This will be my last Australian blog post for a while- close to a month and a half. I leave for Charlotte at exactly 3:30 AM tomorrow. That's when the poor cabbie has to deal with my sleep-deprived self and drive me to the airport. Then, after about 36 hours, I'll be home. The last time I saw my family for more than 3 days was about 9 months ago. Whoah.
I'm looking forward to going home for obvious reasons, but at the same time (and for just as obvious reasons) I'm not looking forward to leaving Adelaide. This place gave me some really good months, to be sure. And while everyone else here will be having their final awesome adventures and saying their last goodbyes while they pop bottles in Sydney for New Year's, I'll already be back with my family. Which is great, of course. I'm lucky to have this break in my study abroad, but leaving is still bittersweet.
The most difficult goodbyes have already been said, though. And I'm ready to see some familiar faces.
So look out, America! Ready or not, I'm coming back home.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Airlie Beach to Brisbane
Alrighty! Here is part 2 of my East Coast trip!
Town of 1770 was, from what I saw, really really nice. I really wish we could have stayed for longer than one night. We stayed at a hostel called Cool Bananas, and it was pretty much the most perfect hostel I could have wanted. It was so colorful (the walls were various shades of ocean blue) and friendly (the receptionist gave us a nice history of the place that made me want to stay longer in the first place!) and had the most adorable pug. While we were using the computer, he jumped into my lap and started licking everyone, and all the while he was just snorting with contentness.
Aside from the hostel, though, the night was really nice. After the 8 hours of driving turned into 10.5 hours (thanks, Brisbane construction) I was worried that my birthday was going to be ruined. But no! We ended up getting a really nice dinner along the beach and then opening a bottle of champagne for dessert :) We wanted to drink it at the beach, but this place is so far in the middle of nowhere that the beach was pitch black. Nice, but scary.
The next day we headed to Rainbow Beach. Our hostel there was extremely crowded, since most people only stop at Rainbow Beach to go to Fraser Island. Here is where we saw our first jellyfish- little blue things dotted the entire beach. We even saw one in the water....yikes...but we still decided to go surfing. Unlike the monstrous 9 ft, 10 ft boards we had on our lesson at Middleton Beach, the boards we got here were about 7.5 ft and plastic (no foam for us this time!) It was much more difficult to surf on these- you could immediately tell that they were much less stable, and so it took a few tries to even get up. Surfing is a sport of patience; in the morning, we were waiting for about 15-20 minutes without even getting a good swell. But once low tide came it became much easier to catch waves. There was this random guy swimming close to us who was giving me pointers, too. Much appreciated, whoever you are! :)
Our last days were in Brisbane. Brisbane had the crappiest weather, which is almost a good thing because I would rather have crappy weather in a city than on the beach. There isn't much to do in Brisbane per se- in 3 days, we completely covered the city's historical, architectural, and political centers, and we were even able to make a trip to the cultural center to see some art and hang out at the lagoon. Overall, I think Brisbane was the worst part of the trip just because that's where the goodbyes had to be given. Blech.
But now I'm travelling home tomorrow! I'm ready to wrap everything up for the year. Thanks for a good semester, Adelaide!
Town of 1770 was, from what I saw, really really nice. I really wish we could have stayed for longer than one night. We stayed at a hostel called Cool Bananas, and it was pretty much the most perfect hostel I could have wanted. It was so colorful (the walls were various shades of ocean blue) and friendly (the receptionist gave us a nice history of the place that made me want to stay longer in the first place!) and had the most adorable pug. While we were using the computer, he jumped into my lap and started licking everyone, and all the while he was just snorting with contentness.
Aside from the hostel, though, the night was really nice. After the 8 hours of driving turned into 10.5 hours (thanks, Brisbane construction) I was worried that my birthday was going to be ruined. But no! We ended up getting a really nice dinner along the beach and then opening a bottle of champagne for dessert :) We wanted to drink it at the beach, but this place is so far in the middle of nowhere that the beach was pitch black. Nice, but scary.
The next day we headed to Rainbow Beach. Our hostel there was extremely crowded, since most people only stop at Rainbow Beach to go to Fraser Island. Here is where we saw our first jellyfish- little blue things dotted the entire beach. We even saw one in the water....yikes...but we still decided to go surfing. Unlike the monstrous 9 ft, 10 ft boards we had on our lesson at Middleton Beach, the boards we got here were about 7.5 ft and plastic (no foam for us this time!) It was much more difficult to surf on these- you could immediately tell that they were much less stable, and so it took a few tries to even get up. Surfing is a sport of patience; in the morning, we were waiting for about 15-20 minutes without even getting a good swell. But once low tide came it became much easier to catch waves. There was this random guy swimming close to us who was giving me pointers, too. Much appreciated, whoever you are! :)
Our last days were in Brisbane. Brisbane had the crappiest weather, which is almost a good thing because I would rather have crappy weather in a city than on the beach. There isn't much to do in Brisbane per se- in 3 days, we completely covered the city's historical, architectural, and political centers, and we were even able to make a trip to the cultural center to see some art and hang out at the lagoon. Overall, I think Brisbane was the worst part of the trip just because that's where the goodbyes had to be given. Blech.
But now I'm travelling home tomorrow! I'm ready to wrap everything up for the year. Thanks for a good semester, Adelaide!
Thursday, December 06, 2012
Halfway Point- Cairns to Airlie Beach
HOWDY! I am currently halfway through my Australian summer excursion. Please ignore possible misspellings and grammar errors. This is a German keyboard I am using (I never realised how many times I use the letter Y before) and my English has gotten worse since I´ve been away from uni and with all the international students. I guess that means that I am in dire need of a trip back to the States :)
I have been travelling for a week so far on the east coast of Australia. Our trip is from Cairns to Brisbane. At Brisbane I will leave the others, but they will continue and reach Sydney by New Years. And then it´s goodbye, travel buddies- within a few weeks they will be on their way back to their home countries. So I really only have a week left with these people, which sucks quite a bit, but a week is better than nothing.
I arrived at Cairns on the 28th of November. Cairns is barely a city. It really only consists of three streets along the ocean. There is no beach, but there is a ton of rainforest. The city has a luscious backdrop of hills covered in all sorts of rainforest flora. While we were there, we stopped at Daintree National Forest a few hours north of the city and Barron Gorge, which was only a few kms away. It being the wet season and everything, the rainforest hike was a bit wet. I like to call it authentic.
Cairns also has a bat problem. By problem, I mean that bats will take to the sky in hoards once the sun drops. They make this awful sound, and they are so big that even when they are a few meters above you, you can see their outline perfectly. They only eat fruit, but that doesn´t mean that they´re not horrifying...I feel like someone should put this as a disclaimer on all their travel brochures.
Next stop was Airlie Beach. The town is so sleepy, even smaller than Cairns, and even with the name, there isn´t an actual beach. Weird. I guess that doesn´t matter much, though, since barely anyone goes to the beach out of fear of a) skin cancer and b) jellyfish. The jellyfish aren´t common on the beaches, but if they sting you, well....just hope that they don´t.
Right outside of Airlie Beach are the Whitsunday Islands. After a few days at the "beach," we took the Atlantic Clipper for a 3 day cruise around the islands. The islands are brilliant. We went to Whitehaven Beach, which has the whitest, purest sand I have ever seen (you can brush your teeth with it!) and the clearest water. We went snorkeling around other islands and saw fabulous fish and coral. One of the girls on our trip took pictures with her fancy underwater camera, and so I will upload them as soon as I get them. But if you ever have a chance to see the Great Barrier Reef, do it. It´s amazing. Just don´t brush your skin against the coral. The bacteria can give you an unpleasant rash like the ones I have on my feet right now. Yuck.
Tomorrow we drive 8 hours to Town of 1770, where we will spend a nice quiet night before driving the rest of the way to Rainbow Beach and then Brisbane. So don´t worry mom and dad, I can´t die from alcohol poisoning tonight or even get drunk these next two days- I will need to be clear-headed enough to drive tomorrow :)
I have been travelling for a week so far on the east coast of Australia. Our trip is from Cairns to Brisbane. At Brisbane I will leave the others, but they will continue and reach Sydney by New Years. And then it´s goodbye, travel buddies- within a few weeks they will be on their way back to their home countries. So I really only have a week left with these people, which sucks quite a bit, but a week is better than nothing.
I arrived at Cairns on the 28th of November. Cairns is barely a city. It really only consists of three streets along the ocean. There is no beach, but there is a ton of rainforest. The city has a luscious backdrop of hills covered in all sorts of rainforest flora. While we were there, we stopped at Daintree National Forest a few hours north of the city and Barron Gorge, which was only a few kms away. It being the wet season and everything, the rainforest hike was a bit wet. I like to call it authentic.
Cairns also has a bat problem. By problem, I mean that bats will take to the sky in hoards once the sun drops. They make this awful sound, and they are so big that even when they are a few meters above you, you can see their outline perfectly. They only eat fruit, but that doesn´t mean that they´re not horrifying...I feel like someone should put this as a disclaimer on all their travel brochures.
Next stop was Airlie Beach. The town is so sleepy, even smaller than Cairns, and even with the name, there isn´t an actual beach. Weird. I guess that doesn´t matter much, though, since barely anyone goes to the beach out of fear of a) skin cancer and b) jellyfish. The jellyfish aren´t common on the beaches, but if they sting you, well....just hope that they don´t.
Right outside of Airlie Beach are the Whitsunday Islands. After a few days at the "beach," we took the Atlantic Clipper for a 3 day cruise around the islands. The islands are brilliant. We went to Whitehaven Beach, which has the whitest, purest sand I have ever seen (you can brush your teeth with it!) and the clearest water. We went snorkeling around other islands and saw fabulous fish and coral. One of the girls on our trip took pictures with her fancy underwater camera, and so I will upload them as soon as I get them. But if you ever have a chance to see the Great Barrier Reef, do it. It´s amazing. Just don´t brush your skin against the coral. The bacteria can give you an unpleasant rash like the ones I have on my feet right now. Yuck.
Tomorrow we drive 8 hours to Town of 1770, where we will spend a nice quiet night before driving the rest of the way to Rainbow Beach and then Brisbane. So don´t worry mom and dad, I can´t die from alcohol poisoning tonight or even get drunk these next two days- I will need to be clear-headed enough to drive tomorrow :)
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