The End of My Journey

My last week in Australia was stressful, fun and sad all in one. I had to finish off my final exams so I was a little bit stressed out from studying. It was fun because of all the farewell parties and sad because I had to say goodbye to friends and leave.

Farewell parties were heaps of fun. After a final exam a few girls from my class and I went down to the beach with some finger foods and a couple bottles of wine. It’s still illegal to drink in public but, but in Australia not a huge deal especially on the beach.

Another goodbye party was from UnderWater World. As a thank you for my free labor from the past 10 months they went all out and gave me a “True Blue” Aussie day at work. This included morning tea, lunch and dinner. For morning tea we had Fairy Bread (slice of buttered white bread with round cake sprinkles on it) and Lemontons (a chocolate sponge cake with a light chocolate icing coated in coconut shavings). Then at lunch we had Chip Buddies (a french fry sandwhich with barbeque sauce), Chicko Roll (an egg roll/pot piesish roll thing) and Pavlov (the best cake in the entire world with kiwi, strawberries and passion fruit sauce!). Finally for dinner we had a barbie on the beach with kangaroo stakes and sausages. On the beach we played beach cricket, I had never even held a cricket bat so I looked like an idiot trying to play baseball, but I hit a few grand slams (ha wrong sport, but I don’t know how else to explain it). At the end of the party we hugged and said our goodbyes and they presented me with a UWW T-shirt with all their signatures and messages. It was so cool of them! I’ll miss the UWW crew and job more than anything in Aus I think. It was just such an amazing opportunity to learn and help wild marine life!

My last night in the land down under was Thanksgiving Day so I cooked a chicken and vegetable roast for Corinne, Etienne, Eda and I. So Turkey Day was celebrated by 2 Americans, a French and a Danish person so it was a nice multicultural experience. Due to a oven failure the chicken didn’t turn out to be my best, but it was cooked enough to each the veggies just were not quiet soft enough. Ohhhh well! Afterwards we cracked open a few bottles of celebratory wine and played cards with a French deck so it has all the wrong letters for King, Queen and Jack and Ace is just a 1 which is weird. We also played Apples to Apples which proved to be a very comical gave.

The next morning I said my goodbye to my best friend in Australia Etienne (French). This was really hard and we both cried. We hope to see each other again within 2 years because we are so close. We will keep in touch by Facebook, Skype and email. It’s just so crazy to go from seeing him nearly every day to once every few years!!!

I kept my composure pretty well throughout the entire week of goodbyes, but when I got to my gate at the airport and sat down I burst into tears. It was terrible I just couldn’t stop balling!!! I think I nearly caused a flood with all the tears! At this point I really contemplated just not getting on the plane and just staying in Aus! I knew this choice was irrational so I pushed it out of my mind and boarded the plane. I just did a 14 hour flight and now I am in LA waiting 9 hours for my next 5 hour flight.

My trip was so unreal and the best experience I’ve ever had. I wanted to thank my family and friends for all the support during my journey down under. I miss you and I’ll be seeing soon!!!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

Surfin' Australia

The Sunshine Coast is known throughout Australia for its surf culture. The region is full of surfers, skaters and beach bums. It’s totally normal to go to class without shoes and wearing your bathing suit! Sooo it was absolutely necessary to try surfing while I was still here (only 1 week left!). My friend Etienne lives at a homestay where his host family allows him to use their surfboard so we planned a day at the beach to give it a go.

I tried surfing last January in Costa Rica with a longboard (best for beginners), but this time around it was a short board. Needless to say it turned out to be more boogie boarding, but definitely still a ton of fun…minus drinking half the ocean! Corinne and I tried soooo hard, but the best we could do on this board was kneeling for about 2-5 seconds. Etienne was a little better, but nothing to brag about. Overall it was just a fun day on the beach without an Aussie shark attack or deadly jellyfish sting! Maybe one day I will take proper surfing lessons, but till then I’ll stick to a boogie board.

Here we actually look good...

Wipeout!

Hang loose!

Sydney!!! (Day 2 & 3)

The second and third day was really fun as well. First we walked all the way across the city to Darling Harbour. It was the calmer less touristy side of Sydney, but it was still beautiful. We walked around the harbor and went into the free Maritime Museum which was pretty cool. From this point we looped back toward the hostel hitting up the Paddy’s Markets which is a massive building full of people selling knockoff everything. It was cool, but not really worth buying much. When we exited the opposite side of the building we were in Chinatown which was fast-paced and jam packed.

We headed back to the hostel to take a break then took off to the Sydney Tower. This is the highest building in Sydney standing 309m high. The tower sits on top of stores like Prada and Gucci, then the Westfield hotel. On the needle like section they have several revolving restaurants and a general viewing floor. We decided to go up to the viewing floor. It was really cool because before they took you up you did a 4D tour of Sydney with rattling floors, wind, water and 3D video! At the top of the Tower we had an excellent view of the entire city!

After this we went to get the best view both the Opera House and Harbour Bridge together. This vantage point was within the Sydney Botanical Gardens. The gardens were beautiful and had some really cool cockatoos. When we arrived to the best possible angle we found a spot in the shade under a tree and turned on some music and sat to enjoy the view that seem fake. It was the picture that you always see on postcards and TV.

After a few hours we headed back to the hostel to meet a friend we met at the hostel. He was a cute French guy named Guillaume (pronounced Gee-Umm). He joined us for dinner at Pizza Hut because they had a special for $5 pizzas, which in Australia is basically unheard of and they are like personal pan sized. So we grabbed pizzas and headed to the park to get out of the busy sidewalk traffic. We sat down in the grass and started to chow downed, when we find bats flying all around above us. Bats in Australia are like 5X the size of bats at home they have like 2ft wingspan! Corinne wasn’t fond of this and then I pointed out a rat running around. At this point she started freaking out. We all found it pretty humorous. Then too top it off we see this animal that looked like a combination between a raccoon and cat (the tail was fluffy). We finished off our pizzas and went to check it out. It was a possum! But not just the ugly rat looking possum we have in the USA, a cute Aussie version!

We saw some people feeding this thing and as an environmental major I should know better than to interfere with wildlife, but it was just too fascinating to not try it. So I found a granola bar in my bag and fed this thing! IT WAS SOOO COOL! Then the people started petting them and this is really crossing the line, but I had to feel this thing because it looked so fuzzy! We feed it a piece of the bar and pet it on its back and it didn’t care the least bit! It was like the softest thing I’ve ever pet! It was softer than a koala it was sort of like a chinchilla.

At this point we went back to the spot from earlier to get a few night shots of the Opera House and Bridge. Disappointingly the Opera House was simply lit this night with no special colors, but it was still an amazing view.

The third day we visited the Australian Museum which was pretty massive so it took a few hours. After that we packed up and made our way across town to the rail station. The journey home was easier because we slept well since we were exhausted from the trip. Overall the trip topped London and Paris. It was a magical city that was very clean and relaxing.

Darling Harbour

Maritime Museum

Just chillin' in a fountain

Sydney Tower

View of Sydney fromt the Tower

View down from the Tower

Just being a tree hugger!

Our spot in the Botanical Garden

POSSSUM!!!

Sydney!!! (Day 1)

Corinne, Etienne and I planned a trip down to Sydney. We obviously are cheap college students so we searched around for the cheapest possible travel and accommodation. We came up with the train and a cheap hostel. Unfortunately for us when Australia first became a country the 7 states were more like countries so the gauges on the train tracks were different and one state does Day Light Savings while the other does not. Soooo this meant that we had to take a 4 hour bus ride from Queensland to New South Wales, spring our clocks forward and get on a train for 11 hours to Sydney.

Soooo starting from the beginning now…

We packed up a single suitcase for the 3 of us (We even brought Nemo!!!) and took the bus into Brisbane. We left Brissy at 2pm on a coach bus with about 95% senior citizens and 5% backpackers which gave us a good laugh. The drive was quiet enjoyable because we got so see a fair bit of Australia’s coastline on the parallel highway. Then we turned off an exit inland. This was probably the most beautiful part of Australia I’ve seen. It was like Frederick’s farmland meets a tropical island. We drove though rolling paddock hills with cattle and sheep, yet it had a twist of an island feel because there were palm trees, tropical parrots and at the crest of the high hills you could still see the ocean. I think I might have found a future home! Just kidding.

We then took the train down to Sydney and arrived in the city at just before 7am…it was tough to sleep on the train so we were all tired, but so excited we didn’t care. We navigated our way to the hostel dropped off our bag and headed toward the harbor!

We found the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge which was just amazing! It seemed so surreal. We had a bit of fun taking pictures at the Opera House attempting to sing opera style...Corinne defiantly was the best as she belted out a note in the dead silent gift shop! I turned and walked away like I didn’t know her! It was awesome though and I’m sure the employees see that all the time!  

Afterwards we walked through the touristy shopping area (Circular Quay) and the old town of Sydney (The Rocks) on the way to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We walked over the bridge which gave us outstanding views of the city. By the time we got to the other side we were super hungry and tired…it was only 10am!!! The time change and lack of sleep was harsh! We walked back and took a power nap at the hostel so we were ready to head out in the evening.

That night we walked back over to the harbor in between the Opera House and Bridge. The Opera House was lit up orange, the city lights and a full moon looked magnificent! The temperature was just right so we had shorts and a tee on and we spent a few hours just sitting relaxing enjoying the view and some live music from a pub. It was such an amazing day!

All packed up!

Senior Citizen bus!

People doing the Bridge Climb like Oprah

Clear harbor water with kelp

Walking the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Found Nemo!

Halloween in Aus!

Last minute a group of friends and I decided to go out to the O’Malley’s Irish Pub for Halloween…sooo the last minute penny pincher costumes were pulled together in a matter of hours. My friends Kerry and Grant: Aussie Surfers that got attacked by sharks, Corinne: Hippie, Etienne: Superman, Susanne: I have no idea she just had a mask and I was Terri Irwin (Steve Irwin’s wife who is a local around the Sunny Coast).

In Australia they acknowledge that it is Halloween, but they do not hand out candy so the whole costume thing is rare unless you can find a house party or club that is themed. We found out that O’Malley’s was celebrating so we figured out costumes, had a few drinks and headed for the bus. The entire public transportation bus was full of zombie Uni students all going to the same place so it was awesome! The pub was super fun. They started with karaoke and moved on to a DJ late at night. We had a blast and met a bunch of people, but I probably wouldn’t recognize them when they were not in costume!