1 Jan 2014

I laid indecisively in bed until about 8:30a when Bertha began pestering me. By that time it was way too late to figure out the bus to the Loony Dook. I didn’t feel like paying for a cab since Queensferry is about a 25 minute drive from Bertha’s so, after one sip of mimosa grossed me out, I just offered to drive us. Bertha polished off the entire bottle of champagne and we left.

We arrived without getting lost and I even managed to drive on the correct side of the road the whole time! Pro Tip: Mentally chanting ‘Left to Live’ in your head keeps you from becoming hamburger on the righthand side. It also helps reduce glares on escalators. It was a decent walk especially since we were very close to late and had to park pretty far away. We got to the check in with minutes to spare. Got free T-shirts, disgusting raisin granola bars (we both set them down for a hobo to find), and wristbands. We joined the end of the parade. There were a few sweet costumes including sumo wrestlers blow up costumes, flowers in flower pots, mermaids, and a lot of sweet onesies.

We made it to the water and went in with only a little hesitation. Mainly to remove outer clothing layers. We had decided to do University of Arizona theme and had tattoos all over our faces, matching T-shirts, and a flag and pennant. Then we plunged in. The water was literally freezing. We were about up to our thighs when we turned back, but Bertha lost feeling in her feet and her flip flop slid off. In a heroric rescue effort she went back in up to her waist to get it. I didni’t feel properly miserable so I went back in and jumped/fell in up to my neck. The nice part about my feet being numb was when I lost my flops flops I could walk on the rocky bottom and it didn’t hurt at all! I stumbled out and we took a few more pictures. More men with large cameras took pics of us. Again, not sure if they were professionals or just creepy…

After a few minutes my feet had recovered. Bertha’s were still frozen and beginning to hurt. There was another girl in the verge of tears because her feet hurt so bad. Bertha hobbled along for quite a while before she recovered. She said it hurt super bad. She also got a foot Herpe, probably from cutting it on a gross river rock.Not sure how my feet magically became good at circulation, but I was fine. Probably because I wear flip flops in winter in Madison. Yay, I win!

We made it back to the car, retrieving Bertha’s red solo cup that she had left on the way in. I imported those things for her and she will lose one over her dead body. It had contained her roadie but she had left it because she was concerned about getting in trouble for having it while walking, yet was unconcerned about the ride over.

Bertha went to work the next day (Thursday) and I woke up at noon and packed for Australia. I went through with my last minute decision to not bring the laptop. We’ll see how I do on the iPod. Pro Tip: Running a blog dependant on the hostel computers is HARD.

I was sad to go, but not super sad since it had been a long week of drinking. I look forward to a more sober time in Australia.

The flights were uneventful. I had enough time in all connections. Even had enough time to pick up some duty free vodka in Dubai. I was kinda surprised they even sold alcohol there, being a Muslim country. But I guess money talks. And it says booze is cheap in Dubai. Pro Tip: A litre of Skyy vodka is at least $10 cheaper in Dubai than Sydney.

Sydney here I come!