99 bottles of beer on the wall

So I've been told to update this blog. And I'm giving in because I know you fine folks want to see an update. I update my own blog all the time but I suppose that's just not good enough. Nah, just kidding. We just haven't really been updating this because we haven't been doing a lot of sight seeing or anything but we do have a lot of plans for the near future, which I will fill you in on a little bit later.

This weekend was fairly laid back. On Thursday Hannah and I decided to go and see the MJ movie "This Is It" and it was amazing. I don't think that I stopped smiling the entire time. It absolutely blew my mind and I know want to perfect all the dance moves....and we will. We've been practicing Thriller. It's fantastic. Please if everyone can learn it at home I would greatly appreciate it so when I get home and we go to the bar we can bust it out.

On Friday was laid back...Hannah and I had some drinks and sat on the deck, played some games and just talked. It was really fun. We also made a delicious dinner that night. We bought Cameron a video game that he really wanted for letting us stay here so he played that for a lot of the night. Then they went out around 9 I think, and Hannah and I just stayed in and learned the Thriller dance and played guitar hero. Yes we are that cool.

Saturday around 3 we went to Oktoberfest. It was really fun. Hannah drank an entire beer which I thought about attempting until I had a couple sips of hers. I just stuck to drinking apple schnapps all day/night which was absolutely delicious. We drank and danced and met a lot of people. All in all good day, except for the fact that we hadn't eaten all day and were so hungry by the time we got home. We did a quick mcdonald's run and were good to go. The guys went out after and Hannah and I both passed out and woke up this morning feeling really good.

Today (Sunday) we woke up and went out for breakfast and to pick something up from the chemist. Also, do you ever worry when you are walking around at the pharmacy looking for something that you might be looking at something really embarrassing and don't really realize it?? Anyways, we came home went to the gym and that leads us to this very moment. I think in a little bit we will be going to Sav's pool and going for a swim. It'll be good because it's really really warm out. We are starting to wonder how we will handle the summer here. It's already really hot and hardly into the summer at all.

Plans for the near future:
On Monday (tomorrow) we are going to get up, print off some resumes, say goodbye to Cam's brother Nick and head off to the mall where we will be handing in 10 resumes each. I (mandy) will also be caving and bringing one to a place that I will never admit applying to. Because I am that desperate.

On Tuesday it's a national holiday...so we will be doing, as the aussies call it, a bushwalk. We would call it a hike. And also maybe a BBQ. It'll be a good day.

On Wednesday we'll go to the the war memorial and australia national museum. The war memorial is world renowned to we feel that we must check it out. Plus it's only a 2.5 km walk there so not bad at all.

On Thursday we'll maybe have a relaxing day and hopefully receive some phone calls for our jobs. That would really be ideal.

All of these days, depending on the weather and with the exception of Tuesday we will be lying outside for one hour working on our tans because they are fading fast.

In 2 weeks we are going to go to Sydney to the beach for the weekend. I am pretty excited for this because I want to go to the beach so bad!!!!!! And just hannah and I were going to go and stay somewhere but now Cameron is going to take us and we'll stay at his brothers for free!!! This is fantastic, because we love anything free.

Okay, that's the update. I'll update more just hassle me. Today I had 3 people hassle me and look what happened. An update :)

Here are some photos as well:

This one here is at oktoberfest. It's cam, nick and hannah with the lovely german dancers.


This one here is the lovely view from our apartment in the evening. I do believe that we took this while we were eating dinner. We're unbelievably lucky.


Here's Hannah on our way to the mall as usual...this was the day that we took photos of everything we did because we realized we hadn't taken any in a long time.



Here's the group at Oktoberfest. It was a good time :) Really just like the beer gardens at home.


And this is hannah after her finished beer :) Cameron was so proud of her...as was I. Only more jealous than proud because I don't think I have the balls or lack of gag reflexes to finish a whole beer.

Canberra

Okay, so I realize that we haven't posted anything for awhile but we haven't really done anything, and also haven't taken any photos. So, if you are familiar with my(mandy's) other blog then this may be another sort of rambly blog that I am posting because I feel like I should put something on here. This week we are going to go to the zoo so we will take lots of photos there and put them up on here.
We are staying at Cameron's right now in Canberra and he has offered us to stay here as long as we want to for free (well we would buy food) and get jobs so we might take him up on that and stay for a month or 2. If we were here we would save a lot of money. A LOT. Because there isn't much to do here and we wouldn't be paying rent. The only downfall to this city is the lack of the sea. We aren't anywhere close to the ocean and we have become quite accustomed to a life near the sea, we could go there on days off though.
We were emailing places in both Melbourne and Perth trying to find somewhere to stay. The only place that emailed me back I am 99% confident is a scam. Because they are only asking 120$ a week for it and it looks like this..





....and no place looking like that is less than 500$ a month.
Also there are lines like this in the email that they sent me.

"My husband in respect who owned the flat and I also want you to know that it was due to my husband Missionary Transfer"

"So for now I am now at UK,and more also i am with the keys and documents of the flat,We try to look for an agent or friends that we can give this Keys and document before we left but could not see"

"am so sorry that i cannot call you because some problems with my ear and cant speak well"

AHHHH!!! I hate that people do this, absolutely hate it. Do they think that we are stupid. In all my experience with renting apartments I have received so many of these bullshit, "we are in africa, doing missionary work, send us the money and we will send you the keys". This is so extremely frustrating.

Anyways, that's our current situation. We are at Cameron's, sleeping on the floor, living for free, and trying to decide whether to stay here or move on to an apartment that we don't even have yet. We'll let you know how it turns out.

Mandy hates hangman

As promised here are some photos from byron bay. We didn't take any of the town!!! But we will go back there towards the end of our trip hopefully so we will take some them I promise. Because the town is really really nice. Tons of shops. As I think I said in the other post. Also apparently my english is getting way worse. I think it goes from hanging out with people who's first language isn't english. Hannah's is still good but I have become master of this blog with Hannah just telling me to put up more scenic photos for her mom :) and I think my mom will appreciate them too.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Sorry that it’s taken us so long to update this! We have been so so busy here in Byron Bay. Although we also didn’t have a good internet connection at the first place that we stayed. Which had potential to be really awesome, but they were so relaxed and the bathrooms were disgusting. The showers had tons of hair in it. They had a cinema and a bar and a spa and a pool and a hot tub. So much stuff, so potential to be awesome but just really not. The first day that we were here we just wandered around, checked out the shops, went to the beach and just had a relaxing day. The second day we took a walk up to the lighthouse. The walk had absolutely breath taking views but it was so hard! And Mandy was in jeans so that didn’t help either because I was sweating like crazy. And then lighthouse wasn’t really that great but it was nice to go to and something that was free. The third day we took a day trip to Nimbin. Nimbin is a small little town that promotes or I guess is much more tolerant of an alternative lifestyle. You can buy weed just about anywhere and it’s not legal but I think that it’s more tolerated. It was a really neat town and we wandered around for awhile and went into the museum where you can learn heaps about the towns history. It’s amazing how much history a small town can have when you start to learn about it. After we wandered through the town we went and had a bbq and then went to a waterfall to swim. It was so amazing! But we forgot our swimsuits so we couldn’t go in the water.

We have completely changed our plans for this trip and are now headed back down south so we will be having a 12 hour train ride tomorrow :( We were going to head north but we haven't heard back from the friend that we were supposed to be staying with so we are going to go down south to melbourne and canberra. In canberra we can stay with Hannah's friend Cameron and then we are going to try and find a flat in melbourne so we can settle in and get some jobs hopefully. Maybe we will do that in Canberra instead I don't know. It's lovely not having to make any decisions though and just sort of go with it. So after Melbourne (where we will stay for a month or 2) we are going to fly over to Perth and then stay there for a month or 2 and then possibly rent a van and drive over to Adelaide and up to Alice Springs and Ayers rock and then up to cairns and down the coast to Sydney where we will fly back home in April. Hopefully this all works out and we are able to do that. But who knows what will happen...it's all up in the air until we actually have stuff booked, which is just perfect. But it's also nice to kind of have a tentative plan.

The photos are taking way too long to upload on to here so I will put them on another time soon I promise and we both have pictures on facebook although none of Byron Bay yet so check those out if you have a chance. I'll post photos soon I promise.

It's a tad bit surreal

I still can't wrap my head around how we are so lucky to be here. It's amazing. Today we wandered around Coff's Harbor and went and checked out their big attraction...the big banana. Which really wasn't all that I thought it would be although really what can you expect from a big banana. They had a skating rink, that was cool. We didn't skate. We like to avoid the cold while we are here.
Hannah has a headache so this afternoon we took it easy, took a nice long nap and then hopefully tonight we will go to the pub and have a few drinks. We will post some photos of that tomorrow or something. Other than that not a whole lot is going on. We extended our stay here in coff's harbor one extra night and then we will head up to byron bay and get ourselves some jobs and maybe a flat to stay in. We will see if that works out.












The hostel that we are staying at is so so nice. The people are great and there is a pool, we haven't used that yet unfortunately though. Sorry this post is short and sweet just wanted to share some pictures. Hope everyone is well.
Mandy and Hannah

We can do whatever we like...

We saw Luna Park. The clown was scary. We were going to go back there later and enjoy everything an amusment park has to offer only we got wet...and cold and had quite a far walk to the hostel.



We chilled out at the aquarium, it was amazing. We like sharks and jellyfish.



We checked out the opera house...all of this was unexpected because when we left the hostel that day we only planned on going to the mall and a movie but then we just kept walking (Mandy wanted to check out a bridge) and when we got to the bridge we realized we hit the tourist gold mine. So we hopped on a ferry and went past the opera house, luna park and landed at Darling Harbor which was so cool.



We also rode the subway! Which was sweet because it was mandy's first time. But now tomorrow morning we have a 9 hour train ride so we have a feeling we'll both be plenty sick of it by the time we get to coff's harbor which is our next stop.



Today we woke up early and checked out of the hostel, had some delicious breakfast with fresh fruit and pancakes and french toast. AND the most delicious smoothie ever and freshly squeezed orange juice. It was soooooo good. Then we got on the train and headed back to the Thorncraft's. When they got to the train station to pick us up we had a minor struggle trying to get our backpacks on and mandy took a very smooth stumble (because we all know how graceful mandy is) backwards. We spent the day with them driving around checking stuff out doing some shopping. Just normal australian lifestyle. We went to this beautiful house on the water for a bit at Kangaroo Point which is like sort of equivalent to tuxedo in winnipeg. It was absolutely gorgeous. The first photo is the view from their dock and the second one is from the dock looking up at the house. It was so amazing. I can't imagine really living like that. they had a freaken massage chair!!!





So tomorrow we leave Sydney and are heading up the east coast to coff's harbor where we have a couple nights booked at a hostel before we head to byron bay where we hope to spend some time and work there.

We really really miss everyone at home and love you all.
XOXO
Hannah and Mandy


Funny Things said this week:
- Do you really want to pay 30$ to go to the aquarium. Well I'd rather see a shark in the aquarium than in the ocean. (While waiting in line at the aquarium debating on paying)

- Oh we got 10$!! From who? Two rich white ladies! (at Venice Beach after watching the hip hop group and giving them some money.)

- You know what I am really excited to do tonight?...sleep without a bra. (when staying at the Thorncraft's)

- ....ahh just so you know, I just farted. (all the time...as a warning for the other person)

Friday 5:50 AM Winnipeg Time – Friday 9:10 PM Sydney Time

We just arrived in Sydney tonight, and we are lying in bed…at 9pm. Jet lag sucks not going to lie but we do have a pretty busy day planned for tomorrow.

Our day at Venice Beach was absolutely amazing. There was so much going on and so much to see and miles and miles of beach. It was awesome. After we were done at the beach we went back to the hotel to get our luggage and change…freshen up a bit ya know! Or rather just change back into our shitty travelling clothes. Then we caught a shuttle to the airport and hung out there for a LONG time before we caught our 13 hour flight. We got onto the plane at our scheduled boarding time…I think it was around 11:15 and then Hannah and I both kind of fell asleep and woke up at 1:30 to find out that we still hadn’t left the terminal! The plane was delayed for some reason so we still weren’t in the air. Once we took off we got a meal pretty much right away…supper at 2 am. It was fantastic and then we both fell asleep for awhile and woke up on and off for the rest of the time. And we got breakfast in the morning. Then we got to the New Zealand airport where we had another 7 or so hours to kill. That airport was really really small though so that was a bit more difficult when it came to wasting time. We took a nap on the bench…Hannah got a massage…we did some yoga…played some cards. We’ve become good at killing time. Then we boarded our flight for SYDNEY!!! That flight was pretty great as well…we got fed again and this time it was tofu instead of beans so I was impressed, Hannah not so much. And we also got ice cream! And watched The Soloist and played with the most adorable little boy sitting next to us.

That leads us to tonight….me lying in bed writing this while I’m listening to people getting drunk and having fun and a really loud thunderstorm. Awesome. Tomorrow we are planning to go check out the botanical gardens and the oprah house. It’ll be a lot of walking but I think we are both really looking forward to it…I know I sure am. When we were getting our shuttle here from the airport, the city looked awesome. I can’t wait to go walk around and hang out here for the next week…or longer. Hannah and I were talking tonight about how awesome it is that we have like no plans. Just hanging out and deciding how long we want to stay in the city by whether or not we want to see more stuff.

Apologies

We apologize sincerely for the lack of posts. We are alive and well and doing lots of fun things. Tonight we are staying at the Thorncraft's (Hannah's friends) so we will hopefully be able to pick up their wireless on our laptop and blog to our hearts content. Otherwise our next hostel may have a better connection. We have tons and tons of pictures to share. We'll also post them all on facebook and only the best on here.
Take Care everyone and we promise we will blog longer as soon as we can.