An Amazing Turn of Events...
After
Suzanne left, I felt pretty lost for a couple days. After such a
full-on trip, hanging out in Melbourne on my own wasn't exactly the
best time ever. Fortunately I did still have Katie and Amy there,
although both were busy with work and looking for apartments. I did do
a short stint (three hours to be exact) of touting flyers at the
Australian Open to get a free nights accommodation at my hostel
(remember, on a budget). Pretty much the most humiliating experience of
my life as I had to carry around a backpack with a skyscraper sized
billboard sitting on the top of it. Amy, thank goodness kept me company
through this painful ordeal, which was slightly dulled by our on-going
fits of laughter. Every time I'd walk under a tree I'd get latched onto
a branch and get swept right off my feet. Ignoring the stares of every
passerby who stopped in their tracks to gawk at me, Amy would patiently
turn around and unhook me from the branch, only for it to happen again
2 minutes later. Could it get any worse? Yup. After almost being
forcibly removed by two huge security guards from the Australian Open
(technically we weren't supposed to be there, but come on, did they
really need TWO? How threatening do I look?) I headed back to the
hostel and quit.
Things soon picked up however, and I began
loving life again when I remembered I had met a very nice local before
Sue and I went away, who told me to contact him when I got back. Well I
did and boy was that the best decision I could have made! My now very
good friend Ian was kind enough to invite Amy, our friend Lauren and I
to a restaurant with him and his friends. Bare with me because this
story is priceless. Remember I told you about meeting Cheryl Crow's
guitarist on Fitzroy island 3 months ago? Well him and Amy have been
"dating" ever since and since he lives in Melbourne Amy invited him out
with all of us. Meanwhile, Ian, his friends, his sister and all of us
are having a great time at this restaurant when the subject of this guy
comes up and to make a very long story shorter we all realize that he's
the same guy that's been dating Ian's sister for the last 3 months.
Ian's sister, who is sitting beside Amy. As we all sat there waiting
for him to show up to the restaurant you could cut the tension in the
air. Anyway, he showed up, all hell broke lose, they both dumped him
and now Amy and Ian's sister are best friends. Priceless!!! I'm sorry
but WHAT ARE THE CHANCES????
Anyway, quick breakdown of Ian:
Massage Therapist, Tennis Instructor, Snowboard Instructor and about a
million other things. Best of all, Landscaper for the ex-CEO of Pepsi
whose house we hung out at the whole next day. We spent the day
swimming in his pool and playing tennis on the court in his BACKYARD! I
didn't know whether to be more impressed by the 6 cars in the driveway,
either Lexus or BMW or by the photos of him and Michael Jackson on the
walls. In other words, Ian is a VERY good friend to have. The next week
we went camping and this is where the mishaps and adventures of Ian and
Cindy begin. We decided to rent a car to camp along the Great Ocean
Road. I was picking up the car and after my going away party the night
before (oh yeah, because it was the last time I'd see all my friends
before leaving Melbourne to Perth) I was feeling pretty foggy headed.
Before we even left the city, I turned a corner and drove right onto
the tram tracks. This is a very bad thing considering it's a whole
separate section where cars are forbidden to go. The cars around me
were going bizzurk, while Ian was calmly saying "Um, you might want to
get off them now...right now...right now." After that things were okay
until I backed into the barbecue while pulling out of our camp site.
Our first night on the site we had to battle gale-force winds to put up
our tent, which we realized had the wrong tent poles and ended up
looking, as Ian described, "as a shriveled grape"...... or raisin I
guess. Right. We had a great time though, either doing the treetop walk
(yeah, hate heights), visiting the 12 Apostles of which only 8 are
still standing (They were magnificent! ) or just setting up our chairs
in the river, with a drink in hand while being covered in ash from the
nearby bush fires that have been raging through Victoria. Feeling
relaxed and thinking the last of my mishaps were out of the way, on our
last day camping as we were packing up and making breakfast, I
accidentally cut off my finger tip with my Swiss Army knife. Needless
to say it is very hard to type right now and my signature looks as
though a 5 year old is trying to forge my signature. So we rushed back
to Apollo Bay, (Ian making me laugh the whole way) and got my finger
put back on and bandaged up. Aaaalllll good!
Once we got back to
Melbourne we didn't stay long. Ian's friend owns a yacht on Sydney
Harbour, where they'd decided to spend Australia day and they invited
me along. We left on a 12 hour road trip back to Sydney and spent the
next three days on the boat. On Australia day a bunch of their Navy
Seal friends came and joined us, and we sailed to the Opera House to
pick up Ian's sister from outside. How cool did she look?! The whole
day was spent sailing around the harbour swimming, drinking, eating and
basically having the time of our lives! I could not be luckier. It all
had to come to a very sad end though as I had a flight to catch out of
Sydney to Perth.
So here I am in Perth on my own, sick as a dog,
with a very sore finger. Sigh... was too good to last I suppose. Time
to start a new chapter to my trip. As soon as I arrived, I posted
notices in every hostel I could find, seeing if anyone wanted to drive
the west coast with me. By the end of the day I received 6 responses,
ending off with a nice German guy with a car and I nice German girl
wanting to come with us. I met them last night and they are wonderful.
We will be leaving in 2 days, travelling together for the next month or
so. I am so excited! We all are! So Good-bye Victoria, Hello West Coast!
