I remember asking Dave how he felt as he was leaving New Zealand. He described it as an "awkward emotional moment". I braced for it, watching the island country shrink into the blue horizon. Did I cry? Not exactly. I wanted to. It was gut wrenching knowing all the beautiful places and faces will just be memories from that point on. But just putting into perspective what a overwhelmingly eventful, challenging, and fulfilling year it was, I just wanted to smile, and cry, and laugh at the same time... I think it came out as a grunt... definitely an awkward emotional moment. But there was no point in dwelling on it. This plane wasn't flying home. This boy wasn't done with his adventures quite yet. In a few short hours, this plane was landing in continent #4 (for those keeping track)... Australia... to answer the question... what does Charles do when he has no idea what he's doing... (really, I had no idea) |
Dusk over the Tasman Sea.
I landed in Brisbane. Why Brisbane? Because it was the cheapest ticket from
Auckland. It was evening, about 8PM and I had no accommodations booked, no plans other than visiting my uncle in Sydney, and a ticket to fly out of Darwin about a month later (because it was the cheapest flight out of Australia), but no idea about how I was going to get to Darwin, a city a few thousand miles away. I'll worry about that later. First... a place to stay.
Well, will you look at that... seek and ye shall find. Luckily, Australia, like New Zealand, is extremely backpacker friendly. So at the airport, there were direct phone lines for hostel accommodations. Problem #1 solved.
Problem #2, fill the void in my stomach.
I took a walk around the center of town and came across this burger shop. Damn... that logo is a rip-off of Burger King! Damn... they even have a burger called the Whopper. Damn... their Whopper even tastes like THE Whopper. With all the supporting evidence that this WAS Burger King by a different name, my brain couldn't quite process it until a few days later... ooooooohhhhhhhhh.
A different sense of fashion.
Chinatown. Waaay too clean to be a Chinatown, but that's how the cities are here. When someone asks what Australia is like my first response would be "it's like a clean, laid-back version of America"
You want WWWHAAAAT?
Okay everybody... try to look like you're having a good time for the picture!
