Australian Adventures: Brisbane

Brisbane was the warmest city that we visited. Because we were really looking forward to wearing summer clothing, Brisbane was pretty fantastic! Highlights of Brisbane were holding a Koala and being surrounded by Kangaroos! We only had one full day and one half day in Brisbane for exploration, so we went to the sanctuary to see some Australian animals on our first day and the half day we spent exploring Brisbane by foot.

I held a koala! This little guy was a stinker! He was smelly and left a little poop on my shirt. Koalas are the most adorable little guys, but they poop SO much! Nikki got some poop on her hands and shirt too. But its definitely worthwhile because they're so darn cute. Well worth the $16 that we paid for the picture they took for us, then we were able to take our own (like this on that Nikki took of me!).

When we first went into the kangaroo area, we were so excited to see the kangaroos (well we saw joeys first... little guys) we took so many pictures of us with the kangaroos at a distance from us. Then we realized that people were buying food and feeding them! So we bought a $2 bag of kangaroo food and found a lot of bigger ones in a different area and we instantly made lots of new friends! They come right up to you, they aren't afraid at all!

I also touched a snake at the sanctuary!

We took pictures just like this one in every room of the 8 hostels we stayed in so that we can remember our hostel rooms! This room in Brisbane was by far the smallest, most cramped room of all the ones we stayed in. There were 8 people staying in a room that would be appropriate for 1 double bed! We didnt really mind the small rooms, the only thing that sucked was when we didn't have a place to put our luggage/bags and open them to find our clothes!

                                 This picture is from the day that we explored Brisbane on foot. The city center (CBD, which I learned is the Central Business District) is in the background across the water. Walking along the river was nice and we found a really modern childrens park that we thought was pretty neato.

I took this picture because not only do Australian drive on the left side of the street, they also walk on the left side. There were a lot of things to get used to in our time in Australia! 3 weeks definitely was not enough time to get used to everything on the opposite side! 

Australian Adventures: Byron Bay & Surfers Paradise

Byron Bay

Was my favorite beach city/smaller city. I don't think I realized this until reviewing my pictures and remembering how fantastic our day adventures were in Byron Bay! Byron Bay was the start of beautiful weather (our first Australian tans!). Plus, Byron Bay was the place we had our first beach day! It was 25.5 degrees on our first beach day! It was also cheaper than the first 2 cities we visited because they were so big! The stores that were in the city were not chains/franchise stores and it had a hippy feel to it (we were informed that the locals stood up against having a McDonald's in their city... I thought that was pretty cool to be able to have power in numbers like that and support local store owners!). We stayed at the Nomads hostel in Byron Bay for 2 nights, which was pretty decent... They played loud music all the time, which made it seem like there was always a party going on, but really everyone was in their rooms. But the facilities were good and we met a few nice people when there!

Upon arriving to Byron Bay early in the morning, we set out to take a peak at the beach... and it blew us away! It was almost surreal.. so beautiful with butterflies everywhere and big blue waves crashing against beautiful rocks. Just behind these rocks where we are standing is where the surfers would catch their waves and the would ride the waves for a good amount of time! It seemed like better surfing then Surfers Paradise to me.

On day 2, we had our first beach day!! We were very excited for this because we started so far south of Australia that we were wearing coats and scarves and we definitely wanted a little heat when on vacation!

When we were on the beach, we were approached by some girls that were advertising for the restaurant/night club in Byron Bay - Cheeky Monkeys. They informed us that from 7-9pm there was $5 supper served at Cheeky Monkeys. I have never seen a deal like this even in Canada where its cheaper!! $5 (no tax) got us an alcoholic drink (I had a beer), squash soup, hamburger, and fries! Unreal! After feeling somewhat ripped off with Australia's expensive prices, this was an awesome surprise!

On our final day in Byron Bay, we went on a morning adventure to kayak with the dolphins! This picture isn't us (we are still working on getting our pictures back from our underwater camera, but water leaked through!) but shows what we did! We kayaked through huge ocean waves into the water where we were able to see several pods of dolphins! It looked like they were playing in the waves. We saw baby ones too! The waves were also super fun to ride over and we were one of the boats that didn't tip over! (about half tipped over!) we're awesome like that.

On our second day, we went for a walk to the lighthouse. In this picture we're standing on the most easterly point of Australia. On this walk, we saw a crazy looking lizard/iguana/snake looking thing with stubby legs, and a poisonous snake! Some good finds! At the top, by the lighthouse it was really windy but we still got a gelato at the cafe by the lighthouse after trying to find dolphins in the water! (we were told it was a good spot, but we didn't see any).

Here's the lighthouse! There was a small museum inside of the lighthouse that we looked through as well. There were some newspaper articles that were interesting about surfers in Byron Bay finding a whale and a car that drive off the cliff and into the water (this was actually a really sad article).












SURFERS PARADISE

We arrived at Surfers Paradise really late at night, so we did not get preferential treatment when it came to rooms. We stayed at The Islander, which was a hostel and also a hotel. It was really different from all the other placed we stayed! We were put in a room on the bottom floor, which was removed from all forms of civilization. It was a super creepy room that clearly hadn't been updated since maybe 1970, with a kitchen that was pretty much abandoned. The room was all gated up and seemed like a prison for girl backpackers! We asked to move the next day and were moved into what seemed like a normal hotel room, just with 5 beds instead of one!

The Surfers Paradise beach was absolutely beautiful. The feel of the city was a little more touristy than Byron Bay and there were way more people on the beach than Byron Bay (and in Byron Bay it seemed like everyone was a backpacker and here, there was a diverse age range!). We were informed by someone along the way that many Australians come here for vacation. The city center had a really high sky line and there were many tourist attractions that reminded us of Niagara Falls (Ripleys Believe it or Not, Haunted Houses). We spent most of the time on the beach or shopping. It definitely had a strong shopping vibe to this city.

One of our beach days! This was the city we spent the most time on the beach. The weather seemed warmest earlier in the day rather than at home when its warmer in the afternoon... Usually by 3:30pm or so the wind made the beach chilly. That's probably why we ended up shopping! There was a really cute strip in Surfers for shopping. The city reminds me of what I picture Miami to look like!

We wanted to have McDonalds just once on our trip to say that we tried it in Australia (I know after learning about the Byron Bay locals and their ability to boycott it, we probably shouldn't have supported a large corporation... but...). It was pretty much the same thing as here (well my cheeseburger and fries) but Nikki's chicken burger didn't seem like it was deep fried. We also noticed that at the Australian McDonald's there were family meal deals!

I like this dorky picture! We tried scuba diving for the first time ever in Surfers Paradise!! Scuba Diving is something that would take me several attempts to become comfortable with because of the psychological component of thinking that because I am under water, I need to surface for air (and I didn't feel like I was getting an adequate amount of sir from the  oxygen). I practiced by breathing, got through the necessary skills in order to continue forward, saw some pretty fish under the ocean water then I went back to the boat before my group finished up. I still am glad I tried it out, and I think if I was more comfortable with the breathing I would be able to scuba dive again! Nikki went for the whole time and took some pictures underwater but somewhere along the way, our underwater camera cracked so we're really hoping that we can still find someone who can develop them even though the film got wet.

Australian Adventures: Melbourne & Sydney

MELBOURNE

Was our favorite big city that we visited. I have never seen so much hustle and bustle before in my life. The city makes Toronto seem lightly populated! Nikki and I found that when in Melbourne, when we set out to see something, we would become distracted by other things along the way (a historical building, entertainment on the street, little streets that were gems and so much more!). There is SO much to see and do in Melbourne. The buildings range from historic to super modern and I wasn't aware just how exciting and multicultural the city (and Australia!) is!

 This is the hostel that we stayed in while visiting Melbourne. We stayed in a 6 dorm room (3 bunk beds) for 2 nights here. This was our first hostel experience! It was a good hostel: clean and room to leave our luggage out plus individual showers! The only downfall was that we had to carry our 20kg luggage up 3 flights of stairs because there was no lift! (elevators are "lifts" in Australia!). I liked the historic feel to this hostel because our following hostels were mostly modern.

On our first day of exploring Melbourne, we went up the Eureka Skydeck for some views of Melbourne from the sky. We could see from so far up just how large the city is... it extends SO far!

We went to the Queen Victoria Market twice for souvenirs... They also sell food as you can see from the picture.. we did not try kangaroo... we just wanted to pet one...

 We visited the Aquarium on the 2nd day and it absolutely exceeded our expectations. The penguins were the highlight... I would have been satisfied with them alone! What a cute yet awkward animal to watch! But we went on to see many ugly ugly creatures of the deep sea and sharks, sting rays, and jelly fish.

This picture shows that in replacement of the red flashing hand that we have on our street walking signs here, Australia has a red man... This man means don't walk, but I think the only give away is that his colour is red!

This is the Flinders Street Station in Melbourne. It's the train station, and its beautiful! In front of this building is the busiest intersection ever!! I took a 30 second video of swarms of people crossing the street and only about 2 people noticed!

We discovered Pie Face (a meat pie chain of stores that were in almost all the cities we visited!) early in our trip. We noticed that Australian foods are inspired by British style foods.. meat pies, mashed potatoes and gravy and fish and chips! We ate several meat pies on our journey including this chicken and mushroom one!! SO DELIC! Our favorite was definitely the meat pie with the mashed potatoes on top!

After a night at the bar (a techno bar that our roommate wanted to go to... which was actually quite fun!) we hung out in the hallway of our hostel, continuing along with our night... and we thought it would be a good idea to take out each of currencies from where we're from to compare!! I really liked this idea!! We had a roommate from Japan and a roommate from Germany so we put together Yen, Euros, and Canadian monies!! It made me very excited because it felt like such a coming-together of cultures :)


SYDNEY

We did quite a lot when visiting Sydney! Actually we did quite a lot in all of the cities that we visited, especially considering we had 2 nights/3 days in each city! The highlights of Sydney were the Botanical gardens (I usually am not a big garden person.. but this took my breath away!), and the famous Bondi beach... oh and I shouldn't forget trying my first Tim Tam!!! (An Australian chocolate covered cookie... SO GOOD!!!). Also noteworthy were seeing the opera house, the Rocks, and Sydney Bridge...

Our hostel in Sydney was Wake Up! It was our 2nd favorite hostel (we liked one in the Blue Mountains a bit better) because it was spacious, new, clean and there was a lot of energetic friendly people staying here when we stayed here. There was also a restaurant/bar downstairs with inexpensive supper and was really busy at night (despite the fact that it was a Monday night). It was also right beside the train station, which comes in handy for me and Nikki since we're not really light travelers! We stayed in a 10 person dorm, which we were uncertain about at first, but it ended up being a lot of fun and a good way to be social!

This picture is from the botanical gardens in Sydney. There were SO many bats flying in the trees. I think someone we spoke to in Australia called them fruit bats. They are much bigger than the ones that I have seen at night at home. The botanical gardens was beautiful! And its paths led us right to the Sydney Opera House!

Nikki and I with the Opera House in the background! (I had to show a picture of the Opera House after-all right?)

On the same day we visited the botanical gardens, we took a Sydney Ferry over to Manly beach. this particular excursion was recommended to us so we got our tickets and went for it. Manly beach was beautiful! It was my first glimpse at Australian surfing (mostly done in wet suits because it was pretty cold). Swim suits would have been too cold, but it was a nice day to take off our flip slops, walk along the beach and do some people watching!

The day that we chose to walk across the Sydney Harbour bridge was the only day that it rained in our 3 weeks in Australia (aside from our last day!). And the funny thing is that it rained pretty much only for the duration of tie it took to cross the bridge (an hour or so). We still roughed it and made it across because we made it our mission! We got some nice pictures out of it and a look at Sydney from a different angle!

Earlier in the day before crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, we visited The Rocks in Sydney. It was basically like an outdoor museum with historical information posted on the outside of buildings. This walk-way alley that I'm standing in here had information about the prisoners that were brought from England (or maybe from all over Britain?) and lived in this area of Sydney. This area of the Rocks was once the slums because of the people - the prisoners - who lived in the area. There was also a free museum that gave lots of information about the Rocks. Its really weird that such a cute little part of the city (with little cafes along the stone walkways) was once the slums!

And of course Sydney is when we were introduced to Tim Tams. One of the guys that we met at the hostel (who was from Toronto) pretty much forced us to purchase some on our way to Bondi beach, and this picture documents our first taste of our snack of love for the full 3 weeks that we were in Australia. We ate SO many Tim Tams! I brought some home for my family to try too!

The day we went to Bondi Beach was a bit chilly. It was definitely worthwhile taking the bus down though to see the beauty and do the walk along the rocks. We went with these two dudes: Carey and Mark... both Canadians who were also staying at our hostel! There was a lady doing some exercise that looked like Zumba on the beach too. Apparently in the summer, this is the beach that beautiful people go to be seen, so perhaps she was practicing her moves to get noticed for next season. This was our last day in Sydney and after catching some lunch, we caught our bus and Nikki and I had to run back to our hostel so as to not miss our train to Byron Bay! (We got there with 15 minutes to spare and were informed it was delayed... sometimes things just work out!)

Great News!

I just received a call for potential employment! I have an interview scheduled for this upcoming Wednesday at the Woodstock agency!! Woo hoo! It's for a contract position, but I am so excited to (potentially) start my child welfare career! I have some preparation to do in the meantime... This interviews a big one!

Some Realizations from my Journey...

I AM BACK FROM AUSTRALIA!! Just arrived last night, slept off some jet leg and I just wanted to post some of the things that crossed my mind during my 3 weeks abroad:

a) There is a whole big world of life out there and the American way of living is not necessarily THE way of living. I think we need to chill a bit more.
b) Australia is cold in the fall. A coat is necessary.
c) Boys are so much friendlier than girls.
d) I have no right to complain about the price of pop at home ($16.00 for a case of coke is when I can start).
e) I need to make my wardrobe more exciting (the fashion in Australia is so trendy!)
f) Australians could possibly be the nicest people ever (they will always give their devoted attention to you when asking a question or for a picture and are always helpful).
g) Not every airport treats you like you have a bomb in your pocket (i took off my flip flops at the Australia airport and they asked if I was American).
h) Shopping carts can also be known as trollys, diapers can also be known as nappys, crackers can also be known as crisps, washrooms are also "toilets", ketchup can also be known as "tomato sauce", a green man that looks like he's running is an "exit" sign, a line-up can also be called a queue, garbage can also be known as rubbish (among many other words that differ from ours!).
i) I can go without a cell phone for 3 weeks.
j) If you call the dollar coin a "loony", you'll be called a "crazy Canadian".
k) There are way more similarities than differences in people (backpackers) in their 20s from across the world (people from England, Germany, Japan, Canada etc. all watch the same movies, listen to the same music, wear similar brands of clothing and so forth).
l) Even though I travelled half way across the world (or more?), I can land in a Country and have no culture shock.
m) Coffee makers and percolated coffee are not common in Australia. Cappuccino, Long Black, and a bunch of other names that I forget are.
n) I frickin love regular coffee.
o) Breathing from an oxygen tank under the water is not natural and is a bit of a mind boggler. It would take me several tries of getting used to that feeling before really scuba diving.
p) 3 weeks is not enough time to get used to cars driving on the opposite side of the street and the opposite side of the car (I almost died a few times from looking the wrong way).


I could probably go through the whole alphabet but these are my highlights! I will be posting my pictures and telling about my trip soon!