01/28/2012: Hobart, Tasmania

Made it to Tasmania! It's a little like Santa Barbara but definitely not as cool. There's a downtown waterfront harbor area that's kinda cool and the food is way cheaper. We're staying in a hostel a few streets up from the water on a main street. The hostel is a little less than glamorous but its ok because were only there for two nights.

Today we went to the Salamanca street markets, which is the biggest open air market in Australia! Then we drove up Mount Wellington, which is the highest mountain in the state. It was pretty cool, we could see the entire state. We rented a car for the week because were gonna do a lot of travelling around. WAY scary driving on the left side!! We keep wanting to drive on the right and making right turns are way scary. Also the blinker is on the other side so we keep turning the windshield wipers on when we want to turn. Haha like every time! And a few times we drove too close to the left and ended up on gravel...oops.

After our mountain drive we drove along the water to what we thought was the southern point of the island but turns out we were driving north and ended up back in Hobart. Oops. Lots of road kill around here...like every 100 meters! I think they're wombats? Or possums? Or wallabys? We're not sure but they definitely aren't raccoons or squirrels.

We're in bed early because tomorrow we have a big day ahead of us...driving 5 hours across the state to a town called Strahan. (pronounced strawn) Supposedly it's like the wild wild west with miners and cowboys?!? We'll see!!

Wild Wild West and Dinosaurs Galore

So, we drove five hours across mountains and lakes and cliffs and forest and finally arrived in good old Strahan. Unfortunately, our guidebooks seem to have mislead us because this place isn't all that spectacular. Ok I'm gonna say it...we miss home!! Tasmania is a very, very low key place. Things to do here: beach, expensive cruise down a river, go see some guys collection of wood that naturally looks like animals, and go see a play about convicts. I guess it does look like the wild west though. And it's definitely hot enough!!

Went to the beach today (it was 34 degrees C which is about 92 degrees F I think) but the water was brown and there were huuuge flies. Gross!! Beach was gorgeous other than that, huge waves and pretty mist and mountains in the background. Apparently there were a bunch of beached whales a month ago and they brought all the flies with them. However. Instead of being negative nancys, we decided a day at the beach with bugs is better than being home in the cold so we took our first jumping photos and pictures doing the fly swatting dance to commemorate our time in the west.

After the beach we found a hiking trail up to a waterfall. Nothing spectacular but it was still pretty and nice to get out of the car!

Then karina and I came back to our honeymoon suite (our first private room!!) and cooked Dinosaur pasta for dinner. The australian open is still on so we watched some of nadal! Lindsey that uber dorky picture of me in my tie-dye shirt and glasses with dinos is for you :) aren't I the best big sister ever?!?

We looked everywhere for wi fi but no such luck, sorry everyone for not being in touch. Now we're hanging out having girls night, painting our nails and gossiping. We survived the day!!

Edit: by looked everywhere we mean... Drove our little car in front of every store/restaurant in attempt to get free wifi from the street. This involved about 23575 u-turns and occasional reversing to get better signal. Then when I couldn't log on I'd tell karina and she'd drive us to the next spot. Real teamwork. Oh life on the road...

We were gonna spend tomorrow here too but we decided to move ahead with our plans and head to a place called Mount Cradle/Lake St Claire (or as Karina keeps thinking, mt. Saint cloud??) for some hiking and swimming. Tuesday, Wednesday and thursday were going to Port Arthur which is where a massacre took place and they used to send convicts from "the big island" aka the rest of Australia. There's a Tasmanian devil sanctuary there where we can feed kangaroos and hold devils! We're also going to this park called Freycinet national park that has lakes and hiking and one of the top ten beaches in the world called Wineglass Beach. We leave Friday for Melbourne!

We'll be in touch when we can.

Side note: karina is currently running around the room trying to kill a scorpion-looking spider (a small one). She got it! But it fell in her bathing suit...more shrieking...success! First official spider/scorpion killing! I'm such a great girlfriend watching her run around like a crazy person :)

I'm falling... Below me is an endless river of clouds; all around me sky. The increasing swiftness of my descent is rivaled only by my rapid heartbeat. Though the wind passing my ears screams, I seem unable to produce my own. Twenty four years of making perhaps too much noise, and now in my final moments i'm ironically a mute; soundless. The calls of the cacophony of swirling atmosphere go unheeded. Tragically unheeded....Except...Laughter? Of all the sounds I might produce in these precious seconds, growing evermore so with every breath, why laughter? My pondering of some possible divine punishment and my sudden epiphany occur simultaneously! The laughter is appropriate after all. I am not falling. I'm flying. The open sky that moments before filled me with terror now showered me with unprescedented joy. Rising. Falling. Soaring. Floating. To attempt to describe the effects such an experience has on one's sense of time would be an exercise of complete futility. My jubilation is temporarily paused when my eye catches a white flash to my side... My new home in the sky; it has guests. Or perhaps, I am indeed the guest. My unusual presence is no doubt confusing to my new avian companion. For what seems like an hour (I cannot be sure), it simply stares. My new admirer is indeed a cautious one. Curious, too, for it finally decides to test out my merit at my newfound ability. Barrel rolls, endless loops, and spontaneous games of tag eventually win me the bird's favor. It lets forth a series of reassuring 'tweets' as we soar together through the sky. Me laughing, the bird tweeting. "Tweet, tweet... Tweet, tweet... Tweet, SSSQQQUUUAAAACCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!" My eyes are open, and I awake on my first day in Australia. That was nearly two weeks ago. To those curious as to the sound that woke me, I quickly found out that it was a cockatoo. Yes, a cockatoo. Apparently in this bizarro America, cockatoos are a more common, and far more deranged version of the rooster. At approximately 7 am every morning, my dreams would be interrupted by these feathered hellspawn. I will come to learn that this is the first of a long...long list of strange things that seem inhabit this peculiar land.       Wait, I also went to Fiji before this. Let me catch you guys up. Fiji was fun. It rained a lot. And when the rains came, so did the frogs. But in my last, and first post, I already went on about my concerns over these amphibious stalkers. Needless to say, I turned out fine. They mostly minded their own business...mostly...Throughout the week we made some fast friends from australia who were also staying at our resort. Let's see, I'll list the highlights of the trip.          -went to an island village... Talk about a humbling experience. Since most of the villagers hang out the coastline to stay cool, there was a twenty minute period where we were standing on the boat while waiting to get off, and simultaneously being stared at by 90% of this village...it was rather disconcerting. The trip went fine though.  -drank kava, which is a ritualistic Fijian drink that numbs the tongue and makes you lightheaded. Bought a bunch to bring home, so prepare for a kava party upon my return, my friends. -everyone in Fiji is incredibly friendly. It's hard to walk past a stranger without them shouting "BULAAAA!!" which is the Fijian greeting. -Fijians are rather sexist. -drunk women are not subtle wingmen -went snorkeling for the first time in my life. So freaking amazing! I can't wait to make it to the great barrier reef. It took me a while to realize, however, that if your snorkel is completely submerged, you will begin to drown...whodathunkit? - went to a Fijian church ceremony...much more entertaining than a catholic mass Ok, that was Fiji. Back to Australia. We walked around the city more times than I can count. Sydney is beautiful. I'm not quite sure why everyone is driving on the wrong side of the road...I hear Aussies love their booze, so I guess they're all just wasted and driving on the left. But yea, the city. Fountains and parks everywhere. We stayed in an area called King's Cross, which is the red light district. I was tempted to walk into one of the many buildings with signs like "sex! No strings attached" for research purposes, but decided against it. The hostel we stayed in wasn't... HOSTILE!! Hahaha, oh my. The staff were great and helpful. Unfortunately we didn't meet anybody new, but I still have time, especially now that I'm on my own (more on that later).  We did the typical touristy things like seeing the opera house and such. I don't know how to describe accurately how expensive, yet shitty the food is here. A good lunch will cost you around 25 dollars. Glad to hear these rich Aussies have achieved the American dream before us. Oh... Bacon. I think we need to talk about bacon. Now, I want you to picture it. Crispy, large pieces of American bacon. The sizzling sound while it cooks. The intoxicating aroma it fills your lungs with. The taste orgy that graces your pallet with every bite. Now I want you to think of undercooked ham, AKA Australian "bacon". That juxtaposition from hell is something I've been experiencing quite often since my arrival here. I don't really know why, but eating Australian meat (get your minds outta that gutter, friends) has typically made me quite ill. It's like I'm paying an exorbitant amount of money to reenact the Oregon trail video game in which my family and I die miserably from dysentery. Least I got ritz crackers to snack on....sigh, I miss American food. Last Thursday was Australia day, the equivalent to our july fourth, except nobody here really understands how the holiday started in the first place. We started our day at a german restaurant, where the joy of drinking a liter of beer was offset by alexa trying to pawn off her "bacon" to me. "It's bacon, Mike!" "Back up off me, evil ham monger!"... I'm paraphrasing, of course. At night we were all able to grab a table at a restaurant by the harbor, which was incredibly lucky because there must have been twenty thousand people at the harbor to see the fireworks. We got a two liter personal tap of sangria, but since karina wasn't feeling up to it, Alexa and I manned up and drank around 95% of it. The fireworks show was fucking incredible. I've never been so close to fireworks before. The pictures I'm posting soon should help explain my amazement. As I've said earlier, I'm currently alone. A few days ago, the girls decided to book the rest of their Australia trip (about two months). I declined to goto the travel agent with them since I was sick in bed, as usual. The trip they planned was a good deal out of my price range, so here I am. They're currently traveling around Tasmania, which I assume will be like exploring the island in Lost, only inhabited by millions of these darling critters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tasdevil_large.jpg I took an overnight bus to Melbourne last night, which took around twelve hours. Fun fact about Australia: it's freaking deserted. The population is a very small fraction of the size of America's, and most of the people seem to live in cities that are many hours apart from one another. There is NOTHING between the cities. We were driving through perpetual darkness for the majority of the bus trip.  Currently staying in a highly rated hostel, though I'm having trouble currently determining why it's so well received. They seem to charge far out the asshole for everything. Still got seven days left here though so I suppose I'll make the most of it. Now to find a job... Cheers, Mike

Starving in paradise

Tasmania is a strange,strange land!! The scenery is beautiful and totally worth the trip! The whole island is like one very small town. People don't seem to have ever left, so we have learned to take everything they say with a grain of salt/ when emotional we use the term "liars" haha. An amazing waterfall to them is really just a stream... If we ask how any food dish is "oh it's lovely!" (it's ok) and its just hard to get a straight answer out of anyone!! Maybe we don't speak the right language? Even a very clear question like "is it safe to drink the water?" doesn't get a yes or no answer. We were asking one guy at an info desk about his opinion and where we should go while we are in Tasmania and his answer caused more questions. "well you can go anywhere really.... Here or here or here (different places on map) you could drive all around really!" same at the national park. They don't seem to get that we want to know if we should go or if it's worthwhile, not can we go! We asked what hikes we should do since it was our first visit and he goes "well you can go anywhere really." and points to every hike on the map. That narrows it down! Tourism is different here! So we feel kind of on our own in that department but so far we are making it work and we have made a nice itinerary for ourselves! Independent women! Surprisingly we have only met one other native English speaker traveling in hostels! It's very interesting...no other Australians! We have met a few people from Japan and a lot of Europeans. It's an interesting little bubble, clearly not the beaten path!

Speaking of not the beaten path... The food here sucks. Tonight i had garlic bread for dinner, last night rice. Alexa tried the nachos tonight which literally were doritos baked with tomato sauce and cheese. I assume there has never been a mexican on tasmanian soil. Also nothing is open past 7 pm. 7!!! We learned this the hard way by waiting to grocery shop for dinner (at least when we cook we know it will be good) until after a pretty sunset. Big mistake!! The bright side is when the town shuts down you can go the wrong way down one way streets, drive on the right and drive on sidewalks and nobody will ever know (cough cough Alexa) :)

To all my followers, sorry, still puking! Also at times I seem to have a brain disorder or a slow acting stroke or poor vision (least likely option-I just had laser correction!!) because I constantly read things wrong and it's pretty amusing (to us at least) highlights include thinking a tour included a hot air balloon fight (what's that??), fun breakfast (actually full breakfast), "guest parking only" was "queen Victoria only" and the "festival state" was the "free fall state." You know, like a state where everything is constantly changing, as if in free fall? I dunno.... But if you want to make fun of me keep in mind Alexa deliberately drives on sidewalks to get where we want faster and will drive past every real parking spot just to park right in front in what clearly is not meant to be a parking spot. At least my things arent on purpose!

Wild Animal sightings: 2 wombats, 2 echidnas, a wallaby and a kangaroo!!! Also lots of bunnies, sheep, cows and a lot of black swans! Curious. Also one suicidal dinosaur-looking bird who ran right in front of the car but seems to have gotten away!

Another fun cultural thing. The radio in Tasmania is very amusing very versatile! There is like one channel we can get service on and it does it all. An hour of dance music, then an hour of serious news talk NPR style, then it's country hour y'all, some weather talk, some celebrity gossip talk, then top 40.

Today we drove back across the island and we are currently on the east coast. The ocean over here is beautiful and we are near bay of fires which is also beautiful! We were way too happy to see a McDonald's today after days without Internet. McDonald's aka mackers has free wifi and thus is our favorite place. Everywhere else in tas charges a lot! Like $2 for 15 min and today we even saw it charged by the minute! Nice to get in touch with the world every once and a while! We are driving down the coast tomorrow and checking out another national park. We were glad to see mike is still alive and well and even blogging! we have been eating like small sad birds. Hopefully this changes very soon. Even Cheerios here taste different. Emma I highly advise against you visiting here for that very reason.

I think that's all for now folks, enjoy the pics!

Ps-you don't pass a car on the road, you overtake them!

Australia Day Pix!!

Tasmania bound

Say goodbye to nice eyebrows! Alexa's item of the day to be confiscated was little eyebrow scissors! How did those get there?? Now we have no toothpaste and bushy eyebrows!! Must be because of her passport picture.

Enjoying a normal smoothie at the Sydney airport waiting to board a plane to Hobart, Tasmania!! Alexa is busy playing removem!! The group has officially split- mike is staying in Sydney tonight and will have to update us on his travels here! Alexa and I are renting a car and exploring the island for a week!

I am pleased to say that I don't think my illness was related to beer, just food. Phew! After 2 days I am finally able to eat, and good thing because I didn't pack a belt and my pants are getting a bit loose!

Yesterday was a big day! We walked all over the city including the rocks for a music festival, a German pub, darling harbor for spanish tapas (shout out to tori) and finally fireworks!!! Highlight if the day: getting a bunch of Australians to sing the star spangled banner at a pub on Australia Day. To show the diverse personalities of the group- mike said his mind was blown with how amazing they were and has never actually seen fireworks (really?), I thought they were great but was mainly concentrating on not puking and Alexa said they were ok but the Boston ones were better! That's the American way!

At the Spanish place mike insisted on ordering 2 liters of sangria (I voted for 1) and considering I couldn't help at all...do the math... So don't worry parents I got them home safe :)

Things We Miss

Please note: this list was made as we consumed 2 liters of Sangria from a "Personal Tap" as mike calls it, although I'm pretty sure it has another name, while watching fireworks on Australia Day in the harbor. So I guess we can't complain too much but still. We're getting a little sentimental, someone pass the tissues. Here is a running list of things we miss that we'll add to as the weeks go by...

~Ice water! Tap water doesn't come with ice here. So thirsty!

~Bacon. Well, karina and I don't miss bacon but mike does. Only ham here!!

~Dunkin Donuts. I just want a normal iced coffee!!

~Normal food. No Chinese, no Spanish, no Australian...just good old fashioned American food. Like a hamburger. Or Bertucci's. That doesn't cost $20. At lunchtime.

~Toilets that flush normal, not ones that you have to push a button.

~Annie's Mac n Cheese!!

~Soap and towels in the bathroom.

~Our parents :-(

~Home cooked meals

~Peanut butter. No more Vegemite!!

~Our big comfy beds

~Text messaging whoever, whenever, we want.

Pix from beach and around town!

Lucky for me my body decided it no longer hates beer and I am not having the same problems Karina is having! We had delicious Australian beer last nite called Little Creatures...kind of like UFO maybe? Delish. Australian beer at an Australian bar watching the Australian open...how much more Aussie can you get?!?

We spent the day booking the rest of our trip with our new friend Dave the travel agent. He's South African and has been a tour guide all over the country. Highlights include white sand beaches in Perth, camping in the outback, snorkeling in the great barrier reef and driving around in a hippie camper van. Can't wait!

Mike isn't feeling so great today so he didn't join us...we have to work on all feeling good at once, one of us is always sick!

In sad news, it's been raining the past three days and is supposed to rain through Friday when we leave :-(. But don't worry, still wearing shorts!!!

Side note: I tried Gum Tree gelato today...like the koalas live in...gross!!

Tomorrow is Australian Independence Day!! Activities include: mimosas for breakfast, walking around the wharf, drinking, walking around the city, drinking on a rooftop bar, listening to a live concert on the Rocks, drinking, fireworks and then dancing the night away at a rooftop club. Rain ain't got nothin on us!!

Off to cook dinosaur pasta with sauce for dinner...I know you're all very jealous of our dinos :)

Weekend festivities!!

Survived our first weekend in Australia!!

In case you guys were wondering, it's true what they say, Australians are beautiful people. Although if you ask mike he'll say it's only bc they have accents. Karina and I termed it "accent goggles." kinda like beer goggles...get it?!? And ear candy instead of eye candy. Accent goggles or not, I'm ok with it. Mom called this morning and the Australian concierge guy answered...when I got on the phone mom's first words were "wow, that accent is dreamy, you guys are in trouble." gotta love her!

Soooo Friday night we met up with our friends from Fiji who were in Sydney for a few days and they came to our hostel to pregame because drinks in Sydney are outrageous. We taught them the games asshole and bullshit ...to all you parents, theyre card games!! And they taught us Australian drinking songs that have words that I won't repeat here but involve a lot of skulling!

Then we went out to meet up with some of our friend's friends and happened to bump into this guy we nicknamed "chatty" or "canada" from Fiji on the street...what are the odds! (karina here- he was the exact opposite of the cool Canadians we met in Peru!!) Turns out he's still living up to his nickname and yapped our ears off the entire night so we happily ditched him somewhere at our second bar. Very weird.

Ok I apologize in advance for anything racist that goes on in this post but the Australians are Sooo racist, so when in Rome! Quote from a friend: "we werent born racist, we became this way!!" Our friends took us to this cool club on one of the harbors (with a $25 cover!!) where we thought we were gonna dance the night away. However. Turns out it was Asian central!! To all our Asian friends we love you but this was the most homogeneous club we have ever seen! At least we were able to find each other easily! Although I do have to say, even the Asians here are gorgeous. And we met an Armenian Australian! Well actually he kept changing his mind...first he was Syrian, then he was Armenian, then his grandma was Armenian but he was Syrian...who knows. Blame it on the ear candy. Leave it to mike to bring up political strife while dancing at a club...upon learning that he was Syrian, mike went up to him and said "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for all the problems in your country." so don't worry parents, as long as we keep mike around we will definitely be coming home without Australian husbands!!

To all you PC girls out there (and probably northeastern girls!) I feel like its freshman year all over again walking around the streets with our flasks, it's great! And eating crappy food...Mom and dad, don't worry we're going grocery shopping tmrw for vegetables.

Also. Bars stay open til 4am at least, some all night. Way different than Boston. Reminds me of our mexican and European nights out...we need to work on our stamina so we stop wanting to fall asleep at clubs.

Saturday it pourrred so we went to see a movie at the worlds largest IMAX!! We saw a film about rescuing baby elephants and monkeys in the wild...so cute! Unfortunately, it wasnt that much bigger than a regular IMAX I don't think and the prices were about 3 times as much. We were totally suckered in...good marketing imax people.

After the movie we wandered around the city some more. Went to Cockle Bay Wharf, Darlinghurst Harbor, the Rocks (really old, nice neighborhood), and then Chinatown for dinner. Great shopping here, too bad we only have one backpack and no money.

Saturday night we saw our friends again. Except this time we went to a different club that had lots of Australians. Strangely enough, they love our American accents! But they couldn't understand us...when we said "i have to find my friend," they said what?!?! But when we said "find my mate!! They said "oh ok!" and when we said we have to go to the bathroom they didnt understand, but when we yelled "toilet!!!" they got us. Although apparently karina and I look like we're 18 because all these people kept coming up to us and saying dance with my friend! It's his 18th bday!! No thank you. The drinking age in Australia is 18 so I guess that's why the clubs are all full of 18 year olds. When I was 18 I'm pretty sure I couldn't afford $25 cover at bars! Mike couldn't handle the fun so he went home early! Youngster ...

Well that was our Saturday night...roamed around for a while, saw the sites...this city never sleeps, we walked home at 5am and there were still people everywhere! Side note: we feel really safe here. There are always people around and everything is lit up and there are taxis all over whenever we need them.

Sunday we took a free waking tour around the city and learned about the history of Australia and the aboriginals and boomerangs! Our guide told us all the cheap spots to eat, drink and play. Should be a good last few days!

Beach time

So the beach Monday went like this.... Took the ferry to Manly Beach and picked up some amazing Italian food on the walk to the beach. Found a nice spot, put on sunscreen and had a good picnic. Then we had barely relaxed for 10 mins in the sun when the dark clouds and rain rolled in! The beach was nice tho, it had a walking trail and bike trail along it. There were trees along the beach that looked like big pine trees! When we got there before the rain there were a lot of people in the water. It seemed like some sort of sea kayaking competition. There were also a lot of surfers! Huge waves! The beach had a few volleyball nets too. Very cool. A lot of signs saying beware of strong currents and in some parts the beach was closed. Scary!
The rain might have been a blessing in disguise because we ducked into this backpackers travel info place and the guy had some really good info about our adventures. We are actually going back today because he was about to close and we wanted to learn more and maybe book some tours!
We switched hostels on Tuesday for the rest of our stay here in Sydney. We are 2 doors down from our old hostel but we got a mid week special so we are paying a dollar more but now we have a 4 bed dorm with private bathroom and unlimited free wifi! Woohoo! This place is a lot nicer and cleaner and doesn't have a weird smell like our other room. Upgrade! Alexa and I finally cooked our own dinner last night. So we are moving up in the world. At least until Friday. We still don't know where we are going Friday but hope to decide after talking to this travel guy.
Yesterday we went to bondi beach and did a 2 1/2 hour walk along the coast to coogee. A lot of our hike was in the rain but the views were still great and we saw a few pods of dolphins close to shore swimming and jumping! Lots of surfers too. We ate really overpriced pizza on the beach. It was a pretty good day.
Last night Alexa and I went out with some of the hostile people (hostile people...haha) and ended up watching some of the Australian open. The Spanish guy won! I thought tori would be happy. Viva espana!
In more personal and somber news, I am sad to announce that I need to take a beak from beer. At about the worst time in my history my body seems to now think beer is a poison and I have to yak every time I have one. Literally just one :( talk about cruel and unusual punishment! I don't understand but it's quite tragic. There are so many new beers here to explore and I can't enjoy them!! There goes living cheap!! I'm not sure what to turn to now... I could enter retirement like Ryan and drink whiskey. Except I hate whiskey. So I'll keep y'all posted.

01/21/2012: Koalas and Kangaroos and Wombats, Oh My!

I love Sydney and am never coming home. Well I guess I'll come home but not by choice. The city is beautiful. It's kind of like Boston but bigger. Maybe like San Francisco, or a small Paris. There are fountains and parks everywhere and several different harbors.

Side note: everything in the supermarkets is expensive. For example. $12 for a container of Ben and Jerry's. $60 for a liter of absolut vodka. $6 for a cheap bottle of body wash. Ridic. Minimum wage here is $13.50 though so I guess that makes up for it. But it doesn't help when you're traveling on a budget!! Except the Tim tam cookies are only $1.44 so I guess we'll just have to eat cookies all day.

Yesterday we walked around the Royal Botanical Gardens and down to the Opera House. There were tons of different plants, trees, flowers, and some cacti--did you know there are no cacti that are native to Australia?!?Kangaroos and koalas and even palm trees but no cacti, not even in the deserts in the middle of the country. We saw some crazy birds that are all over the city and kind of looked like pelicans...we'll have to do some investigating and figure out what they are. We also saw more cockatoos and huge bats hanging in trees! And they were awake during the day! Dad--remember when you wanted to get a cockatoo?? Really glad you didn't...and you think Lindsey yells too much! Those birds are awful!!!

The Opera House is huge and beautiful. It looks like a big sailboat. Karina said that was common knowledge but iiii didn't know that. (karina knows everything so its not surprising) And right behind it is the Sydney Harbour Bridge...it's an engineers dream, that thing is gorgeous!! Check out the pix from our photoshoot :)

Today we went to the Taronga Zoo and hung out with some animals. We saw our first koalas and kangaroos and wombats! They had a giant Komodo dragon and platypuses and emu which are huge jerks. We went on an Australian walkabout where we could walk next to the kangaroos and emus without them being caged and the emus would run up and peck the sleeping kangaroos and make them move. Fun fact: kangaroos poop while they sleep.

For all you zoo haters out there, this was a very animal friendly zoo and the animals had huuuge spaces to roam and lots of "toys" and "games" to play, they weren't caged and cramped like zoos back home. Also, they do all sorts of wildlife preservation projects, including vaccinating frogs that are being killed by disease in the wild and breeding Tasmanian devils to release in the wild because they are almost extinct. So it's a great place! Mike didn't go to the zoo because he is anti-zoos so we'll just have to wait for his blog to find out what kind of adventures he had for himself today.