Three months in OZ, part 1

Hiya dudes and dudettes, just letting you know that this one is going to be a longer post! 

First of all I want to thank the anonymous person who commented on my latest post, warms my heart! Definitely makes it feel less like an inner monologue. 

This trip included:

• 1 completed barschool
• 8 visited cities/towns/villages - whatever you might want to call them 
• 1st scuba dive and skydiving experience 
• Several sunburns (mostly reminiscing about my burned face after falling asleep at Victoria Park and Sue's legs after a day at Penguin Island thinking she could tan like me) 
• Some tears (Tea getting kicked out from Manly, all the goodbyes I had to say) 
• Realizing that my American accent is never going to disappear 
• Getting to know some of the most amazing people!!! 
• Falling in love with the country most of y'all know as Australia.

I thought I'd do a short pros and cons list of each place I visited, with some tips of what to purchase or what to see. I'm putting this in two parts to try to keep it shorter. 

Sydney

My first stop on the trip and the place I stayed the longest at. I loved the big city life, even though Sydney has nothing on New York… well maybe the weather. In Sydney you definitely need to buy an opal card to travel around the city, since everything is so far away. 

My Aussie besties for the resties! 

Some of us even managed to get some new ink on their skin - the question that should be asked is was I one of them?

The Opera House + Sue

Circular Quay 

Blue Mountains

+ Newtown - a cute area of the city with a small town vibe with its old buildings and artwork on the walls of the buildings. If you're going out in Newtown I would recommend going to Zanzibar. 

+ Bondi Beach/Coogee coastal walk - I didn't walk all the way from Bondi to Coogee, but I did do some morning runs while I was staying with Tea and the views are definitely worth the walk. 

+ Darling Harbor - awesome bars and an even more awesome movie theatre (if you want to splurge a bit). However it is worth the money as it is has one of the biggest screens in the world. 

- Expensive 

- Surfing - I'd probably do surfing in Byron Bay with its more chill atmosphere and surfy vibes, but you can still do it at the famous beaches like Bondi and Manly.

- It is a big city and you have to take time to get form one place to another - not so fun. 

Melbourne 

Melbs was probably the least favorite part of my trip. However I definitely blame the fact that I was by myself and didn't exactly know where to go and what to do. It didn't help that the weather was crap, along with the hostel. 

+ The cafes! I found so many cute places with good food and coffee.

+ Hosier Lane and the artwork in general - this is definitely the city for artists! 

- Discovery Melbourne - the rooms stank and it was just not my favorite place

- The weather - in Melbourne you never know what you're going to get. 

Perth

I LOVED IT! Haha, mostly because of Sue and her friends, but I did love Perth as a place. It was a nice change after spending a month and a half in two big cities. It was quiet and small, but oh so lovely. 

+ Freemantle Market - definitely a thing you should do while visiting Perth. It's only open from Friday to Sunday, but that only makes it better. 

+ North Beach - and all the beaches in general. I personally thought they were the best ones of all the beaches I visited in Australia. Okay, maybe not Whitsunday Island, but you can't compare. 

- You kinda need to have a car, or at least I think it would be kinda hard to get to the best secluded beaches without one. Thank goodness for Sue and her awesome car! 

- Perth is also pretty expensive…

Cairns

The place to be at if the Great Barrier Reef is something you want to experience, and you should. 

+ Gilligan's - the best hoStel BY FAR. 

+ Scuba diving with a boat called Silver something is recommended. 

+ All the amazing people I met like Amy 1, Amy 2 and Cherisee, not to mention the first two Finnish girls I met (Hanna and Mari), and my favorite American from my trip down Under, Sammie! 

- Small place 

- The beaches there were a bit of a disappointment to be honest. 

4/8, hopefully I'll be able to write the second one in a couple of days. BTW, I am really having thoughts about changing the language from English to Finnish. What do you guys think? 

Back home

Yes, you read correctly. I'm back home in Finland and secretly thinking about when the next trip will be. First however I need to do some things here in Finland.

I was thinking about writing a post about the pros and cons of each of the places I visited. Would that be something y'all would like to read about?
After that I'm not sure I will continue writing this blog. Mostly because I don't have that much to write about, but also because I don't want to stress about writing.

Being home feels the same. It's honestly like I never left. I've loved being with my family again and being able to see my friends. Those are the ones I only really miss when being away. Finland, especially this time of year, is not something I miss that much when I'm away, and I think that is why I can definitely picture myself living somewhere else than Finland in the future. I would however want to spend the summers here because that is when this country really delivers. Lol
I'm slowly getting back to my life at home. I know I've only been here for 3 whole days, but it really isn't that hard to get used to it. I have a couple of shifts this week, which I'm excited about, and at the end of the month the girls and I are driving up to Vasa again for the annual pampas dagarna. Super pumped about that! Especially since it hopefully will be my new hometown next year!!! Speaking of which, my studious life will begin in April, and a part of me is dreading it. Mostly due to the fact that I haven't been in school in over a year and I'm afraid I've become stupid and forgot how to study. Is that even possible? Seriously sometimes I'm scared of the most ridiculous things!

Anyways, I still need to get my pictures on the computer, and a couple of videos. If I can manage it I would love to put parts of my skydive here for y'all to see.

For now I'll just leave y'all with this song I've had on replay today.

Tropical Cyclone Marcia

Hiya peeps! 

Yes, you read correctly. A cyclone hit Byron Bay. Well not exactly here, but closer to Brisbane. It's expected to get into a cathegory 4 cyclone at some areas, which has led to evacuations. Fortunately I am in no danger! 

It's been raining for 24 hours straight now, and me being used to the storms we get in Finland, which get super wild and crazy (read the sarcasm), am getting kinda sick of it. I want the sunny weather and laid back atmosphere back! Like right now, so I am definitely adding sunshine to my prayers tonight along with the wishes to keep everyone at the bad areas safe. 

Otherwise I am pretty much all smiles. The people here are so chill that you can't help not to be happy. 

A funny thing that happened last night when I ran into one of the annoying German boys from Surfers: 

Boy: "HEY, HEY NEVERLAND!!!!"

Me: "Sorry, I am not Peter Pan. I think you mean Finland." 

It might not seem that funny to y'all, but Julia, Rosie and I sure had a laugh! And I got to own the annoying prick (as Amy, my friend from Birmingham taught me to say). 

Including pictures of some of the new stuff I've purchased while being here in stralia. 

My 21st birthday in pics

Woke up at 8AM, at this luxurious bunkbed, to my roomies leaving in a hurry to watch the superbowl or something. Safe to say I went back to bed. 

My breakfast all day everyday. A boiled egg (no salt or pepper bc it's too expensive) and some greek youghurt with chopped bananas! I actually quite enjoy this. 

Booked two trips for both tomorrow and Wednesday! I will tell more about them tomorrow! Yayyyy, so excited! 

Pretty much what my day consisted of! You can see the Airlie Beach lagoon in the background. It's actually a pool, but I guess it makes it look more fancy with a name like that. I also found this REALLY cute bookstore that sells and changes books. I bought the one in the picture for 2dollars??? I read it already, so I need to go and exchange it for another one. Yay!

My birthday meal today! Cheeseburger and a chocolate sunday! Yummaaaay! I'm trying to eat on the healthier side now, but decided to have a cheatday as it is in fact my birthday, and since I'm not getting a cake from anyone.... Hamburgers it is! Or one... But still

Of course I wasn't going to wolf down a Mickey D's meal without a workout in the evening. I really have been quite lazy with working out here, but it is hard when the temperature is pretty much 40 degrees everyday (100 for y'all Americans)... That's one thing I'm looking forward to coming home! Whoopping this big butt of mine back into shape! Yay

This is what my 21st birthday consisted of. It wasn't special in any way, but it was something different and relaxing as hell.  

A bit lonely, but getting a call from my favourite Godfather helped! 

Happy birthday to me! May the future years still bring out the swan out of my ugly duckling-ness. Just kidding! 

19/2/15: This never got posted because of the poor wifi at Airlie, so I'm posting it a tas bit late. Haha! Anyways here was what my 21st birthday was like. 

The Lighthouse

Had the most beautiful afternoon today! 

Went for a powerwalk to the lighthouse here in byron bay and let me tell you, it ain't no Sunday stroll! 

On the way there you have to take like 500 steps of stairs and hills, and feel like you're being punched in the gut. 

I even spotted a python in the wild which was so cool!! I'm not scared of them, so I just though it was awesome, while some were not as happy about the discovery. 

Seeing the actual lighthouse was pretty cool as well, but I enjoyed the views more. I didn't even care that the sun wasn't shining. It made the sea and the sky so much more beautiful.

Now I'm going to take a shower and go grocery shopping! In the evening I'm probably going to look up some of the cute looking shops here and hopefully get Julia to tag along with me. She's also from Finland and is in the same room as I.

What are the odds that after barely meeting any Finnish people I suddenly run to one at every corner here in Byron Bay. I obviously found the hot spot for us finns. 

 P.S. Also spotted a koala in the wild, but the picture isn't very clear. It kept jumping from one branch to another. Made my day! 

Surfers Paradise

Hey people! 

I know I said I was going to Sunshine Coast, but the guy who I was supposed to stay with ended up cancelling because of some work troubles, or somehing. I don't mind though because I realized that I was only going there to visit my friend for a day and the zoo, so it felt kinda pointless? Especially since I went to the Sanctuary and all. 

Instead I took the bus straight to Surfers Paradise. 

I pictured it to be something completely different to be quite frank. I thought it would be like a little beachy town with beaches and markets and stuff, but ended up seeing this.

Quite different right? Lol. 

Anyways the hostel is pretty bad. I hit my head everytime I try to get into my bunkbed and I'm like a hobbit, so good luck tall people. I also had one of the worst nights last night. 

I live in like an apartment complex, with one room with 4 bunkbeds, and another 4 beds in like the livingroom area? I ended up in the livingroom area with 3 German boys, who only speak German and listen to their music nonstop on full volume. During the day I honestly don't mind, but last night they ended up going out, and I woke up to them coming home, which is fine, but what wasn't OK, was them starting to slam doors and yell something incomprehendable and to play their music at 2 in the morning. 

What annoyed me even more is the 3 Swedish girls living in the other room in the complex and they are ALWAYS slamming their door at like 7AM. I mean come on? It is as if people don't know what being respectful is. 

So I'm a pretty tired girl right now, looking forward to move on to Byron Bay tomorrow where the hostel is supposed to be quite big. Keeping my fingers crossed!! 

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

So the other day Pascale took me to the Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane. If you ever find yourselves in Brisbane, I highly recommend doing this! It's kinda pricey, I guess? But so worth it!! And it's in Brisbane, so from Indooroopilly where I was staying, it only took like 15 minutes by bus to get there.

I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves. Get ready, they are pretty awesome! I even tried photographing the most of the animals manually, so it was heaps of fun getting to play a nature photographer.

You can spot these guys flying around Australia in the wild, I have seen them countless times throughout my trip. Is it weird that I find them super creepy? I think that Disney movie/book had more of an effect on me than I thought. 

Coolest guys in the world!!!!!! I could not stop taking pictures of them, so I pretty much have like 50 pics of just these teddy bears enjoying their time. 

Dingos

 The tasmanian devil. You know? That angry, spinning tornado from Looney Tunes? Téa didn't know what it was, but I hope y'all do. Doesn't really look like the cartoon one, if I'm being completely honest. 

 My manual skills set on trial. That lizard or whatever the heck it is, was not the least bit scared of humans. You literally had to step on it to get a reaction? 

My second favorite part of the day were this little rascals! Except some of them were FAR from little. The male ones were in fact HUGE! They had bigger biceps than a lot of my guy friends. And of course I'd just watched the Modern Family episode where they go to Australia and Phil gets punched in the face by one, so I was a bit apprehensive when it started hopping towards me. Lol! 

(picture coming when my computer decides to work again and I come and add them) 

(Macbook Air, I'm so happy that I will be seeing you in less than two weeks.)