Sunny Perth

After a long night with a delayed red eye flight and a pretty uncomfortable plane ride, Tiger Airways is cheap for a reason, we showed up in a sunny Perth at 4am.  At least it wasn't too cold as we sat outside our hostel waiting for them to open (for 3 hours).  Needless to say we were very happy to get all checked in and hit the hay at our new residence in Perth.



After a day of recovering we decided to start out exploring Perth with a trip to Kings Park.  Perth, the epicenter and capital of the huge state of Western Australia, hosts a beautiful park a top Mt. Eliza (really just a hill).  Kings park is larger than central Park in NYC with a botanical garden and war memorial to boot.  Perched on a hill overlooking the Swan River the park was great for a lazy day of wandering through the botanical gardens, checking out the exotic flowers, and admiring the views.







Our next stop here was a day trip out to Fremantle, know as "Freo" to the locals.  Ross and I both really enjoyed this hip beach front town and got to have our first view of the Indian Ocean.  With a local market and a the famed "cappuccino strip", a row of espresso bars lining South Terrace Street, we were content to spend a day wandering through the town and stopping off for a flat white and a few tasty treats at a coffee shop on the strip to wrap up the day.











Some other highlights of our time here have included mornings running along Swan River, a trip to the Western Australia Art Museum and the PICA (Perth Institute of Contemporary Art) and soaking up all the sunshine.  We are winding down our time here in Perth, we are headed for Singapore tomorrow, and I am excited for something new, but sad to say goodbye to Oz.  It has been really fun to come back and I will definitely miss the friendly people, the easy way of living, the Ginger beer, no pennies, saying "heaps", and no tipping.  It has been a blast and I am happy we took the time to start out here.

Ross' thoughts: traveling, hostels & Australia

We've been on the road for over 3 weeks, which is the longest "vacation" I've taken since I was a child.  To be honest it feels great.  Things are simple.  We wake up, eat, go for a run, visit interesting places, relax and do it all over again the next day.  There isn't any rush, no feeling of having to hurry though something because the weekend or the vacation is almost over.  It is just nice.

Traveling in general is going very well.  We both have a backpack (55 liters, not too big) and that's about it.  It's made it really easy to get from place to place and not having to be concerned with a lot of stuff.  We've been cooking a lot on our own, we typically only eat out about 3 meals a week, actually not much different than before we left.  Abby's meals in the hostels are just as delicious as they are at home.  Australia should be the most expensive country so 'eating in' has saved quite a bit of money.  As far as packing goes I think we managed to do very well.  As stated on the packing page I only have a few shirts and a pair of pants and shorts, but since we've been able to do laundry every few days we're "clean".

Hostel living took a few days to get used to, actually faster than I was expecting.  It's basically living in a college dorm again.  We, thankfully, have had (and will have) a private room, but share a kitchen area and bathroom.  All things considered it's been fine, you learn to live with it (the mess, the clutter and the people) again.  We've also managed to meet more people that I am sure we would have if we were in a hotel, which has been fun.  I think once we leave Australia we won't be in hostels anymore, but instead inexpensive hotels and guesthouses, hopefully that will still provide some interaction with people.  Overall I'd say I adjusted better than I thought and am glad we had the opportunity.

Australia has been very easy.  As expected, everyone speaking english makes it a pretty simple adjustment.  There's still the time of getting used to a new country and even though it's english, it's more the "Queen's English" and the accent adds some difficulty.  Sometimes someone will say something and I think we just give them a blank stare for a second, but the point usually gets across and it was a good way to 'ease in'.  What has really blow me away has been the wildlife, once you leave the major cities it's everywhere.  On parts of the Great Ocean Road koalas were as common as deer in Colorado, and kangaroos were almost as common as squirrels or rabbits.  Everywhere you look in Western Australia, even in Sydney, there was a Cockatoo, or some other "exotic" bird.  I really wasn't expecting that.  I just hoped I would get to see a koala or a kangaroo.  I will say I am a little disappointed since I waited for hours at the Sydney Aquarium with no platypus, but the koala walking across the road, in the wild for that matter, made up for it.  Other than the wildlife, it's been a great experience, the Great Ocean Road was amazing, the most picturesque coastal scenery I've ever seen.  The people have also been very friendly.  Walking down the street you seem to get a greeting, "hello" or "g'day mate", a little more than I think you do in the US.  Maybe it's just cause I'm that tourist stumbling down the street looking at everything but everyone seems a little more willing to ask how your days going, who knows.

All in all, it's been a great first country and a fun few weeks.  I'm excited to move on a see what Singapore, Malaysia and then Bali have to offer.

Great Ocean Road: the mountains

After spending the evening in Port Fairy we headed north from the coast to a little town called Halls Gap in the Grampians National Park. We decided to make Halls Gap our base for a couple of days so that we could explore the area around the Park and get in some hiking. To start we hit up the visitors center to route out a hike for the next day and then stopped off at a local vineyard, The Gap, to sip some shiraz.







We woke to some rain and gray skies, but decided to give our hike a try anyway. We had decided to climb Mt. Rosea, a 1000+ meter mountain in the park with the trailhead close by. We got some nice views on our way up but as we reached the top the fog rolled in and we couldn't see much more than a few feet in front of us, so much for the view! We scrambled down, it felt pretty eerie up there in the fog, and headed back into town to scarf up some pizza after a long day of hiking.









A plus to our campsite in Halls Gap was the large group of kangaroos that would come into the fields in the morning and around dusk. The wildflowers were also in bloom so we got to see some stunning yellow fields of rapeseed all along our drive.





We are wrapping up our drive now, spending the night in the coastal town of Anglesea before we drop of the campa tomorrow in Melbourne and head to Perth. We have had a blast driving around Victoria and I would recommend a campervan to anyone in Australia. I was pleasantly surprised to find most campervan parks well marked, easy to find, and quite nice. The parks all offered large camp kitchens (we opted to use these versus the stove off the back of the van due to space), laundry facilities, and clean bathrooms and showers. It has been great to have the freedom to go and see what we want when we want and sleeping in a van ain't too shabby :)

Great Ocean Road: the coast

We picked up our campervan, really just a minivan with a fold down bed in the back and a mini fridge and stove off the rear, to start our tour of the Great Ocean Road.  Great is the best way to describe it, spectacular coastline with amazing beaches, wildlife galore, and rock formations rising out of the water, it was beautiful!  Repeating our mantra "drive on the left" we took our time driving the coast stopping at all the scenic lookouts along the way.  Our first day we headed to Apollo bay to spend the night at a caravan park just outside the small beach front town.  We saw the famed Bells Beach and Split Point lighthouse as we winded our way along the coast.















We started off day 2 with a run along the beach in Apollo Bay and then a quick drive to Kennett River to see the koala bears hanging out in the eucalyptus tress. We saw lots of koalas and got pretty good at spotting the little fuzzy bears dotting the tree line.







Driving out to Cape Otway we even saw a koala on the side of the road. We jumped out of the campervan as he crossed right in front of us and gave us some prime picture taking opportunities.





We finished off the day with a visit to some of the most spectacular coast scenery Australia has to offer: the Twelve Apostles, London Bridge, and The Grotto.  We also saw our first kangaroo roadside on our drive into Peterborough, our resting stop for the night.























We started day 3 with a drive out to the Bay of Islands.





We then headed to the Tower Hill State Game Reserve for some hiking.  Tower Hill is and animal reserve with several walking tracks.  Unlike a zoo you get to see the animals in their natural habitat, we spotted emus and kangaroos galore, we even spotted a joey in its mother's pouch.  We then drove into Port Fairy to spend our afternoon and evening.









With the AFL Grand Final on, a BIG deal in Oz, most of the quaint port town was shut down to watch the game.  We decided to head over to the local pub, grab a pint, and see what all the fuss was about.  We found the town at the bar and watched with a rowdy crowd as the match played out and ended in a draw.  Compared to our Super Bowl Ross and I thought it was pretty nice that the commercial breaks were 30 seconds at the most, but pretty crazy that the game was allowed to end in a tie and has to be played again next week!

Trammin Around Melbourne

We arrived in a chilly Melbourne to spend a few days seeing what Australia's second largest city had to offer. We both feel like Melbourne is a "little big city". Walking the streets in the CBD (central business district) feels like you are walking in NYC, jam packed with people of all different nationalities, bustling cafes, and trams, but the city's population is only around 4 million. Melbourne is a city of trams, the streets here are extra wide to accommodate the trams, and you can basically ride anywhere in the city and surrounding suburbs easily by jumping on and off.



The highlights of our time here included wandering through Queen Victoria Market, a huge market where you can buy anything from produce to jewelry. We got to taste our first bureka, one of the most popular stalls, and drink a cup of coffee while wondering through the market. I would love to do my grocery shopping at a place like this! They had everything you could imagine and you could really see the diversity of the city with all off the cuisines and fares being offered.



We also went to check out the Yarra River which runs through the city center and walked our tails off exploring central Melbourne and the surrounding suburbs.







Today we took a trip out to St. Kilda to see Port Phillip Bay and some little penguins which live just off the St. Kilda pier. We spied a few penguins burrowing in the rocks and saw the historic Luna Park with the the oldest continuously-operating roller coaster in the world. We are picking up our campervan tomorrow to start our Great Ocean Road tour, see you next from the "campa".