My last post from Australia

What a trip this has been!! I mean the last three weeks have been so amazing and it's so hard to explain. But it's now the end and I bid farewell to this country tomorrow morning the 25th of July. We arrived on the July the 1st and have done so much including:

-Camping at a surfing beach (very cool)
-Climbing up a 3300 foot Mountain to the summit at 3am!!
-Hiked through the Lamington National Rainforest
-Watched the "State of Origin" Rugby match in Brisbane (almost like the Super Bowl)
-Studied at the "Uni" of Queensland. (ivy league school of Australia)
-Went to see Steve Irwin at his zoo in Beerwah. (Bastard wasn't there)
-Snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef (My favorite part of the trip)
-Walked around Uluru (Ayers rock, five miles around)
-Hiked through Kings Canyon (2nd favorite day of the trip)
-Camped in the Outback for 5 nights
-Drove through the McDonald mountain ranges right outside of Alice Springs
-Climbed the Sydney harbor bridge to the summit!
-Experienced the wonderful Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House
-Finally, met the most eccentric and amazing people of this great country.

There so much I have done its hard to even tell. But I will dearly miss this place and I hope one day to return. Living here would be a dream!! For the last time DOWN UNDER.....G'DAY MATES!!

Sydney!

Well, its the last leg of the trip and what a way to finish it. Sad News though, I have to come home early. I ran out of money. Oh well. But I have done so much stuff since I have been here. It's such a blessing to do stuff in your life that you really enjoy and that is traveling. I thank God everyday... We are staying in Darling Harbor which is right around the corner from Sydney Harbor. It reminds me a lot of the Inner Harbor in Baltimore but much more beautiful. Great Food, nice bars, and gorgeous women. Today we are climbing up the Sydney Harbor Bridge to get a birds eye view of the harbor. Lleyton Hewitt, the Aussie tennis player, is actually getting married at the Opera House to some fine Aussie celebrity today. So we can watch it from the Bridge!! Tomorrow we are off to the Opera House to watch the Sydney Symphony, which only plays four times a year. Then the trip ends on Saturday. SAD times!! But then I have the weekend to see the rest of the city and then catch a plane early Monday morning. I don't want to leave but I'm broke!!! I should be posting before I leave so stay tuned!! G'Day!!!

Outback

Well we have been in the Outback for four days now and it is amazing. We camped at Ayers Rock Resort and then went to the rock the next day. We walked around that damn thing and it was 5 miles!! That thing is huge. Some people climbed it but I decided to respect the aborginal culture and not climb it. The aborginese are quite strange. They all look like cave men and they don't bath. They sniff gas and spend there entire welfare checks on getting drunk. It's quite sad. Anyway, after Uluru, we traveled to Kings Canyon which was one of my favorite stops on the trip. It reminded my a lot of Colorado but ten times better. We hiked the canyon and did some other hiking also. Let me tell you...my legs are ripped! I've done more hiking and climbing on this trip then I have ever done before in my life! But today we got up at 6am and left Kings Canyon for Alice Springs. It was a 4 hour drive but we made two stops. Let me tell you about the second stop.... I rode the hell out of camel!! We stopped at a cattle ranch where they had camel rides for 5 bucks each. It was the funniest thing that we have done. It cracked me up. We have pictures of that so I'll make sure that everyone gets to see them. We are in Alice Springs now and its a cool little town. Not much going on. We head to Sydney on Wednesday and that should be a ball!! We are trying to get tickets for the Opera House but we will have to wait. Time to go have a beer and chat with the natives. G'Day!!!

Great Barrier Reef

Yesterday was one of the greatest days of the trip . I went snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef!! It is so amazing. The reef is like 1500 miles long in the first place and it is huge. We so many differnt kinds of things down there. It's a whole different world down there. We did see a Clown Fish (Nemo) and somebody did see a reef shark (Totally harmless) But I have now been snorkeling on the two largest reefs in the world (here and Bealize) Cairns is amazing. Its the middle of winter here and its 85 degrees!!! Off to Alice Springs tomorrow to camp in the Outback!!

Cairns!!

We just flew into Cairns today from Brisbane. Nice easy flight that was only 2 hours. (Seems like 10 minutes after a 14 hour flight) This place is gorgeous. I thought Jamaica was nice, this place beats it, besides the muddy beaches from the reef. But the town is too cool. The last couple of days have been really low key. Everybody on the trip is now going their own ways because we are about sick of each other. I might be coming home early because I am flat broke. (I lost $125 AUS in the casino ;( ) But overall, Im having a great time and soaking in every minute of this beautiful place. On thursday we leave for the OUTBACK!!! I can't wait...Talk to you then...G'Day!!!

PS..Meat Pies are the most delicious things on this earth!!!

OH BOY!!

Wow...what an adventure that I'm on. Since the last time I posted, we traveled to Mt. Warning, Lamington National Park, and the great city of Brisbane. First of all, we have been so busy since the day we arrived. After Byron Bay we traveled to Mt. Warning national park. We stayed there one night in which we woke up at 3AM to climb Mt. Warning to catch the first sun in Australia. We climbed a 2,300 foot mountain to see nothing b/c the rain rolled in right when we got to the summit. That hike will be something I will always remember. After Warning, we went to Lamington National Park to camp for two nights. It was gorgeous up there. We hiked 12km through the rain forest and saw crazy animals and got awesome views from the overlooks looking towards the Gold Coast. When we were done there, we traveled to Brisbane. We had the pleasure of getting in town when they had the Super Bowl of rugby matched. They call it "The State of Origin." Let me tell you..talk about a huge party in town!! We have been going to lectures and studying the last 3 days at the Uni of Queensland. What an awesome campus!! Now we have the weekend off and we are going to the Australian Zoo to try to catch Steve Irwin!!! I'll be posting in the next week or so..G'Day!!

Beautiful Byron Bay!!

I"M FINALLY HERE!!! Byron Bay, Australia!! The flights were terrible but ok. No delays thankfully. This place is so awesome. I mean the people, scenery, and the food...INCREDIBLE!! We arrived in Brisbane on July 1st and caught a bus to Byron Bay that took about 3 hours. On the way, we traveled down the Gold Coast and to Surfer's Paradise. The best surfing in the world is in Surfer's Paradise, hence the name. It was a lot like Miami but 10 times more beautiful. We arrived in Byron Bay which is like a cool little surfer, hippie town. Its the coolest little beach town. The beaches and mountains are gorgeous!! I mean I thought Jamaica was awesome, but this is 10 times better. The first night we were here, we went out for some "Skooners" and "Steak and Chips"(fries) I ate the largest steak of my life. 500mg T-Bone!!! It was an entire cow! It was the greatest piece of meat I have ate. Anyway, we woke up early to go to the Cape Byron lighthouse, which is the most eastern part of the Australia mainland. Talk about gorgeous....amazing!! Crashing waters onto jagged rocks and miles and miles of ocean. We were supposed to see humpback whales but there were none out there. We walked down to the campgroud from there which was amazing. We spent the rest of the day on the beach drinking "VB's" (Victoria Biiter beers) and messing around with all the rest of the group. I spent my down time looking at the gorgeous women of this country. These women...WOW!!! I have plenty of stories to tell...Anyway, We are about to leave to go climb Mt. Warning tomorrow morning and then head to Lamington to camp in the Rain Forest!!! I'll be posting in about 6 or 7 days from now.....We got lots of pictures already. Trust me, everyone will be worth a look. G'Day!!!!