jolly good

hello once again

At the moment I'm on the internet in the local library in Southend-On-Sea.

Cam and I have been staying with his grandparents for about a week now - and we've been having a pretty chill time.

Last week we were in Canada - what an awesome place that is! It was all mountains and snow and trees - my favourite day there was when we were in Banff and we went for a drive to Lake Louise - on the way back to the hostel we saw ... wait for it - a few elk (think reindeer with thicker antlers) - a tiny little ground squirrel - a deer - and then - a baby bear cub walk across the road - it was so cool!

Don't worry though - we have taken loads of pictures and who knows maybe one of these days we will get around to uploading some of them.

Apart from a bit more flying - we haven't done too much else. Southend is a cool place to relax - and on our 2nd day here they had the hottest day in May in 50 years (30 degrees) what is it with me and heatwaves in Europe?

But not to worry - a few days later it went back to it's nice normal rainy English self!

Anyway I might be off - Poppa Norma and Nanna Anne are waiting for us

Take care guys - speak to you soon from London

Lauren

AA & Pacey

well we have finally left the US and now we're in Canada.

It was yet another epic journey from NYC to Seattle and then Vancouver - we were awake for something like 30 hours - catching 2 shuttles - and a plane but it was defenitely worth it.

But before I launch into a description of the weirdest night I have had yet on this trip I first want to tell you about 2 things that are both not really connected - other than the fact that they both relate to the US

anyways

firstly - you may wonder why "Pacey" is part of the heading for this entry - well - I forgot to mention it the other day - (because cool things like this just happen to me all the time and I can't be expected to remember them all!) but... the other night on our pub crawl through the LOwer East side of manhattan - we're sitting there - havinga few drinks - with - yes - you guessed it - Pacey (Joshua Jackson) from Dawsons Creek - it was you know - just a few casual drinks after his sister's graduation - and then a few people pulled out the cameras and it all was ruined - but it was cool while it lasted!

and secondly - I have found one more thing that makes me super thankful to be an AUstralian - dudes do you realise we have the BEST airline in the world?

I kid you not- in the last 4 weeks I have been on 5 American Airlines flights (and not one of them meeting the high standard set by Qantas) - did you know that they charge their passengers for food? Yes - food- even on international flights - I almost starved to death flying from Costa Rica to Miami (because I didn't have $3 US to pay for a "snack box") and wait it gets better - so first you have no food - and then - to watch the inflight entertainment - on a teeny tiny monitor shoved way way up in the aisle (not like the nice little qantas back of the seat - choose your own channel entertainment system)- you have to BUY a headset - (oh but the conselation is - you amy use it again on further American flights - hah! bonus!)


and then - the service - if you could call it that - dude - it was even less than that which you ould expect to recieve from me at 7am on a cold sunday morning at woolworths - really pathetic.

so - kids - piece of advice for your travel plans - don't fly American - it almost always dissapoints!

anyways - so whinging aside (oh no wait it's not)

a few nights ago we drove from vancouver to Kelowna - and checked into a hostel fro the night - in a coed dorm room- i was all pumped to meet our new roomies after the cool spanish people we'd had in vancouver - so anyways - our roomies in kelowna - the door opens and in walk these two - things-
seriously - they were strange

they were the biggest bunch of stinky alcho - winnie red smokin - flannie wearing - bogans
so we said hi - and they grunted - so cam and i decided the best way to deal with the situation was to

a. leave the room immeadiately
b. get really drunk
c. leave super early in the morning


so we went out - had a few too many drinks and then saw a film . many hours later we walked back into the room - only to be knocked out by the reek of ciggarettes and booze eminating from the guy - sleeping on his bare mattress - classy

so we showered - and climbed into bed - only to be woken 20 mins later by him screaming in his sleep - so we pulled out the earplugs - only to be woken 2 hours later by his woman - bashing on the door - so we rolled over and tried again - only to be worken later at 3am by them having the biggest domestic in the history of white trailer trash

i have never heard the f word so much in my life - and i now know way too much about those two than i ever would have cared to..


it was a sleepless night to say the least - and we slept with one eye on our stuff and our hands clutching our trusty swiss army knives

but hey we survived to tell the tale - and in heinsight it was pretty funny

anyways guys thats all for now - more soon from london

Laurem

I LOVE NYC

well it's official

I am a NYC junkie!

this place is truly awesome - and I constantly feel compelled to buy one of those daggy I LOVE NYC shirts and walk around like a right tool wearing it!

So far we haven't done a lot of touristy things - we've mostly been hanging out with the coolest bunch of Australians ever (there are more Australians in this hostel than any other nationality - it's like a convention from down under!)

We did one of those oh so fab double decker bus tours of uptown and downtown manhattan - and a night tour of manhattana and brookylyn - so cool to see the skyline of NYC all lit up at night!

And then we spent a night doing a pub crawl on the lower east side - a bunch of us Aussies and this hilarious Danish guy - Martin!

We also took a visit to the UN headquarters - which was an awesome eye opener - saw the general assembly and all - looks so much smaller than on television!

And today we split up - the girls headed for 5th avenue to do some shopping - and the boys went out n about seeing all the music history and "stuff"!

And (man am I saying "and" alot) then tonight - a few of the girls and I ditched the boys once more and went to Broadway to see Rent - which was so fabulous and amazing!

It has been such a cool few days and there are still so many more things that I want to do before we leave for Canada - but hey - I'm sure it makes for a great excuse to come back here again one day!

Anyways I should be off - tommorow we're off to chek out some of this citie's fantastic museums and my eyes need all the rest they can get!

Take care of Sydney for me - and keep me updated about what is going down at home

Lauren

gday from the big apple

howdy once more folks

well after two nights in new orleans - (one where we blew off our less than glam accomodation in a very very average hostel for a night at the crowne plaza - and then one at the seediest motel in the US) we have caught an earlier flight to NYC - which means we will now be here for about a week before heading over to Canada

I sure am glad we did come earlier - as we're sharing a dorm with 4 other aussies. A nice couple from perth - and wonder of wonders can you believe it - the very same (Aussie) couple we met almost 4 weeks ago on our first night in LA - by pure coincidence!

haven't really seen the town yet as we only just arrived tonight - but we did have another eventful journey - we had this disgusting old couple sitting behind us on the plane - dude he smelled of BO and cigarettes and she... all she did the whole flight was make these horrible noises and cough - it was not just like she was going to cough up a lung - seriously i was waiting for her whole digestive system tp come up - uurgh!

but travel anecdotes aside - today has been a pretty awesome day - from what i've seen of NYC so far - it is fab!

anyways will write more soon

love to yall

and as the say in 'Norlins

mhhmmmm

xoxo
lauren

sniffing gas

howdy yall!

well it only took 2 taxis, 1 4WD (sorry SUV), 2 boats, 1 plane, and 1 shuttle to get us from Santa Teresa to Miami!

It began as any normal day in Costa Rica, we woke at 5am, and packed our bags once again - we're such pros at it now we can do it with our eyes closed!

Cam was taking a few snaps of our apartment in the dull morning glow when I happened to notice a mad costa rican taxi driver (miguel) tearing down the street and honking his horn - he was about to ditch our booking - but luckily i flagged the dude down and soon we were on our way!

several hundred bumps and ditches later we made it to montezuma where we were due to catch a speedboat to the mainland. We had the best chocolate cake ever for breakfast and then used what must be the dirtiest restroom in the world and sat down in the street with a few other random americanos to wait for the boat. By the time it got to 7am (1/2 an hour after the boat was due to leave) I began to get just a little bit panicky about the fact we might miss our plane!

Anyways this calm as American dude who runs the boat service walks over - "Ok guys it's too rough on the beach this morning for us to load you on the boat here at Montezuma beach - so what we'll do is - take you ina taxi - 20 mins north to Tambor beach and then you can get the boat from there!" - super!

Only the taxi held 5 people and we had 6 - this other girl was whinging about getting in the car - I was tired grumpy and super freakin we were gonna miss the plane - so I offered to sit on Camos lap - wedged in just under the roof - all sounded good - untill they loaded in a drum of petrol beside us - that stank like - well - petrol - and was leaking ever so nicely each time we went over a bump in the road (note: the road was unsealed and it's bumps made ayer's rock look flat!) so anyways - off we went - getting higher by the minute untill eventually we arrived at Tambor- we walked through the mud flat dragging all our packs with us - and climbed onto the boat.

Once we were off on the water, Cam and I realised just how chilled we both felt - must have been those fumes!

An hour or so later (and a few dolphins sighted) we reached Herradurra beach and took another boat to the actual shore where our shuttle to the airport was waiting. Cam and I sprawled out and slept most of the way over the mountains into San Jose.

The airport was just the cherry on top - luckily we made it 10 minutes before our check in closed and had to wait untill the 11th hour to know if we could sit together, all the while people were looking at us - covered in sand, mud and stinking of petrol!

The flight was normal - (well as normal as a plane can seem after you've inhaled enough petrol to drive a car from melbourne to cairns) - but rather average at the same time - American Airlines are super stingy man - transcontinental flight at lunchtime and no food!

Eventually we arrived - cleared US customs again (woohoo!) and then made our way down to Miami Beach. We sat in the shuttle - checking out Jeb Bush's fine sunny state - when suddenly I heard an all too familiar accent - it sounded so Australian and yet so - foreign.

It turned out to be a cool as dude Steve, from yagoona, Bankstown- hehe all that way to the US to meet someone who lives 10km from where you live!

So we turned out to be staying at the same hotel - so of course being the warm blooded Austrlians we are (and keeping our promise to Chitti) we organised to go for a drink.

The drink turned into a mad dinner - (with more free booze) - and this awesome waiter who brought out samples of food!

we hung out with steve again the next morning - checked out the beach and such and made our way back to the airport where a nice American Airlines attendant abused us for getting in the eticket line (which didn't actually say "eticket line") and eventually we made it to our plane - fast forward - 2nd stingy AA flight - no food - arrived in New Orleans and now here we are - Bourbon st is cool - a little seedy but no more than our cross - ate some super average shrimp at the Bubba Gump shrimp place and working out how we can change our flight to NY to an earlier date as this place is cool - but is wearing a little thin.

anyways better run - take care yall

lauren (and cam who is still recovering from being abused by a half naked snake eatin lady - but more on that later)

be good kids

xo

i missed my true vocation!

dudes -
just a short post to tell you all - i think i've found my true calling in life!

Camo was begining to look a bit shabby as he hadn't had a hair cut since my birthday (10 weeks ago) - so being the versatile creative girl that i am - i whacked out the first aid kit scissors and cut up a storm, and it looks shmicko!

(if i do say so myself!)

a least camo can see now - his fringe was hanging over his eyes!

i would post the photos - but it is mucho hassle to work out all the cables - promise to post them eventually

take care amigos

lauren
xoxo

ps. in a few days "we're goin to miami!" speak to you then!

hola from santa teresa

hola!

well it has taken us 3 taxis, 1 speedboat and 4 days but we finally found a beach in Costa Rica that almost parallells australia.

now it's not to say we didn't come on this trip to experience new things - but the beaches here - they just aren't up to the standards we have at home!

Jaco beach - the main CR tourist haunt was a grey/black sandy hole and we lasted a few hours before I found the nearest englese speaking travel agent who could get us to a white sandy beach.

but getting here was no simple feat - first we had to catch a speedboat at the crack of dawn - (it was hell scary - this little dingy and all our posessions!) to montezuma - then we stayed a night and checeked out the local bohemians and costa rican cuisine (cough cough)

i managed to find another australian - the supermarket cashier had and AUS wife and he has been there a fair bit - so he told me about his travels there - and i told him about my time in CR (which was so vast and diverse ; ) )

once we'd had our fill of the annoying americano kids bozzing it up at montezuma we got a taxi here to st teresa - where by fate or co incidence or whatever i managed to find another aussie - from south sydney - i mentioned UTS - and what do you know? turns out he is good mates with Kashif a buddy of mine from Vis com and that he is here with another guy from industrial design who i've been in a few common classes with!
small world eh?

there are lots of surfies here - and plenty of white sandy stretches which are just perfect for me to sleep on while camo has his fill of waves and surfing lessons and stuff.

we'v found a great little furnished apartment (with air con!!!) to rent for the week - super cheap - and we have a kitchen - it's a luxury to be able to cook here as the costa rican people are not so well known for their cooking skills :)

it may have something to do with the total lack of fresh and dry food varities in the supermarkets - i don't think they can grow much here so we have to be very creative with our cooking - but after all the oily mcshit in the US - anything home cooked tastes awesome!

can you tell how much cam and i have begun to appreciate Austrlia ?

we've also become accustomed to the whole third world thing - at first we were in total culture shock - but the crumbling streets - dirty water and feral dogs that roam the streets are almost invisible now- and our spanish translation book is getting a work out!

but most words are quite similar to english so it's ok!

anyways it's getting humid and sticky and the beach is calling - we need to make good use of it before the rain season sets in (in a few daysish)
so i will write more when there is more to tell!

take care amigoes

lauren xoxo