Round The World: [Days 28-35] On the 8th Day God Created Awesome (aka Sydney)

These few days were full and insane. Met up with Karen, Crystal, and Maskell from SDSU. We'll recap it all as quick as we can for you.

Late afternoon as the plane descends into Australia. From the window we watch jet-skiers rocket down the coast; not a cloud in the sky. In customs we're greeted by a big blue mural: 'Welcome to Sydney.' Beneath it is a row of airport-style chairs. Black leather. The only people sitting are two employees. Bradon says “Dude! Take a picture of me sittin' with those two old ladies!” He rushes over. I bust out my camera and peer through the viewfinder. Flash. All of a sudden the women scream at me in the most frightened/angry tone, you'd a thought I was decapitating a koala bear. “NO PHOTOS IN THIS AREA!” HOLY CRAP LADIES! One runs over and demands my camera. I tell her screw herself. Three federal officers tackle me: boot to my temple, hands cuffed, lots of yelling. Just kidding. But she did make me delete the photo and I really did request her to settle down. Australia here we come!

Take a short taxi to Karen's apartment... it's in the heart of the city! On the way we meet the coolest couple: originally from Vietnam but spent the past 14 years in Brisbane. We discuss all sorts of things: driving on the wrong side of the road, the husband's consulting company, Australian transvestites. They tell us about Chinese New Year and how it's a family holiday so most shops close. They say they'll be in Saigon with their family. So will we! They invite us over! AWESOME! He gives me his business card and I receive it with both hands.

545pm. Walk into Karen's apartment and she's Skyping with the roommate/ our college buddy Maskell. He's over in Hong Kong with his boss; business trip but they missed their morning return flight; salvaged the situation by emptying the minibar. They're joking and dancing around in the most fantastic display of fun and debauchery. Maskell starts yelling out ridiculous stories from the night before. He screams “KAREN! KAREN! BRADON & MINCKS! CRYSTAL! KARRENNN! WE MISSED OUR FLIGHT! HAHAHAHA!” among other things. Crystal informs us that we're going to the casino in an hour. Rad.

Waiting for us there is Karen's friend Mark and their two other Aussie buddies. Mark's cool as hell. Nightlife guru, seems to know everyone in town as well as the entire rap industry (literally), has some weird Chinese fish that's bright gold and worth $10K. We test our luck at the black jack tables and I quickly double my money! YES! I get cocky and lose it all— discover profanity is forbidden at black jack tables. Who knew? Float around the bar a bit and soak in the terrific skyline. Eventually, we swim over to the Hugo's Nightclub for pizza and drinks. 9pm.

It's an upscale lounge jamming with beautiful women and great music. We order 6 delicious pizzas and grub every last crumb. Girls drink champagne, guys drink beer. Dance a bit, talk a lot, and eat way too much. 11pm— cab it to the bar district and stroll into Dragonfly.

Apparently Dragonfly's an after-hours bar as it's just starting to rev up. Music is rockin and the ceiling is all disco balls! WOAH! 12pm. Amazing women are everywhere and they love the American accent. I go outside for fresh air and meet two blonds. Amy's from Wales and Sarah's from Wisconson. Amy is a total dime and dances like a sunshine machine, while Sarah pretty much sucks and dances with a scowl. Crystal, Karen, Amy, Bradon, and me dance all night. An MC starts rapping over the techno music, then starts singing. And he's great! Rage 'til 5am!

The best way to acclimate yourself to any new environment is to party your ass off with good friends. I woke up on a twin mattress in the living room of Karen's chique little apartment. Shirt, shoes, and socks were off. Nice. Fell asleep to an episode of Friends. Phoebe was twitterpated over some dude, at least that's how it began. The best alarm clock, next to some sweet sweet lovin, is the hushed chit-chat of friends warmly reminiscing about the fun you all had just 6 hours previous. Karen's at class. Crystal and Brado are catching up. Being far away from home manifests the most amazing connection between you and any acquaintance, and deepens the relationship between you and any friend... both immediately blossom into a fizzy shared glee. Hangover hunger hits the three of us hard and we start wandering around town. Nobody really cares what we eat, just where. Crystal's little travel book says great views are at Darling Harbor!

Later that evening, Mark, Karen, Crystal and us dine at an extravagent restaurant for Crystal's last night in Oz: amazing views of the Sydney bridge and the world famous opera house. Absolutely incredible. After that we wander over to Opera Bar for a bottle of wine. We just sit around this red harborside table, 100 metres from the iconic building, beneath the stars, enjoying eachothers company. At night the Opera House is a magnificent spectacle. It's elegantly illuminated and swarms of gulls circle above, looks like a party of fireflies waltzing in the moonlight.

11pm. Maskell arrives looking the victim of a bear-mawling; says food poisening vanquished him to the airplane bathroom for of the entire flight... the worst 12 hours of his life. He then recites hilarious tales of Hong Kong and we fire back stories of New Zealand. The laughter of people you care about is always so comforting... it fills the air and warm energy hums. And there we were, surrounded by friends old & new, overcome by that rare peace which manifests when everything fits.

Over the next few nights we partied with friends from Auckland whom happened to be in Sydney; Andrew, Pamela, Anna, Kristin and Eeda. Every night was an adventure in itself and needless to say very drunk...

Friday was Halloween. We decided that dressing up was a must even though it's not too big in Oz: nobody trick-or-treats but most backpackers costume and 'get on the piss' (drink heavily). So, that morning we sauntered over to a strange flea market to realize outfits, still very buzzed from the night before. A few ideas catch traction: Italian Guidos, Firemen, White Trash Americans... none really keep our attention.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, Bradon spots the most neon yellow tanktop he's ever seen... IT'S ON! He notices a matching orange one. Immediately after, Brad's eyes are again redirected to neon yellow and neon orange hats, equally if not more bright than the tanks; AND, the hats have neck shades, making them the stupidest articles of clothing on earth, hands down! There we had it. We buy everything neon in that crazy little market and agree to figure out what in hell to call ourselves upon sobering up.

Drop off our bags-of-greatness at the Hostel, eat an Irish Breakfast in an Irish pub, then meet up with Maskell and bus it over to world famous Bondi Beach. The weather is paradise, aside from the annoying flies, which for some reason love my nostrils.

[Bradon wrote the rest]
The Beach is a massive horseshoe; the transluscent water is a heavenly blue. One thing about Australia is that the sun is much stronger than in Cali and you can burn in 15 minutes! I bought sunscreen at the flea market earlier that day, but I'm convinced it was just white paste. Garrett used some but for some reason couldn't rub it in to his face, providing constant comedy for everyone the entire day... hilarious!

On the way back, we stopped at McDonalds for 30-cent ice-cream cones and I ate 4. We then went to a Chipotle-style burrito place. It was the closest thing to real Mexican food since we left and it was so good. Tapatio hot sauce, Pacifico Beer, just like SD. It was in the gay district of town so we sat outside and played a fun little game of guess the gender. Soon enough the sun began to set and it was time to get suited up in our neon attire and figure out exactly what we were going to tell people we were. Our two Swedish friends Anna and Kristin came over to our hostel for a preparty. After a few cocktails we decided that when people asked what we are we would simply respond, “I'm the definition of awesome,” or “You ever heard of the word awesome? Well thats what I am”, etc. It sounded like a great idea after a few drinks and we went with it the whole night. We ventured out to a backpacker bar nearby and to our delight everyone was dressed up. We got plenty of high fives for our outfits the entire night. And when you dress as ridiculous as we were you automatically are given the license to dance like a complete jack-ass and we took advantage of that license the entire night. We were dancing so much a few people thought we were dressed up as laser beams...haha!

After a few hours of debauchery there, we decided to head to a dirty Irish bar down the street. On the way there, I decided to test out his hand-stand skills on the sidewalk; you think you can do a lot of things when you are drunk. After a few ugly tries I took a nasty spill to the ground messing up my hip and elbow pretty good. While in line at Scruffy's Garrett leans up against the railing, only the railing is in sections and he doesn't realize it. The railing and him go crashing down onto the sidewalk and it makes a massive scene; it doesn't help that he is wearing neon Orange all over his body either. The security guards assume Garrett is too drunk and don't let us in the bar, which puts an abrupt end to our night. But we had a blast nonetheless as the definition of awesome that Halloween night.

The next night was our last in Sydney as we had to make a 9 am flight Sunday morning. Some of our favorite dj's who happen to be from Australia happened to be playing that night at a club called tank. So we decided it only right to party all night to the sounds of some of our favorite dj's and not go to sleep at all, then get on our flight to Cairns. The club itself was really cool. There were two levels with three different rooms of music. But the only room we cared about was the main one where our dj's were playing. Their name is the Bang Gang Dee Jay's and they are a crew of eight. They were all taking turns djing and often had two guys djing at once. But they were all on point the entire night, mixing in and out of songs so seamlessly easy it was incredible. Their skill level is at a point I can only dream of being at one day; hands down one of the best dj performances I have ever seen! We rocked out on the dance floor the entire night. Garrett started to fall asleep around 5:30 am so we had to call it a night. We took a cab home, packed our stuff and headed to the airport. At this point we were both starting to get hungover and the needless to say the plane flight to Cairns was very painful do to the fact that they don't serve booze on domestic flights...awwwww! But the agonizing three hour flight was well worth our amazing last night in Sydney.

Hugo's! Josh, Bradon, Karen, Mark, Crystal, and your's truly