39 days. That is all the time I have left in the land down under. This may sound like a long period of time but in actuality, it's not nearly enough. Now that I have been planning out every last detail of my final month in Australia (which is going to be one of the most epic months of my life) I have realized something...I wish I had more time here. I am very excited to go home and see all of my friends and family don't get me wrong, but I kind of wish I really was just going home for winter break or something and then I could come back. Yes it is winter break (winter holidays?) that is approaching now in Australia. Today is a wonderful fall day. Yesterday was even better. I love how the air just gets so crisp when it starts to get colder. Breathing is so much more enjoyable when it's cold out compared to breathing in humidity all summer. It is weird here how people are saying how freezing it is and it just does not compare to Ithaca winters and, well I mean come on I went snowboarding this past January and it was -40. It is all about what you are used to I guess. No worries I will back in summer soon enough. Interesting I chose to be in summer for about 8 or 9 months this year when winter is my favorite season. I did not even consider weather when I picked Australia. I picked so quickly I really didn't care about anything except that they spoke English!
Anyways...My last 5 weeks in the land down under are jam packed- full of exciting adventures. Friday I leave for my roommates house in Port Fairy with about 8 other friends =] It should be a lot of fun. I will blog again soon after my trip. The weekend after that we have a footy match Saturday and a wine tour Sunday. The following weekend I will be in Sydney. Then the first weekend in June will be my time to write my final papers before leaving for Uluru Ayers Rock (camping in the real Australian outback!!!) which is happening the second weekend. And then I leave for the good 'ol US-of-A the following Sunday, June 20th.
It really is going by so quickly. I mean Survivor ends in 2 weeks and we have been watching here since the beginning! It is our Tuesday night tradition but I cannot believe I have been here long enough that a whole season of Survivor is almost over. I guess it is true what they say...time flies when you're drinking rum...or is it having fun?
Cheers mate
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
It's a hard knock life
Yes I know it has been far too long since my last post and I am terribly sorry. I don't even know where April went...the month just flew by. I had so much going on it was insane.
The month started off with my 10 day trip along the East Coast of Australia...I guess no matter what country I am in, I'm an East Coast kinda gal. I started the trip with 3 other friends- Laura, Emily, and Shannon. The group got smaller with every city I went to. The four of us started off in Cairns (pronounced cans) which is where we went to see The Great Barrier Reef! We got there the Saturday before Easter. It was pretty rainy but we made the best of it anyways. Easter Sunday we went out for a really nice brunch/ lunch. I had the best meal I may have ever had in my entire life. It was very thinly sliced steak with ham and cheese wrapped up in it, served over mashed potatoes with gravy. I inhaled that meal. The rest of the day was spent watching movies because we could not move after the large sum of food we all ate.
The following day was our big trip to find Nemo in the Reef! We took a boat out about an hour an a half until we were out far enough that we were out of the rain and the reef was beneath us. My friends and I decided scuba diving was the way to go instead of just snorkeling. It was so interesting to be under water for 30 minutes! Needless to say after being under water for that long I was craving some real fresh air! While we were under water we saw so many beautiful fish! Plus the reef itself was so cool to look at. It looks just like the movies! It was a little cloudy so maybe it would have been a bit brighter, but hopefully the weather will be better when I go back someday...also I hope to see a sea turtle next time too. I was disappointed we did not see one when we were there =[
Tuesday was another long adventurous day. We spent the entire day on a rainforest tour. It rained the whole time. Yes I know we were in a rainforest but still I wish it had a rained a little less! It is so cool how diverse all of the land is here. One minute you are riding along the ocean and the next you are in a thick rainforest that is fully of plants and...creatures. All our tour guide told us about in the first hour seemed to be plants that could hurt you and how in Cairns they ONLY have 6 of the 10 deadliest snakes in the world. Only. Not to mention all those spiders. Ugh. Luck for us we did not see any snakes! I was very pleased about that. We saw a lot of really cool trees, plants, and flowers. We also went hiking by some beautiful waterfalls. We saw in one fall called Milla Milla ( I may have spelt that wrong). It was so scary swimming under it, the water was coming down so hard, but it was so much fun. We stopped at some crater lakes and the guide explained how they were formed which I of course do not remember...oops. I guess I should have paid a little ore attention instead of taking a million photos. But I still think the best part of this tour was the tour guide himself. He was so funny and honestly what I pictured, stereotypically, an Australian to be like. He did not really wear shoes most of the time. He didn't have a watch and really did not care about time. He had a thick accent and an awesome sense of humor. He really made the tour way more fun than it could have been.
Our last day in Cairns brought sunshine and hot weather. We spent most of the day hanging out by the lagoon. Lagoons are pretty popular here. They have one in Brisbane as well, we spent a long time the following day at the Brisbane lagoon. It is just a in-ground pool really that has sand in it. The one in Cairns was salt water- it is like swimming in the ocean without having to worry about sharks or jellyfish! It was fantastic. Later that day Emily, Laura, and I caught the plane to Brisbane and had an early night before heading out to the Brisbane lagoon. We spent most of our first day there and walking around exploring the city. It was another early night for us though because we were waking up early for our trip to Morton Island!!!
Morton Island may have been my favorite part of our Easter Holiday. OK so it was all my favorite, but Morton Island was amazing. It is a sand island right off the coast of Brisbane. We had another awesome tour guide- and man tour guides have the greatest life ever. We took a ferry to the island and then while on the island we had our awesome 4WD truck. There are no paved road on the island. It was off-roading the entire time! So much fun- we were bouncing around everywhere in the back. There was a big traffic jam too when some guy got his boat stuck in the sand road. While we were on the island we got to go sand boarding which was so much fun, but I have never gotten more sand on and in my body. You just lay on the little plank of wood and the tour guide pushed us and you slide on your belly face first down the hill. You get going pretty fast and it is so much fun! the not so fun part is walking back up the hill...sand is hard enough to walk in when it is flat! After sand boarding we drove along the beach for a while until we got our lunch spot. While the guides set everything up t eat we went to the fresh water lagoon in the middle of the island for a quick swim. Here is where we really got to meet some of the other girls on our tour. Hannah from London, and Kelsey from Oregon hung out with us the rest of the day and were so much fun to talk to. We went to see the lighthouse on the island after lunch and took a bunch of pictures. the views were simply breathtaking.
That night we went out on the town with Hannah. We went to a place one of the tour guides suggested to us. there was a live band that played really good covers and after he finished we went upstairs which was set up more like a club. here we danced for a while. It was a perfect night and a great recommendation for a place to go. The next morning after breakfast Emily and I made our way by train to Surfers Paradise which is in The Gold Coast. It is a very touristy place. It seemed almost like Miami. We got there rather late in the day but our hostel had a kitchen so Em and I decided to walk around for a bit and go grocery shopping. That night we did an amazing club tour of the city. Seeing as Surfers is like Miami it seems that the big thing to do there is go to the beach by day and clubs by night. The tour was $35 but that included VIP entrance to 4 clubs as well as a drink in each club. You will notice a trend here because my favorite club was the one with the live band. I love live music. I wish that was the last club we went to so we could have stayed there all night! The tour was also fun because it was with the people who were staying in our hostel. Emily and I met girls from all over the world. We spent most of the night with 2 girls from Austria and a girl from Sweden. I wish we had spent more time with them because they were a lot of fun to be around and it is very cool meeting people from all over the world.
The following day Emily and were on the beach from 10am until 4pm. It's a hard life I live. This was really our last day of vacation so we decided to end it by going out to a nice dinner. Down the road from us was this cute Thai restaurant. It was some of the best Thai food I have ever had. The restaurant also had a lot of decorations that gave a really nice atmosphere while showing off Thailand's culture.
The next day was really a travel day. We took a train back to Brisbane and then flew back to Melbourne. This put an end to one of the best vacations I have ever been on. I saw so many amazing, beautiful sights and had a lot of fun with some new people. I really recommend that everyone come to Australia at some point in your life. make sure you see The Great Barrier Reef, go on a rainforest tour (with On the Wallaby tour guides!!!) and visit one of the sand islands! I promise I will write again soon to tell of the adventures I had while Billy was here visiting me!
The month started off with my 10 day trip along the East Coast of Australia...I guess no matter what country I am in, I'm an East Coast kinda gal. I started the trip with 3 other friends- Laura, Emily, and Shannon. The group got smaller with every city I went to. The four of us started off in Cairns (pronounced cans) which is where we went to see The Great Barrier Reef! We got there the Saturday before Easter. It was pretty rainy but we made the best of it anyways. Easter Sunday we went out for a really nice brunch/ lunch. I had the best meal I may have ever had in my entire life. It was very thinly sliced steak with ham and cheese wrapped up in it, served over mashed potatoes with gravy. I inhaled that meal. The rest of the day was spent watching movies because we could not move after the large sum of food we all ate.
The following day was our big trip to find Nemo in the Reef! We took a boat out about an hour an a half until we were out far enough that we were out of the rain and the reef was beneath us. My friends and I decided scuba diving was the way to go instead of just snorkeling. It was so interesting to be under water for 30 minutes! Needless to say after being under water for that long I was craving some real fresh air! While we were under water we saw so many beautiful fish! Plus the reef itself was so cool to look at. It looks just like the movies! It was a little cloudy so maybe it would have been a bit brighter, but hopefully the weather will be better when I go back someday...also I hope to see a sea turtle next time too. I was disappointed we did not see one when we were there =[
Tuesday was another long adventurous day. We spent the entire day on a rainforest tour. It rained the whole time. Yes I know we were in a rainforest but still I wish it had a rained a little less! It is so cool how diverse all of the land is here. One minute you are riding along the ocean and the next you are in a thick rainforest that is fully of plants and...creatures. All our tour guide told us about in the first hour seemed to be plants that could hurt you and how in Cairns they ONLY have 6 of the 10 deadliest snakes in the world. Only. Not to mention all those spiders. Ugh. Luck for us we did not see any snakes! I was very pleased about that. We saw a lot of really cool trees, plants, and flowers. We also went hiking by some beautiful waterfalls. We saw in one fall called Milla Milla ( I may have spelt that wrong). It was so scary swimming under it, the water was coming down so hard, but it was so much fun. We stopped at some crater lakes and the guide explained how they were formed which I of course do not remember...oops. I guess I should have paid a little ore attention instead of taking a million photos. But I still think the best part of this tour was the tour guide himself. He was so funny and honestly what I pictured, stereotypically, an Australian to be like. He did not really wear shoes most of the time. He didn't have a watch and really did not care about time. He had a thick accent and an awesome sense of humor. He really made the tour way more fun than it could have been.
Our last day in Cairns brought sunshine and hot weather. We spent most of the day hanging out by the lagoon. Lagoons are pretty popular here. They have one in Brisbane as well, we spent a long time the following day at the Brisbane lagoon. It is just a in-ground pool really that has sand in it. The one in Cairns was salt water- it is like swimming in the ocean without having to worry about sharks or jellyfish! It was fantastic. Later that day Emily, Laura, and I caught the plane to Brisbane and had an early night before heading out to the Brisbane lagoon. We spent most of our first day there and walking around exploring the city. It was another early night for us though because we were waking up early for our trip to Morton Island!!!
Morton Island may have been my favorite part of our Easter Holiday. OK so it was all my favorite, but Morton Island was amazing. It is a sand island right off the coast of Brisbane. We had another awesome tour guide- and man tour guides have the greatest life ever. We took a ferry to the island and then while on the island we had our awesome 4WD truck. There are no paved road on the island. It was off-roading the entire time! So much fun- we were bouncing around everywhere in the back. There was a big traffic jam too when some guy got his boat stuck in the sand road. While we were on the island we got to go sand boarding which was so much fun, but I have never gotten more sand on and in my body. You just lay on the little plank of wood and the tour guide pushed us and you slide on your belly face first down the hill. You get going pretty fast and it is so much fun! the not so fun part is walking back up the hill...sand is hard enough to walk in when it is flat! After sand boarding we drove along the beach for a while until we got our lunch spot. While the guides set everything up t eat we went to the fresh water lagoon in the middle of the island for a quick swim. Here is where we really got to meet some of the other girls on our tour. Hannah from London, and Kelsey from Oregon hung out with us the rest of the day and were so much fun to talk to. We went to see the lighthouse on the island after lunch and took a bunch of pictures. the views were simply breathtaking.
That night we went out on the town with Hannah. We went to a place one of the tour guides suggested to us. there was a live band that played really good covers and after he finished we went upstairs which was set up more like a club. here we danced for a while. It was a perfect night and a great recommendation for a place to go. The next morning after breakfast Emily and I made our way by train to Surfers Paradise which is in The Gold Coast. It is a very touristy place. It seemed almost like Miami. We got there rather late in the day but our hostel had a kitchen so Em and I decided to walk around for a bit and go grocery shopping. That night we did an amazing club tour of the city. Seeing as Surfers is like Miami it seems that the big thing to do there is go to the beach by day and clubs by night. The tour was $35 but that included VIP entrance to 4 clubs as well as a drink in each club. You will notice a trend here because my favorite club was the one with the live band. I love live music. I wish that was the last club we went to so we could have stayed there all night! The tour was also fun because it was with the people who were staying in our hostel. Emily and I met girls from all over the world. We spent most of the night with 2 girls from Austria and a girl from Sweden. I wish we had spent more time with them because they were a lot of fun to be around and it is very cool meeting people from all over the world.
The following day Emily and were on the beach from 10am until 4pm. It's a hard life I live. This was really our last day of vacation so we decided to end it by going out to a nice dinner. Down the road from us was this cute Thai restaurant. It was some of the best Thai food I have ever had. The restaurant also had a lot of decorations that gave a really nice atmosphere while showing off Thailand's culture.
The next day was really a travel day. We took a train back to Brisbane and then flew back to Melbourne. This put an end to one of the best vacations I have ever been on. I saw so many amazing, beautiful sights and had a lot of fun with some new people. I really recommend that everyone come to Australia at some point in your life. make sure you see The Great Barrier Reef, go on a rainforest tour (with On the Wallaby tour guides!!!) and visit one of the sand islands! I promise I will write again soon to tell of the adventures I had while Billy was here visiting me!
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