back from byron bay, baby
hey guys!
before i start this up, i'm just gonna read over al's post to make sure i don't duplicate any information. if there's anything we ALL hate, it's duplication...
...
ok, done.
so al certainly gave you the basics of our trip to byron bay! the whole crew was composed of two full coach buses of international students. before long, i was dubbing the trip "meet the norwegians", as the vast majority of international students here in australia are scandinavians that come here to learn english! i've met more swedish and norwegian people in these last two days than, well, they're really the only ones i know. the bus rides were fairly quick, as byron bay is quite accessible from brisbane.
i'm supposed to talk about the food. suffice it to say, i've never eaten so many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my entire life. regardless of what meal you were "supposed" to be eating at the time (breakfast, lunch, dinner), a table was covered with the following items: bread, lettuce, meat, tomato, cheese and peanut butter. when people started realizing how much it sucked to make the same sandwich 3 times a meal for three meals a day, somebody requested that the crew bring out some jelly. the australians had NO idea what we were talking about, and everybody seemed quite flabbergasted that the americans and canadians were eating PB and Js. it was nice to have a little variety in the meals, anyway.
i've contracted a stuffy nose on the trip, but that's about the extent of the damage. i may have lost my aviators as well, but hey, i'm ok with losing a $5 pair of sunglasses.
as al said, all of the activities we were engaged in were pretty solid. we'll post a bunch of pictures following these posts that we both took. the kayaking was decent, but did not exactly meet the expectation of being a "wildlife sea kayaking experience". wildlife? i guess... if you call two canadians paddling their asses off "wild". we saw 0 animals. there was an apparent dolphin sighting which al and i were unable to partake in, but apart from that no turtles (which we were "guaranteed to find") and no whales.
surfing was great! my prior experience in costa rica helped out a bit, and i was able to stand up on quite a few waves and ride them around. the surf was pretty quiet while we were there, so much like any surfing experience, it's about 98% waiting but we all had a great time nonetheless.
the nights out on the town were nothing short of incredible! specifically, our one night at cheeky monkey's, the local backpacker bar. our crew literally invaded the whole place and filled it almost to capacity at about 6:30pm. we had our dinner and were finished by about 8. they started a few competitions on stage and had a little australian trivia challenge, and then the party began. i estimate that things got going at about 9pm, but needless to say i kept doing the math in my head and realizing that we had... 6 hours of partying ahead of us. i've never danced for so long in my life! the bar was set up such that everybody danced on a series of picnic-like tables arranged in rows. what a great time! you'd have a line of people dancing on the seats, facing another group of people dancing on the seats from the table across the way. then you'd have the crazy kids up on each table surface facing in NEITHER direction. the layout hampered my style a bit, as i was confined to wandering in sideways directions, but i made do, as did everybody else. when al and i get ahold of some pictures (we didn't take any ourselves), rest assured that you'll see some great action shots!
one highlight for me was the return home from cheeky monkeys. i hesitate to call this man a street entertainer, but here's the story anyway. as our group is wandering down the road, i hear a guy yell at me from a storefront ahead: "hey, you want some hip hop coffee?" now maybe i'm the only one still in the dark about hip hop coffee, but i was fascinated. i wasn't quite sure exactly what he was offering, so our group continued walking. to my surprise (and supreme pleasure) the guy started freestyle rapping me a storm as i walked past! and it was about ME! so as i strutted down the sidewalk past him, he delivered something approximating:
"yo, you walk the walk
talkin' talk
drop the block
yeah don't stop"
now in reality, i've manufactured that because i can't recall a word the guy said apart from that it all rhymed with "walk". what matters is that i gave him a dollar twenty and am now on the lookout for anybody seeking work in the "rap for ian while he walks down the street" field. there's an opening to be filled.
i think al neglected to mention our little walk up to byron bay point (probably not what it's called, but that's the name i'm giving it). there's a super-big lighthouse at the top of a giant hill that we ascended as a group and got to stand at during sunset. we took some decent pictures, and finally saw some whales in migration blowing their spouties up in the air. the view was phenomenal -- a good 270 degrees around!
apart from all that, i think i'll let the pictures tell the story. oh, but i have one more story to tell first.
i've been trying for days to set up a phone line to our house. the system involved calling up telstra (the bell, but certainly not the belle, of australia). telstra is kind enough to have a little automated voice thing that tries to decipher your voice patterns to see what kind of service you're requesting. when asked "what are you trying to do?" i responded "hook up a phone line", naturally. i was greeted with something along the lines of:
"accounts and billing, is that what you requested?"
"no."
"what are you trying to do?"
now at this point, i'm realizing that it doesn't understand my canadian accent. the following is a phoenetic translation of what followed:
"what are you trying to do?"
"git a fayn lo-wayn."
"phone plan options, is that what you requested?"
"NOI!"
"what are you trying to do?"
"FAYN LO-WAYN!"
"phone connection, is that what you requested?"
"YIAW!"
so i'm sure the people standing around me were entertained by me faking an australian accent to fool the telephone system into understanding me. it all worked though, and now whenever i call telstra i can get whatever i need on demand! yay!
enough text, it's time for some pictures -- enjoy, i know we did!
> ian
before i start this up, i'm just gonna read over al's post to make sure i don't duplicate any information. if there's anything we ALL hate, it's duplication...
...
ok, done.
so al certainly gave you the basics of our trip to byron bay! the whole crew was composed of two full coach buses of international students. before long, i was dubbing the trip "meet the norwegians", as the vast majority of international students here in australia are scandinavians that come here to learn english! i've met more swedish and norwegian people in these last two days than, well, they're really the only ones i know. the bus rides were fairly quick, as byron bay is quite accessible from brisbane.
i'm supposed to talk about the food. suffice it to say, i've never eaten so many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my entire life. regardless of what meal you were "supposed" to be eating at the time (breakfast, lunch, dinner), a table was covered with the following items: bread, lettuce, meat, tomato, cheese and peanut butter. when people started realizing how much it sucked to make the same sandwich 3 times a meal for three meals a day, somebody requested that the crew bring out some jelly. the australians had NO idea what we were talking about, and everybody seemed quite flabbergasted that the americans and canadians were eating PB and Js. it was nice to have a little variety in the meals, anyway.
i've contracted a stuffy nose on the trip, but that's about the extent of the damage. i may have lost my aviators as well, but hey, i'm ok with losing a $5 pair of sunglasses.
as al said, all of the activities we were engaged in were pretty solid. we'll post a bunch of pictures following these posts that we both took. the kayaking was decent, but did not exactly meet the expectation of being a "wildlife sea kayaking experience". wildlife? i guess... if you call two canadians paddling their asses off "wild". we saw 0 animals. there was an apparent dolphin sighting which al and i were unable to partake in, but apart from that no turtles (which we were "guaranteed to find") and no whales.
surfing was great! my prior experience in costa rica helped out a bit, and i was able to stand up on quite a few waves and ride them around. the surf was pretty quiet while we were there, so much like any surfing experience, it's about 98% waiting but we all had a great time nonetheless.
the nights out on the town were nothing short of incredible! specifically, our one night at cheeky monkey's, the local backpacker bar. our crew literally invaded the whole place and filled it almost to capacity at about 6:30pm. we had our dinner and were finished by about 8. they started a few competitions on stage and had a little australian trivia challenge, and then the party began. i estimate that things got going at about 9pm, but needless to say i kept doing the math in my head and realizing that we had... 6 hours of partying ahead of us. i've never danced for so long in my life! the bar was set up such that everybody danced on a series of picnic-like tables arranged in rows. what a great time! you'd have a line of people dancing on the seats, facing another group of people dancing on the seats from the table across the way. then you'd have the crazy kids up on each table surface facing in NEITHER direction. the layout hampered my style a bit, as i was confined to wandering in sideways directions, but i made do, as did everybody else. when al and i get ahold of some pictures (we didn't take any ourselves), rest assured that you'll see some great action shots!
one highlight for me was the return home from cheeky monkeys. i hesitate to call this man a street entertainer, but here's the story anyway. as our group is wandering down the road, i hear a guy yell at me from a storefront ahead: "hey, you want some hip hop coffee?" now maybe i'm the only one still in the dark about hip hop coffee, but i was fascinated. i wasn't quite sure exactly what he was offering, so our group continued walking. to my surprise (and supreme pleasure) the guy started freestyle rapping me a storm as i walked past! and it was about ME! so as i strutted down the sidewalk past him, he delivered something approximating:
"yo, you walk the walk
talkin' talk
drop the block
yeah don't stop"
now in reality, i've manufactured that because i can't recall a word the guy said apart from that it all rhymed with "walk". what matters is that i gave him a dollar twenty and am now on the lookout for anybody seeking work in the "rap for ian while he walks down the street" field. there's an opening to be filled.
i think al neglected to mention our little walk up to byron bay point (probably not what it's called, but that's the name i'm giving it). there's a super-big lighthouse at the top of a giant hill that we ascended as a group and got to stand at during sunset. we took some decent pictures, and finally saw some whales in migration blowing their spouties up in the air. the view was phenomenal -- a good 270 degrees around!
apart from all that, i think i'll let the pictures tell the story. oh, but i have one more story to tell first.
i've been trying for days to set up a phone line to our house. the system involved calling up telstra (the bell, but certainly not the belle, of australia). telstra is kind enough to have a little automated voice thing that tries to decipher your voice patterns to see what kind of service you're requesting. when asked "what are you trying to do?" i responded "hook up a phone line", naturally. i was greeted with something along the lines of:
"accounts and billing, is that what you requested?"
"no."
"what are you trying to do?"
now at this point, i'm realizing that it doesn't understand my canadian accent. the following is a phoenetic translation of what followed:
"what are you trying to do?"
"git a fayn lo-wayn."
"phone plan options, is that what you requested?"
"NOI!"
"what are you trying to do?"
"FAYN LO-WAYN!"
"phone connection, is that what you requested?"
"YIAW!"
so i'm sure the people standing around me were entertained by me faking an australian accent to fool the telephone system into understanding me. it all worked though, and now whenever i call telstra i can get whatever i need on demand! yay!
enough text, it's time for some pictures -- enjoy, i know we did!
> ian
posted by ian at 6:02 AM
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