Going home!

Well, The time has come to go home. I'm happily done with Australia. I have lived in a van and toured the east coast with my friend Dan. I've done the Great Ocean Road, which WAS the Greatest ocean road I've ever done. I've worked at a potato factory and surfed in what felt like the arctic ocean. I've spent a month and a half in the desert, and been there when 4 different cars broke down. I've gotten pulled over and watched terrible Australian commercials. I've been poor and been up hours looking at the stars. I've skated wicked hills and surfed wicked surf in Prevelly. I've snorkelled at Ningaloo reef, and had search and rescue called on me. I lived on a beach for a month and a half, and eaten lots of sand. I've busked the streets of Melbourne and gotten a thousand dollars worth of parking tickets. I've bought 3 kilos of nutella in one month and been sunburnt only twice. I've had sand in many meals and flies in many corners of my ... existence. I've learnt Hebrew, French German and Finnish. To an extent. I've missed my family and made new friends. I've rocked and been to a couple house parties, and opened my eyes to the magic of saltwater. And I've had a pretty phenomenal time.

Darwin and Beyond

For the past two weeks I've been in wonderful Darwin, NT. -That's Northern Territory for all you civillians out there. After Emilia's car broke down indefinitely- as in Kaput, no more, a bare husk of a car for us to sleep in- we've been spending our nights at Lake Alexander. It's a place where Vannies go to live it up. Every night there are tens of vans parked by the public toilets there. Pumping loud music, utilising the free BBQ's, -at lest that's what I've been doing. At night, you're not allowed to stay there in your van to sleep, however, if you drive 500m around a fence, there's a dirt field where EVERYONE goes. Its a mecca, so to speak. So after two weeks looking for work, living off rice and trying to find a car, Emilia and I are just about ready to leave Darwin. Now, if you'll excuse me, we have a meeting with a prospective addition to our group in ten minuites. Its because the Frenchies left for Vietnam today that I think we're having success. We just couldn't leave eachother until one of us left the country, it seems.

Northbound ho!

G'day mates!

So, although Marylin dumped me in Nildottie, I hitched a ride with my good friend Emilia, a girl of Finnish descent, and we've gone with Francois and Clem to travel up through the centre. We've done 3000 kms on our way to Darwin because we keep doing wicked detours to other and better places on the way. We're right now taking a needed vacation after so much vacationing. After seeing Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings' Canyon we're resting in Alice springs. Soon, though, we'll be on our way again up north and then the west coast. So long, everyone back home!

Po Polsku:

Czesc wrzyscy!

To navet ze Marylin mnie zostawila w Nildottie, zalaczylem sie z kolegami I kolezankami I Jadziem teraz przes australie. Po zobaczeniu Uluru, Kata Tjuta i Kings Canyon, jestesmy bardzo zmeczoni I robimy odpoczynek w Alice springs. Przeczes zrobilismy 3000 kilometrow! Ale zaraz bedziemy na drodze jesce raz zeby surfowac jescze raz!

Still in Nildottie

Hello all my distance-ed friends and family,

Just a little quick heads up from your ol' pal Gregatron. Life on the farm is pleasant. It's quiet and it's quaint. And it also has just flipped 189 degrees. Yeah, that's right. MORE than half way around. I got fired from my job at the potato factory, and my van died. In the same day. And so then i had to walk home from my ex-job. So now, I'm looking for work at the orange farm, to raise enough money so sam and I can put a new engine into the van. It's less than buying a new car, and Marylin is just worth it. Besides, with her, we have our accomodations on wheels! So, life goes on, with new twists and turns.

Po Polsku:

Tutaj wrzystko jest jak zawrze. Zycie jest chiche na wiosce. Wrzystko jest tak samo oprucz ze dostalem zwolniony z pracy, i moj samochod sie zepsol. To teraz szukam prace na farmie pomarancz, i bede oszcedzal pieniadze zeby kupic nowy silnik. Ale oprocz tego, wrzystko idzie jak gladko i jak zwykle jak normalnie.

Nildottie

So, I'm in Nildottie. It's a small town about 100 kms north of Adelaide. It's got a shop, a post office, and a liquor store... all in one shop. The same lady works at the shop almost every day, and there's one mechanic. If you go about 20 kms south, you get to the bar. Getting here was an experience. About a week ago, Jarrod and I set out from Adelaide with what we thought was a bent axle. So I decided that, since the shaking wasn't too bad under 70km/h, i would just take it slow. We needed to get to work at 8am the next day, so we had to make it either way. 30kms out, we get a flat tire. THANK GOD. I was so happy that the bang i heard on the side of the road wasn't a bent axle. So we had quite an adventure at that time of night in that part of the neighborhood. Quite a ride.

Honorable mention: our tow truck driver, Bill

Po Polsku:

Jestem w miescie nazwano Nildottie. Male mjasto, ma jeden sklep. W tym sklepie sa warzywa, listy, i piwo. Pub jest 30 kilometrow na polnoc. Jest fajne miasto, i mierzkam z 3ma kolegami w tym czasie jak pracujemy na chodowni ziemniakow. Mielismy strach jak jechalismy tutaj: Opona plaska! Ale to jest okay, bo myslawem ze bylo to os przekrecona. To jest naprawde frajda!

Great ocean road

First off, the Great Ocean Road IS great. So great that it's fantastic. Kaylen, Jarrod and I spent 4 days driving it, with it's windy, narrow roads. We stopped in many spots along the way, but, unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries on the first day. So these are all the pictures i have. Fortunately, Kay is a pro photographer, so her and her wicked camera got together and took some awesome pictures. She still has to upload them, so these are all the pictures for now. I didn't write many words in this post, because the ones i need to describe the GOR don't exist. And they won't. I guarantee it. I'm a little shocked because I've seen so many amazing things, yet I've seen so little of Australia. I'm definitely going back to the great ocean road. Maybe even live in Port Fairy for a while. Defenitely.

Po Polsku!

Great Ocean Road (po polsku jest wspaniala droga nad oceanem) to jest naprawde wspaniala. Nie mam za dozo zdiec, bo moja kamera wyczerpala sie drogiego dnia! Jarrod, Kaylen i ja spedzilismy 3 dni z Marylin na tych cretych, waskich drug. Bylo naprawde wsapniale. Tak dobrze ze ja chyba wroce i zrobie jesce raz.

Melbourne

About a week ago I landed in Melbourne with Dan. In between here and sydney many things happened. We got our rear window broken in Marylin, we found an amazing place for skateboarding, we drove down some paths that will stick with us forever, and we made some friends. Dan has taken Marylin for a little private journey, and I've settled here in Melbourne. It works out perfectly because I have zero money (don't tell my parents) and I need to work. Unluckily for me, theres no work in Melbourne. Luckily for me, there's great people here to keep me occupied. Unluckily for me, my iPod got stolen. Luckily for me, I got to party all weekend. And, luckily for me, I went busking for the first time with my good friend Oliver. So things are looking real good, even though my pockets are empty. Leaving dan was like leaving home again, but it's rocking again now. When he comes back, we have to drive him to the airport because he'll be all tired out from so much surfing on the Great Ocean Road, and because he's going back home. Until then, I'm going to go look for more work, and keep eating sandwiches with cheese and bread. Sometimes I get to treat myself to a tomato. But not today.

Po Polsku:

Mjedzy tutaj i Sydney duzo stalo sie! ktos nam znisczyl okno w samochodzie, poznalismy nowych kolegow, znalezlismy miesca ktore zostana z nami na zawrze, i poznalismy nowych kolegow i kolezanek. Ja mam frajde mimo tego ze jestem biedny i jem tylko kanapki. Ale jestem zdrowy i sczesciwy! Teraz bede szukal prace, i bede stale mial super czas!

The Blue Mountains

I ךeft Dan a few days ago, and took Marylin on an adventure to the Blue Mountains for three days. Not forever, just a few days! First thing that I noticed was that it wasn't like mountains in Canada. They should be called the Blue Canyon. Don't get me wrong, they're gorgeous. It's just not the right name. On the first day I woke up early and got a good long hike in. I had to ask the lady at the information booth how I could extend my hike, because I didn't want to do the same thing everyone else does. I met two couples hiking along the trail, the men looking very prepared to power-walk through the forest at max speed. The women, not so much. They looked ready, they simply didn't act ready. Every two minuites they would stop, freaked out by some bug that might be looking at them funny. I got to have a meal at the bottom of this waterfall, sitting on a boulder in the middle of the river (which I fell into trying to get there). It started out beautifully, but by the end of the day the clouds had settled. One second it was fine, everything visible, and the next thing I know I'm being hugged by fog. A great hike. Oh, and also, I got bitten by a leech. He ended up being pretty big.

The next day I relaxed, hiking the backcountry after asking a local for tips. I found what I thought he directed me to, but I ended up discovering my own little trail.

The last day I spent mostly on a hike to the "ruined castle" which is a bunch of boulders on the top of a mountain. There was no view, but I climbed one of the boulders and was rewarded. I love the greenery here. There's tons of vines and ferns everywhere, and wherever you are, all you hear is birds and the rustling of the wind in the treetops. One time I thought I heard a huge animal trudging through the woods, but it ended up just being another hiker. A successful expedition into the wild, the first of many.


I teraz, jak zawrze: Po Polsku.

Zrobilem wyprawe w gory kilka dni temo. Zostawilem Dana w Sydney z kolegami, I pojechalem z Marylin do Niebieskie Gory. Pieknie bylo. Wrzedzie gdzie sie stoji morzna slyszec ptaki czwierkajace. Ale wyglada wjiecei jak Niebieski Kanyon. Porzedlem na hike w gory co dzien, I bylo pieknie. Byly tam ludzie ktorzy bardzo bojili sie Mruwek I innych robakow. Mialem snjadanie na durzym kamieniu w rzece, do kturej wpadlem raz. Bylo fantastycznje caly czas, ale pozniej taka mgla opadla na gory ze nie morzna nic bylo widac. Ale jest okaj bo ja wrzystko juz zobaczylem. Porzedlem tez ras na wyczecke na dziko, sam. To bylo fantastyczne bo czulem sie jak bym byl pierwrzy czlowiek ktory w tym mniejscu stal. Wspaniala wyprawa

.

Words can only try...

...And describe the journey I've had so far. Marylin has been amazing to us, and we have been amazing to OZ. Just a few pictures:

Our Signature:

Narzy Opis w samochodzie:

McDonalds has 30cent Ice cream!:

Macdonalds ma lody za 30 centuw!:

Lots of Kangaroos at Crowdy Bay:

Kangoory w crowdy bay:

The view from the Crowdy Bay hike:

Widok od wyczeczki przy Crowdy Bay:

Topping up Marylin's oil:

Napelniam olei w samochodzie (Nazywa sie Marylin):

Dan getting ready to shred that barrel:

Dan preparuje sie na surfing:

Beautiful Sunset at South West Rocks:

Piekny zachud sloncia w south west rocks:

Blazing the trail:

Oto Trasa:

Searching for the wave:

Dan i ja Szukamy fale:

What we woke up to:

Co rano budzimy sie do cos takiego:

(I know, it was some random guy!)

And how we eat:

(dziwne, nie? Tam byl chlopak jakis!)

I tak jemy:

While we eat:

Oto my jak jemy:

What we eat (don't ask):

I oto co jemy (lepiej nie pytac):

Dangera Falls:

A rainforest road in Dorrigo national park:

Trasa przes jungle:

Dorrigo:

Dan is a licensed Chef:

Dan jest cucharz:

I am not:

Ja nie jestem:

Sam with the Norwegians Maddie And Kaddie!:

Sam razem z maddie i kaddie:

Our own private White Beach:

Narsza plarza privatna White Beach:

White Beach: