So it’s been awhile...

So it’s been awhile...

I’ll try to catch you up on what’s been going down. First off I spent 8 days in Brisbane which is an awesome city. If anyone tells you otherwise they are lying. I stayed at a hostel called Brisbane Backpacker Resort; the people staying there where not always the friendliest, but I did manage to meet some cool people as well as a few cards.
A great thing about Brisbane is that there is always live music playing somewhere. Just walk down the streets at night and listen for the sound of a acoustic guitar filtering out of a cafe or bar. The Brisbane art galleries had some amazing art work as well. I was admiring one of best paintings in the gallery when one of the gallery “attendants” came up and told me that the man who just left the room was the artiest. I was shocked and wish I would have been able to tell him that his work blew my mind.

From Brisbane I took a bus to the town of Noosa. I stayed there for five days in total. I was only going to stay for 3 days, but I got trapped there because there was a cyclone on its way down the coast. It never got that bad, but I did get a cool picture of the newspaper with the head line “RUN FOR THE HILLS”.

Here’s a few different random stories:

I went on a hike through the national park and along the beach in Noosa. It had beautiful and breath taking views around every turn. Even thought some of the paths had ominous sounding names such as “Hells Gate” everything went great. It was only at around the halfway point that things took a turn for the more unsightly. The hiking path I was on cut right through a nude beach. Now this was no small nude beach, it took about 30 minutes to walk from one end to the other. The thing you have to come to terms with when entering a nude beach is that your never going to be the same as you were before you came. This is because there’s always a large number of men over the age of 40. I don’t know what it is about men once they reach the age of 40 that makes the idea of taking there pants off on a beach irresistible. Some people say “being naked is natural” well to them I say go to a nude beach and tell me that that should be natural.

As I mentioned before, there was a cyclone warning for the coast of Queensland. The storm was predicted to be a big one, a Category 5 (Katrina was a Category 4). Frasier Island and Whitsunday National Parks were either closed down or evacuated as a precaution. Because of all this, the hostels in Noosa became fully booked. I had already stayed 3 nights, so when I tried to get another night naturally they were fully booked. This forced me to pay $20 for the privilege of getting to sleep in a chair. It was not the best sleep especially because I was sleeping in a living/gathering area. It was like when you go to a sleepover and you really want to go to sleep but everyone else is still up and talking. Eventually I got to tried and just fell asleep in the middle of the room in my chair.
The next night I had exactly the same problem only this time the hostel I was staying at would no longer sell the chairs. I was busy calling all the hostels in Noosa with no success when I women over-heard me talking and offered me a bed in her “holiday home”. It was a God sent! The apartment was amazing, by the beach, very modern and clean! One of the best parts was not having to wear flip flop in the shower :)

One of the great things about traveling in Australia is that you will never have to guess at what the name of the town your in or passing through, just look at the store names. Most every one will begin with the name of the town. For example, if your staying in a town called “Bowen” there would be a good 20 stores with a name that began with the name Bowen. Ex: “Bowen cafe” “Bowen ice cream” “Bowen in and out store”.

Cheers,
Fredrick