Georgie’s back! Not that you even noticed she left. We talk hikes, bothersome car rental, and the value of LEGO.
✍🏻 View the transcript for this episode
Georgie’s back! Not that you even noticed she left. We talk hikes, bothersome car rental, and the value of LEGO.
We’ve gone old school, so you can email us! toastroastpod@gmail.com
Geoff 0:09
And welcome back to another episode of Toast & Roast. I'm your host, Geoff. And here is my co host, Georgie.
Georgie 0:18
Hello.
Geoff 0:20
Well, well, well, someone went on a holiday. And—
Georgie 0:24
I did.
Geoff 0:25
And got a new iPhone. It’s, it’s, a fun. It’s a fun filled packed episode today, everybody.
Georgie 0:32
You don’t know that though. We’ve got nothing, we have nothing planned. I finally saw the SeaCliff bridge today, though.
Geoff 0:39
Yeah, that’s right. I’ve described this to you before, right?
Georgie 0:42
Yeah. Did you? Did you say you went on? Or there’s like a hike? Or there’s like a trail nearby? That’s kind of—
Geoff 0:48
Yes.
Georgie 0:49
They closed it off.
Geoff 0:50
Yeah. Did you manage to find it?
Georgie 0:52
Well, nah, we didn’t spend a lot of time there, we were just passing through. So we decided we’d come back another day. And like properly, actually check it out. Because we just wanted to drive over it. Take a few pictures. And then yeah.
Geoff 1:04
To be fair, I don’t think there’s anything much else to return to, like you could walk under the like, under the bridge—
Georgie 1:12
Like on the rocks?
Geoff 1:13
On the rocks and stuff. I don’t know if it’s that exciting. But whatever floats your boat.
Georgie 1:17
This is one of those things that I find looks good from drone shots. And everybody shares these pictures. But then you go on it and you’re just driving on a road.
Geoff 1:28
Yes, it’s just winding, it’s this windy road. We went, we went last time I went, it was like pouring. So it’s like not even that fun. And going down to the rocks was like really dangerous. Because the the incline you definitely could just slide down. So yeah.
Georgie 1:45
Speaking of inclines. So we did a few hikes while I was away, Nick and I went to Scandinavia. So we did quite a bit in Norway. And we had a few hikes there. Where the entire hike was essentially all, incline. The whole thing. One of my favourite ones was—
Geoff 2:07
Slopes, just slopes that go up.
Georgie 2:10
Yeah, yeah. Like straight up. There was one that was my favourite. And it’s called Offersoykammen. If I’m spelling that, sorry, pronouncing that.
Geoff 2:19
Office, soy, Carmen.
Georgie 2:22
No. Terrible. No. Offer, like as in like I made you an offer. And then soy—
Geoff 2:29
Soy.
Georgie 2:30
Yeah there we go.
Geoff 2:32
Offersoykammen.
Georgie 2:32
Yeah. So it’s over. The trailhead is pretty much on a highway. So it’s not extremely noticeable. Apparently, it’s not a very well known hike. But it only takes about maybe, if you’re fit and have hiking experience will take you maybe about an hour to two hours to get to the top. And it’s just straight elevation, super steep, and lots of climbing over rocks and things. And it’s so steep that you sort of get to this point where you you see the top of the mountain, and you’re like, oh, I’m almost there, and you go for another 20 minutes. And you’re like, shit, I’m not there yet. But this was my favourite hike. Because once you get to the top, like it is literally literally 360 There is no, like there’s a ridge, you can walk across, which looked a little bit dangerous. So we didn’t want to get too close to that. But there’s enough like to walk around at the top that you just see everything all the way around, like literally 360. I find a lot of people describe hikes and say there’s a 360 view and I’m like, that’s that’s not 360. There’s like half a mountain still like behind you. That’s like 270 or something.
Geoff 3:44
Yeah.
Georgie 3:45
So I recommend this one because it wasn’t too busy when we were there. We went in early in the morning. And fortunately, we had good weather on this day. There were a couple of others or other hikes that we did that were similar, but the rain sort of kept coming and going so it wasn’t safe to do like longer hikes.
Geoff 4:07
Seems like an opportunity to do a windy path. It looks like like if you look at the map, just like straight across the the mountain, which sounds yeah, pretty crazy ground conditions. Yeah, you definitely need to find a dry day, right? Because—
Georgie 4:27
Yeah, because we did—
Geoff 4:28
Slopes.
Georgie 4:29
...another one. Yeah, we did another one where it had just been raining and it was really kind of annoying because the forecast would say it’s not raining between these hours but it is raining between these hours, and you can’t always rely on the forecast. But we did a couple hikes where it was quite dangerous, had it been even more rainy. And you had to really like latch on to find, you’re climbing these rocks and it’s wet and slippery. So yeah, anyway, I also wanted to point out that the hikes in Europe I feel like everyone there’s used to doing, especially in Norway, I think everyone, the locals there, are used to doing hikes. And so they’re like, this is easy. But then people visit from around the world and they’re like, oh, no, it’s actually quite, it’s quite difficult. So it’s like they’re on a different scale. Easy for Norwegian. Not easy if you don’t really ever, if you don’t really have hiking experience.
Geoff 5:22
I got the same vibe in Japan. Cuz like there’s Fushimi Inari, which isn’t as difficult but you get like 89 year olds just casually walking up this, I don’t even know how long Fushimi Inari is, Fushimi... the, for those who don’t know, it’s the it’s the torii gate. It’s a, it’s the hike that has a lot of orange and black gates called torii gates.
Georgie 5:54
I remember doing this one.
Geoff 5:56
Yeah.
Georgie 5:56
I think we were doing it before it was—
Geoff 5:57
Three hours.
Georgie 5:58
It was close to being closed. So we were kind of running the entire way. But it was still good.
Geoff 6:03
Holy crap. So it’s about three hours about five kilometres. It’s it is a loop. But I had, I had like 89 year olds just like casually walking up and around. They do this like every morning because they live nearby or something like that. And it’s very, it’s very funny seeing old people just casually do this.
Georgie 6:26
I think they’re used to it in Japan, very much—
Geoff 6:30
Mountainous.
Georgie 6:31
Yeah, very much in their culture to stay active though.
Geoff 6:37
But yeah, my friend did it in a kimono, or yukata I can’t remember which one. So the legs are quite rushed. Her legs were quite restricted. And she had the sandals on like wasn’t even proper, like, sneakers or anything. And you had like old people like commenting about how amazing that is? Or how like, how difficult.
Georgie 7:01
Yeah.
Geoff 7:01
...it would be and commending her on trying it out. Although to be fair, it’s a rental. So like sweating through that is not a good idea. So if anybody had any ideas about doing hikes in kimonos, probably don’t want to do that. But yeah, hopefully I don’t, my Japan trip doesn’t have too many hike hikes this time.
Georgie 7:28
What’s a hike-hike versus hike?
Geoff 7:32
Like hike hikes or hikes. You know—
Georgie 7:35
You got to—
Geoff 7:37
I mean, we’re gonna do this thing. We’re gonna do this on the, the Fushimi Inari.
Georgie 7:41
To me this is just a hike. It’s not a hike hike.
Geoff 7:43
It’s just a walk to me. Just a casual walk.
Georgie 7:47
I think there’s a lot of man made, like the paths are like—
Geoff 7:50
Yeah.
Georgie 7:51
Man made.
Geoff 7:51
Or are you, you think bush hiking is real hiking?
Georgie 7:55
No. Okay, so I it’s interesting, because a lot of the hikes in Norway, they had Nepalese Sherpas put down—
Geoff 8:04
Oh serious?
Georgie 8:06
Yeah, they had to put down steps to make certain trails safer. I wouldn’t say that makes it not so much a real hike, but there is just one.
Geoff 8:16
Interesting.
Georgie 8:16
(laughs) There’s one hike called the Reinebringen, in Reine, and—am I saying that right, Reine? It’s up in the Lofoten islands in in Norway up up north and it’s essentially a whole bunch of stairs. It’s all stairs that, like stone steps. And the elevation is about 400 metres.
Geoff 8:42
Yes. 448 metres.
Georgie 8:45
Which is what, 1300 feet. And I, my legs were like killing me at the end of it because it’s all stairs. And I’ve done a similar hike in—
Geoff 8:54
Stone stairs.
Georgie 8:55
Yeah, there you go. I’ve done a similar hike in. In New Zealand. That was all stairs that it was it’s called—
Geoff 9:03
Mount Doom?
Georgie 9:04
Sealy Tarns. Nah, Sealy Tarns, and it’s just stairs as well. And that was like 500 metres elevation. But the other hike that we did, which I haven’t talked about yet, but we did another hike called the Romsdal, oh sorry, it’s the Rampestreken hike, which goes to the top of this mountain called Romsdal. And the elevation is 700 metres. So I’m talking about 400 500 metres of stairs versus 700 metres of not stairs, like it’s a mix of like, there’s a bit of a ramp and then there’s a couple of stairs, but it’s mostly like climbing the slope of the mountain. But that was so much easier in comparison. I was like shit, I could do this again. And then and then I found a forum post because I needed to know, I was like why is it that stairs at like less elevation is so much more excruciating than a slope, than just climbing a slope. And people were talking about the mechanics of your feet like it’s a dead stop every time you take a step versus like you’re climbing, it’s kind of different. You’re moving continuously and then yeah, I don’t know.
Geoff 9:04
I wanted to, I wanted to go up Mount Fuji, this time. And then I read some articles and guides saying like, this is not your, like, you don’t wear thongs and a shirt on, on this like.
Georgie 10:28
(laughs) Yeah, I’ve seen that in Norwegian, like, hike guides as well. And I’m like, but I would look at that and be like, I’m not gonna wear that anyway, like.
Geoff 10:38
Yeah. Was it, Mount Fuji hike. And basically, it’s like they said, it’s this is not for casual hikers. You don’t do Mount Fuji as a casual person. You, and it’s gonna be closed I think during the time I’m there anyways, but they say it’s not, it’s not easy. It’s not like it’s not a hike. It’s a hike, hike, you know, you need you need, it goes so high that the air starts getting thin. So you have to kind of like train lung—
Georgie 11:07
Hike hike.
Geoff 11:08
You gotta like bring you know spike shoes and stuff like that, is it the ascent to summit does not pose major difficulties regarding climate because only at some point, the terrain is rather steep and rocky abundance signs. The main challenge of the climate is the fact that it is very strenuous. And the air gets notably thinner as you gain altitude.
Georgie 11:26
Okay, when I see that about the air, like the atmosphere, that I’m like, okay, that’s, that’s proper.
Geoff 11:32
Yeah, you got to either train your lungs or bring oxygen. I think people die. But—
Georgie 11:40
Yeah, that is not good.
Geoff 11:42
Witness sunrise. Also, I mean, it takes how long to take, does it take to climb the entire thing? Like ascent is five to seven hours? Seven to ten hours from the trains, from the station.
Georgie 11:54
See, seven to ten hours is like, it’s like full day hike. Which—
Geoff 11:57
How do you get there before sunrise? (laughs)
Georgie 12:02
(laughs) I think it really depends, right? Like this is a mountain. It’s a full day climbing up a mountain. But there are hikes that are sort of like not climbing, not mountains. I’d still call them a hike. But there’s probably like, some technicality to how you go around the terrain, I guess.
Geoff 12:21
Yeah. You have to, proper shoes, the rocky steep terrain and southern sections and the potential sudden strong wind gusts are reasons to bring proper hiking shoes. Proper clothes, flashlight—that’s serious when you have to like recommend to bring food. Bring money. Because you have to buy provisions on the mountain.
Georgie 12:44
You have to buy canned oxygen—actually it does, yeah, I think it starts getting serious when you have to kind of make sure you have enough supplies that you can’t fit it in like a day pack.
Geoff 12:56
Yeah. Do not pick plants. Do not bring home any stones. Do not camp in the mountain. That’s okay. But yeah. Altitude sickness.
Georgie 13:08
There is a really good book that I read about one of the Mount Everest expeditions that kind of went wrong. It’s called Into Thin Air—really good. I actually listened to it as an audio book. I highly recommend it. It was, it kind of went through into some of these kind of treacherous conditions and what caused some people to die. And it was kind of fascinating, but also kind of, I wouldn’t say scary, but you know what I mean? It’s kind of like oh, dear.
Geoff 13:38
Yeah, that’s a hike, hike, hike. If you got like a real, triple hike. So besides the hikes. Any other highlights from your trip? You went to other places besides the Netherlands, right?
Georgie 13:51
Not the—Norway.
Geoff 13:53
Norway.
Georgie 13:53
Yeah, we went to Sweden and Copenhagen in Denmark as well. And we also went to this small town called Billund in Denmark, which is like the home of LEGO.
Geoff 14:04
That’s right. So you looked this up, you were like—
Georgie 14:08
Well, I did, I think, because Nick is like a LEGO fan. He sort of knew that there, they have, like in this kind of remote town in Denmark, they have the original I guess LEGO Land, which is mostly catered towards, like families and kids is like the theme park. So we whizzed through that quite quickly. There was there was this, I don’t know if it’s a ride or like a little... Yeah, we’ll call it a ride, where you sort of are versing all these other people in the queue and you will get assigned to, each group gets assigned to like a fire engine. And then you got to ride, like drive the fire engine to the end of the road, and then put out this imaginary fire by aiming the fire hydrant, put the hose, literal actually does come with actual water, and then you got to get back in the fire truck and then drive it back. Like I get so competitive with shit like this and I’m like doing this, we had this, you have to do this motion where you just pushing down this lever to move the entire fire truck.
Geoff 15:08
Yeah.
Georgie 15:09
Yeah. Anyway, we came second. So it was all right considering we’re only two people. So that’s more for family—
Geoff 15:15
Did you come, did you come second against a bunch of five year olds? It’s alright to admit this.
Georgie 15:20
I think it was like maybe a family. So it had four people. So—
Geoff 15:23
Oh wow, they had four people.
Georgie 15:25
At the end, there’s like two fire hydrants. So we could only operate one because you need one person to aim it and one person to like, turn the water on.
Geoff 15:33
OK yeah.
Georgie 15:33
So we couldn’t use two. So we put the fire out and probably like more time than if we had had someone operating the other fire hydrant?
Geoff 15:40
Yeah.
Georgie 15:41
Yeah.
Geoff 15:41
Okay.
Georgie 15:42
So that was just fun stuff.
Geoff 15:45
It’s more interactive than I would think you were going to a LEGO Land would be.
Georgie 15:50
Yeah, but I think it was the most interesting thing there. So well actually was very interesting was the LEGO House, which is like this single building, where they go into the history of LEGO. There’s different exhibitions where people have like, create recreated things with LEGO. And these are like your giant, I guess statues built from LEGO. And then there’s this interactive sections where you can build something out of LEGO based on the instructions, and then you get it scanned in some machine, and then you comes up digitally. So like one of them was like a fish, and then you see your fish like on the screen. And then it’ll go into the digital aquarium. So it’s kind of like cute stuff. Another one was like building a flower, and then just putting it in this garden. At first, I thought, like, oh, this is gonna be kind of kiddish. Or maybe we won’t be interested in it. But I think what made it more interactive is that you get a wristband when you go in.
Geoff 16:46
Yeah.
Georgie 16:46
And there’s these points that when you scan the wristband and get a photo taken. And the another one was this, another thing that was interesting was this moods thing where you had this little board, and you put like, a different like face on it, like whether it was angry or happy or whatever. And then you basically made your own character in the blank space, and then you get the computer to scan, it comes up on this digital screen and starts dancing and the whatever mood that you put on it, it gets like, like if you put happy, it’s gonna be happy dancing, if you’re angry, it’s like, really, really angry. And then at the end, you can just download all of your videos and stuff. So yeah, and there are all these checkpoints, where you could scan your wristband and see which parts you missed as well.
Geoff 17:29
Oh, that’s nice, for completionists.
Georgie 17:31
Yeah, I did—we didn’t complete it. Like it was just like, I can’t be bothered.
Geoff 17:37
Because that big ass garden with the—
Georgie 17:40
The maze?
Geoff 17:41
That maze. Yeah, the big ass garden with the maze, there were like 42 points of interest, I think it would be really good to have like a scanning point, or at least like a QR code and every one of them so that you can like make sure that you’ve covered the entire garden. That’s pretty simple stuff, I think. In, in, in our world.
Georgie 18:00
Yeah.
Geoff 18:01
They actually, it actually reminds because we’re still planning Japan. And we’re looking at the Universal Studios and they opened up Super Mario World.
Georgie 18:13
Yeah.
Geoff 18:13
Or was it Super Nintendo World? Super Nintendo World, Japan—and they have that wristband concept as well. They call it like a power a power band. And have you played Mario at all?
Georgie 18:28
Probably ages ago, it’s been ages, so probably can’t remember many details.
Geoff 18:33
Yeah, but you can see—
Georgie 18:34
I’m familiar with it, but—
Geoff 18:35
Familiar with it.
Georgie 18:35
I know someone who went there recently, so I saw some pictures.
Geoff 18:39
Yeah. So they have these like, for those who don’t know, Mario’s like a very as like a side scrolling, you kind of just jump in and you get power ups and stuff like that, to defeat your enemies. And they come in forms of like little question mark boxes that that Mario would generally jump and hit. So with the power band, you get to do exactly that. You get to hit like power boxes that will give you certain rewards whilst you go around the park.
Georgie 19:07
That’s so good.
Geoff 19:07
So that’s kind of cute. Yeah. There’s some puzzles I think as well. This is like puzzles you can do at the park. So I thought that was really cool. Except of course the power band cost some extra money than the ticket. Because why would you—but I guess you get to keep it. I don’t know.
Georgie 19:27
Oh, the LEGO one is literally just like, plas—like what do you call it, like a vinyl kind of. It’s pretty cheap.
Geoff 19:34
Oh. Yeah.
Georgie 19:35
I think some places like Disney would have an actual like physical plastic thick one.
Geoff 19:40
Yeah. So this is quite interesting, actually. Like, if you went to the one in Universal Studios in America. I think it’s Orlando Universal Studios. Yeah, I went to that one. And you went to the Super Nintendo World there. You can sync the power up band that you got from over there to the Japan, to Japan’s one, I mean that’s pretty cool.
So it’s basically a cult.
Yep, absolutely. One of us, one of us. Stamp collection, you can get coins because that’s probably the other main point of the game is to collect coins in Mario and a complete, kind of a completionist thing which is pretty fun. Probably going to pay for it because why not?
Georgie 20:28
It’s part of the fun.
Geoff 20:30
Yeah, I’m not a huge Mario fan but this is so elaborate that you gotta go.
Georgie 20:35
Yeah.
Geoff 20:35
It’s like it’s such a big spectacle.
Georgie 20:39
Yeah, like I’m not a massive fan of LEGO but it’s just a, it’s such a an iconic thing. And I guess even as adults we had fun in that LEGO House just kind of spending our time there.
Geoff 20:54
LEGO sets are getting really intensely expensive. Like...
Georgie 20:58
Yep.
Geoff 21:01
Not new but the yeah there’s the Millennium Falcon, look this is a thousand dollar LEGO set for those who are not into LEGO so much to find out that this stuff can cost like thousands of dollars now. But they’re making their way through all of like the major Star Wars things because I think big like Star Wars fans like really love this stuff.
Georgie 21:25
Nick has a few, he’s got like the Mos Eisley Cantina and the AT-AT, the big—
Geoff 21:32
Oh, wow.
Georgie 21:33
Yeah.
Geoff 21:35
So yeah, this stuff takes like maybe like a month to build sometimes. Oh, Hogwarts Castle, $260. Probably US dollars. Nope, Australian. So yeah, if you, if you’re into your LEGO and you’re into your into your Star Wars, there is a huge, this one? Probably not this one. There’s better ATs there.
Georgie 21:58
Nah that’s the AT-ST.
Geoff 22:00
Oh, AT-ST. Excuse me.
Georgie 22:02
(laughs) I don’t know I I actually used to be a big fan of Star Wars. And then I just didn’t, I wasn’t into it anymore. And now I don’t remember anything. It’s really like, weirdly embarrassing.
Geoff 22:14
To be honest, every time I’ve watched Star Wars, I—
Georgie 22:17
It gets worse.
Geoff 22:19
Forgot like, I’ve watched Star Wars. It’s like this weird thing where I don’t remember anything of what I’ve watched of Star Wars until you get me to watch it again. Like oh, yeah, I kind of remember this.
Georgie 22:29
Yeah. Why does that, I get that too. And I don’t understand. What, why. Is it like a weird, like hole or something?
Geoff 22:36
It’s, I mean, not really bothered to commit most of it to memory. And then of course, I know enough to just piss off Star Wars fans by saying, oh, man, you know what? 4, 5, 6 That was the best. That was the best. No, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, was the best one.
Georgie 22:54
Yeah, that would.
Geoff 22:55
It would really pissed people off. Oh, and then I tell them I watched it, 1, 2, 3 4, 5, 6.
Georgie 23:01
Oh my god, no you can’t do that.
Geoff 23:03
Yeah exactly. See how cringy that is? I watched it, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Georgie 23:08
So someone pointed out that each like trilogy is is for a specific generation.
Geoff 23:13
That makes sense.
Georgie 23:14
Yeah, I think like our generation is like, between, like, the ones some people who are older than us, theirs is 4, 5, 6.
Geoff 23:22
Yeah.
Georgie 23:23
And people who are a little bit younger than us. 1, 2, 3. And then, like kids now?
Geoff 23:28
Yeah. They’re like—
Georgie 23:29
What is it? 7, 8, 9.
Geoff 23:30
Yeah, 7, 8, 9.
Georgie 23:32
Which was absolute trash, mind you,
Geoff 23:34
Yeah. So yeah, that’s weird. I, like, Star Was is a weird one. I like the world. To be honest. I like this post apocalyptic kind of desert land with, like lightsabers and this cult of people with power. It’s that, like, all of it. It’s like quiches to me, I like all the things within a quiche but I hate eating quiches. Like‚
Georgie 24:00
(laughs) Why don’t you have, why don’t you have it deconstructed?
Geoff 24:06
Yeah, but that’s just like, like a like a bacon omelette with some.
Georgie 24:11
Then make a fucking bacon omelette. Oh shit.
Geoff 24:15
Yeah, oof, this Batman one looks pretty cool.
Georgie 24:20
The one I wanted was the DeLorean, the time machine from Back to the Future. That was because that is my favourite movie. That’s like literally the only LEGO set—
Geoff 24:28
Is that literally your favourite movie, the DeLorean—
Georgie 24:31
It is!
Geoff 24:31
Like Back to the Future?
Georgie 24:32
Yeah, it is.
Geoff 24:34
That’s.
Georgie 24:35
I don’t watch movies—
Geoff 24:35
An interesting pick. That’s true. You could say I have 10 movies. Got one—
Georgie 24:41
No, I think it’s my favourite because it’s just, it’s, I’ve always liked science fiction. It’s like this one’s like a classic to me. I’ve watched it a bunch of times. I always enjoy it. And I have no shame in saying this is my favourite movie. People ask, me do you like the trilogy? I’m like, well, the first one’s obviously like the best but the trilogy kind of stands as a whole show.
Geoff 24:58
Yeah. I’m just not a collector of things, I could I could very well, like a lot. I like like, like Back to the Future a lot, but never collect anything about it. I don’t showcase my likes, I suppose.
Georgie 25:12
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think that’s why I probably haven’t gotten it yet. Because it’s been out for like a year and a half or something. And I’m just like, I don’t know, what I do with this? That’s the thing, right. It’s $299.99.
Geoff 25:26
Yeah. I don’t get to drive it.
Georgie 25:27
Yeah. Like I build it. And then I put it on display, like in my background or, like in my room. And then what? Like I have, I have a friend who says, like, you know, you sort of are paying for the experience, the experience of building and I’m like, I understand that. Yes, it’s very, you know, enjoyable building this thing. But then I’m like, what do I do? Like, take it apart and put it back together? When I’m, like, bored? Like, how do I get my money’s value out of this?
Geoff 25:52
Yeah, just a value? I think, so, some of my friends are massive collectors. And from their perspective, it’s very much from what I can remember, is they like to see things they like.
Georgie 26:07
Yeah OK.
Geoff 26:08
They get joy from seeing things that they like. So in that respect, they get the posters, they get the DeLor—they get the DeLorean, the LEGO things. So they it’s like something interactive, and then they can actually like, see and like, remember, have memories or whatever of things that they like, which completely makes sense. So it doesn’t really make sense for us not to like, to see things that we like. It’s just like, it’s strange.
Georgie 26:33
Yeah.
Geoff 26:34
Yeah. So this website’s really weird. I’m controlling this vert, like this 3d animation by scrolling. It’s—
Georgie 26:45
Oh my god, it’s like a scroll hijack.
Geoff 26:46
Scroll hijack. It’s like, next level. Man. What’s it called? The parallax effect?
Georgie 26:55
Yeah, the parallax.
Geoff 26:55
Yeah, the parallax. I was very confused. Why I couldn’t pick anything is because well, you scroll to, this is probably the most inaccessible thing of all, of all of all time.
Georgie 27:07
How did you know that you had to scroll to see what was going on?
Geoff 27:10
While I was trying to click things. And then I was like, oh, maybe there’s something underneath this big image, this big video and I scrolled and I’m like, oh, my god, it moved. And I was, like, like get out of here. So yeah.
Georgie 27:23
Why can’t they just play a video? I just don’t understand. But that’s just me.
Geoff 27:27
Yeah. Woah, woah. Okay.
Georgie 27:31
Trippy.
Geoff 27:32
We gotta get out. Oh, my god. Let’s stop doing that. It’s almost like nauseating the way the camera moves.
Georgie 27:37
I know. There’s something weird about it. I don’t...
Geoff 27:40
It’s not 60 FPS. So it’s our brains.
Georgie 27:44
It’s like I’m on a ride.
Geoff 27:46
Yeah, did you on any—
Georgie 27:48
Actually—
Geoff 27:48
You didn’t go on any rides besides the LEGO Land stuff? No theme parks? Nothing?
Georgie 27:53
Not but I can I talk about the incompetency of a certain car rental company. Actually, it wasn’t. It probably wasn’t even their fault, to be honest. But it was a self serve machine.
Geoff 28:05
Oh, so like little kiosk.
Georgie 28:08
A little kiosk. Yeah, put your whatever, your code in or whatever, scan your driver’s license, and—
Geoff 28:15
Oh no.
Georgie 28:16
The keys—
Geoff 28:16
What could go wrong?
Georgie 28:17
...come out of the bo—I know. So we had a long eight hour drive ahead of us. So we’re like, let’s get to this kiosk, which is in a parking lot. Let’s get to this kiosk at eight o’clock or something like that.
Geoff 28:27
Wait, did you choose to drive because of the experience? Or because it was necessary?
Georgie 28:32
Oh, it was kind of, it was necessary. Like you can’t really get public transport too far, at this point. We were going from Bergen to Andalsnes, which is kind of rural. Actually, no, we can, you can get a train to, Andalsnes. But because of the way the order we did things.
Geoff 28:49
Okay.
Georgie 28:49
Yeah, we had to get a car. And we were going even further. So we picked, we wanted to pick up the car in the major city. So we get there at 8, and there are two Australian travellers already there. And one of them has their driver’s license stuck in the machine.
Geoff 29:05
No!
Georgie 29:07
And they’d been there since 7am. They’d been there for an hour. And they had been trying to call the phone number that says that is on a sticker on the kiosk saying customer service. And apparently it’s not even open, it’s a Sunday morning. It’s not open on the weekends. So we have to locate a different number. And this other number wasn’t—
Geoff 29:32
Were you helping them?
Georgie 29:33
Open until 9am. Yeah, we’re kind of helping, helping. Yeah. And this other customer service number was not open until 9am. So we have to wait and then even then we didn’t know like what happens when we call them at 9am? Are we gonna be able to get through? Would they able to help us? We just stuck, trying to, we, and we could even see I think what we knew the car was that we were going to rent, like it was just there, and we just had to get the keys from the bloody machine. And I went to the, because this is in a car, carpark complex, sorry parking lot complex. And there’s a 24/7 customer service desk. So I go there and talk to the guy. And he said, yes, sorry. Like, that’s owned by the company.
Geoff 30:09
So what are they there for?
Georgie 30:11
For the, for the rest of the parking lot. So he said, you can’t, yeah, I can’t help but like, I don’t know that, like, I don’t have access to that machine, unfortunately. I’m like, damn. So eventually another couple turns up and we’re telling what’s going on. And then we’re, like, bored at this point.
Geoff 30:26
Forming a gang.
Georgie 30:26
We, we got nothing to do. We’re just like, like, what can we? What can we do? We didn’t really have like, other options. I think we debated against, we were wondering, should we stop halfway, instead of doing this full eight hour drive, just stop halfway and spend a night in the middle somewhere, anyway comes, oh, we get really bored. So we start trying to retrieve the driver’s license from the machine. (laughs) Getting in there with like a pair of tweezers, like, almost get it out. But it’s like the way that it’s wedged in there is like not completely straight. This is the dodgiest machine ever.
Geoff 31:00
Yeah.
Georgie 31:00
And I feel like we almost destroyed the machine trying to do this. And then we’re like, Should we turn it off? At the power point?
Geoff 31:07
Ooh.
Georgie 31:08
We’re kind of debated doing that for a while. And the guy was like, after some time, was just like, let’s just do it. So unplug it, and plug it back in, and the machine restarts. It’s running Windows, everyone. The machine is running Windows, I think it was—
Geoff 31:22
What version was it?
Georgie 31:23
I don’t even know. It looked shit. It looked shit. Anyway, long story short, we end up getting on the phone with the company. And they’re like, oh, okay, we’ll send some people over. And it probably, I don’t know what time it was at this point. But we had to wait for them. And it turns out that, it depends on where your driver’s license is from, but ours couldn’t even be read by the machine. Once they fixed the machine, released the guy’s card and all of that stuff.
Geoff 31:52
Oh.
Georgie 31:52
So they had to do the process manually. So had the machine actually worked and no one’s driver’s license got stuck, we would still have to call them up and be like, hey, it’s not verifying.
Geoff 32:03
Oh man.
Georgie 32:04
And this guy came over from from the US and he said the same thing happened to him at the airport, oh at the airport. And he said some guy’s license from Florida worked. But like everyone else’s from the US, just like didn’t. So it was such a, it was annoying process. We lost like three hours. So we were just like speeding. Like if, we didn’t want to get to the hotel at like 11pm. And we had like two ferries to catch to cross water.
Geoff 32:30
Oh my god.
Georgie 32:31
And we’re going oh shit. There was this one part, where it was going to leave in like 30 minutes. But it would take us according to the GPS 32 minutes to get to the ferry. So we’re just like speeding at every point that we could. We made the ferry but it was just like a little bit of like excitement there.
Geoff 32:52
But do you ditch the car at the ferry, is there like a return point?
Georgie 32:56
No, it’s the one, it’s the one that the car can go on.
Geoff 32:59
Oh, the car can go on.
Georgie 32:59
Yeah.
Geoff 33:00
You know, there’s one in Australia that I’ve taken before, but I can’t quite find anymore. But the like, I think it’s shut down. But essentially, there’s a car and a ferry between Adelaide and Esperance or something like that from—
Georgie 33:14
Oh wow.
Geoff 33:14
From Wes, from Western Australia to Adelaide. So but I’ve taken it, with the car, and I had grand, grand ideas of taking my Tesla across to Perth. And I was like, this is getting—
Georgie 33:29
And doing that?
Geoff 33:30
Doing that. But I can’t find it anymore. I think they closed. Like it’s not—
Georgie 33:34
Oh my god.
Geoff 33:34
...a very profitable business here in Australia, I guess.
Georgie 33:37
I think it’s so novel because we don’t have it here. And so I’m like, oh, wow. And they really do like leave like on the, on time. You just drive your car, like because this is the first time I’ve done it, like we drive a car on and then you can just leave your car there.
Geoff 33:51
Yeah.
Georgie 33:51
And then just use the facilities or whatever, you got like food on board, just jump back in your car and drive off. And then we went on one that we had to actually book in advance. And it said you have to be there 45 minutes beforehand.
Geoff 34:05
Oh!
Georgie 34:05
And it’s like this three lines of cars for like pre booked. And I just remember being in the bottom of the like, boat I guess. And everyone has to park like a certain way so they could pack all the cars in, it was such an experience.
Geoff 34:20
Yeah. So did you go from one ferry to another? You just drove off one ferry and then drove on to the next one.
Georgie 34:26
No, I’m talking about a different one. Like we had to take them at set points where we had to cross the water.
Geoff 34:30
Yeah.
Georgie 34:31
Yeah, just to get to the other side. And there’s ways you can just not cross the water but you just have to, you have to go all the way round. So.
Geoff 34:39
Yeah.
Georgie 34:39
Yeah.
Geoff 34:40
It’s way more novel to put your car in a boat.
Georgie 34:43
Yeah.
Geoff 34:44
That sounds, that sounds great. I mean, do you have on, they drive on the left, right, left side of the road?
Georgie 34:55
The opposite to us.
Geoff 34:56
Or do they drive on the right side of the road?
Georgie 34:58
They drive on the right.
Geoff 34:59
Opposite to us.
Georgie 35:00
Yeah.
Geoff 35:00
Okay, good thing Nick was driving, because you clearly didn’t know which side of the road you had to—
Georgie 35:06
Nah, I know, just I’m not confident in driving in other countries.
Geoff 35:12
Yeah, I thought about getting a car in Japan and driving. The—
Georgie 35:16
Are they on the same side as us?
Geoff 35:20
I think so.
Georgie 35:21
You’d probably be fine.
Geoff 35:22
Probably, the, I, that, so, my, I think my dad said it at one point it’s like the trick is—or was it my uncle—the trick is that you basically just drive with the lines, like closest to you. So if you’re, if it’s like right hand or left hand drive, it doesn’t really matter. You just have to concentrate on like what side the lines are, and lines are closer to you or whatever. And it kind of helps with the whole, like, if you’re like we drive on right hand? Are we driving right hand or left, what?
Georgie 35:53
We drive on the—
Geoff 35:54
You get in the car, right hand side—
Georgie 35:55
Left of the road, but steering is on the right.
Geoff 35:59
Steering is on the right. So we got the lines, divider lines on our right hand side all the time. So even if you switch sides, then you have the divider lines on—
Georgie 36:08
On the left, oh yeah.
Geoff 36:09
Right hand side all the time? On the left side? Right? Yeah, it’s actually yeah, sitting on the right, you have the right hand side. Same on the left.
Georgie 36:15
So it’s next to you. They’re like basically next to you.
Geoff 36:17
They’re always next to you. Yeah. I don’t know if that trick works. I’ve never driven in a foreign country.
Georgie 36:25
I remember the most interesting being in the US because they just have these massive highways. And I think the most annoying thing is you turn off one highway, you get onto another one and then you need to go turn, turn on to another one again—
Geoff 36:38
Oh my god.
Georgie 36:39
And you’re, you’ve done, yeah, you’ve done like it’s almost like you’ve exited several times in one go and it can be confusing because you could like miss the exit. That’s what I found really interesting. Because they have like massive like, well, at least, I think I’m talking about LA, four or five lane roads. Huge.
Geoff 36:54
It’s just too mad. But yeah, I don’t think I’ll, I don’t really want to drive in other countries. But I’ve heard people you know, comments whenever they come over here, and I drive them around, like damn, Sydney, Sydney roads are hectic, but the only hectic part I think is when you’re in the airport, like in the airport area. Like Sydney Airport.
Georgie 37:18
Yeah.
Geoff 37:18
Just trash. It’s just like the worst.
Georgie 37:21
I think the hectic thing is, and my friend Chris said this, like, because he grew up in Melbourne. He said that coming here, it was like the lane changing that really sucks in Sydney, like so you’ll be in like the whatever, there’s like three lanes, so you’ll be in the left one, and then you’ll turn right or whatever. But then you need to turn right again. And so you then actually need to move across several lanes to be able to turn at the next thing, and you’re like fuck, and then you just annoyed every other person. There’s this one near me, that’s kind of like you have to be in the left lane the entire time. Otherwise you won’t be able to get like to the shopping centre or whatever. And I felt like a real dick when I was like, I made a turn and they had to turn like left and then I had to change lanes and it’s so stupid, like—
Geoff 38:01
Stop in the middle of the road.
Georgie 38:02
But then you see other people do that. And you’re like, okay, everybody else is struggling with this being in the correct lane. So it’s like you need to know like, five turns away.
Geoff 38:11
Five turns ahead, yeah.
Georgie 38:12
What, what like lane you need to be in so that you don’t have to like piss people off. Anyway, that’s Sydney.
Geoff 38:17
Yeah, that is Sydney. Oh, was it, something else? Oh, yeah. But how are the airports? And then, in?
Georgie 38:29
Oh, yeah. They were alright. They were alright.
Geoff 38:31
Much better?
Georgie 38:32
What do you want to know about them though, specifically?
Geoff 38:34
I don’t know, like... Well, one thing about our airport is that it’s, it takes quite a long time to get to, oh our international and domestic aren’t connected by anything. So if you go to the wrong airport, like should like, maybe take a shuttle or something. And I know in Malaysia they actually have trains, they have like, trains that take you from one end of the airport to the other, which is really nice. But in Sydney, you just have to run. Or...
Georgie 39:01
Because they’re like separate buildings, right?
Geoff 39:03
Yeah. International and domestic.
Georgie 39:05
Yeah, I think on our travels, we we went through a few airports and they were pretty easy to navigate. And if you’re going to an international area, you will like it’s already in the building. But there’d be this glass door saying, this is the like, telling you this is the international part, once you come through you can’t, like you can’t come back like no reentry or whatever it is.
Geoff 39:24
You’ve entered foreign soil.
Georgie 39:27
Yeah.
Geoff 39:28
But that’s cool. Anyways, let’s exit. We actually didn’t talk anything about the other thing. So maybe next episode.
Georgie 39:37
Did we even mention it? Or did we mention it before we started recording?
Geoff 39:40
I don’t know. I preface this episode with topics that we didn’t touch, so. That, that’s just a lesson for me to never preface episodes. Anyways, speaking of exits, gonna exit this episode. You can follow—no was it, follow us on @toastroastpod on? X?
Georgie 40:09
Yeah, I don’t know.
Geoff 40:10
We don’t do social media anymore. It’s all right, we’ll—we’ll just win awards instead.
Georgie 40:17
Please vote for us. Nah, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you’re listening to podcasts and the big the big hike. Big hike hike.
Geoff 40:28
Big hike hike. Yeah. And new episodes every Monday. So...
Georgie 40:33
See you next week.
Geoff 40:35
Bye.