tim tam titty tat tit tut

tim tams are the oreo's way cooler australian cousin. if oreos were waaay more delicious and then the center was filled with chocolate and then the whole shebang was then dipped in chocolate, then it would be a tim tam. i love them. the only issue is that i may or may not be allergic to them. i kinda got itchy scratchy after eating them, but they were so delicious that i ate more. hmm. well im not dead so i might as well keep enjoying, right?

at the moment i am in the uber chic Katoomba Mountain Lodge- by uber chic i mean kinda gross, dont want to touch the blankets and apparently there is no central heating. not to worry though- i have a sleeping sac and anti-freeze like vodka! i'll never be too cold now!

katoomba is in the blue mountains about two hours by train outside of sydney, and its amazing her. at first i wasnt sold because when we got off of the train wearing shorts and a tshirt, appropriate for sydney, i was bitch slapped with some frigid air and rain. not my cup of tea. oh well. after braving the streets of katoomba we settled on our current accomodation, mostly becuase it was cheap and close to the main road and i was a human popsicle. today, however, is much warmer and sunny and this place is AMAZING!!! i would instert a pic but this computer is a POS and not conducive to multiple windows being open. the town is up on a cliff, and then off of the cliff is about 1000 feet until a valley floor and tons of trees and other cliffs for miles and miles around. its pretty epic. we hiked down into the valley this morning and then back up the cliffs and i loved every minute of it. i cant wait to post pics, but i might not be able to for a looong time. like 6.5 weeks when i get home for turkey day. yum.

getting up to katoomba was an adventure. yesterday morning we woke up at our irish pub hotel, bolted our brekkie and booked it to the bus station so that we could go up to Hunter Valley wine country and get googily at wine tastings all day. after freaking out and finally finding the bus terminal, all the while shlepping our crap everywhere, we learned that the bus that we had just missed didnt even exist. in fact, there is no bus service to hunter valley anymore. FOL (thats f OUR lives for the slower students). there is a train but it will take you four hours and poop you out two towns away from wher you need to be. hokay. not so good. so kit and i go into zombie mode. if anyone has ever seen me try to make decisions under stress then you know that i am not so good. i sit, i stare, and i sulk. unfortunately, so does kit. we attempted to rent a car- fail, we attempted to find another bus tour- fail, we brainstormed other locations to go to- initial fail but that eventually led us to katoomba. also in our many fails we encountered an aussie woman who kept saying "okie kokie" like it was a perfectly natural thing to espouse in casual conversation. shits weird.

also, while in sydney, we booked more activities. our planning skills were not working out well despite kit and i both attending prestigious universities. after going to europe we figured hopping around australia would be a breeze, theres not even a language barrier. wrong. im not sure if you are aware, but this shits big. its like a whole continent. roughly the size of the US. and most of it is the bush. it doenst really embrace a quick hop on a train or bus. sydney to cairns on a bus is like 2 days straight. who knew. i thought it would be like ten hours- and thats only the east coast. we arent even venturing inland probably. after realizing that this continent is indeed huge we turned to our trusty travel agent friend, joshua, for help. now we are booked on a five day travelling surf trip from sydney to byron bay (just south of brisbane on the gold coast) and a five day scuba certification course including 2 days living aboard a boat on the great barrier reef!!!!!!!!!!! YESS YES YES YES. i am so excited. epic adventures hellooooo!!!! now all i have to do is see a kangaroo and i will be set.

alright folks, tonight we are hitting the town in katoomba, possibly with our roomie whose name we dont know even though we kicked it and had drinks with him for a good two hours last night. it was our first time getting moderately intoxicated and also our first time staying up later than 10. jetlag's a bitch.