Melbourne Life

Okay so what have I been doing since Queensland! I have been enjoying myself tremendously in Melbourne. Melbourne has really become my home here in Australia. I love this city! There is so much to see and do, especially now that it is getting nice and warm all the time. I have made many more friends and even more exciting, I have made Australian friends hee hee. It seemed for awhile the only people I was really hanging out with were Canadians that were doing the same work that I do. This hasn’t changed completely but at least now I have the best of both worlds.

As far as the North America friends go, us CRTs (casual relief teachers) get together quite a bit. It is nice. We meet for trivia or just a few drinks at different bars from time to time. Tomorrow the plan is to get together at a market for music, food and boozes! I also actually met an American doing the same stuff I am. Her name is Shayna and she is from New York. We have become very close friends very quickly because we have the same interest: live it up while we are here!!! That is exactly what we have been doing. Together we found a Halloween party and a bar that dressed up for Halloween. Went to Melbourne Cup together, this is comparable to the Kentucky Derby in
the states! And much, much more.

I also have been lucky enough to meet my friend Liam. He is super hee hee. Liam is a born and raised Australian and has really shown me around this great city. His friends are super cool and accepting of this American chic. Through these guys I have ventured to new bars, suburbs, festivals, beaches and even participated in an Australian BBQ. Life has been good. This past weekend a fun group of us went to a Latin Festival and Phillip Island.
I can’t believe I have already been here for 4 + months now! I also just came to the realization that I was planning on leaving this amazing continent in June so I really only have 6 more months here. I think I might have to extend that at least by a month. The plans are to continue living and working here in Melbourne but travel through the holidays and whenever I feel like it. So far Adelaide is planned for December, Sydney for New Year’s, Western Australia for January. The rest is in the works on getting the right dates. After I leave Australia in June or July, I will be going on an around the world trip to make my way back to America. I am quite excited about all of this and will continue to keep you updated on all my fun!

Finally Writing about the End of the Queensland Trip

Some time has gone by now since I have finished my great 3 week trip to Queensland. I guess I had so much fun then and since then that I have gotten a little behind on my blogging. After Whitsundays we drove to Mission Beach. We didn’t really plan to stop there originally but we found out how long the drive would be to go on to Port Douglas so we decided to stop in Mission Beach. I was so glad we did. It ended up really being one of my favorite spots. So much that we all decided to stay 2 extra nights there. The hostel was set up surrounded by nature. It was so beautiful plus there were tons of friendly people staying there. The beach was beautiful and we took a day to go to Dunk Island, where I did a 2 hour hike to the top of the mountain to see the spectacular view. Mission Beach was absolutely fabulous, not ruined by commercialism like a lot of the tourist places we had seen. It was like you had your own secluded beach when you were there.
Next stop was Port Douglas! This hostel was amazing since it came equipped with a movie room, an awesome bar, plus 5 hammocks hanging about from trees over by the pool area. Everyday there I read a little or snoozed a little in one of those hammocks. We also got on a boat once more and this time I was able to SCUBA DIVE in the Great Barrier Reef. It was honestly the most amazing thing I have ever done. I loved scuba diving. I saw a sea turtle, clown fish in their sea anomie, a massive fish that was bigger than me and of course tons of other colorful fish and the coral reef. All of it was literally breathtaking. The other days at Port Douglas was spent at the beach. One of the days the waves really kicked in and we had the best afternoon jumping and body surfing the waves.

From Port Douglas we drove completely through the windy roads in the rainforest to the very most northern part of the Australian East Coast called Cape Tribulation. While driving, we got the chance to see a crossawary crossing the road which was awesome. These things are humongous birds. In Cape Tribulation we did a bit of hiking through the awesome rainforest! Then it was time to make our way to our last stop of the trip…Cairns (the party capital of Queensland).

Cairns was exactly what it was cracked up to be. The lagoon swimming pool was cool and the shopping was nice but the partying was unreal. The first night went out with a couple of the girls and enjoyed ourselves at the hostel bar downstairs, dancing and meeting Europeans. The next day I wandered around the town, swam in the lagoon then laid out by the pool. I met a girl named Carla, who happens to be a teacher in Adelaide and I now plan on visiting her there. We went out that night to the bars in town and had a blast. The next and final night of our trip the whole crew went off on the Ultimate Party pub crawl in what else but our togas. It was so fun and I met tons of people. It was a perfect way to end a great 3 week holiday!