Back home…

Hello everyone!

You might have heard by now: I am back home! Arrived last Wednesday after a more than 30 hour trip from Australia to my Granddad’s front step for his birthday! I hadn’t told many people I was coming back, so no need to feel left out. Hardly anyone knew.

I have had such a magnificent time in Australia. Definitely a country I would like to visit again! My last week I spent with Tracey from Amalie Labradoodles (follow this link www.amalie.com.au) and all her dogs and puppies where I had such an amazing time and I hope to visit them when I do go back.

I have no plans of going back right now, so you’re all stuck with me, but travelling will always be in the back of my mind. Who knows what will happen next?

Hope to see you all soon for a meet-up.

For now, with love,

Joany x

Sydney – Brisbane Roadtrip

Hi everyone!

Sorry that it’s been in a while (again). I’m on a roadtrip! That’s right, all the way from Sydney to Canberra to Brisbane. I’m just naming the big cities to give you an idea, but the things we’ve seen so far!

About one and a half week ago (when I’m writing this, I have no idea when I’m posting because on a road trip internet is not widely available) after our 6 night stay in Sydney we picked up our wicked van from Wicked Campers in Sydney to start our trip. We haven’t completely decided on a route, but that’s part of the fun!

Thanks to the app WikiCamps we’re able to find brilliant places to park our van and sleep inside (which I’m quite grateful for as it’s been raining most of the days and I definitely do not prefer being a tent at moments like that). The first night we stayed right next to the beach in Wombarra, a brilliant view to wake up to the next morning. We drove down to Batemans Bay (with multiple stops along the way as the view is just beautiful) before headed inland with a stop just outside Braidwood. The day after we visited the capital Canberra which is just the strangest city. Hardly any cars around, and it’s very obvious this is a planned city for the politicians. For a tourist there is not much going on, other than a visit to the parliament house (which was nice!) and the war memorial, but that’s it. Yet I’m happy I saw the place!

The day we visited Canberra was also the first time we saw kangaroos, yay! Goal achieved, only five minutes after we started wondering when we would see some. They appeared right in the fields behind our van, about ten on one side and four on the other, creating an amazing scenery with the sun going down. Since then we’ve seen them a couple more times, which is just as exciting.

  

Speaking of nature spectacles in Australia, I’m honestly impressed with all that is around. The kind of birds that fly everywhere (parrots and cockatoos and pelicans are just a start) amaze me each time. I would say I love the nature here, but that would be a lie. I really, really dislike the spiders and their size. The first encounter with one of these creatures was on the windowsill of the car whilst I was driving 110 km/h on the motorway and it crawled right past my face. What a nice wake up call! I somehow managed to stop the van on the side of the road (I did turn on my wipers and the wrong indicator simultaneously, but luckily there weren’t many cars around) and as I leaned as much as possible towards the passenger seat, the brave passenger opened the window and the spider was smart enough to realise it should start crawling on the other side. Unfortunately this is not the end of my spiders adventure, as a couple of days ago a nice big fellow was sat right above my head just as I lied down to go to sleep. My once again brave passenger caught this at least 10 centimeter wide legged animal an managed to get it out of the van, but it caused for some great nightmares the following few days. Bug spray in hand now, we’re cautiously check the van each time…

Right now we’re headed towards Brisbane to visit some towns along the coast before we head back into the country and try to visit Toowoomba. We’ve got a little more than a week left, so if I’ve got another spider story to tell, or something else possibly…, I will keep you informed.

That’s it for now, speak soon, with love,

Joany

Hello Melbourne!

G’day mate!

Yes, that was an awful reference. I’ve arrived! Actually, I arrived in Melbourne over a week ago now, but haven’t had the time or the internet to give you a small update until now.

My flight into Melbourne was on time (at 00.10) and I managed to get through customs with my bag fairly quickly (which was something I did not expect from Australia as I have watched too many Australian security shows on the Dutch telly) and got to my hotel at around 1PM and was ready to eat my evening meal (four hours difference with Jakarta). I only figured out at 11.22 AM the next morning that I was supposed to check out at 10AM and so I carried my luggage back to the airport and waited for the bus to take me to my hostel in St. Kilda.

I was welcomed into the country with such grace, as a woman on the bus offered to bring me to the hostel after the bus driver didn’t know where it was and she had the time to take me and she didn’t want me to walk, which was just such a nice gesture. Especially since the weather wasn’t great when I arrived and with the possibility of rain pouring down I really didn’t feel like walking and carrying a 30k suitcase (yes, I know).

Since my arrival the weather has improved each day and right now we’re hitting 36 degrees and full sun. I can deal with this kind of heat a lot better than in Indonesia, although I do miss the airconditioning, but then again that might give me a cold and I’ve just gotten over one.

One of the main reasons I picked Melbourne as my first destination in Australia is because of the tennis! Australian Open is currently on and I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy the first two days of the tournament. It’s quite a big event in the city centre and whilst qualifying is on you can enter for free, so I managed to enjoy some tennis before the real event. It has such a great atmosphere and as the weather was good, I’ve been so happy to see some of the greatest tennis players including Djokovic, Nadal, Venus Williams and Wawrinka, and some of the Dutchies as well. Unfortunately, though as expected, the result of the Dutch was quite bad as by the second round none of them have gone through.

But that’s enough about tennis. I’ve been seeing some of the city centre of Melbourne and absolutely love it here. The atmosphere is so great, the people are friendly and it’s a great melting pot. I’ve gotten myself down to Victoria Market and been hanging out in many of the parks of Melbourne. This city is very green and even though in the centre there are many big buildings, to me it doesn’t feel like you’re in a big city. The buzz is just about right around here.

I’m going to be staying in Melbourne for a couple more weeks before I’m headed to Sydney on the 3rd of February and travel up north to Brisbane from there. The plan isn’t completely set in stone yet, so if any of you have any tips and tricks, I’m more than happy to hear them.

Speak soon, with love,

Joany x