Adventures in Byron

I'm still in Byron bay, 'cause I love it. There's something about this town, i dont' know. I love the surf, the people are awesome, and i feel fairly at home here. I've been cooking with Dan (a person, not a spice) a lot, and he's a chef, so he puts me in my place a lot. I'll cook a meal one day, and he'll cook one the next day, and the norwegian girls Maddie and Caddie will cook one day. It's a great deal. Met some guys that I hung out with in surfer's (what's up, Simon and Garfunkel!) and we had a blast. I've been surfing, reading, playing a lot of pool so I'm as good as you when I get back, Brian! It's on! 

And I went to Nimbin. 

Nimbin was an experience. We went on this tour to see this town, and it was fine and all, but then the real joy started. Like the drive through the most beautiful rainforest I've ever seen. And a visit to this hippie's house. He let us know what he thought about the government. I've always wanted to know what hippies think about the government. Not much. 

A great trip. I've been spending nights on the beach with friends, we went cliff jumping a while back at this place called the quarry. I don't know if i mentioned it in my last post, but it was around that time. I'm posting pictures from that below. 

If you look real hard, you can see me jumping off the cliff:

Dan and I: 

What Up, DOG!?

The Quarry:

The biggest thing around here now is: I ate a kebab. It was fantastic. I'm also thinking of getting a car with my friend DAN THE MAN and travelling together, living out of the car and surfing around australia. 

Me and Sam reppin the petrin face:

Me and Simon:

The norwegians cooked dinner for us!

I'll never let go, Jack:

Sam, Kaelyn and I:

In the canyon near nimbin:

It was gorgeous:

Looking down:

And that's all, folks!

Po Polsku Teraz!

Jestesmy jezce w Byron bay. Jest super tutaj I uwielbiam. Te zdeica sa o mojich kolegach i kolezanek z kturymi razem robimy objady. Moi dobry kolega Dan ktorego spotkalem tutaj to jest kuchaz, to mi uczy duzo. Duza frajde mam z danem I mislimy o kupna samochodu zeby zyc w nim i podruzowac do okola Australi. Uwielbiam w Australi! Pozdrawiam wrzystkich! 

Byron Bay, Baby!

Well, I think I've found my home away from home away from home. Byron Bay is the pandas' pancreas. It might be the fact that it's such a small town, or the laid back atmosphere, or the people who busk in the streets at about any time of day or night. Or maybe it's the beautiful beaches and gorgeous water. But it's probably the fact that I feel so comfortable here. Low down to earth, very natural and subdued. The internet cafe is playing Cat Empire (score!) instead of hard techno, which is refreshing. The other day, while writing a letter, a lady sat down at my (not really mine) picnic table and we started talking about writing, and in no time at all I discovered that she's writing a book herself, and I ended up inspiring her to go home and write! The other night I was out with my friend Dan from Israel (way cool guy) and we ended up sitting on a bench with this aboriginal guy. I just love Byron.

So, I went surfing.

Yes, and It was a blast. I went with a surf school called black dog surfing *cough* plug! *cough* which was a good choice, for sure. My instructor Dan was like, Austrian/Australian or something funky, but way cool. I didn't do too bad, actually! Take that, Judy! I liked it! I caught quite a few waves, stood up okay, and had a blast (see pictures). The only thing is they put you on these MASSIVE boards, like, 9 footers, and so it's uber different when you upgrade to a normal board. It's a challenge now that I'm borrowing my buddy Sam's board, but I got up a couple times today too. And tomorrow morning, Dan and I are going out early, like 730 to hit Tallows beach and then go to the quarry to do some cliff jumping by the waterfall. Super awesome! I'm going to stay here for a while, even though the hostel is mega expensive ($36 a night... it's the recession, i'm sure. not the fact that it's a popular tourist destination). So, I'm off now to cook up some super soft tacos. See y'all!

And now, for all the Polaks:

Po Polsku!

Znajduie sie w Byron bay! To jest super miasto w ktorym mozna chodzic caly dzien i rozmawiac z localow. To male miasto, i wrzyscy znaomi sa. Ludzie chodza i graja instrumentami wrzendzie i po kazdych godzinach. Ja z kolegiem pochodzilismy po miescie po nocy, i poznalizmy prawdziwego aboriginala! Plaze tu sa piekne, piasek super i woda przezroczysta! Ja uwielbiam tutaj! Chyba tutaj zostane, nawet ze jest bardzo drogo ($36 na noc!) ale jest pienkny hostel i mam tutaj duzo kolegow i kolezanek. I surfuje! Porzedlem na naluke i szedlo mi wspaniale! Jutro ide z kolegiem rano zeby zlapac dobre fale!

On the beach.

PAUL HAS A THIRD NIPPLE!

Hello everyone. Paul doesn't actually have a third nipple, I'm just taking full advantage of Paul's gift to me. Thanks so much, paul, for your widget dedicated to me. So sweet. What a guy! Everyone give a round of applause for PAUL! Lets hear it! Now, on to business.

Today was the first day when I really noticed what it is that I'm doing. I'm a bajillion miles away from home, with only temporary friends (for now, wait till the serum kicks in... muahaha!) and dirty clothes with me. But I'm... loving it. Because I know I'll be back to see you all eventually. I know it's only been like 9 days or whatever, but it feels like 27,000. It's like that when you spend gobs of time on the beach, just reading and listening to music and laying in the sand. You know, important, business stuff. It just started raining. Hard. But that's okay, because it reminds me of vancouver. This was Surfer's earlier:
This is it now:
Cool, eh?

I've basically only been hanging around and lazing about, really. It's nice, I've got no obligations. I walk around town, talk to the people at the hostel. Eat. Sleep. Party. Read. And go back to the beach. Every day. I haven't been surfing yet, because as we can all see, I'm just so swamped with things to do. Like the amazing pasta I'm about to cook.

All the best to everyone: and now, a little smidgen of Polish to my family worldwide!

I teraz, Po Polsku!

Dzien dobry, rodzina! Rodzina wrzendzie. (oto wy, Babcia, Ciocie wrzystkie I inne polacy!) I ta regularna rodzina w kanadzie. Jezce nie bylem na desce, ale bende chyba pozniej. Czuie ze bylem tutaj juz 20 lat! I tylko teraz trafilo do mnie co ja robie. Ze jestem tak daleko od wrzystkiego na tak dlugo. Ale uwielbiam to! Bo teraz sie duzo lenie na plazy i nie duzo wiencei! Dzienkuje za wrzystkie pozdrowienia i bende pisal tak po polsku ile bende mugl. Kocham was!

Surfer's Paradise

Ahoy everyone! Greg here from Surfer's Paradise! - Don't tell anyone, but it's no paradise for Surfer's. It's okay, though. Unfortunately for this post there wil be zero pictures. Zero (0) meaning none. This is 'cause I sat down at the kiosk, and pay my dollars, and stick my SD card into a mangled up slot. "It doesn't fit!" So maybe next time I'll update some pictures.

So, since my last update: I got into a different hostel, one in chinatown (I KNOW!), Brisbane. I spent the days walking around the town, because my hostel was overrun by this gang of Irish guys that did nothing but take up space. Noisily. The hostel really didn't do anything for socializing. Nobody really talked, even if talked to. Sure, there were a few people, but mabe the hair threw them off...

I spent a day going to the Koala sanctuary! Woo! It was really something. I got to hold one of the little buggers. They're real heavy! I didn't pay for the picture, 'cause it was 15 bucks, so I got to hold him for free. They must be trained to look at the camera, though, so my koala (Danny) was real confused, trying to pose. I'll have a picture at the next sanctuary I go to. I DO, however, have pictures of Kangaroos. This place actually should've been called the Lone Pine Kangaroo Sanctuary. You walk into this fenced off field, and there's tons 'em just hoppin around as if they're paid to! Actually, they're real lazy. They didn't hop around much, but you did get to feed and touch 'em. Real cool

Right now in surfer's paradise I'm chilling on the beach today. Tomorrow the plan is to go surfing for real. Yeah.

Surfer's:

My hostel:

Back in Brisbane:

My biggest fan:

My second biggest fan:

Not a fan at all:

See what I mean:

I even gave the lousy bugger food:

Edit: there are now pictures on this post.

Waitlisted

So, I made it, I'm in Australia. Feels like I've been on the road for about a decade. YEAH I smell fantastic. I've had one shower and i still remember how great it was. So, In short: I got to LA after a long haul on the train, during which I got adopted by this Australian couple who kept trying to set me up with jobs, with wives, and all sorts of shenanigans. Shout out to Mikk and Pat!
LA was fantastic, Spent a day walking around Santa monica. ALMOST got mugged by this shady guy that kept following me, but I mind - tricked him. Played pool with a CRAZY assortment of dudes, and ate as much free buffet as I could. I just got off the plane about an hour ago, and am sitting in the computer mecca of a hostel, waiting to see if they've got room for me. Good thing I made a reservation. :P

Australia: 1 Greg: 0

After I get situated, The plan is to get goin, buy some grub, and party!

The last hour.

I'm hungry. I want pizza. Let's hope they have pizza on the train. I really didn't want this to happen: Me getting all sentimental and appreciating everything right before I left. It always makes me feel like I should be this in awe of life all the time. But when I think about it, I am. I enjoy so many moments with the people around me, that I'm not being unappreciative. I'm doing the moment (wether it's playing video games or picking on fader's cats) justice. I'm honoring it and taking as much as I can from it. I guess these last moments just help put the rest of it all in perspective. And now My perspective shifts... To Australia!

Ho!

Little kid cities

I've been around. Let's start by saying that. I've been places in our continent and out. So even though I haven't been to vegas, or New York, or Hawaii, I've been places where not many people have been, not many people have even heard about. My genetic clique (family) loves road trips. Road trips to places like Carson city, Kentucky lake, the Redwoods, Crater lake.... now I wish I'd blogged back then. Those are all places I'd love to go back to, and all places that don't compare with my home. I've always been an eagermeister to get back home when I've been on my travels. That fills me with a pang of guilt, but one I'm not entitled to. It's not like I've spent entire months on the road thinking of nothing but my comfy bed and an actual door. It's more like I've subconciously known that I'd be heading home after the trip was over, and that would keep me comfy during the trip. And once in a while, the thought would peek through it's keyhole to remind the rest of my thoughts that I have a home elsewhere. And then I'd get excited. I would never REALLY miss home, 'cause I knew I'd get there eventually. Back in my little league years, when I was a youngster, I'd hate going on vacations! I can't believe it now, and I really hope my family doesn't read this, or I'll hear the words "we told you so" or something like that. The truth is, I had TRUCKLOADS of fun on those trips, and I didn't know it, because my mouth kept spewing words like "I want to go home" or "When do I get to see my friends again". Those words make me feel like I was an ass of a kid. But don't forget, dear readers, SO WERE YOU! There. I'm comforted. Thanks. I loved that my folks took me for epic trips to ass places. Places that were real boring, but contained a small token of character that I have a special compartment for. Each place gets it's own compartment. No mixing in my house. There've been lots of places ON the WAY to boring places that I've remembered moreso than the destination. There. My post is on to it's point. I was afraid there for a minuite. "How the HELL am I going to seguay this?". I remember particularly this one "town" in Utah. It was along some long stretch of highway, about 200 miles long, that was completely straight. And one store. One. For this tiny town. I went inside. Noone. Bathroom? Kinda. So we got our bread (barely) and drove on. And I dont' know why, but that little adventure has a compartment i go back to a lot. I wonder what people think of coquitlam when they drive through on their way to some location they want to get to. I was driving through late at night, and thought to myself that it would be a cool, unique town if I was en route on a road trip. It's just that with road trips, every town has its coolness factor multiplied by about a hundred because it's new, it's fresh, and you might not see it again. So you look at everything like it's a large, scrumptious-looking piece of cake. You'll eat the cake, and it'll probably taste fantastic, so you'll want to remember what it looked like later. Just so you can remember how you felt when it filled you with satisfaction shortly after you ate it. But you'll never have it again. Sad. I was thinking that coquitlam and port moody and port coquitlam really have all the telltale signs that a lot of cities had when I drove through them for 4 minuites and thought "that's a small town". Coquitlam is developing well, and how. But it's streets have too many lanes for the amount of cars most of the time. The buildings are many that have square corners and brown bricks from the 80's. And when electric signage was out, these buildings got it! However, they haven't moved on to more modern things like led's with more than the color red. There are things like the highrises and the townhouses on Forest parkway. There's the fancy new douglas college campus, and the evergreen centre. Those all bring us ahead a few years. But I wonder which people have Coquitlam in a compartment labelled "little city".