Dear Dairy, Jackpot!

I'll make the warning that this entry will be long and full of mistakes due to how much I have to write up and how little sleep I've had the past few days.

Freja ended up taking me to this museum of art around the circular quay one afternoon and I'm now convinced that I could be an artist. They had an exhibit where it was a photocopy machine that had been beaten with a crowbar (I think) and had lots of paper jammed in it. It was supposed to be art. Makes me think all those printers and file cabinets that we used to smash at work could have been considered art. That evening Adam's friend, Cliff, came into town and stole Adam on a trip up to Byron Bay. I bid farewell to my travel partner (for now at least).

The next day we went out to Bondi beach and enjoy what we thought was going to be a sunny day. It turned out to be a pretty cloudy day, then you work in the sea breeze and it actually turns out to be quite chilly. We spent our time on the beach bundled up and cuddling each other to keep warm. That's when Freja tries to explain something to me, but says she's unaware of the English way of saying it. Being the smart boy that I am, I thought I knew what was coming and wasn't really surprised. She said something along the lines of "this feels like a relationship" so I tried to make a quick save and explain to her that I wasn't looking for anything serious and that we are just having a good time. Now I think she was trying to say that she didn't want a relationship either, but after explaining my take on it she told me I didn't understand. So basically nothing changed. We still spent our time together and if anything we got along better then before. She became about 10 times more flirtatious with me while I was a bit more reserved. The rest of the evening was with the two of us sharing each others music collections and showing each other photos of our friends and family. I'm quite glad I got my haircut before coming out here, because she made quite a bit of fun of my passport photo and some of the old photos on my digicam card. Around 3am I decided that I would just pull an all nighter since I had to get up at 6am to take the train to New Castle in the morning anyways. Freja wouldn't let me (jeez, talk about being all motherly). I kept telling her to get off to bed and that I'd watch TV til morning and head off. Basically she pulled me my arm and forced me up the stairs to my room. I got a small bit of sleep.

That morning I went and caught a train to new castle (3 hour ride) to visit family I hadn't seen in years. My uncle picked me up at the train station and took me back to his house where I was greeted by my Aunt, 2 Cousins and my 2nd cousin whom I hadn't met before. I was rewarded with a BBQ lunch and found out that it happened to be my Aunt and Uncles 35th wedding anniversary. So I got cake too! I got to go for a small walk with my Uncle and Cousin to take a look around the area and have a gander at the new golf course. At the end of the day my cousins offered me a place to stay with them next time I come back into Sydney, well as long as I get back before January. My cousin is pregnant with twins, so their spare room will be filled with two more kids. That must be hard. My uncle was kind enough to drive me another 40 minutes back to the train station all so I could get back to Sydney and spend what was left of my evening with Freja who was leaving the following morning. We went over to the Empire hotel for a few drinks with two other girls, Kari and Amy. Apparently we got in at the right time for it was half price on certain beers and Amy had a 2 for 1 voucher all night. We put down $10 and got 8 schooners. Not too shabby at all.

That night Freja and I turned in a bit earlier then usual and I was ready to say my goodbyes to her. She wanted something more "special" instead. I don't need to explain it anymore then that. I eventually kicked her out of my room around 5am so that she could get some sleep before her early departure. I didn't wake up til 3pm and didn't get a move on with my day until close to 5pm. It was a wasted day for me to spend doing a lot of nothing. I packed up my stuff that night and got a good nights sleep for my adventure that was to continue the next morning. With both Adam and Freja gone and I had already spent 2 weeks and seen most sights, there was no reason to stay anymore. Off to Brisbane I went.

I got back on the Oz Experience bus and went on another wild bus adventure. Our bus driver wasn't nearly as good as our last one, but he was still enjoyable. He did subject us to the same music over and over again over the course of 3 days though. There is only so many times I can listen to "The Land Down Under" song. I get it, we're in Australia and it's a song about Oz. Give it up. Like usual, it was quick to find someone new to spend my time with. Funny enough, the first guy I talk with and befriend just happens to be English (I have good relations with that side of the world right now it seems). His name is Paul and we spent a lot of time getting to know each other. He reminds me a lot of myself actually, which is probably why we got along so well. Our first night was spent at some camp grounds in the Warrambungles (I'm sure I spelt it wrong). We spent our evening drinking, playing guitar and taking a late night swim with two Swedish girls, Emma and Anna.

The next day was tough. Not only were Paul and I bit hungover, but we were unaware that we were going on a 3 hour climb up some small mountain to a great lookout spot. I was in a world of pain for the first half, but after the whole hike I was feeling quite good. Cure for a hangover, go climb a mountain. We then drove our way out to some town in the middle of nowhere for our overnight stop. My cellphone had no signal and there was no national bank where I could get money from. Damn. I was stuck with the $20 I had in my wallet for spending on drinks (didn't last long). That night I got acquainted with 2 other German guys, Phil and Haiku. The evening was spent having supper with the two Swedish and actually getting to know them a bit more. I even started to fancy one of them a bit. We then played a bit of pool and drank a lot.

The next morning I decided to call the Oz Experience office and change my travel plans. I got myself switched over from going straight through to Brisbane to instead spend 3 nights in Byron Bay with most others. The day was all driving, so I was all sleep that day. We got into Byron Bay a bit later then expected, but not too late for partying. Our bus driver was given the next couple of days off and wanted to go get wasted with us. He took us out to a bar called "Cheeky Monkeys". Interesting place. They do games every night to win prizes like cruises, or free surfing lessons and so on. The first thing I notice is that all the table tops are a metal surface which reminds me of the type of surface associated with oil rigs (I don't know the proper name for the type of surface) and I was asking everyone why they would make tables like this. My question was soon answered around 10pm when the table dancing started. They don't have a dance floor so everyone dances on the tables instead. I had more then my fair share of dance time. Paul, Phil, Anna, Emma and I didn't leave until around 3am. I even tried to get myself a bit more friendly with another German girl on our bus (I must stop with the German girls). Nothing really happened except for some talking.

We eventually got back to the hostel, grabbed some more beer which we had purchased earlier and walked up to the beach. We walked around for a bit and Phil walked around in this dangerously rocky area. I thought I'd do the same (way to go me). Naturally I slipped banged up my hand a bit (or so I thought). I didn't give it another thought until we got back to the hostel an hour or so later. I was in the washroom with Paul, gabbing about the Swedish girls, when he looks at my wrist in horror and almost yells "You're bleeding pretty bad there Mike." Sure enough I had blood all down my left arm and hadn't even noticed. I got it cleaned up and took a look at my wrist. Seems my watch tore up my wrist a bit when I took that dive at the beach. I also banged up my leg a bit when I noticed blood on my jeans too. Nothing life-threatening. I now have my first Ozzy war wounds. On our way out from the washroom Paul spotted our bus driver getting his mojo on with some girl. We figured this could be used as blackmail later on.

My next day in Byron was rather lame. It was raining quite heavily which meant to beach for me. Instead, Paul and I walked around town (that took all of 10 minutes considering it's just a small, small town). Around this time was when Paul got the rumour mill started about our bus driver getting it on with some girl from the bar. Eventually he told just about everyone from our bus until we got up to a young English chap named Richard. Apparently it was his sister, Eve, who was the "lucky" girl. I'm not sure if either of us knew that Eve was his sister. No more discussion about our bus drivers evil ways commenced after that. We bought some more booze and took it back to the Swedish girls room where we met some more Swedish guys. The end of the evening was a bit of a downer for Paul since he had been working his magic so much with Emma and didn't seem to get anywhere that night. Phil and I tried to keep his spirits high. To keep him happy, we took him back to Cheeky Monkeys for more table dancing and cheap meals ($2 meals). I was even able to win us a super cheap jug of beer ($1.50!!). They play this game where the host will say how much a jug of beer is going for and then says how many of which coins he wants and the first person to get up to him in 10 seconds gets the jug for that price. If no one gets up in 10 seconds then the price goes up and the amount of coins changes. I was quick on my feet and happened to have the proper coinage needed. In the process some English girl was upset with me because I beat her to the stage. Tough Shit Missy. Phil eventually got thrown out of the bar for some reason, so we all left. We headed up the main street and grabbed some drunk food (Kebabs) and then turned in.

Yesterday I was finally able to get ahold of Adam who still happened to be in Byron. I went to the beach first before meeting up with him later in the day. I introduced him to the group and we all had some drinks. I tired out pretty quickly because of how early we started drinking and we decided on getting some more Kebabs. YAY. I was tired and went to sleep around 11pm or 12pm after packing up. Phil and Paul went out with Emma and Anna for the night. I was awakened around 3am by Phil, Paul and Emma returning to our room. Phil and Paul were both pleading their cases on whose bed Emma would sleep in. Paul won because Phil has a girlfriend back home. I was on the bunk below Paul who now had Emma up there with him. I wasn't looking forward to what I thought would be a now sleepless night. Thankfully Paul is quite the gentleman and didn't "get it stuffed". He just cuddled with her.

This morning I woke up to see Emma and Paul still curled up in bed. I did my best not to wake anyone while I grabbed my stuff and went for a quick shower. When I returned to the room Paul was up and he told me that he wouldn't be getting on the bus with me today like we had both originally planned. He's gonna try his luck with Emma over the next few days and move into the same apartment style room that her and Anna are living in. I wished him all the best and told him to get in touch with me when he makes up to Brisbane if he's up here while I'm still here. Gave my goodbye to Phil as well and was on my way. I was on the bus with only a few people from my last trip and didn't waste time making friends with anyone else on the bus since most of them got off in the first hour when we stopped at Surfers Paradise and then I was getting off at the next stop, Brisbane.

So here I am, in Brisbane. Gonna go take a small nap, grab some grub and explore a bit. Probably won't get up to too much for the rest of today for I am still knackered. Maybe I'll even try my luck and see if Freja is still here or if she's moved on yet.