wednesday november 4th

november 4th. our last day in australia. we began and ended our trip in syndey. to say that this was a trip of a lifetime would be an understatement. the people who told me 10 days wasn't enough time to go to australia, well you were right. however i wouldn't take back any of those days to not have come here. sure i would have loved to stay for 3weeks, a month, hell i'd love to spend a year in this amazing country...and hopefully someday i will.

...however sometimes you have to face the real facts of life. you need money to spend money. so whatever time you have, use it to it's fullest, and even if you just have three days off, go somewhere with it, or find a way to make memories, and moments with it. you never know how much time you have left in your life, and to not have experienced something because there just wasn't enough of it, is just a waste in my mind. 

so, with that being said---

here's to going back in time....try and follow this itineray: 


leave syndey wednesday november 4th at at 4:15pm.

arrive in san francisco on november 4th at 10:45am. >yes we have now time traveled. so crazy. 

get on the final flight of the trip to chicago at 2pm and arrive safely at 8pm. 

home sweet home of 24 hours of traveling. kate, thanks for the memories, the laughs, and spending yet another year of birthday celebrations with me in a foreign country. until  our next adventure together....

xoxo,
 simon

tuesday november 3rd

i just love birthdays so much. i hate the people that despise them and try to not celebrate them.  

we really should always be celebrating your life, because that's why you exsit and when it's your birthday you should do something extra special to celebrate. and so today- being my birthday... i woke yet again with only a few hours of sleep. i managed to rock it till the wee hours of the night with some new friends we'd made to celebrate being another year older. today's birthday agenda- skydiving at 7am. everyone keeps asking me if i was absolutely scared out of my mind... and to be honest, the thrill and rush that comes over you when you are 14,000 feet above the world is more exilerating that anything i've ever experienced in my life.you would think that jumping out of an airplane you would need some instructions- if an 8 minute video with an austrlian accent too thick to comprehend along with a girl from holland who barley spoke english keept asking me questions about the waiver you're supposed to have filled out consists of an 'instrucstional video'- than yes, i guesss i felt informed?? 

after boarding the 8 seater plane, the realization of what we were about to do kicked in once we started going past the clouds, and the world looked like a grid. i would say at that point the nerves started kicking in. there was never regret, never doubts that my cute would not open, just a wave of wonder- and hope that we'd go through a cloud. cameron, my tandem jump mate was also celebrating his birthday- now i've only met one other person in my life that has the same birthday as me, so to me this was a really good sign that i was safe.

the doors to the plane opened, a COLD wind rushed past our faces, and at that moment i saw my life flash before my eyes. the only thing i kept telling myself was- don't look down. there was no countdown, just a slight push, and we were free falling 14,000ft above the coast of cairnes, sights of the great barrier reef, the lush rainforests, and mountains below... i think i'm safe to say that i felt like a bird. then reality set in- my ears were popping, and fast. i tried to equalize them, however when you're falling that fast you barely have control of breathing. i couldn't keep my mouth shut- drool was coming out, and wind was whipping past me... there was no way you could even scream if you tried. once the parachute was pulled the world stopped before my eyes. it could quite possibly be the most surreal moment of my life thus far. yet, another in-describable moment, one that if you've never sky-dived before you are missing out on something so powerful, and adrenaline rushing that i'll leave up to you as a choice to take. the landing of the whole process was  forgotten due to early morning drinks. needless to say i am blogging, so i have survived yet another crazy milestone in my life- here's to another year, and jumping 14,000ft with an amazing best friend- kate.

xoxo,

simon. 

monday november 2nd.

day three in cairnes. snorkeling the great barrier reef. let's begin this by saying you can't go to australia, or better yet cairnes and not go to the reefs to snorkel. okay, let me also state that i have tried snorkeling once in my life; the bahamas. the whole experience lasted maybe 10 minutes? my hope was to see fish like you would while watching finding nemo,  let's just say that didn't end well. my fear of fish started as a young girl- fear meaning every time i swam in water that wasn't a pool i would claim i had gotten bite by a flesh eating shark... in all reality the only fish i was swimming with were mini rainbow trout in the waters of lake minocqua, wi. so let's fast forward to our adventure of the attempt to snorkel yet again. 

it began by a bus picking kate and i up at 6:30am- the early morning thing isn't even a problem anymore, it's as if our clocks are so internally messed up that time isn't an issue. we met a new mate- chris, who's been traveling the world for over a year, and was going scuba diving on the same ship as us- the posideon. just our luck we arrived too late to take the anti-sea sick pills provided, and that it was one of the rockiest hour and half rides out to the reef they've had in months. fortunately for me i have never had a problem with motion sickness; kate however has. we managed to reach the reefs after a survival of not letting go of all of last night's drinks... however most people were green in the face and ready to jump off the boat at this point. it was surreal to look out and see storms near shore, yet sunshine and tourquise blue waters ahead- gorgeous and so breathtaking. after putting on my flippers and saying goodbye to the boat, i prayed i wouldn't come back with fish bites all over my body.

 

from the moment i dove into the water all my fears i've had previously somehow disappeared. it was as if everything around me stopped and i entered a surreal part of the world. the colors were unspeakable, the activity and life underwater was something i'd never been able to comprehend until that moment. my mind went to information overload for the next hour underwater. there was no question after being out in the open seas that i am meant to be near or within the water. all my fears of fish had disappeared! i even allowed them to swim near me, and at one point knocked my head on the coral while trying to take pictures... we had three dive sites we went to within the six hours out at sea and each one was more and more breathtaking than the next. i was definately re-inspired as a colorist. the great barrier reef truly is a place indescribable...

until  i write again...

xoxo, 
simon.

 

sunday november 1st

woke up to an un-fraimilar place. however it was over looking the cairnes harbour- not a bad view to wake to. my clock read 6am, which meant kate and i needed to be awake and ready to get on a tour bus of the kuranda rainforest in less than thirty minutes. the previous night's events were still hazy, & after stumbling to our seats on the 'kuranda railway train' it was clear that kate and i were about to have a very long day of 'excursions' and may be regretting staying up at the casinos till 430am. 

the whole experience of seeing aborigines throw boomerangs, eating vegimite with kangaroos, or more importantly overcoming lack of sleep while consuming too many tooheys beers made riding the sky rail one of the more exciting points of the day, why? no one could bother us in our little cube except when our minds started wandering. lack of sleep and three cameras later we had more pictures of the tops of the trees, our faces with the previous night's make-up and well that's when we started talking about what would happen if the skyrail failed and dropped into the rainforest, or what if one of us fell out? yeah, these are things we came up with during our one hour tour down the rainforest and back to civilization... 

needless to say we were in need of some greasy food, a nap and we'd be ready to rock out yet another night of what some may had considered 'panama city beach spring break 2003'.....

xoxo,
 simon.











 

saturday october 31st.

happy halloween america! we said our good-byes and thanks to our wonderful host-jan-for the past few days, took the train from gold coast to brisbanee for another early am flight! this time our destination was to cairns----highs of 80's, the barrier reef, and hostel living for the next four days.  

our accommodations are at gilligans' hostel:  all of my fears and aprehensions i accquired from trip advisor of choosing this place immediately disapated  just as soon as we checked in--- i fell in love with the hostel as well as the entire city. to help you picture the type of place we were at,  picture spring break on steroids; or panama city beach, fl... but just every night of the week. with a lagoon/waterfall as part of the bar area, one can only imagine what crazy things are about to happen, specially with a full moon on halloween------

xoxo, 

 simon.

friday october 30th.

i am still not a morning person, however i manage to convince myself 7am is really 10pm back in the states, so this sounds much more appealing- and struggle to get myself into jan's car. kate and i are headed to currumbin sanctuary- which i latter learned that kate had no idea what a sanctuary really was, in fact she thought we were going to a museum--- jan showed us to the entrance and generously treated us to a day at the sanctuary-unfortunately it was off to work for her. we however, are informed that it's our lucky day, we have made it just in time for the lorkeet feeding. awesome, birds being fed? immediately after entering this sanctuary (which we have now learned is a more formal way of saying zoo), we are handed small dishes with milk on them. picture alfred hitchcock's film 'the birds'... with the scene where she is litterally attacked, yes this is an understatement of what happens to us. pictures can't do justice, however they do show how incredibley SHOCKED we were. wow. what a way to wake up... we wandered around the place for most of the morning, running into all the 'australian' animals. we were brave when we were offered to hold a baby crocodile... 

and managed to get lost for a good 45 minutes in a circle just trying to find the tazmanian devils- in fact i don't think we ever found them? my favorite animal i had been dying to see were the kangaroos. i do believe we spent a good hour with them. side note: one of them managed to attack me--thinking my hand was food, he bit it- not breaking any skin, thank goodness, otherwise i would have had another odd 'simon' disease i'm sure of it.

so, the typical american-touristy thing you have to do when your in australia is hold a koala. so wherever you go it costs at least $25 to hold the animal, just long enough to snap the picture. it's worth it-every person must hold the koala...  

after seeing the entire sanctuary, we made our way towards currumbin beach. this was our time to vege out. the day prior we had seen so many dead jelly fish on the beach, i was a little freaked out, however knew i wouldn't be back anytime soon to be in the ocean i started to muster up some courage to get into the water. imagaine the wave pool at noah's ark. now, mutliple that by 10... and you still aren't seeing the waves or the undertow that occurs at these beaches.
   
an hour later, and almost missing the top to my swimsuit in the ocean... i had surived the waves, witnessed a whale swimming miles from where i had just been, and had no signs of being stung by a jelly fish. operation pacific ocean complete. 

another perfect day in the gold coast came to end after kate's sun burn took over her entire backside. and was dreading the next morning's flight up to cairns.

thanks to jan's local experteese we saw the sunset up in the rainforest of mt cougal park, where waterfalls, and rock pools are more common to the locals than lakes are to us.... seriously. why do i live in the midwest again?

xoxo, 

simon 




 

thursday october 29th.

7am. we sure are getting to be really good at this early rising, thanks to alex and his roomate's car, we were to the airport within 20 minutes. we flew about an hour in the air and arrived to the "coolangatta airport'' ....or for namesake purproses- the gold coast region of australia. this adventure was to begin by one of kate's aunt's brother's sisters' (did-ja get that?!)- Jan picking us up from the airport and welcoming us into her home for the next three days. (thanks again jan, your hospitality was more than perfect!)...

she began by taking us the beach route tour of the place she has called home for the past twenty years- through this we saw the beaches of; tugun, kirra, currumban, palm, and burleigh beach... each more stunning to the next. we even got to meet her adorable neighbors who consider jan a second 'mum'-- they had never met any americans before, and were more than thrilled to hear our accents.

with the sun in full shine, kate and i were in need of some rest and relaxation. operation plant it on the beach. after making sure we had every spot covered with spf 70 on kate, we grabbed a bite to eat, and headed for the sand. there is just something about the ocean breeze, with the sun beating down on you, and sand in every crevice of your body... i felt like we were in heaven.  somehow we missed a few spots on our bodies and kate went right to the color of a lobster. it was time to head home... a quick shower, and some time with jan's pups and it was off. 

 each night of the week aussie's seem to have a theme. jan helped explain this more thourghly in which: thursdays' theme- shopping night. all the shops stay open till at least 9pm---yah, to us that sounds like normal, but typically everything shuts down at or before 5 in aussie. jan was insistant we had to go see the new shopping mall they had just built near her house-  
robina town centre. first of all, the place wasn't even a mall, it was a freaking monstrosity. even though i live in the mecca of all shopping districts on michigan ave, i was impressed. the engineers have got this place right!! from the decor of ---chandeliars drapping the ceilings, to the moderisitc feel with paintings and leather couches streaming the walk areas, the place is of perfection. however, i do have to note the best part about this 'mall'---the parking lot--- okay, imagine....you drive in, and it automatically tells you the amount of spaces the lot has and how many are available on that level, then once you drive onto the level above EACH spot there is a light. either it is green (empty), or red (full)... HELLO, GENIUS? how many thousands of hours have we wasted driving around parking garages looking for a spot. next question. um, why haven't we thought of this? 

after getting back to jan's i discovered one last thing for the day. tim tams. holy heaven. it's a type of cookie chocolate bar, that literally melts in your mouth and once you have one, you can't just stop there... i think i've aquaried a new addiction. so, it's off to cairnes tommorow!!

xoxo,
simon.

    

wednesday october 28th.

day two. sydney, australia. feeling refreshed after a good night's sleep at alex's house in chippendale- (ahem, let me clear something up, this is an 'area' like lincoln park, or bucktown, NOT a strip club...) our journey began by trying to find the bus stop. our map skills have imporved ginourmously, however by no means have they even come close to great--- yet. on the itineray today, explore beaches of sydney. since we had shin splints, and could hardly feel the soles of our feet, we opted for the bus route to get us to our main stop- bondi beach. through this bus adventure we got to see rushcuttere's bay, the rose bay convent- picture-esq views of the city, gap park, bronte beach, coogee beach, and finally bondi beach. i have decieded at some point in my life i will have to live near the water and no lake winnebago does not count; i'm talking tropics people. 

we did the walk of coogee beach to bondi- i made a note that as soon as we got to the gold coast we needed to get massages, or try to loose some more luggage, my body was one big ache. the walk however, was amazing and helped ease my mind of every sore part of me. they were setting up for an art festival, so there were tons of artists' work all along the paths, which made for some interesting converstaions. we had lunch along the ocean, and it was time to start our jounrey back into the city.

night time consisted of going to newtown. a hip, funky lil' area (similar to bucktown in my eyes). we had numerous cocktails at a cute lil' bar where there was live jazz music. alex, knowing the owner had him concoct me a new favourite--being fresh watermelon juice, grapefruit juice, and lots of vodka. we closed down that place and then made our way for some australian karaoke. yes i said it. karaoke. as soon as aladins' 'a whole new world' came on, it was our cue to end the night.

the views here are spectacular. the colors are in-describable, however the way of life---- free spirited 

  

xoxo, simon.