11/25/10

I woke up early again because of the birds which I was not going to miss one bit, how can little birds be so freaking loud. I packed up my mess and then I thought I would head over to reception to see if they would help me plan my travel. I worked with a nice lady and had her do a lot of stuff for me. She ended up finding me special fares for the greyhound bus and also a package deal to sail the Whitsunday Islands sailing trip for two nights and also do the 3 day safari tour on Fraser Island. With the deal I also get like four free nights accommodation in a list of hostels. I was very happy with everything she booked for me and I booked a smaller sail boat with a max of 12 passengers like the recommendation that I got from both Dennis and the guide books. My roommates had offered to give me a lift to Airlie Beach since that is where they were also headed but I decided it was best to go by bus. I knew they had a very small car and I have a big backpack and I am not that small so I thought the bus would be a better option but I appreciated the offer. They ended up catching the same bus and ferry as me off the Island and they were said good bye. They were good guys and I had fun with them. I got on the bus and picked the perfect spot to see the TV so I could watch the movie or two during the ride so I was excited. I ended up sitting next to a guy from Switzerland named Beat. He seemed nice and we chatted a bit but very soon into the bus ride I learned that we would get no DVD movie to watch since the DVD was broken and waiting for a part from Spain. WHAT A BUMMER. I did have my book so that was nice but my Ipod where buried somewhere in my smaller backpack. I was able to get some sleep and read and I was glad the bus trip was only three and a half hours. I also was relived to know that I already had a place booked for the night so no worries about that. Upon arriving in Airlie Beach I said good bye to Beat and wished him well in his travels and with improving his English. I made it to the hostel with a ten minute walk from the bus and checked into my room. I was assigned a bed in room 24 which had a total of six beds in the room. I walked into the room and one guy was up moving around and the rest were all in bed and it was 4:30 or 5 pm. I had head that it was "Schoolies week" but I did not know exactly what that meant. I found out since 4 of the kids in my room where in Airlie Beach for schoolies week. It is a week break the seniors who just finish high school get before they have to go to Uni (What Universities are called here in Oz) or Technical school or start working. It is the first real taste of freedom and everyone in Oz knows about it. The Gold Coast get a ton of these kids and they just party and make a mess and cause problems. Airlie Beach gets a lot and all of the hostels were full so I was lucky to get a bed during this time. They also do special events for the kids like have dance clubs for then so they can all hang out and have fun even with out being able to drink since most are not eighteen years old. I ended up going to go to McDonalds since I heard if you order something you can use the WIFI for free. Chewy who is one of the schoolies decided to join me. As I was checking things on-line and getting frustrated that for some reason no matter what WIFI I am using my page loads are very slow and some will not come up at all Beat walked by. I said "Hi" and told him if he wanted he could swing by my room and maybe go out to a club with me or something. I bought a six pack of beer for myself and went back to the room to chill with the schoolies. It was four schoolies me and a german guy named Stefan who is my age in the room. Three of the schoolies were here with a bunch of their friends and the next room over was full of them. I learned that they all went to a private boarding school called Saint Bernards. The only schoolie who did not go to that school was Chewie and he was here on his own. We had a balcony in our room and next I knew was I was sitting having a few beers and our room was full of 17 year olds and it was very chill. One of the guys named Tom had his guitar and was playing some songs. They had a bunch of school songs they made up during school and it was a very fun atmosphere. Most of them were drinking what they called "goon bags" it is basically the bags taken out of boxes of wine. They also told me that at night if you had an empty goon bag you could blow it up with air and use it as a pillow. They were all having some drinks and messing around before they went to the no drinking club event. The German guy kept giving us all shots of Vodka and not wanting to be rude I took them when offered. At the height of this chill time Beat showed up in the room. I said "hi" and introduced him to the gang. I then realized after someone offered him a drink that he did not drink or smoke but he was pretty chill. I was having fun and listening to stories and I was now being refereed to as Minnesota which I was OK with. Tom was very cool and I found out that he was the president of his house (dorm) that they lived in and he was going to Uni in Townsville to be an engineer. His best friend was Leslie and he was a pretty built Kenyan who was vice president at his house. Talking with these kids was interesting to hear what they thought about things and it was fun to relax and have a few drinks. At about 10 pm they decided to head to their event so I told Beat and the German (Stefan) that we should go to the bar. We walked the three blocks to a big outdoor bar and the bouncer took one look at the German and said "Your too pissed to come in here"...upon hearing that he just turned around and walked back to the hostel. He let Beat and myself walk in no problem. I was stunned and could not believe it but what the heck. That bar was lame and after one beer I decided we should check out another place. We went to another bar and ended up meeting three Irish girls who were quite fun and a bit goofy. We just hung with them after that and ended up at a Irish Pub for a few drinks and then some other night club but I am not sure what that was even called. I think beat left after being at the Irish Pub for a while and I hung out and went to the next place and got a meat pie on the walk home at around 2:30 am. I got back to the courtyard of the hostel and ran into my crew of schoolies and the German. What I found out is that the German didn't do much but ended up meeting up with the rest of the crew at McDonalds later that night. Tom ended up going to the bathroom at 10 pm when everyone was leaving and he passed out and missed the party thing he was to go to with his friends. They were just about to go in the kitchen and make up about 8 packages of noodles and "Mong Out" which from my understanding is the same as chilling out for the most part. A memorable, fun, and interesting day all around.