Ok, so after traveling for a little while I found that I have no imagination for cooking.¬† The requirements for backpackers is a little strange so it is a little difficult to find good recipes. I need a single serving (or two) recipes with no leftovers that don’t require an oven.¬† A few things i have found over the last weeks:

• Vegetables/fruit are great because they are easy to portion.
• Pasta or rice make a good bases but if you are eating them all the time it gets old.
• Meat is hard to buy in single portions but when cooking with someone it works well.
• Salad is easy, inexpensive, healthy and stores well in a fridge.¬† It needs something else or it gets boring.

So, if you have any ideas for great single serving meals please let me know.  Variety is a good thing.

Ok, I finally uploaded some pictures to my picasa site so everyone can view them. I have a couple sets one for Byron Bay and one for Sydney. I need to merge quite a few into panoramas but I don’t have any good programs to do that right now. If you have any comments, questions or requests just let me know. I will try upload more pictures as I take them, but today is raining so I don’t see that many happening today.

I wanted to go to Manly today but it is raining. I think it is going to be raining all week so who knows when I will make it out there. Today was supposed to be the heaviest of the next couple days so maybe tomorrow I will go with a poncho.

So I started walking around Sydney yesterday.  My camera is downstairs or I would upload some pictures.  I will link them later.  I went all the places I thought I would; the Botanical Gardens, the Opera House, the Harbor Bridge.  Then I saw another bridge on the other side of Sydney and thought I would try to find my way there.  Two hours later, a couple buses, a couple trains and a couple kilometer walk I found it.  Next time will be much easier.  Then trying to find my way back was interesting.  Much easier because you just go to city center on a bus or find a train station.

I think tomorrow I will go to Manly and do the nature walk over there.  Just a short 10K but it should be a lot cooler then.  Today it is supposed to be 30C (86 F) and 86% humidity.  I might head down to the beach in a bit snap a couple more pictures, maybe walk along the coast to Coogee and see what it is like down there.  I will post something later with some pictures.

I setup a Facebook account today so I could keep in touch with all the people I meet traveling.  I have to say I was much impressed by the import feature and how easy it was to see all of your contacts that already have accounts.  I added myself with three email addresses, maybe four.  Hopefully they are the ones people know so they can find and add me.  I guess that is a problem with giving everyone a different email address.
While I am signing up for social networks, I was wondering if there were any others I should join?  I have gotten a couple invites to bebo and shelfari but want to know more than one person on each if I am giving out an address.

I took the night train to Sydney.¬† Sleeping on the train is as hard as a plane.¬† At least you can getup and move around.¬† Hmm, I am thinking that when they let me check in in a couple hours I will take a nap, then worry about doing all the tourist stuff sometime later.¬† I am here for a week so I should have time to upload some pictures and fix a couple bugs in my blog. I think that is all for right now, I am ready to crash but I can’t yet.

Well tis Australia day down here and things are just dandy. There is a barbecue by the pool, some awards and a ceremony down on the beach. Looks like it will be a great day. Sometime I will get a connection I can hook my laptop up to and be able to show you all some pictures. Until then you will just have to take my word that it is green and beautiful here. Time to go off to the barbecue.

So, after four days in this little town I decided to stay a little longer. It is great here and the hostel I am staying at is awsome. It has a nice pool too cool off and lots to do. There is no TV so it is a lot more sociable. One thing about it that isn’t so perfect are the cockroaches but they stay in other people’s rooms.

The walk to town is about half a kilometer. Short enough for me to do it a couple times a day for whatever I need. The beach here is great and since I have started using sunscreen I haven’t been burnt anymore. Today will be a good day me thinks.

Ok, so I know this shouldn’t come as a shock to some of you that see me in the summer but I got sunburnt.¬† I didn’t think two hours out in the clouds would hurt. It does.¬† I put on sunblock today and it helped.¬† Kinda.¬† Ok, so I have handprint sunburns on my back from where I couldn’t reach.¬† Hmm, shoulda thought that one through.¬†

I went for a long walk today to the lighthouse and the furthest east point in Australia.¬† My feet have tons of blisters on them now, and sunburnt tops.¬† Hmm, I know I put sunscreen on them too.¬† Oh well.¬† What else… Oh, I find it odd how everyone doesn’t care if you arn’t wearing a shirt here, but if you have on flip flops (thongs) you arn’t allowed some bars.¬† I didn’t try to go into the bars without a shirt though.¬† They probably wouldn’t like that either.

I have a bunch of pictures but I can’t upload them from this internet connection.¬† I will upload them some other time.¬† I am going to spend the next couple days on the beach here.¬† It is beautiful.¬† Only think bad about it is how expensive everything is.¬† $15 for a 6 pack of beer.¬† Ouch.

I got a random voicemail today about my name change.¬† I didn’t change my name.¬† Did anyone else do it as a practical joke?¬† Traveling is hard enough when you book tickets last minute.¬† If I don’t have my correct name I will get molested even more at the airport. TSA had a good sense of humor about it when they searched me. “Is that really your name? Nobody would try to use that name, go ahead…”

I took a bus to Byron Bay this morning.¬† It is very odd waking up at 6am with no alarm and not feeling tired at all.¬† Must be that I still haven’t adjusted to the time difference yet.¬† Byron Bay is one hour closer to the states so now I am only 6 hours off of MST (or 18, whatever)¬† I got a little burnt today and realized that sunscreen really does help.¬† I will put some on tomorrow.¬† The beaches here are very nice and I see myself spending quite a bit of time there over the next couple days.¬†

I booked four nights here and think after that I will make my way to Sydney.¬† I am sweating my ass off all the time because I am not used to the humidity yet.¬† Hmm, guess that is one method of weight loss.¬† Both kinds of sandels I have are wearing my feet down, causing holes and blisters.¬† Stupid calluses arn’t there yet.¬† Soon.¬† I will try to get some photos to put up tomorrow.¬† Sounds like a busy day, I hope I can manage.

So a day after I get here I am looking for some things in my luggage and realized that I was missing a couple things. Nothing too big but just disconcerting when only two things are missing from your bag. They were at the top and my bag was searched twice going through the airports. So I went out and purchased a towel and still need to go grab a new bathroom kit. It gives me something to do today. I think I will be leaving Brisbane tomorrow but I have no clue where I am going. Who knows, somewhere with less rain I hope.