life in OZ

11 days in OZ:

Hey Deiter fans, we’re checking in from the back porch of our hotel (hostle) room in Ubud in Bali with a quick update of our time in Australia, our room is called the “love shack” and is tastefully decked out with a phallic coat hanger and multiple nude paintings, more on that later (stay classy ubud). But for now its back to Australia, we had an absolute bi-costal blast and found that we could dodge the notorious budget busting expense of “Oz” by simply crashing on friend’s couches (or air mattresses) and sheepishly starring at our feet when “the matter of the bill” came up. I’m kidding of course, but we were exposed to some of the world class hospitality that Aussies are known for and had an amazing time as a result. We started in Melbourne on the south eastern coast where we crashed with our friend, the lovely and talented Sarah Weatherby. We met Sarah the way you meet most good friends, at an elephant camp in Laos on your honeymoon, and then hosted her for a night in Philly on the 4^th of july last year when she was in town for work. We must have done something right because she really rolled out the red carpet for us Deiters (I think it was my man Walt Rizzo’s 5 start fourth of July fire works EXTRAVAGANZA). With Sarah as our guide we toured the laneways, bars, museums, bars, restaurants, bars and bars of this fine city. From what I can remember it’s a pretty sweet town. All kidding aside we got to see Melbourne as it prepped for “the Melbourne Cup,” think our horse racing triple crown on steroids which drew a crowd of 150,000 last year. People were in a festive mood with suits, sundresses and funky hats called “fascinator’s” being the order of the day. We also spend a day in “St. Kilda” which is a beachfront area and took in a pretty good band while sipping sparkling white wine and playing with a bunch of dogs that I’m certain Sarah arranged to be there for me. Not wanting to let us escape without a bit of culture Sarah took us to the “Healsville sanctuary” where we saw Roo’s, koalas, dingo’s, duck billed platypuses, and my new favorite animal the wombat (they are cute and lazy and they don’t care who knows it).  All in all Melbourne was an amazing city made more so by the hospitality of our dear friend Sarah (she’s single if your shorter that 5’5 fellas) –plus the Browns won. From there we headed west to Perth (the most isolated major city in the world) to stay with my fellow Drexel Dragon/super nurse Kate Hansen and my Australian best friend Bryn. Once again all stops were pulled out to ensure maximum Deiter satisfaction. Kate picked us up at the airport at 10pm on the back end of 9 straight days in the ER (no worries mate) and Bryn treated us to some of his homemade beer when we got to the house. Also in residence was the Aussie dogs on blogs winner, 6 month old super pup “lewie.” Kate had the balls to ask me if I minded if they have a dog. Our time out west produced what might be the most stacked day of the trip so far. First we went to a “dog beach” (yeah, I know right?) where we swam and ran around with Lewie and a bunch of other dogs. Then we headed to the “little Creatures” brewery for some grub, delicious beer and a tour (I “sampled” the IPA like 7 times). After that we headed home for some more home brew and “a snack” which is Australian for a giant pile of fish and chips, before heading out into the country a ways for dinner at our second brewery of the day (feral brewery) which had more awards than space on their walls, and fantastic brews that helped wash down a perfectly cooked porterhouse. Ridiculous. Things just got better from there. We went to the birthday party for “Jorja” who was turning 1 and was the definition of a happy baby (she is the daughter of one of Bryn’s “best mates”), we saw comedian Arj Barker who was funny as hell and is currently touring western Australia if you’re in town.  Tash and I hit Scarborough beach for sunset on the recommendation of my best mate nick who studied abroad in Perth back when his hair wasn’t whiter than Santa Clauses Beard. And we finished it all off with a true Australian Barbie on the “foreshore” across the swan river from Perth with some tall cool ones and our first taste of kangaroo meat (kinda like buffalo). All in all we were blown away by the hospitality and kindness of our hosts and can’t wait to return the favor when they come to the states. Good on ya Australia.

 

 

 

 

 

Me and Sarah with a facinator

just quieting down some haters

breakfast in a "laneway"

Tash and at the beach in St Kilda

"umm can I have a fry"

3 amigo's at the beach bar

tash and sarah

looking glamorous late night

a dog I foung

same

2 baby wombats with a baby roo watchin

that's a Tasmanian devil

baby wombat

a roo

a komodo cousin

you stay behind the fence, i'm goin in

just doin what dingo's do

sleepy koala

same

and again

our new favorite snack

sarah on raceday

sarah and tish

giant sushi roll with gold fish shaped soy sauce

rhinos on skateboards, number one killer of man in Australia

me bryn and kate at the brewery

the four of us in front of perth

now just me and tish

Lewie lookin vicious thanks to the go pro

now just drinkin the water

scarborough beach at sunset

I forget what this guy is but he's cute

an emu

tash in front of Melbourne

sarahs' friend with a suspiciously phallic dessert

artsy fartsy at a mall

big ole bowls of paella

and porchetta

lewie goin for a swim at the dog beach

here's the whole crew

it says "you can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline, it helps if you have some kind of a football team or some nuclear weapons but at the very least you need a beer. - Frank Zappa

some of the "little creature beers"

lewie takin a snooze at the brewery- he got soooooo hammered

a truck at the brewery

an American pit pup at Jorja's party

the birthday girl

"who you lookin at?"

me on a Harley

"it was like this when you left I swear"

from the comedy show

then we got kebabs

The "surfers code"

tash at scarborough beach at sunset

now us walkin

sunset

same

same,


another country in the books. Thanks Australia and we'll be seeing all of you real soon. P.S. it looks like its going to be a komodo thanksgiving for the Deiters, more on that real soon.