So I'm halfway through my last week here :( ! I can't believe it's gone by so quickly! Sorry I haven't written in a while. This week we've been at the gold coast and I've been drinking great Australian wine, gone kayaking, explored the city, laid out on the beach and just have had the best relaxing time. There's not much to report...but I just wanted to give you all an update. Tonight I think we're going out to dinner and then Sarah and I may or may not go out, we'll see :)
Thanks for reading, more when I can find more internet! x
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
Planes, Trains, Automobiles
Sorry it’s been a while!! I just arrived on the Gold Coast yesterday which is an hour and a half train ride outside of Brisbane. Yes, I took my first train ride ever! It was pretty uneventful but whatever, I can cross it off the list. The night before last, Sarah and I went out with Sarah’s cousin Fran. We went to the Regatta and Uber two popular clubs in Brisbane. It was interesting and fun! Last night we went over to Mary’s friend Julie’s house for dinner and that was fun as well. Today I think we’re just going to lounge around. The Gold Coast is so beautiful and the views from our condo are spectacular. I can’t believe I only have a week and a half left…it’s gone by so fast!! Internet is hard to find here but I’m going to journey downtown and see if they have a wireless Gloria Jeans (equivalent to our Starbucks) somewhere. More to come later, thanks for reading!
The Lost Blogs
Hi. Here are my blogs from Ayer's Rock and such when I didn't have internet. Enjoy!
Saturday May 29, 2010
Today we left Sydney at 9:30 am and arrived in Alice Springs/Ayer’s Rock, the red “centre” of Australia. We literally landed in the middle of the desert…like actually. It was very interesting. The airport was a little bit bigger than the Pullman airport and the buses bused us for free to our hotels. We got to our hotel and checked in to our room and then went to the restaurant bar where we had the best chicken wraps I’ve ever had in my entire life. They were AMAZING. We then headed off to our tour of the Ogre (?) mountains where we took a bus. We stopped to take a 4-mile hike towards the inside of one of a huge Ogre mountain gully. It literally felt like we were in either a Lord of the Rings movie or Jurassic Park movie…I seriously thought Aragon or a T-Rex was going to pop over the gully, it was surreal. The hike took about an hour there and back to the bus. The weather was extremely sunny but not hot at all…it kind of reminded me of a sunny May Seattle day…crisp but sunny. However, I could feel myself getting thirsty and knew that I had to keep hydrated because the environment was so dry but I couldn’t necessarily feel it. We were in the heart of where the Aboriginals live and the men do many of their initiation rituals in the gullies and so there are only 2 of about 11 gully’s we could travel through as the Aboriginals use the other ones for ritual needs. After visiting the Ogre Mountains and taking our hike, we ran into some wild camels and so our bus driver stopped to let us take pictures. The camels were so funny…they bounced up and down like they were skipping; I feel like they knew pictures were being taken of them and they wanted to entertain! We then traveled toward Ayers Rock for sunset and wine and Sarah and I were taking pictures literally every 2 minuets of the rock at sunset…though it was hard to see the difference by the naked eye, it was cool to see how much the rock changed through pictures that we took. The bus took us to the market where we bought groceries for the duration of our trip. Tomorrow we’re looking at a 545 am start so we can watch the sunrise of Ayers Rock, take another hike, and visit the Aboriginal Center where we can learn all about the first natives of Australia. I miss Sydney a lot but it’s very interesting here in the heart of the outback, nothing like the cities I’m used to. Thanks for reading!!!
Saturday May 30, 2010
Today we got up at 5:30 am so we could watch the sun rise with tea and cookies on Uluru. I didn’t think that it was a good as the sunset one but that’s ok it was still interesting. We then drove closer to Uluru and we took two tours around the base. We learned a lot of the aboriginals who live around Uluru and their beliefs and stories that to them explain the formation of the rock. They have only told “white fellows” some of their children’s stories because their men stories and women stories are too private to tell. I took lots of pictures so I’ll be sure to explain what is what according to the stories then. There were many places along both hikes that were so beautiful and peaceful that my pictures don’t even give them justice. This word is greatly overused but it was an awesome experience, I was in awe. We finished both tours around noon and got lunch at a little pub. After lunch we took naps and then went out to dinner at this place where you buy your meat and then BBQ it yourself, outback style. I’m literally in the outback people, like actually. We listened to this live singer and who made us dance, which was embarrassing, but it’s fine, we’ll never see him again. We are now back at our room and have camels to ride tomorrow woo hoo!
Monday May 31
I rode a camel today!! We went out to this camel farm and Sarah and I were put on a camel together. Our camel’s name was Trevor. We probably rode for about and hour and it wasn’t as scary as you might think it would be…it was a bit like riding a horse but taller and more bumpy. As we were riding we got great views of the Olgas and Uluru and took many pics. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience!! We came back to the hotel and just relaxed…this was the first day in the trip that we got to do that. We got dressed and went out to a fancy dinner and then Sarah and I went to the Outback Bar and it really was an bar in the outback. There wasn’t many people there and it got around to the live band that we were from Seattle so the singer dedicated a lot of songs to the “Seattle girls” or the “Sarahs”. It was fun. We even met a woman who was from Seattle and whose mom was Australian so they moved back and she got a job in Uluru she went to Western and everything so it was fun to talk to her. Tomorrow’s a travel day, we fly at 1:00 to Sydney and then off to Brisabane. More later!
Saturday May 29, 2010
Today we left Sydney at 9:30 am and arrived in Alice Springs/Ayer’s Rock, the red “centre” of Australia. We literally landed in the middle of the desert…like actually. It was very interesting. The airport was a little bit bigger than the Pullman airport and the buses bused us for free to our hotels. We got to our hotel and checked in to our room and then went to the restaurant bar where we had the best chicken wraps I’ve ever had in my entire life. They were AMAZING. We then headed off to our tour of the Ogre (?) mountains where we took a bus. We stopped to take a 4-mile hike towards the inside of one of a huge Ogre mountain gully. It literally felt like we were in either a Lord of the Rings movie or Jurassic Park movie…I seriously thought Aragon or a T-Rex was going to pop over the gully, it was surreal. The hike took about an hour there and back to the bus. The weather was extremely sunny but not hot at all…it kind of reminded me of a sunny May Seattle day…crisp but sunny. However, I could feel myself getting thirsty and knew that I had to keep hydrated because the environment was so dry but I couldn’t necessarily feel it. We were in the heart of where the Aboriginals live and the men do many of their initiation rituals in the gullies and so there are only 2 of about 11 gully’s we could travel through as the Aboriginals use the other ones for ritual needs. After visiting the Ogre Mountains and taking our hike, we ran into some wild camels and so our bus driver stopped to let us take pictures. The camels were so funny…they bounced up and down like they were skipping; I feel like they knew pictures were being taken of them and they wanted to entertain! We then traveled toward Ayers Rock for sunset and wine and Sarah and I were taking pictures literally every 2 minuets of the rock at sunset…though it was hard to see the difference by the naked eye, it was cool to see how much the rock changed through pictures that we took. The bus took us to the market where we bought groceries for the duration of our trip. Tomorrow we’re looking at a 545 am start so we can watch the sunrise of Ayers Rock, take another hike, and visit the Aboriginal Center where we can learn all about the first natives of Australia. I miss Sydney a lot but it’s very interesting here in the heart of the outback, nothing like the cities I’m used to. Thanks for reading!!!
Saturday May 30, 2010
Today we got up at 5:30 am so we could watch the sun rise with tea and cookies on Uluru. I didn’t think that it was a good as the sunset one but that’s ok it was still interesting. We then drove closer to Uluru and we took two tours around the base. We learned a lot of the aboriginals who live around Uluru and their beliefs and stories that to them explain the formation of the rock. They have only told “white fellows” some of their children’s stories because their men stories and women stories are too private to tell. I took lots of pictures so I’ll be sure to explain what is what according to the stories then. There were many places along both hikes that were so beautiful and peaceful that my pictures don’t even give them justice. This word is greatly overused but it was an awesome experience, I was in awe. We finished both tours around noon and got lunch at a little pub. After lunch we took naps and then went out to dinner at this place where you buy your meat and then BBQ it yourself, outback style. I’m literally in the outback people, like actually. We listened to this live singer and who made us dance, which was embarrassing, but it’s fine, we’ll never see him again. We are now back at our room and have camels to ride tomorrow woo hoo!
Monday May 31
I rode a camel today!! We went out to this camel farm and Sarah and I were put on a camel together. Our camel’s name was Trevor. We probably rode for about and hour and it wasn’t as scary as you might think it would be…it was a bit like riding a horse but taller and more bumpy. As we were riding we got great views of the Olgas and Uluru and took many pics. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience!! We came back to the hotel and just relaxed…this was the first day in the trip that we got to do that. We got dressed and went out to a fancy dinner and then Sarah and I went to the Outback Bar and it really was an bar in the outback. There wasn’t many people there and it got around to the live band that we were from Seattle so the singer dedicated a lot of songs to the “Seattle girls” or the “Sarahs”. It was fun. We even met a woman who was from Seattle and whose mom was Australian so they moved back and she got a job in Uluru she went to Western and everything so it was fun to talk to her. Tomorrow’s a travel day, we fly at 1:00 to Sydney and then off to Brisabane. More later!
Friday, May 28, 2010
Bye Sydney
So today was our last day in Sydney and we started it off with more touring. I'm seriously so sad to leave, I absolutely love it here and would DIE to come back sometime in the future (maybe abroad!? maybe live?!!!) We ended up in The Rocks which is a very historic part of Sydney. We just walked around and then walked back to Circular Quay to catch a ferry ride to Manly which is where Mary's friend Katie lives. The ferry was about 1/2 hour and it was quick and easy. It was more wavy and bumpy though than the ferries back at home. We got a lovely lunch at a little resturaunt and it was fun to talk with Katie. After we walked around a little bit we hopped back on the ferry and came back to the hotel where we are now enjoying cocktails before we head off to dinner somewhere in the city. Tonight will be full of packing as we head off to Uluru in the morning. I'm not sure how the internet will be over there so if you don't hear from me until next Tuesday (your Monday) then I'm fine, just riding camels and such in the desert. Don't fret, I'll talk to you in Brisbane!! Cheers!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
"How much does a polar bear weigh?"
Hiiiiiie! Sorry I haven't written in a while! It's been busy and we were all tired the night before and last night. It's 7:30 am on Friday morning and I have experienced so much of Sydney so far! I'll start on Wednesday after we got in. As I said, we journeyed over to the Sydney Opera House. The walk was easy since we're in the same area as the Opera House, Circular Quay (pronounced key). We walked past all the ferry docks and through a little outdoor shopping mall. Oh and by the way it was pouring down rain, much like Seattle but more monsoon-y) but that didn't put a damper on the trip...I was LOVING Sydney so far. We made it to the Opera House and took a tour. It was so interesting to learn about the history of the Opera House and fun fact: the original design was first put in the discard pile where it was ultimately rescued. Isn't that interesting? I took lots of pictures which will be on Facebook and Flickr so soon so be excited!! After the Opera House, Mary was getting blisters so we had to go find band aids and then when ate sandwiches in a little food court. It was still pouring so we went back to the hotel and ate a little dinner in the exclusive executive lounge (thanks Dad!!!!)
That night, there was a huge rugby game State of Origin between New South Wales and Queensland (Much like a way bigger version of the Apple Cup...because it is the whole country and not just Washington). Sarah and I journeyed to a swanky little bar where we were once again carded (do we really look 17?) and enjoyed the company of many Australians rooting for either side. Sarah's mom is from Queensland (colors: maroon) and so we were on that side. In the bar, I experienced my first Australian pick-up line by a guy named Tom. . as I was talking to Jonathan and Jeff, two Kiwis (New Zelanders) that Sarah and I met, Tom comes up to me and asks, "How much does a polar bear weigh?" Not really knowing what to say he jumped right in and said, "Enough to break the ice, I'm Tom." Hahaha needless to say, it was an interesting way to break the ice.
We woke up yesterday and ate breakfast in the Exec Lounge right in front of the Sydney Opera House (pictures and a video will be up soon). The day started out very sunny, started to rain, and then was sunny/cloudy. We played tourists yesterday and took a hop on/hop off (you can get on any of these buses and get off at any stop which would be a many tourist attraction in Sydney and around Bondi) bus tour. I took SO many pictures and I loved exploring Sydney. There is just so much to see here and I feel like I've already seen so much of it! We toured the surroudning area Bondi including Bondi Beach where we stopped for lunch, and the city of Sydney and all the fun things to see there. Again, pictures will be up soon with detailed descriptions of each place. I took so many pictures you guys are going to be overwhelmed!!!
We ate dinner in the bar of the hotel last night and went to bed rather early exhausted from a full day of touring and sight seeing. And I'm up at the crack of dawn so I guess I'm not fully adjusted yet but getting there. I have a huge smile on my face all the time here...I really do love it! I wish all of you were here to experinece it with me !!!
Today we're going to visit The Rocks, a hip and popular place and home to the Sydney bridge, and meet up with Mary's old childhood friend Katie. We are also going to catch a ferry to Manly. I can't wait to tell you all about it!! Thanks so much for reading and more to come soon :)
That night, there was a huge rugby game State of Origin between New South Wales and Queensland (Much like a way bigger version of the Apple Cup...because it is the whole country and not just Washington). Sarah and I journeyed to a swanky little bar where we were once again carded (do we really look 17?) and enjoyed the company of many Australians rooting for either side. Sarah's mom is from Queensland (colors: maroon) and so we were on that side. In the bar, I experienced my first Australian pick-up line by a guy named Tom. . as I was talking to Jonathan and Jeff, two Kiwis (New Zelanders) that Sarah and I met, Tom comes up to me and asks, "How much does a polar bear weigh?" Not really knowing what to say he jumped right in and said, "Enough to break the ice, I'm Tom." Hahaha needless to say, it was an interesting way to break the ice.
We woke up yesterday and ate breakfast in the Exec Lounge right in front of the Sydney Opera House (pictures and a video will be up soon). The day started out very sunny, started to rain, and then was sunny/cloudy. We played tourists yesterday and took a hop on/hop off (you can get on any of these buses and get off at any stop which would be a many tourist attraction in Sydney and around Bondi) bus tour. I took SO many pictures and I loved exploring Sydney. There is just so much to see here and I feel like I've already seen so much of it! We toured the surroudning area Bondi including Bondi Beach where we stopped for lunch, and the city of Sydney and all the fun things to see there. Again, pictures will be up soon with detailed descriptions of each place. I took so many pictures you guys are going to be overwhelmed!!!
We ate dinner in the bar of the hotel last night and went to bed rather early exhausted from a full day of touring and sight seeing. And I'm up at the crack of dawn so I guess I'm not fully adjusted yet but getting there. I have a huge smile on my face all the time here...I really do love it! I wish all of you were here to experinece it with me !!!
Today we're going to visit The Rocks, a hip and popular place and home to the Sydney bridge, and meet up with Mary's old childhood friend Katie. We are also going to catch a ferry to Manly. I can't wait to tell you all about it!! Thanks so much for reading and more to come soon :)
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Visas, Airports, Sydney Oh My!
I made it!! It is 12:30 pm on Wednesday May 26th and I am sitting in our Marriot hotel room overlooking Sydney Bay. I haven't seen much of Sydney yet, only the airport and a little bit of downtown on the way to our hotel room. The weather is very rainy, much like Seattle, so it's nothing I can't handle.
My trip kind of started out rough in LA as my Visa was accidently purchased and put on my old passport instead of my new one. Fortunatly, after some stress and tears, Quantas took good care of me and bought another one for the new passport. The 14 hour flight from LAX to Sydney was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Each person had their own personal TV which was armed with hundreds of movies, television shows, games, and music. I got probably about 6 hours of sleep which was great because it killed a lot of time. We landed in Sydney at 6:30 am this morning (Sydney time) and stopped at the Duty Free to pick up some "goodies" (I got carded. . of course) and then went through an easy customs. We got our bags and took a shuttle to the hotel where we were just in time for a continental breakfast. Since we arrived at the crack of dawn (literally) our room is not ready yet and so we are hanging out in an early check in room. We all took showers and are getting ready to slug through the day at the Sydney Opera House. We're planning on getting back to the hotel, maybe eat a little dinner, and head off to bed around 7. I am exhausted but so far I love it here. I can't wait to explore more of this foregin city!! Thanks for reading, more to come later.
My trip kind of started out rough in LA as my Visa was accidently purchased and put on my old passport instead of my new one. Fortunatly, after some stress and tears, Quantas took good care of me and bought another one for the new passport. The 14 hour flight from LAX to Sydney was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Each person had their own personal TV which was armed with hundreds of movies, television shows, games, and music. I got probably about 6 hours of sleep which was great because it killed a lot of time. We landed in Sydney at 6:30 am this morning (Sydney time) and stopped at the Duty Free to pick up some "goodies" (I got carded. . of course) and then went through an easy customs. We got our bags and took a shuttle to the hotel where we were just in time for a continental breakfast. Since we arrived at the crack of dawn (literally) our room is not ready yet and so we are hanging out in an early check in room. We all took showers and are getting ready to slug through the day at the Sydney Opera House. We're planning on getting back to the hotel, maybe eat a little dinner, and head off to bed around 7. I am exhausted but so far I love it here. I can't wait to explore more of this foregin city!! Thanks for reading, more to come later.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Anxious/Excited for Australia
In less than 24 hours I will be taking off and on my way to Sydney, Australia!! I've just finished up all my packing and have a few things to add in the morning. Naturally, my suitcase is huge and full of clothes and shoes (of course). Hopefully it will be under 50 pounds or there will be some re-arranging to do at the airport :) My travel partner in crime Sarah and I shopped for last minute items all day today and so I am exhausted and will be heading to bed right after the season finale of Lost! Next time I go to bed, I will be falling asleep in Australia...how exciting is that?! I'm not looking forward to the 14 hour flight but I know it will all be worth it when I have the time of my life down under!!
More to come tomorrow from LAX!
More to come tomorrow from LAX!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Introductions- Packing, Work, More Packing!
Hello everyone! As most of you know, I am off to the great down under in 8 days for a 3 week fun and crazy adventure! I am currently thinking about packing as I start this blog...perhaps I will start the painstakingly long process of deciding which clothes I will be modeling in Australia sometime tomorrow :) I decided to start this blog at a suggestion from a friend who wants to know every detail and memory from my trip as texting will be turned off on my cell phone and Facebook will not be checked that often. Hopefully this will allow most of you to make sure that I am staying out of trouble (ahem Mom and Dad) and allow others of you to keep up with all my new adventures.
This whole trip kind of started as a joke last summer and I can't believe that it's about to happen in a little more than a week! Sarah, one of my best friends from high school, is half Australian and she and her parents, Mary and Dennis, visit Mary's home country every other year to see family and to just relax. Sarah and I talked about how amazing it would be if I could come along on one of these family vacations and we casually brought it up to both of our families. I'm really not sure how I convinced my parents, as this is the first time I am going on a far away vacation without them, but Sarah's mom Mary was totally for it. Eventually, both of our parents got serious about the negotiations for this trip. By the time I headed back to college at Washington State University in August, I was told that this journey WAS going to happen, as long as I understood that it would make up both my Christmas and birthday presents. I have always believed that memories and experiences are much more valuable than material things and so I of course agreed to forgo the typical and traditional presents of DVDs and Nordstrom clothes to travel with my second parents and second sister. My dad, the travel expert, and Sarah's parents have been hard at work coordinating flights and hotels since November (THANK YOU!) and I couldn't be more grateful and thankful to both my parents for providing me the opportunity of going to Australia and to Mary and Dennis for taking me under their wings for these next three weeks.
Here's the itinerary: My trip will start next week when we are scheduled to fly out of SeaTac airport and land at LAX. We will then fly out of LAX and 14 hours later, we will land in Sydney, Australia. So needless to say, we will all be exhausted by the time we reach our destination. Australia is 17 hours ahead of Pacific Time so hopefully jet lag won't get us too badly! ( Wishful thinking I know :) ! ) After a few days exploring Sydney we will fly to Ayers Rock in Uluru and eventually we will fly out of Uluru and into Brisbane where we will be staying for the duration of the vacation. I will be having quite the adventure out on the outback and hopefully will be able to blog about it every once in a while. I'm not bringing my laptop but Mary, Dennis, and Sarah will have one so whenever I have down time, be aware that I will share with you all!
I linked my blog to the picture website Flickr so, as long as technology does its job, and when I take and upload pictures, they will show up on your upper right hand corner so you can read and see my adventures! Feel free to comment or just read...I'm glad you're on this journey with me!!
Anxious and excited to leave, I kind of have a boring week ahead of me. I don't work (Nordstrom) until Friday and I work again on Saturday, so the week will consist of packing, reading up on Australia, picking up my sister Stephanie from school, packing, hanging around the house, catching up with high school friends and college friends, packing, and driving around the Bellevue/Seattle area. I canNOT wait until I start my adventure and I can't wait to have memories and stories to share with everyone reading!!
See you down under!
This whole trip kind of started as a joke last summer and I can't believe that it's about to happen in a little more than a week! Sarah, one of my best friends from high school, is half Australian and she and her parents, Mary and Dennis, visit Mary's home country every other year to see family and to just relax. Sarah and I talked about how amazing it would be if I could come along on one of these family vacations and we casually brought it up to both of our families. I'm really not sure how I convinced my parents, as this is the first time I am going on a far away vacation without them, but Sarah's mom Mary was totally for it. Eventually, both of our parents got serious about the negotiations for this trip. By the time I headed back to college at Washington State University in August, I was told that this journey WAS going to happen, as long as I understood that it would make up both my Christmas and birthday presents. I have always believed that memories and experiences are much more valuable than material things and so I of course agreed to forgo the typical and traditional presents of DVDs and Nordstrom clothes to travel with my second parents and second sister. My dad, the travel expert, and Sarah's parents have been hard at work coordinating flights and hotels since November (THANK YOU!) and I couldn't be more grateful and thankful to both my parents for providing me the opportunity of going to Australia and to Mary and Dennis for taking me under their wings for these next three weeks.
Here's the itinerary: My trip will start next week when we are scheduled to fly out of SeaTac airport and land at LAX. We will then fly out of LAX and 14 hours later, we will land in Sydney, Australia. So needless to say, we will all be exhausted by the time we reach our destination. Australia is 17 hours ahead of Pacific Time so hopefully jet lag won't get us too badly! ( Wishful thinking I know :) ! ) After a few days exploring Sydney we will fly to Ayers Rock in Uluru and eventually we will fly out of Uluru and into Brisbane where we will be staying for the duration of the vacation. I will be having quite the adventure out on the outback and hopefully will be able to blog about it every once in a while. I'm not bringing my laptop but Mary, Dennis, and Sarah will have one so whenever I have down time, be aware that I will share with you all!
I linked my blog to the picture website Flickr so, as long as technology does its job, and when I take and upload pictures, they will show up on your upper right hand corner so you can read and see my adventures! Feel free to comment or just read...I'm glad you're on this journey with me!!
Anxious and excited to leave, I kind of have a boring week ahead of me. I don't work (Nordstrom) until Friday and I work again on Saturday, so the week will consist of packing, reading up on Australia, picking up my sister Stephanie from school, packing, hanging around the house, catching up with high school friends and college friends, packing, and driving around the Bellevue/Seattle area. I canNOT wait until I start my adventure and I can't wait to have memories and stories to share with everyone reading!!
See you down under!
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