How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

Greetings girls and boys and otherwise confuseds! Here for your viewing pleasure is 2 weeks worth of travel update.


Last time I wrote I was in Airlie Beach and it was raining, boo. We took this as a sign to leave and hot footed it to the next Greyhound which was headed for 1770. Due to some epic flooding we couldn't get through to 1770 and had to wait in a place called Bunderburg (Battenburg to us). We sat in McDonalds for 5 hours with 3 other travellers asking the locals if they liked battenburg cake.  Our hilarity was lost on them. Actually managed to get to 1770 about 8 hours later and checked into a very chilled out hostel called Cool Bananas.


The next day we booked to go on a trip on the scooteroos which are mini Harley Davidson scooters. It took a few minutes to get used to but after that we dominated the streets of Agnes Waters and 1770 for about 3 hours before stopping for some potato wedges on the beach at 1770. I have already informed my Dad that his Vespa is not safe when I get home! I would fully recommend the Scooteroos to anyone going to 1770 or Agnes Waters, it was so much fun!


Decided to borrow some body boards from the hostel because lets face it, how hard can it be.... Got wiped out by a wave about as high as my knee so got out and sunbathed as it seems to be what I do best.  Trotted about and found a place that did those old school slush puppies where you squirt the flavour in. So cool, took me back to primary school times!


Our next stop was Rainbow Beach where we booked a 3 day self drive 4x4 trip to Fraser Island.  4x4's are obviously so incredibly dangerous that they require a 2 hour briefing from Crocodile Dundee who we had the honor of meeting the day before the trip.  This guy was the epitome of Australia, he was just so funny and was clear to point out all the dangers we would encounter on Fraser, namely dingos and sand.  What I found most funny during the briefing was his inability to call anything by its real name, e.g. he was talking about bumps in the sand which can be hard to drive over, he didn't call them bumps, he called them whoopdie-doos.  He said "when it comes to the whoopdies, just don't be a bunch of dicks!".  Vair amusant.  His foolproof method to get rid of the dingos was just to run at them and shout FUCK OFF DINGOS.  We later learnt that this worked extremely well.  During the briefing we were also put into our groups for the trip, we were with 3 Israeli guys and 3 Germans.  At first I wasn't amused by this lairy fruit salad of cultures but A told me to stop being so small minded all the time, so I had to suck it up! We ended up hanging out with our group for most of the evening and thankfully they turned out to all be really nice apart from one of the Germans but I suppose you can't have everything!  We had to wake up at some ungodly hour the next day for yet another briefing.  Not sure why they called it a briefing, there was nothing brief about it!  Finally got underway and headed along the bumpiest sand track in the world towards Lake McKenzie on Fraser Island.  It was without a doubt the nicest lake I've seen, it looked like a picture on a postcard!  We hung out there for the rest of the day, swimming, sunbathing and learning some choice German and Hebrew phrases from the people in our group.  I decided to shout out one of these new German phrases to a tour group of elderly Germans.  The phrase was "weil ich eine schlampe bin, bin ich schwanger" which means: I'm pregnant because I'm a slag!  Needless to say we got some funny looks.  Very funny, or zehr lustig auf Deutsch!  Spent the rest of the day setting up camp and by the time had our tents up it was pitch black and we had to cook in the dark.  Nightmare.  Gave it our best effort then cracked out the goon!  Over the next 2 days on the island we visited Indian Head and Lake Wobby and had beach parties on the beach at night, was a very fun trip, followed by the best shower ever!  


In Noosa we learnt that we really need to start prebooking stuff, although it feels more rock n roll to turn up with no reservation!  Noosa has a cool European town feel to it so we spent most of the day mooching round the shops and eying up the posh cafes.  In a minor fit of forward thinking, we actually made sandwiches for our all day bus the next day!  Got to Byron and due to no booking had to wonder the street for somewhere to stay, felt like a pack horse with all my bags!  Finally checked into a hostel called Aquarius.  Chilled in the bar listening to the live music that night which was nice.  Rained so much the next day.  Strolled round the shops and got absolutely soaked so took refuge in an internet cafe.  The rain didn't die down so got soaked on the way back too!  Then in a moment of awe inspiring spontaneity, A decided to get a tattoo!  She got a little Aquarius sign, which just happens to be her star sign AND the place we were staying in!  Pub quiz in the eve. Lost.


Left Byron for Coffs Harbour.  Decided to explore and got drenched, why do we even bother!?  Luckily our hostel was very chilled out and put on a load of films which was cool.  There were 4 other girls in our dorm that night who were all a little bit weird, I was clearly reading my book but they asked to turn the light off at 11pm which was a bit rude!  Our Greyhound the next day wasn't until 1am so we had a pretty long wait.  Now I'm not one to name names but in this case I'm going to.  If you find yourself in Aussitel hostel in Coffs Harbour you better hope Frank is off sick!  Considering our bus wasn't until 1am, he wouldn't let us stay in the hostel past 9pm unless we paid for another night.  Fair enough if that's your policy but he was a massive nob about it!  Rant over.  


Overnight bus to Sydney was ok.  A slept all the way so was perky when we got there, I looked like I'd been dragged through a bush backwards.  Met up with C, a friend of A's and chilled at his house until we went to J's house where we are staying.  It's in Campbelltown on the outskirts of Sydney.  Had dinner with her family.  It's so nice to be in a house again!  Went shopping in Sydney the next day with C, met up with J and her friends for sushi.  Went to a bar in Camden with J and her sister A that eve.  More shopping for outfits for our impeding big night out in Kings Cross.  Bought a black skirt and top combo and borrowed some heels.  We hit World Bar and Candys and it was a pretty messy evening.  The next day we had our very first proper Aussie BBQ at C's house.  It was epic, there was all kinds of meat and salad and pasta.  I put on about a stone that day.  K, A and C took us to the Blue Mountains and we were happy to find that they do touristy things at our kind of speed, pretty quick!  We were having a coffee in the cafe within half an hour of arriving!  This brings us to yesterday!  We headed into Sydney in a touristy frame of mind!  We went to Darling Harbour, the Chinese Gardens (where I got dolled up as a geisha- hilarious), the opera house, the Harbour Bridge and the botanical gardens.  It was what you might call a whirlwind tour of Sydney!  Went for a Chinese with K and C to celebrate!


That's all for now travel fans!


Luce x