Chris took us to Toowoomba last monday
morning as the bus was much cheaper from there. Smart like we are,
didn't buy the bus-tickets before so when we wanted to finally buy it
in the city, it was 36 dollars instead of 20. Which is
20-dollars-too-much. Once again Carly helped us out. Were hanging out
with her on the afternoon and she took us to her parents place. Had a
super-fun evening chatting with her mom and step-dad. Malcolm is an
artist, all the amazing paintings on the walls were made by him to
our surprise. Plus there was a studio in the shed.
Next morning left before dawn. Caught a
bus to Brissie for 15 dollars. The catch was, it left 5.30am. What to
do in Brissie at 7.30 am? Munch at a food-court of course. Finally
saw “22 Jump Street”. Stored our big bags in the kitchen area of
the cafe of the cinema and enjoyed the movie. It definitely was
funny, can't say it beat the first one for me tho. First one is
always the one.
Took a train to Sunshine Coast in the
evening and made it to Monkey's place for dinner time. He has an
amazing self-grown herb garden in the back-yard. He cooked
mushroom-stew with all the herbs we found in the garden.
Deliciously-fresh! When Clair and Bruce were on vacation in January,
they visited Bruce's skydiving mate Monkey at Dicky Beach and Clair
texted us we need to come and see him and the place. I'm so thankful
we made it there. What an absolute heaven on earth. A piece of
paradise. He lives right on the beach 3km away from a cute beach-town
Caloundra. To wake up to that view in the morning was amazing. Monkey
has jumped off a plane thousands of times as well and there were
several parachutes in the house. For example, as the nights are super
cold there too, with 3 blankets and a parachute on top it is nice and
warm. As Monkey had to go take care of her mom for a few days he left
the house to us.
He has an adorable, super-loyal little dog called Bundy!
Enjoyed mornings on the beach and long walks around
Caloundra. Before leaving to Brisbane on friday morning cooked some
warm chicken-bacon-potato-salad and left some for him for lunch.
Apparently it was some genius food, have to remember the recipe!
Spent the weekend in Brisbane to chill
with Victor. A Portuguese/Usa guy Keiu met at Positivus festival in
Latvia in the summer. Hitchhiked there by two cars. In the second car
there was a girl from Eritrea with her 18-month-year-old daughter.
She was a refugee in Sudan and got to Australia 5 years ago. She is
about to graduate from nursing-school and get an Aussie passport any
day now and is very excited to start traveling.
What a great idea to hitch in front of a police station.
Friday was USA Independence day. Ended
up at Viktor's hostel's downstairs bar. They held beer-pong
competitions. Me and Keiu entered and to our surprise ended up in the
finals. There were around 20 teams playing and we were in the final
two. We should have won as we lead 4 to 1 cup in the end but couldn't
get the last cup off the table and lost. Had heaps of fun and got
ourselves a small fan-club.
Were supposed to couchsurf at a guy's
place a little outside city-centre. Had to be there between 10-11pm
but due to our finale, arrived after midnight. He didn't pick up his
phone any more. Were prepared to sleep in his yard when he woke up
and let us in. The weirdest couchsurfing experience as his
house-mates didn't trust couchsurfing so we had to say we were his
friends and as he had just moved into the house he didn't have a
couch or even mattresses or anything. We walked in and he showed us the floor like it's the most casual spot to sleep on. Terribly uncomfortable and cold
night, when he went to work at 7 am we claimed his bed but decided
not to stay for the second night and take a hostel instead, as we
were off to a night out anyway. Went for a free boat-ride, had a
lovely dinner in Chinatown and did some bar-hopping in Fortitude
Valley with Viktor and Keiu.
Hitchhiking back on sunday went
smoother than we expected as once again we were hitchhiking literally
from the city centre. A snowboarder took us half way and an older
gentleman driving to Gympie dropped us to Caloundra on the way. When
back at Monkey's, saw from far away that the house was full of
people. Had a wonderful sunday afternoon, evening and night with his
friends and family. A roast lamb with baked veggies for dinner, red
wine and lots of live music. His daughter Birdie, her boyfriend
Damien and close friend Jimmy are all musicians and in a band
together. They were singing and playing half the night, for fun and
for practicing, as they had an audition the next day. After dinner
went out to sit and chat in a bungalow, some neighbors joined in who
were also part-time musicians. My goal for the coming year, learn to play guitar!
In the morning, Jimmy, Birdie and
Damien dropped us to the highway before going back home to Brisbane
and we started our journey to Rainbow beach where were supposed to
meet two Germans to ride-share with them up to Cairns. A tow-truck
picked us up. Were supposed to go with him for about 30 km of our 150
km way-to-go. Mid-way he had to tow another old car from a little
country-town. The detour, getting lost part and actually lifting the
car and attaching it, took around 2 hours. When he finally dropped us
off on the high-way, we were miserable in a place not suitable for
hitching, the sun was about to set and we had 120 km to go.
Luckily the people who needed their car to be towed, had a neighbour with a fruit garden.
Rainbow
beach is quite off the roads at the tip of the peninsula and
apparently difficult to go to. A guy from Noosa, who picked us up
next was sincerely worried and talked us into coming to Noosa with
him, showed us the town and dropped us into a backpackers. We asked
for buses going to Rainbow the next morning, but all were quite
expensive and leaving too late. Finally a super-helpful administrator
got us a spot on a tour-bus leaving 7am next morning and they don't
even charge us. The tour guide jokingly said we could be the
entertainment – sing karaoke or something. 7 am, I don't think so,
we decided to show our gratitude a bit differently, bought cookies
for everyone. Noosa is beautiful, our hostel offered free pizza for
dinner and we are right on track getting to Rainbow beach in the
morning and ready for new adventures.
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