Joe "Joe Dub" Wendl

My time in AU is almost over...at least for now that is...

2008-02-19T02:42:00.003-06:00

I'm coming to the realization that I don't have enough time to write on here and still enjoy my time. Also, if I want to get internet I will more than likely have to go to an internet cafe and pay for it. This is for the travelers (or backpackers, as they call it) like myself. So...I have been keeping track of my experiences and will post an entire update on everything I did in Australia once I get back home. I will have more time and it won't cost me as much. ;)

I am enjoying myself and the scenery is amazing on this side of the world. However this comes with a price. Everything is extremely expensive here and the workers incomes aren't that much different than the average working American.

I have one more trip planned before I make my 18 hour journey home this coming Sunday, Feb 24th. I'm going up to Newcastle to visit a friend of mine from college. It's about a 3 hour train ride from Sydney and I plan to spend a few days up there. I heard the beaches are really nice there so I might spend some time on the beach.

I will try to post some more info on here before I leave but if not I plan to write all about my adventures once I return. I will say that it will be nice to sleep in my own bed and get some ordinary food. And I guess getting back to reality won't be so bad. :)

That's all for now! Cheers!

Update on my adventures...

2008-02-15T00:47:00.003-06:00

We just got back from Melbourne yesterday and it was awesome. I took a tour of the Great Ocean Road which is in Southern Australia. It was great scenery of the coastline. I don't have much time to write but I plan on filling all of you in what I have been doing next week sometime. Tonight we leave for Seals Rocks for a Surf Camp and will return on Sunday evening. This camp is designed to teach you the basics of surfing. So, it won't be long now until I'm a professional surfer! haha! We will return on Sunday evening from Surf Camp. Then we stay the night in Sydney and then off to the Blue Mountains on Monday for a few days. What I plan on doing when I return from my trips is summarizing everything I have done! I don't have access to a computer all the time. See ya!

That's all for now! Cheers!

Welcome to Australia!

2008-02-10T15:06:00.001-06:00

It is Monday morning in Sydney right now and the time is about 8am. Wow...so many things to fill you all in on and I don't know where to start. First of all, I will tell you how things went at the airport in LA and the plane trip over here. My Southwest Airlines flight made it into LAX from PHX around 7:00pm (PST) on Friday, Feb 8th. I then started to head towards the Qantas terminal so I could check my bags and get my boarding ticket. On my way over to the terminal this guy stopped me and asked if I was in the military which took me completely off guard. I mean, I wasn't even wearing anything that resembled a military person. The guy then went into asking me for money to help the homeless, at this point I realized I had been sold. He worked for a non-profit organization that helped raise money to aid the homeless and he was nicely dressed. He also showed me his badge and was standing near a cop that was directing traffic. Normally I don't give money to these people and especially in an environment like this one. But I gave the man $2 just so he would leave me alone. After that I got on a shuttle that took me over to the terminal. Once I arrived to the terminal I gave the lady my passport and ticket information. The lady at the ticket counter asked if I had a Visa to go to AU and I told her yes, the travel agency did it for me. Well, I guess it didn't connect to my ticket so the lady was nice enough to put one in for me at no charge. Usually they are $25 USD. The lady also said my flight was delayed an hour and the new departing time was 12:40am (it was 11:45pm). Now I got my boarding pass so I was ready to pass security. I made it through security OK and then I was off to find a bar to kill 4.5 hrs before my flight.

Over the next 4 hours I drank 4 Amber Bock beers and took 3 shots of rum that some guys from a band by the name of "Blues Traveler" bought for me. I met some interesting people: an older guy by the name of Bryan from New York City who told me his claim to fame was that he had been to 100 countries and drank a beer in all 50 states, a middle aged guy Jeff from Rhode Island, a girl similar in age to me from Los Angeles, and 3 guys from the band "Blues Traveler" who were probably in their later 30's or so. Everyone was very nice and I had a great time before my flight. However, I drank a little too much and was a little tipsy getting on the plane. But before I got on the plane I met three girls who were going to Sydney on the same plane I was. One of the girls asked if I would switch her seats if I had a window seat. I said no problem but in all honestly I wanted her seat (Aisle seat). They were from Miami and headed to Sydney for 4 days and then off to New Zealand for 14 days. Once I got on the plane I found my seat and prepared for take off. This plane was huge. It's a 747-400 Boeing Jet that has 3 sets of seats going across and two aisles for people to walk in and an upper deck for the business class but all in all it wasn't anything different than riding on another airplane for domestic travel. I sat next to a guy who was from Sydney and on his way home from a business trip from Africa. He has a wife and 2 boys at home that he missed. He also told me that he had been gone for a month. I asked him what is one piece of advice that he could give me since this is my first time to AU: He told don't mention the Iraq war because most of the people in AU are against the US's involvement in the war.

The food was pretty good on the trip. They served us some chicken for dinner and a omelet for breakfast. Not bad! The entire flight was around 14.5 hrs and the first 11 hours flew by fast but the last 3 hours took forever. I watched some movies on the trip but fell asleep during everyone of them. You could also listen to music, watch TV shows and the national news. I was getting a little light headed during the flight but I toughed it out. I do have to mention this one Aussie flight attendant. I had a headache and asked her if they had any headache medicine. She gave me these pills similar to Advil. They worked like a charm and not sure what they were called. Anyways, she was beautiful and her ascent was to die for! Ok, enough with the mushy stuff. Once we landed I was feeling better which was nice. As I got off the plane it was time to go through customs and get my bags. I filled out a form that asked basic info about what my intention was for visiting AU and showed my passport. This was a simple process and didn't take very long considering there were 100's of people waiting in line to get through. I picked up my bag from the baggage claim and preceded to head to where my buddy Garett was going to be. Sure enough he was there and now it was time to enjoy the trip. (Just a little side note...it's now 10:30am Sunday, Feb 10th)

We took a cab and headed towards the place where he lived. It was a quick 15 min ride. I took my stuff to his room and got settled in. I also met his friend Josh who was visiting him also. We have a three bed (One King bed and bunk beds) room with a bathroom. This room is very small and I would say isn't any bigger than 18 X 18. But it's at a great price so it will work. No complaints from me. After settling in we headed down the street to get a bit to eat from the local pub. I had "Banger's and Mash", it's an Australian thing. Basically its mash potatoes and sausage with gravy on it. It was delicious! We also had a beer with our meal. I quickly noticed that Sydney is very expensive compared to the states. a 20 oz beer is pretty close to $10 AU's here which is pretty similar to $10 USD. After lunch we walked towards downtown where the bridge and Opera House is. I also went up the Skytower in downtown and the view at the top was unbelievable. We could see for miles. There are about 3 million people who live in Sydney and I could believe it. When we were walking over the bridge Garett gets a phone call and the girl on the other end says, "I want to talk to my best friend Joe". So he gives me the phone and its my friends I met on the plane who were from Miami. It was the girl I switched my seat for. They invited us to go hang out with them at a bar near their hotel which so happens to be in the same general area we were in. We told them we would meet them there in a little bit. I gave them Garret's number at the Sydney airport so thats how they found us. But before we got a taxi to head to the bar we walked under the bridge to get a few pictures of the opera house with us in it. These 3 cute girls were sitting on a bench near us and one asked if I would take a picture of them. So, I took the picture and we started talking. Two of them were from Brazil and the other from AU. One of the Brazilians asked if I was American. I guess she could tell from my so-called ascent. I told her yes and she said well I could tell from your kind generosity. Nice girls and the Brazilian gave me her business card. She told me to call her. haha...well I accepted the business card but I highly doubt I call her.

After talking with these girls Josh, Garett, and I caught a cab to head to the "Green Park" bar to meet up with my friends from the plane. Once we got there we quickly noticed something different about this bar. There were a lot of men and not so many women but we found my friends. And we found out that we were in the most popular gay bar in Sydney. Nice, real nice! It was still fun and no one bothered us other than a few uncomfortable looks from other guys. The girls we met were buying us beers and it didn't sound like they were hurting for money. These girls were a little older than us (I would say early thirty's) and were settled in to their careers. We stayed at the bar for awhile and then headed to a restaurant near their hotel to sit down and have some more beers. The girls ate some dinner but we didn't eat anything. I would say we stayed at this restaurant for an hour and then my boys and I headed for home to get changed so we could go hit up a few bars. Once we got back to the house I started to feel really tired and was still pretty exhausted from the plane ride and had been on the go all day. I told Garret I needed a quick nap before I go out but after I took my nap I realized that I may as well just hit the bed for the night to get some rest. Garett and Josh still went out to the bars but I turned it in for the night!

That's all for now! Cheers!

Heading to LA and then it's "Down Under" time!

2008-02-08T17:10:00.001-06:00

Just wanted to drop a quick note. I'm getting ready to head to the airport in PHX to take off for LA and then to Sydney. Today was my last day in PHX and I had a good time. My Uncle and I went up to a few scenic spots that looked out over Phoenix...both were really cool. Then we took his motorcycle out for a spin around town and got some lunch. We drove by Arizona State University to take a look at the campus and saw a few other hot spots around town. All in all it was a very awesome day! I even stopped by the local Wells Fargo Bank to make a deposit, not as cool as the branch I work at. But maybe I'm alittle biased. haha!

Now I get ready for the longest flight of my life (14 1/2 hours) but first I have a short 1 hr 5 min flight from PHX to LA on Southwest Airlines. Maybe I will get lucky and get a free beer out of it. :) I doubt it but you never know! And for my international flight I will most definately be having a few cocktails to make my trip alittle more enjoyable. Well, gotta jet because the Uncle is calling for me. Time to head to the airport!

Take care and see you in the future! The next time I will talk to all of you, I will be one day ahead! If any of you want the results of yesterdays races, I might be able to give you the right picks! haha!

That's all for now! Cheers!

Thursday, February 7th

2008-02-07T22:59:00.000-06:00

Today was a very low key day since I was pretty tired from the night before. I didn't go to bed until around 5am and then woke up at 10am. So not much sleep at all. My Uncle and I went out to lunch at The Olive Garden and after lunch we went to look at a Motorsports Shop for a Yamaha Rhino he has been wanting to purchase. They looked pretty neat. They are just like a Quad but shaped kinda like a Golf Cart. He took some measurements because he needs to find a trailer to put it in. That was our next stop, a trailor company. We looked at some pretty nice enclosed trailors for sale. The salesman was really nice and seemed to know his stuff. My Uncle is trying to sell his Quads before he buys the Rhino and Trailor. All of this running around took a few hours to complete. It was fun to listen to their converstations and I learned a few sales skills that I could incorporate at my job. After the trailor company we headed to a tire shop so my Uncle could get new tires on his Chevy Tahoe. While the tires were being put on he challenged me to a game of mini golf across the street. Of course I couldn't turn him down. So it was on! 18 holes of mini golf and nothing but bragging rights at stake! It was a pretty close game but my Uncle beat me by 2 strokes and that's even alittle controversial. There was a few freebies during the game but no excuses from me, I accepted defeat! Damn him! haha!

After mini golf we went back to the tire store to pick up the truck so we could head back to the house. We put our swim suits on and hopped in the jacuzzi for alittle relaxing time. We had dinner plans at the Kona Grill with his girlfriend at 5:30pm so we got cleaned up to go have dinner. I've never been there before and it was a nice place. I had a Chicken Oriential Salad which was pretty good. I would recommend this place to anyone willing to try something different. I'm pretty sure we have one in Omaha at a mall in West Omaha.

Once Dinner was over we went back to the house to chill out for the rest of the night. We watched the movie, Shooter. I love that movie, its so good. And then I preceded to head to bed because I need a good nights sleep for my long journey tomorrow. I leave from PHX at 6:45pm and arrive at LAX at 7:05pm. I will then get checked in and my plane departs for Sydney at 11:45pm. It's a direct flight that lasts 14.5 hrs. Can't wait!

Ok, so I still haven't completely grasp the idea of going to Australia yet. I'm really excited and can't wait to explore something different. My friend Jen said it will change me forever. I will finally be exposed to a different culture outside of North America. I also hear that the ladies love American men. I guess I will soon find out and will make sure to give a full report. I called the travel agency tonight to make sure everything is all clear for me to take off tomorrow. They confirmed it was. I will call Qantas Airlines tomorrow to confirm with them as well. I talked with my Mom this evening and she gave me a few numbers to call to get a guys phone number who lives in or close to Sydney. This guys name is Greg and my Mom went to high school with him. He has been in AU for several years now. I might give him a call when I'm over there to say hi.

I may not get a chance to post anything on here for a few days but I will make sure to update everyone on how my flight went and anything else that I experience. I just hope I have a safe journey. I'm sure all will be fine but it sure will be nice when I get over there.

That's all for now! Cheers!

Greetings from the Desert!

2008-02-06T17:37:00.000-06:00

Tuesday, Feb 5th: Flight from Omaha to Phoenix
I must say that traveling can be stressful at times. The worst part is packing because no matter how much preperation I put into it, I always think I forget something. Yesterday, I got off work alittle later than I wanted. I was suppose to get off around 4pm so I could go home and finish up some packing. Well, I didn't get out of the office until close to 5pm and it had been snowing pretty hard all day long. I was alittle worried that my flight was going to get delayed or cancelled but more on that alittle later in this post. I arrived to the Omaha airport around 6:30pm to check in and check one of my bags. I did the normal routine and put my bag up on the scale to see how much it weighed. I knew it was heavy and close to the 50lbs limit (Southwest Airlines Policy) but I soon found out that I was 3lbs over the limit. Shoot!!! So, now I had to take something out to get it down to 50lbs. To make a long story short, I took out my hiking boots and WALLA, it was 3lbs worth of luggage. Ok, now my bag that I checked was good to go and I received my boarding pass so I'm all clear to get on my flight. Before I passed thru security I got myself a small personal pan pizza from Godfathers for dinner. The weather forecast said that more snow was coming after 8pm which so happens to be around the time my flight takes off. But the airline crew worked hard to get us out of Omaha before the storm picked up. This flight was pretty bare because I noticed that only 50 passengers boarded the plane which is only 1/3 of what the plane could hold (137 passengers is the planes capacity). So needless to say I had a whole row of seats to myself. I met a guy on the plane who was from the Omaha area and he was going to Phoenix to visit his brother. He was a nice guy and we talked quite a bit. We had alot in common and I found out he banks with Wells Fargo. Don't worry I didn't try to sell him anything but maybe a credit card. haha! I even gave him my business card. :) It was good to meet someone on my first of several flights and I'm sure I will meet more people as my trip goes on. During the flight the attendant came around and asked if I would like something to drink and I ordered a Bud Light. It was $4, what a rip but how often do you get to drink a beer on a plane. After awhile I drank my entire beer and turned on the call light to get her attention so I could get another one. Without even asking she came straight to my seat with another full beer. I was impressed! As I started to give her the money she insisted that this one was on her. That was really nice of her. I also brought along my friends, Mike and Cathi's, Portable DVD player to watch a few movies during my flights. I watched "1408" during this flight. It was a pretty good movie and this was my first time watching a movie on the airplane. And just when I thought my flight was going pretty good, I noticed my beer was empty. The flight attendant came by again and asked if I wanted another one? I said, Sure why not? I mean I'm on vacation, right? When she came back with the full can of Bub Light I held out my money and once again she instisted that I didn't have to pay. So, since she was being so nice, I at least gave her a tip to show my apprecation. I had a total of 3 beers on this flight. By this time we were approaching Phoenix so we had to prepare for landing. The flight into PHX was beautiful with all the city lights at night. Once I landed I met my Uncle and then we headed to his house. To end the night him and I sat in his jacuzzi for alittle bit and talked about anything and everything. I really enjoyed the conversations. After the hot tub action, it was time for bed since I was so tired from traveling and stressing about what to bring. Overall it was a good day.

Wednesday, Feb 6th: Quading in the Desert/Dinner with Lindy
This day my uncle and I were going to go riding his quads in the desert. We got up around 7:30am to start getting everything loaded up. I had been looking forward to this day for several months because the last time I was down here we took the quads out and it was so much fun. Once we were done getting everything loaded up we headed for the place we were going to ride at. It was a quick 1 hour trip to get to the offroading park which was a National Park. Once we got there it was on! We started them up and away we went. Some parts were muddy and some were really dry but nothing could stop us. There was no one out there so it was nice to have the whole park to ourselves. We rode pretty far into the trails and it was beautiful. We stopped for lunch about an hour into the ride. My Uncle had packed a lunch with a sandwich, gronola bar, cheese stick, and almonds for both of us. After lunch we went to what he called, "The Indy Trails". Basically this trail is like a race track but with sand. The sand curves up on turns just like a real race track has turns. It was really fun and the trails in this area get alittle narrow because the rocks are so close to each other but its just the right size for Quads to fit thru. We rode on these trails for awhile and then decided to head back to the truck to go home. But first I wanted to climb up this rock that I had climbed when I was down here before. Supposely PHX has been getting alot of rain this winter and that has caused the rivers to flood. The Salt River that runs next to this place had risen so much that it covered trails to where we once were able to climb up this rock that I want to get up to. So, we started pushing ourselves thru the weeds and trees. It smelled like a rain forest or swamp because of all the moisture and muddy waters. Finally, we made our way to the top of this rock, which really isn't that tall of a climb, probably 400 feet in the air. The view was incredible up there and I took some pics of it too. There are these set of rocks next to this rock that we were on which are called, Needle Point, basically they look like Needles sticking out of the water. Pretty neat! When we climbed back down we rode to the truck to load up and then headed back.

On our way home we stopped at an A&W fast food place to get a root beer float. They told us they ran out of ice cream but it will be about 10 mins til its ready to serve. And then they tell us they are out of Root Beer but we could substitute Pepsi with it. At this point, we said screw it and left. Isn't that their signature item for their buisness....come on now, you can't run out of a Root Beer when you're called A&W. So we went next door to Starbucks and had a few latte's.

Later, we went over to Lindy's house for dinner. Lindy is my uncle's girlfriend. My uncle cooked up some steaks and we had a very nice dinner. After dinner we sat outside around the fire pit. It was a rather chilly night for PHX. The temp was around 40 degrees but the fire made up for it. It has been unseasonally cool down here the past couple weeks but its in the 60's during the day. It was around 8pm when my uncle and I left her house and decided to hit up a show at the casino in town. Lindy had to get up for work the next day so she decided to get some sleep. The show was called "Showstoppers Live" and it had impersonators for Elvis, Tim McGraw, The Temptations, The Blues Brothers, and a comedian put on a skit. It was actually pretty good, I'm glad I went.

The show got over and I wanted to met up with my friend from college who lived down here. Her name is Jen. The bar she was at was on the way home from the casino so I had my uncle drop me off. The bar looked like a dive on the outside but was just your typical average bar on the inside. I asked Jen if its a possible that I might get shot? She laughed and said, "You don't have anything to worry about". The bar is called, "Big Fish Pub". They had live music and a dance floor for people to show their moves. My friend's sister was painting pictures at this bar which is something I've never seen at bars back home. So that was neat to see. Jen and I haven't seen each other in almost two years so it was nice to catch up with her. We talked about a lot of different things but mostly about our Australia trip coming up. Keep in mind we didn't plan to go over there together at the same time but it just happened to work out that way. This is what's so cool about my trip. It really shows you that its a small world. The live band was really good and the lead singer was a girl who was born and raised in Omaha. Her name is Meredith. I talked to her for alittle while and she was a really cool down to earth chick with dreadlocks, yep she had some major dreadlocks. The bars in PHX close a 2am so when the bar closed, Jen and I went out to get into her car to start getting it warmed up. It was so cold out that night. I couldn't believe how cold it got but there is no snow which is good. Before we left the bar we decided we were going to hit up IHOP for an early breakfast and we were going to meet up with Jen's sister and her friends. But before we went to IHOP, we stopped at a gas station to get some hot chocolate to warm ourselves up. It sure helped a ton. We finally got to IHOP and it's about 3am but it doesn't matter because we are all having a good time. (Just alittle side note: there was no drinking and driving because Jen only had two drinks at the bar and she was ok to drive, just wanted to make that clear) Jen and I ordered some breakfast special they had and we split it. Her sisters friends were a fun group and we had some laughs. After we ate our breakfast and paid the bill, I ran out to start the car to start getting it warm. We then headed towards my Uncles house so Jen could drop me off. Let me say it wasn't an easy task. I really didn't know where I was going other than we had to get off on "Ray Rd" from the interstate. We got lost several times and finally after so many wrong turns I finally recognized some familar places near my uncles house. At this point we were both exhausted and just ready for bed. So, we found the house and Jen dropped me off and then she drove home. This was around 4:30am. This night was fun and I'm glad I got to see what the night life was like here in Phoenix. Once I got in bed I fell asleep right away.

That's all for now!

7 Days and Counting...

2008-02-01T20:03:00.000-06:00

Well, it sure has been a long time since I've updated this website. It was a crazy month in January but now it has passed. I'm finally done with my training in Lincoln, NE for my new job so now I'm at the bank full time. But enough with my job and on to what really matters now, the trip to the land down under. It has come to my attention that I have only 5 more days until I depart for Phoenix, AZ and only 8 days until my flight from Los Angeles, CA takes off en route to Sydney, Australia. I AM EXCITED for what I consider the BIGGEST trip in my life yet!!! I honestly don't know what to expect when I get over there but maybe some warmer weather and some awesome expierences.

A few things to expect are:

Total hours on an airplane from Omaha to Sydney and back: 38
Weather in Pheonix: 60's and 70's
Weather in AU: 70's and 80's
Current converstion rate from US dollars to Australian Dollars: $1.00 US = $1.10 AU
Ticket to Sydney bought today: $3241.00 (I bought my ticket for $1407)
Time difference between Omaha and Sydney: 17 hours (AU is ahead of US)
Total days away from home/work: 19
Total amount invested into trip so far: $1933.78

Change in Plans: Ok, so there has been a slight change in plans since the last time I've updated this site. Orginally I was going to leave on Wednesday, Feb 6th at 8:05pm. But, I've bumped my flight up one day to Tuesday, Feb 5th at 8:05pm departing Omaha en route to Phoenix on Southwest Airlines. My boss was really understanding of the situation so that made me happy. Also, there was talks of going to Tasmania for a few days but that has been cancelled. It was going to be too expensive and the too much traveling for the amount of time I was going to be there. We tried to set up a white water rafting trip with a company in Tasmania but got no response from the company. So, we decided against the trip and to focus our efforts on more favorable opportunites.

What I plan to do in Phoenix (Feb 5th - Feb 8th): I arrive in Pheonix at 10:00pm on Tuesday, Feb 5th. My Uncle Danny will pick me up from the airport and then we will most likely head back to his house. He lives there and I plan to spend time doing whatever comes up. There really isn't anything planned as of now but I'm sure we will do some fun stuff. I also have a friend from college who lives there and I plan on meeting up with her sometime during my stay. The funny thing about my friend from college is that she will be leaving for Australia one day after I depart LAX. This was not planned at all. She moved over there for awhile after she graduated college and then returned to the states. Now she is moving back to Australia for a year and who knows if she will return. She is planning on becoming a citizen in Australia but only time will tell. My flight departs Phoenix en route to Los Angeles on Feb 8th at 6:45pm on Southwest Airlines.

What I plan to do in Los Angeles and my flight over the Pacific Ocean to Sydney (Feb 8th-Feb 10th): I arrive at 7:05pm at LAX and will pick up my bags in the baggage claim terminal and begin the International Check-In process on Qantas Airlines shortly thereafter. If I have time I might pick up a shot glass/souvenirs in the airport and then find my departure gate. I will be chilling out until my flight leaves at 11:45pm Friday, Feb 8th en route to Sydney. This is a 14 1/2 hour flight. As of right now I have a window seat on the jumbo jet (Boeing 747) . I've always wanted to go to Australia and fly on a Boeing 747...what do ya know, I get to knock off two birds with one stone! There will be some in-flight movies I will be checking out. Some of those movies include: 310 to Yuma, Heartbreak Kid, Bee Movie, Beowulf, Into the Wild, Superbad, The Invasion, and 14 more. There will be a few meals during the flight but I'm not sure what will be served. Something interesting about my journey to Australia is that I will never see Feb 9th because of the time change. I won't arrive in Sydney until Sunday, Feb 10th at 9:15am. With this being said I will also try to get some sleep on my flight because I plan to hit the ground running once I land. I am going to try to avoid any naps during my first day there but we'll see how I feel once I get over there. Some people have suggested that I stay up later than normal a few nights before my flight so I can start getting use to the dramatic time change that I will expierence. I will most likey try this and see if it works in my favor. Now this brings me to my two week stay in Sydney.

What I plan to do in Sydney (Feb 10th - Feb 24th): Like I've said, I will land at 9:15am where my buddy Garett and his friend Josh (a friend of Garett's from college) will greet me at the airport. Garett has been over in Australia since late July/2007 and has been loving it ever since. At least that's what he tells me. Recently, his friend Josh and him have been over in Southern Asia exploring different countries and cities for the last two weeks. They will return to Sydney on Feb 9th just in time to pick me up at the airport the next day. I'm just going to give everyone an overview of what I think we are going to do when I arrive.

So far this is what's planned:

Surf Trip (Two Days)
Blue Mountain Cave Exploring
The Beaches of Sydney
Trip to New Castle to visit my friend from College
Bar Hopping
Shopping
And the rest is up in the air...

This is where the rest will be told in my entries throughout my journey. I plan on updating this site daily of what I experienced the day before but I'm sure some days I won't be able to get on here but I will try my best. I look forward to sharing my trip with everyone and I hope each of you learns something new. It won't be long now until I'm signing off each of my entires with, Cheers Mate! haha!

One more thing before I go, back in December I asked each of you to tell me what you wanted me to write about and had you vote in a poll. Here is what everyone said:

My Personal Experiences - 7 Votes
What Things Cost in Australia - 7 Votes
Australian Culture/Landmarks - 5 Votes
Food and Drink- 5 Votes
Weather - 1 Vote

With that being said, my entries will be based around your responses above.

My next entry will come before I depart Omaha on Feb 5th.

That's all for now!!!

51 Days and Counting...

2007-12-17T08:31:00.000-06:00

Wow...alot has happened in the past few weeks and that is why I haven't updated this site. Where to begin. I started my new job last Monday and so far so good. I was at the bank last Monday and Tuesday and then from Wednesday to Friday I was in Lincoln for training. One thing I have noticed on the Bank side of Wells Fargo is the amount of training they put you through. I never went through this much training on the Financial side. I will be in and out of training all the way to the end of January. I guess that isn't such a bad thing. I'm getting paid to learn something and travel to Lincoln!

Anyways...two weekends ago I went down to Maryville for the semifinal game against Grand Valley State. This team has beaten us in the last two (2005 & 2006) championship games so we were ready for our revenge. Some of my buddies and I started tailgating at 2pm on that Saturday afternoon and the temperature was around 15 degrees. Boy was it a cold one! We had a fire pit going and were drinking some juice mixed with vodka. Yum!!! Normally I don't drink Vodka but this was a special occasion. haha! Needless to say I wasn't too cold but there were times that we all looked at each other and asked, "Why in the hell are we out here this early when the game doesn't start until 8pm." But that is the dedication we have to our football team and it also adds to the fact that we are crazy at times! We were the only ones out there which added to the insaneness. When we got in the game it was crazy and the fans never let up as we went on to beat the 2 time defending national champs, 34-16! The Bearcat fans stormed the field and tore down the two goal posts in no time at all. The fans then picked the posts up and carried them to a few of the local bars in town BUT first they dropped them into the iced over Colden Pond. One guy fell through the ice but don't worry it was only a few feet deep and he was pulled out quickly. Although, the posts never broke the ice. The fans then chanted, "To the bars!" So, I helped pick one of the posts up and we carried them up 4th street and towards Town Square where we dropped one of the posts off at The Pub and out of the corner of my eye I saw the other goal post being carried so my buddies and I followed. This post ended up in front of Burny's Bar and shortly after the Grand Valley fan bus drove by and we waived our flags and cheered at the top of what was left of our lungs. At this point in the night my voice was gone, I was exhausted and my head hurt. Some said before the game that if we win, we would party all night long but once that came a reality most of us went home and went to bed. But it wouldn't be a complete night in Maryville until we went to McDonald's. After stopping by McDonald's we went back to my buddy's house and talked about the game. We all were shocked that we just had beaten a team who had won each of its 40 previous games. That's right, they were on a 40 game winning streak before we beat them. This was a dream come true for Bearcat Country but the dream wouldn't last long. We advanced to the finals for the 3rd consecutive year and for the 3rd straight year we were denied a championship. Valdosta State defeated the Bearcats, 25-20 in the final seconds of the game. We ended a great season at 12-2 but the season wasn't completely finished. The championship that was much deserve wasn't won but this team overcame odds that questioned if they wouldn't even make it past the second round or win a few nail biting games during the regular season. But one thing is certain and that is there is always next season and we still have a championship game to win!!! Go Bearcats!!! Let's go after it next season!

Just a few quick notes on the trip to Australia. The days are counting down quickly and it will be here before I know it. I'm still really looking forward to it! My buddy and I are thinking of going to Tasmania when I am over there. It's just a few hour plane ride south of Sydney and there is lots to do over there. This is still in the planning stages so nothing is set in stone. It would be a great trip to do. There is not much to talk about at this point and I anticipate there will be alot to talk about after the first of the year. With that being said I won't be updating this until after the first of the year. Everyone take care!!!

That's all for now!

The Definition of Insane...

2007-11-29T09:36:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I was curious how much a First Class ticket would be because I was debating on possibly upgrading depending on how much it was. I checked the Qantas website and I was shocked at how much it was!!! 17 GRAND for a round trip ticket!!! Are you kidding me??? That's insane! On the left hand side of this page I've included a list of links related to my trip and when you have time, check out the different travel classes the airline has. Go to the Qantas link, click on "Flying With Us" at the top of the page and then click on "Travel Classes" and then click on "First". You will then see what kind of accomadations a First Class ticket will receive. Even after looking over everything, it didn't convince me to go broke over a airline ticket.

That's all for now!!!

70 Days and Counting...

2007-11-28T10:39:00.000-06:00

The time is certainly flying by fast and it almost seems like yesterday when I bought my ticket. My Mom and I were driving to Little Rock, Arkansas in July of this year when I made the call to STA Travel to purchase my ticket to the land down under! Fun times!

So I've been thinking about ways to keep myself occupied during my 14 1/2 hour flight to Sydney. I've always wanted a portable DVD player but the battery will die before my reach my destination. I checked the airlines website to see if they have A/V outputs by the seats but they are only in First and Business Class. Darn! My ticket is in Economy Class. I may just have to break down and pay for a movie or two along the way or read a book or magazine. I could always sleep but I don't know how successful that will be. I think I will be so excited that I won't be able to put myself to sleep. However, my flight leaves at 11:45pm and I will be exhausted from all the running around I did during that day so who knows. It will be interesting to find out. Who knows, maybe I will meet a hot Aussie girl and we will have endless conversations to keep me occupied. Wouldn't that be something! haha! I will have a full report in my first blog entry once I land in Sydney.

This is my last week at this job before I head over to the bank. I will be on PTO from next Tuesday to Friday and then start on the following Monday at the Bank. I'm excited to start this new chapter in my life! In other news, the Bearcats beat West Texas A&M in the 2nd round of playoffs last weekend and will travel to Chadron this weekend. If we win against Chadron then we will play the winner of Grand Valley/Central Washington game and I will most definately be going to that game. I predict NW to win 35 to 21 over Chadron! Go Bearcats!!!

I still have awhile until my trip but starting in December I will start tanning so I don't fry when I get over there. I mean who wants to see a white pasty American on the beach? Probably no one! Haha!

That's all for now!!!

79 Days and Counting...

2007-11-19T09:48:00.000-06:00

I apologize that I am one day off...this post was suppose to come yesterday but I simply forgot to write something. There isn't much new other than I sent STA Travel my old ticket so they could send me a new one. I went to the post office here in Council Bluffs, IA last Wednesday to send the ticket via Express mail so it would get to them by Thursday. It cost $16.25 to overnight something of that weight (which wasn't more than 5 ounces). So this change in flight has cost me a total of $51.25! Not bad but this cost could have been avoided if I would have planned right in the beginning. Oh well...it's done and there's no turning back now!

I was curious about how my American Express credit card works overseas so I called them up to see what they charged. I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to get hosed with international service fees. The guy said they charge 2% of whatever you charge. So...if I spend $2000 in Australia they will charge me $40 in service fees. That's not bad since I have 0% interest until June/2008. I will be giving them another call back in January just to make sure this guy gave me the right information. You never can be sure about these credit card companies...they are fishy at times.

Other news in my life: I put in my two weeks notice to my managers last week after I was offered a job at Wells Fargo Bank in Bellevue, NE as a Personal Banker. I'm pretty excited for the new position and looking forward to start training on December 12th. My official first day at the bank is on December 10th and I will have to drive to Lincoln, NE everyday for training. However, I think it's only a few days a week for 6-8 weeks so not bad. Eventhough I changed jobs they are still allowing me to take 2 1/2 weeks off of work for this trip to Arizona/Australia! The day's are flying by and with the holidays fast approaching it won't be long now until I'm boarding that Boeing 747 jumbo jet en route to Sydney!!!

That's all for now!

Change in Plans...

2007-11-13T13:58:00.000-06:00

Last week I got to thinking about possibly staying an additional day with Garett in Sydney. This morning I called the travel agency to see how much it would be to change my flight. I talked to a guy and he said it would be $35 to switch my departure from Sydney to a day later. Personally, I didn't think that was bad (expensive) at all. I was thinking it would be way more than that. The down side to this switch is that I'm going to be extremely tired for work on Monday morning since I'm coming back on Sunday instead of Saturday. My original plan was to use Sunday to rest from my long trip back which will be around 19 hrs of flying. But I keep telling myself that this might be my only chance to go to Australia so I better make the most of it. So...I had the guy switch my departure to Sunday, Feb 24th at 12:00pm and I would arrive LAX at 6:30am the same day. In order to guarantee this change, I have to mail my original ticket that I received from STA Travel within the next few days so they can issue me a new ticket. Tomorrow morning I plan to stop by the post office to send the ticket back to them!

That's all for now!

90 Days and Counting...

2007-11-08T08:48:00.000-06:00

I'm going to write something on every 10th day until I leave for my trip. Soooo...I'm starting with 90 days til departure and that means 3 months until I board my Southwest flight en route to Phoenix. There probably won't be much to say until about 40 days out but regardless I'm looking forward to my trip even though its still many days away. I talked to Garett the other morning for awhile but then something happened and we got disconnected. He called me around 8:30am CST (my time) and it was 1:30am (the next day) Australian time. He said he couldn't sleep. Garett emailed me after that to say that he ran out of minutes on his calling card. I was telling a good story when all this happened so he will just have to wait until next time! haha!

What else is going on in my life right now: This weekend I'm going down to Maryville, Mo with my Mom to watch Northwest Missouri play Missouri Southern in a football game. It's their last regular season game before playoffs. Go Bearcats!

Still to come in upcoming posts:

What I plan to do while I'm over there
Final preparations before I leave
Day to Day Journal of my adventures in the land down under
A complete financial analysis of my trip
Plus more...

That's all for now!

Visa and Passport

2007-10-29T15:39:00.000-05:00

Just some quick info on getting a Visa to travel . Australia is a country that requires tourist to have a touring Visa while you are visiting their country. So, I went ahead and got one set up recently even though I'm not leaving until February. Unlike the passport that may take several weeks to get, this is a simple process and most of the time can be processed and completed in the same day. The travel agency I purchased my ticket through (STA Travel) processes your Visa's for free with the purchase of a flight but if your travel agency doesn't offer this service then they are around $20-$60 and can be purchased from various travel companies. I faxed STA a copy of the inside cover of my passport with my personal information on it and they did everything for me. Pretty smooth! When I first heard that I needed a Visa, I asked someone, "I have a visa card with Wells Fargo so why do I need another one???" And, I quickly found out that this was not the same type of Visa as a credit card. DUH!!!

The only other item that I will need to leave the States and enter Australia is a Passport which I already have from my trip to Cancun earlier this year. These can run around $90 to $200, (includes all costs: shipping, two photo's from Walgreen's, and that actual cost to get one) depending on if you expedite it or not. I had to expedite mine since I ordered mine at the last minute before my trip to Mexico. These can be ordered at your local Post Office and take up to 3 months depending on the demand.

I just checked the countdown and only 99 more days until I depart to Phoenix and 101 til Australia. It will be here before I know it!

So far this Trip has a value at:

Ticket from Omaha to Phoenix to Los Angeles and back - $364
Ticket from Los Angeles to Australia and back - $1407
Travel Insurance coverage for 14 days - $80
Student ID card - $20
Touring Visa - $0
Passport - $0 (already have one)
Total expenses so far - $1871

So it begins...

2007-10-26T10:01:00.000-05:00

Well, the biggest trip of my life is almost here and I plan on making it huge!!! My buddy Garett is over in Sydney, Australia (AU) now for an internship for 3 months and then he's traveling around that region of the world for 4 months. He left the States towards the end of July to spend a week in Fiji before he finally arrived in Sydney and won't return to Omaha til March 2nd. But first allow me to back up a few steps in this process. When he first told me he was going to Sydney for 7 months I thought to myself what a great opportunity for him and the experience he will gain is priceless. When I was in college, I always wanted to study abroad but never made it a priority to make the arrangements. And then time got away from me and before I knew it, my college days were over. :( And it almost seems impossible to experience something like that at this point in my life but I guess never say never. So, back to my point here. Since Garett was going to be in AU. (I've always wanted to visit) I thought to myself why not make a trip out of it. After talking with him about it, he agreed that it would be a great idea for me to come visit him. This was all happening back in April and May/2007.

Here is some more info about the planning of my trip to AU. Garett graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, IA in May/2007 and I attended his graduation party at his Mom's house in Omaha in May. Now the question was, when do I come visit him? I checked on prices in January/2008 and the plane tickets from Los Angeles, CA (LAX) to Sydney, AU were running around $2000+ roundtrip. YIKES!!! Now I was kinda freaking out because I didn't know how I was going to afford this trip by spending that kind of money just on the plane ticket. Next I check the ticket fares in February/2008. Much to my surprise they were around $600 cheaper. This is because January is a prime vacation time in AU and it's their summer season too. Ok, now I wasn't freaking out so much anymore knowing that the tickets weren't going to cost me 2 grand but regardless still a good chunk of change! I mostly checked the major airlines websites and STA Travel (Garett bought his plane tickets from this student travel agency). I did call Travel and Transport in Omaha, NE to see what they could offer me but I never got a call back from them. I talked to a lady there and gave her the dates of when I would be leaving and arriving but I guess she got busy and forgot about me. Oh well, I highly doubt they could of beat the deal I got from STA Travel but I thought it was worth a try to see what the local company could do. Now was the time to decide when I was going to make my journey to the land down under and for how long. For some reason 2 weeks struck me as the right amount of time to spend over there since it is a 14 hr flight from LAX. And beings there's so much to do in AU, I figured I better make the most of it because who knows when and if I will go back there. So the dates were set: I am leaving from LAX on February 8th and returning to the states on February 23rd, 2008. But before I leave the states for just the third time in my life I will leave Omaha after I get off work on February 6th and head to Phoenix, AZ to visit my Uncle Dan. I will spend a few days in Phoenix before I make my way to Los Angeles to board my flight to AU. I purchased my plane ticket from STA Travel and bought some travel insurance in case the airline were to lose my luggage, have to be evacuated from AU for some major reason or get sick (since my American health insurance won't work over there). The ticket from LAX to AU cost me $1507 (includes travel insurance) which isn't bad considering it's a 14 hr trip there and half way around the world. =) Before I purchased my ticket, I applied for an American Express Blue card and got 0% for 12 months so I could pay it off within 12 months without paying any interest. I did this because I didn't have that kind of money off hand so I thought this would be a smart way to finance my trip without paying any more than I have to.

Here is my tentative flight itinerary for my trip to and from AU:

Feb 6th: Depart Omaha @ 8:05pm and arriving Phoenix @ 10:00pm
Feb 8th: Depart Phoenix @ 6:45pm and arriving Los Angeles @ 7:05pm and departing Los Angeles @ 11:45pm
Feb 10th: Arrive Sydney @ 9:15am (I will never see Feb 9th, 2008 because of the time difference)
Feb 23rd: Depart Sydney @ 12:00pm and arriving Los Angeles @ 6:30am and departing Los Angeles @ 10:50am and arriving Omaha @ 5:50pm