Honeymoon Down Unda'

Wow - This is my first post on my travel blog in a couple of years! And the reason for my travels this time is the most wonderful of all - our honeymoon!

One week ago today, I married the love of my life. It was the most beautiful and memorable celebration! While I have an endless amount of things I could say about my husband and our wedding, I will stop there, and in the spirit of my TRAVEL blog, I will get straight to the honeymoon.

As most of you know, Sydney, Australia has a special place in the hearts of Scott and myself, and played a large role in the early stages of our LONG distance relationship. We decided Sydney would be a special place to begin our honeymoon. After 18 hours of in-flight time from Texas to Sydney, we finally arrived in Oz four days ago. The weather was beautiful, and the Vivid Light Festival had just begun all around the city, which Scott and I enjoyed together three years ago in 2014.

We have had an action-packed four days so far, averaging about 20,000 steps a day ;) So I don't bore you with too many details, here is a brief overview for family & friends of what we have been up to (and what we have been eating!) the past few days:

Thursday, June 1
-Walked all around Circular Quay (where the famous Sydney Opera House, historic Rocks District, and Australia's oldest botanical gardens are) and reminisced of our times here three years ago. We did a great deal of walking from lookout points, to parks, through the gardens and around the Opera House.
-Walked to Darling Harbour and watched the Vivid light show there, ate dinner on the second floor of a restaurant overlooking the harbour, and thanks to some slight jet lag, were in bed by 9pm.

Friday, June 2
-Cruised all around Sydney Harbour for about two hours total, seeing the Opera House, Fort Denison (where the misbehaved convicts were deserted in the middle of the harbour as punishment), Taronga Zoo, Garden Island, Shark Island, Watson's Bay and Luna Park
-Wonderful walking/hiking in Watson's Bay with cliffs overlooking vast ocean views. Stopped for some famous Doyle's fish 'n chips and watched a group of Asians lose their drone in the water off the pier
-Saw a magic show in one of Sydney's most historic (and most haunted) buildings
-Enjoyed ramen in Sydney's Chinatown near our hotel

Saturday, June 3
-PLANNED to spend the afternoon biking Manly Beach on a tandem bicycle, but the cold & rain ruined our plans and we happily enjoyed some vanilla lattes at a beachfront cafe and watched the rain
-One thing I like about Australians is that, like Texans, they think that 60 degrees is absolutely freezing. Despite the cold, there were still tons of surfers in the water, something Manly is famous for.
-Ate dinner on the 36th floor of Shangri La Hotel which overlooks Sydney Harbour (oysters, caviar, and octopus were a few of the things we ate). This was a great view for all of the Vivid light installations, especially the projections onto the Opera House.

Sunday, June 4
-Walked to Hyde Park and went to morning mass in St. Mary's Cathedral (the most gorgeous Catholic cathedral I've ever seen!!), like I used to when I lived here three years ago
-Lunch and cocktails at The Opera Kitchen, right outside of the Opera House
-Met a friendly Aussie on the ferry who is a journalist and newspaper columnist. He was the second person here to ask us about President Trump, to which we never know exactly how to react and try to avoid the subject of American politics altogether.
-Currently resting up in the hotel room before dinner, which will be kangaroo steak tonight!


-Ashley

The Amazing Race

June is a month of traveling. And (almost) nothing else. Classes are over now and I have 39 days until I fly home. MUST MAKE THE MOST OF IT!!!!

At the beginning of the semester, I had a list of everywhere I wanted to visit in the entire country of Australia, and by the time I go home, I will have been to every single one of them, except for two (Whitsunday Islands and Fiji). I'll take those odds. Plus, it'll give me something more to look forward to for when I return to Oz someday....

Today I decided to take a trip this weekend to the Gold Coast and Byron Bay, so I booked a flight for tomorrow morning and am going to go have some fun in the sun! The rest of my travel plans are as follows:

May 30 - June 2: Gold Coast/Byron Bay
June 5 & 6: Scuba Diving Certification in Sydney
June 10 - 14: Outback trip, Uluru/Ayers Rock, Alice Springs
(June 17: Final Examination)
June 19 - 22: Cairns & Great Barrier Reef
(June 25: Final Examination)
June 26 - July 1: Tasmania
July 2 - July 6: ???? (Maybe I'll cross off one of those two places I haven't visited yet!)
July 7: RETURN TO AMERICA!!!!!!

And after all that traveling, I'm sure I'll be darn ready to return to the good ol' U S of A and REST!!! I cannot begin to describe my sentiments for Australia, and my soft spot for Sydney, but it is one of the most astounding places on Earth.... Aside from the absolute beauty of the landscape, incredible beaches, great weather, and iconic landmarks, the culture and the people are like none other. The reverse culture shock I (may) experience when I come back home will be saddening, but I will have five months of memories to revel in for a long while to come.

Here's to the month ahead, the memories to be had, and the people I'll leave behind. The friends I've made along this journey have been true blessings, and I know I'll be seeing them again! (The Germans, Swedes, Dutch, Danish, Polish, Chileans, Mexicans, Spaniards, Australians, and Americans alike!!!) BUT IT AIN'T OVER YET!

I'm About to Attempt the Impossible: My Past 2 Months in a Nutshell

I have obviously and unfortunately become terribly awful at keeping up with this blog. I did pretty well at first, but I could only keep the self discipline for so long. However, I have kept a journal of my entire time in Australia and write in it every day, so in that sense, I am doing wonderful. The only thing is....you can't read that journal. So I will fill you in on the past two months of my life...... Ready? Ok.

PORT MACQUARIE
I took a short flight up the coast to visit family in Port Macquarie for a weekend in March. It was lots of fun and nice to relax and have great home-cooked meals. I played with my little kindergarten and 18-month old cousins and enjoyed seeing a new city with family I haven't seen in a while. While there, I hiked through rainforests, visited (yet another) beach - it never gets old, and got to pet and feed koalas, kangaroos and wallabies!!!

MELBOURNE
The very next weekend I flew to Melbourne and visited the "hipster" city of Australia. I loved the city art, Southbank, skyline, and of course the night life. I took a tour of the Great Ocean Road, which was absolutely amazing and my favourite thing we did in Melbourne (although it's technically not even in Melbourne...). The Twelve Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge were beautiful, and I got to feed birds in the wild that landed on my head. We got to go up in a lighthouse and also see koalas in the wild! It was a fantastic day trip. That night we still somehow had energy to go to a Melbourne footy game, where we watched the Mighty Fighting Hawks in the city where AFL (Australian Football) all started. Melbourne's a cool city; I wish I could go back once more before returning home to the states, but I don't think I'll have the time.

Two of the Twelve Apostles, Port Campbell Ntl. Park

NEW ZEALAND
The next thing is a biggie....mid-semester break in New Zealand. I don't know how I can possibly put our 12 adventure-filled days in the country in an abbreviated blog post, but I will attempt it. Let me preface it by saying: NZ is my favourite place I've EVER traveled to!!!!! And we only went around the South Island! (Didn't have time to sufficiently see the North.) However, if you ever have the opportunity to go to NZ - GO!! It's absolutely beautiful/incredible/amazing/breathtaking/and on and on and on..... I digress.

Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown

We flew into Christchurch and didn't do much there because we only stayed one night, and there's not much to do in Christchurch in general, as much of the city is still being rebuilt from a terrible earthquake they experienced a few years ago. Anyway, once we got to Queenstown, I fell in love. It's such a cute and unique town, and completely run by tourism. We did a tour of glow worm caves in Te Anau where we rode in a canoe through a cave under the glistening glow and sparkles of glow worms! On Saturday we went horseback riding through the New Zealand landscape, doing one scenic ride and one Lord of the Rings ride! We visited filming spots from various Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lovely Bones, and X-Men Wolverine movies. It was awesome, to say the least. The next day we did a jetboat ride on the freezing Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown. It was a fun (and frigid) hour ride full of 360-degree turns and getting sprayed with water. Later that day, some friends and I hiked The Remarkables, one of only two mountain ranges in the world that run directly north to south. I was apparently not dressed properly, despite my knit headband, fleece gloves, tights, and jacket, because I was FREEZING the entire time...but it offered a pretty 'remarkable' sight of the landscape, lake, and town. The following day, we took a cruise on Milford Sound through the beautiful fjords. Milford Sound is actually considered an 8th natural wonder of the world, and is a "must do" if you visit New Zealand. We got a glacial facial as the captain drove the cruise ship under a huge waterfall. The next few days, we rented a car and drove to glacier country to hike Fox Glacier. It was an experience getting to drive on the opposite side of the road AND opposite side of the vehicle! Something new to add to my resume.... We spent our last day back in Queenstown, relaxing and bidding farewell to my favourite city. There's a great burger place called Fergburger in town, where the wait is easily an hour for a burger and fries, and an incredible cookie place called Cookie Time with 2 cookies for the price of 1 during happy hour. We got our fill on the local hot spots and bused 8 hours back to Christchurch the next day to fly out to Sydney. It was a truly unbelievable vacation that I will never forget, and will definitely have to go back and re-live a couple times in my lifetime.

Milford Sound

SYDNEY WITH THE BOYFRIEND
The most recent activity is the past two weeks, when my boyfriend flew from Texas to Sydney to spend two weeks of his summer with me! That too, was an amazing experience, as we had action-packed days one after the other for his entire visit. Scott thoroughly saw Sydney, and fell in love with the city almost as much as I have ;) We started his trip off with a bang by CLIMBING THE SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE!!!! It was breathtaking seeing the city, harbour, skyline, Opera House, EVERYTHING from that view atop the bridge! We did a twilight hike so we climbed up the bridge in the sunlight, watched the sun set at the top, and climbed down the other side in the dark! That's another experience I'll never forget.... We visited a solid 8 different beaches while Scott was here, so I got to show him a little bit of my lifestyle;) We went to a show at the Opera House, where I got called up on stage to assist Raymond Crowe with a magic trick! He's performed for Queen Elizabeth and was a finalist on Australia's Got Talent, so it was definitely a treat. We also did the walking tour of Sydney, watched fireworks at Darling Harbour, went out a couple nights to show Scott how we party here in Sydney, had multiple beach and park picnics, visited the Blue Mountains and did a couple hikes, including the Three Sisters, took a ferry over to Taronga Zoo (SUCH an awesome zoo!!! And right on the harbour), ate kangaroo, snorkelled *aside sharks and jellyfish* and ended the trip with another bang - the Vivid Sydney festival, where we got to see the sails of the Opera House lit up and all kinds of creative projections on other popular buildings around Sydney.

Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb

Sydney Opera House lit up for Vivid

And that all brings me to today. I have 3 more days of classes here at uni, and then it's final examination period. The semester has gone by in the blink of an eye, but as you can see I've definitely kept myself busy and tried to make the most of my time here. I am excited to see all my family, friends, and good ol' Austin, TX when I'm back in the states, but returning home will definitely be bittersweet... BUT, we'll leave that for six weeks' time. For now I still have quite a bit of traveling left :) Still on the agenda: the outback, the east coast, and Tassie (Tasmania).

Cheers and thanks for reading!

Amber, Ashley, & Hillary Take Sydney by Storm

Well it has been an eventful, fun, and (semi) exhausting week! My sister, Amber, and a friend flew into Sydney Friday, March 14 and just left today to return to Texas. We had a great time exploring Sydney, laying out on beaches, and living it up in the city.We did all of my favorite "ings" : Shopping, Eating, Traveling, Laughing.... Plus it was great to have a piece of home right here with me in Sydney!

This is basically how my week went:

Friday, March 14:
Amber and Hillary arrived and we changed into our swim suits and went straight to Coogee Beach. After soaking up some rays for a couple of hours, we had a late lunch then headed home to shower and get ready for our night! We saw a show at the Opera House called La Soiree, which was a mix of a comedy show, sex show, cirque de soleil, magic, "Magic Mike" and more, each short little independent acts. It was definitely entertaining, and awesome to have seen a show in the Sydney Opera House! Afterward we had a delicious pancake dinner at the famous Pancakes On The Rocks (The Rocks are Sydney's initial settlement).

Going to see La Soiree at the Sydney Opera House

Saturday, March 15
Amber, Hillary, and I went into the city and did a free Walking Tour of Sydney. It was great!! We learned so much about Sydney and the history of Australia, and we visited tons of cool places around the city. (See photos below.) After the tour, we had fish 'n' chips in a cute beer garden on The Rocks then headed to Central Station to catch a bus to the Aussie Rules AFL Football Game, Swans vs. Giants. AFL is a very interesting sport to watch... There are so many guys on the field and they just run around like crazy, hitting and kicking the ball to each other. It took us a little while, but we started to catch onto the rules.

St. Mary's Cathedral (the largest cathedral in Australia) & Hyde Park

Hanging bird cages

Fish 'n' chips

Having a beer in the beer garden with my sister

Sunday, March 16
We watched the St. Patrick's Day Parade down George St. and saw bands, floats, dancers, bag pipers, and the like pass by. We also got poured on - this Sydney weather is crazy! (There's honestly no use in checking the weather each day; it's hardly ever accurate. It's more unpredictable than Texas, which is something I never thought I'd say!) But after the parade we enjoyed a beer (Guinness, of course) at an Irish pub, then sat and relaxed in Hyde Park for a while, where there was a big St. Patrick's Day celebration going on with live music, carnival rides and games, food, etc. Later that evening we did the free tour of The Rocks and ended our night fine-dining on pizza and wine.

Enjoying some Irish Guinness beer in honor of St. Patrick's Day

Monday, March 17
The three of us girls did the Coogee to Bondi Coastal Walk today. It's a 6km walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach, hitting 3 other beaches in between, with beautiful sights of the cliffs, beaches, ocean, and true beauty of the Australian landscape. We would walk and lay out at a beach, then walk and swim at a different beach, and continue this until we reached the beautiful Bondi Beach, where we stayed for a couple of hours before heading back home. Along our walk we passed Waverley Cemetery, located right on the coast, and is supposedly the "best located cemetery in the world" with many famous Australians buried there. We also visited Bronte Beach, where Hugh Jackman has a house! Once we got back from the beach, we got a pitcher of beer to celebrate actual St. Patty's Day then went into the city to see the Opera House lit green!

Waverley Cemetery

Bronte Beach

Opera House lit green for St. Patrick's Day

Tuesday & Wednesday, March 18 & 19
Although it may not seem like it, I DO have class, which I went to on Tuesday and Wednesday. So Amber and Hillary took a trip to the beautiful Blue Mountains on Tuesday (see my blog post from when I visited the Blue Mountains for more info & pics!), and on Wednesday they walked the Sydney Harbour Bridge and enjoyed the day on Manly Beach.

Thursday, March 20
Thursday we visited 4 of Sydney's most famous attractions: The Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, Wild Life Sydney Zoo, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, and finished the day in the Sydney Tower Eye at sunset, where you can get a 360 degree view of Sydney and beyond. At the aquarium, we saw SO MANY fish and other sea life and walked through glass tunnels of sharks and stingrays. At the zoo we saw kangaroos and other Australian animals, like snakes, koalas,wallabies, and a Tasmanian devil. The wax museum was creepy because the figures looked so realistic! We took pictures of many famous people including the royal family, Justin Bieber, Michael Jackson, Albert Einstein, Brad & Angelina, Oprah, Heath Ledger, Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Depp, Leoncardo DiCaprio, and more! The Sydney Tower is the highest point in the whole city, so having that bird's eye view was quite an experience!

Koala! - Not a "koala bear"

Chillin' with the Royal Family

I FINALLY MET JUSTIN BIEBER!!!!!

View from the Sydney Tower Eye

Sunset from the Sydney Tower Eye

Friday, March 21
We went back to Manly to visit the Manly Sea Life Sanctuary and then laid out on the beach. It wasn't much of a beach day though, so we came home and rested then had a nice last-evening-in-Sydney dinner over delicious food and vino. Then Saturday Amber and Hillary went to the airport to fly back home, and are currently in the air as I'm writing this!

In the tunnels. Huge stingray!

SHARKS! Eek

So that's what I've been up to. We had so much fun this week and I'm so glad my sister was able to come visit me in Australia! I wasn't able to visit her when she studied abroad in England (I was in high school and couldn't miss that much class), but it is fun to travel with siblings and explore new places. It's definitely a time I won't forget!

Now I've got to clean house and do homework. You know...the fun stuff. Until next time, mate.

Beaches, Beaches, and More Beaches

This wonderful continent has not yet ceased to amaze me, with its breathtaking views, beautiful beaches, friendly people...it's a dream living here.

Over the weekend I went to a different beach every day, including two beaches I hadn't visited yet! Each one is unique yet similar, and I am so thrilled to keep exploring more of them. The famous Bondi Beach was our destination on Sunday, where Madison and I laid out and swam in the blue waters for hours. It was my best beach day yet; the sun was so hot and shining (so glad it was actually out and the rain has stopped for a while!), the sand was white, the water was crystal clear...it's no wonder why it's one of the most flocked-to beaches in all of Australia. Bondi Beach and its lifeguards actually have their own t.v. show here called Bondi Rescue. Next time I go back I'll have to get a photo with one of the lifeguards!;)

Bondi Beach

On Saturday we visited Maroubra beach, which is not quite as crowded, but stunning nonetheless! This weekend I am going to do the Coastal Walk, which is a 6km walk from beach to beach starting at Coogee, hitting Clovelly, Bronte, and ending up at Bondi. (Stay posted for pictures from that walk- it's supposed to have gorgeous views!!)

Maroubra Beach

It's now been one month and one week since I arrived in Sydney (wow!). Yep, I'm settling in just fine here.

Classes Have Started But The Fun Hasn't Stopped!

Well folks, although it may not appear so from my continuous Facebook posting of various beaches, I have indeed finally started classes in Australia. It's been a week and a half since courses began, and I'm still getting into the swing of things. Firstly because it's a new university to me and I am learning how things work here, but secondly because I haven't been in class/had to study for three months!

The weekend before last, some friends and I hopped on the bus and went into the city for Sydney's massive Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras parade and celebration. It was quite the experience! Roads are blocked off, bus routes are altered, and thousands of people flock to the city to see the extravagant costumes and floats that make their way down the street, such as the ones pictured below.

I also have found a beautiful Catholic church to go to here, which made me very happy! It's very traditional, with a steeple, columns, and statues, and I am excited to become a part of its parish community!

My friend Madison and I have gone to see two movies so far at the cinema up the road, Last Vegas and Dallas Buyers Club. We like to go to the movies on weeknights- it's a good way to have a relaxing night during the week. Movies come out a lot later here than in America, and same with t.v. shows (which is part of the reason why pirating is so prevalent in Australia, because they want to see things when they are released in America, such as Game of Thrones). Speaking of t.v. shows, I see billboards around the city for Real Housewives of Melbourne and it always makes me laugh....

In other news, I've been adding to my knowledge of Aussie slang. My new Australian friends who are in a Management class of mine taught me a lot of terms after class last week. Crikey, I'm going to be sounding like a natural Aussie soon enough! (Sidenote: When someone says they "have the shits" here, that means they're drunk. My Australian friend shared with me his awkward experience in America when he said he had the shits and someone showed him to the bathroom....)

Furthermore, I've been enriching the Australian, German, Italian, French, Mexican, Spanish (and whatever else!) languages with some good ol' Texan vocabulary. I had said in conversation with my Australian friends that "this ain't my first rodeo" and they just looked at me with blank expressions. I realized the moment it came out of my mouth that they probably aren't familiar with that expression, and so I was honored to explain it to them. Naturally, our conversation progressed on to talking about rodeos and wagon racing, which one of the guys said is "like a country version NASCAR."

I know I tend to get behind on my blogging, but there will be more to come promptly!:)

-Ashley

Olympics, Rappers, and Mountains, Oh My!

Last week some friends and I didn't have any plans and found out Eminem was in town, so we bought tickets to his concert and made a day of it. We caught a train out to Olympic Park and walked around where the Summer 2000 Olympics were held. It's the second olympic park I've visited, the other one being in Beijing, and it's always cool to me to walk around the olympic grounds and see how everything is so beautifully designed and organized. Beijing's olympic park was much more impressive to me, and bigger with more things to see, but Sydney's was cool nonetheless.

After exploring the park a little, we went to the Rapture 2014 concert, opened by J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar, followed by the real Slim Shady. It was good! (Well, Eminem was good....) Eminem is a scary man. And so are his fans.

Then the next day a group of 10 of us took a spontaneous three-day trip to Australia's beautiful Blue Mountains in Katoomba. That was the most physical activity I've done in a long time, considering that I've been on a three month break! Some of the hikes were so intense and steep, but it was worth it to feel accomplished in the end!

Me with the Three Sisters in the background

We hiked the Three Sisters, the Giant Stairway, Echo Point, Bridal Veil Lookout, Prince Henry Cliff Walk to Gordon Falls and Leura Falls, and took about a ten minute train ride on the third day to Wentworth Falls and hiked the Charles Darwin Walk. Backpacking through the mountains was incredible! The greenery is so lush and dense; I honestly felt like I was in the middle of the rainforest. But on the Darwin hike we were LITERALLY walking the side of a mountain. We were feet from the side of the cliff, with only a chainlink fence separating us. I, not being a fan of heights, was pretty freaked out, but the views really were amazing. We hiked about a total of 21 miles or so over the three day period!

Me with a waterfall at Wentworth Falls

One of the trails we backpacked!

The boys standing on the cliff