World ExploraSean: Opera House

Even though I'm known as being the class clown

My coworkers decided I deserved a night on the town!
The reason I won an award doesn't take much thought
It's obviously because I'm so freaking hot!!!

I thought, "Oh which restaurant shall Sarah and I go?"
"Wait, why eat in London when we can dine in Oslo!"
Oh, it's so beautiful how this poetry doth flow

Since our weekend visit was going to be short
I asked Sarah to locate the most central airport
But it turns out you should never give a woman a map
Because her sense of direction may be a bit crap
And if you point that out, you'll receive a slap!
Yeah, keep your thoughts in boys, shut yer trap!

However I didn't have much time to gloat
For the story of me fucking up had already been wrote
Turns out when I booked a room with a bed type of bunk
Revealing my chances of getting laid had now sunk
Damn you universe, I didn't even book it drunk
Did I book us into a hotel or a hostel?
Errrrr, let's just call it a poshtel....

When trying to pick the airport nearest to the city stay, my woman picked TORP, the airport furthest away... There is never a dull day, when you have a good woman to lead you astray :)

After sleeping off a beautiful seafood dinner
Sarah said, "Hey porker, it's time to get thinner"
She sure knows how to make me feel like a winner
So even though crushing my ego is her sport
I happily joined her for a run to the nearby fort
Do I exaggerate her being mean to make you all pity me
Well it's my blog, the story is whatever I want it to be!

After eating breakfast, we visited the Nobel Museum of Peace
Which is ironically filled with videos of soldiers firing piece after piece
Outside the building was a festival of the world
And on stage the dancers skirts swirled and twirled
But baby, when I hear that music, my booty can't stop shakin'
Cus you know I'm about to go Footloose like Kevin Bacon
Yeah, I know that mental image isn't fair
But my rhyming took me there

Ahh yet another nation, in which we get to vacation

The Oslo Opera House at 10 at night. One can only revel in delight, that there is no more winter blight, and the sky is free to stay bright.

After our wanders, we hopped on a bus
Because it was on to Gothenburg, Sweden for us!
An Opera of Hamlet was playing that night
A story full of peril, death, and delight
Oh Ophelia, shall you die here tonight?

As the curtain closed on the Opera's final scene
We decided to eat some traditional Swedish cuisine
Ok, so maybe it was a Mexican restaurant
Oh, damn you tacos, you always do taunt
I've eaten round the world, and you're still all I want

That evening my girl booked us into our first air bnb
A definite upgrade to the bunkbed from me
Sarah awoke me, stating, "Hey fatty, time for run number two!"
The words so deflating, to not cry was all I could do
So instead of exclaiming, "Beg your pardon?!?!"
I joined her for a run to a botanical garden
Besides the people of Sweden needed to see me run
For the beauty of my hair bouncing outshines the sun!

There's no reason to pout, if this is the destination of your morning workout.

Who can believe in Winter's gloom when Spring arrives and flowers bloom?

After running, we went to a second botanical park

Since the sky was no longer ominous and dark
As the sun came out, we found a spot, nice and shady
So I could enjoy a picnic with my wonderful lady
The seconds turned to minutes, and the minutes to hours
As we wandered through all of the beautiful flowers

We finished our day with some fluffy ice cream

It's a glorious life, when you are living the dream
But after a dream, you must come awake
For we had a flight back to London to take
If only our ties to responsibility could sever
We could keep on traveling this world forever!

It is every vagabond's duty, to share this world's beauty...

It's as simple as something that everyone knows, that her beauty will follow wherever she goes. Up the hill in the back of the house in the wood, she'd love me forever I know, she could..

I just want to be ok, be ok, be ok. I just want to be ok today. I just want to feel the day, feel the day, feel the day. I just want to feel something today. I just want to the know the day, know the day, know the day. I just want to know something today. I just want to know the day, know the day, know the day. Know that I will be ok.

My hopes are higher than this waterfall, though I try to resist I still want it all. I see swimming pools and living rooms and aeroplanes. I see a little house on the hill with bright window panes. I see quiet nights poured over ice while we're in Spain...

Since our adventures never seem to cease
Our next planned trip will take us to Greece
I can't wait to get to the island of Santorini
So I can see my woman sport a bikini
...And lay on the beach with an appletini!
Sometimes wishes come true even without a genie!
Whooo, poem blog over. J'ai terminé

Random GoPros

Lads - this is where they let the Navy in, so dock here to find a girl that's Scandinavian!

With enough balloons we can fly, so take my hand and we can try. Just you and I, let's claim the sky.

Feeling like a hero, but I can't fly. You know you never crash if you don't try. Took it to the edge, now I know why. You're never gonna live if you too scared to die...

What if, what if we runaway? What if, what if we left today? What if we said goodbye to safe and sound. What if, what if we're hard to find. What if, what if we lost our minds? Because when the lights go poof and the stars explode, we will be fireproof...

It's definitely not lame, that these flowers are shaped like a flame. Yeah, I'm in the poetry game.

Sarah and Sean's Sensational Stockpile of Snappy Snaps

Would you believe it? Those sapphire eyes. The brilliant girl with whom time flies. Then the camera clicks and we are stars, we're laughing in the back of chauffeured cars. Phone call rings and your voice is desire, as Winter moves into Summer fires. I promised you what's ours is ours and one of these trips I'll take you Mars...

Oh the man with the hair so fair, the hair so fair you can't compare. Oh the hair, the beautiful hair, one could only stop and stare. It isn't fair, I've lost my hair, there isn't any left to share. Who would dare to cut this hair, this beautiful hair I no longer wear... :'(

Don't you worry there my honey, we might not have any money. But maybe I think you're cute and funny. Maybe I want to do what bunnies do with you, with you, with you...

Let's get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France. Let's get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance. Let's get rich and build a house on a mountain, making everybody look like ants... From way up high, you and I, oh you and I...

The way she tells me I'm hers and she's mine. Even if it's through a backhand it's just fine. Her love is rare and sweet as cherry wine... Oh it's divine, that I get to call her mine.

My dear there's no need to fuss, things are clearly great between us

No need to count sheep, put her on a bus and she's fast asleep

I'm so perplexed, as to why she looks so vexed.

For all the things my eyes could view, the best by far is you :)

My flight to Sydney was once again on Air New Zealand, so I was treated to some movie options... Obviously I selected Fast and Furious 6. I also had the pleasure of sitting next to the most annoying little Asian kid in the world who kept yelling questions to the various flight attendants. He literally asked them if he could use the restroom 8 times in a 5 minute period and I literally thought about killing myself each of the 8 times he spake.

As I got into the airport I managed to utilize some sort of speed line where you electronically scan your passport and ended up getting through security without a passport stamp. I’m not sure my entry was exactly street legal, but I was already past the gates, so I just went with it. Hopefully I get stamped on the way out, as I like to have them as a memento. My next task was to get into town somehow. I was debating taking the train, but then I read online you could get a shuttle for $12. I did end up getting on a shuttle to Central Station, but I didn't actually pay to get on, so I may have had a questionable first hour in Oz from a legality standpoint.

These needle trash cans are in tons of public bathrooms...they're perfect for disposing my hep infused heroin needles

Once I got into town, I meandered to my destination, Nomads Westend. Upon checking in, I was informed that the elevator didn’t work and that my room was on the 6th floor. My bags, weighing a combined 50 lbs (25 kgs), are basically like nothing to me because I’m so fucking strong, so it wasn’t an issue. After wringing the sweat from my shirt, I wandered through town with my mustache on full display, setting the vibe, and familiarizing myself with the city.

On day two I realized the mustache was both creepy and repulsive, so I drew the sink full of hot water and went to work. Despite the magnitude and sheer volume of hair that grows on my face, I was able to remove it all with three swift swipes of my razor. Deflated, I roamed to the Peterpans store to set up my greyhound schedule and lock in some dates for various activities I had pre-purchased.

Hyde Park

Kind of a weird statue, I don't really want to understand it

Fountain

Eventually, I found my way to the Syndey Opera House and Harbour Bridge. I decided to hang around until it turned dark to get some nighttime shots, which was well worth the wait. It’s the first time on my travels I have felt like I was in a proper big city. When I finally arrived back to the hostel I tried to make dinner, but the kitchen had 6 burners, one toaster, and 13 floors of people...Suffice it to say, there was not room to cook. Nothing like the $5 six inch subway and bottle of water combo to fuel your adventures.

Early evening skyline...

The Harbour Bridge

The city looks amazing at night

The famous Sydney Opera House

I spent the next day wandering around The Domain, which is a huge public park housing Royal Rose Gardens, the New South Wales museum, a pond, various lookout spots, and pathways over to the Opera House/Circular Quay. I took advantage of the views by creating a few more time lapses. The Domain is insanely large, you could spend an entire day walking through it. It also displayed that Sydney houses a pretty active/healthy lifestyle as there were literally hundreds of people running through the park. However, my lazy ass was not one of them ;).

Someday I'm going to get a good bird in flight shot, slowly getting better

Pond in The Domain

I also ended up taking a ferry up to Manly beach upon the advice of Claire. Look at Facebook pulling through by allowing me to get some solid advice from the people I’ve met on my adventures! The ferry is less than $15 round trip and you get awesome views along the water. The way Manly is set up reminded me of California, with the ultra cheap shops, $10 sunglasses, and beaches full of people swimming, surfing, and playing volleyball. There was also a great walk around some cove areas, where you could climb down on the rocks that jut out of the water.

View from the ferry

Surfers wiping out

Insanely clear waters

First lizard I spotted in Australia, tiny little guy

Australia rocks!

For my final full day I ended up going to Bondi Beach, which is probably the most well known beach surrounding Sydney. In my attempt to get a tan, I laid out for 2.5 hours with no sunscreen, but my body rejects sunlight like Jennifer Aniston’s body rejects aging. I have no muscular definition left, I’m pastier than the Pillsbury Dough Boy, and my face is more acne than actual face. I’m falling apart!

While walking from Bondi Beach towards Coogee, I decided to stop and make a time lapse along the rocks. Whilst making my lapse, something amazing happened. Something that I’ve blogged about before, something that happened to me on a lake between Peru and Bolivia. As I worked on replacing the battery of my GoPro, I sensed something. My head snapped up, my neck crooning whilst the seagulls were cawing. I knew what had happened, and as I looked down to the rocks below, my convictions held true. I saw the calm ocean breeze was now carressing an exposed breast. Yes that’s right, a young girl, hopefully of consentual legal age, was now sunbathing topless. I will forever refer to this moment as the Bondi Beach Boobies Bonanza.

People lay out on the grass and the beach

My calves look terrific

There's so many cliffs that the beaches are segmented all over

So random there is a swimming pool right next to the ocean

The color distortion is pretty cool

As several of you know, despite my best efforts...alright I’m really lazy, so instead of efforts lets just go with hopes...I have hopes of looking cool. So here I am on this bus coming back from the beach when this little annoying shit comes up and starts swinging from the handle grips next to my seat, while his father pretends to be unrelated and ignores his child's misbehavior. This kid was all up in my bubble acting like a douche, so I stood up and moved away so I wouldn't have to deal with him. As I moved to an open standing area, I started scrolling through my iPod for which Spice Girls classic to play next, and BAM, the bus starts moving. With deformed cankles and terrible balance, there's no coming out of this scenario without making an ass of myself. As the bus lurched forward, inertia caused me to fall backwards and I had no choice but to flail my arms out in spastic fashion in hopes of finding something to grip. With miniscule luck and absolutely no grace, I managed to latch onto a pole before crashing to the ground on the packed double bus. Meanwhile the little shit that caused me to get up from my seat in the first place starts laughing, so entertained by my misfortune. I’m also pretty sure the universe hands out no negative karma towards those that wrong me, it probably rewards them. Universe infinity, Sean 0.

I own this place, if only the sign didn't have a typo and said since 1988...

Occasionally I will look at my life on the road and start to reflect on how I’m living and whether or not I’m learning anything. Wheras my previous life was filled with boredome, my new life is filled with poordome. It’s very humbling to look back on the things I took for granted as conveniences: Clean showers, cooking a huge dinner, storing leftovers, driving a car, having privacy, watching American football with your friends and family, free unlimited wifi, being able to buy/store whatever i wanted. I now realize those things were spoils, the gifts of a privileged life.

Now I eat baked beans on toast, tuna, spaghetti, 2 minute noodles, peanut butter sandwiches, and the cheapest fruits/vegetables the grocery has to offer. I watch cockroaches climb the shower walls of my hostel, stare down at sheets that are supposed to be washed, but are dirty as fuck. I contemplate how 8 people are supposed to share the single power outlet in the room. I feel the snot from a woman’s sneeze splatter and slide down my leg even though she’s two rows back on the public bus I ride. I watch the girl cooking next to me pick up a piece of toast off the unwashed floor and go through an internal struggle, before ultimately deciding that yes, she can dust it off and eat it. It's a challenging way of life, but it's also a lot of fun.

Just a friendly roach crawling the walls of the bathroom...he tasted delicious

Backpacking is it’s own culture, one that transgresses ethnicity and creed, by bringing people of all ages, means, and ambitions together. No one really cares where you are from or what you believe, just who you are as a person. People don’t just stay in hostels because it’s cheap, they do it to meet people, to learn more about the world around them, to understand others opinions. You learn so many new words and phrases that are unique to each group of people, while seeing the commonalities of humor, struggles, desires, wishes, weirdness, and kindness that are universal. Life is always interesting, you never know what each day is going to hold, who you will meet, or what risks lie ahead... But at the end of the day, you can either take a risk or you can live in doubt...and as I mentioned previously, I left all my doubts on an airplane.

For my next set of adventures I took a 13 hour overnight bus to Byron Bay. Would the bus ride be as terrible as those in South America? Would my disdain for life increase with each passing mile? That my friends, is a story for another blog...

Opera House/Harbour Bridge Overflow