mono i think i will just fly home to NJ because this is miserable and i'll just be paying to sleep in hostels for weeks... not cool. so cross fingers and toes for me that its just a really bad cold of doom that will get better in a few days. i want to see europe!

in other news, i think i will write about my lovely trip to brisbane with some of my favorite people :)

so mike, kate, julie and i left uni hall on wednesday afternoon when kate had finished her last exam - dan still had one on friday so he was flying out to meet us in brizzy. packing julie's car for the trip was absolutly rediculous. we had mike's dive suitcase and his massive suitcase, which took up most of the boot, but we squished in my large back pack and squishy extra bag and kate's little bags as well. and then julie didn't even have a bag, she just took out all her clothes and put them in plasic bags and shoved and stuffed them in little nooks and cranies between bags, and we also fit in her computer. thenwe piled by other suitcase and my backpack and a few other of kate's little bags on the back seat behind the driver's side - packed all the way to the celing. and pillows and my fins in the back window so we couldn't see out. i sat in the middle next to kate and holding up the pile of stuff next to me. it was insane! the car was litterally at a tilt, it felt like we were sitting in recliners lol. we barely got the boot closed and then didn't open it again until we got to bilo the next day so we could take out julie's computer and some of her clothes to leave with her parents. anyway we got on the road a bit late and julie had gotten so little sleep that we only made it to serina (6 hour ride) and stayed with her family friends again, which was cool. we got a rediculously early start the next day and got to bilo pretty quick. after dropping some stuff off at kate and julie's and seeing their families briefly, we left for birzzy - 7 hours to go. one of the most amazing things about this trip was that i didn't ever open a book, slept for maybe 30min total, and we hardly even listened to music because we were just talking the whole time. almost 20 hours and we didn't shut up the whole way - even at 4am lol. the whole ride was great until the last bit when we were trying to navigate birsbane and it was stressful, and then julie got a speeding ticket via camera and really freaked out. hopefully mike or i will be able to take it for her with no penalties, i don't want her to lose her liscence or anything. then we went to check mike and i into the hostel we'd booked - tin billy's. and they told us we weren't in the system which was stupid, then they found us but still skrewed it up so to mollify us they gave us the delux suite for the night for the same price :) awesomeness. we even had a TV and our own bathroom with towels and soap and everything. but it was just for one night then they moved us back to the room we were supposed to have. anyways then we met up with kate's friend bernard (her real name is monica heehee) who she was staying with, and then we found nick so we could chill for the night. we were tired so we shuffled around for a little and ate our umpteenth meal at mackers before we dropped julie off at nick's with her stuff and mike and i headed back to the hostel for a quick drink at their bar (which wasn't a bad bar, just crowded that night) before bed.

the next day we all slept in a little bit and met up on queen street mall to wander the city. we crossed the river and went to the cultural museum and science center which was so much fun. we played there most of the day, and then walked along southbank by the river for the afternoon. nick and i did the bungie trampoline for $10 each, which made my bicepts all sore and bruised the inside of my legs but oh the flipping! lots of fun. i'll put pictures up when i can :) then we tried to ride the ferry on the river at sunset because it was supposed to be cheap but they wouldn't take our student cards so we spent $2.50 to cross the river and didn't even get to sit outside while the boat was moving because we were arguing with the woman selling ticktes. st00pid. anyway it wasn't bad. kate and bernard left us after that though, and we went back to nick's to make some pasta for dinner (yay cheap!). nick had at one time had cooking equipment but it apparently got stolen so we made our spagetti in the electric kettly lol. it was amusing but still delicious, and the cheap wine mike and i picked up was surprisingly good with it. julie even had about a glass of it by mooching off mike, which makes me smile a lot - she will like wine yet! we sat and watched an episode of scrubs before mike and i headed out, and then met up with wayne! he's working in brizzy and we met up at the bar at the hostel for a few quick drinks, which was very nice, and then made plans to meet with him again the next day. then it was early bed again becuase we had to get to the airport early saturday.

saturday we took kate to the airport so she could fly back with bernard for her friend's 18th birthday and such. she had like an 8:30 flight, and dan was supposed to land at like 7:30 but his flight was delayed and they missed eachother by like 10min. it was really sad. i do not like goodbyes in the first place and then dan didn't even get a proper goodbye from kate so it was even worse. :( i miss my kate. i wish she'd been able to stick around a bit longer. then they lost dan's luggage because qantas likes to be mean to nice minnasotan boys, so he only had his backpack and his tim tam bag with him. oh well so he was a little stinky the next day. so we were supposed to go to the sunshine coast for one last day at the beach, but the weather was crap. so instead we went to a nearby winery for a tasting, which dan had never done, and bought wine for the night and dan got some wine for his parents. then we got lunch at this nice burger joint - proper fast food-ish but delish. except at one point while we were waiting for our food there was this loud vaccum-like noise and the staff sprinted to the back. they came back when it had turned off and said: 'sorry, we have to turn that off quick if the doors are shut or it will vaccum in the glass in 45 seconds.' so would you like a side of glass-in-your-face with your burger? wierd lol. anyhoo we made it back to brizzy and checked dan into the hostel, and then tried to figure out how we were getting to the cactus jack's that was elegidly in the area. nick said we had to take 2 busses, which was fine because it was only $1.60 with student ID so yay. we met up with wayne at nick's place and headed out to the bus station. the first bus wasn't a problem, and we got on the right second bus but the driver didn't know the stops at all. so we got off in the middle of nowhere suburb of brizzy and walked a bit aimlessly for almost an hour before it started raining and people started getting a little grumpy. then we knocked on a random house's door to ask directions and this really nice guy piled all 6 of us into his little car and drove us to a civilzed area with restaurantes. i love australia and auzzies and omg that guy was awesome. there was no cactus jack's but that was ok because there was an irish pub place where i had a delicious steak and a chocolate cake with a white russian and some rum-and-coke :) it was awesome. we called a maxi taxi to get back to the city, which wasn't too pricy, and then we chilled up in nick's room playing kings cup and such. but at that stage i was feeling pretty sick so we didn't stay too long. then julie came back to the hostel with us and spent the night there, which was great.

we got up early-ish sunday to get me to the airport with plenty of time to get through the massive lines at check-in (the hollidays had just started for school-age kids) and waited at the gate for as long as i could before getting on the plane. if i haven't said so before, i hate goodbyes. especially when i'm not sure when i'll get to see people ever again. i'll see mike in august at least, and mike and dan probably soon after new years when we go to st croix for diving, but i don't know when i'll get to see julie and kate again. i miss them terribly. when they're 21 they'll probably make it to the states and we'll do a massive road trip of doom, and if i get the chance to go back to the southern hemisphere before then i won't turn it down but none of that is certain. i had a horrible moment in the sydney international terminal when i was done shopping and eating and writing emails, and i needed to spend the rest of my cash so i ordered a rum and coke from the bar, and realized the last rum and coke i would have in oz i was drinking alone in the airport, and i cried at the bar. *sigh.* we got kate some bundy glasses and julie some great books we knew she'd love, and julie got me a beautiful new bag. anyway i'm gonna stop thinking or it will make me sad.

the flights were fine, no dramas except that i was massively sick. i drugged myself to sleep for most of them, and othewise was playing sudoku or watching persuit of happiness, happy feet, and the end of the holliday. i got into frankfurt and got the train (3.5 hours) to munich no problems and chilled with mel for the day, met some of her friends. today we went shopping for food and such and now i think i'll nap for a bit. i'll keep you all posted on the status of my sickness :) much love!

oh and also

forgot to add this to the last post, i had an interesting day yesterday. see on friday i had my last exam, i am done. so friday night i celebrated with some of the delicious wine i'd been saving and i made another black cake. the next morning i woke up feeling sickish and nautious, but while normally if i vomit once it all goes away and i'm good for the day. no no, that couldn't happen because i FAINTED! when i got up becasue i was nautious i fainted in the bathroom - while i was standing up. i have the largest goose egg on my left temple, all blue and swolen, and i don't recall the pain of getting it or what i hit my hear on but omg it hurt me. i was just grose the rest of the day. wierd.

anyway i did all my tourist shoping today and spent more money than i thought i would have - but i now have the opal necklace i have been wanting and gifts for lots of people. and i won't be buying anything else here except food, accomodation, and gas for julie. w00t.

allrighty off to pack <3

ahhh! exams are DONE! well at least for me

alright, so my exams are over and done with, i feel reletively comfortable with how they all went. oceanography went so much better than i expected thanks to mike. and they're out of my hands now, can't fret about it anymore and so i won't.

so sydney! yes i need to tell you all about that still... :P

mike and i got into sydney sunday morning and made it to our little hotel without a hitch. there were hostels but they were almost all in the red-light district, and plus since it was just the 2 of us the hotel was actually about the same price. and the room was nice, we had a little fridge and our own bathroom and a balcony and everything. and it was just a block away from the red-light district BUT we were nice and close to a cute little cafe and fountain and a decent bar that was open all the time - not to mention the woolworths right down the street that we used to stock our fridge. so we got settled and went for a walk about town. mike navigated the subway system like he lived there and soon we were at the harbor - you know, with the opera house and the bridge. these landmarks each have nicknames lol, the bridge is the coat hanger and the opera house is the scrumming nuns - if you know rugby you'll get that if not i could try to explain... heehee. anyway we wandered and took fun pictures and walked through the gardens for a while, and then we went up to "the rocks" where some of the bars were. there was this german bar we went to 3 nights while we were there for happy hour, and delicious beer of course. after a drink we found this wonderful little itallian restaurante and splurged on a wonderflu dinner :) oh the veal and the house wine and mmmmm. we got icecream on the way home and made an early night of it.

monday we got up for the wine tour of the hunter valley - famous for shiraz! i bought a sweet shiraz at the first cellar door, and omg it was amazing with black cake. AMAZING! it wasn't a dessert wine, just very sweet and lovely and even julie loved it! anyhoo we hit up 2 more wineries before lunch, each quite entertaining. and the area we had 2 hours for lunch in had 4 cellar doors, a cheese factory and a chocolate factory. OMG. so mike and i had our wonderfully cheap and delicious picnick lunch we'd packed and went around to collect some tastey things - fudge, bree, cheddar, belgian chocolate (dark) and 2 more bottles... that never made it out of sydney lol. they were amazing and delectable. we got back to the hotel not-too-late and settled for the night after good pub grub and beer.

tuesday was our first day of diving in sydney, and o goodness it was great. the guy running it, rob, picked us up at the hotel in the morning and drove us out to are island. if you've seen mission impossible 2, the scene with the little fortress island? ya that is bare island, i dove there :P. the bridge was out so we had a rocky entrance which was interesting to say the lease - crawling down the rocks in a full scuba kit was not exactly easy! but we made it down there and super-man jumped into the very cold water. i wasn't actually very cold for this dive because i had a 5mm wetsuit that fit me, good thick gloves, and a nice hood. but when i first jumped in i lost the weights from my side pocket, so after the surface swim (akward when you're unevenly weighted) i couldn't sink. luckily rob had enough extra weight to allow me to sink properly and the rest of the dive went really smooth. it was a great experience to dive in the cold/temperate waters of sydney as opposed to the tropical waters i'd dove in before. it was just new and different and so cool! we saw lovely starfish and nudies and urchins and even a cuttlefish (cuddle fish if you happen to be me and dan :P but he wasn't there lol) we got out at the end and found my lsot weights, which was gooooood, and went up to chill by the van for the surface interval. rob had soup and biscuts for us which was lovely. unfortunately i had to stay in my wetsuit for the surface interval and it was quite windy, so by the time we were getting ready for the second dive i was visibly shaking and SO COLD! we called the dive on accout of me freezing and rob was really good about it all. so i shivvered all the way back to the hotel and we had a bit more time for a nap and shower and such, and we ate at the burbon bar down the street for tea.

wednesday was the second day of diving, and we got up early with our dive gear to get out to mannly beach via subways and ferry. we found the dive shop on mannly and we weren't alone that day for the dive. we had our guide and 3 other divers with us. it was a really nice day for it and we drove off to the beach after i rented my equipment. we got to the beach and unfortunately, and for the first time, the wetsuit was too small for me. it was a farmer jane 2-pice and the legs just didn't want to get past my thighs so it was super tight and made it more difficult to breathe. and i was cold the whole dive. other than that it was a great dive, we saw big schools of fish and many nudies and a weedy seadragon which was sweet, but i was deffinately ready to go in soon after that. luckly it wasn't windy so i didn't die of cold when i got out, but again we didn't to the second dive. instead we enjoyed lunch at a nice little bistro before taking the ferry back for a shower and nap... again. cold water diving makes me sleepy! then we went out again for delicious german beer and pub grub, and it was a good night.

thursday was supposed to be our day to make it up to the blue mountains for some hiking and scenery BUT that was thwarted by weather. it would have been miserable. so we made it a relaxed and laid back day of watching scrubs, firefly, sleeping in and eventually going to wander around the harbor and down town. we were going to stay up all night again since we had a 4am taxi to catch for the flight but we did actually get some sleep. and we made it back friday without incident. except that apparently sydney airport closes at night??? who closes an airport! we had to wait like half an hour before we could check in because no one was there. wierd.

anyway now i'm back and done with exams and should be packing. should. because tonight is lazy, tomorrow i go to stockies and other places and cook for people again, tuesday i want to see magnetic island one last time, and wednesday we're driving out of townsville to make it to brizzy thursday and i fly away from the land of oz on sunday. wtf where did my time go??

incidently i can't wait to see everyone in europe :P but OMGz i don't want to leave!
<3

i am back!

haha! so ya i had no internet access for my trip, but OMGZ it was awesome. i got back yesterday morning and had an exam this morning (which i pretty well rocked dispite minimal studying... hello i was on vaccation? heehee) and now i'm relaxing before i run off to bake a black cake :) gotta chill out the crazy julie. plus it will be marvelous with the sweet shiraz - but more on that in a bit.

SO i shall start but probably not finish describing my trip :) and post pictures in a later entry. yes that is my plan.

so mike, will and i flew out of townsville last thursday (may 31) at the obnoxious hour of 6am... we caught a 4am cab, not wanting to wake the julie, and basically didn't sleep wednesday night - it was a good time. slept on the plane and for the layover in brizzy, and on the next plane, got into melbourne (pronounced mel-bun btw) around 1-ish and got subway after we dropped our baggs off at the hostle. it was a nice hostel for the price, nice and central location and all - except it had no celings on the rooms and was obviously a converted storage warehouse or something. it was good for the 3 nights though :) after subway we walked through the cloudy rainy city over to the aquarium, which was awesome - probably the nicest i've been to. my favorite part was the tank with a bunch of rays and elephant fish in it and they thought i was there to feed them so they came right up to the surface by the glass and i poked their noses :D good times. anyway we wandered for the rest of the day after a quick nap at the hostel, then went to a place called taco bill's which we had heard was good... well we'd heard wrong. it was pretty shameful for an attempt at mexican food, and i've learned to only go to cactus jack's from now on. oh well. we made it a pretty early night after wandering a bit more. mike has an impressive memory of both cities i visited with him, particularly a mental map of the bars he liked (suprise suprise haha) and it made me feel a lot less like an annoying tourist :)

the next morning (friday) we got up nice and early again to catch a bus out to the yarra valley wine country :) oh the wine! i feel so much more educated about wine, and had very good self control - i didn't get tipsey and i only bought a bottle of delicious sparkling pinot shiraz, which will be enjoyed after my last final. we hit 4 wineries, and the countryside was just beautiful. we got back fairly early and went out on the town for the evening. most of the bars were irritatingly crowded and smokey (something i'd gotten used to NOT dealing with, thank you CO, NJ and QLD) so we didn't stay out long after pub grub and a beer or two, and mostly just walked up and down the river, and got some really nice cake from this desert place in the cassino. we returned to the hostel and played cards and watched dr who - will is now addicted haha and it was a good night.

on saturday we didn't have to catch our bus until 1pm so we slept in a bit and wandered th city some more, i kind of shopped for a nice opal but didn't find anything. the bus we caught was out to philip island to see the fairy penguins! on the way we had a nice tea with the wallabies (which would have been nicer were they not playing annoying country music)and saw a koala sanctuary. we got out to the island and walked down to the beach to watch the little penguins emerge from the sea. we weren't allowed to take pictures because the flashes give the birds sezures, but of course that didn't stop a few retards from trying and subsequently being thrown out of the park. but the little penguins were sooooo cute! all waddly and only like 6" tall and omg so cute! will was great to go to this with because he's a bird watcher - in fact he was just amusing for the whole trip, with his binoculars and bird guide. pretty cool. anyway after a few groups of penguins came ashore, we walked back trough the sand dunes (on a boardwalk) and watched the waddle to their little hutches. all in all, probably the most adorable experience i've had in a while. we got back to town early enough to get some ice cream and watch more dr who. will had an annoyingly early flight again so we didn't see him in the morning. and mike and i caught a flight to sydney around 10am so no too bad.

ok thats all you get tonight, i'm off to bother a dan :) more later or tomorrow! <3