I love Perth. I’ve loved Perth from the moment I touched down at the airport for the first time 5 years ago. It’s pretty, it’s clean, and my importantly, part of my amazing family are there.
I touched down on Sunday at about 5pm, and spent the night with my beautiful friend Jorden and her boyfriend Nate at their place. Drinks, laughs, and UNO. What more could you want?
Jorden and I went out for breakfast on Monday morning, before I headed off to my Aunty Penny’s place. Knocking on her door didn’t feel real. I couldn’t believe that I was there, and neither could she!
The next few days were spent hanging with my amazing family. I met my baby cousin Daphne, who is so so so adorable and I love her so much! I can’t even begin to thank my Perth family enough for having me over. What a great way to start my trip.
I’m now sitting in Perth airport, and they’re about to start boarding our flight. London here I come!
At this time in 5 days, I’ll be landing at Perth airport to start the first part of my European getaway. I am SO excited. I get to see my amazing friend Jorden, and my beautiful Perth family (whom I haven’t see in 2 years!) I get to meet my baby cousin Daphne (who turned 1 last week) for the very first time. I can’t wait to give her so many cuddles!
Perth is going to be so much fun. First I’ve got dinner with the beautiful Jorden, followed by a sleepover. I feel like I’m 10 again! On Monday I head to see my aunties and cousins. My beautiful aunties (minus Belinda who is in the US) are two of the most amazing people I’ve ever met in my entire life, as is my mum’s step-mum Jill. Every time I’m with them I have the best time, and I never want to leave. I’ll get to play with Caleb, Cooper, Marshall and Daphne, and I can’t wait!! So many cuddles will be had.
Also, as of last night, I’m all packed. I’ve got everything that I need, and it’s all packed in my amazing pink backpack from Kathmandu. My camera is all charged, and I can’t wait to take photos of the Alps! So many amazing pictures to be taken.
This will be my last post until I’m in Perth. Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly, and I’ll post then!
It’s 11pm and I’m wide awake. For the last few nights, I have been so excited that I’ve had trouble falling asleep. And I still have over a month to go!
I’m pretty much all ready to go. My bags are sorted, I’ve bought most of the stuff I needed to, my new passport is here, and my pack list is done. I just need time to speed up and get here so I can get on that first plane to Perth!
Technically, I have 37 days until I’m on my first flight. Genius me booked a flight on the Tuesday before flying to London on the Thursday. Who does that?! I’m looking into changing my flight so that I fly to Perth on the Sunday instead, and then on to London on the Thursday. If I can do this, I’ll only have 35 days left. 35 freaking days!! Can you just picture how excited I am right now?! I am also slightly nervous. I’ve never travelled solo before, so I know I’m in for an adventure. I’m so excited to go and see the Eiffel Tower at night, and to sing ‘The hills are aliiiveeeee with the sound of muuuusiicccc’ in Austria. But most of all, I’m excited that I get to see another part of the world, and spend my birthday in London.
If I change my flights, I’ll be over in Perth in exactly 5 weeks. Fingers crossed! And fingers crossed I don’t drive myself bananas between now and then! 😂
This time last year, I was counting down the days until I’d be travelling to America with my bestie. I wrote a blog post on this day last year about how packing and lightly were not words in my vocabulary. How times have changed!
I can’t believe that in 16 weeks, I’ll be jumping on a plane to Perth to see my amazeballs family, and then two days later I’ll be off to Europe. EUROPE!!
I’m going to Europe. I’m actually, 100%, going to Europe. I feel like I’m dreaming. I cannot believe this is actually happening. I’ve been dreaming about this for so long, and so much has changed and happened in the last 12 months, that I wasn’t even sure that I’d ever get here. But in 114 days, I’ll touchdown at Heathrow airport. I can’t believe it. 114 short days, and I’ll be in the land of Harry Potter 😉
I’m excited, nervous, anxious, and beside myself, all rolled into one. I’ve bought my backpack, written out my lists, bought myself a camera, and basically have everything ready to go until I have to start packing. All I need is for the next 112 days to hurry up and get here, and I’ll be ready to go.
On Friday, I booked my long-awaited European Getaway. I can finally say I’m going to Europe. I’m going to see places that I’ve only ever dreamt of. Exciting stuff!
In 135 days, I’ll leave Sydney and fly to Perth. I’ll get see 2 of 3 of my mum’s amazing sisters (the other one I saw on my American trip last year), and my mum’s amazing step-mum. For 2 days, I’ll get to see my wonderful family, spend time with my little cousins, and meet my beautiful baby cousin Daphne whom I haven’t gotten to meet yet.
In 133 days, I’ll leave Perth and fly to Dubai, where I’ll stopover for an hour, before getting on to another plane and head to London. LONDON!
For 20 days, I’ll get to explore parts of Europe that I have seen on TV shows and in movies, and fall in love again like I did when I went to America.
Once the 20 day tour is over, I get to spend a week in London. I’ll get to spend my 24th birthday exploring the sets of the Harry Potter movies. If that’s not something to be that excited over that I can’t sleep, then I don’t know what is!
In 135 days, my life is going to change. I cannot wait.
After 21 days, 12 states, too many cities to count, and a few years of planning, our amazing USA trip has come to an end.
I’m writing this post whilst sitting at LAX waiting for our flight home. I (and I know Amanda has as well) have had the most unbelievably amazing time while we’ve been over here. I got to go to Disneyland, eat from a food cart, see Garth Brooks in Las Vegas, watch a show on Broadway, celebrate 4th of July in Nashville (!!!), explore Bourbon Street, go to Universal Studios, see the home of the original Muscle Beach.
I got to see the USA’s second largest natural waterfall. I got to kiss Minnie Mouse on the cheek. I got to see a live country band in Nashville. I got to see my amazing Aunty and uncle whom I hadn’t seen in over a year. I got to eat a hotdog at my first baseball game. I got to go to a baseball game! I got to walk around Portland in the pouring rain. I got to see Boyz II Men at the Mirage. I got to eat dinner at Caesar’s Palace. I got to go to the New York Public Library and pretend that I was in Sex and the City. I got to have tea and macaroons with the amazing Nathalie in New York. I got to meet Amanda’s beautiful relatives. I got to hug Barney the Dinosaur. I got to walk around Santa Monica Pier. I got to travel the United States with my best friend.
Even though I have had an amazing time, I am extremely ready to come home. Although the USA is an amazing country with so many fabulous things to do and see, it is also a scary place. There have been shootings in the last 3 places we’ve been to, just after we’ve been there. I took for granted just how amazing Australia is, with its amazing tasting water. Also, we’re extremely lucky that our wages aren’t based on how generous other people are with their tips, and that we don’t need to remember to add tax on to the price of things.
Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. What an amazing experience. I am one lucky, lucky girl.
New Orleans was fantastic. Extremely hot and humid, but fantastic.
We landed on Tuesday at around 11:30am, after 2 flights- Nashville to Chicago, and then Chicago to New Orleans. They were pretty miserable as I felt terrible the whole time, and ended up throwing up at the end of the second flight. Disgusting!!
After we landed we met Amanda’s two aunties outside baggage claim, and there were lots of hugs all round. We went to Popeye’s for lunch (apparently a southern speciality – fried chicken!) and headed back to Aunty’s place where we dropped our bags and had a bit of a rest. Amanda’s cousins took us to Macy’s, which is pretty much the same as Myer. Amanda’s cousins drove us through the city and the French Quarter, which was awesome to see. We then went to Walmart (I love that place!) where I found super expensive face wash for $4! Australia is so expensive. Aunty made us dinner, and then we went over to Amanda’s other aunties place to say hi to her uncle.
We had a sleep in yesterday, and then sat around talking with Aunty. We then went out to lunch to this funky place called the Rum House where they had really awesome Carribean-inspired food. We were so full after lunch that we had to go home and have a nap, after which we headed out to see Bourbon Street with Amanda’s cousin. What an awesome but intense place! There were people everywhere, always trying to sell you things. We tried these things called beignets, which are amazing French donuts!! So good!! After that, we went back to Aunty’s and packed, which lead to me having insomnia and getting about 3 hours sleep because of our earlier nap haha!!
We’re now sitting at New Orleans airport waiting to board a plane to Atlanta, and then a connecting flight to Orlando. In a few hours we’ll be at Universal Studios. Woohoo!!!!!!!!
Alcohol is so cheap here – $20.28 for 1.75L of vodkaAmanda and her two new besties – Dex and TobloroneThe Mississippi River in New Orleans, just across from Jackson SquareJackson SquareBeignets – the most amazing donuts ever!!Bourbon Street
Nashville – Music City. What a wonderful, wonderful place. I was in my absolute element!
We flew in on Saturday afternoon, and after checking into our hotel (Fiddler’s Inn – was pretty great!) we went to find somewhere to have dinner. Behind our hotel was a place called Scoreboard Bar (celebrating their 20th birthday this year), where after we introduced ourselves and they found out we were from Australia, we were made to feel so unbelievably welcome. The manager came up to us and let us know that if we needed anything at all, he was happy to help out. We listened to a live band all night (the lead guitarist happened to also be the lead guitarist for Randy Travis – OMG!!) who were absolutely amazing!! I loved every second of it.
On Sunday, we made our way up to what we thought were the local shops, only to find out that it was another outlet!!! We were unbelievably happy, as you can imagine. We spent most of the day shopping there, and then went back to the hotel to relax, before heading to Walmart to get some extremely corny t-shirts for 4th July.
On Monday (4th July), we headed downtown to see the sights of Nashville, and get into the 4th July spirit. We started the day at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, which was my highlight of the day for me. We listened to a lady named Kayla Wass sing (would highly recommend looking her up on YouTube, she is outstanding!), before heading to a saloon called Tootsie’s Orchard Lounge (apparently the oldest saloon in Nashville), and then on to Rippy’s for lunch where we heard a really great duo made up of 2 young guys. After that, we just strolled up and down Broadway (the Main Street of Nashville) for a while. We happened to walk past a group that were preaching to everyone that we were all going to hell because we’re sinners, and that God sent them there to judge us and to tell us we’re terrible people. And also that women who wear short shorts are whores. I couldn’t stop laughing when an African American girl walked up to them and absolutely gave it to them. Hilarious! After that, we headed down to the lawn to watch some more amazing live acts. They do a tribute to their military, those serving both past and present. It made me tear up at how passionate they get about it. I really wish it was the same back at home!! We ended up leaving after about 2 hours on the lawn because it started to rain. And when I say rain, I mean absolutely torrential, was about to flood rain. We got caught in that, which was not fun. We had paper shopping bags which completely dissolved. Fun!
Once we were back at the room, we repacked and had an extremely early night so we could get up at 3:30am this morning.
We’re currently sitting at Nashville airport waiting to board our flight to New Orleans via Chicago.
Bye Nashville, you were awesome!!
The live band at Scoreboard on Saturday night.They have guns at Walmart!
Well, we’ve come to the end of the New York part of our trip. That was as busy as Las Vegas was! We squashed so much in to the 3 days that we were here, and I am officially exhausted!
So to recap, we got in on Wednesday at about lunch time, met up with the lovely Nat for macaroons and tea, had a look around, got dinner and then went back to the room and went to bed.
On Thursday, we started out the day by having an accidental sleep in. We were planning on getting up at 630am and going to the gym, and then getting on the hop-on-hop-off bus all day, but we ended up waking up at 8am instead because we were both super tired. After we rushed to get ready, we went up to Times Square where we hopped on the first bus to see uptown New York. What a beautiful place! It’s the expensive part of town where most of the celebrities in New York live. There are so many museums, and of course the lovely Central Park. After we did the uptown part of the tour, we went to 30 Rock (30 Rockefeller Centre – I was super excited thanks to Tina Fey!) to go to the Top of the Rock. What an amazing sight! The New York skyline is incredible.
After this, it was time to get on another bus and do the Downtown Tour. Now that was a lot of fun. We got to drive through NoHo, SoHo, Chinatown, and through where the courts are located. We got off at the 911 Memorial, and went down to see where the buildings had been. We went into the museum as well, which was absolutely gut wrenching. I’m still questioning how people can wake up one day and think “right, I’m going to kill all these people today”. Absolutely horrifying and disgusting.
After the 911 Memorial, it was back to the hotel to get ready to go and see Wicked!! We got ready in record time (shower, hair and make up in 50 minutes), and then walked up to Broadway. One thing I’ve noticed about men from New York is that the majority of them are extremely sleezy. We copped so many comments walking up to Broadway that it was a little unnerving. Once we were there, we got some dinner and then went over to watch the show. I’ve watched it once before, however Amanda hadn’t seen it so I was super excited that she would love it as much as I do. And she did! I would highly recommend anyone who hasn’t watched it to go and watch it.
After that, we went and had a few drinks at Applebee’s in Times Square, and then back to the hotel to bed.
Friday (yesterday) bought about a lot of walking. When I say a lot of walking, I’m talking almost 21kms and 31,500 steps! Safe to say my legs are sore today. We started the day out by getting on a subway and catching it to go and see Tom’s Restaurant, the diner from Seinfeld. Amanda was super excited as she absolutely loves Seinfeld. After this, the plan was to hire bikes and ride through Central Park. We couldn’t find bikes, so we ended up walking almost the whole thing. What a beautiful park! The whole time I had the Wiggles song “Central Park New York” stuck in my head. After Central Park, we walked back to Times Square, and went to the ‘New York Public Library’, where part of the first Sex and the City movie was filmed. My heart was about to explode! I got Amanda to take a photo of me on the front step (not touristy at all… 😉), and then we headed inside to have a look. The inside is spectacular! The artwork on the walls and ceiling was amazing. We spoke with a lady who told us exactly where all the parts of the movie that contained the library were, and she was really great about it too.
We headed back to the room to have a rest and showers (as our poor legs were exhausted), and then headed back out to get dinner and do the Empire State Building. Dinner was great, however as we were walking to the Empire State Building, we got caught in a massive thunderstorm and were soaked. When the rain finally subsided, we hurried to Empire State where we were told that we could go up, but we couldn’t go outside as the outside deck was closed due to lightning. Bummer! We went up anyway and the view was still spectacular. We spent about 10 minutes up there before we decided to leave. Just as we went to step into the elevator, an announcement was made that the deck had opened up. Hurrah! We went outside and took a few photos, and then headed back in to Times Square to go to MnM world! What a cool place! We got some MnMs, and then headed back to the room. We did a quick last minute pack, and then into bed.
We checked out this morning, and are now sitting at La Guardia airport waiting for our flight to Nashville. Bring it on!!
Giant amazingly yummy pizza!The diner from Seinfeld.Having a total Sex and the City fangirl moment!!!New York at night from the top of the Empire State Building.Times Square at night.The giant MnM figure in MnM world.
Today was day 1 in New York. What an awesome place. It’s dirty, busy, and the people aren’t the friendliest, but there is something about it that I absolutely love! The atmosphere is amazing, the food smells delicious, and the lights are fabulous!
We got picked up by the shuttle from La Guardia airport, and driven in to Manhattan. What an experience in itself!! I was scared for my life. The drivers here (especially the taxi drivers) are crazy! And they all seem to beep (a lot!!) for no reason at all. We checked into the hotel early, and had a rest before we headed to meet the lovely Nathalie at the Macaroon Cafe on the other side of Times Square. We chatted for a while, had some delicious tea and macaroons, and then said our goodbyes. Amanda and I were then headed to get our nails done. It cost me about $18 USD to get a full spa manicure, plus a shoulder massage. That’s good value I’d say!
After this we had a browse through some of the shops, before heading back to the hotel to go to the gym. After the gym, we went out for dinner and then went for a walk, where we saw a shop selling the most gigantic pieces of pizza I have ever seen in my life! They were literally bigger than my head!!
After this, we had a look in more shops, where I bought Joel an authentic Giants NFL jersey. Go Giants!!
We’re now in bed, with a huge day planned tomorrow, including going to watch Wicked on Broadway!
Until tomorrow – good night from the Big Apple!!
Grand Central Terminal – can’t wait to see the inside!Tea and macaroons with the lovey Nathalie.The pieces were as big as my head!
Tales of a Blank Passport 