Day 4-6

Day four was spent all day on the road. Mel has now mastered driving on the opposite side of the road and opposite side of the car!  The drive reminded me of driving from LA to SF, very dry, with random trees along the way, sometimes hilly and sometimes flat.  The only difference is instead of seeing deer crossing, you see kangaroo crossing, and we saw several dead kangaroos.  :(. When we finally completed the 9 hour drive, we arrived and Sarah's house. Mel and Max met Sarah in Greece two and a half years ago, right after the tour I met them on. Sarah, as most Australians I've met, is super nice, and graciously welcomed  me (a stranger into her house).  Her parents are so hospitable, making sure our beds are made, that we have chance to do laundry, and constantly double checking that we don't need anything else, food, tea, etc.  Sarah's birthday was the day we arrived, day four, so she had a small party in h backyard where we were able to meet all her friends.  Her birthday is an all weekend celebration, ending Sunday night with dinner and clubs in, Sydney's Darling Harbor area.   Side note: Sarah's mom spent the evenings trying to convince all three of us that A) 4 days I not long enough in Sydney, and B) we should just move here for a year, because thats about how long it takes to see everything, and it is good learn about other peoples culture.  I told her several times I would love to live in a different country, and will hopefully, even for a year, live in another country, because the way other countries live fascinates me. 
Day five, was full of nature.  Sarah took us to a local spot for breakfast, one of my favorite things is to live like the locals. After that we took the rental car back, Mel has never been so happy to be a passenger, however by the end of the trip she had mastered driving on the opposite side of the road. Sarah then took us  up to the Blue Mountains. Ive heard thy are beautiful, however the weather has not been on our side, rainy, overcast, and windy since we have arrived. So by the time we got up the mountain it was foggy, and we couldn't see anything, but we drove up there so we at least wandered around the forest a bit. That night we spent the night at Dani's house, Sarah's best mate, who also met Max and Mel two years ago on their vacation in Europe, Greece to be exact.  We had a proper Aussie BBQ, with ribs, steak, chicken, sausage, the works. It was great.  
Day six, we took the bus into Sydney and spent the day wandering around, seeing all the sights. We went shopping, and saw the Harbour Bridge, Opera House, and Darling Harbour. Not too much to report, the city reminds me alot of NYC, jute a busy city. We are staying the evening at a hotel in Darling Harbour, going out to celebrate Sarah's birthday with dinner and a night out on the town Sydney Style. The weather today was yet again crappy, so we are hoping tomorrow is better so we can go over to Bondi Beach. At the moment I am sitting I am sitting in the hotel lobby watching it pour outside, and they are stating that this is the worst weather/summer weather, they have had in over 50 years. 

Bye for now <3

Day 2-4

Day two, according to the airport bag area they have no idea where my bag is.  It was suppose to be on a flight from LAX to Sydney, but it wasn't on the flight when they checked in Sydney.  :(. Sigh. So they said they would try and a track it down, between the three days of calling, I called the lost bag place 14 times! So basically day two my bag was lost again, they had no idea where it was since it didn't end up on the flight it was suppose to. Thank goodness I'm with my two Canadian friends, one wears the same size bottomed, the other the same size tops!  So I have been borrowing clothes, and hygiene products from them while trying to locate my bag and get it to myself.  Moral of the story, when traveling get travels insurance, and keep an extra set of clothes in a carry on!  Day two we spent in the city center.  We woke to pouring rain and 64 degree weather.  By the time we ate and got ready it was sprinkling, and by the end of the day it was sunny and windy.  We wandered around downtown Melbourne, which we were told by a friend is not called downtown, just the city.   Everyone is very friendly and whenever we got lost, anyone was willing to help point us in the right direction. Our observation is that Australians, or at least in Melbourne are very laid back and live life at a bit slower pace, which is amazing for being on "holiday". We went shopping and saw Federation Square, where at night they have lots of events, outdoor movies, etc. The city is very artsy, and graffiti is art work here. We met up with a friend for dinner, who we met two and a half year ago when we were on our Europe vacation, the ame trip i met Max and Mel. It was great to catch up in person. He took us to a "Melbourne dinner". In Melbourne they love Chicken Parms, but they just call them Parmas, they have several different options and combinations.  After dinner we went to a bar down an ally. Our friend said that the best bars in Melbourne are down random alleyways, it was a lab turned into a bar, so they had beakers, stools, and even syringes in the drinks. Note to self, aniseed  (tastes like licorice) is gross and used in many drinks in Australia!  It was so great to catch up and see Phill, and get a taste of how the locals live.  Day three, called about my bag and the man I talked to was the most competent, and helpful I haven yet to speak to. He said my bag would be arriving any minute on a flight into Melbourne and he would go check personally to see if it was actually there. He then called me giving me the best news, that it is here!  They will deliver it to the hostel that we are staying at tonight! Yay! Day three is driving. We did the Great Ocean Road, the best comparison is like driving up PCH. It's a road along the ocean with several cities along the way to stop to see the gorgeous ocean, beaches and cliffs. The only difference between the Great Ocean Road and PCH, is that the ocean is turquoise/blue.  At the end of the 6 hr drive of the Great Ocean Road is the Twelve Apostles.  I don't know the history behind them exactly, and the information center was closed by the time we got there (will have research that once I get back). Unfortunately there are only 6 of the 12 Apostles remaining. They were pretty. The whole day I was a bit stressed and looking at the clock, because the hostel we had booked, the hostel where my luggage was being delivered closed at 9pm. After another few hour drive, we got to the hostel at 8:30, and I finally had my luggage!!!! It was so nice to change clothes, brush my teeth with a toothbrush, and shower with my own products. The receptionist said "it's like Christmas morning all over again" and that would probably be an accurate statement to say!  Day four is dedicated to driving to Sydney. Today we have a 10ish hour drive in front of us. The only good thing is that Max and Mel have friends in Sydney that we are staying with while there. There hopefully won't be to much to report from today, just hopefully we don't get lost on our way to Sydney, that was half the adventure yesterday.   Bye for now <3

And the Adventure Begins.....

Where to begin.....first off I should warn you over the past 3 days I have gotten a total of 6-7 hours of sleep, on top of that I completely lost a day between travel time and time change.  My flight from North Carolina to Melbourne, Australia was a total of 30 hours travel time, my flight from NC was delayed, I hate Delta, and I made it to my connection with seconds to spare.  I ran through the airport and literally had them stop closing the door so that I can get on the flight.  I was able to see my parents on my stopover in LA, and then the Canadians and I got on our 15hr flight to Australia.  The flight was over night and due to the time change lost a day. I slept about an hour maybe two during that trip. When we got to Melbourne we spent an hour waiting to go through Customs and then when we got to baggage claim, guess who's luggage was not there!!  That's right! After another half hour I found out my luggage is still in America. Luckily they said my bag will arrive tomorrow afternoon, fingers cross it makes the couple connections it has to in order to get to Melbourne.  I'm the stupid one that didn't put a change of clothes in my carry on or have travels insurance. Sigh... We landed at 8:40am and didn't leave the airport until 1pm.  We have a hire car for a few days and it's quite interesting to watch Mel drive, because it's the opposite side of the car and road than what the USA or Canada are used to.  Once we made it to the hostel we wandered around the neighborhood where our hostel is,  which we got lost trying to find from the airport.  Due to sleep deprivation, we decided to stay in at the hostel and mingle with others staying here.  There is a bar downstairs in the hostel, so we are thinking about just going down there, trying to make it til 8pm before crashing for the night.  Tomorrow we are going to visit downtown, sight see around Melbourne, possibly go to a wildlife sanctuary, and then are having dinner and a night out on the town with a friend that Mel, Max, and I met in Europe two and a half years ago.  Off to force myself to stay awake a few more hours, it's 11:30pm 1/9 EST, it's 6:30pm 1/10 in Melbourne.   

Bye for now <3

Australia Here We Come!!!!

I am SOOOO excited to finally be writing on this blog again. It's been TOO long since my last travel adventure. I caught the travel bug almost three years ago in Europe and since then have been planning this trip to Australia. I am going with two friends, that live in Canada, that I actually met on that trip in Europe. We just clicked and spent most of the Europe trip together and since then they have come to visit me when I was in NYC, and I went to visit them in Canada. My friends will be gone for 2 months, I will only be "down under" for two weeks, and will try to update this blog as much as possible while over there with details about my days! We will be starting in Melbourne and traveling up the east coast of Australia. I will be leaving the Canadians (Maxime [Max] & Melissa [Mel]) in Brisbane to head back to reality, while they will continue traveling up the east coast to see the Great Barrier Reef, then jet off to New Zealand for a few weeks. I am sad that I cannot do the whole trip with them, especially see the Great Barrier Reef, however now I have a reason to go back ;) However, I am so excited that I can go, even if only for a little bit. We will be stopping in several beach cities, since it's currently the middle of the summer, hopefully surfing, and snorkeling along the way. We made several friends in Europe that live in Australia, so we will have wonderful tour guides, and in a few cities wonderful hosts, letting us crash at their houses. The trip is very laid back, we have a start and end point, and a few deadlines of dates we must be places, but if we love Sydney, we might stay there 4 days instead of 2! That's the great part of "backpacking" through a country, it's very flexible. I am SO excited for this trip, and to get to spend time with Max and Mel again. I will update the blog as much as I can while over there, but will defiantly give a full recap as soon as I get back! <3 Bye for now

Canada

I just got back from my week trip up to Canada to visit friends. Max and Mel are two girls that I met last year when I was on my tour of Europe. They came down for NYE to NYC so I thought it was only fair for me to go to them for Canada Day (July 1st), AND I've never been to Canada. ;) I stayed at there place right outside Ottawa, Ontario. Ottawa is the capitol of Canada and is so pretty. Everything in Canada was so green and gorgeous. The first day I was there was Canada Day and it was spent just like most spend the 4th of July here, we hung out on a balcony of their friends all day and then went to see the fireworks that night. The queen was there in Ottawa so they had extra special fireworks this year, and we were able to watch them overlooking Parliament. The 2nd day I was there was Max's 25th birthday. We made her breakfast and then took her out to dinner, then had some of her friends over for cake back at her house. It was a lot of fun to meet all her friends. The next day we went for a quick overnight trip to Montreal, Quebec. We went shopping and explored part of the city, then had dinner and went out for drinks. Sunday (the 4th of July here), we went to their friends house for a BBQ, it was a joint birthday party for Max and one of her friends. It was so hot so it was nice to lounge around a pool and meet more of their friends. The next day we went around their town and then stopped by the mall, and the last day they took me back to downtown Ottawa to show me Parliament, the canal, and the Byward Market.

It was such a great trip, even if I feel like it past too quickly. We have so much in common and are so similar that we always have a good time, even if we are just sitting around watching tv. The hardest part of my trip is that Ottawa and Montreal are bilingual, and most of their friends speak french as their first language. So they would randomly while speaking break into french. I would listen and quickly turn to look at Mel to ask her to translate for me! She would summarize what they said for me, the part that was the funniest is that most didn't realize they did it, so a few times people would ask me questions in french and not realize that they hadn't just said whatever in english.

I'm hoping that they will come sometime in the next year to visit me again back here in the city, I really do wish we lived closer to each other. However, we are so similar and work so well together that we are planning to travel together. All 3 of us are planning a trip in 2012 to go to Australia. They are planning on going for a few more weeks than me, so I will meet up with them there, but I'm so excited to start planning that trip and go explore more of this world w/ them. I will upload my pictures later this afternoon online, so check my http://picasaweb.google.com/cmwright121 later today for pictures from Canada.

Bye for now <3

Florida

I had a great trip to Florida. It was too short, but I was glad I got to at least see Angie and where she now calls home. Friday Angie took me on a tour of her town, then we went to visit her sister. Angie's nephew, who is 6 - is my boyfriend, and he had a gift for me when I got there. He baked me cookies, gave me a picture of himself, made me a lego heart, and gave me a marriage license and wedding ring! She lives right outside Daytona Beach, so Saturday we spent the day at the beach. She showed me the nightlife in her town on Saturday night and then Sunday I left. It was really short, but it was great to catch up, and next time I go I'm hoping to be there for more than a few days and maybe go to some of the theme parks in Orlando. Here are a few pictures from my trip.

Kimmie's visit to NYC!!!

here are some pictures from her visit....more to come once I have a few minutes to write more.