Australia Day long weekend at Jervis Bay

Day 1

Cookies had organised a weekend away to Jervis Bay. I took the Friday off work, after I dumped the responsibility of breaking the news to our Project Manager that the estimates for a project may be 5 times what he expected. What a great way to start the trip. The plan was for Gus to pick me up and we would drive down to Jervis Bay, around the same time that Cookies and friends would be leaving. Gus rocks up at my place on time, only to be greeted by my dad and my 7 bags. I think he had a semi stroke when he saw that. We shoved everything into the boot and off we went to Dan Murphy's. We had been given the responsibility of stocking up on alcohol for the trip. So here I am, in Dan Murphy's, with a trolley filled to the brim with alcohol. And who should I bump into? My Dad. He's eyes practically popped out when he saw the amount of alcohol I had in the trolley! He kept lingering around the cash register as we were paying, with his jaw practically on the floor. I have a lot of explaining to do.

We made a quick get away and shoved all the alcohol into the car. Gus has a new TomTom which we turned on to give us directions all the way to the front door of our rented house. Whilst we were nearing Kiama, I decided to give Cookies a call to see how far away they were, as there were talks of meeting up for lunch. Apparently they haven't even left the house yet. Good one. We were supposed to get the keys off her, but since we were supposed to leave around the same time, we figured she could keep the key. So what could we do? We stopped in Kiama and took a nice leisurely stroll around the town and I ended up showing Gus where the blow hole was.

The blow hole

We jumped back into the car and drove to Berry, where we had decided to stop for lunch. It also allows me to hit "The Berry Bon Bon" shop where we picked up the most delish triple choc rock candies last time. I clean the shop of their supplies before we went in search for food. Gus picked out this little café/restaurant in the back alley of some shop. Within minutes, we had ordered our lunch and a spider each. Apparenly Gus has never had a spider before, so I decided to devirginise him! LoL

Gus with his first spider

Chicken schnitzel burger with the works

Beef burger with the works

God the food was really good. I was completely stuffed by the time we were finished. We trundled back to the car and off we went to Jervis Bay. 5mins from our destination, Cookiez called to check where we were. Wow, I didn't realise we took that long sightseeing! They actually managed to beat us! It took us awhile to find the place as you need to find this tiny little secluded driveway, but we managed to pull up outside the house. This is when Cookiez comes running to check if we had a sleeping bag. Apparently our 3 bedroom house turned out to be a 2 bedroom house. We originally had 10 people sharing 8 beds. We now had 10 people sharing 6 beds. This will be a cosy holiday ;)

We unload everything into the house when Cookiez and the rest of the gang decided to go grocery shopping. Whilst they were out, I did the next important thing. Jellyshots.

1/2 of the alcohol and snack food supply

I also managed to squeeze a whole heap of alcohol into the fridge to start chilling. Life is all about priorities. When they get back from the shops, everyone relaxes a bit before Richard and Alex begins cooking dinner for the rest of us. Since it'll be a good few hours before dinner is ready, I headed out for a stroll around town when I bumped into Gus (who snuck out earlier). We scoped out the alcohol store before heading back to the house.

Dinner was a lovely spag bols put together by R&A. We completely stuffed ourselves with pasta and some wine before turning on the tv to watch Federer vs Djokovic.

Spag Bols

Half way through the night, Dave, Mey and Christine showed up as they left after work. Next thing you know, the corks are off the bottles and we're having shots. (I needed the alcohol to numb the pain of Federer losing!) We started playing drinking games which involved us drinking over 3/4 of a bottle of cowboy shots.

Since there were only 6 beds, we decided to rotate the sleeping arrangements each night just to be fair. So whilst half of the people decided to watch a DVD, I passed out into bed.

Day 2

10 people. One Bathroom. You gotta be quick otherwise you'll be waiting for ages! After a quick shower, I went downstairs to the aroma of freshly cooked bacon and eggs. After a nice breakfast, everyone got changed and ready for an early morning swim at the beach. I also bought a new brand of spray on sunscreen (Face of Australia) which was fantastic! This sunscreen is completely non greasey and so easy to apply! In fact, everyone started using it because it was so good. There were also a few trigger happy people who just went around spraying people with sunscreen (You know who you are!). We gathered our gear and headed into town so we could quickly pay for a dolphin cruise we were going to do later in the day. I also managed to pick up a really nice straw hat to stop me from turning into a Lobster! We then headed to Collingwood beach, which is about a 5-10min walk from our house and we had a fantastic time!

Walking to Collingwood beach

The waves were quite gentle and calm, letting people like me who isn't really confident to start swimming at the beach. We also brought along my Volleyball and a football which we tossed around and used as a floatie. We eventually packed everything up to go home for a shower before heading off to our cruise. I bought my DSLR camera along as well.






About 45mins into the cruise, we finally spotted a dolphin in the far farrrrr distance. Everyone swarmed to the front of the boat (Where I had planted myself for the entire ride) trying to spot the dolphin. Next thing you know, Christine (who was standing next to me) screamed "Dolphin!". I looked down and the Dolphin is DIRECTLY UNDERNEATH ME! My DSLR goes off like a fire cracker and I managed to capture the only shots of the dolphin.


After that, he was gone. The boat continued to cruise for awhile after that without a sight of a dolphin. I gave up and retreated to the cool and shadey cabin. About 15mins from when we're about to return back to shore, the boat slows down and an announcement goes over the PA that they've spotted some dolphins. Without thinking, we grabbed our cameras and ran onto the deck.

At first, I couldn't actually see any dolphins. Someone near me screamed and next thing you know, you can see the dolphin weaving in and out from under the boat. The dolphins like to ride the current the boat causes, so as the boat is going, they're catching a free ride, meaning plenty of photos for me!

Its breathing!

And you know the funny thing? We spotted these dolphins just a few hundred meters from where we were swimming today! We get back to shore and immediately find a cafe for lunch. Well, lunch at 4pm.

Another patriotic shot - It is Australia day after all

Mey wanted an artistic shot

My hooooooooge burger and chips!

Gus's $19 frozen snapper and chips

We head back to the house where we get ready and hit the beach again. This time round, the water was much colder and much much windier! Mind you, we had a fantastic time though. We head back to the house again where Mey and Dave were busy cooking dinner for everyone else. Luckily they were making Viet Summer Rolls, which is quite light. Everyone was quite full after that late lunch.

Viet summer rolls - Pork, beef and prawn

The rest of the night was spent infront of the TV watching Bourne Ultimatium.

Day 3

I ended up sleeping on the floor in the lounge room for the night and ended up freezing my arse off. I had to get up in the middle of the night to look for a jumper and tissue since my nose was all blocked up. I ended up getting up really early as well since it was so cold I couldn't sleep and had to have a shower to defrost. When people finally got up, it was basically a breakfast of Miso soup, instant noodles, bacon and eggs plus cereal.

We then packed our stuff for a day at the beach. Armed with my trusty beach umbrella and volleyball, we set up shop at Collingwood beach. As I'm laying there relaxing, Gus decided it was time to give his volleyball net a go.

Gus warming up

Hmm...what does this button do?

Is there candy in this thing?

The boys comparing the length of their rods

Apparently its alot more complicated than extending the pole and tying it down..... *cough*

We gave up on the net and decided to just play volleyball in the water. By "volleyball" we mean a bunch of full grown adults screaming, yelping, screeching and splashing about to keep the ball in the air. We had an absolute blast of a time and there were quite a few people who looked like they wanted to join in on the game. But there were also a few who wanted to drown us.

We called it quits and headed back to the house around lunch time to avoid the sun. This was a chance to grab a quick bite, which meant gorging on chips and dip. But Gus did cook me lunch!


After that, we basically lazed about and watched TV for awhile before we all bundled into the car to Hyams beach. We had originally planned for a Volleyball rematch, but the minute we saw the waves crashing to shore, we knew that it wasn't going to happen. Didn't stop us from trying though. That is, until the ball gets dragged out to sea.

We then spent the next hour getting dumped again and again by the waves. There were a few times where I got completely smashed by the waves and got dragged backwards on my ass back to shore. I almost lost my board shorts a few times and ended up with an ass full of sand. I gave up after a while, but it still took me about 30mins to feel like I was back on land.

Back at the house, whilst everyone was having a shower, it was me and Christine's turn to make dinner. On the menu was a bacon, olive and chillie pasta bake, with home made garlic bread and salad.

The spread

MmMmm cheesy....

My plate round 1

Half way through dinner, the Australian Open Men's finals were on. So we pretty much spent the rest of the night watching Djokovic play Tsonga. I ended up having to drink half a bottle of alcohol because I couldn't stand the suspense! I wanted Tsonga to win so badly!!! The night ended pretty early as we had an early day tomorrow.

Day 4

We had ALOT of leftover pasta from last night. So breakfast was another carb loaded pasta meal. We quickly got changed and headed down to the beach. And although it was grey and cloudy, we committed and all jumped into the water for a last game of volleyball! It was then time to do some final packing a good clean of the house before we headed back to Sydney. All in all, it was a fantastic trip!!!

Day 29 - To Istanbul we go!

OMg. Its our last day in Mykonos. I'm not sure we've exactly overdosed. The only thing I've really overdosed on is those bloody green pills that keep making me throw up. Not sure if its actually making me feel better or worse. Today, I'm feeling worse since we had to get up early to get ready to leave. We do some quick packing before heading off to breakfast. We knew exactly where we were going and what we were going to order. Tea with Turkey, Tomato and cheese Crepes. I didn't even bother bringing my camera since we've had so many photos of it.

We sit at the cafe, taking a last look at Mykonos. God, we've never been up so early before. There's barely anyone up (at 11am) giving the town a strange peacefulness. After breakfast, we do a quick last lap before heading back to the apartment to pack. Since I was pretty much all packed, it took me less than 10mins to finish the packing so I decided to have another quick lap of the town whilst Moishii continued packing. I even used up the rest of the credit on my phone card and whatever spare change I had.

I get back to the apartment and wait for Moishii to finish packing when we began and slow and dangerous climb down the stairs with our luggage. Because of the stupid handrails, you couldn't lean on anything for support. I even bent the handle on my suitcase trying to get it down. It took me a few good minutes to get my suitcase down, which by then, had me sweating like I just ran a marathon. I practically collapse into Local Christine's seat whilst waiting for Moishii.

Next thing you know, Moishii practically comes tumbling down the stairs because of the weight of his suitcase. We finally managed to get all the bags down when we each did a last inspection of the place before locking up. Next thing was to actually get the suitcase from one end of town to the other end where the travel agency was. You see, a few days ago, we went into Windmills travel, the place I won the photo competition from to book our transfer to the airport. As we were chatting, the guy screamed out "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO WON THE PHOTO COMPETITION!!". Looks like I have a reputation there. Anyway, we ended up booking and paying for our transfer, who will pick us up from the office.

So through the narrow and unevenly paved streets we went. There were stairs and ramps and many near misses with scooters screeching past us. After about 4 rest breaks, we managed to get to the travel agency only to be really early. I dragged my suitcases 50m back down the road and plonked down on a bench in the shade.

20mins later, we finally dragged our stuff into the agency and was quickly ushered into a waiting van. One of the reasons we went for the transfer is that there is a severe shortage of taxis. We went to the taxi ramp and stood there for 10mins and barely saw any taxis. Any taxi that did come by, was quickly snatched up. The transfer was a guaranteed way to getting to the airport. So we're off in the van, and taking in our last look at Mykonos. Within 10mins, we're at the airport. And again, we have no checkin counter. So we sit around and wait and wait until the counter finally opens.

We quickly rush to check in our stuff when suddenly BAM. We're given an excess baggage fine. WTF? I know my suitcase was heavy when I flew into Mykonos, so I deliberately put more stuff into my handcarry. My bag was only around 20kg whilst Moishii's bag was closer to 25kg. The check-in woman explained that from Milan to Mykonos, we had a 20kg baggage allowance. From Mykonos to Istanbul, however, we only had 15kg each. LIKE WTF? How does that work? What am I supposed to do with my other 5kgs? FFS. We ended up paying about 20euro fine and checked our luggage in. Moishii even checked his hand lugagge in as there was no way it could fit into the overhead compartments.

We then go through security into the waiting area. At the waiting area, there was this chick on crutches. You could tell she had her foot completely cut up. I assume it was a bad combination of sandals and broken glass? And no, it wasn't the chick from Scandinavian bar, otherwise I would've gone up to chat to her. As we were sitting there and waiting, I ended up using the last 2euros on my phone card and almost spent another 100euros at duty free on a bag. But I managed to control myself until it was time for boarding. Suddenly there was a massive line with people shoving in to get through the gate first. We almost get trampled in the process, and honestly, I'm so sick I don't care.

We finally get our tickets checked and we're allowed out onto the airfield, where it was about a 200m walk to the plane. That wouldn't have been an issue had there not been gale force winds whipping us around. I literally got blown backwards. I'm not a small girl, and I'm also carrying a 15kg hand luggage plus my handbag that was easily 7kg. But I was STILL blown backwards. Here we were, gripping onto each other and trying to walk through the wind to the plane. We literally had to STOP because the wind was so strong, we couldn't take another step without toppling over. We had to wait for a break in the wind to advance forward. By the time we got onto the plane, I had hair bigger than Effie. I'm pretty sure I swallowed a few bugs as well.

We collapse into our seats and get ready to leave Mykonos. It was a bloody turbulent ride, but damn we were glad when we finally got out at Athens. It was a good few hours before our connecting flight to Istanbul, and to make matters worse, our flight from Mykonos to Athens was so early, we couldn't check in for the next leg of our flight. So the first thing we had to do when we got to Athens was to find the Turkish Airlines counter, which obviously wasn't open yet. We also managed to steal a trolley to shove all our stuff onto. 15mins later, they announce the counter for our check-in. So off we go, except we got stuck behind a tour group and people trying to check in 50bags each. There was also a guy and his crazy kid who was going nuts infront of us knocking shit over. Apparently they were Turkish and the dad was calling the kid a bastard amongst other things.

We finally checked in and got our tickets. By this time I was pissed off and ready to kill someone. The plan was to hit the duty free stores, so here I was, storming from one end of the airport to the other, ready to strangle any kid that gets in my way when suddenly Moishii practically rams me with the trolley screaming "CLAWFEET!!!!!!!!!!!". I whip around, and in amongst this MASSIVE line of people waiting to check in, was clawfeet and Colgate! OMG!! What are the chances??? I screamed their names at the top of my lungs and practically lunge through the crowd at them. I think I scared the crap out of them and half the people in line.

Clawfeet squeezes through the crowd leaving Colegate to check in. We had a good awkward chat for about 20mins, before Colgate practically made his way to the front of the line. We said our final goodbyes as they fly back to Perth. Meanwhile, we had to fulfil our Athens tradition of spending time at their Maccas. So we plant ourselves down at Maccas and immediately ordered some familiar comfort food.

Nuggets!

Big Mac!

Crispy, crunchy, salty fries!

As much as I love trying new food, especially authentic Italian and Greek food. Every now and then, you just need some junky Maccas to make you feel better. We sat and did a bit of recapping whilst at Maccas until it was time to move again. So we grab our belongings and moved back to the duty free area where we immediately hit the shops. I was planning on buying some Ouzo on my way back for my coffee guy in Sydney. But on careful inspection of the packaging, I'll probably end up with a suitcase of broken glass and ouzo so I gave it a miss instead. We hit the CD store for some retail therapy when we found the Je T'aime Singles! That's right! They have the songs that they sing on Je T'aime! And guess what? They had the Shish Kebab song! We JUST HAD TO BUY IT!!!

Feeling better after our retail therapy, we headed to the boarding gate where we bump into the screaming kid and his dad again. God, I swear if he sits near me, I'm shoving a vomit bag down that kids throat to shut him up. We eventually get on the flight and Moishii strikes up a conversation with the guy sitting next to him. Me? I just pass out from the combination of motion sickness tablets and those bloody green tablets. As we're about to land in Istanbul, all the seats go upright and the seat belts are fastened. I still managed to semi doze off waiting for the pills to wear off when we practically crash onto the runway. The plane hits the tarmac then BOUNCES UP INTO THE AIR before landing again. Since I was half a sleep, I gave out a little yelp. It was a good thing I wasn't screaming bloody murder. That definitely woke me up. Infact, it woke the whole plane up. I'm surprised people didn't have a heart attack from that.

We get off the plane and say a quick goodbye to the dude before heading towards immigration ourselves. I grab my Visa and quickly get through immigration where theres a massive wait for the suitcases. We had a mild panic attack thinking they've somehow stuffed up our luggage and they're stuck in Athens. Luckily, after awhile, the bags all come out. We also quickly ducked into Duty Free to grab a few bottles of Vodka for BellBoy as a gift whilst I went to exchange money to make sure we actually HAD money to spend.

We get out into the arrivals and jump into a taxi. Next thing you know, we're hurtling down the streets at an alarming speed without seatbelts. God I've missed Istanbul. We eventually come to a screeching halt outside Sude Konak where I practically tumble out of the taxi to kiss the floor. When I recovered enough to help with the luggage, I noticed that they had turned the street into a one way street, and built a new restaurant smack bang opposite the hotel.

We quickly checked in and go to our room. Now here's the thing. We assumed that knowing Bellboy, and the fact that bellboy thinks I am going to Istanbul with the bisexual sister of my ex-lesbian lover, that we would get a great room. Not only was this room small, our window faced a hole in the wall where the ventilation pipes and other random shit get thrown into. Basically it was a view of dirt, dust and rusty pipes. Our bathroom also had no ventilation, meaning by the time you finish showering, you break out into a sweat again.

We get changed and went for a walk around the streets to grab some water as well. Everytime we're in Istanbul, we always walk past a chinese restaurant behind the hotel. This is Istanbul's "Chinatown" according to Moishii. Everytime we promised that we'll go try their food another night. This night is no exception. Hehehe We even found a chinese travel agency in Istanbul!!

Istanbul's "Chinatown"

I wonder if I could get a discount from them?

Since it was close to 11pm and the last time we ate was around 3pm, we decided to go across the new restaurant call Maestro for a snack. Moishii explained that he's been meaning to try this place out, but every time the mentioned it, Bellboy has a complete fit and doesn't let him go, screaming that the place rips people off etc and that Sude Konak has better food and they do him a good deal. We go in hestitantly, especially since we're the only people in there. They give us a menu and looking at the prices, we were wondering wtf Bellboy was on about? The prices were really reasonable.

Inside Maestro

Their water feature/fish pond

Seeing that we're both sick, and I've developed a really annoying coughing fit, all we really wanted was soup and tea. I spotted lentil soup on the menu and immediately decided to order that. Back in 2005 when I got really sick from Mykonos, the thing that made me feel 10x better was a lentil soup we had in a dodgy back alley/courtyard in the Grand Bazaar near some metal factory. A few minutes later, they plonked down a basket of bread and our soup.

Basket of bread for our soup

Lentil Soup

Tea to sooth our throats

God I missed the Turkish Lentil soup. All we needed was some lemon juice. We practically licked the bowl clean before we went back to our hotel rooms and passed out for the night.

Day 28 - The last hurrah

Surprisingly I felt slightly better this morning. I still had a fever and would get the chills and start shivering as well. But I wasn't quite ready to kick the bucket. We got up and headed downstairs for breakfast. Without even needing to discuss, we went straight back to the crepe place around the corner from us for tea and our usual crepes.

Throat saving Tea

Turkey, tomato and cheese crepe

As I am sitting there, Moishii heads inside the cafe to pay the bill. This is when I notice this guy sitting a few meters away from me and filming me. Everytime I look over, he turns the camera away and pretends not to look at me. When Moishii comes out, I told him about the guy, and even he noticed that the guy was filming me.


Looking at him, we deduced that he's a french pornography director and I'm going to find my head superimposed onto some porno one day. Meanwhile, for anyone that has watched "Everybody loves Raymond", is this Deborah's mum?????


Since this is our last full day in Mykonos. It was time to overdose. The purpose of today is to hunt down as many locals as we can. And boy did we do that.

The Scandinavian Homeless

Scary Canary

The tattoo woman

The constipated woman

Crazy hat woman without her hat

Random woman that cracked us up

The fashionable homeless

The postcard woman

Scary Canary

Hat Christine

We used to get Mex Cafe Christine and Hat Christine mixed up. The hat threw us off and used to confuse us. But now we have a photo to distinguish them apart!

Mex Cafe Christine

Local Christine

Random Scary Woman

$40 Woman's balcony... come out please!

After our exhausting lap around Mykonos and hunting down the locals, we had a quick break at Mex Cafe. Considering we just made it out of our death beds, we settled for a nice big mug of tea instead.

I also decided to run back to the apartment to get my SLR. If its my last day in Mykonos, I need the right gear to capture everything. When I got back, there were a few random guys sitting next to Moishii. Apparently it was Moishii's workmate Pauly G, who happened to be in Mykonos at the same time and they bumped into each other. The scary thing is, we found out when we got back to Sydney that PG had spent about $20k at Mykonos alone! LIKE WTF? I know we complain that euros are expensive, but WTF COULD YOU POSSIBLY SPEND ON IN MYKONOS???

After our tea, we did a few more laps before calling it quits. We headed back to the apartment for the long climb up the stairs. Could be worse, our stairs could look like this:


The minute we got back, it was packing time. Not before Moishii noticing that his clothes have been blown off the clothesline. So he spent the next 5 minutes gathering his stuff together only to find a shirt missing. Luckily Local Christine was watching him and ratted out our neighbour for stealing the shirt. Moishii had to pound on the door to make the guy give him his shirt back.

So back to packing. We were leaving tomorrow, and the last thing I want to do is to rush packing tomorrow morning and leave something behind. Now I always wondered why Moishii's luggage is so damn heavy and took him soooo long to unpack and repack. Now I know why. Sorting THIS out would take an hour alone!


When we got up after our Siesta, we got changed and ready for our last night in Mykonos. We decided to go back to the Baked Lamb and pasta restaurant for one more meal. We decided not to get a salad and settled for a veggie soup each.

Veggie Soup

Baked lamb and pasta

Now, we had been complaining that this restaurant never gives us any freebies. We see all the tables around us getting free alcohol and ice cream whilst we got nothing. This was what started our whole "must get freebie" thing. This time, they actually gave us free ice cream, except we were both too sick to eat it!!@#%@#%


After paying for the bill, we started doing laps again and even found Petros! We thought he had died!



As we're walking, I suddenly turned to Moishii and screamed we had to get back to our apartment. Like RIGHT NOW. I think he must've noticed me go a bit green in the face, so we stepped on it and ran back to the apartment. I barely made it through the door when my dinner came back up. God damnit! Those green pills they sold be are bloody strong! Next thing you know, it was Moishii's turn to contribute to the toilet. This reminds me of the whole Santorini to Mykonos Jetcat ride. The symphony orchestra of vomit.

We decided to jump back into bed and relax a bit before going out. What better way than to watch Je T'aime. They had a guy get on to sing a song called "Shish Kebab". Basically, the lyrics went "Shish kebab kebab. Shish kebab kebab". Then they had someone carving a shish kebab! haha


They also had a hot chick sing for us.......


15mins into the show, I turned around and found Moishii passed out in bed. There was no way he was waking up. You can dunk him into a toilet bowl and he wasn't waking up. I decided to take a walk around town and enjoy the last of the night life before calling it quits. This is our one and only night that we did not go into Scandinavian Bar. I also did some last minute shopping which involved getting an authentic Greek Cookbook! I eventually collapsed into bed around 2am.