I could be Sitting at a Coffee Shop on South Congress in Austin, Texas: from Perth to Melbourne.

Perth, Western Australia: I never thought I would see the Indian Ocean.

I'm good friends with the Pacific - this is just the other side of Australia:

It never ceases to amaze me how long you can stare at ocean:

The other thing that will never cease to amaze me are the people you meet while you're travelling - like the random English guy I met when I was trying to get from Shelley's in Perth to Fremantle. 

English guy: "I saw you go to the other platform, and I was worried because you sounded North American and you may have thought the train would be on the other side of the tracks." 

Me: "Yah, I've lived in Brisbane for a year now, I should know which side they're on by now." 

Thanks to the random Brit, I was able to make my destination: Fremantle, Western Australia

Fremantle is a good half hour up the west-coast from Perth - its a tiny, tiny town. Perth however, is about 2 million with not that much to do. Its very spread out - like Houston - Its a great city if you're keen for a laid back vacation full of days at the beach. Fremantle was almost where I was going to live - Notre Dame was almost the Uni I would have found myself at.

I'm so glad the cookie didn't crumble that way.

After Fremantle, Shelley and I hung out and reminisced about living and working in Mokpo - the good always out weighed the bad - but we were very able to make fun of the bad 3 years after-the-fact. The next day, I went to the aquarium the next day and was amazed by the size of the stingrays, turtles and the sharks:  

The aquarium only took about 3 of the 8 hours I had to kill before Shelley was off from work, so I sat here:

 

It's like the ocean is breathing; with every breath she takes back into the sea she exposes huge rocks covered in seaweed and algae. Every time she breathes out, the waves pound against this sea wall I find myself on at 2:34 pm on this Thursday. All I can think about right now isn't a deeper meaning behind life but...

damn I'm glad i brought this hoodie

4 days in Perth led to 3 in Melbourne, I left Shelley and her 10 year old daughter Mia in Perth, and found myself in what could very well be Austin, Texas:

That band was playing in Melbourne at a place called "Iddy biddy" - a great little pub. We headed out to do Melbourne's downtown the next day:

Melbourne is a great city - reminds me of Austin. Graffiti soaked walls line the alleys; the beach is 5 minutes drive from downtown, coffee shops and bars are alive with live music from all over the world, i feel like i can talk to anyone, and there's a bum with nothing to his name but a guitar he plays really well sitting next to me as I write this into my phone.

Graffiti: a recalcitrant and disrespected art. 

I could be sitting at a coffee shop on south congress; Mohawks, dogs, coffee shops, live music, and nose rings are as ubiquitous as the laid back mentality so commonly found in Austin and Australia. There's a live band down the street and a comic book shop across the roundabout. People seem to be enjoying this gorgeous (but cold) winter day a much as they did their Aussie rules football game last night.

I'm sitting a coffee shop next to a roundabout in Melbourne - I'm tucked away under a heater because its about 40 degrees. There are three middle aged guys on Harley's waiting for this car to finally figure out how to parallel park, it makes me wonder if I am capable of parking such a small and maneuverable car in such an large parking spot!

Downtown melbourne reminds me of England, with its old cathedrals and fancy facades, everything is around a corner and down the alley. Every alley a maze of hippie coffee shops or graffiti covered bars.

 

I'm here to see my good friend Emily that I met when I was in Mokpo. She and I have seen a lot, but take it slow at every turn. The great ocean road is 4 hours one way and requires a car that neither of us have - it is a bucket list item of course - but I will be back to Victoria when the weather is a bit more keen to such a beach adventure.

Damn near two weeks later I finish this blog - I've been too busy working on Aussie PhD's and their endemic honours degree. The cookie will crumble as she may:

Live high y'all. 

We ain't got no time to waste, we got too much life to taste.

Life will hit ya every once in a while. My best friends were at the same Uni that gave me a chance -  when 11 American schools didn't. These same "mates" have watched me run codes at a psyche hospital in Austin, have heard stories of Asia, have been hit by massive waves in Australia, have seen me at my best and pulled me out of my worst. They've held koalas, hung out with kangaroos, met smelly and douchey bogans, and have been bit by ducks.

I call Brisbane home the same way that I called Mokpo home, and the same way that I also called Austin home. When those homes - and their own definitions of friends or "mates" invades each other - it can really be something. I guess I just never really thought this would have happened:

I started with Brisbane. We took the bus to UQ, then the river-ferry through the city to South Bank and then Riverside. West End for Greek food and Indooroopilly for Yosuf's music at the Pig and Whistle.

After a few days in Brissy - we went to the gold coast for Surfers Paradise.  A day trip that seemed to take longer than we were there - as per life sometimes I guess.

The first weekend we went to the zoo - and we got chased by a rogue duck.

The next weekend - I took them to a tiny place called Maroochydore, about an hour and half north of Brisbane and fifteen minutes north of a brilliantly named place "Mooloolaba."

I pride myself on finding myself off the beaten path - finding that road few have taken - rather than that one google or some travel book suggests. Maroochydore won't be found in a travel book or on a website, but, I can relax at a place that isn't in googles "relaxing beaches in Australia" search criteria.

Honestly, it's a place where old people live….

Its a place where locals find few tourists, or where locals go to drink away from tawdry and pretentious bars. It's a place where Aussies go to surf away from the so called "surfers paradise." It's a place where a nomad can Texan nurses for a kick ass breakfast and a drinking night with a Kiwi called Kim.

It's off the beaten path...Its a place that your friend Rachel will air drum on your head: 

After Maroochydore and Katie falling asleep on the bus...(nope, don't have the heart to post it).I took them down to Syndey for the glory of Sydney. 

Sydney was funny for a few reasons. On the way back from Maroochydore I realised that this would be the first of two times I would have to say goodbye to them for a while; I had to stick around in Brisbane for a lecture from 9-5 on Tuesday, and they left on Sunday. I would meet them Tuesday evening for our eventual goodbye on Wednesday.

I should have planned this better, granted, but I assumed Uni wouldn't start until the semester was set to start. My bad. I should have known...?

So on the way back from Maroochydore they talked me into coming to Sydney on Sunday night, flying back to Brisbane Monday-day, then flying back out Tuesday-day, then flying back to Brisbane Wednesday. Needless to say I was hesitant - the finances at that point demanded it. 

But they helped me figure it out - and I made a decision I cannot regret.

So we do Sydney - we see the opera house and instead of rambeling about it - I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 

When they were building it the tour guide told us that the builders called this part - "cleavage."

 

Sydney's Oldest Pub

The Government House

Damn - life will hit ya every once in a while - Live high ya'll.