surfin' WA

we made it to margaret river!!!! yesterday, we picked up my car steve, whom we named after our awesome mechanic. the repairs cost almost 800 so it was a bit shocking but it had to be done, and to get a car for 1900 i still feel pretty good about it. 

we packed up, removed those ridiculous stickers from the windows so i could see my blind spots and had one more lunch at the old shanghai food court in fremantle. indian food, of course! then we hit the road to margs 

took about 4 hours and we got there! it is so so lovely here, i think im staying forever! even the roads, they are sort of red and the trees grow so big and bend in so they cover the road. i felt like i was in jurassic park lol 

as soon as we parked, bryanna took me for a little drive to show me some surf beaches and OMG i have never seen anything more gorgeous in my life! i was speechless. just google some pictures and you will go nuts. i took a few with my iphone but it doesn't really give it justice. 

then we went for a drive around the town and i saw a field of kangaroos in the distance! i actually cried i was so excited lol!!! the town is so small and cute and i'm really excited to explore! there are a ton of surf shops and cool health food stores and an awesome library. i'm so stoookeddd!!!

then we went back to sue's (the lady we are staying with, she is so rad) and had some thai veggies and rice YUM! had a little singing time with patch her adorable dog, and a snuggle with tiger her kitty :) hit the hay! 

today we woke up, had some brekkie and went to see a few more beaches, and meet up with a guy who had a board for sale on gumtree (basically like craigslist in aus) he lived a bit out of town near a bunch of vineyards. we pull up to his house and there is this massive bright yellow board. 7 ft, super wide, lots of foam for buoyancy. i'm like dude, this thing is amazing. AND I BOUGHT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i had been wanting to decorate whatever board i ended up buying with some pineapple designs, and this really suits my vision! i named the board "the big pineapple" and i am literally so stoked i jumped up and down when i got him! the back has some ugly paint on it but i'm just going to sand it off and make it wicked somehow. YAAAA so tomorrow we are going surfing for sure. its probably going to be super windy/rainy/cold but we have our wetsuits so who cares!!!! and i got it for $200 so altogether with my wetsuit i paid $300 to start surfing. YESSSS!!!!!

the big pineapple in bry's car

beyond excited! then we went into town, did some groceries for lunch/dinner tonight and i got some wax for tomorrow for my board. when we got home we all rearranged a bunch of stuff in our room so there is more storage etc and it is very cozy and homey now! i love it :) now just doing some laundry and vegging out and stuffing our faces because tomorrow bry and i are both starting a cleanse where we only drink green smoothies. im going for 3 days and she is doing a week. i think this will be a really good start and then i'll get back into gluten free and vegan diet, eventually trying to eat mostly raw. ahhh so excited! 

tomorrow we are going surfing in the morning, then going to the market to buy lots of veggies and then i'll probably work on my resume a lot. going to start looking for jobs next week, after we go on a little daytrip with sue on tuesday :) 

everything is sooooo great! i'm looking forward to surfing, getting back eating healthy, finding a job in the vines and doing lots of gardening! i'm going to go read my book and have a cuddle in my bed with tiger and our electric blanket  WHOOO (its still winter here and its freezing lol) 

miss everyone lots!!! we'll get some good pics surfing tomorrow for sure!

xoxo soph

what are plans anyways?

hey everyone! right now, i am sitting in the most adorable cafe in freo called wild poppy. i just ate a strawberry shortcake cupcake and drank a soy chai latte, there is free wifi, i'm wearing socks with my birks and i am just in a HAPPY PLACE! it's pouring rain today and we wanted to get out of the house to work on our resumes. 

the last few days have been a bit of a rollercoaster in terms of our plans lol. we dropped the cars off to the mechanic on thursday, thinking they would be ready friday and we would hit the road to margaret river, about 4 hours south of perth. well, it's tuesday and the cars are still in the shop oooops! lol we stayed in the hostel until sunday morning, and then bry's friend anthony who we had been hanging out with the last few days and helping us out with the cars, said we could crash at his place. we were going to go out surfing on sunday but the weather was awful so we went board shopping instead. didn't find anything, but his friend who owns a surf shop helped me out with a wetsuit and i got a sick one for 100 bucks so i'm super excited!

bry found a board on gumtree for 50 it was all dinged up and stuff, she bargained it down to 30 and when we went to pick it up, she only had 28 in change so we got it for 28 dollars and walked it all the way back to the hostel at 7pm at night omg what a sight we were! it was hilarious. we've been doing some sanding on it and anthony has been patching up the dings with a fibreglass repair kit, and now it's basically good as new! she wants to spray paint it pink and do some cool designs on it when we get to margs. this board is going to look unreal! we also found a guy on gumtree in margs who is selling a ton of old boards and he said he would help me out to get a 7 or 8 foot mini mal when we get there. i'm SO SO excited to get in the water! there is a massive swell coming in next weekend and the waves are going to be 15-27 feet so it is going to be unreal to watch! 

as of right now, we are homeless staying at anthony's house, waiting for our cars, and there are 3 people wanting rideshares to margs today or tomorrow (most likely tomorrow) so we will get to split on gas with that which is awesome! gas is about 1.43 per litre here so its a bit crazy. it cost me over 90 to fill up my tank! anyways yes, i'm just so happy to be here, loving life. i still have money but definitely need to start working soon haha i'm sort of staying warm (its so dang cold here!) and i'm eating fruits and vegetables mom, don't worry! 

missing you all, thinking about you everyday! <3 lots of love and warm blankets!!! haha
soph xoxox

technical difficulties

so yesterday we had a mission: go bring my car to the mechanic and then go to supre and buy pants and sweaters. we were both going to drive so that once i dropped my car off, we could just hop in bry's and be on our way to the store. did it work out that way? of course not! lol

we drove to the first mechanic and i was feeling pretty good about driving actually! we parked and they said they had no room to look at my car today. on the way out, one guy came out and told bryanna that her car was leaking coolant. wtf, this definitely did not happen yesterday! so we continued on and found a midas.

i did basically the dumbest thing, i went in and was like omg i bought this heap yesterday, i don't know what i'm doing i know nothing about cars please help me. HAHA dumb. but the guys seem ok and said they would take a look, not do anything yet and we wouldn't have to pay so we left our cars there and walked back into town (40 min walk but it was a beautiful day!) then we got back, ate a wicked lunch of indian food and ended up taking the free cat bus to supre, which is this really cheap clothing store and its amazing. i got some pants and a sweater so thats good cause it's cold!

got back to the hostel and had a nap. bry was woken up by her phone, it was midas. they continued on to give us the shit list of what is wrong with our cars. hers is some sort of belt or something, and mine is a ton of holes/leaks in the exhaust and head engine or something that basically the cops would pull me over for and put a yellow sticker on the car aka not road worthy. COOOOOOOOOL. they said i got ripped off on buying the car and it was definitely not worth the 1100 that i paid for it. ooops. well, good thing we negotiated, she was asking 1600! hahaa no. 

so we basically freaked out for a while, i thought about buying a ticket home, etc etc. lol then we decided to go for a drink with bryanna's friend anthony who lives here in freo. he's super nice and we talked about surfing and how awesome australia is lol he said that he would come with us to the mechanic tomorrow (aka today) take a look at the mechanics report and help us out with deciding what to do. this is a huge relief because i literally know nothing about cars, except for what my step dad emailed me back when i told him about the weird noises lol so that made me feel quite a bit better. and worse comes to worse, i sell the car, lose out on a few hundred dollars and learn a lesson about buying used cars off gumtree lol not the end of the world. DRAMA!

anthony also said he would take us surfing this weekend! i'm seriously super scared slash excited but with bryanna and him in the water with me i think it will make me feel a lot better about it. ahhh sharks, stay away! lol

so that's the update with me. just waiting for anthony to come pick us up to head to the mechanics and see what they say :S taking it one step at a time haha so it looks like we will be staying here at this hostel for at least one or two more nights, which is alright. it will all work out and will be a funny story to tell later on down the road :P

i'll keep you guys updated on the situation! :)
looooove
soph xoxo

freewheelin'

omg i own a car. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT. not just any car, a super attractive, white 1994 ford falcon station wagon! you can only lock the car through the trunk and it has some crazy ass window sticker coverings and is covered in red dust from up north, but it is all mine. 

today was the craziest day of my life. first we went to this unreal sushi place and had MASSIVE rolls of sushi, like 4 of them and never wanted to eat again after haha

then we went to go see 3 cars, and we ended up buying two of them LOL! the first one was a dump, like basically falling apart there were a ton of things that sort of didn't work so we were a bit iffy about it, and she wanted way too much for it. so we went to check out the next one which we weren't sure about but it turned out to be really nice! the guy was so chill and bry decided to get that one. on the way, we were waiting for the bus and there was this orange tree with some branches hanging over this high stone wall which bry climbed and pulled down some oranges which we snacked on! omg they were SO good. 

then we met this lady fiona to check out her car she was selling for 1600, a ford falcon. i was really scared to drive so i drove around the parking lot and bry took it out on the road. it makes some weird noise and jerks a bit when you go from a stop light up to 40 or 60, and sometimes when the wheel is all the way to the right or left it squeals a bit, but other than that its fine i think? i really had no idea so im like yeah sure, and bryanna was super good at negotiating so she ended up saying she would sell it for 1100 so i was like whoo let's do it! we signed the papers and i paid her and that was it! the car also has these plastic vinyl stickers over the windows for privacy when you sleep in the back, but wtf you can't see out the windows! so we tried scraping them off but i think it's going to be really hard to get it off haha

then we had to go back to get bry's car (also a station wagon) but i was too nervy to drive by myself back to freo so she drove us back and we were going to park the car and then take the train back to stirling to get her car. we parked just beside the hostel to go in an inquire about where to park. when we came back, a gate was closed and the car was stuck behind! it turns out it was the fire station, so we had to go ring the bell and ask them to move it! hmm though... aussie firefighters? OKAY! lol anyway the guy seemed pretty cool about it so ok phewf. then we went to park the car for good. turn it off, hop out, lock it. the locks don't work. they just go down and then back up. so the lady who sold it to me said that it sometimes does that if there is a seatbelt caught or something. i'm not kidding you, we played around with the locks for 20 minutes and finally, bryanna discovered that it worked when you locked it from the trunk! soooo i basically have to lock and unlock it from the back of the car everytime, which is a pain but not a huge deal! haha so silly. i also had to gas up pretty much the whole tank and it cost 90 dollars. wwwwhaaaaat. gas is about 1.45 per litre here, it's nutty!

this is me and fiona in the woolworths parking lot where i bought the car lol they had just put a new engine in it in april and brand new tyres, so i'm really hoping all the weird sounds aren't something crazy. it also doesn't have ac, but i like driving with the windows down anyways! i'm going to take it to a mechanic tomorrow for an oil change and check up, so fingers crossed everything is ok! it also has like 415,000km on it which now that i think about it is a friggin lot, but for 1100, if i need to put some work into it i dont mind. 

this is basically what mine looks like too except the back windows are whited out and it has roof racks for boards which is siiiick. so, sort of a heap, but it has room for camping in the back and it moves, so its all good! i was basically super overwhelmed today and i really don't know how im awake right now and we have to move the cars by 7am tm so we don't get tickets ahh! 

we went to pick up brys car, the guy was so chill and we drove home, went through a roundabout the wrong way, and got pulled over by the cops because it "looked like she didn't know where she was going" LOL omg i was so scared haha anyways we finally made it back to the hostel, made some food and are now looking for surf shops to go check out boards tomorrow! obvs my priority is making sure the car is a'okay but if i can get a board for pretty cheap, i definitely will!

so that's it! we both have wheels and we are bound for margs this weekend! very happy, just a lot to take in in one day and i was so stressed. def will feel better when a mechanic takes a look at it for sure. 

im sure half this blog doesn't even make sense cause i'm so tired buuuuuuuuuuuut you get the main points lol 

miss everyone lots! talk soon xoxox soph

today rocks!

it's only 1:45pm and i've already had such an amazing day! i woke up around 830 and jogged down to the beach where i sat on these big rocks and just chilled out and looked at the ocean. = my happy place! i was looking at the water and all of a sudden it started shimmering and looked super cool. i thought it was the sun reflecting on the water but it turns out it was this massive school of tiny fish! i've never seen such a huge school, it was at least 50 feet long, it was crazy and the water was pretty shallow, so it was really clear and i could see them swimming around :) 

then i went into the park and did my pushups and stuff (it really sucks not having weights here! can't wait to get to the gym in margs) it was soooo beautiful and sunny, i was sweating. yay for wintertime lol then i did a few sun salutations and stretched and just walked back. there were so many people playing with their dogs on the beach and the dogs were running around and swimming and having such a good time! it was beautiful :)

got back to the hostel and had some breakfast and sat outside in this swing, which i'm in right now and i think it's my new adopted home haha chatted with kelly and kaitlyn on imessage before they went to bed lol then i had a shower which was awesome, cause lets just say it's been a few days pahah *classic backpacker* 

i walked over to my bank to see if my debit card had come in, and it had yay! although there is no money in my account ahhh it should be transfered from my bank in canada by wednesday which is great cause i have about 20 dollars left lol 

now i'm just sitting here in my swing, writing this and about to listen to some new music that jess sent me on dropbox *technology win*  bryanna gets in today so i'm really excited about that! we are going to look for cars, and hopefully by friday or saturday be on our way to margaret river! whoo hooo road trip!!! :D 

anyways, thats it for now. i'm really enjoying this hostel more than the last one, it is a lot quieter and has more space to just hang out. the other one was fun too, i'm just more content to chill out with a book than play beer pong haha and it was definitely a spot for beer pong :P they also have this box in the girls dorm section of things that people left behind/didn't want anymore and i found this awesome blue zinc stick that was brand new so i took it to use. tried some on my hand and it is such a pretty colour! it even stayed on through my shower so it will be good for surfing and swimming :) spf 30 WHOO! 

i'm thinking the rest of my day is going to be pretty great too! i'll write tomorrow :)

loads of love!
soph xoxo

the same, but different

so that last few days, i haven't been doing much of anything noteworthy, so i thought i would just do a post about the things that are similar and different to being home. australia is just enough to feel like i'm somewhere else, but it still feels like home pretty much so i didn't have a massive culture shock as if i'd been dropped off in the middle of bangkok or something haha!

similarities:
the queen
people are really chill and answer my questions
the bills are plastic and coloured
they love nutella here!
pine trees, but they look weird still haha they are called norfolk pines

in terms of differences, there are a lot! i feel like australia has more in common with the uk than with canada. some of the words are so strange!

the accent, obviously
the coins. are so weird. if you saw that picture i posted before of the 50 cent coin vs the 2 dollar coin you'll know what i mean. they are HUGE!
also, the bills are the same colours but reversed. a $5 is purple, and a $10 is blue, and the $20s are red! it makes it kind of confusing 
driving on the other side of the road! this means you have to look right then left, which is so odd for me
they have these weird car/truck hybrids called utes. quite ugly things i think, but lots of people have them.

the weather. it is winter here in WA and although the temperature is between 16 and 21 on most days, i still walk around with a hat on and two layers of fleece! it is so windy, and such a damp cold. i feel like being from canada i'm supposed to be walking around in shorts and thongs (flip flops), but it's not the type of cold i am used to! surely, if you live in NS or NFLD, you would be ok, but it is very different for me!

prices - everything is so expensive here! it was so hard for me to find a sweatshirt because i'm not used to paying 69 for a dang sweater! (on a side note i am also very cheap and at home would buy all of my clothes from value village or giant tiger) so they might be normal prices for some people, but not moi! i'm sure once i start working it will be better!

speaking of working, minimum wage is way more here, i think between 15 and 20 dollars per hour, so that will be nice!

at coles, the eggs are in the baking aisle, not in the refrigerated section! whaaaaat! so crazy

hmm what else..  i just ate dinner and had a glass of western australian merlot and actually really enjoyed it (normally i don't like red wine at all!) and i'm just pooped and brain fried right now. haha also, today someone ASKED ME FOR DIRECTIONS! and i told them how to get there!!! haha so cool, i felt like i was from here lol

despite all of the differences and similarities, i'm really loving australia so far. i can definitely see why people don't want to go home after their visas are up! tonight is my last night couchsurfing, i have had a really good experience with it, which i'm very thankful for! 

tomorrow, i check in to old firestation backpackers, have one night there and then bryanna gets in! so excited to see her! we spend 3 nights there, and look for cars and then hopefully after that, we'll be on our way to margs. then its job time! and surfing timeeeee :D 

i'm going to go read and finish re-packing my bag and then go to bed! missing everyone <3

bye bye hostel

today feels like it was 5 days in one. i was so busy today it was crazy! i woke up and had two bowls of cereal for breakfast, packed an apple and checked out of the hostel. luckily, they had a locked area where i could leave my bags until 6pm, when i was due to walk over to my couchsurfing host's house. that was so so helpful! sundancers is a great hostel, i enjoyed my stay there and met some very nice people :) i think if i were big into partying it would have been more my style, but it was still awesome and i can see why people live there long term!

i was walking around and realized that it was friday aka the markets were on! so i made my way over there and holyyyy what an awesome place! it reminded me of st lawrence market in TO but more spread out i'd say. the smells of all that yummy food cooking was so hard for me to walk away from lmao! there were so many wicked cool stalls with clothes, shoes, knick knacks and anything you could imagine! fresh squeezed juices, handmade candles, fruits and veg, crystals, jewellery, hair wraps, you name it, you could probably find it there. (including pink sparkly cell phone covers mckenzie!) 

the colours of everything were so awesome and just great energy all around! i bought a few things, some new patches for my backpack and a fremantle beanie! i love it, it's like my version of nick's women's confidence trenchcoat on new girl. i feel so legit wearing it and i never want to take it off! 

ps look how weird the aussie money is! the 50 cent coins are seriously massive its so insane!

then walked around a bit more and saw a koala bear! it was from a petting zoo, and you had to pay money to pat him which reeeeeally sucks because i wanted to cuddle it but im so cheap lol what a little cutie. 

then i headed back down to the harbourfront, deciding to go further to find the maritime museum. i walked by bathers beach and into this cool art house gallery thingie, which had some very interesting art with super high price tags. there was also this installation thing where you had to lay down and look up at projections, but i didn't see it because there were people on the benches already and i didn't want to wait around. 

so i headed onwards to victoria quay. and guess what i stumbled upon? MORE MARKETS! haha it was so funny. so i walked through those and it turns out i had already passed the museum. on my way back i stopped in at a dive shop to inquire about padi courses. we chatted about spearfishing as well, which bryanna wants to try when we are in margs, and it seems like an interesting hobby that lost of australian people do on their spare time. they go out on their boats and then do the spearfishing, and then spend the rest of the afternoon cooking up their catch, chowing down and having a few beers. all in all, sounds pretty sweet to me! 

on the way back, i see this huge submarine which made me think of my dad! these photos are for you dad :)

i head over to the museum, but the admission was 10 dollars, and being the cheapo that i am, i decide to pass on it for now. i head back to bathers beach and sit down for a bit and eat my apple. then i head back to town and see what else i can find. on the way in, i see these two tiny bunnies just chilling in the park. i couldn't even believe it! they were so super cute! i tried to get close to them but they just ran away lol so i kept on movin. at this point, ramen noodles weren't sounding too appealing to me, so i went to this takeout place called ali babas and had a falafel and chips. it was seriously good. then i stumbled into the cutest little hippie shop with all these amazing pairs of harem pants aka sophie onesies (they even had ones that were made from a heavier material that would be so so warm! i was tempted). i ended up talking with the shopkeeper for a while. she was watching her adorable little baby girl who had a bindi on her forehead. omg i wanted to scoop her up she was so cute!

this lady had two girls and two boys and they were all going to tasmania in november to rent a campervan for a while and drive around, and then settle in a house in hobart. she was such a nice person to talk to. we talked about my love for vw vans and how she used to  have a 1977 white vw kombi. i showed her the patch i got for my backpack and she loved it! across the way from that store was this store for kids that was all these amazing beautiful fairy and mermaid tutu dress costumes, and little flower crowns, and roses and sparkles and just every beautiful thing you could imagine! they do kids birthday parties and had some pictures of all these little girls dressed up in the outfits. omg i really wanted to wear some of those dresses haha they were awesome! 

i continued on, and i stumbled into a vintage store. there are so many in freo its crazy! i was looking for another sweater (a jumper its called here) because i was literally SO freezing cold. i didn't quite find anything i wanted (or that was in my price range) so i went next door to salvation army where everything was 50% off. i found a knit sweater but it looked better on the hanger than on me, so i left it. then i walked over to coles (grocery store) because i wanted to try custard. it looks like pudding but i dont even know what it is, it just looks good. but they don't sell it in individual sizes, so i guess i'd settle for ANOTHER BAG OF TIM TAMS! luckily, they make snack size bags which have 5 cookies in them, so i got that. i got honeycomb flavour. i don't know what the heck that is, but a lot of things here are honeycomb flavour. and for good reason, because it is delicious! so i head back to the hostel with my new treat and hit up gumtree looking for jobs/surfboards etc etc. just to kill time until it was time to walk to my host's house. 

around 6 i pack up all of my bags and hit the road. the walk was supposed to take about 25 minutes, but i took more like 35 because i got a teensy bit lost, and my bag was so heavy. like this was the worst walk of my life. i felt like i was going to throw up thats how much my back and shoulders were hurting. so bad. i ended up walking past the side street i was supposed to turn down. then it started to rain. COOL. eventually i made it, and met john. he is a very nice guy who lives in a cute house with a lemon tree. we went over the formalities, had a cuppa tea, and he went on his way to a concert he is going to tonight. by this time, i was/am so knackered that i just went upstairs and set up my bed. since that time, i've been writing this, talked on the phone with my mama and now i might read a bit and go to bed. i did so much today and am so pooped from carrying that darn bag, who knows what time i will sleep until tomorrow! 

don't know what i'll do tomorrow, maybe go see the markets again, or actually visit the maritime museum. either way, i'm going to bundle up for sure! 

that was my day today! missing everyone lots and thinking of you 

XOXO soph

PS jess they have an elizabeth's second hand bookstore here too!

storm chaser

today was my second full day in australia, and i just wanted to say that tim tams are a gift from the heavens. i already knew how delicious they were because i'm pretty sure i ate one once before, but holy jeeze. i am bringing a backpack full of them home with me, it's already been decided. and there are so many flavours i have to try them all! i just got original to start with haha

 

today i woke up around 9 or 930 i believe. everyone in my room was sleeping, so i felt sort of bad rooting around in my bag to get stuff, but i wasn't going to sleep in too long and waste my day! yesterday i had decided that i wanted to try and find a gym that did three day passes, goodlife style, so i could work out! gaaah been missing it a lot! so i went downstairs and had some cereal and did some investigating. 

i found one, on recommendation of a guy i met from the uk called jett fitness, and i checked out the website and they do three day passes yesss! i also could get there on the free Blue CAT bus (which is actually orange what the heck). i know, i know, a bus called CAT and the logo is a cat. this place is made for me!

so i grab all my gym and shower stuff and make my way to the bus stop. sweet, i get off at my stop and promptly forget where i have to walk, so i just make it up as i go. lo and behold i find that i'm on the right road! now i just have to figure out how to cross a roundabout... cool. looked left then right, AHH almost get hit by a car. oops you have to look right then left here, i forgot lol

ok, made it to the gym, pull the door open. doesn't open. a girl comes up beside me and beeps open the door with her access card. so basically, this gym is like snap fitness at home where there are only staff around for a few hours per day, and i had missed them my half an hour! ugggghhhh so mad. so i begin the 2.9km walk home. at this point, there are black clouds around the city, but i'll be darned if i went all this way and didn't get any excercise, so i take off my fleece jacket, put on my windbreaker and cover up my little backpack with the huge raincover that i randomly brought. and i start joggin'. 

sooner than later, i have to stop because not only do i suck at jogging as you all know, but i'm also carrying a 15 or 20lb bag on my back. this sucks! the wind is blowing seriously so hard, and the ocean (i'm right beside south beach) is looking really stormy. it's quite awesome actually! so i make my way over to the path beside the beach and continue my jog.
earlier in the day, the english guy who i had met and i were discussing the various things in australia that could kill you. apparently, his roommate had found a silvery sort of transparent spider in his bed, yes, his bed, the week earlier. SWEET. so now i had creepy crawlies on my mind, and im running on this path beside all of these wicked cool trees and vegetation, but i'm just picturing scary snakes and stuff jumping out at me... so that was freaky! i continue on until i get to the harbourfront. 

i really felt like i was in halifax. all the ships were there, the same smell, and boy was it windy! i was pretty hungry by that time, and honestly, a bowl of cereal was not going to cut it. i really wanted fish and chips. so, being the worst vegetarian everrrrrrr, i caved. i mean, how many times are you going to be in australia eating fish that was caught like 1 hour ago? YOLO. i sent my thanks to mother nature and the beautiful fish i was about to eat for giving me energy and life, and then i dug in. sorry guys, i had to. and omg it was good. like maybe even better than the fish and chips i've had in nova scotia (sorry homeland). i was so full, but i made sure i ate every single fry because that shizz cost me 18 dollars. and i didn't end up having dinner, thats how full i was! 

best garbage can EVER

i wrapped myself back up in all of my layers and was about to trudge home, and i spotted the western australian museum shipwreck galleries. y'all know i cant resist a museum!!! so of course, i head inside. 

this place was seriously SWEET. they had so many artifacts, including a working engine from a ship that had been underwater for over 100 years, called the Xantho. they were working on restoring it, and have been working at it for 20 years, but they were able to restore it, and it even runs! they also had so much cool stuff from ships from the dutch west india trading company who had shipwrecked in western australia in the 1600s! like bits of porcelain, pipes, whole plates, jugs, coins, even some textiles. also, there was a section of the hull of this ship called the Batavia, which was sailing to Indonesia with supplies in the 1600s and was wrecked off the coast of WA. i didn't quite get the whole entire story, but somehow, a lot of the people who survived the wreck ended up being murdered, i'm pretty sure by the captain or something! it was crazy. they had a full skeleton that they found, of one of the very first europeans to land in WA. man, the size of this thing was amazing! it was in it's own separate room, and they had a video playing of the process of salvaging all of the things they found. i must have watched it for 45 minutes and it was still going, but i had to move on because there was so much more to see! in another exhibit, they had some of the native animals that were stuffed to demonstrate what the dutch people would have seen when they landed, including a cutie lil quokka!

that one's for you dad!

part of the recovered hull of the Batavia

some artifacts from a ship from the 1600s

pile of coins and burnt wood

ship's bell. HAHA (billy, nat, chris)

QUOKKA!

all in all, i basically stayed at that museum for at least 3 hours it must have been. i was so happy, i love that kind of stuff! the whole time i was there, i heard the wind and rain howling outside and i wasn't too keen on heading out into that. but i had to get back! so i put on my extra sweater, and tied my hood tight around my head, i obviously looked super cool. it actually wasn't that cold and only rained for a few minutes. the walk back was very quick! by the time i got home, i was so tired i just wanted to sleep, but i didnt because i dont want to mess up my sleeping schedule. i had a shower, because i was pretty sweaty from jogging and wearing all those layers. then i read a lot of my game of thrones book. i attempted to repack my bag, don't know how i'm going to do it without mum! haha tonight is my last night at the hostel, and tomorrow i begin my couchsurfing adventure! check out time is 10am, but i'm not leaving for my host's house until about 6 or 615. luckily they have a room where i can leave my bags locked up until it's time to go. the markets start tomorrow, but i think i'm going to save that and go on saturday. tomorrow i will probably just walk around on the other side of town that i haven't visited yet, maybe go check out the prison tour, who knows? :) also, today i walked past a salvation army, so that made me super stoked for when i have money and can buy clothes! all i need is a value village too and i'd be set haha

so that was my day. i'm pretty boring by hostel standards, but i'm just doin what i do, and i am having a great time! so that was today! and as i time travel forward into friday, while it's still thursday for you guys, just know that i'm thinking about all of you and miss you guys so much! everyone come visit!!! maybe wait until summertime though, it's cold now haha <3

lots of LOVE
soph

first full day in aus!

wednesday i got everything all sorted out. i didn't set my alarm and i didn't need to because i woke up at 1am, 5am, 7am and finally 930am. i ended up going to bed at 745 the night before, so i basically got 14 hours sleep! obviously i needed it!

i decided to set up my bank account and cell phone today. i headed over to commonwealth bank, and a super nice gal helped me get my accounts figured out. then i went to telstra, picked up a mobile SIM card from the convenience store right next door. it's pretty weird how the pay as you go plans work here. i got a $30 card which gives you $250 in credit to use for phone calls and texts. and 400 mb of data which really isnt a lot at all! i've been trying to use the wifi i found in this park and i pretty much sat there for a long time today figuring stuff out on the phone and posting my blog from yesterday! 

i went back to the hostel to have some lunch (ramen noodles lol) and to charge my phone and laptop. i got some reading in, and then this guy came over and started talking to me. he was from morocco, and then his friend from france came over and my two italian friends joined as well. it was super interesting, they were talking about the different political situations and stuff and how it was in their countries. i felt sort of dumb because i am so out of the loop with all that stuff! 

then i decided to walk to the beach. it is about a half an hour walk but i wanted to go anyway! the walk was really nice, it was cool to see all of the different styles of houses, they all looked so different! i'm pretty sure it was the rich area of town, and there were a lot of yacht clubs and things along the way. the trees and plants are all really cool too. two houses i passed along the way had lemon trees! and one had a little orange tree :) so cute! 

the beach was lovely! white sand, seaweed on the shore, it looked and smelled pretty much like nova scotia haha and the water was cold enough to be nova scotia almost! definitely not swimming time for me. the weather was very cold and cloudy today, but it actually got warmer in the evening and the sun came out. this made my walk home very enjoyable! i got pretty warm so i took off my sweatshirt and just had a tshirt and scarf. the looks people were giving me were so funny! here they were in puffy down jackets looking at this girl walking around in a tie dyed tshirt LOL! it must have been 16 or 17 degrees out in the sun and they were all bundled up.

at this point, all i had eaten was a cliff bar and a cup a soup, so i was really starting to get hungry. all i wanted was pizza... i couldnt find it anywhere! it seems like there are a ton of sit down type restaurants here, but no fast food. all i wanted was pizza pizza lmao! i ended up getting subway nooooo!!! here i am halfway around the world, and i end up getting something i could have eaten at home?! ugh. i went with my classic veggie (although they had no pickles, which was a cryin' shame!) so i scarfed that down and headed back to my hostel. i met up with julia and chiara, who were about to head to the grocery store to get something for dinner. i went with them and shopped at coles for the first time (last time i went to woolworth's) i'm super happy i went, because julia ended up finding hello kitty pasta! i got really excited and explained to her my love of hello kitty and all of my hk things i have at home :) i also bought some pasta sauce and some tim tams! can't believe i have been in australia for a whole day and hadn't bought them yet! 

then we sat outside with a bunch of people in the back patio area just chatting, most people were smoking and drinking, which is the standard (it is a hostel here! haha) everyone was really confused when i told them i don't drink much. i got the whole "you're canadian though, you guys love drinking!" too funny. met some cool guys from the uk, and julia and chiara met some more italians, so they were chatting it up. what a beautiful language. i told julia to say something really mean to me, or to swear at me, and even that sounded so lovely! lol
then i went back in the hostel to check out some wall postings of cars for sale. i found one good one, but its from june so i doubt it's still there. i might text them tomorrow to double check. then i was looking on gumtree and found a few options. i sent some links to my mum to show wayne, so hopefully he will be able to point me in the right direction :) 

now im just sitting on my bed writing this, and was talking to another girl who lives in this room. she's from belgium and has been living in this hostel for one year! this whole lifestyle is just so new to me, it is crazy and overwhelming and intriguing! i've been here for one day and i've already met people from italy, morocco, france, the uk and belgium! that would never happen at home! i feel like i've learned so much already :) she was saying that this place is like a trap, once you stay here you never want to leave and a lot of people don't! there are a lot of long term residents here it seems, so everyone knows everyone which is cool. i think it would definitely take me a while to get used to this lifestyle, especially because i don't party a lot so i feel like i don't fit in as well as most people. it's still very neat, but i am looking forward to having a room to myself and putting my clothes into drawers in margaret river :) 

as for right now, i think i'm going to get ready for bed, eat some tim tams and read a bit, like the nonna i am haha (i practised some italian today!) 
xoxo soph

that time you travelled and everything went right...

you know how you read travel blog posts of horrible flights, difficult customs officers, delays and lost baggage? well, you will be reading none of that today. my 30+ hour trip halfway around the world went off without any major glitches. also, my jet lag isn't so bad as i write this (knock on wood) at 6:45pm australian time, which is 6:45am in my head. 

this adventure starts off at the ottawa airport. the guy at the check in put my bag in a big plastic bag, added the bag tags and then it was time to say goodbye to my mum and wayne. obviously it was going to be hard. i definitely balled pretty much from the time i woke up that morning, almost to the time i boarded my flight. but then it hit me that i was going to australia and i was stoked! flight to toronto was simple. tried to skype with ness and victoria when i got there, as i had a 2.5 hour layover, but it was all  blurry. iMessaged with a lot of people nonetheless, so that was great! i bought a yummy kale salad and had a cliff bar while i waited to fly to lax.

that flight sort of sucked because all i ate for 5 hours was a bag of pretzels lol as we were getting ready to land, all you could see was this city, it just went on and on and on! i'm 99% sure i saw the hollywood sign in the far distance, but i couldn't be positive. this airport was seriously massive. i walked over to to the international terminal. there were palm trees! i walked right through an animal rights protest that was in front of the entrance doors to the check in area of south china airlines. it was protesting testing on primates in china. i pretty much wanted to join in, but i didn't want to be late! it was super weird because you could just sense the american-ness. i don't know if that sounds rude, i'm really not trying to be. basically what i mean is that you really realize those stereotypes of canadians are true when you go to america! 

i went through the security, bought a 14 dollar sandwich and went to hang out at my gate and use the wifi. my stupid soap container leaked in my carry on, so i spent a good 20 minutes cleaning that sucker out! haha then it was time to board the flight to melbourne. uggggh 16 hours. by this time it was 1130 so it was dark which was nice. this is when i started hearing people with australian accents! not going to lie, i love it :) i plopped down in my seat right near the massive wing (the captain said you can park 70 cars on each one!) there was an empty seat beside me, and then another girl. we ended up talking a bit, she was super nice! she lived in canada a bit before on a working visa, so it was neat that she knew some stuff i was talking about. the seat in between us stayed empty which was nice to have that extra space. that plane was seriously huge. i was in row 70 of 88! 3 on one side, 4 in the middle, and 3 on the other side. whoa. pretty soon after we took off, they served dinner. they remembered my veggie meal which was nice! pasta with sauce, a small salad and a roll. after i finished, i put my eye mask on, snuggled in a blanket and went to sleep! i woke up about 6 or 7 hours later and watched some episodes of new girl! lots more sleeping, some brekkie and then we got there! not going to lie, i only stood up and walked around once haha so lazy. i did a lot of those sitting exercises though so it was fine. went through customs there, they brought around a cute black lab drug dog haha then i went to double check that since i already had my boarding pass i would be good to go, and the lady said there was an earlier flight and did i want to switch? yes please! that cut my layover down from 4 hours to 1. i just had to recheck my bag. thank god for that plastic bag or i'm pretty sure my bag would have been toast! it was ripped to shreds. ah well, thanks air canada! 

this flight from melbourne to perth was 4 hours, but i think it was actually the hardest one. by that point i just wanted to get there, knowing that i was already in australia, but not really "in" it ya know? haha. so, this is where qantas kicks air canadas ASS. 4 hour domestic flight = full meal, 2 rounds of drinks and a snack before landing. take that sucky air canada 5 hour flight across the US. ihatechu. so yes, if anyone ever has the chance to fly qantas, do it! they didn't get my veg meal here, but obviously that's because i switched flights. i reached perth, grabbed my backpack and headed to the freo shuttle which would take me right to the front door of my hostel.

i find the shuttle stop, and ask the guy directing traffic for info. apparently, the freo shuttle didn't operate anymore. they need to change that on the website! lol basically, what i did was take the perth shuttle to the train station ($15) and then take the train ($4.20) which was basically like an aboveground subway. i saw the ocean! but sadly, no kangaroos. that will be my mission for tomorrow. i found the hostel easily enough from the freo train station. it was a nice walk, and i can already tell that i enjoy this town. there were palm trees too! it was a breezy 15 degree winters day, sun shining and crows cawing as i walked towards my hostel. i head in and look for the reception counter... "it's behind the bar!" one guy yells towards me. hmm... okay... so i head back to the bar counter and check in. i pay 81 dollars for 3 nights and a 10 key deposit. i head up the stairs to my room. the door is open, with the key in the lock... 

i walk in and there are 3 bunk beds. stuff is EVERYWHERE. like people have been living here for weeks. and i'm sure that's the story actually. of course im on the top bunk, so i throw all of my bags up there and clamber up the railings to have a seat. it is everything you imagine a typical hostel to be. dirty, loud and not seeming too organized. i'm not super stoked on the situation, generally overwhelmed, very very tired, and feeling pretty alone. not long after, two of my new roomies show up. i meet cara and julia from italy. they have been here for one week and are trying to get better at english. we chat and decide to go grab some food. this hostel has a communal kitchen, and as i have no food yet, the girls offer to share their toast and nutella with me. this is starting to feel better. i need to buy food though! so i head out..

i find a woolworths grocery store and stock up on things that dont need to be refrigerated. i bought a few cans of beans, some apples, some soups and a box of cereal. i spent about 20 which isn't too bad. i have a feeling i'm going to get skinny here because i'll only be eating like twice a day haha i walk back from the grocery store, stopping in at rip curl and a few surf stores along the way and chatting with some people. i get back and spot a guy giving another guy a tattoo in the common area. casual. college rez flashback, eh guys? haha! then i am ready to shower (can't go to bed yet, it's only 530pm!) surprisingly, the showers are clean and have nice warm water :) of course, as soon as i start to unpack my things to find my pajamas, i can't fit it all back in. my mum is a packing wizard. so now i have 3 full bags and no space to put them. i'm really really ready to go to sleep, but im going to try to push it until 9pm. luckily i have my GoT books to finish, so i'll do that as i am serenaded by beyonce at eardrum shattering levels, and the sounds of drinking games being played in multiple languages in the bar below. tonight's sleep will be brought to you by melatonin pills and earplugs. even as i write this, new girls come in and see if the two empty beds are taken. and with that, i don't feel so new anymore.

tomorrow, i'm not going to set any alarms, partly because i don't know how to use my watch, and partly because i want to see what time i wake up naturally. i may go for a run, but i'm definitely going to check out the beach, and see about setting up a bank account and getting a SIM card for my phone :) 

life's good so far down unda! now just waiting for bryanna to come join me... 6 days! i feel like when i have a good night's sleep under my belt, i'll be able to embrace the hostel experience with a new outlook, it was just a lot to take in after travelling for 30 hours! i've already met some lovely people and i'm sure there are plenty more for me to meet in my next two days here! after that... it's time to couchsurf! 

miss everyone a ton! love you lots and once i get adjusted to the time change, we can set up skype times with everyone :) 
peace love and KANGAROOS!
soph