The Lighthouse

Ihme ja kumma, heräsin ihan darra-free aamuun, vaikka Sovereignista oltiinkin varoiteltu!

Eilinen oli parhautta:
Näin Tiian!

Vietettiin koko päivä catch up'aten rannalla (sori äiti en pistäny aurinkorasvaa! :S mut en onneks palanu ;o ), missä oli joku ihme ukkeli. "Love, Unity & Recycling" oli tän jäbän sanoma. Liitänpäs kuvan, koska kuva kertoo enemmän kuin tuhat sanaa. Ihme hippei koko tää Byron täynnä :D

Kävi kans kumma juttu. Joku viiskybänen aran oloinen mies tuli iskemään....

"Do you have a pen?"
"Yes, actually I do" *alan kaivaa kynää*
"No, it was a joke, you should've said 'No' so I could've asked you 'how am I suppose to get your number then?'. I have this fear of approaching girls so I thought tht would be a good way to over come my fear."
"Ohhhh, so it was just a fear you have?"
"yeah a fear, well not anymore cause I overcame it."
"haha, right :)"
"But I can stll give you my number...?"
öööö tää jäbä on viiskyt
"Sorry but I have a boyfriend :)"

whattafuck, ok.

Tehtiin myös Tiian, Lauran ja Melanien kanssa retki lighthouselle ja nähtiin ihan jees auringonlasku. Mainittakoot myös, että nyt ollaan käyty Australin itäisimmässä kolkassa (waaaaau).

Illalla mentiinkin sitten ulos Cheeky Monkeysiin, joka oli taas täynnä goddamn schooliessei. Onneks spotattiin ja hengattiin parin söpön aussie surffarin kaaaaaa voi ei miksei meil ollu kameraa mukana... noh, onneks on facebook......:D

Ainiin, meijän yks roomate tais saada meistä tarpeekseen, koska se vaihto huonetta.......... hmm

PS: otin eilen tajuttoman upeita kuvia, kun tehtiin toi puolentoist tunnin retki tonne majakalle. Ihan liikaa hyvii kuvii! Ainaki on hyvää kuvamatskuu seuraavii postaksii varte (:
PPS. Tänään oonki sit saanu kärsiä tosta goonista. Taisin nukahtaa siinä seiskan aikaan aamulla ja tänään kukaan meist kolmesta ei oo poistunu täst huoneesta muuta kuin hakemaan ruokaa tai pari tasottavaa ':D Eka darra, aika hyvin ollaan selvitty kaks kuukautta ilman!
PPPS. ...Ja nyt en saa unta, koska unirytmi slightly fucked?

Arts Factory @ Byron Bay

sry for the bad photo. you don't really get a good picture of this hostel unless you are actually here!

Weird to stay at a hostel you once saw on Finnish tv...!
Arts Factory is probably the most legendary hostels in Australia.
So far I love it. It has so much character in it and it just blends in with hippie Byron Bay with its tree-hugging-atmosphere. Srsly, If you wanna see hippies, come to Byron.

Since Arts Factory is eating half of my day budget, it means we won't be eating out anytime soon.
When we went to Woolies I got my shopping basket stocked up with noodles, various kinds of flavored tuna, pasta sauce and 6 x canned spaghetti (which turned out to be absolutely horrific. I had to throw it in the bin. I don't care if i'm on a tight budget or not, but there's no way I'll eat that shit).
I won't be able to drink the good stuff either (beer & rum n coke, mind you, alcohol is EXPENSIVE here.) so I bought a casket of that infamous and feared Sovereign goon.

lobby ja alareunas joku FLASHPACKER.

Barry & his ridiculous schoolies T..

The evening was so chilax. I was drinking goon with Barry, John and Kevin (=guys from Fraser Island).  The Arts Factory crew had organized this cool event where the people who work at this hostel perform with instruments and stuff. It was amazing just to sit with tons of people in dusk listening to good music. Really enjoyed it.

Note the sitting iguana!

We also went to some clubs and I was hanging out with Jasmine, my bestie back home. Laura and Melanie had a quiet one although they did come out to the club for their free drink. I'm not quite sure how this happened, but I ended up getting a free midnight 3 AM snack (onmonmomn NOODLE BOX) from this Aussie guy, yay! I also had a good conversation with this shuttle driver guy who turned out to be Finnish!

Oh yea, we also put and ad on the notice board about us looking for the 4th person to join our roadtrip.
Sorry if the note sounds a bit prostitute-ish but I was a bit gooned up when I got my creativeness flowing...

click to make it bigger!

Buying My Surfboard

The reason I went to Yoshi's surf factory was that I went design my surfboard!!!
http://www.takeda.com.au/about.htm

Yes
I am buying a CUSTOM MADE surfboard.

I wrestled with buying a custom made board over a factory one..
I'm only a beginner so I could pretty much get any preloved (used) surf board and still have fun.
Just like playing a brand new Fender won't make you a better guitar player..

But
I still needed to buy a surfboard for Morocco.
And ever since Tom had suggested that his friend Yoshi could make me one for a good deal,
I couldn't get that thought out of my head.

SO
I decided to purchase myself an early 20th birthday present for $550.
Yoshi's even going to give me a paint job for free!

And I know that I won't be able to surf in Finland (excluding Yyteri.. which apparently sucks anyway)
but since i'm not going to live and study there anyways, it doesn't matter.
Like Jared said "I guess you'll just have to move somewhere where you can surf".

My board's going to be ready in a month; just in time for Tom to take it down with him to Melbourne
(where we fly from to Morocco)

PS. Who could resist a custom made board for only $550?

Happy 21st Birthday Melanie!

There's nothing worth writing about from Wednesday except seeing a movie with our backpacks.. That was a bit interesting...

The view from the balcony of our couch surfing home (high tide btw)

Torstaina Melanie täytti 21 vuotta, joten käytiin vuokraamassa auto.
Käytiin Yoshin työhuoneel/surf factorys/how ever you wanna call it, missä se valmistaa surffilautoja. Yoshi on tehny surffilautoja muistaakseni 11 vuotta ja oli tosi mielenkiintosta nähä behind the scenes so to say. Meijän retkellä sen surf factoryyn oli kyllä tarkotuskin, mutta siitä sitten ensi postauksessa.

Meijän oli tarkotus mennä Carlton Breweryyn, mutta tietenkään me ei oltu otettu mistään selvää ja koska me ei omisteta evil lonely planettia, me missattiin se tour. No suprise there. Meidän olis kuuleman pitäny varaa paikka siihen tourille ja muutenki vika tour oli loppunu yli tunti sitten. Perus.

Mentiin sen sijaan wine tasting !
Oli kyl vähän turha olo, koska en tiedä mitään viineistä, niin kaikki se info mitä saatiin meni vähän ohi (paitsi Melanielle, jonka on pitäny opiskella viinejä koulutuksensa vuoksi). Nevertheless I enjoyed it. Onneks  mun ei tarttenu ajaa, sillä mulla ei edelleenkään oo ajokorttia. Tuskin nimittäin ois ollu varmaan ajokunnossa (vaikkei niitä viinejä ja portviinejä juoda varsinaisia huimia määriä).

Käytiin tekemässä hike vesiputokselle ja sen jälkeen ajettiin juustomaistiaisiin, joka mun onneks oli loppunu jo ajat sitten ;D Vahingonilo paras ilo..

Kävin muuten ostaa wetsuitin ! Tää Rip Curlin full length wetsuit oli 50% alennukses ja kustans $150 eli n. satkun (: Enpä tule jäätymään Marokon talvessa! Hyvä juttu kans on se, että voin käyttää tota Puolassa for wind surfing!

Mentiin italialaiseen viettämään Melanien synttäreitä ja sillä aikaa, kun oltiin Melanien kanssa ostamassa viiniä (se ravintola oli BYO wine, mikä on jees. Miksei meil oo Suomes tällästä politiikkaa?) Laura oli tilannu Melanielle synttärikakkupalasen. Koko ravintola laulo happy birthday ja meijän viereisen pöydän keski-ikäset heitti Melanielle $20...! nice one!

Mentiin yhen meijän hostin, Benin ja parin hollantilaisen kanssa Vanityyn juhlimaan. Siellä oli lady's night ja huhhuh, en oo kyl koskaan ollu missään clubissa, jossa lady's nightissa saa hakee baarista KOKO ILLAN ilmatteeks juomista, kunhan edustaa kauniimpaa sukupuolta...

Happy Brithday Mel!

Free Accommodation FTW

Surfers Paradise. Hate hate hate the sky scrapers

I woke up at 8:30 to the ringing of my phone. I'm completely drowsy from only 5,5 hours of drunken sleep and trying to make out who I'm talking to. Ben? Who was this from last night?

"Ben from couch surfing. You guys can stay at my house."

SCORE! We had messaged a guy the day before cause we wanted to save some money by getting free accommodation. After sleeping at Tom's we also discovered what we'd missed while sleeping at hostels. It's a totally different experience staying with locals and letting them show you around than meeting the same faces (of foreign backpackers that is) all along the way when traveling down the coast from hostel to hostel. You also do a lot more than just hang around and drink goon with the other backpackers.

We went to the beach near by Tom's house and just when Ben smses me his address I stop. Hedges Avenue looks a bit familiar. Wait what. I AM on Hedges Avenue. Hedges Avenue is the street NEXT TO THE BEACH two streets up from Tom's. sweeeeeeeet.

Anyways

Reece

Now we are at Reece's appartment. The other people that live in this condo had a small party and everyone includin Reece went out except us. I don't mind. It's nicer in this nest anyways. Just eating jellybeans and all of us three writing our journals.

Random House Party

These was one of those days. Did really nothing. We went to Peter Pans for the Internet cause I had shit to do. We ended up sitting there for 1,5 hours and not paying, cause Reece (the guy were hanging out with on Saturday before Tom came. He booked our van.) was working. haha 8)

We went to see Natalia (from Mission Beach) before she went on the bus!

Oh and we asked him whether we could crash at this place tomorrow, cause Tom's roomies are moving in. So yay, staying at Reece's on Tuesday!
Surfers was PACKED with schoolies as usual...

One 17-year-old came up to us on the street in broad daylight and asked whether we would like to go back with him and his friend to their hotel room.. ummm hell no :D:D

While we were walking somewhere in Burleigh Heads trying to find our way back to Tom's in the moonlight, we saw two guys throw a ball across the street.
"I wanna go to a house party. I still have it on my list of things to do in Australia."
"Yeah, we should totally crash a house party."
As we walk pass the house where the guys had thrown the ball from, we noticed that it actually was a house party. People were sitting on the terrace of the beach house and yelling "wooooooo schoooliesssssss!" at us.
"No... BACKPACKERS!"

The guy with the ball comes up to us and tells us that we should join their party.
So we randomnly entered to this sweet crib full of skateboarders and surfers. Immediately we were offered a welcome drink and conversing with these new friends of ours.
Go to a house party in Australia [x]

Kit & us

We also went with them to this small cafe/bar, The Caves, and listened to some live music. The place was part of an art-indie-scene and had a really nice atmosphere in it. Lots of good looking guys.. haha :D The Caves reminded me a bit of one of my favourite bars in Helsinki, Como Te Llamas or just Laama in short.

We ended up getting drunk for $7 cause the guys were buying us drinks. We went back to their sweet little beach house after the cafe closed at 11 and had a couple of drinks before going back home.

Oh, one of the guys, Kit, said that we could stay for free at a place in Surfers that he's renting out. The apartment is empty now, cause he doesn't want any schoolies in it. We'll see.. :)

Coolangatta

 

Tomilla oli kaikenlaisia suunnitelmia sunday fundaylle, mut sää oli vähä huono... Sucks! Oltas menty mm. rockpoolseille ja sit sillä oli joku suprise picnic with bongo drums planned, mut joo, minkäs tolle luonnonäidille mahtaa. Tom oli eilen näyttäny meille vähän Burleigh Headsia, sitä mestaa, jossa se asuu Gold Coastilla, joten mentiin Coolangattaan moikkaamaan sen friendiä Yoshia. Yoshi on just hauska, pieni japanilainen, joka tekee käsin surffilautoja yhteen liikkeeseen Burleigh Headsissä!

Yoshi

Yoshi liitty meijän mukaan, kun mentiin kattomaan viereiselle rannalle leijojen lennätys tapahtumaa. En oo koskaan nähny niin paljon leijoja. Näin jopa neljä kamelia.... täällä toi kameleilla ratsastaminen taitaa vissiin toimia vähän samoin tavoin kuin meillä ponilla ratsastaminen sirkuksissa.

Hypättiin sen jälkeen autoon ja Tom näytti meille jonku look out pointin, josta näky rantaviiva Coolangattasta Burleigh Headsiin ja Burleigh Headsista evil evil evil Surfers Paradiseen. Surfers Paradise näytti ihan eri maailmalta pilvenpiirtäjineen ja siellä lymyilevineen turisteneen ja schoolisseihin. Niin, nyt on siis schoolies week. Kaikki koulunsa päättäneet 17-18-vuotiaat australialaiset ovat saapuneet Gold Coastiin (ja Byron Bayhin) viettämään kesälomaansa ja vetämään perseet. T-E-I-N-I-H-E-L-V-E-T-T-I.

EVIL (Surfers Paradise Hell)

I know that I'm not that much older than those kids and that I just finished high school, but still... I don't go running around the city in my mini playboybunny dress with a Breezer in my hand and SCREEMING at the top of my lungs.... "WUUUUUU SCHOOOOOOOLIEEEES!1111" It's so fucking annoying it drives people crazy. Most of the locals decide to stay in this weekend and avoid the terrible mass of drunk, misbehaving teenagers. Plus, there's a lot of cops patroling on the streets.

Nähtiin sieltä look out pointilta, että aallot oli hyvät, joten käytiin hakemassa Yoshin luota kaks long boardia, ja Tom kävi hakemassa Yoshin surf shopista kaks muuta lonkkua. So good having local friends...! :D Mentiin yhteen maailman parhaimmista breakeistä, tai ainakin yhteen Australian parhaimmista mestoista surffata: Snapper Rocks ! Pelotti vähän ne aallot, koska ne oli paljon suurempia kuin millä oon tottunu surffaamaan... Paikalle tuli myös Sam, Tomin kaveri, joka tulee kans Marokkoon! Suddenly the surf trip to Morocco started to feel more and more real...!!!!! Melanie, Laura ja Kat jäi istumaan rannalle ja mä suuntasin poikien perässä vähän arasti aaltoihin.\

Yoshi n Tom

Olisin saanu kaks tosi kivan suuren kokosta aaltoa, jos olisin padlannu kolme kertaa lisää. Ärsyttää, kun aallon saaminen on niin pienestä kiinni. Ei mut oikeesti, vitsi se merivirtaus oli sairas. Yritin päästä takas rannalta aaltoihin surffilautaa taluttaen, but I just ended up walking on the same spot cause i couldn't get forward! Siinä vähän sitten väsy, ja Tomki tais huomaa sen, ku en jaksanu enää oikee paddlaa.. So he said he would push me to a wave insead of me having to catch one. I was constantly scared of hitting someone with my board, cause the sea was packed. but Tom said that it would be alright.. When he pushed me on the wave and just when I was about to stand up I noticed the girl. I hit her in the leg. I was so embarrased and felt so bad, cause I was the one that would've had to give her way. She was the closest to the break, so it was her wave (that like a surfers law). I was also a bit angry at Tom.. yeah everything will be alright...! ;p

Look out point - Tom, Yoshi & Kat

Anyway

Snapper Rocks - one of the best breaks in Australia

We met some of Tom' s friends over dinner. We went to this japanese restaurant "Cha Cha" that has a BYO* policy. Australia really does have weird customs.

We decided to go out with Laura and Melanie and Yoshi gave as a lift to Surfers. It was like hell. Schoolies and cops everywhere. Also the clubs are really strict and careful during schoolies, and this Irish Pub didn't actually lt me in cause my ID wasn't in English!!! WTF. "We know, that this is your date of birth, but because it doesn't say date of birth in English (dd/mm/yyyy) we can't let you in, cause how could we know it's your date of birth (although we know that it is)." Alrighty, fuck you.

Elsewhere, this club Tom had suggested, was better anyways. Kinda reminded me of my fav club back home, Redrum (RIP).

*Bring Your Own (Alcohol)

PS. sori, mut Suomeks kirjottaminen tuntuu jotenki tökkivän PAHASTI niin piti vaihtaa kieltä