Wollongong is le pew

Yeah... the similarities between here and Hamilton are eerie. Wollongong has a steel factory on the water, plus an escarpment. The smell is even similar. Guess thats it for similarities, but meh.

Gotta few pictures this time, first one is from my hike last weekend there. This is Sunday, after it rained. Ver' nice.



The next couple are Wollongong. This is a nice place and all, especially compared to Hamilton, but the hostel here kinda sucks and the people aren't all that friendly. There's not much selection when it comes to hostels, so there probably isn't much incentive to make the place nice. The communal fridge smells like something crawled in there and died a few months ago, and the dorm room I'm in has a hint of wet dog to it. And the dogs... they've got at least 5 that I've counted here, and kinda run wild around the backyard. Eating the garbage, lying on the picnic tables... yeah. So one more day here then I'm heading out.

Oh yeah, the pictures.





First one the beachfront with the nice steel factory in the background, and the second a shot of the city with the escarpment behind. Ahh... feels just like home. haha.

Eeeh, got one more night here then I'm heading out again. I'm working my way towards Melbourne nice 'n slow; my next stop is in Bateman's Bay... supposed to be a nice little beachfront town. This place has a couple hostels at least so maybe there'll be a better chance of staying at a good one. I managed to get a bus pass for $59 bucks that'll let me stop anywhere I want to along the way to Melbourne for as long as I want. Pretty good deal I think.

Meh, thats it for now. You'll notice as the boredom goes up, the number of posts also increases. Guess I'll just go sit on the beach and burn... I mean tan... for a while longer. Sweet...

-Brad

Yay pain!

Yeah, I am a dumbass. I finished that 3-day hike a couple days ago, it was brutal. Here's a couple of excerpts from my brain during the trip:

Friday, 10:00 AM - Yeah, this walk is gonna be cool, I feel great!
Friday, 10:15 AM - Dammit, my feet hurt already and my back is getting sore.
Friday, 10:30 AM - First of many breaks. Crap.

It goes downhill from there. Well, mostly uphill.

So yeah, carrying a 45lb pack for 45kms or so with a lot of ups and downs kinda wears you out. It was an awesome time other than the soreness. Saw dozens of roos, wallabys, a couple types of spiders that can kill you, tons of birds and reptiles 'n stuff. No pictures of any of that yet cause I can't get pictures off my camera into this computer. Ah well.

Now I'm heading out of Katoomba after two of the most relaxing days ever at the hostel here. It was great doing absolutely nothing... other than sampling (yeah, just sampling... haha) the local beers and sitting around playing cards. Great time here. Anyways, I'm heading south of Sydney to Wollongong, its supposed to be the Hamilton of Australia (a big steel factory). Lots of nice beaches and national parks around there. The plan right now is kinda to travel further south to Melbourne eventually then over to Tasmania for a while before its winter. I've got a couple weeks left of travelling before I'll have to start working, so I'll probably look for a job in Wollongong.

Well, I'm off to go do some more nothing. hehe

-Brad

Katoomba is kool

Well, I've left Sydney. It was pretty nice, got to see the Opera House, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Bondi Beach, Manly Beach... all the tourist crap. Very nice weather the whole time, it was at least 25 degrees and very sunny the whole time. My first day in Sydney wandering around I got a nice sunburn on my face, even though I put sunscreen on twice. Sigh...

So I've headed into the mountains, about 80km inland from Sydney. Staying at a very nice relaxed hostel in Katoomba. I've gone on a couple small hikes the last couple days, now I'm going nuts and doing a 3-day hike. I'm supposed to see some roos on my second night, so that'll be cool. Got a couple pictures, one of Bondi Beach in Sydney, and another of the Blue Mountains.





Well, thats all for now. The hostel I'm at right now doesn't have free internet so I'm on the clock here. heh.

-Brad

Ugh, so sore

Yeah, 30 hours on an airplane will do that to you. So I made it to Sydney, no problems with anything. Hong Kong was cool, I took a 3 hour tour there. It wasn't wall-to-wall people like I expected; it was the last day of Chinese New Year so most people were home sleeping off hangovers I guess. At least I would've been.

So a couple pictures from the tour here. This was some nice role-reversal; I was the one in the bus taking pictures in an Asian country. :) The first one is a bridge. I had a hard time understanding the tour guide lady so we thought she said that the Hong Kong airport was a lot like the suspension bridge in San Francisco. Yeah... confusing at first. Second one is a nice smoggy shot of the city. All the expensive houses are up on the top of the hill there. From what I made out the farther up you go the more expensive it gets.




You can get the full-sized images from here.

So yeah, I'm in Sydney now. Pretty cool place so far, haven't had much of a chance to wander around yet but that on my list of things to do after I get a decent sleep.

Not much else to tell other than a minor fiasco with some guy getting lost in Hong Kong when a girl on the tour was holding his plane ticket for him. Ouch... still don't know whether that one got sorted out or whether the guy even made it back to the airport. Ah well, I'm beginning to see that maybe I'm not really a dumbass compared to a lot of people.

Yeah, thats it. Me so tired.

-Brad

Now's the time, the time is now

Yeah, the big day's almost here, I'm flying out tomorrow night. Everything at home here is finally sorted out, no thanks to my dumbass brother :) Not only did he forget to bring all my stuff back last weekend from the house in Stoney Creek, but when I drove all the way from Belleville to pick it up he didn't leave the house keys for me to get in.

Just goes to show, me being a dumbass really is genetic after all. haha

Well, not much new to post other than my tale of dumbassery. Got one new picture that's pretty good; the Oshawa GO station in the evening. Full size is here. Could've done with some cropping and such, but I'm lazy.



Well, thats it till I'm in Sydney. 30ish hours in the air, plus I'm stopping over in Hong Kong for half a day and doing a bus tour around there. Should be interesting, even though I'll be a complete zombie from lack of sleep by then.

-Brad

Oh yeah, bonus points for whoever knows what song my post title is from.