Time to part...

I am back in Brisbane and Colleen has headed to fiji. Here is where we part. I have posted the remaning pictures from our trip together. Enjoy!! Oh.. and from now on I will post the rest of my pics on my old travel blog: http://www.lmrtravels.blogspot.com/.

Whitsundays Sailing
On the Road
Sydney

-Luis

back to brisbane

so our trip has come full circle and we are back in brisbane. luckily we had no issues with our van and no accidents. we covered a lot of ground in those two weeks. i think we estimated 5200 km in total.

luis is here for a few nights until he heads up to cains to work on a boat for two weeks. i am here just for tonight and i leave for fiji in the morning. i called the little island where i am staying and said "i have a reservation for tomorrow" and they said "bula colleen, we're looking forward to you getting here". =) i think this place is going to be slightly more personable than your standard hotel. or maybe i am the only person checking in tomorrow...who knows...either way she didn't even hesitate. i am excited to see what this place is going to look and be like. (btw...bula means hello in fijian) activities on the island include making jewelry out of coconuts and learning polynesian dances. and you can "join the tribe" whatever that entails.

i don't think i am going to have internet access so i probably can't upload pics until i get back. but i have updated some below and added some from sydney. i am really looking forward to tomorrow....

sydney pics (some...more to come later)
updated pics

sydney

well folks we made it to sydney! it took us about 4 days of drive time because we stopped in a few places along the way and it is pretty damn far from cairns to sydney....about 2500 km to be exact. it was nice to finally take a shower! we'd been cheapin' it the whole way down and sleeping in parking lots to avoid paying camping fees. =)

it's been great so far! the weather is pretty nice. it gets pretty chilly at night. so far i've had the opportunity to ride the ferry at darling harbour, walk across the sydney harbour bridge, see a play at the opera house, eat seafood while looking out at the sunset on the harbour, check out the famous aquarium and just take it all in. it's really too bad we don't have more time.

i don't think i'll get any more pics up until i get home. i can't believe i am only in australia for three more days and then fiji and then home. it's been great!!!

whitsundays, airlie beach and cairns

luis and i are in cairns which is the main jumping off point in northern queensland for the great barrier reef and all the islands. we drove up yesterday 8 hours from airlie beach with two girls we met on the sailing trip.

the trip was AMAZING! the most beautiful beaches and water that i have ever seen! there were 32 people on the boat. a good mix and we were the only americans which is new for us but we enjoyed it! the first night we docked by the main whitsunday island and watched the sunset and hung out with everyone. the next morning they took us to whitehaven beach and it was incredible!!! that afternoon we went snorkeling and i went diving for the first time ever. it wasn't an official dive since i am not certified. we went down about 30 feet but it was still diving. and it was amazing. i dived that afternoon and the next morning. i can't wait to upload the pics because it was such a magical trip.

now we are spending few days in cairns and hanging out with some girls from the boat. soon we are heading down to sydney.

sailing pics (whitsundays and cairns)
updated driving pics
updated colleen pics

australian lingo

i am making a list of the australian lingo that we are picking up as we go:

"dull bludger" : living off the government, being lazy, etc
"king stong" : strong drink
"pissed" : drunk/wasted
"saturday week, friday week" : next saturday, next friday
"arvo" : afternoon
"stupid as, hot as" : stupid as shit, hot as hell, etc (they just drop everything after as)
"lollies" : candy (makes you feel 8 again)
"gems" : tator tots
"pluto pup" : corn dog

we were at the south bank in brisbane the other day trying to order lunch and i wanted a corn dog and tator tots. i couldn't even order the damn things because there weren't any signs and they looked at me like i wasn't speaking english. i ended up having to just point until she figured it out. i didn't think it was going to be harder to order food here then in korea! =)

-cd

driving australia

for the past few days luis and i have been driving up the eastern coast of australia from brisbane on our way to cairns (pronounced cannes). we lucked out an got an automatic van which has been great because i don't know how to drive manual and luis was going to have to teach me on the trip. =) it hasn't been bad driving on the opposite side of the road. luis has only switched over two or three times to hit a kangaroo and a small child.

we stayed one night in a parking lot in a small town called miriam vale. and then we crashed in a campervan park in airlie beach last night (we had to pay but it was nice to take a shower). we were hoping to see more of the coast on the way up but actually the landscape looks a lot like driving on major interstates in texas/arkansas/oklahoma. we've seen a ton of dead kangaroos on the side of the road which is kind of sad.

we've made it to airlie beach for our three day sailing trip and are leaving in a few hours. i will post pics of that trip as soon as i can.

Trying to Catch up...

So Colleen has been doing such a great job with photos that I've been holding onto mine. I decided to finally post some... here they are:

Brisbane Australia

We leave tomorrow morning and start heading toward Cairns and our 3 day boating trip. Hopefully we'll have no problem handling our manual-right-hand-drive camping van. Wish us luck.

-Luis

new pics and stuff

i uploaded new pics today and changed the format around a little so use these new links below

pics
los angeles
brisbane, queensland
lone pine koala danctuary
colleen's stupid "artsy" pics (as luis puts it)

we stayed in a hostel for a few days. it was pretty nice considering what i had in my mind. i think the US has a major stigma against hostels but it was cool. we went on the XXXX brewery tour which was quite informative and interesting. we learned about the history of beer in general and that in queensland. "mind your p's and q's" comes from when the bar owner would yell at the barmaids to mind their pints and quarts (i.e. keep tabs). the beer was pretty good as well (they give you four at the end).

i've spent a lot of time walking around brisbane and seeing different parts of the city. they have a lot of parks and beautiful gardens which are all free to visit. the mass transportation is awesome! the city is pretty clean and there are a lot of strange birds everywhere. yesterday we went to the maritime naval museam and went on an old world war II ship. i got some really awesome pictures!

this weekend we are trying to find somewhere to celebrate halloween. monday we set out for airlie beach and the sailing trip. i can't wait!

mcdonalds and drinking

is it appropriate or not to eat at mcdonalds in every country possible after drinking? tonight after going on the XXXX brewery tour in brisbane and having a few beers luis made me go to mcdonalds with him. he claims to never eat at mcdonalds in the US but always eat at mcdonalds in any other country he is in. he ate his food in about 4.5 seconds and then proceeded to run (that's right run...his legs are quite a bit longer than mine) back to the hostel and go to bed at 7:30. i don't know which is worse.....the drunken mcdonalds run or the going to bed at 7:30. i certainly hope he finds a way to stay awake past 8:00 for some part of this trip.

p.s. on the brewery tour tonight some brits and a swed taught us about the term "bunny boiler"....who knew? i think we probably should have.

Colleen = liar face.

Hello all,

The quotes are completely untrue. I would never say these things. That is all.

-Luis

Oh yeah, we are currently in Brisbane AUS. We'll be posting some pics soon........

pictures added:
LA and Brisbane pics
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary pics

quotes of the week

everyone who knows luis knows that ridiculous things come out of his mouth about every 37 seconds. so every week i am going to post luis' ridiculous and funny quotes for everyone's amusement. enjoy!

this week so far:
"can i use that hand sanitizer anywhere?"

"i was born 7 months premature, they thought i was an abortion and tried to flush me"

"i am going to have my halloween costume be just underwear and dance with all the ladies and maybe i'll meet my australian cousin"

"i love coca cola, can you imagine if you were 70 and coke was just invented, how much would that suck? if coke had been invented back in the day it would have been too easy to steal from the indians"

"i can't wait until my parents have alzheimer's so i can punch them in the face every day and they won't remember"

brisbane!

we are in brisbane!! the flights weren't too bad actually when it was all said and done. customs is pretty crazy...good thing luis left the machete at home this time.

so far brisbane seems like any other large city in the world. the main difference is the sub tropical weather so there are a lot of palm trees and other trees i've never seen before. there is some old architecture (1800's) mixed in with a lot of new. we've done some exploring so far. we stumbled across some really old fig trees that were awesome! the weather is quite warm which i am enjoying immensely! today i think we are going to go to the lone pine koala sanctuary to hold koalas and feed kangaroos. =)

p.s. we did make it on jay leno the other night. my aunt took pics and tagged me on facebook! =)

the blog

luis and i are heading to australia (i'm going for a few weeks and luis....well he's undecided as usual) so we decided to do a blog....why not? we'll post when we can and load pictures and what not. feel free to leave comments and email us. =)

today luis and i leave LA and head off to brisbane. we have about 15 hours of flying with a flight to nadi, fiji, a couple hour layover and then a couple hours over to brisbane. hopefully we don't kill each other on the flight. this is only the start of the trip.

we've spent a few days in LA seeing the sites and trying to get some good sleep before the flight. yesterday we went to venice beach to see the ocean and the street vendors/performers. we rented bikes and rode down to the santa monica pier. some strange guy followed us for a little bit listening to our fascinating conversation then luis went all crazy on him so he left. we watched a guy jump and walk on glass. those are about the highlights so far. we're trying to get on the jay leno show today.

more to come.....