Gday mates! How ya goin? We're here in Australia havin'a heap of a good time!So no worries mate!
It's Super Bowl monday here (we're 17 hours ahead so we watched the fourth quarter of the game live at 1:00 in the afternoon.)We went to the pub here in Sydney, had some feesh and cheeps and watched the Giants cruise on to victory!Hell yeah!
Aussie has been really great since we've been here.(Except our first night)When we flew in to Sydney we were staying at a hostel called Mates Place. It's in the King's Cross district of Sydney which is where our travel book said "all the backpackers go to" Well come to find out its the fucking red light district of Sydney! We new what to expect. Loads of hookers, homeless drunks, backpackers, cheap food and beer and bars.And more bars. And more backpackers. Anyway the place that we stayed might as well have been a frickin dumpster because it was disgusting!Dirty sheets, dirty hostel rats (people who stay in hostels for weeks at a time, sit around all day doing nothing, sleep until 3 in the afternoon only to wait until night time so they can get wasted and keep everybody awake until 6 o'clock in the morning)and a shared bathroom that had all types of scum and mold growing all over it.With the combination of the loud assholes in our 8 person shared room, the drunks yelling at each other outside, the homeless guy playing guitar on the streets serenading the tourists with his rendition of Wonderwall by Oasis every 20 minutes, one could have gotten more rest sleeping in a gutter with a 10 dollar hooker on crack than we got that night.Needless to say we got a refund and got out of there pronto!
The rest of our time here has been awesome. Our first full day in Sydney we did the touristy stuff....guided walk around the city, the harbor bridge, Sydney Opera house etc.(Pics coming soon.) And we stayed at a very nice clean and friendly accomodation in the city center.After that we flew to Cairns which is the jumping off point for the Great Barrier Reef. We went on a snorkeling trip there which was nice. Heaps (they says heaps instead of lots)of coral, big parrot fish, giant clams,sting rays, pretty nice. We went on a 2nd trip that was a lot better. Anyway after that we headed north to Cape Tribulation which is a beautiful rainforest in northern Australia.It was incredible! Lush rainforest area where we went on a river cruise and saw 3 crocs, tree frogs,and giant fruit bats all in the wild!
Our 2nd snorkel trip on the reef was amazing! We swam with green sea turtles, white tip sharks (they're harmless moms so no worries!)sting rays, Nemos,lionfish,and tons of other stuff.
Our next move is to the Hunter Valley for a 3 day wine tour. All is well, and we're having a blast!Cheers!
Mike & Maggie
