Blog / Michael Wilson

Well, I am back in the good ol’ US of effing A. Its good to be home. I love being on the move and not having a home, but is nice to actually sleep in a bed now. Plus, it gives me time to look at some of the photos I have taken on my adventures. Flickr account coming soon. Anyway, I flew back to NYC. I caught up with old friends, rode bikes, and found a great woman. I drove out to California with my best friend and his band (check out Tombs if you haven’t already). I ate a burrito and flew back to NYC…again. I went to Rhode Island to see my brother. We had BBQs and went to the beach. We skated in a secret skatepark built in a barn. We climbed Mt. Washington. I saw my family for Memorial Day weekend. It was especially nice to sit with my Grandfather and eat hot wings and shoot the breeze. I went to Philly and had a BBQ in Fairmount park. I saw my friends get married. I watched Isis from backstage at Irving Plaza and the TLA. The only bad thing that has happened is I lost about 30 Polaroids in transit from New Zealand to here. Huge bummer, but there is absolutely nothing I can do to change this. Sometimes, you eat the bar, and sometimes…well…

PS This photo is taken from the van driving across Arizona.

I am a little late posting this, but better late then never. Like I mentioned before, Melbourne is the best city we saw on our trip. It has tons of personality and lots of cool stuff going on.

We rolled in after a great time on Phillip Island, in small town called Cowes. In Cowes, we were lucky enough to catch a little hot rod show. I geeked out on custom cars while Jeff, Melissa, and Matt looked at me like a kook. I love old cars, I can’t help it. Someday I am going to build or restore an old Lincoln Continental or a GTO. Probably when I get married and start hating my wife and kids and need an excuse to get away from them. Another thing about Cowes, they have a penguin parade at night. Yeah, sounds awesome, until they charge you a boatload of cash to get a glimpse of the little suckers. Rent “March of the Penguins” its cheaper and you don’t have to fight crowds of tourists.

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Welcome to the future. Sydney has an N and that’s close to M, which stands for monorail.

The fireworks over the Sydney Opera House were epic. What is more than epic you ask? How about a the little person right in front of us standing on a ledge 60 feet over the street below leading a full-on “Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie Oi Oi Oi” chant. Yeah, it got weird.

The aftermath of NYE in Sydney is pretty gut wrenching. Every McDonald’s packed with hammerheads chugging Big Macs like they are going out of style. I’ve never seen anything like it. The town itself is beautiful and I am sure there are hidden gems and nice quite hideaways, but it was a holiday and we were pretty single-minded. Needless to say it was the biggest street party I’ve ever born witness too. They shut down everything around Darling Harbor and let the kids go wild in the streets. You can’t go wrong.

Side note: Don’t get suckered into one of the fancy ferry rides through the city’s harbors. You can catch the public ferry in Manly and ride it straight into Darling Harbor.

Sydney gets an A-.

We started our trip in Coolangatta which is about an hour South of Brisbane. Brisbane is a pretty sweet town, not as as sweet as Melbourne, but more on that later. We went up there to see what goes down on a Friday night and why they call it Brisvegas.

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