Well it's been months since I last posted and I did plan on keeping it up while I was travelling but it wasn't as easy to do as I had first thought. I left Ireland on the 18th of August and arrived in Sydney on the 19th, I then flew back to Ireland on the 7th of December arriving on the 8th and then spent the day surprising everyone as only a few people knew I was coming back.
It was a crazy few months and I absolutely loved it. I moved a lot, worked a bit, traveled the east coast on a ten day road trip (Sydney to Cairns and back again in ten days is a little crazy but fun) and had a lot of great nights out with some great friends I made along the way. I still find it funny that I had to travel to the other side of the world to make friends with people who are from places not so far from here. I spent most of my time in Sydney and although I wasn't a huge fan of it at first (I think it was all the giant buildings) I ended up loving the place and was really sad to leave it. If I was to write about everything I did I would be here forever so I might just go on and on about the highlights of my trip. This is just part one which is all about my first two weeks in Australia.
Getting to Sydney, then leaving Sydney.
When I first got to Australia I was so excited about being there. The weather was a bit crap though. It was summer here and still winter there so was cold and raining, something you don't really think of when looking through the catalogs in the travel agents. My first hostel room was great everyone was so nice and got along really well. After all the planning of getting there when I did eventually arrive I got this weird well I'm here now so what do I do feeling. It turns out I'm not the only one who does this. I was in Sydney just a few days and decided to rent a car and drive to Cairns with a friend. So we did and left the next morning. Still can't believe it as that easy to rent a car, oh and her name was Janice the car I mean and she was new with only 162km and didn't stay that low for long poor Janice. The main plan was drive to Cairns, so we did. Well not exactly I did none of the driving because 1) I don't have a full licence or one that is in date and 2) it would have just been a disaster as I have the attention span of a fish and those roads are really long and everything looked the same for miles.
That first day we made it to just a couple of hours away from Brisbane and stayed in a motel that became known as "the murder motel". Nobody has actually been murdered in this motel well that I know of but it sort of looked murdery. You know a place someone might go to get murdered or murder someone or so I was told while driving up to it. Stopped in Byron bay the next day for lunch then onto Brisbane where I stayed for a couple of nights, did some sight seeing and visited the koala sanctuary. Next was on to Airlie Beach where we did get to just didn't expect all the hostels receptions to close 50 minutes before we got there so well ended up driving a bit more and stopping to sleep here and there. Got to Cairns the next morning and yes stayed in a hostel. This hostel was so nice and the rooms had balcony's. Only stayed in Cairns for one night leaving the next evening. But not before I got a tattoo. I was so excited to get it as it's the tattoo I've been wanting for so long just never actually got.
On the way back I stayed in Townsville. Got there late so only really stopped to sleep and drive around for ages looking for Pieface (I miss Pieface). The next night I did eventually get to stay in Airlie Beach. I spent most of the time there hiding from the sun as I was very sunburnt thanks to my very pale skin and hot Cairns weather. The next day we stopped in Brisbane again to go to Australia Zoo we arrived at 3am, it doesn't open till 9am and the security guy in the car park was very confused to why we where 6 hours early. The look on his face was priceless when he was told that we drove from Cairns and where just really excited to see the crocodiles lol. After the zoo we drove to Byron Bay and stayed there. I have only since realized that it was the same hostel that was in The Inbetweners 2. It was so nice there and really glad we ended up there as we where meant to stay in Surfers Paradise but changed our minds once we got there. The next day we drove back to Sydney. So that's it in a nutshell my first two weeks in Australia. There is so much more I could write about but for now this is it, but here is a list of the things I'll always remember.
Things I'll never forget about travelling up and down the east coast.
- The excitement of getting in the car and setting off not knowing whats going to happen.
- Getting pulled over for speeding less then two hours later.
- The rain and having no lights on the road except for cats eyes (when it rains it pours).
- The Murder Motel. Didn't sleep well that night I was so freaked out and the weird noises outside. I locked all the doors then the radio came on by it's self. In fairness it didn't looks so bad the next morning.
- Seeing the sun set while driving over some mountainy areas.
- Pulling over in the pitch black in the middle of absolute nowhere miles from anywhere to look at the stars. It was amazing I've never seen so many in my life.
- Freaking out and trying to get back in the car because I then thought I saw a snake moving near me. It wasn't a snake it was a stick that someone moved with their foot. It was really dark and I saw it move.
- The road kill it was pretty bad so many dead kangaroos.
- The trains that we passed, they go on forever. One was full of cows.
- Passing the banana and sugar cane fields. Feels like a different world.
- The sugar museum. A fecking sugar museum! so some reason this made me laugh until I cried.
- The names of all the creeks that we passed along the way. Jackass creek lol.
- The road signs. Some had trivia questions while other just baffled me like no sleeping and driving I would have though that was hard to do all at once.
- All the places we stopped at along the way from the city's to the small towns and even the rest areas and beaches.
- Finally getting to Cairns, getting my tattoo and getting really sunburnt.
- Sitting outside a small shop with a petrol pump at 4am waiting for it to open at 6am because we had feck all left. Thankfully the man was there and opened for us yay.
- The bush fires. I never realized we would see so many in such a short time. Some where small and some bigger. One we drove passed and could feel the heat inside the car I thought the window might melt.
- Billy Joel's "We didn't start the fire" coming on in the car as we drove passed that big fire.
- Realizing that not planning ahead meant sleeping in the car at a rest area then noticing a motel across the road when it got bright. Wasn't the happiest person in the world at first but I lived.
- Arriving back in Sydney. Then trying to figure out where to park and what to do with a car in a city lol.
♥
