Lost in Wanderlust

My final stop in Australia was to Melbourne to visit my friend Ellen who I met in Morocco. Ellen was teaching English in Spain last year and I was there studying. Over Easter break we both happened to sign up for an excursion to the Sahara Desert and after 5 days of camel riding and African adventures we left with an incomparable friendship. 👯 She came to visit me for a weekend in Salamanca and I was SO excited to visit her in her hometown and meet her family! The Pettys are some of the kindest, most hospitable people I have ever met. On my first full day in Melbourne I was telling her dad how I have never seen a wild kangaroo and he immediately said "get dressed, we're going kangaroo hunting." not only did we get to see some kangaroos in their natural habitat I also got to see an echidna which looks kind of like a porcupine. It was a very successful hunt! While I was in Melbourne it was my birthday and I was so happy to be able to celebrate with familia...

Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef has always been on my bucket list and I knew if I was going to Australia, I couldn't miss out on the opportunity. Most people do the excursion out of Cairns but it was cheaper to fly into Proserpine. After doing a little research, I found out that this airport was quite close to the Whitsunday Islands, which I had heard amazing things about. So it was settled; I would kill two birds with one stone. I booked a 2 night boat tour which would sail through the Whitsunday Islands and we would stop off to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef a couple of times (what is my life?!) I arrived in Airlie Beach the day before my boat excursion and it was so. freaking. hot. Luckily my hostel had AC so I just kind of hid in there but the next day it was even worse. When I got on the boat I was feeling way out of my comfort zone. It was so much smaller than I had expected and somehow 25 people were supposed to sleep comfortably in these stuffy cramped quarters? I t...

My next stop in Aus was Brisbane, to reunite with one of my high school besties. Kelsea recently moved there for grad school so when I was making my itinerary I knew it had to include a visit. Coincidentally, this is the territory in which you can hold koala bears so as sad as I was to leave Sydney I was pumped for the next part of the adventure. Kels picked me up at the airport and it was SO good to see a familiar face from home. At this point I have been traveling for over a month alone so it was amazing to be somewhat back in my "comfort zone". The first night in Brisbane Kelsea and Matt took me to the West End which had a nice hipster vibe. I had my first Indian food experience and now I am absolutely hooked! The next day we went into the center and Kelsea gave me a tour of her new city. This place is so cool! It's definitely smaller than Sydney but it still has so much to offer, including a beach in the middle of the city 😎 While Kelsea was at grad school I...

It only made sense that my first stop in Australia would be Sydney. Not only was it the cheapest option, but I also had SO many mates to reunite with! The first of whom was Amal, my Welch friend who I met on the Topdeck tour a few weeks beforehand. Bless her heart, this chick came to pick me up at the airport, cooked me dinner and let me sleep in her bed ( a SERIOUS luxury after hostel surfing for nearly a month). After a goodnight sleep and a home cooked meal I was ready to explore Sydney! My first stop was obviously the Opera House. I can't explain the emotions I felt when I saw it for the first time. It is something I have dreamed about for years and finally I was seeing it in all its glory! As I got a closer look it was even more impressive. All of the tiles have gold accenting and its harbor-front location makes it truly majestic.  The next day I decided I definitely needed to checkout the world famous Aussie beaches. Everyone raves about Bondi, so I grabbed my sw...

When I was a freshman in college i attended a presentation about study abroad. As i recall, two of the returning students had recently spent a semester in Australia. I knew then and there that this was something I HAD to do. For years I went home every weekend to work my crappy little restaurant job so that I could afford a semester down under. Fate had a grander plan and I ended up in Florence (not complaining at all) but I never gave up on my dream of the land of kangaroos and koalas. When i booked my Topdeck tour i knew this was it! I HAD to finally make my dream come true, and the best part is now a days I have so many people to visit which was an added bonus. Even as I was walking onto the tarmac with the Virgin Australia plane in front of me it didn't feel real. I boarded the plane and as we took off down the runway, I couldn't help but grin as I thought "I am going to Australia!" Normally I hate the window seat but this time I did not mind at all.. It wa...

For years I have heard about the stunning landscapes of New Zealand, and most people I have spoken to prefer the South Island. For this reason I knew I needed to visit, even if it was just for a few days. Although I did not have NEARLY enough time, I got to see just a few highlights of this amazing place.   I flew into Christchurch, a city which was devastated by an earthquake seven years ago. You could still see remains of the destruction everywhere but I loved the spirit of the city. Despite enduring something so heartbreaking, the people were coming together, and working hard to make the city even better than before. After exploring the city for a couple of days I took a day trip to Akaroa, a beautiful harbor side town. Getting out of the city gave me a chance to see the stunning landscape that the South is famous for When I got to Akaroa I had a couple of hours to explore before heading out on my dolphin excursion. I bopped around some shops then had a coffee with t...

90% of the time, my go to travel style can be described as "winging it". I don't like committing to a certain itinerary because I have found that sometimes the best experiences are spur of the moment unplanned adventure. This usually works for me, but in New Zealand not so much. The thing I did not think about beforehand was that I was traveling during the NZ summer, peak backpacker time. They also aren't fans of free wifi in the hostels which made it very difficult to fly by the seat of my pants. I ended up with the most ridiculous route of the North Island (literally went in circles) but I just embraced it and was happy to check off some pretty amazing things on the bucket  list. My favorite excursion was my visit to the Waitomo glow worm caves. Originally I planned on simply taking a nice leisurely boat through, but my travel agent suggested a more adventurous route. Little did i know this meant crawling through tiny spaces and jumping backwards down waterfall...

So back in November I saw an ad for a Black Friday sale that Topdeck was having. For those of you who don't know, Topdeck is a travel company who does epic bus tours for 18-30 something year olds.  At the time I was studying in Spain but had no idea what the heck was coming next. I figured I would log on during Black Friday and if there was a deal that called to me, I would buy it. There were deals for Russia (too cold) for Japan (too intimidating) and then I saw the deal for me. $300 for a 5 day bus tour of the North Island in NZ. Since it was 70 % off I immediately grabbed my credit card and booked it that very night. It was one of the most impulsive things I have ever done but one of the best ones. Our tour met in Wellington, some people had been traveling the South Island together already which was a bit intimidating but right away i found my clique. Four other travel buddies who were also joining the tour on that exact day (probably fate) And so for the next few days i s...