Brisbane & Beyond!

So I know this is a little bit after the fact, but I wanted to write a little review of Brisbane all its own just because I had such a great time there!

I arrived on a Saturday afternoon after my long, 28 hour hitch from Cairns, and was warmly welcomed by my friend Boo (who I had met in Sydney and hung out w/ a few times) & his housemates at the fabulous Brereton Street house. We had dinner and caught up until it was time to go to an engagement party for a friend of theirs who I had never met, which was being held at the house of my friends Anna and Holly. The party was totally fun, and I was surprised to run into several more people I have met through the years- two of whom remembered me from a squat we stayed at in Barcelona 3 years ago! I hit it off with a few people and had a generally good time just chatting away, catching up and getting to know new people until I was too tired to talk anymore. I walked back to the house and crashed out on the futon in the living room, too exhausted to even get up and move when other beds were evacuated and offered to me early the next morning. It felt really good to get a solid night's sleep after several restless nights in hostels and the back of a truck!

The next few days I went exploring the city with Boo and/ or his housemate Tonia, which included eating fake chicken at the veggie Chinese restaurant, going up to the top of Mt. Koot-tha to overlook the city, playing lots of dice games and cooking and eating lots of yummy food, at both the Brereton St. kitchen or the local vegan restaurant down the road (The Forest- has really good cherry vanilla cake & tempeh sandwiches)!

On Tuesday I moved into Anna's room at the Jane St house, where the party was happening the night of my arrival. Anna had to go to Townsville for a feminist conference for work, so she kindly offered me the use of her room while she was gone. It was nice to have a little refuge of my own, and I managed to read 3 books (Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende, Mrs. Frisby & the Rats of NIMH- an old favorite from my childhood, and a really beautiful graphic novel called The Arrival by Shawn Tan, who apparently has written/ illustrated several other really awesome books). I miss reading so much sometimes- I know I am on vacation when I have the time to read!!! Incidentally, I also went on the read Sarah Waters' Fingersmith, which was excellent. But back to the story.

On Wednesday night I went to the house of Carmel and Kylie, the girls I knew from Barcelona, for a late dinner, which was really fun. They are both really friendly and funny so I felt pretty comfortable right away, which I oftentimes have a really hard time doing with people I don't know super well.

Yeah, so Brisbane- what else happened? Oh, well, on Friday the 21st the Brereton St kids put on a little Cabaret night and it was sooo cute and fun! They even let me MC (well, actually no one else wanted to or was able to do it, so I stepped in), which was totally fun cause we all know I like to be loud and in front of an audience. I got to wear the infamous "butch dress", so named because of its ability to make even the butchest of people look lovely and femme, just by slipping it on! Boo and Marnina did a really awesome sailor-themed acrobatic striptease thing, and Holly and Shannon and a couple of their friends did a really cute dance performance with a cowboy flavor to it. Later on there was arm-wrestling, dice, and even some spin-the-bottle going on, so I think everyone had a pretty good time! When I get my camera back and eventually get on a computer, I will put up a few photos of the night and Brissie in general.

Anyway, so that went on late into the night. We were all gonna go to the Markets the next morning, but at 10 am I was the only 0ne even remotely awake, due only in part to the fact that I had been told in no uncertain terms that the vegan sausage roll stand would be out of them by 11 at the latest. Alas, after finally rousing Tonia and hassling her into getting dressed and running down there, the warning turned out to be accurate and so we had to share their final "Dagwood Dog" (kind of like a corndog but the batter was just wheat flour not corn) and a samosa, which must have totally met my grease intake quotient for the month; kind of a nasty way to start the morning, but what can you do?

The market itself was really nice, though, and really crowded. There was a good amount of organic produce as well as all the usual hippie vendors selling mystical rocks, raw food treats, Tibetan dresses and homemade candles. There was plenty of non-hippie stuff too, but nothing too noteworthy. I was eyeing up some sexy cutting boards but I restrained myself, all too aware of my propensity for picking up crap I can't take back with me...

My last day in town was Sunday, and in the morning I finished working on the little project that Tonia and I had started...I decided to bury some treasure, to be located and dug up by the next person I know who goes to Brisbane (so if you're going to Brisbane, let me know and I'll give you the map!!!). It took me hours and hours, but I was pretty pleased with the result, and Tonia and I found a really great spot to bury it in. So that was the first place we went, en route to meeting Holly and a few other folks at the Korean bathhouse for an afternoon of hot tub relaxation! It was really nice there, though once we arrived and watched how the Korean ladies were really going all out with their loofahs, creams, oils etc, we regretted not having brought masks and exfoliating products of our own! I guess it's like, if you're gonna pay $15 to use the place you may as well make the most of it. But now we know... every day's a school day, I always say...

After the baths I went with Tonia, Holly and Holly's girlfriend Shannon to eat at a Tibetan restaurant. I was really excited because the food all looked and smelled really good, but when mine came out I was shocked and sad to see that it was made up of 50% TVP chunks, which were really not very good at all. I guess I should have said something, since nowhere on the menu did it mention this, and I didn't really enjoy my meal, but by that time I felt like I'd already had a bit of drama just trying to explain the vegan thing to the waitress that I didn't want to deal with it again. We made up for it by going back to The Forest and sharing a slice of really delicious chai cake, and then eventually back to Brereton St where the house was also saying goodbye to Boo, who was due to fly out the next to Melbourne en route to America for queeruption. All in all, it was a wonderful time and I'm really glad I got to go!

So with that I will leave you, until I can post my further adventures...

xoxo, P.

Got to Brissie all safe and sound!

Hey ya'll, just wanted to write a quick post to say I got to Brisbane all safe and sound after a long, exhaustive but shockingly easy 29-hour hitch from Cairns. I left yesterday morning and got my first ride before I could even set my stuff down; that guy dropped me at a servo where I immediately was picked up by this hare krishna guy who, we figured out after a few minutes, I had talked to in his veggie restaurant a few days prior. He was going to visit his sick grandad to try to save his soul, and dropped me at another servo in Innisfail. Within five minutes of landing there I got a ride with an old, crusty truckie who was going all the way to Sydney and gladly gave me a lift the rest of the way. He even bought me my meals, amongst reassurances that all he wanted was someone to talk to. I subtly let him know that that was good because I hate having to hurt people who try anything, but it was all good cause he really was totally harmless. He regaled me with stories of his dead wife, his dogs, his son and daughter-in-law, and all the different ways you can disguise the flavor of one kind of animal by using extract of another to make it taste better (i.e., oyster sauce on venison, rabbit cooked in chicken stock). He really didn't get the vegan thing but you can't win 'em all I guess. I rolled up to my friends' house around 3 this afternoon and I expect I'll be staying here for about a week or so before heading down to Sydney, so there you have it- here I am! I'm getting really excited about Queeruption in Vancouver too so I'll be having fun till I see ya'll again, wherever you are! Big hugs as always, Pike.

The Amazing, Beautiful Great Barrier Reef

Wow. I am sitting in another internet cafe right now, this time in the center of Cairns, a tacky but well-intentioned hive of tourists and backpacker-oriented attractions. After almost three weeks on the road with my dirty little crew of anarchist travellers, I finally broke off yesterday to start my descent back down the coast. I was going to leave them two nights earlier, but they talked me into coming with them into the Atherton tablelands for a couple of days, reassuring me that it was a really easy hitch back to Cairns, and I'm glad I did. After crossing the ferry back from the Daintree, we stopped briefly in Cairns to re-up our supplies and then headed west. Our first stop off was Barron Gorge National Park, where we crashed in the parking lot for a very cold night. In the morning it quickly warmed back up, though, and soon it was blazingly hot- until I went for a walk in the woods. The thick rainforests were cool and calm and unbelievebly lush, just like all the other "bush" I've seen so far. I wanted to stay a lot longer, but felt guilty for ditching the group and possibly holding everyone up for too long, so I hiked around for a couple of hours before I reluctantly re-joined the posse. We eventually got all our stuff together and headed on, this time turning off only 7 km up the road at Davies Creek National Park. It was totally different, but just as stunning. There were just enormous boulders everywhere and when we drove higher up the mountain we were suddenly overlooking really beauiful waterfalls that collected in smaller pools that were perfect for splashing in before cascading the rest of the way down the mountain. I really wanted to take pictures of this place but hadn't thought to grab my camera on the way out of the car, not realizing how amazing it all would be. We had agreed to go back up and take some pictures before leaving again the next day, but when it was time to do so Kaz had a minor freakout and basically harassed me and Jo out of it, saying that there was no way they were ever going to get anywhere if we went up to take pictures for 30 minutes. So that was annoying, but so it goes.
From there, it was time for me to split off, and they dropped me at the nearest servo (that's a gas station for all us yankees), where the woman behind the counter kindly charged my phone and the first guy I asked kindly gave me a ride all the way back to Cairns (it actually wasn't that far, but still- it was nice!). He was an older dude with three grown kids and he was headed to Cairns to pack up his youngest son's apartment, cause apparently his son had had to move south really quickly to take a new job so there ya have it. I helped him move this funny little boat thing from one garage to another and he dropped me right in the center of town, easy as that. I'm hoping my luck is as good the rest of the way down- Cairns to Sydney is a long way!
But anyway, as far as WHY, after two whole days, I'm still in this hellishly hetero and touristy town- three words: Great Barrier Reef. It's the same reason everyone is here, really- and after going snorkelling in it today, I can fully understand why.
I managed to find a pretty affordable deal- $75 for a full day on a boat in the outer reef, including all snorkelling equipment, instruction, lunch, and a glass-bottomed boat ride to boot... it was totally worth it! I have always had a pretty healthy fear/ respect for the ocean and have NEVER been able to swim with my head under the water, so I was a little worried that I wouldn't really be able to do it. But it was actually really easy and now I am really motivated to get a lot more comfortable and skillful in the ocean- what is right under the surface is so incredible! Above the water the weather was actually pretty bad- totally grey, rough surface, and even a bit of rain- but as soon as I jumped in and stuck my face in the water I realized that to the fish, it was the same as any other day, and they totally were not afraid of me at all! I simply could not believe the amazing, flourescent colors that were flying all around me; there was soft, undulating coral in bright greens, neon purples and pinks, yellow- and all the fish were just as gorgeous. I saw enormous oysters big enough to swallow me, breathing (or eating?) through little round openings in their furry purple craws. And best of all, I spotted a green turtle who totally let me get close enough to pet its back when coming up for air, before going back down to keep foraging for food. It seemed like every time I turned around I was suddenly in the midst of a massive school of tiny, glowing minnows or directly above a gigantic, color-changing fish whose skin can best be described as reminiscent of those hypercolor jackets that were really popular in 5th grade (circa 1991- does anyone even know what I'm talking about?)....
Anyway, the ride back was considerably less fabulous, with the boat pitching and rocking all over the place- more than a few people were losing their lunches into the tiny paper sick bags the crew was frantically passing out. But I was totally cheered up by an adorable little Austrian boy whose unbridled enthusiasm for EVERYTHING was infectious, and I got really into cheering when a massive wave would send a huge peal of water slamming into the window across from us. All in all, a great experience- if anyone has any doubt about how important and incredible this is as an ecosystem, come and see it for yourself and I would dare you to say that saving it isn't crucial.
Anyway, that's been my past few days- I hope yours have been even half as gorgeous and inspiring as mine have been! I've been creating a new "to-do list" that I WILL start following up on- 1. Write a screenplay about Anne Bonny and Mary Read (look 'em up if ya don't know); 2. learn to use the Reason program to make my own music. 3. Learn to finally play the bass & guitar 4. Get fluent in Spanish 5. Learn to breakdance.
Yeah yeah, a lot of these have been on my list for ages, but you know what? I'm tired of waiting around and putting things off! What the hell else am I going to do for the next year?! I've got the time and I'm going to make the most of it, come hell or high water. Ya'll better hold me to it.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Wow, well unfortunately I have to keep this really short cause I'm at a rip-off internet place right now in the middle of Daintree, Australia (pretty remote in Northern east coast). First I want to say that after being awake all night helping to try to comfort my friend's baby because she had run off to the pub and "lost track of the time", I can appreciate even more than ever just how much I put my own poor mother through and how amazing it is that she is still talking to me! In fact, basically everything about parenthood seems to be something of a miracle, but I guess that's the way the world works. Anyway, Happy Birthday Mom and I'm really sorry I wasn't able to get through on the phone. I tried!
Anyway, the past week or so has been spent drifting from beach to beach and cooking over fires and trying to stay out of petty arguements that certain others in our party seem to engage in almost constantly. But it's been really good overall, and definitely a needed bit of time where I don't really have much obligation whatsoever.
Anyway, I will totally post more details and stories and pictures sometime soon, but for now I just wanted to say hey and let everyone know I'm doing well and trying to figure out my plans for when I get back to the states; i.e., how I'm getting to queeruption etc. I think I'm just gonna fly...
Okay, big hugs to all! xoxo, pike.