aloha from apollo bay, victoria! 

I took a couple of buses from melbourne and ended in lorne yesterday during what can only be described as a "schoolie infestation".  this means that kids who are just graduating from high school are on their christmas break and hang out in the little towns down here for drinks and debauchery. 

ah i remember the days.

so, silly me, i decided that i would walk to the next campsite, seeing as it is not on the bus route: eta about 3hours of walking.  not a raw deal, really, but when you consider that i have what is now at least a 50-lbs backpack the game changes a little.  i might as well have walked up a friggin mountain. 

but i got to cumberland campsite in one piece and proceeded to spend the rest of the day lying next to the stream where i set up my tent, and talked to the ducks for a little while.  it was an absolutely amazing place and ill definitely have to show pics when i get the chance.  there was a river running through camp that had carved a gouge in the side of this enormous rock face over millions of years.  there were all kinds of birds hanging around and good lord they make a racket!  best of all i bought this bug repellent cream thats like 80% poison and it works like magic.  i laid out by the water until sunset and didnt even get bitten.  ah, gifts from the universe and the people who make DEET.

i headed out this morning after struggling a little with my camp stove to make some tea to warm me up; just dreading the giant hill id have to climb straight out of camp.  i was on the road for less than 5 minutes when my ipod died and magically this man pulled over to pick me up.  again, gifts from the universe.  he and i had a nice little chat and he was gracious enough to even buy me coffee and split a muffin when we got to wye river.  Brett, wherever you are, you have some amazing karma coming your way.

deciding to abort the walking routine for the rest of day, ive chosen to remain in this little town of apollo bay for the night and im shipping some of my- what can only be described as unnecessary shit- up to my aunt's brother in sydney while im carousing around down here and before i head to NZ. 

tomorrow entails a great deal more walking/hiking around this area and perhaps a bus to the next campsite.  im really loving this method of travel.

hope you all had an amazing thanksgiving.

taryn

finally booked my tickets to NZ and Bali.  this is real and im so frickin excited. 

welcome to melbourne!  i was a little out of sorts after being on the train for almost 12 hours, but i was smart enough (for once) to book a hostel just down the street from the train station. 

of course, i get there and its a huge place with tons of groups of backpackers, which makes it hard to make friends, but thats not really a problem for me.  im kind of a solitary being for the most part.  so i paid for a bed in a 10-person dorm and its got these truly frightening bunk beds that weave and wobble and screech when you climb into them.  and when i say climb, i really mean climb.  you have to shimmy up the side like a monkey up a drainpipe and then pray that the whole thing doesnt come down on top of you if theres no one in the bottom. 

then im laying in bed, planning the next day when i realize that the exposed pipes- painted in red to stand out from the white walls- are actually the pipes from the bathroom and you can hear every time someone flushes.  i couldnt stop laughing at the hilarity of the situation.  the austrian girls did not think it was so funny which made it worse. of course.

i decided that im going to be walking along the great ocean road, starting sunday when the weather clears up.  my time this morning was split between reading in a coffeeshop and walking around for a camping store.  i finally found it in the form of an army surplus store and it was glorious. 

the guy alternately laughed at my ignorance and helped me find what i needed (including a map.  who knew?!).  on a sidenote, he looked at me funny when i said that bear grylls was an asshole and i was like, "omg im so sorry i said 'asshole'".  he said, "oh its not that, its your accent when you said 'asshole'".  i also informed him i already had a couple of knives on me when he suggested that i buy one, and he looked at me like i fulfilled all his expectations of americans as trigger-happy lunatics.  amazeballs.

so i picked up a stove, tent, pots, flashlight, maps, and an extra towel for the low, low price of $200.  i figure that i should be saving a little money- or breaking even- because most of the campsites ill be staying at are free.  i might regret not getting a sleeping pad, now that i think about it...  oh well. 

on to adventure!
taryn

its been raining here all week and as shitty as that is, its not really cold or anything and my mother had the good sense to stuff a poncho in my bag so im pretty set.  except that my pants dyed my bag black and im afraid to take them off for fear of what my own legs look like.

spent the day perusing museums and just strolling through my last day here in sydney.  it was glorious.  i havent done something like that i think since i was in europe with D.  and i sort of loved the irreverent take on history that aussie curators take.  its like they dont take themselves too seriously and use words like 'poo' in their exhibit descriptions and depict graphic animal deaths.  and they actually encourage people to interact with the stuffed animals and they dont shield their children from visions of death. 

its fabulous.  i laughed my ass off.

so tomorrow morning im headed to melbourne.  ive decided to spend the extra $30 and go for comfort and speed rather than thrift.  sue me.  itll be 11 hours or so of drinking wine with strangers and reading and i want to be able to relax... whatev.

then its going to be all wine tasting for days and probably the great ocean road trek for a few more.  http://www.visitvictoria.com/Regions/Great-Ocean-Road/Activities-and-attractions/Outdoor-activities/Walking-and-hiking.aspx


be safe, be well.
taryn

good evening followers and friends.

yesterday was the kind of day where you just dont want to get out of bed... so i just moseyed around the hostel and didnt do much of anything.  the previous night was a loong one that ended with me, and irishman, and a german falling asleep while drinking milk in the hallway at 4am.  amazeballs.

today i went and got myself pleasantly lost on the way to the koala sanctuary where i saw tons of animals and got to pet a bunch of kangaroos!  they kinda remind me of deer in a bad way that involves lots of flies and a slight bit of mange.  still freakin cute though.  i also chanced upon a talking cockatoo (germans call them cockadoos) and was surprised at myself for being surprised with its aussie accent.  i laughed my ass off and got a vid of it that ill show you later.

its a little different travelling on my own than i thought.  i have to make all the decisions and its a little difficult to engage other people in trying to help me weed out the options.  for example, i would love to go to melbourne on wednesday or thursday, but i cant decide how to get there.  i could take a bus, train, rent or buy a car, or even fly.  i ruled out flying because i want to actually see the countryside, and then driving was out too because just crossing the street is a challenge for me.  

and then theres the question of finding another hostel.  its not that i dont like where i am, its just that these people arent really backpackers; more like long-term hostel residents.  this means that im not meeting people with whom i can travel on the road, which is more along the lines of what i wanted.  

ahh whitegirlproblems...

tomorrow im headed to the movies and a picnic in the park with a german woman from the hostel, then perhaps ill actually make some more decisions.

love you dearly.

taryn

good afternoon!  what a glorious day it is to be hungover!  i sit again in the back of the turkish restaurant that is blazing hot and i think im sweating booze.  my voice sounds like ass and i have that morning allergic reaction that makes you sound like youre dying.  im also sunburned and covered head to toe in insect bites that i seem to have acquired in a matter of minutes.  amazeballs.

yesterday was truly amazing.  i spent the day doing touristy things and walked around the town for literally 6.5 hours.  after about 3 hours i saw this man with an FCS backpack and i thought hey!  this guy must be american because FCS is an american company right?  wrong.  he was german and i thoroughly embarrassed myself trying to explain why i was touching his backpack. 

he forgave me the awkwardness and we proceeded to spend the next 8 hours together walking around town, napping in the royal botanical gardens, and generally laughing our asses off.  his command of english was nearly perfect and since my understanding of german is nil, it worked out fairly well.  we parted ways in the evening because he had to catch a bus down south to be a surfing instructor (i informed him that he was what we like to call in america "living the dream").

later on in the evening i went out with this english dude who want to show me around because he's been here for 'for-deen monfs'.  we started at this bar that reminded me of newport intensely.  i felt right at home being underdressed in a sea of beautiful people. 

i wont bore you with the details of my wild barhopping night, but it is sufficient to say that i ran out of the business cards i brought for the night, i woke up with a number of friend requests and a mysterious email from someone who knows im going to the beach today and wants to join.  i might also have played 'i have never' with some irish men.

i would also like to say that i love a country where you can drink outside on the street... which is what i did for most of the night.  it was wonderful and i felt dangerous.  haha. i also learned that i am shitty with names.  like really shitty.  this is turning out to be a major problem.

love you.
taryn

also, is it normal to still feel like youre on the plane hours later?  good lord i must be more dehydrated than i thought.

also, will i get arrested for having a knife?  not that i do or anything...