27.6.14

115 - ON THE ROAD I

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I'm, mostly, a city person, so I wasn't exactly sure I could do something like 3 weeks on the road, where, apart from the lines of the road, nothing is exactly assured; showers, food, sleep are always an improv, but, as it happens I loved it. 

This were on the easy part that my friend and I did, through the Great Ocean Road, touristy as heck, but oh, so gorgeous a place… 

12.6.14

114 - MELBOURNE

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Melbourne, Australia, 2014



On the grand scheme of things, and hindsight, choosing Melbourne over Sydney as my next stop was part random choice, part a plan... that didn't pan out (I had to meet someone in Sydney in a few weeks, so it made sense to visit Melbourne first). The best thing is that what I discovered was a place where I would love to live in, despite their strange bar hours, but I guess that's mediterranian me and our love of keeping late hours, constant wind (but that's a constant in the whole of Australia) and crazy heat. 

When I had to take the plane there I made the bold decision of putting on my jeans, and boy was I happy when I landed… after months of incredible heat, the 14 degrees completely froze me up. I even had to go on a winter sale and buy a jumper. That is, for a few days, then we got the most amazing heat wave I've ever experienced. If you are a tennis fan you might have noticed a few complains about the heat over the Australia Open, because, oh my, yes, we went to the 45. It was a good day when the blackboard of the hostel announced the we were only at 41. 

I loved it, though, I loved it because Melbourne has lovely all kinds of asian food, amazing coffee, more amazing people and because I also made a friend, that in a week I'll be seeing again, and that made it possible and easy for me to do something that I've always wanted to do… 

9.6.14

114 - SURFER'S PARADISE

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Surfer's Paradise, Australia, 2014.


I'll tell you a secret that it's not really a secret: I am fascinated by Australia. I've been there before, years and years ago. I was lucky enough to get an scholarship to study english, for a month, in any english -speaking country of my choosing and, instead of going to London, where all the people that got that grant was going, I saved a bit of money of my own and paid for the rest of the trip myself. I spent a month in Cairns, Queensland, kind of not exactly believing I was there, I loved it so much. It was my first trip on my own. I decided that at some point I was going to go back. 

When I was in Malaysia, and deciding where I wanted to go next, I decided to apply for the VISA to Australia, just in case. Who I was kidding with the "just in case"? I knew I would end up there. So I landed the first of January in Coolangatta, where a friend was nice enough to shelter me for a few days while I decided where to go next. 

5.6.14

113 - BALI

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Bali, 2013


Oh, Bali, I am quite sorry not having the opportunity of seeing more of you, but, well, you also gave me the famous Bali Belly… not nice. Funny thing, for almost two months I had been eating from food stalls, thai soups and curries, spicy indian tandooris and chinese nyonya food without a problem and the first sort of touristy place I find myself eating at gives me the worst food poisoning I've ever had in my life. So, I took it easy, instead of excursions and the like I decided to spend the time at the beach, reading and sunbathing with tons of sunblock (now that I'm back here I discovered that even with all that sunblock I have a few more freckles because of the sun… something that it's never happened before). It was sort of a competition though, to see who of us in the hostel with fall sick, so that made it more funny. 

I also was sort-of adopted by the loveliest german couple and their balinese friends and they invited me to an amazing christmas dinner… I thought I would get homesick, not spending christmas with the family but with the lovely people I met and the Skype call, everything was alright.