Australia

It's been a long time since I posted and I'm well overdue for a posting about Australia.
The Beginning
My Christmas vacation began on December 23 and ended on January 2, 2007. Lou and I left for our Australian adventure on the 23rd on an 8pm flight to Sydney arriving at 8am. We got to the airport around 5pm and proceeded to puruse the Duty Free shops and grabbed our last Korean meal for 9 days. The flight was relatively pain-free, being an overnight flight that Lou and I readily prepared for. Our preparations included two gravols each and two glasses of wine. We each managed to get a few hours sleep and had a huge selection of movies to choose from.
We arrived in Sydney and were practically bursting with excitement. All that waiting, the countdown had finally ended...we were two hours away from our destination and meeting up with Robbie and Barry. The flight to Sydney was the easiest flight I've been on; one hour and five minutes later we landed at Melbourne airport. We got our luggage and cleared customs and made our way out the gate. Seeing the overwhelmingly large crowd we decided not to crane our necks looking for the boys and figured they would see us. We were right and within seconds we saw two Santa hats bobbing our way. After lots of hugs and kisses we headed to the airport bus that would take us to Southern Cross station. From there we got on the tram to Fraser Street stop, a minute walk away from Mr. Cliff's apartment. Lou and I settled in and unpacked a few things. We hit up the market nearby for some groceries to last us through Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. After our shopping trip we settled into the apartment for the night. Wine, rum and cokes and beers flowed and we spent the night catching up and just talking the hours away. Christmas Eve was spent happily drinking and spending time together.
The next day was Christmas DAY!!! We woke up around 10am and it felt really strange. Knowing that it was Christmas but not feeling like it was Christmas is a really weird emotion. However, Barry began to cook a huge breakfast and with the addition of Christmas cd's the mood was slowly being set. Eggs, bacon, toast, croissants and fruit YUM! After breakfast we opened our presents. Mrs. Cliff got all of us presents as well as we had each bought a present for everyone else. The presents were incredible, everyone did an awesome job shopping for one another. :) Robbie and I bought each other clothes for the first time in five years...we had never done that before. I guess after five years of friendship you begin to know what the other person would like in terms of clothing. He got me a beautiful white Rusty tank top with the neckline embroidered in lace. Christmas Day was spent watching Christmas movies and getting ready for our big dinner. Barry and I tackled dinner which consisted of garlic mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing, veggies, corn, gravy and bread. Not as good as Nannie's but delicious nonetheless. My very first Christmas dinner made on my own. Christmas night was spent with seemingly endless bottles of red wine and more endless conversations.
Boxing Day we went to the Melbourne Aquarium which was phenomenal. It was full of every aquatic lifeform that you could imagine. Fishes I've never seen before, sharks I'd never want to see, sting rays bigger than dogs, the world's largest crab and jelly fish so bright they could light up the ocean. We also went out for dinner on Boxing Day to a delicious Greek restaurant in downtown Melbourne. We all got dressed up and splurged on a scrumptious dinner including two bottles of wine. Robbie and I enjoy the red wine. After dinner we went for a long walk through a park then ended up walking home from downtown. It was only about thirty minutes and after stuffing our bellies it was needed. We spent the night a bit more low key because we were waking up to go to Torquay the next morning at 8am.

The Middle
On the 27th we woke up early and headed back to Southern Cross station. We caught a train to Geelong and from there we took a bus to Torquay. Torquay is a surfing town but also full of outlet stores. We arrived there in the afternoon and spent a few hours shopping since the weather was kind of crappy. In those few hours I managed to spent a few hundred dollars on shirts, pants and sweaters. Korea doesn't have the style of clothing I like nor sizes that fit me so I had ensured to bring enough money to indulge in a lot of shopping. That night we drank with people from our hostel (Bells Beach Lodge) and headed to the local bar. After a night of dancing and drinking we all headed back to the hostel and crashed. The hostel was pretty cheap, only $25 per night. We met some great people there.
On the 28th we woke up and the sun was shining!! We got over our hangovers quickly and headed to the beach. After a couple hours of lounging in the sun, Lou and I headed back to our hostel to rent some surfboards and wetsuits. Unfortunately no one was maning the desk at our hostel so we went nextdoor to a surf rental shop. We got boards and suits for $40. After scoring a ride back to the beach with our gear we got a impromptu surf lesson from Robbie. We were stomach down on the beach before heading into the waves. After about twenty minutes of trying to grab a wave I finally did and managed to stand up!! The feeling of catching that first wave was incredible. I can see why people spend their lives travelling around surfing, it's a thrilling rush. We surfed in the ocean for about two hours and then ditched the boards to play in the waves. Lou is one of the funniest people to play in the ocean with, I feel like I'm back to being 8 years old frolicking with Ian on the beach of Gozo. We're both so young at heart. That night we drank again with our hostel friends and went back to the local bar. They had a live ska/reggae band that was amazing. They got off the stage and did a few songs in the middle of the bar floor. There were trumpets, saxaphones, drums and guitars.

The End
On the 29th we headed back to Melbourne by bus and train. We spent the 29th recovering from our two day hostel experience with movies and good food. We also decided to buy a bunch of beer for New Year's Eve after it was agreed upon that we were going to do Century Club for New Year's Eve.
On the 30th we woke up to another beautiful day but after being burned pretty badly in Torquay we couldn't exactly 'beach it up' again. So we went for walks and decided to make a big bbq dinner. The bbq was just outside the apartment in a small park and we brought some beers with us to enjoy cooking outside. We had a visitor while we were cooking, a local dog that came by and decided to pee in our beer bag. He actually didn't pee IN it just ON it. But not one of us moved to stop him we all just burst out laughing. The beer we had bought for the following day didn't last a chance. We finished the entire case of beer between the four of us and had a hilarious night together.
New Year's Eve Day Lou and I had some last minute shopping to do, seeing as we hadn't bought a single souvenir or anything. So while the boys lounged at home Lou and I had our own shopping adventure downtown. We were there for two hours and came home with some delicious Subway for dinner. We had bought tickets to a local bar for New Year's Eve and the doors opened at 8pm. We got two free drinks and finger food with our tickets so we wanted to get there early. We began our Century Club around 6pm. Century Club entails drinking one shot of beer every minute for one hundred minutes. Essentially you're doing 100 shots of beer. It gets quite messy around one hour or shot number 60. Barry, Robbie and I managed to finish and Lou had to tap out around 80. Not that I blame her in the least. We walked to the bar and spent a few hours socializing with the crowd and each other. We got our two free drinks and made a group decision to head back to the apartment for the countdown. Once back at the apartment we saw HUGE fireworks happening over the city so we walked across the street to the massive park behind the tram tracks. We heard other people yelling for the countdown and realized it was now 2007. After kisses and hugs Lou and Barry headed off to play in the sprinklers. Robbie and I found a dry spot and lay down to watch the fireworks and talk about each other, our friends, our Christmas vacation together and our experiences in Australia and Korea. We also talked about the next few months and what they have in store for us. We managed to get back to the apartment and fell asleep around 3am.
New Years Day, the alarm goes off at 5:30am. After my lengthy 2 and 1/2 hours sleep Lou and I had to drag our asses out of bed. After tired but emotional goodbyes we caught a cab to Melbourne Airport. We made it to our check in with three minutes to spare. We literally got the airport at 6:25am for our 7:00am flight, talk about cutting it close. But we made it and boarded our plane to Sydney. At Sydney airport we grabbed a quick bite and again were running through the terminal to make it to our boarding. The entire day was full of close calls. But again we boarded no problem and settled in for our ten hour flight back to Seoul. As a bonus we managed to get a three seater to ourselves!! And another bonus was the movie Step Up that was playing which I hadn't seen and had a gorgeous lead male actor. We caught an hour or two of sleep but were up for most of the flight. Once we landed in Seoul at Incheon we passed through customs and waited for our bags. After waiting for over 45 minutes and Lous bag coming out within the first 5 minutes it was clear something wasn't right. I reported my bag missing and worked out with the Korean staff what had happened. Apparently our transfer time from Melbourne to Sydney wasn't long enough to ensure all the bags were transferred so my bag was most likely in Sydney. Nothing I could do but go home and wait for my bag to be found in Sydney and flown back to Seoul. After calling Seoul airport for three days straight afterwards my bag was found! I received it on Thursday after we got home. Thank god, it had my life in it, not to mention my new purchases!!
So all in all it was an incredible trip. After not seeing Robbie for four months when we're used to seeing each other everyday it was a much needed trip for the both of us. The longest we had gone without seeing each other for the last five years had been a month at most. We did a lot of catching up and got in a ton of hanging out. As sad as I was to leave I was also really happy about the trip which outweighed the sadness. It was also awesome to see Barry again, he's become such a good friend to me as a result of being Robbie's best friend. We get along so well and I'm so happy for him and Robbie. To be backpacking and travelling around Australia with your bestfriend would be an unreal experience. They're lucky guys living the dream. I'm living a different dream but it's the perfect experience for me right now. The week after Christmas was kind of gloomy. After a week of being in Australia with the sunshine and summer it was hard adjusting back to damp, cold, dirty, grey Seoul. But the gloominess wore off after a huge snowfall in Seoul which made me feel better. A bunch of us also rented a cottage this weekend and I got the opportunity to go snowboarding. Being back on a board was the best thing for me. My mood was completely lifted and I felt the familiar love of winter that I'd usually experience in Collingwood, only I was doing it in Korea. Made me feel more whole again.
So there it is. The big long update I'd been procrastinating and now it's done! :) More blogs to come now that this big one is out of the way.