Full Tilt Boogie

Thats right folks, I said full tilt boogie!! I cannot believe the amount of fun i just had over the last few days. I started off by having the best time in Canberra where i first off hitchhiked over 600 kilometers in one day! From Melbourne to Canberra. The best part was that I received the rides from the least likely (demographically speaking) drivers. First, it was a woman who was driving with her ten year old daughter, that just never happens these days! Second, was a truck driver, which seems normal but here in Australia they just changed the insurance of the drivers so they get in huge trouble if they get caught with a passenger, so i was very lucky for that ride which ended up being the huge chunk of the day, for obvious reasons, one direction goin all the way! Lastly, I was dropped by the trucker at 9:00PM at the road to Canberra at a gas station. I got a water and was asking the attendant about the best place to stand for a ride and at that very second a woman was going to Canberra and needed someone to help her stay awake, I guess I look safe. Since i do not know any woman who would pick up a stranger in the middle of the night! So that was the beginning. I got there safe and sound. I was dropped off at my first couchsurfing gig, a very cool woman from Russia. Anna was amazing she went way out of her way and showed me the town, cooked me food and drove me to the airport. We had a blast together. I was supposed to switch up and stay with another fella from Canada who is going to University there but decided that it would be easier to stay with Anna. However, he really wanted to meet me and talk about Antarctica, so I agreed to have dinner with him and his "mates", who consisted of his roommates parents and there adult kids!!! WOW, total homecooking and a wonderful evening of conversation and good times. So then after dinner I went to a concert on campus to see Gomez, very cool band. Then the next day I left for Brisbane!
Next chapter, so I get into Brisbane and meet up with Maria from Antarctica (very good friend) then we drive our rental to Byron Bay for the 5 days of music and fun! We get there and I only have 3 of the 5 days so I go see a movie and scope out car camping spots while Maria is at the show. She has a blast and when I pick her up tells me all about the cool music and very cool people she meets in the show. Now since I have been hitching and I have a car of course I now pick up everyone I can. So there is a couple on the side of the road who are outside the festival. I pick them up and as we are talking we discuss the "where we are all from thing", I say Boulder and that I went to school there, the fella in the back say's "I went to Boulder a few years ago! And I studied..... Just then Maria blurts out "Electrical Engineering! So this couple is part of the group that she was hanging out with in the show!! How funny, so I ask where I need to take them. They tell me and we start driving towards there. As we drive I tell them our situation about car camping and just goin with the flow. Of course out of nowhere, Luke says, "stay with us, its cool we have a huge condo" HA, the universe is amazing in its many mysterious ways!! So we went from having to find car camping spots (mind you there are very few and the police are patrolling for car campers!!) to having a comfy roof over our head!! The best was that all the people that were staying there were awesome!! Funny thing also is that it rained cats and dogs the whole weekend and some!!! So talk about lucky! The shows were awesome. I really enjoyed Bo Diddly, Bonnie Raitt and Ozomatli. There were a bunch of aussie bands too and two of them that I really liked were the John Butler Trio, who plays in Boulder a lot so that will be cool to see him when I am home if he comes around there. The second that I really liked was Xavier Rudd, he plays the didjereedoo and steel guitar (at the same time) talk about talent!! Well that was my latest and greatest, I'm back in Sydney and leave today for Thailand! The second part of the world tour begins. So it will be interesting to go from a country where I can pretty much understand them to a country where I will be doing a lot of sign language!!! Oh well, all part of the journey. Well I miss everyone and think of all of you a lot!!! Till the next time! The pics are of me and Anna (couchsurfer), Canberra, and the show!