Quickie post while I have internet since I’ll be out on Fraser Island the next couple days.
The rest of my time hanging out with David was fun and pretty relaxed. Mostly amounted to a bit of shopping and a few more dips in the ocean wave before we headed to Brisbane yesterday to see the city and take in the ANZAC parade.
ANZAC day marks the anniversary of the beginning of the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during World War I. Much like Canada, Australia (and to a lesser extent New Zealand) are thought to have come of age during WWI with Gallipoli being their first major contribution. Apparently ANZAC day is a much larger day of remembrance than November 11th in Australia and New Zealand. We ended up taking the train into town (full of veterans) and set ourselves up to watch the parade through downtown. We watched a number of the veterans groups march by as well as some re-enactors before the modern troops walked by. We also saw a few of the Yellow Cab company cabs from yesteryear, which I suppose proves that the orange “yellow” cabs have always been a thing.
Today was a crash reintroduction to the terrible world of Greyhound. We started out with a packed bus out of Surfers Paradise that took forever to load and left 15 minutes late. We made another stop only 10 minutes outside of Surfers, not even farther out than David’s place. I think I ended up as the only person who didn’t have someone sitting next to them, so either I smelled or I looked so peeved that no one wanted it. In the end when I checked my watch 75mins or so after departure we were still someplace that I knew was within a 15 minute drive of where I’d been staying the past week.
When booking this section of the trip on the greyhound website I’d chosen to take a trip that took slightly longer but was one service rather than transferring in Brisbane. It turns out that was a wasted effort since this service transferred to another (shittier) bus in Brisbane anyway so I might as well have stopped in Brisbane for the layover and spent less time cramped up on the smaller bus. Apparently the A/C in this bus was also stuck on high and most of us spent the rest of the trip shivering away. I also wasn’t lucky enough to get a row to myself this time. Worse, I got a loudmouthed American who had very little concept of the space one seat provides and proceeded to shove various body parts in my direction for the next few hours.
As part of that shuttle I passed through a number of smaller towns that are apparently quite nice. All of them are of the little beach town variety however, something I’ve done a lot of already, so I don’t feel too regretful about passing them by. About an hour and a half from Hervey Bay I traded away my incredibly pushy seat mate as half the bus got off, but in return got someone in the seat in front who smelled as if he hadn’t showered in 3 days. I ended up pulling my backpack onto my lap and opening up the chip bag inside so that the chilli fumes wafted up into my face and overpowered his BO a little. By the time we arrived in Hervey Bay I was practically turning blue.
Thankfully the hostel here in Hervey is everything that was promised. It’s called the Friendly Hostel and it certainly is. They have 4 apartment unit style setups. Mine has one 3 bed dorm (just singles, no bunks), one straight double bed room, and one twin single room. Between these 7 people (only 5 in ours atm) there is a shared kitchen of decent size, a shower/toilet and a small tv/common room. Also lovely is the fact that each bed comes with a locking cupboard (full length), bedside table, lamp, FOUR SLOT POWER BAR!!! and a comfy pillow.
I’m really looking forward to Fraser Island for some sand and dingoes tomorrow, everyone I’ve met who has headed out there has loved it. A little scary to think that tomorrow marks the 3 weeks left mark though.