Games and awesome hostels

'Ello there mate!

So day two at flashpackers in Hervey Bay. The breakfast was ama - wait for it - zing. I had some cereal and two toasted peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches. You could say it was kind of a different feeling from the now usual fist of peanuts and water.

We ate canned beans yesterday that was kinda ok. It was only $1.30! Bargain price if I ever saw one! We didn't even have to use our pasta (yeah, we have a bag of pasta and some BBQ-sauce we stole at the bushcamp).

Later today there's even a free BBQ, and we'll probably head out drinking after that.

On a totally different topic, me and Henrik are having a really good time. We are getting some internal jokes and we've started a few really fun (read juvenile or inappropriate) games. For example: If we see a hot looking girl walking down the street or maybe just past us, we say really loud to eachother "man, she's got a nice ass that one!" (this is kinda cencured as well), but in swedish. I don't know why, but it is really funny. We have to be carefull though, since alot of the words we use in sweden are english ones. We've had some really close encounters.

Another observation is that there's a lot of germans here. And I mean a lot. Also there's a horde of brittish people, watching the rugby and enjoying traveling. The dutch has also invaded. Mostly though, there's a lot of germans.

I'll add some pictures of Hervey bay, even though there's really nothing special about the city. Maybe I'll update some later but I think it'll have to wait for tomorrow.

Cya guys!

Free wifi, free breakfast

Hi friends, family, strangers and stalkers.

We arrived today, after a four and a half hour trip by bus, to Hervey bay.

Once we got of the bus we found a shuttle heading for flashpackers, so we asked them what the cost for a night was. A cute norwegian girl replied that they charged $24 per night. They had free breakfast - and free wifi. Score!

After we arrived in Hervey bay we met a really nice brittish girl who later joined us hunting for food in the supermarket a couple of k's away.

After our cooked beans in a can me and Henrik chilled, talked to the UK girl and a finnish dude, and then I set up my computer. I've just stopped talking to all the missed people back home but I'll try again tomorrow.

Hopefully I can write some interesting sh*t tomorrow but for now, screw you guys.

A little update from Halls Lodge

Hi guys and guuurls!

I'm sitting in Halls Lodge on a Wifi a roomate gave me. She was heading out for a run and so she gave me her Wifi, crazy (but nice) canadians.

So, we are still in Noosa which is north of the city of Brisbane where we arrived. We are headed north to Cairns for work, but on the way we are stopping at some "have to see" locations. One of them was the Gagaju bushcamp, since you could go kajaking in and around Everglade which is a national park. We were hoping to see some cool animals, and we did, mostly birds though.

 

So the first time kajaking was actually kinda awesome. Me, Henrik and Ben went in the same kajak and it turned out Ben was a really cool guy. We talked a bunch as we were paddeling up and down the river.

The river ended up, in both directions, to seperate lakes. They were really shallow, like knee-deep, but also pretty large. We paddled to the beach of the lake, walked to the second oldest pub in Australia, then returned again in the afternoon. I was feeling a bit skittish about the whole kajak trip, since Andy, one of the guys that worked there and picked us up, told us there were bullsharks in the water. For you guys at home, bullsharks are kinda big, and very aggressive. They are also known to charge and headbutt their prey (sometimes being kajaks) and then killing them. Crikey!

I was at the back of the kajak since the strongest one in the kajak should be there (hello ladies ;p). That ment that I was in a way very close to the sides of the kajak and I had a feeling I was exposed sitting there, which made my fear of bullsharks (although not likely) creep up on me at times.

The second day Henrik was feeling really tired and he decided to stay in the camp. Me and Ben went by ourselves with the nine other kajaking people. It turned out really nice anyway.

We left the camp kind of early and was back at Halls Lodge in Noosa at about 10 or 11. We met a few of the people from camp here as well. One of those people was Frans from germany who is a awesome guy. He feels very well-traveled and experienced, although he's only 19 years old. I have written a page on my phone called "Frans tips" where we write everything he says down. At night we met up with a few other people from camp and went out drinking in Noosa.

After the nights in the cold and sleeping in tents with packed dirt floors, we slept really well last night and ended up sleeping until 11, which was really nice.

We met a bunch of awesome people, saw some cool looking birds (Oh, and we saw a wallabie and some big fruit bats as well!). Now we are heading further up north and our next stop is Harvey Bay (or rainbow beach if we decide to stop there) where we'll be leaving for Fraser islands and a three day trip there. After that it's off to the boat called Avatar for drinking and partying.

On a completely different note me and Henrik are discussing if Australia is to expensive. We have begun talking about Asia instead, since we've heard from almost everyone that it's so much better (read cheaper alcohol, cheaper living, cheaper food...) than Australia for backpacking. My, myself, feel that I'm not done with Australia though. I want to find work and maybe stay here some more. Maybe me and Henrik are headed for different directions. Then again, a cool one month holiday with a great friend, doesn't sound bad at all.

See you guys around!

Cold nights and warm beaches

The bigger update will have to wait a bit longer! I'm hiding at the cafe again and we are staying one more night in Noosa. I'll tty to get a one hour free pass at the hostel tonight.

In short we got to Noosa, stayed at this beautiful place called Halse Lodge and then left the next morning to go to Gagaju (pronounced gag a jew) bushcamp.

The trip started out with a half an hours drive to the camp. The camp site was sort of at the end of what can only be described as a australien trailer park in the middle of the forest. Me and Henrik both reacted the same way: "what the hell have we gotten ourselves into".

On the way there we met a dutch guy called Dimard (pronounced "dmart" wich later became "the crazy dutch bastard" and "Quickymart") and two people from Cornwall called Ben and Lillie. At the camp site we were about 30 people at a time, some leaving, some arriving every day. We met a lot of really, really nice people, and alot of crazy dutch bastards.

The first day we chilled and enjoyed the sun. Then the night came.

Let's just say we froze our asses off in the barracks. It was REALLY cold. Like really cold. We had hired a sleeping bag though, and I swear I would have been dead if I hadn't.

The other two nights we slept outside in a tent. It wasn't warmer, if you catch my drift. It also wasn't that comfortable since we were sleeping on one centimeter thick foam matresses. Puh.

On the days however, the weather was perfect. Sunny and waaarm. We went kayaking (spelling?) to one direction on the river that was just beside the camp one day, and then theother direction the following one.

I'll try to add more later because my phone is now at eleven percent batteri. We're heading for the beach now.

We'll catch you some day milkthief!

Quicky with mr.WiFi

Captains log:

Me and Henrik survived a three day camping trip in the australian bush. Alot of things happened, alot of new friends were made, and now I'm sitting outside a café hiding. I don't want to pay for it so be quiet.
I'll do a massive update when I have acces to free reliable internet again.
For now; Shark in the water!

Yolo

So yesterday night, before sleeping, we were talking to these british fellows. 

They told us that finding work in Brisbane was kinda hard if you weren't looking for work in the construction-area. You who know me know that I, like my brothers (well, perhaps not Viktor if my sources are correct) are basically retarded when it comes to stuff like that. We asked them where they would go to find a job and Cairnes popped up. “You should head north to Cairnes guys. There's always fruit to be picked and what not”. So why am I telling you this? Patience my dear reader, patience!

After our hearty breakfast of beef jerky and chicken flavoured potato chips, we were walking through the streets and found this travel agency, Wicked travel. In the shop a guy from Toronto greeted us and wanted to know where we were heading. We said we didn't know but that we had heard some great things about going north.

We spent almost three hours in there, talking to him, talking amongst ourselves. Suddenly we decided; f*ck Brisbane, lets go to Cairns. The guy helped us set up a trip with bus and he threw in some activities for us as well. When the final thing landed on 1800 dollars, me and Henrik looked at each other, nodded in unison, and left the damn place. I mean, 1800 dollar, really? (For you guys at home that's about 1800*6,5 SEK).
After a while we talked things over and then decided to go back. We told the guy that skydiving and scuba diving could wait at least until we had had some work and earn ourselves some money. He put together a package that cost 1147 dollars (If I remember it correctly), dropped it down to 999 dollars, and then gave us discounts on the hostels on the way up. I'm almost certain we got had, but me and Henrik both feel this is the way to go. This is what we came for. That is; throwing ourselves out in dangerous terrain doing stupid sh*t. The worst thing that could happen is losing all our money, right? Well besides dying at least.

So tomorrow we leave for Cairns. We have two “camping” trips and one boat trip ahead of us and it feels really good. To top it all of we heard from our friend Doug again. He said that if we were heading up north, he could maybe get us a job as banana pickers (mmmm, bananas), because he had a friend up there. Score motherf*ckers!

This is me signing off. Stay tuned people!

Oh, by the way, we also got our tax number application sorted out and we hope to get an email within a couple of weeks time. We also ate at Hungry Jacks', australias Burger king, and briefly visited a topless bar (weeeooo). 

One last thing. I'll try to add pictures to these as we go, but the wifi at this current hostel is worthless when it comes to uploading pictures. Also, I miss you guys at home, and I promise I'll be back... at least in a year... I think...

The beginning of an adventure! (or the start of a failure)

This all started a long time ago in sweden. There were two guys there that wanted to travel the world and do stuff. They were both in relationships though, and as such the trip was a loose idea. A concept really. That was all about to change though...

Bah, f*ck it. So the first two days were spent travelling. I swear that after the first two flights, one and a half hour and six hours respectively, I was so done with flying.

We landed in Abu Dhabi-airport, which was kinda cool. The architecture was exotic to say the least, I even drew one of the flight towers in my sketchpad. As we arrived we walked about and tried to make our legs work again. We found our terminal, and then realised we had to wait four hours until boarding. We sat around, listened to some music (thank god for spotify), and I drew in my sketchpad.

After a while we got hungry and decided to try out the local food. When we were finished with our whoppers at Burger king, we returned to the gate, before yet again boarding our airplane. As I said I was really done flying... Then the first eight-houred flight came.

It literally kicked my ass. No, I mean it, my ass hurt after all that sitting. It was also as if I'd been living on the damn plane for a week. I felt disgusting and worn out. Phew.

As the plane was landing and the strange arabic chants faded from the airplane radio, we had arrived in Singapore. “...and illegal drugs will put to a mandatory death sentence”, the voice said casually in the speakers. It was no worry though since I had taken all my drugs the day before (I'm kidding dad). You know that weird feeling you get when you know you have nothing to hide, but someone is threatening you to death? Yeah, me neither.

We came to the airport and walked towards our gate. We both agreed, me and Henrik that is, that it smelled of old people. And the carpeted floor of green leaves didn't help either. After Abu Dhabi it was kind of a disappointment. Get your sh*t together Singapore.

The staff checked our tickets, three times in the same amount of metres, and we were off yet again, and on the same airplane none the less. This time it was only (f*cking) seven hours though.

We arrived in Brisbane at about 9:20, to a clear blue sky. In the airplane, just before landing, I struck up a conversation with a dude called Doug after he loaned me a pen so I could fill in the immigration papers. He even helped me and Henrik with it. We talked a little and he told us he was heading home to the gold coast from a trip in Europe. When everything was done in the security (guys, get this. The security officers smiles and talks with you), we came out to call a cab. Did we need one though? No, because Doug, friendly australian that he is, offered us a ride in his friends car (another friendly australian named Amy) and they then proceeded to drive us to our hostel. The didn't even accept any gasmoney!

We came to the hostel and checked in. We took a long shower, and I swear I felt as a new man. During the day we walked a bit through the streets of Brisbane, got ourselves an australian bank account, and finally had some beers at the pub downstairs in the hostel.

Henrik is bugging me now that I've been writing for too long and to all of you reading this, I apologize. I don't think the rest of the posts will be as long as this one though, but you never know. So this is me signing off on the first few days. Maybe I'll fill in a few blanks later.

I'll write soon. Leave some comments in the bottom (he he) of the blog if you wish. I'll try to skype with anyone that wants on sunday, but my parents are first in line.

Oh! By the way. We are about eight hours in front of you guys and it's winter here. Which means it's about 20 degrees Celsius in the day. There's a lot of irish and brittish people around it seems (oh and asians, lots of them), but so far Doug and Amy are the “only” australians we've met so far.

See you guys tomorrow. Or the next day. Or maybe the day after that.  

- Filip

An introduction

Hi guys!

So I was thinking about writing this in swedish, but then I remembered that I have some english friends as well, and most of them doesn't speak swedish. My swedish friends however, do speak english, so there you have it. These posts will be littered with typos and bad language so please feel free to swear at the computer (or send me a private message so I can correct it) at any time.

What is the blog about?

This blog is the story of two guys trying to find adventure in the land down under, the huge country of Australia. It is an ongoing story which could very well end any day, since none of us have any idea what we are doing.

Why write it though?
Well, some of my friends (yes, I have those) wanted me to write here since we cannot call each other every day.

I'll try to keep this thing updated once in a while (read: whenever I feel like it), and I'll write what's happening at the moment and my general thoughts about it. As you can tell this will be a dive into the genius that is me, so don't be surprised if I blow your mind a few times (well, if I even get any readers).
On the subject of the last little afterthought, I don't really care if anyone reads it. I will treat this as a journal as well (gaaay) so I can remember the trip and track my progress (or failure).

So, welcome. And enjoy your stay.