Pics from the BIG trip

^Sadly enough, believe it or not-- the bush fires visible at night from my airplane. Yes it's the red specks and the smoke (which is not too visible)

^ The character of Melbourne streets


^Kiera at our Hostel. Now that's a whole 'nother story


^ Jill and I enjoying our Carlton Draught beer at happy hour!


^The amazing food in Melbourne


^The 12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road




^ The London Bridge on the Great Ocean Road


^ Just doing some rock climbing hehe


^ The group



^ The temperate decidious rainforest... or something like that


^Hobart

^ Wineglass Bay, Tasmania


^ Wineglass Bay, Tasmania

^ The Salamanca market, Hobart

The Big Trip

For our first BIG trip in Australia, my roommates and I decided to go beyond the state of Queensland... so we chose to go to Victoria (yes that is where the infamous bush fires are at the moment... if you've heard) and Tasmania. This trip was our attempt at backpacking... with questionably oversized carry-on luggage (let's just say there were a few close calls with the allowable capacity allowed on board our flights) Well this was our first trip and overall we did well. We saw a lot and spent even more but hey you only live once! Our trip was 8 days total and our first stop was Melbourne. In Melbourne we got to experience the night life, food, shopping, beaches and just outside of it we toured the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean road was amazing and definitely recommend doing it if you ever decide to venture out here... and if you do you better visit me!! Right after our tour of the great ocean road we hopped strait on a plane and flew to Hobart, Tasmania were we spent the remainder of our time. While there, we saw wineglass bay(beautiful but no pics since my camera died), and the "lovely" city of Hobart. If you notice the quotation marks you might notice that i'm disappointed. But i'm bitter more so because of the fact that we couldn't do much there since we were already super low on cash. But we tried to make the most of it.... by strolling the streets, going to the shops (again!), and hiking up Mt. Wellington ourselves since we refused the idea of paying a tour bus to take us there when we could haul ourselves up there free of charge!! So the story goes something like this... we hiked up a very step, maze-like trail, in the rain-may I add, for nearly two hours until we reached what we thought was the top. But as it turned out, the "top" ended up only being half of the trip. Already beaten up from the hike and drenched we attempted hitch hiking up to the top, but after several unsuccessful attempts we finally headed back down. So that was "lovely" Hobart for you. But i'm sure our opinion of the place doesn't do it justice. Our overall impression might be slightly biased, but can you blame us?

^Jill and I in Melbourne


^Kiera and I in the alley ways of Melbourne


^ A pair of kids playing on St. Kilda's beach


^ The sunset on St. Kildsa's Beach

Gold Coast

My first trip outside of my suburb was to the Gold Coast, Surfer's Paradise. If you haven't heard, Australia is known for sweet ass beaches, really good surf , strong rip currents and box jellyfish. And let me tell you its definitely better than the jersey shore (no hard feelings guys). For one there is no sharp shells/rocks where the waves crash, nor on the beach. Second there is no goopy eggs. Third the water is clear and super warm... it was like 27C... not sure how much that is in Fahrenheit so you can figure it out if you want. While down at the coast i enjoyed some good aussie steak, the waves, and went up on an observation deck... the world tallest residential building in fact... I hope you are as impressed as it sounds haha ;p


^Kris, Keira, and I at the steak house. A huge feast and then a swim.... erm yea


^ Surfers Paradise


^ the beach


^view from the observation deck

Brissy Brissy! (aka Brisbane)

Since i've been here i've already done a fair share of exploring. I've just toured the city and i've kept myself busy by trying to take some pretty pictures of the area. Here are some of my favorite shots..

^The city... and me of course hehe!



Some pretty plants at the botanical gardens:

My crib :)

If you've been wondering where I have been for the past three weeks...i've been in Taringa, a suburb of the city of Brisbane, Australia...and i've already made myself very comfortable here not to mention! The apartment I live in is beautiful. In fact, our land lord termed it the pent house because of its size and features (a huge balcony)! Its really convenient too as I live 10 min from the city and i'm only a bus ride from my school, the uni of Queensland! Here are some pictures... just take a look for yourself :0)

^My ride to class for the next few months

^ the University of Queensland

^The apartment complex I live in


^ My sweet ass balcony

Just the beggining

So I’ve decided to start one of these blog things to document my experiences in Australia and to spare myself from writing much too many emails. If you chose to read my entries, I’m glad that I may entertain you, if not I hope that you at least enjoy the pictures that I post up—it’s my goal to make you very jealous- haha. Just kidding. Oh and let me mention that I’m no writer so please bear with my grammatical errors and don’t pass harsh judgment as I’m quite self conscious about it.

Before I get into my experiences I thought you’d like to know a few essential differences between Jersey and Australia- to better give you a picture of what it’s like here:

1. It really is hot and sunny here. In fact I’ve managed to effortlessly get a tan here this past week, a tan for which I would have struggled for back at the states.
2. Australia is actually quite large. In fact, all of Europe can fit inside of it with lots of room to spare!
3. Aussie boys are really really cute! But not so much the girls- or so I like to think.
4. They drive on the opposite side of the road! And I thought that they only did that in England
5. They actually like the taste of vegemite

6. The bigger the coin, the lower the value—a little counter intuitive don’t you think?

7. Brisbane seems to be the equivalent of San Francisco, it is very hilly! (who would have thought?!)

8. You don’t have to tip people at the restaurant, salon, bar, or in fact you don’t have to tip them anywhere!

9. There indeed are very large and hairy spiders here but they’re actually not as scary as I had originally imagined—probably because once they weave their web they just sit in it for days, or even months I hear and they really don’t bother anyone. I find them to be more of a nuisance, especially when they establish themselves on your beautiful balcony.

10. As I have found out in orientation there are NOT many shark attacks here, but “there seems to be quite a lot so far this season”

11. Everything seems to close at 5pm!

12. Sushi is super cheap—only 2 AUS dollars a roll!

13. Nail polish, particularly, is ridiculously expensive

14. “Cheers” and “no worries” are phrases that are commonly used

15. I don’t believe the toilet flushes in the opposite direction, sorry guys but in fact the water doesn’t spin in any particular direction, it just flushes down.