Quizzy Rascals

It was with a heavy heart that we left Sydney, as we had had some great times in our relatively short visit. We were due down at the bus station at 12:30 for the bus that would get us into Canberra for 16:10. It didn’t take long to get there and we checked out a few hotels and hostels in Singapore on some free internet terminals in the terminal before setting our stuff down on the kerb and waiting for the bus.

James went off on one of his forays, presumably to use the facilities in the train station, and I waited patiently with the bags attempting to bask in the sunshine that was peeping through the clouds. Whilst I was waiting an elderly gentleman wandered up to me and muttered something along the lines of, “when the going gets tough, the tough go travelling” to me. I smiled and replied, “I guess so” and thought that would be the end of it. Of course, it wasn’t and he proceeded to talk to me about religion and how good Christianity is and whether I was a “believer” or not. I tried to fob him off with, “not really, but I respect everyone else’s right to believe in whatever they wish” but he just kept talking at me. I noticed some pamphlets in his top pocket, that he thankfully had not yet thrust my way. Then, as we were travelling to Canberra (he squeezed that little gem out of me from the start) he said he wanted to say a prayer for me. As he was still holding my hand from the “handshake” two minutes ago he pulled himself closer towards me and placed the palm of his hand onto my forehead. I had attempted to get out of the situation by saying he didn’t need to, etc, etc, but I don’t even think that pepper spray would have stopped him on his quest. As he continued his prayer I noticed the Greyhound bus pull up next to us (perfect timing for once!) and uttered, “ummmmm, that’s my bus” and he relented. He left me as I pretended to put my bags onto the coach (even though the driver hadn’t even opened the luggage compartment on the side of the coach) and just in time for James to return from his little journey. I enlightened him on what just happened and we chuckled about it for some time.

The priest and the smoker

We were still waiting for the bus driver to open up the coach and let us on, and in the time preceding that we noticed that the chap standing around the other side of the large pillar had been approached by the very same guy who had just been holding his hand on my head. I felt sorry for the guy as he had been peacefully smoking a cigarette and waiting for the bus, but I did nothing to help him. I didn’t want the preacher to realise that I hadn’t got on the bus and for him to try and finish his prayer. Soon enough the driver turned up and we jumped on the bus, and luckily we were first on and so we got the pick of the seats. Maybe the prayer was working after all……

We arrived in Canberra on-time and set about unpacking our rucksack straps (our bags have a zip-away feature so the straps and padding don’t get trapped in doors and such like). James went off for another of his sorties and left me guarding said bags. The chap who had also been lucky enough to receive a prayer for his travels ambled up to me and asked if we knew where the backpackers place was. I didn’t, for we were staying at the YHA (Youth Hostel Association) down the road. He had not booked anything so asked if he could walk with us there and see if there were any vacancies. We had no problem with that so the three of us left the bus station and walked towards the Canberra YHA.

Our new companion was called Simon, and was from Switzerland. He was travelling through Canada and Australia for 3 months and was about half-way through. He was truly back-packing it as he had not pre-booked anywhere and he had a tent, in case of emergencies. When we got to the YHA there was a sign in the window advising “no vacancies” but he tried asking anyway. Sadly they were fully booked so he set off to try and find a hotel nearby. Maybe the prayer works on a “first come, first served” basis.

The hostel was nice and clean, and we were booked in to a 4-bed mixed dorm room, so we were not sure who our bunk-mates would be. James was hoping for two girls to be sharing with us; I think just to have something different, but I couldn’t help think that he was expecting two young super-models to be back-packing through Canberra and who would be captivated by an English accent. Whoever they were they weren’t in the room when we opened the door at 17:00. Indications were that there was at least one girl, with the possibility of another, but we couldn’t confirm this without going through their luggage, which we didn’t think would be appropriate. We made ourselves comfortable and then had a quick wander round the local area before heading down to the Transit Bar for dinner. I had spied a Pizza + Pint deal for a mere $10 and it seemed like just the thing we needed. We ordered the food, collected our pints (proper English ones at that) and went to find a table. They were all busy or had Reserved signs on them, and it seemed like they were reserved for a quiz later that night. Well, we knew we would have to stick around for that!

We grabbed a quiz sheet from the quiz master and quickly realised from the picture round that we had a very good chance……of coming last. We realised that we were doing a quiz in Australia so a good proportion of the questions would no doubt relate, in some way at least, to Australia. Nevertheless we began the quiz with enthusiasm and we had a great start with the first few questions. Our pints were running low so I went to the bar to get two more in. We plumped for the cheap stuff, Carlton Draft, and I gave him a $20 note. When I received my change I nearly cried. Only 5 coins were in my hand, and only two of them were gold ($1 & $2 coins are gold). There must have been a mistake. He must have thought I had given him a $10 bill, so I asked how much one was and he replied $7.80. I forced a smile and mumbled “thanks” under my breath before returning to James and the quiz. We both agreed that this would be our last pint and that a second round would not be necessary.

After 10 questions in the quiz we were still doing OK, although a few more Oz-related questions had come out so we were stumbling a little, and then the quiz master changed things up. Every 10 questions he would walk to the bar and ask a question. First one to write it down and get the answer to him won a 1140ml jug of beer. Me and James looked at each other. This was our chance. The first question we got wrong. The nation that uses the most soap is Australia, not Japan, apparently. Then there were questions 11 through 20, which we struggled with. Then came the “jug of beer” question. “Which year was the Great Plague of London?” he read aloud. Quick as a flash James wrote down 1665 and handed me the paper. I ran like the wind and thrust it under his nose. I was first there and we were the ones celebrating with a free jug of beer!

Free beer!

The rest of the quiz went downhill really, lots of random questions that we had no idea about, although we held our own in the music rounds. After the 30^th question it was time to try and win another jug of beer, even though we hadn’t even finished the previous one. We braced ourselves. The question came booming across the room, “What is the most common pub name in England?”. I hadn’t heard the question properly and was thinking of pub quiz team names, but James had scrawled “Red Lion” on the paper and ushered me to get to the bar. I did so, but I was by no means first there. A few wrong answers were dismissed immediately and then he looked towards where I was pointing. Sure enough, “Red Lion” was the correct answer and as I turned to James subtly waving a fist in the air I could hear the groans from the unsuccessful teams from behind me. I felt a little guilty, but then I had another free jug of beer in my hand and it disappeared in an instant. We sat there with two pint glasses and two jugs of free beer, and tow very big grins on our faces. We didn’t win the quiz, but we had taken two expensive jugs of beer from the bar and that was victory enough.

More free beer!

Once we had retired to the hostel we were preparing ourselves for the introduction to our new bunk-mates, and we wanted to be quiet as it was almost half 10. When we opened the door there was nobody there to greet us, just the back-packs and shoes that had been left out from earlier. So there wasn’t much to do, other than update the blog, make up the bed and await the arrival of our unknown guests.

Oh, there was just one more thing. I went to the gents soon after arriving back at the hostel and I opened the door to be greeted by a sight that I truly would never have expected. There, in front of me, was a naked Philippino man washing his pants in the sink. Thankfully he had gone back into the shower cubicle when I returned from the urinal, and sufficed to say I never used that sink.