8 days, 6 flights and this story is gonna take at least 2 blogs

Lets start with last Friday night, September 25. Friday evening I waved the roomies off on their trip (which btw, hope they're still alive, guess I'll find out if they come home tomorrow). They were traveling 6,000km in 10 days in a small caravan that could sleep all 4 of them. Ayers Rock was their final destination. Let me also explain that kangaroos are like deer in the Outback which prevents you from driving at night because they will completely total your car unless you drive a tank with "cattle pushers." If you aren't sure what those are, you're not from the South and I don't appreciate your ignorance. Driving 6,000km in 10 days is hard enough, but without being able to drive at night and having 4 guys who grew up driving on a different side of the road and different side of the car . . . lets just say I'm not optimistic. But enough about them, lets get back to my Spring Break 2009.

Saturday morning I met Hanne at the train station and we were off. Evidently I look suspicious because on our journey I was stopped twice and checked for bombs at two different airports. I guess my American was showing. We arrived in Sydney and it was actually cold. We thought it might be just a fluke, but the entire week down South ended up being pretty cold, but its sunny and 34 Celcius in Brisbane so I'm content. We stayed at Base Sydney which is a hostel right by Darling Harbour. We spent some time enjoying the harbour and grabbing a drink on the waterfront. It was gorgeous. Definitely smaller than I had imagined, but pretty nonetheless. We then headed back to the hostel to figure out our plans for the evening. I know I say this regularly, but awesome things tend to just fall into my lap. This night, of course, was no different. We saw a flyer for a bar crawl and asked the front desk about it. We had to jog to meet up with the group in time, but it was absolutely amazing. $40 got you 4 bars, a free drink at each bar and transportation on a bus with a DJ and flashing lights. The guy running the whole shindig was awesome too and knew that we were new to town so he introduced us to all his friends and offered to send us t-shirts from the pub crawl once they were made. Nice guy. Highlights from the night: I met a guy who looked exactly like Harry Potter and told him if I had a marker I would put a lightening bolt on his forehead, I got painted with body paint by girls in the bathroom, I won a Michael Jackson dance off to Beat it and I had a dance off with a guy using only 80's dance moves (sprinkler, shopping cart, etc).Doing the Shopping Cart . . . and that's Harry Potter behind me in the blue

At Coogee Beach

Needless to say, Sunday was pretty unproductive. We wanted to spend a day at the beach but mother nature was not working in our favor. We headed to Coogee Beach which some girls from the pub crawl told us was absolutely amazing. It was gorgeous, but cold and windy and we could only stand it for about 30 minutes. I did get some fun pictures though and we enjoyed some nice mimosas on the beach. Sunday night we had dinner at the Sydney Tower which is pretty much like the Seattle Space Needle. It was a spinning restaurant that overlooked the entire city. It was expensive, but worth it. They had a buffet with oysters, prawns, salad, soup, pasta, curry dishes, steak, kangaroo AND a dessert buffet as well. We gorged ourselves for 1.5 hours and then chatted with a newly wed American couple for the last half hour. It was great fun. We didn't make it out that night, but to be honest we needed to recover from the bar crawl and the amazing meal we had just eaten.Sydney Opera House

Darling Harbour

Monday was our tourist day. We caught the CitySightSeeing bus which is a guided hop-on-hop-off bus that travels all around Sydney. We rode it all the way to the Opera House and then hopped off for pictures. This thing is gigantic. And the whole roof is made of tiles which up close seems such a daunting task to create. We also had a fabulous view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge which is massive. We had lunch on the waterfront and took all our touristy photos. We then hopped back on the bus and stopped at the Sydney Aquarium. On my to-do list: see a Platypus. And I DID!! I had no idea they were so small. You wouldn't think a furry lil animal with a duck beak would be cute, but the drawings and stuffed animals don't do justice to how cute they really are. We spent probably 30 minutes just watching him swim and search for food. Hanne and I were both ecstatic to finally see one in real life. We then watched them feed a crocodile. I can't even describe this one. A guy walked in holding what looked like a piece of plexiglass with handles and used it to block the croc's mouth when it lunged at them. Videos will be on facebook in a while. Also got to see a Dugong, which I now realize is not actually a Manatee. Also saw sharks, sea turtles and the biggest Stingray I have ever seen in my life. It was a grand adventure. We then had some drinks by Darling Harbour. That night we hung out at the Harbour and then ended up at the bar beside our hostel. It was Karaoke night and a guy came out dressed with a snorkel and dinosaur ring and sang "I'm on a boat." Loved it. We had an early flight to Adelaide in the morning so we couldn't stay out too late, but it was entertaining to say the least.

First thing our shuttle bus driver said to us when we arrived in Adelaide on Tuesday: "Why'd you come here, there's nothing here but cows." Crap. We'd already heard this was the town of churches so we assumed it would be a quiet few days. We were thinking if anything we might try cow tipping. The only reason we came to Adelaide was because it was the only cheap way to get to Port Lincoln for the Cage Diving. We were SO wrong in our initial thoughts about Adelaide. We stayed at Backpack Oz which is a hostel near downtown Adelaide. We tried to go lay out at the Botanical Gardens, but it was still cold out and we didn't last long. Then it was a cheap dinner at Domino's and then out on the town to see what we could find. We ended up at a country bar called The Woolshed with its own mechanical bull and the Buck Hunter game. The bartender was completely rude and obviously didn't like us from the start. Not to mention she got to choose the music and Justin Timberlake doesn't mix with a mechanical bull. I showed Hanne how to shoot Elk on the Buck Hunter game, but she wasn't too impressed. We were then asked to join a table with two older gentleman. First off, they were not creepy and never once hit on us. This was a small little town and I really think they were just lonely and enjoyed our company and stories from afar. The Woolshed was closing early so we all walked around together trying to find another bar. We ended up at the Strathmore Hotel bar. At one point Hanne disappeared and had chatted up about 8 business men. So we combined groups and needless to say, we didn't pay for any drinks after that. At one point I saw a guy going to play the Buck Hunter game. It was just a coincidence that this bar also had one. I decided to play against him and Hanne took an insane amount of pictures. This guy was definitely sketchy though and after one game I told him I was done. He was a little pissed but I went back to our table with our other friends. Then, one of the gentleman told me I looked about 28 which definitely didn't go over well. I was planning on leaving soon when police came in and tackled a man to the floor. It was exciting and I got a quick picture of the guys feet while he was held down on the floor. Then one of the guys noticed that it was a same guy I had been playing Buck Hunter with. Oh snap. Evidently the police had walked in randomly to make sure things were fine at the bar and the guy pulled out a handheld shotgun on them. He's a smart cookie, that one. Good to know I was just shooting fake guns with this man earlier. After they had taken him away I went up to the cops and told them I had tons of pictures of this guy if they wanted them. 2 hours later I had made my full statement, given them all my pictures and all my info in case they needed to contact me again. So much for being a town of churches.Out in Adelaide

Wednesday, Hanne and I shopped and hung out around town. That night we had a free BBQ at the hostel and games that involved winning prizes. We didn't win anything, but the food was great and we ended up chatting with the bar staff. They were all going out later and invited us along. Long story short, we got home about 7am and we're woken at 10:45am to check out. We were supposed to check out by 10am. Our flight, however, wasn't until 4pm so we grabbed breakfast and I slept on the couch for a few hours at the hostel. We then reminisced about our night and said our goodbyes before it was off to Port Lincoln.

We thought Adelaide would be a quiet town, but Port Lincoln was REALLY quiet. As we checked in at the Navigator Inn, the man at the desk asked what our reservation was under. When we told him Hanne, he laughed and gave us his toothless grin and said "well what kinda name is that?" Point made. We were dead tired and had to be up at 5:30am so we just had dinner at the restaurant above our room. It was quaint, the service was pretty bad but the seafood was delicious. We then settled in for the night before our grand adventure . . . diving with the Great Whites.

This adventure deserves its own blog