Sorry this one took a little bit to get out. I wanted to put it out after I had finished up my stay in Perth. Not like any of you are waiting with baited breath to hear what I've been doing. Trust me, it's not that interesting. Anyway... I finished up my time in Auckland nicely. I felt totally out of shape again as I hiked through the Domain and up Mount Eden. Since I'm trying to live on the cheap, I had my delicious lunch of one giant carrot while sitting on a lookout perch near the middle of Mount Eden. There were some spectacular views of Auckland and all the smaller islands. It was a nice place to just sit, relax, and take in the sights. After finishing my lunch, I finished climbing to the top of Mount Eden. The crater was quite large, and was just barely able to fit in the frame of a photo. I was able to get some great views of the islands on the opposite side as well. I decided to be a bit adventurous and wander around for bit. I went along some of the suburb areas for a bit and then as I was getting tired, I decided to retire back to the hostel. After doing a trial package of my stuffs, I decided to check and see if there was any live music going on somewhere.
I tried for Danny Doolan's again but it looked like they weren't playing. I picked up a free travel magazine instead and headed back to the hostel. Once there, I checked out a poster that showed a club just down the road that gave backpackers free entry, one free drink, and a free raffle ticket upon entry. I decided to try it out. Granted it would have been a bit of a waste if I won any of the prizes (unless it was alcohol) since I was leaving the next day, it was worth being around people. I got my free drink (it was a choice of beer or a vodka drink, I opted for vodka cranberry and pretended it was Malibu). I nursed my drink for quite awhile and sat alone for a bit. Some random people joined at my table after awhile and eventually they added me in their conversation. One girl was from Hong Kong, a guy from Portugal I think and another who was born in Brooklyn but had a thick Spanish accent. Brooklyn was delighted when he learned I was from Minnesota and went off about Marshal from 'How I Met Your Mother' and how much he loved Minnesota. I could tell he had a few drinks in him at this point, and I doubted that he had ever actually been there, but I went with it anyway. More people were gathering inside for the raffle, so it was getting harder to hear, but it was nice to have someone to talk to even if it was a bit of a strange conversation. The raffle came and I did not win anything. They had a DJ on after, but I wasn't keen on staying, so I knocked off back to my hostel. I figured I'd try and get some good sleep before all my plane and train adventures again.
In the morning, I checked out of the hostel and stored my packs for the morning and afternoon. I found a free walking tour and decided it was a good way to kill 3 hours. They were filming bits of it for what I can only imagine is some sort of promotional video stuff for the city, so who knows, I might be on some Auckland city promo videos. Look out for it! Our guide was quite good, he was actually a Spaniard, but he'd been Auckland for awhile. Highlights from the tour that I remember, the Maori name for Auckland translated to 'the city of a thousand lovers'. Back when sailors were going back and forth, some people established brothels for the men, but due to strict curfews, the owners would often lock the sailors in the basements at night and then send them on their ships in the morning. Housing prices in Auckland are ridiculous right now too. At least to me. The average cost of a house in Auckland is about $600,000. That seems incredibly steep to me. I don't think I'll be immigrating here! On the plus side, if you get your residency, you can go to the University for only $7,000 a year. Pretty good, and a bit tempting. We got to see a lot of the marina and wharfs. They had a lot of maps of the evolution of the city over the years. They are trying to push public transportation and are working on developing their rail/subway system, but it's a few years off even though they have the lines painted down for it.
After the tour, it was airport time. I was more excited than I probably should have been to see what dinner I would get served on my flight. Man, I really do love Qantas, they treat you right. Since this was my longer flight, I kept myself entertained with a few movies so that I could fall asleep once I got to Melbourne. I watch 'Song One' and 'Still Alice'. Both dramas and more independent type features and both good in their own rights. I couldn't help but draw certain parallels in my own life from them, as you do. I nicked a blanket from the plane so that I could be a little bit warmer while sleeping in the airport. The airport was fairly dead at this time of night, it was almost midnight. I had done a little bit of research to find a nice place to get some shut eye, but it seemed like all the soft benches were already claimed. I settled for the bench at Krispy Kremes. I was hoping to get some sleep, but it didn't really happen. By the time I thought I should go to sleep, my brain decided to have about twelve different things pop up that it wasn't to take care of right then and now. I must have spent three hours or so going over possible grad school possibilities and another hour or so trying to figure out all of the stupid responsible adult stuff I needed to take care of when I get home. I did manage to get about 20 minutes of sleep at a coffee shop counter as I charged my phone. However, I was rudely interrupted from my half awake, half asleep limbo from a text notifying me that my flight was on time. Before too long, I was actually able to check in for my flight which I did and I was the first one at the terminal. I continued entertaining myself until we boarded.
The flight from Melbourne to Adelaide is one of my favorites, because it's so short. It seems like you just get to cruising altitude, you get your meal, and then it's time to land. I had awhile before my train departed, since it didn't leave until 9 at night, so I took a somewhat round about way to get there so I could pass by Coles for some food to take with me. I didn't feel like lugging my packs around anywhere else, so I headed to the train station well before departure. I ended up messaging a girl I met back in Darwin who was asking about my Uluru tour. Once in the train terminal, the two guys I met on the ride down from Darwin showed up. We got to chatting again. They both have much more travel experience under their belts. That's okay though, they also have quite a few years on me as well.
Eventually it was time to board and I was ecstatic to finally get some sleep, even if I did have to wake up every couple of hours to reposition.
The train ride was rather uneventful. We made a stop at Cook, population: 4. And I thought Fort Ripley was small! We just walked around for about 20 minutes to stretch our legs then got back on the train. It was a lot of reading, writing, and listening to Stuff You Should Know. I was starting to get restless again. I know I peg myself as an introvert, but I need to talk to people. If I'm left alone by myself for too long I start to go stir crazy. Maybe that's one of the reasons I talk to myself. We passed through an even smaller town called Forest with a population of 2. We did see some camels along the train, I didn't get very good pictures of them, but they were neat to see in the wild. After another sleep, it was a few more hours until we got into Perth. Once at the train station, I hoofed it to my hostel. Wow, do I know how to pick them. This one is by far, the worst hostel I've stayed at, however, it is the cheapest. I had to wait about an hour to check in which was fine. They had booked my room I was staying in so they had to move me. Fine, whatever. I am unable to connect to their free wifi. There was supposed to be a BBQ the night I got in, but there wasn't any. It was too late for me to get any food and the last time I ate was at about 10 am. Luckily someone left some frozen vegetables in the free fridge that I ate up. Yup, eating other's free food leftovers, this is me. I was partially jet lagged since I was 4 hours behind Auckland time and 2 hours behind Cairns time. I crashed pretty early and was awaiting the free breakfast in the morning.
Either I heard the receptionist wrong or something is screwy, cuz there was no free breakfast this morning. Strange, especially considering on their website they said that they were not only supposed to have free continental breakfast, but they would have free pancakes on Sunday. After waiting over 2 hours, I couldn't take it any more, I decided to hit up Woolies and then bum around and listen to some live music. I made sure to get extra snacks incase I was to be gypped out of breakfast the rest of the week. I wandered around Northbridge for a short while and ended up at the Piazza for free music. They had two bluesy acts that were both good and they supplied you with bean bags. It was a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky. I almost fell asleep there, but I knew I needed to get back to the hostel to drop off my food before heading back out to listen to some more music.
I tried to heal myself as well. I had pulled my trapezius muscle yet again. It was the third time in a week. First when I got off the train in Adelaide, then my first full day In Auckland and now here again. This time wasn't as bad as in Auckland, but it was still painful. For those of you that have never experienced it, it's kind of like being stabbed and constricted by a python at the same time. My whole chest and upper back hurt and it went so far as the making my jaw and top of my mouth hurt. I actually did a search when I was in Auckland and felt like I was dying and Google or whatever I used was all like "dude, you need to call an ambulance right now!" I was all, "I don't have time for this even though I feel like I'm dying. You probably think I'm having a heart attack instead." After all, what could a doctor really do for a pulled muscle other than tell me to rest and prescribe some pain killers and exercises. I'm pretty sure it's just from inactivity. Every time it's acted up had been after either siting on the train, sitting in bed, or sleeping. I'm hoping getting back on my workout regimen in Cairns will help and make it go away.
On Monday I decided to put my feet and shoes to the test. I wandered over to Kings Park and the Botanical Gardens for some meandering and photo ops. The park is quite large and I must have spent over 2 hours wandering around. In the early afternoon I had to push on if I was going to make it to Cottesloe to watch the sunset on the Indian Ocean. Over 12 kilometers one way to get there, and I walked all of them and probably a bit more due to my aimless wandering in the gardens. I made it to the beach a couple of hours before sunset so I took the time to dip my toes into the cold ocean and have a nice read. I was delighted to watch the sun set over the ocean. It felt a bit full circle for me as well. I've seen the sunrise from Australia's most easterly point, Byron Bay, and now, almost five years later, I have seen it set on the west coast. After the sun had disappeared, it was time for the long walk home. It only took about two and a half hours or so, and I did manage to destroy another pair of socks, but it was worth it, and incredible view. It seemed like it'd been a long time since I hung out on a beach, however, I did for a bit while in Auckland, so it hasn't even been a week. I made it back to the hostel and was wiped out. I met a German guy who is staying in my room, he said he used to work here at the hostel and it used to be much worse. Oi! I didn't think it could get much worse. We even have mice eating our food and you're lucky to have toilet paper in the stalls. There's just sort of a communal vibe that the place is shit and so no one cares about anything. Hooray.
The next day I wandered around Northbridge some more along with the CBD. Nothing too spectacular happened, I did try and get some of my tax stuff situated for here in Oz since I was contacted by one of the companies to file for an early refund. I was semi social in that I read my book out in the lounge area. I was tempted to go out earlier when I heard them watching 'Wipeout', but by the time I got out there it had changed to sport. Eventually it even went to baseball and it didn't seem like people were too keen on watching, yet no one changed the channel. There was a club a little ways from the hostel that had a free BBQ night where you would get a sausage and free beer upon arrival. I went with a group of girls from the hostel, French and Italian, and we were the first ones in line. We were also the only ones in the place. It was completely dead. The beer was crap and the sausage was ok. The music was teetering on the verge of decent. They did play some Prince, so they had me going for a bit. As soon as we got out free drink and meal, we left. Good thing too, I didn't want to stay there any longer than I had to. It was back to the hostel for snoozages.
On Wednesday I went on the saddest, most awkward and embarrassing walking tour ever. I was the only one on it. It was just me and the guide for over two hours. It was a bit painful at times. I did see some different parts of the city though, and went down near the waterfront and other areas in the CBD that I hadn't explored before. I even had time to sneak by the art gallery afterwards to check out their installations. I made it back to the hostel quick to relax before heading out to Mustang bar for $5 BBQ (and actual good BBQ with a proper burger, salads and a decent beer) and to listen to the live band, PUMP.
As a side note, I've discovered that Everclear and I have sort of been chasing each other around the past few weeks. They were in Auckland the day before I got there. They were in Adelaide the day or day after I arrived for the train and now they are in Perth the day that I leave. I wonder if they have the same guitar tech and road manager that they had when we worked with them two years ago, I could have said hi. Anyway, I'll knock off here. I'm so freaking excited to go back home to Cairns, you guys have no idea!!!
Hugs,
-Celina
