Round the World in 35 Days

So I've reached the end of my journey and I have to say I'm having difficulties bringing myself back to reality.  It was an amazing experience and I'm not quite ready to rush back to the responsible life!  I didn't sleep really at all the last night in San Fran as Margo and I spent hours dancing to Toto and Bieber, Disney and Britney, and eating amazing food her Aunt Kay had packed for us.  My taxi came at 6am and 10 hours and one layover later I was greeted by my awesome fam and a welcome home sign!  .

We drove back and feasted on delights such as Larosa's pizza, Skyline Chili, fruit salad, cookies and Graeter's ice cream.  My dad joked about having goetta afterwards but I'll wait and buy some at the market this weekend :).

I have to give a shout out to my travel buddy, Margo.  We spent almost every waking moment together and made it through airport troubles, drunk teenage hostels, rental car issues and sheer travel exhaustion together and I think I love her even more because of it.  She commented that after all that time we still had stuff to talk about, even if half of it was a made up language.  It really was weird being on the flight home without you, Nighthawk.  I looked over at the suit next to me and made an involuntary scowl, but luckily he was asleep.  I can't wait to see her again so she can fix my hair when the part is messed up... or make fun of me for wearing my orange NYC tee half the trip.  GIRAFFE PRIDE!

So really, I hate to say this is it!  Thanks for following me around the world... maybe I'll send an update after we find out how much killing the wallaby will cost us!  Check Facebook for pics soon.

-Jilldonix, Jilltong, Jillaroo (actually Australian slang for cowgirl), Jilldo, Jillabong-

San Fran is Nice

Today Margo's Aunt Kay was so nice to take us on a walking tour of Chinatown (her profession is that of the tour guide persuasion) and we had Dim Sum for lunch. This afternoon Margo and I split off and I studied for my phone interview while Margo read in the North Shore area and stopped at the house before meeting up with her high school friend, Derek.

We met at Olive about half a mile away and I had a couple of the best martinis ever - dirty with goat cheese stuffed olives and then a spicy one with jalapeno-stuffed olives. Both yum yum time in their own right, and we had really good guac, bruchetta and pizza to wash it down. We had a quick stop at a dive bar that had a DC style whiskey shot and pbr for $7, but I stuck with the pbr and played a couple rounds of Galaga (my favorite arcade game) before admitting defeat and returning to our table.

Tomorrow we'll be grabbing lunch with our DC friend Micah who moved back west for school and I hope to see high school bud a lud Anna!!!! Then I fly back the next morning :(

BACK TO REALITY.

San Fran a Ban a Lan a Ding Dong

The flight from New Zealand was pretty stellar aside from the stereotypical American in front of Margo that was way too big for his seat and in addition to putting his seat all the way back, his weight pushed it another few inches, leaving her crammed in her seat like Elaine in the Seinfeld episode where she is left in coach while Jerry enjoys first class.

Customs and security were surprisingly a breeze; we only took about 45 mins or so after getting off the plane before getting into a cab.

Margo's cousin's son Drake was at her Aunt Kay's house when we arrived and he is cute as can be. We went for a walk through the neighborhood and the weather felt a lot like South Africa - need a jacket but warm during the day.

We are staying at their friend's apartment on Nob Hill which has a view of the Golden Gate Bridge holler! We walked to a place called Sugar Bar and had a few drinks and wanted dessert but thanks to the bartender being lazy or hating how hot we were, we were denied a yummy fudge brownie sundae. Instead we bought cookies at a corner store and I am about 2000 calories over my daily limit even though I didn't have lunch.

I'm looking forward to attacking the hills of San Fran tomorrow and exploring the waterfront area.... Maybe get some shopping in?

I haven't planned for this part of the journey well. When asked by Margo's Aunt Kay what I wanted to see I shrugged and and said 'I dunno...walk around?' I'm a good tourist kind of. Tomorrow we will be meeting up with Margo's friend Derek and I'm really excited. I've heard so much about him and have been wanting to get some San Fran night life in so here we gooooo.

Ramble Mamble I have basically been up since 6:45am today but New Zealand time...and at this posting it is currently 4pm or something tomorrow. That is a long time.

Uninterrupted sleep here I come!

New Zealand... That's as Clever as it Will Get

Ooops. I guess spending 36 hours in cities doesn't allow much time to blog. At this point I'll have to put pictures up when I get back but I'll break the country of twin coasts down for you.

Rotorua: B E A utiful. We had the pleasure of crashing with a high school friend of my faja's and his wife, Jeff and Claire Schnell. It was so nice to be in a quiet house, sleep in a warm and cozy bed and have amazing home cooked meals. They were so gracious to let us stay. Jeff took Margo and me on a mountain biking trail one morning and it was soooooo cool to put it plainly. The foliage in New Zealand is amazing. There are so many layers of grasses, ferns, trees - you name it.

Later that day Marg and I hit up a spa that used water from the sulphuric lake which it overlooked. It was a great way to complete travel and a morning of mountain biking.

That was all we had time for so we headed out in the morning to Paihia.

Paihia: Beautiful, quiet beach town in the bay of islands. Very quiet since it is the off season and a storm did roll in, but only after we made a trip to Waitangi where the treaty between the Maori and settlers was signed. We got to see a cultural performance and since there was no one there we had a private guided tour of the grounds WHAT WHAT. Living it up in Paihia in style :). Oh and we saw a dead pig washed up on shore. That was fun. Margo pointed out we are three for three on dead animals in our respective countries: seal in cape town, dead wallaby in our car in Australia, now pig in Paihia!

Auckland: It has been rainy and cloudy but we went across the bay today to Russel and the sun poked out for a bit. It was great walking along the water and seeing the skyline from afar. It's a cute little town set into the hill and I had an amazing breakfast with a BOWL of coffee.

This morning I went out running and within 5 minutes I slipped and took a spill at a cross walk. Literal legs in the air, cell phone flying action. It was pretty awesome and my bleeding leg made me look bad ass as I continued on the path. There was some kind of biking race that seemed like a time trial going on and there are surprisingly a lot of young adults that do serious cycling in the area. I also saw a YWCA running group...well a few... which gave me an idea that this is kind of an active town. With so much open space I could see why cycling is a popular sport here.

Tonight we might be touristy and grab a drink at the top of the needle, which surprisingly isn't that big. It's no Empire State Building but it is still high enough to satisfy my vertical limits.

Tomorrow evening we fly to San Fran. I am really excited to see what it is like and honestly, I'm broke and need to get a real job. I miss my Letha Bear and hope she hasn't forgotten about me!

Summary of New Zealand: Beautiful countryside, very nice people, weather not as bad as the locals thought it was :).

Mid-Trip Breakdown...Check

So short blip while I'm in an internet café. Currently in Darwin, which is pretty lame. We got in about 1:30am last night and upon arrival found out somehow our reservation was canceled and they had only two beds left and in different rooms. So after not having slept well the night before and arriving from a late night flight, Margo had to go our separate ways and I think the best part was the stench of sweaty unbathed boy when I opened my door and the sound of leaf blowers blowing garbage off the street at 3am. I didn't pee or go to brush my teeth because I had somehow in three minutes lost my access card to the room so there ya go. Right as I felt settled the guy in the bed next to me starts snoring. Thankfully Margo let me cry when parking the car and the guys in my room let me cry myself to sleep.

So Darwin is like if Virginia Beach was trashy. "Wait Jill, Virginia Beach is kind of trashy." Ahhh yes you would be right, but instead of 18 and up bars with kids trying to get other people to buy them alcohol (or having already been drinking elsewhere), make the legal drinking age 18 and BAM! Darwin's main strip. We drive down the main drag - Mitchell Street - at the tail end of of the night so there are skantily clad girls with greasy faces and straightened hair and smeared eye liner to match. The hostel reception room is filled late teens early twenties wasted and checking their facebook pictures. I'm not saying I don't check my facebook page when I'm drunk, but the scene was way too cliché. This morning I go to find Margo and a girl is walking down the hall with a sheet wrapped around her and her bum-a-lum is hanging out. It's an all girls floor but come on. I hope she was wearing a thong.

ANYWAY complain fest over. Summary of Darwin, not so great. Summary of hostel life, I might be getting too old. That being said, I had a great run on a path that is sandwiched between the botanical garden and beach. I love being able to run in different cities. I get to see more of it and be with my own thoughts, which right now are very simple :).

Margo and I did a lot of errands like buying our passes to Kakadu National Park tomorrow (WOOHOO!) and then spent the afternoon at Kimdil beach reading up on New Zealand and reflecting on how mature and awesome we are. I spent a bit much on a swim suit but I decided I like it a lot and I got a horrendous souvenir towel that is now filled with sand.
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Sydney is a great city, btw. We stayed in King's Cross which is known as their red light district but the more we walked around it had a very Wicker Park feel. The city itself feels very Chicago - easy going and friendly but busy in it's own right. If I was offered a job in Sydney it would be really hard to turn it down. Running along the bay around the Opera house and watching the birds in the Royal Botanical Gardens have been so peaceful. I've really felt comfortable there and look forward to going back Monday morning. I wish we could have spent a few more days in Sydney but I guess I'll just have to visit again or get a job :).

I have to mosey on so I'll leave you with a video I took at the beach today.

Love yas!

A Moment for da Primates

I just wanted to take a moment and note that primates are cute, funny, smelly and fascinating to watch. When one looks at you it's like it's peering into your soul.

Big Five and Counting

This was the weekend I really was looking forward to. Everything I have experienced in South Africa up to this point has been amazing and it felt like every day topped the previous one, but Kruger is something I will NEVER forget.

We only had two solid days to tour the park so we stuck to the southern and central part of the park. The first day was a four hour drive from one of the southern most gates to our restcamp in Satara, and it was a blur. Your eyes become so exhausted from scanning the horizon looking for animals that blend in really well! To boost our motivation we developed a point system: 1 point if you spot a species for the first time, and 1 point each time you were the first to see one of the Big 5 (Lion, Elephant, Rhino, Leopard, Buffalo). I failed miserably and probably should get my eyes checked because by the end of the trip we saw about a gagillion Elephants, and I am pretty confident in saying I did not spot any.

The night drive was proabably the highlight of the trip. We were rushing to get to our restcamp before the gates closed at sundown when someone stopped us and said there was a fresh lion kill right down the road. We obviously didn't have time to get over there without suffering a R500 late entry penalty but figured our organized night drive would take us by there - which they did! The drive started off slow and the guide stopped the truck to show us a chameleon in the tree......now the fact that he spotted that in a tree is impressive, but we want to see blood and guts! The truck rolled on and we saw a Cevit and Cerval along the way, the latter which is very rare to see since it is so small and nocturnal, but it was cold and the sun wasn't coming back for a long while.

That's when the spot light made it's way to the kill. The males had already had their fill of the recently deceased buffalo, and were sprawled in the grass bloated and overstuffed like me after a trip to McDonalds, but the females were chowing away at the rest of the buffalo (which consisted of it's ribs and completely intact head, expressionless). I could have sat all night and watched but the truck had to move on. Take a look below.

***WARNING**** If you do not want to see animal carcass and hear bones crunching, I'd move on and take my word for it that it was awesome.

By the end of day one we had seen two of the Big Five, three if you count the dead buffalo. Not too shabby.

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The next day we were still jazzed about the kill we had just seen and even went by the site to watch the males polish the rest off. It is insane to be fifteen feet away from a lion with no fence between the two of you. To be as close as we were to any of the animals was a treat, which brings me to AMAZING KRUGER MOMENT #2.

Our restcamp (Satara) was situated in lower central part of the park, a couple hours from a restcamp named Olifants which overlooks the river and is a great place to spot hippos and even see a kill if you camp out all day. It was recommended to stay to the south to see more animals but after deliberation we decided to head north. It was a risk but lordy did it pay off.....

Sooooo we're crossing this riverbed, right? We see an elephant in the trees, right? Oh man out comes a baby that's so cute it's drinking water! Wow we are so close to elephants that's so awesome!

James: Oh s***! Look at that!

Hannah: James roll up the windows!

'Oh my God that's so crazy!' 'It's so close you could touch it!' 'What do we do?! Roll up the windows!' 'Where's my camera?!

Hysteria ensues and everyone alternates between rolling down the windows, up the windows, pulling out their cameras, cursing like a sailor and processing the fact that a Leopard just walked out of the bushes and was so close to the car had you leaned your hand out it either would have been eaten or you would have just touched the fur of a freaking leopard. He walked into the clearing and along the riverbed, completely ignoring our presence and proceeded on his merry way without a glance, but we sure noticed him. Had it been a velociraptor in Jurassic Park, we would have been dead for sure, but luckily feeding time was over. This rare sighting definitely kept us on a high for the rest of the day.

The next couple days were driving and photographs, and it really was a surreal experience. We saw all the Big Five, in addition to a large male Kudu (which is rare), impala, water buck, hippos, crocs, giraffes, wildebeest, monkeys, baboons, all sorts of birds and a million impala. I'm glad we made the small adjustments to make time for Kruger and that James and Hannah had as much enthusiasm about the trip as I did, because I won't forget this for a long time.