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!