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This is Tony. He's Canadian, as you can probably tell. Want to meet more Canadians? Want to meet some honourary Canadians? Want to be an honourary Canadian? For starters, you can spell "honourary" with a U.
Travis
The Bartender |
Leah
Vancouver, BC |
Rob
Burlington, ON |
Tom
Melbourne, Vic |
Liz
Ottawa, ON |
Caroline
Sweden |
Bjorg
Iceland |
Hitchcock
All Nations |
The Line Dancing Chicks
Alberta (Where else?) |
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Top 5 Things Hostel Patrons Want to Know:
1. "Where's the pub?"
2. "Are you as drunk as I am?"
3. "Is McDonalds nearby?"
4. "Got a light?"
5. "Where's the pub?"
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hostel environment...
It's always a certain kind of person you meet at youth hostels: fresh out of high school or university, seeing the world (or at least, the pubs of the world) before buckling down on a career for the next 40 years. Most men are traveling alone, most women traveling in groups of two or three. The backpacks are enormous, with plenty of room for presents for friends and family, clothing for every night of the week. Roughing it, but still finding the time to put makeup on in the morning.
A hostel is like a bar with beds upstairs. Your average Canadian university pub is about what you can expect from a hostel, complete with the dorms close by. I specify "Canadian university" for two reasons: First, because I've never really been to an American university pub, and second, whatever country you happen to be in, the bar seems to be chock full of two major commodities: Beer and Canadians.
Which brings up an interesting point...
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Amazin' Fact! She's the only Australian under 20 who doesn't like footy, Big Brother, or Kylie Minogue! Wow!
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meet another leah
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Before today, I don't think I knew anyone named Leah, except maybe the jedi. Now I know two! The first one's up above amongst the Canadians we met. The other, Leah Hetherington, is from right here in sunny Ocean Grove. The question is, what's she doing during school holidays?
Monday: Taking the train to Lara for a party!
Tuesday: Calesthetics.
Wed-Fri: Babysitting a 10- and 13-year old.
Sat-Tue: Visiting Nana in Melbourne.
Wed-Sun: No plans as of yet.
Monday: Back to school!
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and now...
how to flip the perfect pancake!
And there you have it. The perfect pancake! Now where's that maple syrup?
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where's wally wombat?
Our Australian travel companion, Wally, always manages to squeeze his stickybeak into one of our photos. Can you find him?
He's a little furry wombat that looks kinda like this.
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Check out our sponsors for Bikeabout!
Keep our trip glorious and free!
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Today is the greatest day of the year... Happy Canada Day! I could use this space to go off into the history of how Canada became a nation, but since there isn't an accurate movie portrayal about it starring Mel Gibson, I really don't know much of the story.
We celebrated Canada's 135th birthday in the traditional Canadian fashion: with maple syrup, the Tragically Hip, and lots of beer. The day began with Kevin's favourite breakfast food, pancakes and wickedly expensive maple syrup. It wasn't even real maple syrup, but even so, it was still pretty pricey. That's the last time I shop down the Imports aisle.
Next, into Melbourne. Since there was no Canada Day party happening out in Ocean Grove (not much of anything happens in Ocean Grove), we dipped into the big city for the All Nations Hotel Canada Day Celebration. Wouldn't you know it? All they had to drink was Carleton Draught and Heineken. Where's the freaking Molson? Where's the Labatt's? These Aussies don't know what's good for 'em.
The party rocked on into the night with plenty of Barenaked Ladies, Nelly Furtado, Alanis and of course, Rush. The night got darker, the music got louder, the patrons got drunker. The Germans thought the Canadians were crazy. The Irish thought the Canadians were sexy. The Canadians thought the New Zealander was creepy. All in all, a cross-cultural celebration to remember. The only thing missing was the firework show at the Thunder Bay Marina (though I've heard rumours that the Ottawa show is better).
"It's too difficult to dry clean my clothes while I'm traveling, so I've started just mailing them home and buying more."
- Liz, Ottawa ON.
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Damn you, Simon! Be assured I'm shaking my fist right now and shouting to the sky!
If you remember Simon from Week 8, he sold us a couple of compact fancy schmancy sleeping bags that "zip together". Well, on closer inspection, Mr. Smartypants, they don't "zip together" like you said. Oh sure, technically you can "zip" them "together", if you like side of one zipped to the feet of the other! My question is, Mr. Big Bakpakka Man, what are you going to do about it?
You'll give us a new one? Thanks buddy! You rock!
"What's next? Our Town starring Guy Pierce?"
- Aimee.
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I tried a Chokito bar today. Wasn't bad.
"I like it when you make eggs and screw up."
- Kevin.
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Since John and Ros have let us stay in their house for two weeks now, it's only polite that we repay them by adding some special touches to their house. So, armed with only $23, we set out to redecorate! It's amazing how much a Pikachu Wind Chime adds character to a place.
Cross your fingers that they won't find everything until we're well out of the state.
"This kitchen is great for throwing stuff!"
- Aimee.
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Speaking of getting out of this state, isn't it about time we did? We've just received word from our good man, Mr. Penninger, that the custom trikes tailored specifically to our bodies are close to being finished. This means we've got a few weeks to squander before we begin cycling. Are we going to spend it in Ocean Grove? Hell no! Our pasty white arses are heading north where the sun is shining, the beaches are clean and the jellyfish are potent, invisible, and can kill you in under a minute. That's more like it!
It was a toss up between Northern Queensland or Fiji, so we popped in to ask a few travel agents what they thought. We came out with a solid decision: Never talk to a travel agent.*
"A low-fare website? No, I don't know anything like that. Besides, that would put us travel agents out of business, and we wouldn't want that, would we?"
- Ocean Grove Travel Agent.
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time change
|  Paperback Hero  |
This photo actually happened last week, but we've gracefully inserted it into this week because nothing noteworthy happened today. Not even a Chokito bar, if you can believe it. That's right, you're looking at a falsely documented piece of history. Which reminds me of the book I'm reading, "Thief of Time." Let me try to describe the plot...
Let's see... well, there's this order of History Monks who cut and paste time into different parts of history because of humankind's ability to bend time, but a sinister plot back in Ankh-Morpork dreamt up by the Auditors to build a glass clock to measure the Tick of the universe has to be stopped by an orphan from the Thieves Guild who can slice time into infinitecimal amounts, oh wait, I forgot about the Milkman, um... oh forget it. Anyway, good book. I'm going back to it.
"Usually short-haired blondes aren't very nice... oh, except your mom!"
- Aimee.
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If there's one thing Aussies can do right, it's fish and chips. Actually, if there are two things the Aussies can do right, they are fish and chips. The third thing is drinking alcohol, followed closely by antivenom, use of the word "bloody", and the Olympics. But today's question... is Barwon Heads Fish & Chips Kiosk worth the walk? The answer: Enh.
"If Bush is a fan of the Osbournes there's no hope left for America."
- Aimee.
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doona:
(n.) Warm, fluffy bed covering. More commonly known as a comforter, duvet or quilt.
the true north
20 
0 
upgrade
$20 
$9.60 
$4 
busy arvo
$1.60 
trading spaces
$3
$2 
$5 
up up & away!
6C 
27C 
boo chips talk
4km 
$9.60 
