At the moment, I seem to have no battery or free wifi, so this is a short one unil I can update properly.
Over New Years, I was on the UNESCO heritage site, Fraser Island. It was a good trip, spent in lakes or fearing for our lives on off-road driving tracks.
I went to the Whitsundays and it went the complete opposite of how it was meant to. Quite like something out of the Inbetweeners TV show.
The weather in Queensland, ironically dubbed as the “Sunshine State” is horrendous and I am stuck in Airlie Beach until at least Tuesday.
Thinking about it, not that much goes wrong on my travels, but the past few days have gone spectacularly wrong.
Noosa
Eight nights in Noosa was more than enough, but given that it was Christmas, it was a nice place to be. I had a brilliant first impression of the hostel – the person using the locker prior to me had left two boxes of tea bags in there. It’s a shame that they didn’t leave any decent (English) bacon in there too, but there is only so much that you can ask for.
My hostel was pretty far out from the main beach area. I ended up doing the coastal walk twice, as well as part of it on two occasions. I Googled the distance between the path and the hostel, so all together the long walks came to roughly 16.8km. It’s a good walk – quite a bit of willing too; I saw a few koalas as well as lizards – one was around a metre long nose to tail.
I was looking forward to having decent weather on Christmas Day – I’m never too fussed by it, but I’ve skiied on it before and it would have been quite nice to have the opposite. Instead, it rained so hostel movie marathon was in order, including two Lord of the Rings movies.
Yesterday, I went kayaking in the Everglades. I’m still not too sure what an everglade is, but I picked the right day for it – nice and sunny. It was a tour group, and with these kind of things there is at least one boat that think that they’re competing in the Olympics. Well, that was the boat I was in, team Flashpackers Hostel won gold.
I’m having a quick stop in Rainbow Beach before going to Fraser Island, I’ll upload some pictures when I leave here.
2016: A Round-Up
Almost eleven months ago, I boarded a one way flight from England to Malaga. Without a doubt, those five months turned into the best experience I’ve ever had.
I started off with the best country: Spain. I ate some food that stands out as some of the best that I have ever eaten, I loved most places that I visited and I learnt a fair bit of the language that I’ve probably forgotten by now. Las Fallas Festival was well worth seeing, though I could quite happily not deal with the chaos for a while! I can see myself, once I’m finished with long-term trips, staying in Spain for a bit and trying to learn the language.
Italy was also a good one for the most part; whilst Rome wasn’t to my liking and Pompeii was alright, Venice and Florence I liked, and I definitely can’t forget Milan. I pressed the wrong button and ended up with a flight there instead of Venice, though I can’t moan after eating the best pizza I think I’m ever going to eat.
A few other places are worth a mention – Budapest, my favourite city in the world (so far). Liked it so much I went twice, loved the thermal baths, food, hostel and general feel of the city. I stayed in a great hostel in Prague, enjoyed re-visiting Berlin and exploring Porto. I’m pretty sure I’m still burning off the calories of the Franceschina that I ate. Oh, and I also saw Beyoncé.
I could go on for days about my trip to Europe. Next came Singapore, which gave me my first feel for Asia, and has left me wanting to see more. I did perhaps the most dangerous tour of a city that I could ever do, ate so much good food that it warranted two lunches and/or two dinners some days as well as seeing a culture that wasn’t too familiar to me.
What I was looking forward to the most about this year was Australia, and it’s been alright; besides the friends that I made, nothing has really stood out compared to my other trips. The East Coast is almost over, then after a week long trip, I’ll be back in Australia working on a farm for my second year visa. I have a good feeling that after this week, the trip will pick up a bit and I’ll be very, very busy.
What will I be up to in 2017? Firstly, I’ll be at the Australian Open in Melbourne, before going to Hong Kong for Chinese New Year… I’ve only mentioned it a few times! I’ll then be doing my farm work, and when it’s over I will put my feet up for a couple of weeks. Then, I’ll be back at work for up to six months, saving up my money again for some more trips. Japan is definitely on the cards, and I may go somewhere else. I honestly don’t see myself finishing the two years in Australia, though my visa will expire in July 2018, so I’m expecting to spend the whole of 2017 down under.
I have a couple of goals for the next year: firstly, I’d like to find my own place to live rather than a hostel, although there is more chance of me becoming the next pope than trying to balance work, life and living in and hostel ever again. I’d also like to learn something that isn’t work-related, take another cookery class abroad (Japan, I’m looking at you), and eat something that most English people wouldn’t consider eating.
If you click the read more button, you’ll see some of my favourite pictures. I tried to narrow it down to 10, but that quite obviously wasn’t going to work out.
Gold Coast/Surfers Paradise
I’d arrived in Surfers Paradise on Tuesday and just went out for a walk. The hostel had advertised a night out at a beer garden which is something that I was interested in (surprise!) which turned out to be a shit club with the name Beer Garden, so I left after 20 minutes.
It’s been a while since I actually did something, rather than sit around so on Wednesday I made the journey to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. It’s the kind of thing that I assume is going to be for kids and entertaining their grown ups but figured that I’d give it a go anyway and it was quite a good day out. I learnt some useful information as well, for example, a platypus can run up to 40km/hour in short bursts.
I think that by now, I can write a lengthy book about how I’ve been woken/kept up by, and last night was one of those nights. I stayed in whilst two of my roommates went out, one of them came in at half 1, got into bed and made a phonecall until I called her out on her bullshit, which, apparently was ok because she was whispering and I was in the wrong for saying something. Half hour later, roommate #2 made an entrance by knocking on the door so hard that I thought the door was on its way off the hinges. I really do miss having my own room.
Today, I have done pretty much nothing as I’m based in a tourist trap, then tomorrow I’m off again.
Byron Bay
To get to Byron Bay was a 13 hour bus ride from Sydney. I go into these things thinking that I’ll get a fair bit of sleep and like every time I’ve travelled overnight, only managed an hours sleep or so.
As I had arrived at 7.30 am, I ditched my backpack in the hostel and went for breakfast at a cafe nearby. I got the impression that I’d rather like the town, but there is only so much you can do there if you’re not a massive fan of beaches. I had a look around the shops and read a book in the hostel.
My second day there I did the Coastal Walk to the famous lighthouse, which to get to you have to be at the most eastern point of mainland Australia. Of course with these things there is someone who had to outdo everyone by climbing over the safety barrier to be more east than everyone else. Twat.
The next day I went on a day trip with some other backpackers to a small hippy town called Nimbin. On the way there we stopped off at a pub to get some bevvys for the journey, and I’m not too sure what impression a bus full of people in their 20s, most with a drink in their hand gave before midday. After Nimbin, we stopped off at a National Park for a BBQ, and then a waterfall that would be more accurately described as a leak.
I didn’t do much else during the week; I manged to read four books and had a tasting at a brewery. To be honest, the East Coast hasn’t excited me so far. I have to hang back a bit because I have a trip booked over New Years, so I’m hoping that next month I get back to travelling at the same pace that I did Europe at.
A Week in Sydney
My time in Sydney started off with perhaps the most shifty airport transfer in Australia, but still, I made it to the hostel in one piece.
I went straight from the hostel to Circular Quay to see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Last year, I was having a bit of a shit time and I set my wallpaper to a picture of the Opera House, kind of to remind myself that one day soon, I’d be as far away from where I was as possible, and seeing it felt great – as though I gave the final two fingers.
After, I grabbed myself a sandwich and went to China Town – just to get my head around the public transport system. I saw a counter with custard filled cream puffs with a big queue, so went to see what the fuss was about. They were amazing. I went back to the hostel after, and it seems as though I picked a bit of a party hostel – there have been people pouring goon down their throats and I’m trying to read a book. At the rate I’m going, I feel as though I’m due a mid life crisis in comparison to the others.
I had seen an article on Buzzfeed about a bunch of places you wouldn’t expect to find in Sydney, and the easiest place to get to was Taylor’s Port. I went on Wednesday – it’s a pretty nice walk there, and was surprised to see lizards sat in the middle of the paths – I think I have seen similar sized small dogs. The path lead to a small beach where I stayed for a couple of hours, sharing the beach with 15 or so other people.
Thursday, I was planning to go to Blue Mountain but I suspect that I sprained my ankle last week so I’d give it a bit longer to heal. Instead, I headed to Bondi to do the Coastal Walk to Coogee Beach, but I got to Bronte before wanting to head back, so I caught the bus. After, I went to China Town for a few cream puffs, then it started raining so I went back to the hostel.
I leart the hard way why your just don’t wear flip flops to a fish market on Friday. Fishy feet. The market wasn’t that different to ones in say, Borough Market, but this one had a choice of hot food to cook. Food-wise, there was a lot of shellfish on offer – scallops, lobster, squid, though when you understand how food poisoning works, it’s preferable to get something else. I chose barramundi as it’s a well liked fish over here, and it was one of the best bits of fish that I’ve eaten in a while.
On Saturday, I was desperate for something to do so I opted for the 10km walk from Manly to Spit and got the bus back to Manly, then the ferry back to Circular Quay. It was a pretty nice walk, I preferred it to the Bondi to Bronte one.
Yesterday, I went to Blue Mountain, which was posted yesterday.
Overall, I felt underwhelmed by Sydney – after spending so long in Melbourne, it just feels the same but with better weather and beaches and a fancy Opera House. I think that over New Years I’m going to skip the Sydney idea and find somewhere chilled out. One of the things that I’m missing about travelling through Europe is that I’d take a flight for an hour and a half and be in a different culture and eating something that matches the culture. I can at least take advantage of it next month when I go to Hong Kong and eat myself into a coma, probably induced by copious amounts of dim sum.
A day in the Blue Mountains
This morning, I got on the 8.18 train from Central and arrived at the Blue Mountains by 10.45, with a little walk from the station to the mountains. After the lookout points, I went to have a walk in the mountains. I’d just wanted to spend a couple of hours there, doing a few trails, but managed to get well and truly lost and spent just over four hours attempting to navigate a route out. I’d say that I walked around 17km, a lot of it up hills and stairs; although a nice place to walk, sod getting lost in there again. 
North West Tasmania: a Food Tour
To clarify, I am not in Australia with Kanye West’s child.
I am stopping in Devonport to go on a food tour with the company Australian Wild Harvest. I had a fantastic day; we stopped off at a salmon farm, Ashgrove Cheese, Anvers Chocolate, a pig farm for lunch (cheese, pork, salad, wine), olive oil tasting, a cider house/distillery and a vineyard.
Launceston
It took around two and a half hours to reach Launceston, a small city in northern Tasmania. With my stuff in the hostel, I went on a brewery tour in Boag’s which I think will be the last one for a while. The tour in itself was alright, but with it being the fifth or so brewery that I’ve visited in the space of a few days, I am well informed of the process of beer making. After, I went for a walk in the city and bought some dinner.
Wednesday, I went to Cataract Gorge for the morning – it’s more or less a canyon with a few walking paths around, a really nice place for a long walk, though I chose a less strenuous path to begin with. I wanted some lunch after and I remembered an article that I’d read about the best 50 burgers in the world, and there is a burger joint here ranked amongst Fergburger in New Zealand. For those who aren’t familiar, Fergburger are famous for their over-sized, delicious burgers, and when I’m in New Zealand in two years time, it’s one of the places that I want to visit the most. After a quick schooner in a nearby bar, I visited the burger joint which ended up being a disappointment as it was alright at best – I have made a lot better. After, I headed to the city park where they have a monkey enclosure and watched the monkeys sod around for a good half hour or so.
The next day I popped into town, there was blue sky and sun so I went back to Cataract Gorge for a two hour hiking path, then came back to the hostel for a rest.
Earlier today, I went to Cradle Mountain – it seemed as though it’d be a drive there with a stop off, then do your own thing for a few hours, then come back. Instead, it was a shuttle bus to take people to and from a six day hiking path and the people who opted for a day tour did a few bits and pieces to keep the driver busy for a few hours. I feel as though I was ripped off by the company so there is one of my infamous emails coming to them soon.
For me, Launceston has been nice, but it won’t be the thing that jumps out at me when I think of Tasmania. It’d be a bit of a different story if the was no issue about driving, as I would have gone to the Tamar Wine Valley and driven myself to Cradle Mountain as well. I have my last stop in Tasmania tomorrow to go on a food tour on Sunday, then I’ll make a start on the East Coast.
Hobart
Finally, I have left my job and Melbourne – there were a couple of days between leaving work and flying into Hobart which were spent packing and trying to re-organise my backpack. The last night was spent at a pub quiz, our team The Great Barrier Queef did shockingly bad but the team name made up for it.
On Thursday I flew to Hobart and had to get a taxi with a couple of guys staying up the road to me as the airport bus was full. Thursday evening I did nothing, then Friday morning I went to the top of Mt.Wellington. The views from the top were awesome although it was so windy at the top that I think that if you took a small dog on a lead it’d turn into a kite. After, I went to MONA, having heard great things about it. The gallery lived up to the reputation of being weird and wonderful – it took a good couple of hours to get around the place. It’s one of the best galleries that I’ve been to, and if time permitted I would’ve visited the brewery there too.
On Friday I went out for most of the day with some people in the hostel for literally a piss up in a brewery (or five). It was a good day out, with a stop for some pho in the middle to re-line my stomach.
There was the option in one place to go for some chocolate stout, which I remember from a beer festival in Budapest on my second time there; it wasn’t quite the same but still bloody good. There was also quite a nice English beer named Brexit. In one of the last bars we were given beer jam, so naturally I tried it on a croissant for breakfast on Saturday morning. Not quite a hangover cure, but still good.
Saturday, I went to Salamanca Market – I was expecting more like a farmers market, but it was more like a flea market, not one that I was a fan of either. After, I headed to Cascade Brewery which took around 40 minutes to walk door to door, then went on their tour. It was pretty good for $25, with four tasting drinks at the end. By now, I think that I’ve been to enough breweries to last a few days, and since on Sunday I had a trip to Wineglass Bay, I came back to the hostel to put my feet up.
Today, it’s warm but raining so I had a look round some shops and went to read my book with a coffee. Tomorrow, I’m leaving Hobart to go up north and hopefully heading to Cradle Mountain during the week.