goon!

What’s up two blog posts in three days!  You guys love me right?  The adoring public lays roses at my feet for bothering to actually write something.  In truth, my neglect has been less to do with an apathetic writer’s block and more to do with the cost of internet, but nonetheless.  One thing about leaving this baby alone for a bit is that I’m ready to cough up some pretty good anecdotes and images.

First I need to tell you about our beverage of choice.  For those of you that haven’t tried goon, it’s a fairly horrific and incredibly cheap wine that comes in a box.  For those of you that have tried it, I’m sorry.  Any kitchen party at any hostel in Australia is replete with a table full of goon boxes.  We’ve tried various methods to make it more palatable.  Adding lime cordial is a favourite so far, while doing it in shots just really didn’t work. 

It’s both a bit funny and bit sad that one of the primary things I’ll remember about backpacking in Australia is a box of absolute piss, but it’s kind of come to represent something quintessential about travelling.  You drink the terrible white wine around the table with everyone else, and it just doesn’t matter.  You’re too busy laughing and playing cards to worry about your shitty drink.  It’s sort of the great equalizer of the backpacking world.  We’re all poor as shit, and it doesn’t matter because we’re all nearing the apex of the happiest we’ve ever been.  It’s something we don’t see a lot in our day-to-day lives, but the juxtaposition of brokenness and constant grins is kind of wonderful.