olya | 
06 30th, 2006| 
im in the process of trying to upload photographs. cant remember my ftp password! grr
we are in brisbane, which is the last real large city before the “end” of our trip, in cairns, which is about 3 weeks away. isn’t that crazy?
we left on sunday afternoon, almost evening, and spent our first night at a rest stop on the side of the road. it is surprinsigly awesome, squatting. the van has a sink, a stove, a microwave (that operates only if we’re connected to a power supply), a fridge, and 2 benches + a table that fold into a bed. plus 2 shelves for storage, and storage underneath each bench. all in all, pretty damn spacious for 2 people. we still have to shuffle stuff around, but its not really all that painful.
we’ve bought around 11 or 12 books at a salvation army shop, each for around $2, $1 or $0.50. (total: $16). some of them turned out to be total garbage (same author as “i know what you did last summer” … finished it in about 4 hours, blergh), and some are totally sweet (”no, we don’t have neutrons”, about failures of science to be proper science). each evening we spend reading books and drinking wine until we fall asleep.
sleep is incredibly comfortable, especially given how i haven’t slept on a properly wide bed in like … AGES. i packed my pillows with us (will just throw them out in cairns before our flights), so we’re super comfy.
tonight we’re staying in a campervan park site, which is essentially is a huge parking lot, with plug points where we can get power (that way we’ve got electricity for laptops, and microwave power), and water points for refilling our water tank. there is no sewage system as its only a sink that we have, meaning that whenever we use the sink there’s a tiny puddle that forms underneath the van. everyone seems to be pretty used to that thought!
our initial plan today was to go to brisbane downtown, but i felt incredibly tired and weary after sleeping poorly last night (shows me to not think of water supply in advance… i got thirsty and all we had was coke, so i slept terribly due to all the sugar and such in my system). good go too, it started raining 10 minutes after we parked.
the campvervan site has internet, unfortunately as it turns out only one computer can log in, and once you’re logged in another computer can’t log in, even if you are logged out. since tim logged in first, he has internet, and i’m stuck with copying pictures over usb key.
regardless of that inconvinience, life is awesometastic. australia turns out to be an incredibly pretty place, and people are ridiculously nice to us. i’m not all upons it as i’ve heard some first hand accounts of racism in this country.
some memorable highlights so far include:
-> FINALLY LEARNING TO LIKE MUSSELS. mom, dad, i hope you’re happy. it only took 10 years after i first tried them :D
-> seeing some magnificent skies over the ocean
-> catching some whales at a few different points (no pictures, they were too far away anyway, still… so cool!)
-> not getting a tan :( yet. i hope.
-> HOLDING A KOALA (see pictures!). they are as soft and fuzzy and warm and adorable as they look. seriously. i officially want to be a koala when i’m reborn. they are loved by all; all they do is sleep and eat. too awesome.
-> feeding kangoroos!
-> seeing surfers’ paradise - what an adorable town! touristy, yeah, but ohmygosh its all so cute
-> buying some awesometastic strawberries at a road market
-> one of the most awesome parts so far was the awesomeness of tim who has cooked breakfast (eggs, bacon and toast and coffee!) each morning. i wash the dishes afterwards, but there were occurances where his cooking was … leaving me speechless. example: we wake up at 10am in some campersite lot somewhere between here and sydney. i’m sleepy, hungover, tired, and more like a stone than a person. we pack up quickly, get out by 10am (check out time), and i fall asleep at the back. tim drives us to a beach (!), cooks breakfast and makes coffee, and then wakes me up to the view of the ocean, blue skies and smell of coffee. i believe i may have found the last perfect man on earth.
