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...