Picture Time!

      I have not mentioned this in my blog yet, but I am pretty good at sleeping anywhere.  And since I was EXHAUSTED from the Great Ocean Road Tour, seeing Melbourne, and snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, I figured that the boat ride back from the Great Barrier Reef would be the perfect opportunity to sleep- especially since it was raining on the way back! 
     The chairs on the boat did not have a head rest, so I slumped in my seat and rested my head on the very top of the back of the seat.  I don't know how long I slept for- but I do know that I was in deep sleep.  It was lovely until I woke up to find my mouth really dry and my friend laughing at me.  I knew pretty quickly that I had either snored, slept talked, or slept with a very funny expression on my face.  And the truth is that the expression on my face must have been a little funny because I was told that a girl (THAT I DID NOT KNOW) was taking pictures of me.  Sleeping.  With my mouth wide open.  And honestly, probably drooling.
     I wonder if I am going to find these pictures anywhere.  You never know, the pictures that she took of me could be one of those pictures on Facebook that people tag other people in as a joke and kind of to point out that they should consider themselves lucky that they do not look like this girl when she sleeps!
     Now, when sleeping on the ferries, trains, or buses, I will be sure to sleep with a smile on my face!  
   

Melbourne Here I Come!

     It was early in the morning and FREEZING in Melbourne.  (Well, freezing to us Sydney people!)  We were waking up early to go on the Great Ocean Road tour, which is the largest war memorial in Australia.  The Great Ocean road is west of Melbourne and it is absolutely gorgeous- and even pretty on the days when it is raining!  The bus picked us up at the hostel, and I don't really remember much of this part because I was so distracted by a guy sitting in front of me who had the WORST B.O. ever!!!  I mean, I could not breathe.  Maybe he had just run a marathon, or gone biking or swimming (or some hard-core exercise) or maybe it was too early and he did not feel like taking a shower.  I personally think it is the latter reason, but anywho, it sure stank in that small bus.

     I endured the smell for 4.5 minutes and then moved to the front seat of the bus, right beside the driver and my friends moved from our original spot to sit behind me.  Truth is, I made a good life decision because the bus driver (and tour-guide) said that it was the best seat in the house!. . .or bus I guess.  So, it worked out for the best- I had the best view of everything- all the pretty beaches, beautiful scenery, and cute towns- all because Mr. Stinky Man caused me to move.  I would take this trade any day!

     The first beach that we passed was Bells Beach.  There was a movie filmed where one scene was on "Bells Beach," but it was a FAKE Bells Beach.  I can't remember the movie's name, but the one scene is on a beach in California that is disguised as Bells Beach.  Don't believe the movie- it is lying to you! :)

     Next we passed a town that totally burned down in a bushfire.  Only 3 buildings remained.  After, we came to the town of Lorne.  All of the houses in Lorne are over $1,000,000!  It seemed like a prime spot to be for the beach! The next town, Apollo Bay was the lunch stop and I ate the most delicious gyro EVER!

     It would take me forrreeevvvver to tell about every beach and town that we went to on the tour, so I have decided to tell you about something way more exciting: A Hairy Tree Fern.  Yes, a hairy tree fern.  My tour group and I went on a short hike through the rainforest and saw a variety of trees and plants, but the hairy tree fern is the most memorable.  This plant was 1,000 years old and what is even cooler than its old age is the fact that the tree does not use the in-ground roots as the main water supply- it has "roots" surrounding the trunk of the tree.  How. Cool. Is. This???

     Further along the way, we came to stunning rocks in the middle of the ocean.  The main attraction, the Twelve Apostles, were HUGE (even bigger than the pictures!)  Here is the thing though: each "apostle" is a rock and one of the rocks fell in a large wave two years ago so now there are 8 rock structures.  This confused me a bit because that would mean that there used to be 9 rock structures. . .which does not equal 12!  But the "Eight Apostles" were amazing, and many tourists travel the Great Ocean Road to see the Twelve Apostles- which oddly enough used to be called Sow and Piglets! 

     Our last destination was London Bridge!  The formation used to have two arches, but one fell a couple of years ago.  People used to be able to walk across the rock structure to the very end and have a beautiful view, until of course, it fell.  On the day that "London Bridge Fell Down," (corny, I know!) a couple was walking across the bridge and made it to the very end.  Then, they heard a loud noise and realized that it might be a little difficult to get back.  Once they were finally rescued, the story about them was all over the news.  Unfortunately, the bridge broke on a week day and the couple was "Taking a Sickie" (aka taking a sick day) from work.  So, as you can imagine, their bosses were not that thrilled about them taking a vacation day and calling in sick.

     I could keep on going about this amazing day, we saw so much during the 14 hours that we were traveling down the Great Ocean Road, and it was all so different than anything I have seen before.  So, the lessons of the day are this: 1. Don't take a sick day if you are going to be on National Television. 2. Naming landmarks really does matter, even if you name it the wrong number- I do not think many travellers would want to go to "Sow and Piglets."  And #3: If someone near you smells SUPER bad, move to the front row seat where the vision is perfect- and you can always open the windows :)

Pronunciation. Pronunciation.

     I realize that I still need to talk all about seeing the Great Barrier Reef and Melbourne, which was absolutely amazing (except for the plane ride home of course, haha!)  But I am going to take a moment to talk about class today!
     I had my marketing tutorial class this afternoon and we were learning about diffusion of new products into the market.  Innovators are the people who buy new gadgets, like the new ipad right away, then the early adapters buy the product, and finally the majority.  The last group buys past-years models (if they buy any new technology at all) and they are called LAGGARDS.
     When we got to this part of this story, my professor thought it would be funny to call on me to pronounce laggard for the class, "The American Way."  You would have thought that I just said the funniest joke ever because he started laughing and fellow classmates giggled.  And, as if this was not enough, they asked if I could say it again.  "That is the funniest word" he said, overemphasizing the GAAAARRRD part of the word.
     So here is a question that I should pose to the class next week: HOW IS LAGGARD SPELLED?  Is it spelled lageeeeeeer'ds?  I DON'T THINK SO!  Therefore I am correct and all Australians are wrong.  End of story, haha!

Jamz of the Great Ocean Road

      During the time that I have been at Australia, I have been on many tours. Tours to Hunter Valley, the Northern Beaches, and 6 hours up the coast for the surf camp.  But none of these tours had the unique and umm. . .interesting music as my tour last week of the Great Ocean Road.

       The type of songs that were played on this tour were the kind that have a catchy chorus.  They are the songs that STAY IN YOUR HEAD FOREVER and ever and ever (even though you have only listened to the song 1 time).  But one thing is for sure, one time is all that it takes to memorize the repetitive lyrics, even if you really do not want to learn the song.
       Some examples of these songs are "Circus", "We Are Who We Are", "Whip My Hair Back And Forth," "Whip My Hair Back And Forth" (this one deserves to be written twice because it gets the repetitive award!), and "Womanizer."  But, here is the difference between these songs and the songs that I listened to on the-oh ya- 12 hour tour: the ones played on the tour were sooo bad that they were funny!  And of course I have the YouTube links to the actual songs played on the tour!  But keep in mind that if you listen to them, you will probably be humming them all day!

*** "Deadly Animals" by the Scared Weird Little Guys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNEeq5qGh8I
*** "Volvo Man" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-rFfTyVwtQ
     *Background on this is that Volvo drivers in Australia are sooooo slow.  The tour guide told me that if you get behind a volvo, then double the amount of time that it usually takes to get to your destination.  This video shows a scene from Twilight to go with the music.


Have a great, singin' day!
      

A Day at the Airport. . .

     

     

      Before I begin to explain my day of flight cancellations and delays, let me first advise everyone that they should never book flights with an airline company whose mascot can't even fly.  A tiger is a land animal.  If I would have thought about this BEFORE booking my flights back to Sydney from the Great Barrier Reef, I would have been back like 10 hours earlier!  I don't know why I did not analyze the importance of the mascot before booking the flight.  My bad!

      Tiger Airways is the cheapest airline in Australia.  The other airlines are Virgin Blue, Qantas, and JetStar.  Qantas is the airline that most people fly to get to Australia and they serve the best hot chocolate!  Virgin Blue and JetStar are about mid-range. . .and Tiger Airways, oh ya, is the cheepest airline provider.  Though my friends and I had heard some stories about Tiger Airways from our marketing teacher, we decided to fly with them because the price difference seemed worth it.  And we actually had 2 pleasant flights with Tiger Airways- from Sydney to Melbourne and from Melbourne to Mackay (near the Great Barrier Reef).  I will admit- after these flights, I was a big fan of Tiger Airways. . .

      Until the flight back from Mackay.  The planned route back was a flight with Tiger Airways from Mackay to Melbourne and Melbourne back to Sydney.  The first flight was scheduled to leave at 8:20AM, so we needed to check in at 6:20AM.  (To make a long story short, we took a night bus the previous night that dropped us off at 2:30AM in a city near the airport, so we took a taxi to the airport instead of paying for a hotel or hostel for an extremely short stay.)  So, we arrived at the airport at 4:30AM and waited (aka slept) until we checked in at 6:20AM.

      To our surprise, the flight was cancelled and the next flight that we could take was the following day.  Though we wanted to stay, I had to get back for a class presentation and the other girls had to get back for exams the next day.  So, we frantically called all of the other airlines trying to find a flight back to Sydney.
      After reviewing all of our options, Virgin Blue offered a flight directly to Sydney at 1:30PM that we decided to take!  By the time we found this flight, we had 6.5 hours left to wait, but we were happy that we would get back in the early evening on Sunday afternoon.
     Let me just say this- Sunday was not our lucky day because at 1:30, an announcement was made that the flight was delayed because the airplane needed windshield wipers that had to be shipped in from Brisbane.  5:30PM was the new departure time.  At 5:30, the departure time moved back to 6:00, and at 6:00, the departure time moved back to 6:30PM.  AND WE FINALLY LEFT THE MACKAY AIRPORT!!!  After 47928 games of cards, 27 naps on the airport sofas, and 5 trips to the airport store to look at the magazines, WE LEFT!!!  I don't think I have ever been so relieved or excited to see the Sydney Airport when we finally arrived back!
      14 hours in the Airport + 2.5 hours on plane + 30 minutes on train + 30 minutes on ferry + 5 minute taxi ride = Arrival back at school!  (and a very long day!)    
     Conclusion: Tiger Airways should change their mascot and everything will be better.  Some amazing options are Eagle Airways, Magic Flying Parrot Flights, Australian Magpie Airways, or my all-time favorite option: Kookaburra Airways.  Not only will the airline have a totally new and improved brand name and image, but people would know that they were reliable and could fly. . .like birds!

    Me with the Flight sign for Sydney before we loaded the plane after 14 hours at the Airport

TOP 10 ways to SPOT A TOURIST

I am going to borrow David Letterman's Top 10 format for the all-important topic of How to Spot a Tourist in Manly:
                        da. . .da.. . .dum. . .

10. If they have a camera.  And are taking a million pictures of the same scene.

9.  Tourists wear tennis shoes.  Unless Australians are working out, they wear "thongs" aka flip flops.

8.  This should be pretty obvious, but just walk into a souvenir shop.  I guarantee that 99.9% of the people (aside from the employees) will be tourists.

7.  Tourists wear Australian paraphernalia.  (Australian Day does not count for this rule!)

6.  If they don't have an Australian accent.  *I find that I look more like an Australian if I don't talk, haha.*

5.  If they take pictures of water dragons along the beach.  Sure, water dragons are cool but they are so typical by the beach that Australians do not pay much attention to them.

4.  Tourists carry maps.  Some tourists even take this a step further- they walk with their maps open. 

3.  Tourists walk on the right side and sometimes don't notice that people walking from the other direction are walking on the same side of the sidewalk ("footpath" here as I learned today!)  Tourists walk on the right-hand side of the footpath.

2.  If they are pointing at something that is typical.  Like if they are pointing at a boat.  Or at the ferry.  Or at the flags on the beach where the swimming area is.  Or if they are pointing at a sign that says "Mate."  Or if they are pointing at a "weird" spelling like Colour instead of Color.  The list goes on and on :)

1. If they are sporting an AUSTRALIAN FLAG swimsuit.  (Unless you want to scream tourist, do Not, I repeat, do not wear an Australian flag swimsuit.  It is embarrasing for you and the bottom line is that flags are not made to wear, they are made to hang on flag poles which is where I would rather view them!)

Mr. Bus Driver likes to Talk!

I have some facts for you!!!
     How do I know ALL of these facts?  Because I, being the lucky person that I am, was assigned seat 1A for the bus ride from Canberra to Sydney.  I was excited about the extra leg room until I realized that it was beside the driver.  Actually, let me rephrase this: I was excited about the extra leg room until I realized that the driver COULD TALK FOR A VERY LONG TIME!!!
     The bus ride from Canberra to Sydney takes 3.5 hours.  About halfway through, I took a 30 minute nap, but the rest of the time I was talking (more so listening) to the bus driver.  Do you want to know the history of Australia?  Just ask me.  Do you want to know about movies filmed in Sydney? Ask me!  I feel like I was well-informed about Australia, but now I pretty much know a ton of useless facts about Australia.
      And I happened to have my folder and a pen out during the conversation so I have decided to list for you the topics of our conversation.  I think the fact that I was taking notes encouraged the bus driver to continue talking, and I was actually really enjoying it.  (It only made me nervouse when he took his eyes off the road during our conversation to make sure that I understood!)  Here is a list of the diverse topics that came up in conversation:
1.  Koalas eat 11 of the 634 varieties of Eucalyptus trees.
2.  688 Different Dialects of the Aboriginal language
3.  Mount Kosciuszko is great- it is the highest mountain in Australia and located in New South Wales
4. Sydney is like San Francisco because both cities are at lower elevation than the surrounding land. 
5.  Lord Sydney was the Lord of British Admiral (I don't know what else he said about him. . .the bus driver was talking so fast and going over a ton of information!)
6.  Manly was discovered by Governor Philip.  Governor Philip ROCKS!!! (I added that part!)
7.  Camel Racing
8.  The kangaroo population is 21 MILLION in Australia.  To give you a relative idea, 22 million people live in Australia!
9.  Kangaroo meat is shipped to Holland and Germany
10. Australia has two natural enemies: Cyclones and Bushfires
11. The northern hemisphere is involved with conflict and Australia stays out of conflict most of the time
12. There is sugar cane and pineapple near Brisbane (HOW DID WE GET ON THIS TOPIC?  I don't know how we jumped from wars to pineapple!)
13. Climate Change
14. Lake George is on the top of the largest volcano in Australia.  The volcano was active, but now it is totally extinct.  We were passing Lake George when he said that!
15. There is volcanic rock
16. Story about the volcanic rock.  It was a dramatic story.  Volcanic Rock fell on a car when a woman was driving by and she died.
17. The bus driver thinks that, "Queen Victoria was either on drugs or an alcoholic" because Australia is a pretty nice place to send convicts!
18. Australia is a south Pacific Paradise
19. We passed Nicole Kidman's vacation home (actually, we passed the town that it is in!)
20. There are 28 beaches in Sydney
21.  Macquarie Place
22. Mission Impossible 2 was shot in The Rocks (Sydney)
23. Titanic was shot in Bondi (Sydney)
24. There are two police: state police and commonwealth police
25. There are 2 territories and 5 states in Australia.

*Though I am not a history major, I feel like I should be now!  Thank you, Mr. Bus Driver!*