Melbs

I took a trip to Melbourne for 5 days. Most Australians that know me say that they think I would like Melbourne more than Sydney. After exploring the city for just a few days, I know why they feel that way.

Melbourne is a planned city and is laid out so as not to overwhelm the pedestrian. It is a very European looking city and has a very laid back vibe. My favorite parts of the center of the city are little ally ways crammed with tasty restaurants, coffee houses, and boutiques. For someone that hates franchises as much as I do it is refreshing to see these little independently owned establishments with great food and a lot of personality.

I stayed with a friend who showed me around whenever he could (thanks T-Dog!). There is nothing better than experiencing a city through the eyes of a local. I got to meet his friends and check out his hangout spots which makes the experience unique.

We spent an afternoon at the botanical gardens. The gardens are lovely and it was an amazing spot to have lunch and a chat. I love to wonder in a city's gardens. It is something I don't do enough at home, yet spend entire days doing while traveling. It might be that at home we all have this 'go go' mentality and are unable to stop and have lunch in a garden or simply walk around and check out the seasons bloom. During the summers Melbourne hosts an outdoor cinema in the gardens - unfortunately for us, the only movies playing while I was there were Sex & The City and some lame-o action flick.

Saturday night was a big night out a Richmond local pub where T-Dogg's friend manages. The pub looked as if it could have been placed in Berlin or Seattle. The high wooden bar top (yeah, I could barely reach it myself), gorgeous patio, and 3 chandelers (y'all know how I feel about chandelers) made it beautifully novel. The excitement made me drink quickly and too much - which only made me more social.

On Sunday we went to St. Kilda, which is the closest beach town. It is a very cute area with a sea salt baths. On Sundays the baths host Latin music dancing lessons and its a great place to sit and people watch (specially the people trying to dance) while having a few beers.

My last night in Melbourne I met up with Jaime (a mate I met last year in Ios, Greece) and Cat (my flat mate in Sydney) and we went to an Australian comedy show! I have to say that Aussies are a bit more cheesy than I thought they would be. Melbs is known for their comedy shows, so it was a must do!

I'm back in Sydney now and I fly into Phuket, Thailand tomorrow! I can't wait for the next chapter in this adventure!

Exploring Sydney

I've been in Sydney for 3 weeks now and it has been a crazy few weeks!

I am staying with my friend Mattie and his 3 roommates and 4 flat guests. We are a total of 8, but the flat is large and we have the penthouse suite - so plenty of room on the roof! Most of our flat mates are boys, so the flat can get quite dirty.

We live in Bondi - 15 minutes away from the beach. It is a great spot - but a bit touristy. Most of the Bondi Beach population consists of Irish folk - most of whom I cannot understand!

Our neighbor is a crazy, kind hearted, CRAZY millionaire named Mary Anne. She sometimes just strolls into our flat at 6 am for a chat. She owns a restaurant in Paddington and always comes over with little treats for us.

I have explored the city a few days. China town is spectacular and I just love to take the 389 bus into town and just wonder around aimlessly. We have yet to check out some cute cafes in Paddington - but have already been around the CBD, Newtown, Suri Hills, The Rocks (my fav), Darling Harbour, and Manly.

We spent Christmas eve pub crawling around CBD (Central Bank District) and it was interesting to be in a group of travelers, drinking, in the hot weather on Christmas Eve. As amazing as it was, I did miss my mom's outrageous amounts of delicious food, hanging out with my dad watching 'Its A Wonderful Life,' and watching my older bro get overly excited to open presents. All us backpackers did band together and become each other's family for the holidays - which was nice.

I woke up Christmas day with 6 flat mates piled on top of me screaming "HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!" It was, of course, a rough morning after the debauchery of the previous night. I got off my lye low and started getting to work to get things ready for our party.

We had 20 people at our Christmas barbecue feast! I made 2 Brazilian treats (brigadeiro and habanada). We had turkey, ham, skewers, burgers, and all kinds of other snacks and things. Oh and don't forget the bathtub full of beer. We improvised. :)

I spent new years eve at darling harbour watching the famous Sydney harbour bridge fireworks. It was AMAZING! I met a group of Brazilians and an Irish boy and just danced through the whole fireworks experience. After the fireworks I hoped on the ferry and went to a bonfire party my friend Chris was throwing on Manly beach. I watched the sun come up in off the water and the surfers catching those 6 am waves. It took me 3 hours to get home - to finally arrive at 9:30 am - but was worth every step of that journey.

We have been just watching movies and recovering the last couple of days. Now that the holidays are over, I am getting ready to hit the road once again. I am going to spend a week in Melbourne and then I am off to Thailand for 6 weeks. Once I get back from Thailand I am going to get a flat in Sydney and a real job and settle down.

Quick observation: sometimes I am sitting around with our flat mates - 5 English boys, an English gal, a gal from Cypress and I feel like I'm in a movie! Sometimes we have Irish, Kiwi, or Aussie friends over and I feel like its the UN! So many people from all over the place with so many different backgrounds and experiences and here we are - sharing these little moments. Cheesy yes, but also very true. :)

Noosa, Brisbane, Byron Bay, Newcastle, Hunter Valley

In an attempt to catch up...

Noosa
Noosa is where Aussies go to vacation. It is a quaint beach town with pricey shops and restaurants. The nightlife is almost non-existent as the town is geared towards family vacations.

Our first night in Noosa we met an Aussie boy that "lives in Melbourne, but has worked in Ios for 9 seasons!" Most of you know my affinity towards Ios. Ios is a little island in Greece where I spent a few weeks. I would say those few weeks were probably the best weeks of my life. We knew pretty much everyone on the island and we are still good friends with most of them - even though we all live in different parts of the world. I am actually traveling with one of those friends now! Oh how the world is small!

We spent our days in Noosa on the beach and our nights walking around the town and checking out the few pubs on the strip. There is one night club in Noosa, but unfortunately it was packed with schoolies.

What are schoolies you ask? Well, schoolies are recent high school grads who travel to a beach town and reek havoc with binge drinking and the like. They usually go to Surfers Paradise (a town we intentionally skipped do to the schoolies timing). They are just these young little rug rats that remind me how old I'm getting and how annoying drink kiddies can get.

We turned our car back in in Noosa - so now we are Greyhounding it with the masses.

Brisbane
All I had heard about Brisbane in the backpacker circuit was how awful it was - and everyone was pretty much right. It really isn't THAT bad, but we stayed in such a smelly, disgusting, scary hostel that it pretty much ruined the Brisy experience for us. (note to the reader: NEVER stay at Tin Billys in Brisbane).

The great thing about Brisbane is that Tamara's mother and stepfather were in town and took us out to dinner. They also introduced us to a lovely girl named Sarah.

Sarah is a grad student from Ohio studying in Brisbane. Sarah made dinner for us on our 2nd night and it was definitely the highlight of Brisbane. She lives in a Queenslander, which is a typical style home in Queensland. It is high off the ground with big windows and large patios. They used to build homes in Queensland in this manner because of the floods and to have a cool breeze go through the home. Sarah made us a lovely vegetarian dinner and we met some of her school mates which, where very inspiring to me.

One of Sarahs school mates was Chip, a British boy who just came back from Africa to study medicine in Brisbane. Her roommates were a Swedish mathematician and a German physicist. Sarah herself is working on a peace theory thesis for the UN. I really enjoyed chatting with such educated people. It inspired me so much that I am thinking that going back to school would be a real option for me - once I'm settled somewhere (God knows that Tati and settling may never happen).

Byron Bay
Oh Byron Bay - quite possibly my favorite spot in Australia thus far. It is a hippy type beach town with cute little shops, backpackers, and a few key pubs.

I LOVE the lifestyle in Bayron. The people that work the restaurants and pubs are mostly hippy style travelers picking to live in Bayron for the time being. Some become permanent residents.

Our Swedish friend Carin was still traveling with us in Bayron and the 3 of us took turns cooking dinner every night. We had some incredible meals and our hostel was more of a beachy resort than a hostel with apartment style accommodation.

We met 2 British brothers at a club one night and it turned out that they were staying in a room across from us. We hung out with the brothers most nights and just lazed around during the days. I did some surfing on 7 mile beach in Byron and LOVED it. I'm sure you will all see me on TV competing in a surfing competition soon. :)

I could live in Byron ... and maybe at some point during my year in Australia I will.

Newcastle
Newcastle is just 2 hours north of Sydney. My friend Tamara is originally from Newcastle and we have been staying at her mothers lovely home. We have been having home cooked meals everyday and spending much time with her family. They have been VERY kind to me and her mom even made some Pavlova (traditional Aus dessert - yumma)!

Some other friends that we met last year in Ios are also from Newcastle. We actually went out with them last night. We went to the pub that one of them, Sammy, manages. His brother Ian and his girlfriend met us for some drinks and some awkward Australian dancing (note: Australians might be the WORSE dancers in the world). It felt like we had never left each other in Greece. 5 minutes into seeing them I realised why I keep in touch - they are just great people.

Seeing Sammy was a bit strange as he was kind of my little short term boyfriend while in Greece. Even before I left Greece he told me that he was ready to come back to Aus, buy a house, and start a family. I knew that he would have a girlfriend in no time - being that he is uber charismatic. I could not help but note that it seemed like he was just a shell of his normal self. In Greece he was bubbly, funny, charming, and energetic. Now he just seems to sort of float around and I wonder if stability has killed his soul a bit. I think that people sometimes THINK they know what they are supposed to do and THINK it is what they want - but, especially when it comes to settling down - I find that maybe it is not the right thing to do for them. I think that Sammy might just not be the right kind of person to just work, buy a house, and live a sort of monotonous life. Maybe I'm wrong.

Hunter Valley
We spent a couple of days in the Hunter Valley for some wine tasting. We drank on and off for 12 hours - so I dont have much to say other than... I LOVE DAY DRINKING!

We also visited the Hunter Gardens with its Christmas lights and it is the first time I felt like its the season.

Tomorrow we leave for Sydney and it is bitter-sweet. Tamara leaves for Thailand next Sunday and then she is off to move to London. I can't believe our road trip down the coast is coming to an end. I have many friends to catch up with in Sydney and others who I met along the way, but it just wont be the same without her. We have become family.

Ode to the Backpacker

Let me take a break from telling you all about my whereabouts to talk a little bit about backpackers. You all know how much I love the backpacking culture and with last years travels and this years... I have attained some backpacking 'wisdom'. What good is wisdom if it is not shared right?

Backpackers Commandments

1. A backpacker MUST always travel with a backpack. None of this rolly bag bull. Stuff it in a backpack and lug it around mate.
2. Stay in hostels. Even if a hotel comes out cheaper - there is nothing like interacting and living in hostels whilst traveling.
3. Always respect your fellow backpackers. This includes never turning on the lights when you get in from a night out, NOT stealing from your fellow poor colleagues, cleaning up after yourself in the shared kitchens, and not taking long showers.
4. Tell all good and bad experiences. Learning where to go and what to do from backpackers is one of the best parts of traveling this way.
5. Share. We are all poor and we become like a little family. Make that spaghetti for two!
6. No high hells. Get over it gals, your backpacking - your aposta look like a bum.
7. Wander. Don't over plan. You want to sort of drift to places as you hear about them and stay longer where you enjoy to - and leave where you don't.
8. Talk to randoms. You will meet people from all over the world in hostels - just start up convo.
9. Pass it forward. Sometimes you stay with a friend of a friend of a friend in Berlin, or an aquantance in Melbourne... when the time comes, let a semi stranger stay in your home or make them dinner.
10. Do what you would not normally do at home. Maybe you can pick up work feeding llamas or start surfing eventhough you are normally a little afraid of the ocean and its habitants. This is the time when you are learning the most about yourself, so push those limits.

Fraser Island as a Goonie

Fraser island is a sand island. It is a nature reservation - and , to say the least, it is a gorgeous place. There are a few resorts on the island, but most people camp on the island. Visiting the island at minimum impact is ideal. We went on a self driven tour via Paradise tours.

Our 4X4 included 10 people total. The camping equipment (which was, falling to pieces mostly) was given to us along with the car. We were to purchase our groceries, cook, camp, and navigate the island on our own.

We knew we had a good group off the bat. Tamara and I were accompanied by our Sweedish friend Carine; Jack, an English recent grad lawyer with a sarcastic sense of humor and an eye for Tamara; Anette, a 'sweet' Sweedish girl that rarely spoke unless she got hammered and started showing her true, slightly scary, sexual experiences; Tom, a dreamy English man traveling all over who just jumped in to help everywhere he could and did most of the driving... and most of the drinking... but not at the same time; Phil, a chubby English fella constantly conserned over everything and who navigated most of the way (hence why we got lost a few times) and a fobia of EVERY creater - including march flies; Dave, Phil's brother who seems to spend lots of time working out and is very proud of his body yet keeps to himself a lot of the time; Kelly, a young British girl whos age shows, is more fun while drunk, and tends to nag her boyfriend 23 hours a day; Mark (pronounced, by Kelly as MAAAHARKKK), a 25 year old Brit with the maturity level of a 10 year old - Mark's random gestures and comments might have been top on our list of highlights for the trip.

The first half hour on Frasers we managed to mess up our tires - rookies. We didn't notice the mess until the next morning, which is good because we had such a great day that to know about the tire any earlier might have taken away from it. We started off at Lake Wobby, which is a beautiful fresh water lake between the doones and a forest area. It was the most refreshing swim. We played a lamer version of volleyball in the water while Tom snuck up on each girl 'croc' style.

After Lake Wobby we decided it was enough excitement and we wanted to get to our campsite. We settled in front of the beach and set up camp. This is, mind you, a sand island. Sand is EVERYWHERE and there is nowhere to hide. This and the lack of showers made us all look like hobbos by the end of day 1.

We played soccer on the beach and cooked up a barbeque. After eating we played Ring of Fire, which is my new favorite drinking game to date. It usually involves drinking Goon, which can get nasty. By the end of night 1 I had a name for us.

We are... The Goonies.

Day 2 was spent at Champagne Falls, the lookout, and an early dinner. I drove a bit on day 2, which was scary and exciting. We played Ring of Fire on night 2 and it was even more interesting than the 1st. A small group camped near us and joined in. We had pasta for dinner - which had sand in it - for texture. At this point one cooler had red blood leaked all over it from our meat and the other had red goon all over from our goon. :S

Day 3 was spent in Lake Mckenzie which was even better than Lake Wobby. The water is clear and warm. It was gorgeous and we spent most the time attacking eachother with sand balls and throwing the football around.

The largest drama that happened to the Goonies was our trip back to our ferry. the last ferry off the island was at 4 pm and we were on our way to 'central station' where we THOUGHT we were to fill our tires back up and get on the ferry. Well, we got to the station and it was the wrong location. We needed to go to the port in Fishermans Bay 18 KM away! On terrain like that of Frasers, this is not an easy distance to reach. Luckily Tom was at the wheel and he went as fast as possible in those conditions. It was the first time our car was completely quiet, with the exception of someone asking the time every now and again. We had 2 minutes to go when we were filling up our tires. We arrived to the port and the ferry was leaving. We all screamed and pleaded and... the ferry came back! We made it on and jumped around. Everyone on the ferry was clapping. The captain told us that some people had come up to him and asked "where are the Goonies? I don't think they are on yet!" ha!

We arrived back to Harvey Bay and spent Tamara's birthday night at our hostel... playing Ring of Fire.

Magnetic Island, Airllie Beach, Whit Sundays, and random Rockhampton

WE ARE ON THE ROAD! We have been driving anywhere between 2 to 6 hours a day and have been flying by the wings of fate - with not much planed ahead.

Magnetic Island
We spent 2 days on this island. It is beautiful, but there was not much to do. The occupants' age medium at our hostel (Base) was about 20. After hearing a gasp from a young German girl who had just asked our ages, we felt old.

We spent our days at Magnetic Island on the beach, at the pool. On our last night at Magnetic I experienced Goon for the first time. Goon is, after all, part of Australian culture. It is also cheap wine in a silver bag.

We met a group of young English boys from Newcastle and drank red, white, and rose Goon (yes, it even comes in rose!!). Two of the boys were nice English gentlemen and chatted with us all night - a few of the others were the other kind of English boy. One of the chubby ones was very intoxicated and sang "California" every time I walked by.

Airlie Beach
You know those American movies from the 80s where all the women wear hot pink bikinis and are orangy tan with beach blond hair? You know, where everyone is at a beach town for their spring break? This, in a nutshell, is Airlie Beach. Everyone is in their early to mid 20s, beautiful, and sun kissed.

I never had much of a "spring break" college experience while I was actually IN college - mostly because I had work to worry about. I more than made up for this in Airlie Beach! Our 1st night was spent at a party hostel called 'Magnums.' We were knackered when we arrived and thought we would just shower, have a drink, and go to bed. Our night got a bit more interesting than this.
We were almost done with our one drink - when a VERY handsome man came up and asked to sit with us. Hours later we were playing pool with 3 men, drunk as fishes - leaving the bar to get to a dance club.

This happened very easily. Romane. Romane is the Lithuanian fellow that first came to sit and have a drink with us. Imagine the cutest male model you have ever seen, then add blue eyes. This is Romane. We sat with Romane chatting about life, travel, work, passion, love, and anything else that came up. Romane has traveled all over the world - and LOVED Brazil (of course!). This is one of the best things about traveling. Meeting people like Romane. People that have so much of a similar point of view from your own. People that I am excited to know exist and help me know that no, I am not a crazy person for looking at the world the way I do.

Romane left to shower and 2 Englishmen came to us right away. They asked us to play pool with them - and we obliged. They were rough and tough looking blokes with tattoos on them. The tallest, roughest looking was Adam. Strangely enough, Adam is a cupcake baker!!! ha!

Romane, the two English blokes, Tamara, and myself all struggled to play pool. The longest pool game in the world turned into a great idea to go dancing. We went to 'Mama Africas' and danced all night! I don't remember the last time I have danced so much. AND it was house and electronica (very Euro!).

We arrived back to our awful, smelly room at 4 am... only to arise at 8 for our sailing trip to Whit Sundays.

Whit Sundays
Needless to say I was a bit sick the morning we arrived on the Mandrake (our sailing boat). It didn't last long as the trip to Whit Sundays is beautiful. I wish I had taken more photos, but I was much too involved in experiencing all of it to stop and take pictures - a common Tati phenomenon for which I kick myself constantly after the fact.

We sailed with Tom, a red, large bellied skipper; Jema, a young, beautiful crew member/cook; Lauren, a funny English gal; Kate, an amazing English singer (she brought her guitar); Stephen, a OVERLY excited English bloke (he was in love with all us girls - all for different reasons and his eyes went big whenever he saw a fish or turtle swimming near our sailboat).

We island hoped, snorkeled, and sailed during the day and sang with Kate and her guitar at night (and did a bit of drinking games I admit).

Rockhampton
After Whit Sundays we stayed a night in Airllie. The next morning our hostel was full, so we took it as a sign of fate and moved on.

We drove south until we felt we needed to stop. The towns were all a bit small, so we decided we would drive the 6 hours to Rockhampton - the largest of the small towns.

Let me take this time to talk about driving on the left side of the road. It is strange. I have been doing well, but turning is the strangest part. Tamara is a brave soul and she has been encouraging. :)

Rockhampton is a bit of a historic town. It started with the gold mining. A river runs threw it (very ala every Euro city) and there are some historic pubs and hotels. It is a farm type town - so MEAT is whats for dinner.

We ate at the first hotel - Crition Hotel (something or other) and I had (gasp) a fillet and romp meat pie with smashed peas and gravy (yumma!).

The hostel owner told us about live music that night in the pub below us. The band was great - but the crowd consisted of 18 - 20 year olds and a crazy rodeo clown, whom I am sure is soon to become the town crazy/homeless man.

The funniest part of our night is that the hostel owner told us that he thought it was a crank call when I called him from the highway and reserved 2 beds under the name Tatiana Brasil. He didn't think it was possible to have such a name. He mentioned this, unfortunately for me, in front of the musicians (while on break). Halfway through their session the musician says, "Tatiana Brasil. Tatiana Brasil. Ladies and gentlemen... that is a real name. You would think it was a stripper name, but no. It is a real name and she is sitting right there... in the blue. Talk to her while you can boys." I turned red. I know that I am not known to become embarrassed often - but I was VERY embarrassed. My name came up before love ballots throughout the night.

The drive
We left Rockhampton and drove south. We spent a couple of hours at 1770 - which is a beautiful little beach (and where Captian Cook first arrived in Aus). We are now at Harvey Bay and we leave for Frazer Island tomorrow morning - for which I am VERY excited. Our Swedish friend has met up with us and we are ready to go!

The Plan - still going
Harvey bay - 1 night
Frazer - 2 nights
Harvey bay - 1 night (Tamara's birthday!)
Noosa - 2 nights
Brisbane - 2 nights
Byron bay - 4 nights
Newcastle - 1 week (including my birthday!)
Sydney - ??

Tati

Sanctuary: Mission Beach Paradise

After a couple of nights relaxing and meeting some of our fellow divers and instructers at the Woolshed bar in Cairns, we rented a little compact car and drove south. (Let me take this opportunity to explain how excited we are to have our own car and be on a road trip! Our car is red and we LOVE it... and the independance it gives us.)

Our first stop is Mission Beach. This beach is GORGEOUS and after consulting our trusty Lonely Planet we decided to stay in a place called Sanctuary. It is about 15 minutes north of Mission Beach and once we arrice we have to hike 500 meters uphill - which wasn't easy to do since we were hungover from 2 days at the Woolshed. When we finally got to the "long house" at Sanctuary, it was well worth it.

This place truely lives up to its name. It is in the middle of the jungle on one of the highest hills. You can see the ocean between the trees. Our accomidations were a little cabana with 2 beds, a roof, and mosquito netting. Thats it. You are litteraly IN the jungle with only this green netting between you and wild life.

We spent the 2 days there at the desolate beach, their 'clothing optional' pool (don't worry people, thankfully nobody there opted for that while we where there), read in hammoks, and took naps in various beautiful breezy locations in the long house.

The only negative, I would say, are the night time creepy crawlers. The frogs and huge beetles came out at night and when we were having dinner in the long house they would just hang about us - which made me a little bit uneasy. :S

Leaving the Sanctuary we feel completly relaxed and ready for the next adventure...

Whats next?:

• Magnetic Island for 2 days



• Airllie beach for 1 night



• 2 nights on a sail boat through Whit Sundays islands



• 1 more night in Arlllie beach



• 2 nights on Frazer island



• ...? (we have yet to figure out the rest of our trip... but we know we have to be in Sydney by ~ dec 15th)

Kisses,

Tati