Australia

Aug 5th, 2008

Well, I finally made it to Australia. The flight was fine other than the woman who talked entirely too loud to the woman next to her the entire flight (pretty annoying at 3 am). It was strange to get off the plane in Sydney to 40 degree weather after being in 100 degree heat the day before. I still can't get over this winter in August thing. It gets dark around 5:30 here. Its almost depressing that I will have 2 extra weeks of it being dark early this year than I have to. Oh well, I think everyone at home is still jealous.

I got to Brisbane around 3 pm and met up with my friend Sarah who I met teaching English in Italy last year. I put my bag in a locker and we went to meet up with her friend Jordan for some coffee and avacado toast.

After coffee we just walked around the city. I looked for kangaroos the entire time, but there apparently aren't any in the city. I'm thinking that I am going to have to go to a zoo to see them, because 2 weeks isn't really enough time to see 3 cities in Australia and venture out into the true bush.

Today we went to the Gold Coast. We went to the local part of the beach where its nicer (the benefit of knowing locals). The sun still feels plenty strong here in the 'dead of winter'. The dead of winter is still about 70 degrees during the day and hot in the sun. The water was a bit cold but warm enough to swim. We went in and got used to it in about 5 minutes. Contrary to what my mom thinks, I didn't get attacked by sharks as soon as I touched the water. I'm still alive.

We then took a walk in a national park and I saw a bush turkey. They are pretty funny looking. I also got to play with cockatiels because Sarah's family has two of them. They are really friendly but bite a bit right now because its nesting season.

Tomorrow I am going to try to go to Moreton island which is a sand island right off the coast. You can drive a 4 wheeler there and go sand toboggaining. Its also pretty common to see whales there in August because its their migration period.

- Alex