yes, waldo was in every picture!

i checked into this hostel in Bondi and was in for a surprise. the place was nasty! i had a cold and all i really wanted to do was sleep, but the conditions weren't exactly prime for sleeping. first, they only give you one sheet & no blanket while leaving the window open all night. so not only do you hear the 24 bus service, you feel the 0 degree (that's freezing for you americans) wind blow on you all night. not letting that deter me, i was in bed by 11pm. but the world cup was on throughout the night, and each of my 3 different roommates had to watch different games. and then proceeded to talk about it after each game. so i got out of bed @ 4:30 to watch france beat brazil. pictured is the hostel's fully filled vending machine (complete w/ locks to sell) and their plush living room. funny how they have nice plasma yet had plastic couches & no heater...


after seeing all i really wanted to see in sydney and my cold preventing me from wanting to go out and get "pissed" (drunk), i headed out to the blue mountains. on the train ride up there, Mr Crabs decided he needed pictures w/ sleeping passengers. i told him it was rude to do that to people he doesn't know, but he's kind of a dick that way:



what the hell are they selling? actually, the muesli bars were quite tasty.


nice shot of the blue mountains


my camera died on one hike, so i only got a few birds. and since birds tend to fly away when you get close to them, Mr Crabs isn't in these. sorry.


i went hiking to this place call "wentworth falls". probably the best hike of my life. pictures can't do the scenary justice:


i met these chicks on the street the day before. they seemed into the whole crab thing. i wish i could meet people the way he does:


here's me after 2.5 hours of hiking down some stuff that is straight of our "lord of the rings". well, technically, that was shot in new zealand, but whatever. all the locals said the weather was "craeaap" and couldn't believe we were out there hiking. even a bunch of tourists stayed inside all day b/c "you couldn't see much". mistake!!!


i ended up sharing a room w/ this chick mr crabs woke up on the train ride up here with his picture stunt. and check out the yellow sign!?!? so basically, you have one beer here and stop drinking?


i did this cave tour that sounded a little cheesy at first, but it was really amazing. they seemed to really care about preserving everything, so i didn't try to get waldo in this picture.


the rocks were made of crystal & some other stuff. so check out what happens when you shine a flash light on them. weird!


this was NOT in the zoo. this little dude was nice enough to let me pet him. i thought Mr Crabs was pretty brave for riding on his back like this. i wasn't willing to do that. everywhere i go, the little dude has to show off...



i'm going to work for a few days our here in the mountains before heading up to cairns to dive at the barrier reef. i'm curious how well, Mr Crabs is going to do underwater....