Got back from the weekend trip along the Great Ocean Road a few hours ago. I had a great time; it was nice to get a chance to see the Australian landscapes and scenery that I have heard so much about. I’ve already put my pictures on both facebook and webshots, so check them out there. I took over 300 pictures, but a few were of basically the same thing, and I could cut some of them out. So Thursday night we went to Luna Park, which was fun. I took some pictures there, and I’ll put those up after I get done with the Great Ocean Road ones because they really aren’t anything too exciting. The amusement park would have been more fun if the lines were shorter and they had all the rides working, but it was still alright, and they only allowed Monash kids in. We got back after 11:00, and a few of us went to the Nott to hang out for a little, because a lot of people had already gone or were still planning to go. The next morning we had to meet at 10:00 to go on the trip. Ilse organized most of it, and Eric helped her and rented to van. We started calling them Mom and Dad shortly after our adventure began. The two of them did pretty much all of the driving over the course of the weekend. The group in the van was five Americans (Eric, Katie, Steve, Jess, and myself), one Canadian (Emily), one person from England (Adam), and one person from Holland (Ilse). The other car that would come later included two Brits (Harry and Lewis), Messi (from Dubai) and his two friends, both named Sam (I think they were from Dubai, also.) Our trip started once everyone in our van had arrived and we loaded our stuff in. Shortly after leaving, Adam realized that he forgot his wallet in his room and I offered to spot him during the trip. For someone who hadn’t driven on the left side of the road before, Eric was a pretty decent driver and only tried to go on the right a few times throughout the trip. Luckily, no cars were coming on both occasions. It took us under two hours to get to our hostel for the first night at Bells Beach. When we got there, the guy working showed us to our room but said he couldn’t check us in yet because he was leaving to surf, and we could leave our stuff and come back after 4:00. We rented a few surfboards and a bodyboard and left our things in the room. He didn’t give us a key, though, so most of us didn’t feel safe leaving anything valuable in the room and took it with us anyway. Since we now had four surfboards to deal with (including the one that Steve brought), we couldn’t keep them all on top of the car and had to put two inside. That made it pretty uncomfortable for those of us in the back. We checked out a few beaches and settled on one. Someone said it had good waves for surfing or something, and it looked like it had a decent number of people already surfing. So we all went down to the beach, and, initially, only the guys and Ilse went in the water because we didn’t have enough boards for everyone. I had never been surfing before, and Ilse tried to teach me how. It wasn’t very warm out (especially for what is supposed to be summertime here), and the water was chilly. We were the only idiots without wetsuits. I got into the water and attempted paddling at first. I then tried to catch some waves, and, while it was fun, I didn’t end up standing up on my board. I think I’ll need more practice. After that, I messed around on the bodyboard for a little and then went on shore. While I was there, some strange dog came over to us. He was black and white and didn’t seem to have an owner in sight. I figured he must have had rabies or something and made my best attempt to keep my distance. He would just run around near us and when he came close, he wouldn’t look us in the face. The dog just had his head slightly tilted towards the ground. Eventually we realized he wanted to play fetch, so we started throwing rocks and he went and got them. Every few times, he would try to eat the rock after bringing it back. Then the girls tried their luck on the surfboards, and Emily was actually pretty good. She was standing quite a bit and said that she had taken a lesson in Surfer’s Paradise when she first arrived in Australia a few weeks ago. It got pretty cold with the wind, and those of us who were not in the water decided to take a drive and get some food. We came back about an hour later and everyone else had gotten out and was waiting for us. The other car also arrived a few minutes later. We all went back to the hostel and could now check in. Our room, containing 9 beds and 1 couch, was supposed to accommodate 13 people, most of whom were men. I claimed a bed earlier in the afternoon when our van had gotten there so I was safe, but not everyone was so lucky. There were a few extra mattresses floating around the room, and there was a big pool table in the middle. We had our own little cabin, but the bathrooms were a walk outside and into the main office building. I decided to shower after the afternoon in the ocean and realized that the only towel I had brought was the beach towel I had used this afternoon. Amateur backpacker. (The people who stay in hostels are typically referred to as “backpackers,” probably because most of them just backpack through countries/life.) This hostel was pretty grimey. The bathroom didn’t have soap or paper towels, and while I was showering, some guy came in the bathroom, stood just inside the door and whistled for a few minutes, and then just left. Also, everyone else staying here just looked pretty aimless. After getting settled, we all just chilled for a little in our bunk. I decided I wanted to run to the grocery store to buy some cups, and Eric was willing to let me drive the rented van. Harry (from England, where they drive on the left) rode shotgun to coach me, and Katie and Lewis came along for the ride. It was really strange to be driving from the right side of the car. The foot petals were in the same orientation as in America, but everything else was switched. A few times, I went to make a turn signal and turned the windshield wipers on. I think I did pretty well for my first time driving in Australia, and I only hit the curb a couple times. Around here, instead of having traffic lights at most intersections, they have traffic circles (or “roundabouts” as they call them,) but there really weren’t a lot of people on the road so it wasn’t too difficult. I’m sure it was pretty scary for the people traveling with me, though. A little while after we got back, Ilse, with Emily’s help, had finished cooking dinner. We had bought some supplied before leaving Monash, and she made pasta, cooked with peppers, onions, mushrooms, and pasta sauce in the hostel kitchen. It was pretty good, and there was more than enough for everyone. After we finished eating, we played some drinking games, and while we were doing that, some random guy named Steve wandered into our cabin. Personally, I was skeptical at first, but he seemed friendly enough, so he was invited to join us. After a little while, he suggested that we all go to a pub down the road. Since we had nothing better to do, we decided to follow him. As we were leaving, we tried to lock the cabin up, and it turned out the front door didn’t even lock. At this point, I was sure it was a big setup, and that when we got back all our stuff would be gone. However, we did have keys to the lockers inside the room, and I threw all my stuff in one and prayed it would still be there when I returned. It turned out to be a pretty long walk down a dark road, and a few of us thought he was planning to murder us and then take our stuff as we were going along. While we were walking, another strange dog appeared, this one a white pit bull. For some unknown reason, a few people were talking and playing with it. I just tried to avoid it. It followed us all the way to the bar and even tried to go in. Crazy dog! When we got there, they said it was an $8 cover, so most of us said hell no and started walking back. Koala Steve (a name he said to call him during one of the games) wanted us to keep going, but since no one else wanted to go with him, he came back with us. About 30 seconds into the walk, another dog popped out of nowhere without a collar and probably having bird flu or something. This one was black, and he and the pit bull began to size each other up. After a few minutes, they went at each other, and then backed off and went their separate ways. What is the deal with all these random dogs here?? Someone in our group said we must be the dog whisperers. We got back to the hostel and hung around for a little while. Koala Steve didn’t seem to want to leave, but eventually got the message and went to his tent. He didn’t even have a bed at the hostel and had to sleep outside in a tent. Afterwards, we found out that he had tried to hit on all the girls, using various lame pickup lines in an attempt to lure them back to his tent to (in his words) “see his koala.” I didn’t really sleep well that night, as the bunk did not keep out noise very well, and I kept thinking someone was about to come in and rob us. People were also outside until pretty late, talking and doing whatever backpackers do at night. Well, it’s getting past 2:00 am here, and I’m starting to get pretty tired. Tomorrow is the first day of classes [I thought my vacation would never end], so I’m gonna get to bed, and I’ll have to finish working on this tomorrow.
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