Party Like a Rock Star!

I spent five days straight partying like a rock star! The celebrations started last Friday night with my birthday party boat cruise. The theme of the party was “Full Moon” and everyone was wearing bright colors and fluorescent body paint. There were a hundred people on the boat, twenty of which were my housemates and the friends I have made while in Sydney. My new friend Jenny came all the way from Canberra to celebrate with me as well as Lauren’s friend from Florida, Nicole, who is now living in New Zealand. We cruised around the Sydney Harbor for three hours while a DJ played music and everyone danced. It was a beautiful night and I got to see the harbor bridge and Sydney Opera House up close and at night for the first time. After the cruise we all went to Star City Casino to gamble. I played blackjack and had so much fun but lost money this time! The best part of the night was when Danny and I got kicked out of the casino…I am convinced because I was wearing flip-flops!

To see all of my 30th Birthday Party Photos CLICK HERE!

The next day, January 26, was Australia Day, which is an official public holiday in all states and territories of Australia, and another good reason to celebrate and party all day! The tradition of noticing January 26 began early in the nineteenth century, referring to First Landing Day or Foundation Day, commemorating the establishment of the first European settlement on the continent of Australia. That was the day in 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip, commander of the First Fleet of eleven convict ships from Great Britain and the first governor of New South Wales, arrived at Sydney Cove. The settlement was seen as necessary because of the loss of the colonies in North America. Britain needed a new place to move “the less desirable” people and so the 11 convict ships filled with 1500 people arrived in Australia. Never before had so many people been moved such a great distance at such expense. Most were small-time thieves. Britain wasn’t trying to rid itself of dangerous criminals so much as the thin out an underclass. The voyage took 252 days and covered fifteen thousand miles of open sea. Of the thousand plus people who arrived, about seven hundred were prisoners and the rest were marines and officers, officers; families and the governor and his staff.

There were tons of different celebrations going on all over the city. Everyone was dressed in Aussie memorabilia. A bunch of us headed down to the botanical gardens and chilled out in the grass watching all the boats on the harbor. We eventually ended up at Darling Harbor for a fireworks show. Later we headed back to Coogee and decided to be crazy and sneak into the Coogee Bay Hotel. Lauren is working there now and noticed that the staff entrance door was left open. Lauren led us through a dark kitchen and down the back stairs to the room where the bands were playing. We saw an Aussie band from the 80’s called The Angels, which was lots of fun until the song “Will I Ever See Her Face Again?” was performed. I am not going into details but let’s just say that I underestimated the power of music! This song is responsible for a fight, tears, flowers, and a wrecked car!

Because Australia Day fell on a Saturday, the National Holiday was celebrated on the following Monday. The beaches were packed! We hiked part of the coastal trail to a beach in Cloverlly and went swimming at a rocks pool. Jenny & Nicole stayed with us all weekend so there were 4 of us sleeping in our tiny room!

Tuesday night my friend Ashley had a dinner party at her awesome house in Point Piper. We had dinner outside on a big patio with a view of the entire city. There were fifteen of us and surprisingly five of which were Americans! I met two guys, Eric & Elliot, who are from Southern California and recently sailed a boat themselves all the way from California to Australia! I find this so amazing! Ashley’s best friend Kate was also in town visiting from Colorado. The rest of the group were Aussies and one Italian. After dinner we went for a swim in the ocean and then had a dance party until 3 AM in Ashley’s living room. Her roommates are so fun and they even have a chest full of costumes that we decided to all wear! I ended up crashing at Ash’s house and in the morning spent a few hours on the private beach reading a book and enjoying the amazing view she has. I am seriously jealous that she landed such an awesome pad and all thanks to Craigslist!

I haven’t worked at all this week but I did have a cool shift last week and worked backstage the Big Day Out Concert at Sydney’s Olympic Park. I served food to many famous artists, many of whom I had never heard of as many were Aussie Bands…Wolfmother, Operator Please, and Behind Crimson Eyes. The big performers at the concert were Rage Against the Machine and Bjork.

I received a call from my dad over the weekend telling me that my storage unit company contacted him as there has been heavy rain in San Francisco and water was seen outside my storage unit! Of course I was freaking out but thankfully it was a false alarm and there was not water damage to my unit. Thank you SO much Tara and Aine for checking on my unit for me! The crazy thing I realized while thinking the worse case scenario in the situation is that although it would have been a big disaster and inconvenience to loose all of my personal belonging…the longer I travel and survive with very little stuff, the less I miss or care about all of the junk I left behind!

Lauren and I are headed to Canberra tomorrow to visit Jenny and spend the weekend touring the capital city of Australia! Jenny has warned us that Canberra is very boring but I think that a boring weekend is exactly what we need!