Traveling around Australia, I've gotten into conversations where sometimes what they just said sounds like alien speak... It's like they're using real words, but they just don't make sense!
Anyway, I've been documenting some of these words and have compiled a list for you to review! I'm sure there will be more fun and funky words/phrases to add onto this list.. but for now here is what I got:
Trolly = Shopping Cart
Biscut = Cookie
Light Globe = Light Bulb
"Having a piss" = Fuckin with ya
Breakky = Breakfast
Tram = Trolly / Rail Car
Sunnies = Sunglasses
Torch = Flashlight
Dobber = Snitch/ Narc
Hire = To Rent
Tyre = Tire... just spelled funky
Crisps = Chips
Chips = Fries
"Good on ya" = "Good for you"
Bogan = Hick/ Red Neck
Trainers = Sneakers
Avo = Afternoon
Docket = Receipt
Que = Pause/Wait ie: "Do Not Que In Intersection"
Tripper = Drug Dealer
Duvvah = Duvet / Comforter
Macca's = McDonald's
Vinnies = St Vincent Depaul's
Savvos = Salvation Army
Thongs = Flip Flops
Nice eh??? I know.. totally weird... and some of those terms apply to England as well!
I'll add onto this post more as the phrases and words come up... but till then.. enjoy and have a chuckle and try to use an Aussie word today! :)
Cheers!
~The Established Australia Backpacker
OKAY!! So yes, it has been a while... over a month in fact, since I have last graced you with my words of delight and titillation. But, as you know, I didn't have a personal computer nor did I have the time or the money to pay for internet for the hours it takes me to be clever enough to write a blog.
SOooo, this post is gonna be a SUM UP session! YAY! So, to sum up: my trip was AWESOME!!- The End.
No, just kidding. But it was absolutely awesome. Met some great people, did some really fun things and saw some beautiful and breathtaking sites. But instead of writing a whole book about each day and what not I'm gonna do a list. YAY lists!! Love em! So efficient.
So here's my list:
The Places I Stayed And The Things I Saw While Traveling The East Coast
Newcastle-
Didn't see much or do too much here, met some neat Sweedish people, but that was about it. You can read more in my previous post.
Port Macquarie- (pronounced port ma-quar-ee, as I've been corrected by many an Australian) This place was cute, again you can read more detail in my previous post. Met a neat couple staying in my hostel, which wasn't really a hostel as much as it was a travel resort. Spent Australia Day there and rode a camel!
Coffs Harbour- Nice place, (can read more below) went to the beach, bought a sarong, went canoeing, and met the first other American traveler on my trip!
Byron Bay- (read below) AWESOME spot! My favorite out of all the spots. It's the only other place where I would consider living besides Sydney and Melbourne. I saw beautiful beaches, dolphins, sting rays, met some great girls and had a really fun birthday goin out and getting some body paintage! And finally got to go horse back riding which was beautiful! I was sad to leave.
Surfer's Paradise- DON'T LIKE IT! Way too commercial, I got there and immediately thought "Miami". Hostel was shit, but the kewl Canadian guy that I met the day or 2 before was there and we spent my 1 full day there and had a great breakfast, went to the beach, played mini golf, shopped around, got milk shakes (which BTW, interesting fact to be inserted here: In Oz, they have 2 different kinds of shakes. There is a Milk Shake and a Thick Shake. The thick shake is what we as Americans would consider a milk shake.. but nooo, here in Ozziland a milk shake means milk with ice cream flavor... it's odd, but true, and kinda sucky since they charge at least $1 more for a thick shake) But that day was fun, even if the town sucked.
Brisbane- My stay here was awesome!! Brisbane itself was a bit of a let-down. I don't really know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. It's a lot more spread out than Sydney, so therefore it feels bigger, it's got some great suburbs and a lot of pretty spots, but it didn't give me that "vibe" that I was looking for. But that whole stay was mostly business related anyway. Carole and Greg had a beautiful home with the best dog ever! and made me feel very welcome. Didn't do much besides look for work, catch up on emails, Facebook and blogging, much needed laundry, visited the Art Museum. But I did get to hang out with Carole's daughters and had Thai food for dinner, that was nice.
Hervey Bay- (pronounced Harvey Bay) This place was great. I don't know if it was because of the awesome people I met there or the bats or what, but I had a great time. The hostel I stayed at was nice but the people made it so much better. They turned on the Super Bowl for just me and I got to teach a couple of Britts about US Football. I felt so proud! They let me change rooms when the air-con didn't work that well in the room I was in and then I found the bats! The water was great but I was kind of afraid to go swimming by myself. Did a fair bit of walking and saw some pretty sites. I didn't go to Frasier Island (which is why most backpackers stay in Hervey Bay to begin with) but I hear it's neat. It's the largest sand island in the world and it has a bunch of wild dingos. Other than that.. not too sure what the awesomeness is all about.
Airlie Beach- Well the bus ride from Hervey Bay to Airlie Beach was quite a tote. But luckily I had some good company. Which brings up another fun side note: the interesting and sometimes painful positions you get in while trying to sleep on a Greyhound bus! Some really hurt afterward, and sometimes you amaze yourself with the way your body can contort to fall asleep! Anywho, Airlie beach was very nice and very cute. I went on a half-assed Whitsunday Island tour. I say half-assed because the boat was OK, but the seats look like they had a dog chewing on them, everything cost extra on top of the $140pp costs and then after going the 2/3 stops scheduled the pump broke and the boat started to take on water, so we had to head into shore. It was ok though, because they gave us all a 50% refund and I got to see Whitsunday Island and Whitehaven beach. Whitehaven beach was so beautiful. It had the whitest sand ever and it was sooo fine that when you held it, it felt like baking flower or powdered sugar! And, it was so fine that it polished your jewelry when you played with it!
I also spent some time swimming in the man made lagoon, which was really really nice!
Cairns- Another LONG bus ride to Cairns. But Cairns was great! Again, met some neat people and the best part of my trip (of course) snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef!! OK, SO, if you've ever been to Hawaii and snorkeled or scuba dived there, yeah.. this kicks HI's ASS! It was like HI times 1,000! I paid a pretty penny for getting pretty much the best tour boat out there who had exclusive rights to boat to the outer reef to 3 private and select spots. The staff was great, the food was very tasty and the snorkeling was amazing! Even though I was with like 60 other people, when I was out in the water, it seriously felt like there was no one around. I saw lots of tropical fish, a couple of sharks, a sea turtle, lots of jelly fish (which btw, aren't as "jelly" as you'd think... they're actually kinda firm.. it's weird) I was wearing a stingger suit though so it was fine. I saw a clown fish and a huge giant sea clam, and of course, tons of beautiful coral. I snorkeled around so much that I wore two nice blisters on my middle toes! But it was definitely worth the pain and the cost!
Adelaide- Flew from Cairns (which is pronounced cans btw) and had a fun time finding my way around. Adelaide is actually quite small. For the first night I didn't actually stay in "Adelaide" I stayed in a Southern burb called Glenelg. Which was quite nice and the hostel I stayed at was fun and funky as well. A lot of little rooms that were opened up together to create the sitting, dining and kitchen areas. Then the rooms were neat because there were no bunk beds (yay!) but only like 1 shower and 1 toilet for like 2 floors, so that was interesting.. didn't seem to be much of an issue while I was there however. The style was also kewl, it was like a New Orleans, LA- French baroque style with the rot iron and the fun filigree details. The next night though, I stayed in the actual town of Adelaide at a different hostel (I would have stayed at the first one, but because I had a free bed coupon i was forced to move to this one) But it was good that I did, because I met this cute little peanut of a Canadian and we went to Kangaroo Island together. Kangaroo Island had a lot of beautiful spots and was a fun day. Way too expensive for having to ride around with a bunch of Asians and old people on a big tour bus hoping off and on and off and on, but it was still fun and I got some good pics!
That night coming back from the tour I met these two interesting guys who after talking with them for 5 minutes invited me with them on a road trip down the Great Ocean Road into Melbourne. I told them I would, but that I had already paid $50 for my Greyhound ticket and it was non-refundable. So the next day we hung out together at the beach in Glenelg and I got to know them a bit better. One was named Stuart and he was from Scotland, and the other Dan from England. Both were fun guys so after about another 6 hours of thinking about it I said "fuck it" and tossed my Greyhound ticket and stayed an extra night at the hostel to head out with them in the morning for the Ocean Road. And I'm really glad I did!! It was AMAZING! (see top picture). We had the best time, it was really those two and then me, they pretty much decided where we were going, what we were going to do and where we would stop... but I got out easy. We ended up with a camper van and stayed two nights in the van, which was interesting because there was a top loft part, but the guys were scared it'd collapse and they didn't want to sleep next to each other, so of course, I had to sleep in the middle. Not only that, but those little *bleeps* talked me into playing strip poker!! And I lost... BADLY! There went my ego, right along with almost all my clothes. I refused to take off my underwear, so as punishment, they made me run to the toilets and back (yes, outside) but I only ran about 1/2 way before I heard the *bleepers* start locking the doors! So I ran back and promptly chewed their asses, got my clothes back on and swore never to pay poker or any betting game with either of them ever again. (Especially since I found out that the Scot, who was also the dealer the whole game, was fantastic at card magic tricks!!)
So I spent 2 nights and 3 days with these boys traveling the Great Ocean Road. We picked up two hitchers on the second day which was great because they were from Cali! Of all places!! And so we all hit it off quite well and spent the whole day together site seeing and getting to be friends. It was a really really beautiful trip and I'm glad I went... even if I lost my clothes along the way ;)
Melbourne- When I first got to Melbourne, I wasn't too excited. My hostel was shit and falling apart and the night life when we went out was kinda lame. But it grew on me. I ended up staying 4 nights and 5 days there and had a really nice time. Met some new friends, mostly from England (I met a butt load of English people on this trip!!) went to the Digital Arts Museum, the Shrine of Remembrance, St. Kilda beach, Melbourne Central, and the Botanical Gardens, which are the largest in Australia. All of it was beautiful and so full of culture I loved it! My friend from the states also hooked me up with her big brother who lived in St. Kilda as well, so I got a couple of free nights from him and saved a couple bucks which made me very happy, as well as being able to do some much needed laundry! But even though I had met some new friends and was having a great time, I couldn't stay longer because I needed to get back to Sydney for Mardi Gras!!! - see next line -
Sydney- SO HERE I AM!!! Back in Sydney... Whew... long trip.. but can you believe it? I did all of that in only 5 weeks!! Most people will take a couple months to do all of that.. oh well.. I work fast.
I made it back on Feb 25th, a couple days before Mardi Gras. It was a little hectic, only because the mate that I was supposed to crash with, pulled out at the last minute and I was desperate for somewhere to stay. I found one hostel but could only get 2 nights before having to move to another because of Mardi Gras and they were booked. So I stayed the 2 nights, met again, more neat people from England, got my computer fixed!!! (which was awesome, side note: the guy at the Apple store was way super nice and got it fixed for me within 4 hours, AND it cost me about $200 less than it would have in the states! AND he also offered to help me find a couch to crash on! it didn't work out, but holy cow that was awesome and so kind!) So I tried to get onto this website couchsurfers.com and find a couch.. did it wrong, so no one would host me... but this nice lady took pity on me and invited me out on Mardi Gras for lunch and then to hang at the parade afterward.
So I met these 3 ladies for lunch and within an hour we were all great friends and having a blast. I went and changed into my "outfit" and decided I needed to wear something on my head! So we all 4 got in the spirit and found this cheep dollar store and all got bunny ears and feather boas. Thus... the 4 bunnies were created!! We had an absolute blast, hung out, had some drinks (except I had soda) and watched the parade.. we had a great view and I think we managed to get on TV a couple times!!
All in all though, it was a fun day and the next day I got to go to Bondi and relax on the beach with the Bunnies and watch the pro-surf competition. So hot surfer guys and sunny beach.. not a bad way to end the week.
Which thus leads me to today... Monday... Nice and easy Monday... Had today off, (thank god) and had breakfast with the hitchers from Cali before they headed back to the US and then stopped at the chemist to pick up drugs. Although the place I'm staying is very nice... the room I'm renting causes my allergies to go nutz!! So now I'm living in a Northern burb called Cremorne and staying with a beautiful Columbian named Paola and her mother Nalita and doing all kinds of everything for GM Photographics! AND THUS completes my summing up... my 5 page.... long... sum up.... :P
TILL next time folks!
Keep smilin and stay away from Scottish men who want to play strip poker!!
~The Newly Settled Australia Backpacker
