SUPERAWESOMESPRINGBREAK

long time no see!

if you're looking forward to reading an update about my amazing spring break trip it might not be that great since i don't have my pics - but let's start shall we? (i might amend this post later)

Saturday
got up early - kinda scrambled around since we wanted to catch the bus to the airport BUT we made it just on time! right when we got to the bus stop like a minute later the 400 bus came!

but then we had to find the right terminal - we wandered around in the Qantas terminal till we asked someone where the Virgin Blue terminal was

and then it turned out that our check-in baggage was too heavy so we repacked everything (someone told us they weren't strict on check-in but were really strict on carry-on => liars)
security was sooo lax....didn't even have to take out liquids or anything (we later found out that you can take any amount of liquids as long as they aren't opaque or something like that

NEXT - got to Ayers Rock, got our cars and drove to the Ayers Rock Resort and checked in!

area around our cabin

all the sand is red! so awesome

bought groceries for our bbq later that night and then drove into the national park to see the sunset (btw i don't have my pictures - these are all from my iphone lol if you're actually my friend and not a creeper who happened upon this blog then you can see my pictures on my fb page.....later)

so you basically watch Uluru (that's the rock's name - it used to be named Ayers Rock...now it's Uluru) change colors as the sun sets
it's amazing - like seriously, seeing this rock in person is amazing - i think of it as kind of seeing a glacier, it's just a huge block of ice and Uluru is just a rock but it's still breathtaking to see - you realy don't know how massive this thing is until you see it in person

then afterward, we had bbq! took a while to cook everything though =( and some of the chicken was a little undercooked so i got a stomach ache at night >< but no biggie...cause i've eaten undercooked chicken before and experienced it before lol

Sunday
woke up early to see the sunrise!! i don't think i have pictures of it on my cell phone - sorry peeps
we went to the cultural center to read up on the history and look at artworks and such
then we went back to our cabin and took a nap haha then ate lunch and first did the Mutitjulu walk? to a gorge and then from there we did the base walk where you walk around the entirety of Uluru (all 10.6 km)
it took us about 3 1/2 to 4 hours - about 20 min of it was waiting for two of our friends while they climbed Uluru

this is the section where you can climb it

the Aboriginals actually ask that you do not climb the rock because to do so is risking your life and they want you to think about the people you would hurt if you did end up dying at Uluru - and they don't want Uluru to become known as a place of sadness since to them, it's a place that supports and gives life

ok so after we finished that we watched the sunset again, but this time from the same viewing point where we watched the sunrise

annnd then we cooked dinner (curry!) and slept pretty early-ish
we actually planned on having our campfire this night, but learned that we needed to collect wood from like this area beside the highway so we postponed it

Monday
woke up, did the free guided tour (the Mala walk) and learned a whole bunch about the history and culture of the Aboriginals who came from there - each group of people are named after animals that are native to the land where they come from (like i guess for us Texans, we could be called the armadillo people...since armadillos are kinda native to only Texas)
the Mala Walk took us to the Kantju Gorge i believe and after that we went to eat lunch at the sunrise viewing area =) nice scenery for lunch

after that we went to go gather wood lol yay for girl scout skills - i actually knew what we needed

then we went to kata tjuta aka the olgas, which are another set of rocks in the national park and walked to the gorge there

we also laid on the benches for a while since we had a lot of time to kill and we were tired - after that we went to wait for the sun to set after this we went to buy a bit more groceries and then we ate dinner (pasta with left over meat from our bbq)

then it was campfire time! i was so scared that i wouldn't be able to build a fire and that it wouldn't work but it did! mostly because all the wood was so dry i think
except the bigger pieces of wood were still kind of too long and too thin so it ended up being really tall at first and became a bonfire at the end
but everything was still good! we stuck our sweet potatoes in the fire and then made s'mores! yay for teaching people what s'mores are - except they were like aussie-style s'mores cause the marshmallows here are in lame gumdrop shapes and come in pink and white (they're considered more of a candy instead of something you can use for baking and stuff) and they didn't have graham crackers!! so we bought these lame sweet biscuits that worked out pretty well

all in all, me fire = success! yay for girl scouts!

and our day wasn't done yet! we laid outside and watched the stars for a while...then some people went back to sleep and four of us ended up staying outside for a couple more hours haha and it was worth it cause we got to see pretty huge shooting starts that streaked across the sky!

Tuesday
woke up, ate lunch, went to walk/shop around the resort and i bought a couple of postcards

then it was off to the airport! and spent the entire day on the plane kinda

we arrived in Melbourne a little late since apparently we didn't have a place to land or something like that so we stayed up in the air for a little while

then we went to our hostel called home @ the mansion! it's pretty cool and nice - and two of our friends from ih made us dinner!
kangaroo sandwiches! they were really good =)

and i'll end it here cause this post is long enough o_o