Australia

The next day, we decided we would head out to St. Kilda which is where we had decided we were going to try to get accommodation, and stash the car in the meantime. After spending a few hours in the Internet Café looking for accommodation, we looked at some notice boards and made a few phone calls. We got an Austrian guy named Frank who had a few different places in St. Kilda and had a couple of rooms he could show us.

He picked us up and brought us to two different places. One was an apartment, sharing the room with 3 other people. We didn’t much like the thought of that as it would be like living in a hostel still. The next place he showed us was a house with two bedrooms. There was already two Irish guys living in there called Jimmy and Joel. They had only moved in that day though. The other room held 3 people but it was only going to be us two in it in the meantime. There was an English girl that Frank had picked up and brought around to see the places with us so in fear that she might want to take it, we paid a deposit straight away and said we would move in the next day.

Jason had gotten himself an interview for the next day so I took the bags and went out to St. Kilda in the car by myself. When I got to the house there was nobody there so I just went in and very happily unpacked our rucksacks and hung up all of our clothes. It was great to be able to do that having been living out of a bag for so long. Later that day while talking to Jimmy & Joel, I had an interview arranged for a call centre job where they had interviews the next day. We both got hired through our first interview. Things were looking pretty good, we had jobs and accommodation in the space of a couple of days in Melbourne so we were chuffed.

The house was pretty cool. It was just four Irish guys living there and we were all getting on grand so everything was fine. There was another guy, Paul who was friends with Jimmy & Joel and he worked all week in a place called Sheperton so he was only home at the weekends. When he was home, he stayed in a small makeshift bedroom in the back of the house. He was only 20 and when we first met him, I guess I would have to describe him as mad. He was working hard on a building site all week and when he came home, all he wanted to do was drink. So he would go straight out and get a case of beer and come home and start on it. He always tried to force everyone to join in of course, which most of the time, wasn’t that hard.

After about another 6 hours driving, we arrived in Melbourne. It was pretty difficult getting around the city, with toll roads and lots of one way parts. Parking was a nightmare too. But we managed to navigate it in the end. We were staying in a place called Greenhouse Backpackers. We decided to stay there as it will was built on top of a Police station so I figured security would be pretty good.

The room was pretty good and we had full size lockers inside for our bags. There was a bar downstairs in the hostel and there was decent enough drinks offers. We met a bunch of Scottish lads in there that night and afterwards we went to PJ O’Brien’s (Yes, there is one in every city in Australia) and stayed there till the early hours.

So the drive to Melbourne was going to be about 12 hours or so and we had decided we would stop off in Canberra for a night to break up the trip. I got away with only doing about two thirds of the driving as Roisin did a bit of a stint on it. She wasn’t fond of driving in the cities though so I had to look after that part. But I managed to get a bit of sleep in between that so it was much better.

We arrived in Canberra and didn’t have any accommodation, thinking it would be easy enough to pick something up for a night. Alas, Canberra was all booked out for that night. After a lot of driving around and a good few phone calls, we managed to get a night in a hostel. After a little bit of effort to get somewhere to park the car, we ventured around Canberra to see what it had to offer. As you will probably have heard from other people, there wasn’t a lot. We did manage to find a nice Irish Bar so we went in there for a few pints and a few games of cards. We didn’t do much else that night and we were up early again the next morning and back on the road.

The next day, myself and Jay headed out to Coogee cos that’s where Graham and the other lads were living. When we got there, parking was just as difficult as parking in the city as everywhere was metered and only 2 hour parking. We found the lads place easy enough but of course, there was no answer at the door and the security gate was locked. We heard some lads upstairs making noise so we shouted up to them. Of course they were Irish so they buzzed us in the gate and told us which flat the lads were living in.

So we went inside the building and hammered on their door. Graham was the only one home and he stumbled out of bed hung-over and let us in. He was surprised to see us of course but said we could crash there for the next two nights no problem. They had a sofa bed in their sitting room so it was handy enough.

We managed to watch the golf that day in a place called the Palace which was a really nice sports bar. We headed back to the lads place later that night and we went upstairs to another apartment where Irish girls were living that the lads hung around with. We had a great laugh in there and even made some prank phone calls to Ireland funnily enough.. Then we all went down to the Coogee Bay Hotel (CBH). There were three sections to this place, a sports bar, music bar, and a beer garden. It was pretty cool and we got to see the live premiership matches in there.

We were all pretty hung over on the Sunday so we just stayed in and watched Finding Nemo on tv. The only thing about Aussie TV though is there are far too many ad breaks during movies. Jay went out to try to catch the end of the golf but it wasn’t being shown that day. Europe ran away with it of course so we knew they were gonna win anyway.

Monday came and we went back into town to pick up Roisin. We had a nice long drive to Melbourne coming up.

So after leaving Byron, we continued on our journey to Sydney. We were rushing to get there as the Ryder cup was on and we needed a 24 hour venue so that we could see the games. We must have picked up about 20 speeding tickets on the way down between myself and Roisin driving. We arrived in Sydney without accommodation. We didn’t really think it would be difficult to get some but we had to try a few places before we got somewhere to stay. We stayed in Base backpackers. It was a pretty decent hostel, and the most appreciated thing again was the fact that they had lockers for our bags so we didn’t have to worry about leaving our stuff in the room.

We headed out that night and went to Scruffy Murphy’s. It was a 24 hour Irish Bar but they had a live band on there so it wasn’t the best place to watch the golf. We went across the road to Cheers which was also open till 6am and we watched the golf in there. I was pretty wrecked so I didn’t stay till the end. Jay and Roisin watched the whole lot until 6am.

Well Byron Bay wasn't too far for us to go and so I dont have any long winded stories or nothing adventurous to report about that trip. We got there and checked into one of the hostels from Lonely Planet's advice. We were in a room with 6 other people so it was a fairly crowded dorm. We were only going to be there for two nights so it wasn't too bad.

We had a look around and the place was seriously laid back. Fast food restaurants were not allowed so the only easy place to eat was Subway who must have met the criteria as their food was always fresh.

There was a lot of strange hippy looking people all around us, and in one of the fields there, there was a huge group of them standing in a circle holding hands singing some strange hippy songs. It was a little too weird for us I have to say. After they were finished doing that, they all went and had a meal together in the church grounds.

The beach there was nice but we weren't really in a beach mood so we didnt spend much time on it there. There was only one bar we could find and it was called Tin Billy's. It was aimed at Backpackers and had all sorts of cheap drinks specials. We had a fairly quiet night in there the first night but of course ran into a few people we had met previously on our travels.

Roisin (from our room in Cairns) managed to get a hold of us there and as we were heading to Sydney to watch the Ryder Cup and she was a huge golf fan, she managed to hitch a ride from us.

Our last night in Byron was pretty good, Roisin and her friend came out with us and we all got fairly drunk but we still had an early enough night as we were heading off in the morning.

I had never been to a Theme Park other than Alton Towers which was about 15 years ago so I was pretty excited about going..I had a sore back still though so I was a bit concerned about that but not enough to miss out on the chance.

We got in and there was pretty big queues in there but J tells me they were nothing compared to the likes of Disney World and big parks like that. There were 3 main rides here that we wanted to go on. Superman, Lethal Weapon, and Scooby Doo.

We had a look around first and went on a Batman ride which was ok, it was a nice intro to what was coming. We went on other small rides like Looney Tunes, and saw various shows on the street there.

The Police Academy show was pretty impressive, went on for about a half hour and it was full of mad stunts and stunt driving. The weather that day was amazing and so we were getting baked while we watched the show.

It was time to do one of the big ones so we queued up for Lethal Weapon. We were in the queue for about 40 mins and then it was time. We managed to get lucky and get the front two seats on the ride which were gonna be the scariest because it meant we could see everything that was coming. The ride took off really fast and the first part was a huge drop followed by an upside down roll. It was crazy being at the front and it felt like we were going to hit the bars at the sides. It was a really fast ride and there was about 3 upside down rolls which were brilliant but it was all over too soon and we got off, a little shaky I have to say.

Then we went into the Shrek 4d show which was great. It was a big Theatre and we were all given the glasses to wear and when the movie was on, we were sprayed with water, and the chairs bounced about, the whole time the picture stood out from the screen like you could touch it right in front of your face. It was absolutley brilliant.

When we first queued up for the Superman ride, the ride broke down and we had to leave and go off somewhere else so we got on the Scooby Doo Ghost Ride next. It looked like a normal run of the mill ghost train ride and for the first while, thats exactly what it was. But then the cart entered an elevator and brought us up a couple of levels. We were sent out of the lift backwards and from then on, it was brilliant. it was really dark and we were now on a roller coaster being sent flying round tight bends backwards unable to see what was coming next. It was completely unexpected and thats what made it so much fun.

Finally after another hour queuing, we got to go on the Superman ride. It was set up as if it was a really fast commuter train and there was safety videos playing repeatedly while we queued. Slightly annoying to say the least but eventually we were in the queue. We were one row from the front this time and so it was pretty good position again. We Got sent up to a point where the cart stopped. Then there was an explosion and we got sent flying out at about 4g's up a slope and back down the other side just as fast. It was unbelievable, there was a couple of loops in the ride too where we were completely flipped, and we were going faster than I had ever gone on any ride. It came to a stop and when I got off, my legs were like jelly. This lasted quite a while but that was the last thing we were doing in the park so we headed for the car and onto Byron Bay.

Have to say, the park was brilliant and I would recommend it to anyone. If you manage to be passing by that is... ;o)

We arrived in Surfers Paradise on a Monday. Not the best day to arrive there as it really only kicks off on the weekends. Surfers was a strange kind of place as it was more like a holiday resort in Spain, with some high rise blocks thrown in around the beach and a lot of neon lights in the town etc.

We bumped into Laura again here (Scottish girl who we met at every stop) but we didnt really havea night out. We went for a couple of beers for the two nights we were there and even hit a club on the second night but we were taking it pretty easy at that stage.

The hostel we stayed in was a little strange, it was like a motel but the beds werent to bad and there was tv's in the room too so it was nice enough.

We were only there for two nights and then it was time to move on. We were going to Byron Bay next but there was a Theme Park to visit first, WB Movie World was only down the road from us.

So, as part of our drunken last night in Hervey Bay, we had been doing some crazy drinking songs along with the embarrassing dance moves to go with them and it seems, I had overworked my back. I woke up the next morning feeling ok but it was when we were loading the car that it struck. I was leaning over putting stuff in the boot and my back popped, and I realised I couldn't get up again.

I had to rest on the edge of the boot for about 15 mins before stumbling back into bed, while screaming in agony. My back was really bad and I couldn't move my arms or legs without clenching in pain. So I lay in bed for a while and hoped it would get better. i realised it wasn't going to be that simple and it was gonna last at least a few days so I decided I wasn't going to spnd any more time in Hervey Bay because it had been hell for me cusing numerous amounts of bad luck so I took some Neurofen and climbed painfully into the drivers seat. We said goodbye to the guys we were on Fraser with and we headed off in the car.

So, bad back and all, we headed for Brisbane next. It was a seriously uncomfortable drive for me. I had to sit certin ways and couldn't move my arms properly so steering was a bit of a problem. I nearly fell asleep on this trip too so I had to pull over for a bit. Jason was already asleep so I pulled in at a truck stop and just went asleep for an hour.

When I woke up, my back was all stiff so I had to pull myself back up to the steering wheel, take some pills and start again. It was dark by the time we reached Brisbane so we used the Lonely planet to find a hostel close to the city centre. This was the first real city we had been to and so it was great to see the tall buildings and bright lights again.

The city was all one way so we had to do a couple of loops to get ourselves into the hostel but it was fun at the same time. There was a big bridge right beside the hostel which had an amazing view of Brisbane while we were crossing it at night.

The hostel was XBase and we booked in for 7 nights. Brisbane was a big change from everywhere we had been so far. It was a proper city and for the first time we were surrounded by shops and pubs and clubs, along with the high rise buildings.

We spent the first couple of nights in the hostel as I couldn't move much with the pain I had in my back. It was the morning time that was the worst but after about 3 days, it was a lot better and so I was able to go out and have some fun.

As nice as it was to be in Brisbane, it wasn't the most eventful part of our trip. We met up with some girls there that we had met in various stops along the trip so we went out with them for the first couple of nights. Then a few of the people from Fraser got to Brisbane and we went out with them a good few nights again. We were mostly chilling out in Brisbane, and enjoying being back in civilisation. We stayed a total of ten nights in Brisbane. There was a great Backpackers Bar called Down Under which we spent a lot of our nights in. Again, it had pool tables and cheap jugs of beer so we were very comfortable there. There was also an Irish bar that we went to and we had a nice spot there for the English football matches.

We went out to see the All-Ireland final while we were in Brisbane and Setanta were charging $25 per person to watch the match. We weren't too bothered though because there was United Vs Arsenal and Chelsea Vs Liverpool on the same night. None of the results went the way we wanted that night though.

The hostel was very nice too but was pretty expensive in comparison to some of the others. We had no bunks in the room, just four single beds spread out very nicely with our own bathroom with seperate toilet too.

It was finally time to move on and our next stop was Surfers Paradise, so we set off early on the 11th morning.