To all my fans, friends and pathetic ex-boyfriends out there who follow my blog; please except my apology for the lack of postings lately. I have been out of town, Queensland to be more precise, doing some travelling with my family who decided to go across the globe to see me.
Three weeks went really fast. After a few freezing days in Melbourne we caught a plane to Brisbane. Our hopes of sun were slightly smashed when we arrived to yet another cold and rainy city. It got better though. After a few days in a camper van, heading north, we had a bit of warmth and semi-summer temperatures. First we arrived in Noosa Heads, which was a pretty sweet spot. I would have enjoyed it more though if it wasn't for suffering from a bad hit to the head while pulling down the loft bed in the camper van. I guess I'm only averagely clever now.
Moving on, we went to some other wicked places like Hervey Bay and Fraser Island, where we saw some cool wild animals, such as dolphins, iguanas and dingoes. I swear I also saw a vampire in Maryborough, but nobody believed me. Fraser was a really cool place. It had super cold lakes which I did not swim in, a rain forest, massive beaches, wicked sand dunes, a super fresh creek and a shipwreck. Oh, and the guide told us 19 types of snakes lived on the island, of which only four were non-venomous. The red belly snake, the brown snake and inland tipan... Oh, great! That's only like the most dangerous animals on the planet. Awesome. That stopped me from randomly walking into the forrest.
Living in a simple van for two weeks was amazing. You have no idea what a relief it is to not be able to use Internet and not giving a damn if you smell bad. I could easily have gone on like that for a year. No problem. Maybe I should actually do that sometime. Or perhaps I would have made a really good hippie back in the 60's. Staying at various camper parks was an interesting experience also. I'm 24 years old but nobody has ever guessed my age right. Ever. This came very handy when the camping park entry fee was per person and based on wheither you were adult or child. One day I'd be paying as an adult of 24 years, the other I'd be going as a child of 16 years, at one point I was the 15 year old twin sister to my 17 year old brother and other days me and aforementioned brother didn't even exist and had to hide in the back of the van when the camper park owners cruised around the premises. I aged backwards and constantly impressed strangers with my amazing English skills and rug-sack of experience for my "young years". By the end of the trip our parents listed me as 18 whenever we had to enter a park or attraction. That still made me go as a full paying adult, but I guess it just made more sense to everyone, like it would seem like they didn't have anything to hide while we weren't entirely truthful about concession discounts and so on.
The parents were good people to have around sometimes though. One day we went to an Aboriginal Visitor Center and learned how to throw a boomerang. We went to a beach afterwards and played with the souvenir we had bought. Soon enough my brother came back to the van, without the boomerang, and demanded that our dad would go get it for him. He had thrown it into some bushes and he was so scared to go in there, only our dad could do the job. "There are probably some freakin snakes in there, no way I'd go there!" he explained, "You have to do it, dad!". Dad, who is the only member of our family without extreme phobia of snakes, did probably not feel very loved for this not so noble assignment, but did it anyway. Armed with a metal stick he found the 18 dollar souvenir, which I later broke while throwing it against the wind in Agnes Waters.
The camper van was freedom. I'd fall asleep watching the stars through the mosquito net, I'd feel completely relaxed while seeing clouds above split to the sound of She&Him and being rocked to sleep by the forward motion. It was a sweet vacation, which I had needed very much, and it was sort of good to be taken care of for a while. It was so inspirational to be away that I wrote a self-help book when I got back. I guess my target audience is self-laothing, pit of despair people who can't afford to go to Queensland. (P.S. The last part is meant to be ironic.)
