A Heaping Weekend

Oh what fun we have! Just woke up Monday morning from 12 hours of solid sleep, something I had definitely not seen for a while. This past weekend was an absolute blast. Let me share:

Thursday was neighbor Renee’s birthday, so had a bumpin’ village party for that one! Village parties consist of several open apartments around the courtyard, a few boxes of goon (the Australian equivalent of Franzia boxed wine), and someone eventually going swimming in the locked-at-10 PM pool. Everyone came out for this one, I met loads of newbies, an overall success.

Friday started as a girls’ night with about 15 of us at where else, but Hooters. Yes, my first Hooters experience was actually in Australia. Good laughs, good times. But Australian servers really don’t work for tips, since they make upwards of $15 an hour, so what you get is what you get, despite what you may ask for. At least this has been my restaurant experience so far, but no harm done. After Hoots, we round the rest of the troops (meaning the hungry boys) and head to Ivy, a glitz and glam club in the city. This is the first and last time I will ever wear heels on a night out and ‘bout. OUCH. Other than that, a fantastic time! Loads of good vibin’ and dancin’ and interesting people to meet.

So then trekking home is a whole ‘nother story. Parramatta, where I live, is about as far as a foreign country from the heart of the city. It is a straight up JOURNEY to get to and fro via public transport. But you do what you do. So we leave Ivy at 3:30 AM or so, trudge a few blocks to the bus station, board an already overfilled bus, hang on to the overhead handrails while standing in the aisle and holding my heels in the other hand, get jostled around hitting the Lebanese guy sitting beside me at every turn while playing a silly Girl Scout-type chanting game with some Kiwis also looking to pass the time of the bus ride, get dropped at the Parramatta train station because the bus just can't stop at the stop directly across from our apartments, try to catch a cab but get turned down by the driver because there are five of us and he can only hold four, my feet are killllllling me, try to invisibly dive into the back seat of the next cab while Daina distracts the driver and everyone else piles in nonchalantly, turned down again, repeat with new tactic of us all entering the cab from both sides with me crouching and giggling on the floor board, turned down again, and again, and again, break at Hungry Jack's (Aussie version of Burger King), resort to taking two separate cabs, finally collapse into bed at 5 AM. Good night.

So then there's MARDI GRAS! An entirely new day and night of adventures. Stay with me here, this is a good one.

Savannah and I rush around all day, on no sleep but an abundance of adrenaline, sorting our quick fix outfits and such to leave at 4 PM, but the group of 25 isn't ready until about 6, so all for nothing. After the hour long bus ride to Oxford Street, four of us girls bee line to the bathroom to find ourselves missing from the rest, so then there were four, and that was okay! Let's go see this parade!

The theme was Say Something: Mardi Gras 2011, and was all about gay pride. It was FANTASTIC. 300,000 people out to watch an abundance of flamboyantly fun floats. Sweet costumes. Great dancers. And heaps of gay people.

So the 3-hour parade concludes and the four of us girls head to a couple NO COVER clubs (this is unheard of in Sydney). The first was Three Wise Monkeys, a cool little gig but jammed with gay guys, which meant no free drinks for us. Moving on to the Scary Canary, a backpacker bar. Much more our style, meaning straight guys, also foreign, and on backpacking trips: so just looking for the most exciting night yet! We danced and danced and daaaaaaaanced some more to the best house music set ever. Slowly people we knew were feeding out until just Savannah, my new Aussie friend, Andrew, and I were the only ones not quite ready to hit the hay. So Coogee Beach? Yeah! Cab it over to Coogee, with the cab driver asking if we're sure we want to go to the beach at 4 AM and Andrew only pitching in a couple dollars for the fare after bragging about how rich he was. Hhmph. But an adorable little beach! And only a couple hours til sunrise! We ran around the sand, went swimming, hiked the rocks on the point, and laughed and talked the time away until the sun shone her pretty little face over the horizon.

Mmmm mmm mmm it was sweet, and I was dog tired. Andrew had given up like a pansy little girl about an hour before the sun. Savannah and I embraced the warm light and trekked it back to Parra, by way of bus, then train, then bus, then 45 minute walk, to bed by 9 AM and again wide awake at noon. My sleep routine is so skewed, but I am so having way too much fun.