Surfers Paradise, Chelsea are through!

April 15th-24th

So I woke up Wednesday morning at 5:00 am to watch the second leg of the Chelsea vs. Liverpool Champions League tie. The first leg of the tie had been my favorite game of the year so far with Chelsea (my team) winning 3-1 in Liverpool's stadium. Therefore going into the second game, Chelsea looked like they would go through. However when I woke up Liverpool were already up 1-0 and would soon add another before half time to make it 2-0. I was not happy. Luckily, in the second half Chelsea scored 3 unanswered goals to make it 3-2. Liverpool were still in it though and score two quick goals in the 81st and 82nd minute. Super Frank Lampard finally put it out of reach though in the 89th minute. What a relief! Anyways, Chelsea are through and will face Barcelona in the semi final on May 6th.

When the game was finished it was still 6:30 am so I had some time to kill while Will and Mike slept. I ate breakfast out on the balcony and took a shower. When they got up we were off to the beach! The beach was amazing. When we walked down to the beach from our hotel I looked in both directions and could not tell how long the beach was. I have never really traveled in a place like Surfer's Paradise before where the water and air is warm year round but it was great! The water was just warm enough not to chill you but still cool enough to refresh. Before we went swimming we went to the pharmacy to get some sun screen and some sinus medication as I was starting to have some serious issues breathing. On our way back we got ensnared by a saleswoman making a pitch for a club crawl later that night. I don't normally like to pay cover charges but I figured since we were on a vacation it was alright. We threw down $40 a piece for entry into 5 clubs and a drink at each club. On that note Mike rented a boogie board and I rented a surfboard and we were set for a great day at the beach.

The waves were pretty choppy that day which made for some challenging surfing conditions. I had fun all the same and it was great just to be in such a great place. We played some frisbee and soaked up the sun and 85 degree heat. Luckily, none of us managed to get burned too badly and we retired to our hotel room to prepare ourselves for the night's festivities.

The club crawl was actually pretty cool. We met some good looking girls from all over the world and sampled some of Surfer's best night life. The people were all really friendly and we had a great time. However, I woke up in the morning at 5:30 with the jitters because instead of drinking beer the night before I drank scotch and cokes. Due to the effects of the caffeine from the coke I couldn't sleep anymore. It wasn't all bad though as I was up before the sunrise and went down to the beach and took some amazing pictures of the Australian sunrise. Once I got back to hotel after the sun rose I had a bowl of cereal and went out for a walk to find a real breakfast place.

I found a place about a kilometer away and I ate a huge breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon and sausage. I talked to the waiter a bunch about soccer and the U.S. since he and his girl friend are going to travel there in June. I took my time eating the breakfast and watched the Arsenal vs. Villa Real Champions League game on the TV and then walked back to the room around 8:30 or so. We checked out of the hotel at around 11 am and got on the road back to Melbourne. The plan was to knock off a few hours that day and hopefully stop somewhere at a beach or park that afternoon and then travel to Sydney the next day. Unfortunately though, when we were about an hour and a half from Surfer's in a little town called Ballina, Mike punched through third gear while shifting and we could not shift out of it. We had to get the van towed to a repair shop and we were stranded there overnight. The van got fixed by the next morning and we were able to leave by around 11:30.

That night we made camp in a National Park just south of Sydney next to a waterfall. At this point I had become sick with a bad sinus infection and did not sleep well waking up around 6 in the morning coughing pretty terribly. We made the rest of the trip that day without incident and were back in Melbourne by around 8 pm. Great road trip, in the bag.

On Monday it was back to school and I was feeling a little stressed about my first Structural Mechanics test since I was not sure what to expect. My test was on Tuesday and I think it went pretty well with the problems on the test well within my reach. I didn't go to footy training on Tuesday as I was still feeling under the weather but I did go last night and today I feel pretty good. Unfortunately, Will, Scott and I got left out of the roster for the footy game tomorrow but I suppose it is to be expected after missing practice and Round 1's game over break. In other news I have begun planning our trip to Cairns/Great Barrier Reef which will take place after the semester.