Hi guys,

Sorry for the lame title, it’s always one of those things isn’t it… coming up with the “best” or most “funny” or most click bait-able title for a blog…

Anyhow somewhere in my title I speak truth as I have gone “Down Under” and the start of my Australian trip made me hold my breath in stress thanks to again another typical George moment. 🙋‍♀️ Whoopwhoop.

So after crying for what felt like days after saying goodbye to Gien, in truth it was only a couple of hours – ever the dramatic, it was time to get this little booty to Melbourne.

Everything actually went swimmingly with this part. Shocker I know, it was a nice little difference from all my previous times.

But if course that feeling didn’t last long. I mean it just had to go wrong somewhere right? We have been doing this for a while now and NOTHING ever goes fully as planned 😂

So after my flight which departed and landed on time, going through all security etc etc, I needed to get some cash. After changing 1 million Rupiah to only a small ten dollar (that was a disappointment guys, from being a millionaire to having nothing but a ten dollar bill haha), I then tried to use the ATM. The ATM didn’t like me or my credit card as this was already nearly maxed out (forever love limits 🙄).

So after a taxi driver offered to bring me to my hotel and we try the card with his swipey machine thingy, we soon realised that this too was not working. Cue the proper stressing out moment right here.

The taxi driver was extremely helpful and understanding and luckily we came to an agreement that he would pick me up from my hotel back to the airport on the day I leave to Sydney and shall pay him then for both trips. He was an absolute godsend, cos quite frankly at 6 am dealing with this faff is no fun.

The hotel unfortunately was less understanding. Even though I had paid for my first night, I needed to pay my second night before being allowed to check-in.

To keep the long story short: it took me from 6 am till 11 am to finally manage to get my cards working. This of course after running around Melbourne city trying to find a bank that was open and doing everything I possibly could online… it finally worked!!

By this time I could’ve seriously done with a beer as I was dying from tiredness, hunger and now relief. I immediately bought some yoghurt as brekkie and then hit the mall to get some new sneakers which I succeeded in 😏.

On the way back I treated myself to Chai latte. Now I know even if it isn’t true, I consider Chai Latte a coffee. So this is me having my little, teeny tiny bit more appreciation for coffee moment (thanks Gien), which was a very definite – well deserved might I add – moment.

Once I had filled up I went to the Queen Victoria Market to have a little look around. The market was huge and was made up of stalls filled with food, fabrics, wooden items and of course clothing. I didn’t buy anything but I enjoyed roaming around for a an hour or so before heading back for check-in time.

When I finally got back to the hotel I could finally have a very well deserved nanny nap.

I met my new lovely roomie who i’d be sharing rooms with and then went off to grab a bite to eat & facetime with my sister Rose ❤️.

After dinner I kicked back in bed and watched a feel good movie. Hoping it would make me sleepy which unfortunately backfired, feel good movies with great music doesn’t make you sleepy, lesson learned 😂

BUT, even so, I can still smile and laugh about the whole ordeal because well, it makes it a hell of day and kept me on my toes. Plus I survived it. My tattoo could have not had better timing with it’s meaning. 😅

After my first ‘high-school musical drama lama ding dong’ of a day, I woke up fresh (sort of) and ready to see my friend Kimbo. I met Kim when I went on my group trip to Thailand and continued to travel a bit afterwards with her. So to say I was excited to see her again after two months was an understatement. 😍

We decided to grab some brunch together and afterwards walk around Melbourne for hours. We ended up visiting the Botanical gardens and the Shrine of Remembrance – a memorial for those who fought in the first and second world wars. –

After a full day walking about visiting many highlights of Melbourne, such as the Hozier street – this street is filled with graffiti artwork – we then treated ourselves to some sushi 🤤.

The following day we again met up and headed out to walk around the busy streets filled with shops until we reached another garden (they have many) to do a little meditating.

I’m not the greatest at meditating because I am so easily distracted but after I haven’t been feeling as grounded the past couple of days I tried to relax, focus on my breathing and doing some Reiki.

Now I know to some I might sound a little hippy and what not but Reiki is actually a pretty cool thing to be able to do and the history is also pretty epic to read. In short Reiki is basically tapping into your own energy and letting it pass through you or onto others with all it’s positive effects. It helps ground you but also helps make positive things come your way, it can help the healing process and mentality of either yourself or someone else.

If you want the full deets on Reiki you can read it here: https://www.reiki.org/faq/whatisreiki.html.

After some meditation we calmly walked through the garden until we found a place to get a quick bite to eat. After our pitstop we visited the library of Melbourne. Well one of them. You see books are life. Ever since I watched Beauty & The Beast as a little girl, I have loved libraries (though at the time I hated reading haha). Nowadays though I have collected many books and love going into bookstores.

This library was a beautiful one. Even though they had one wall filled with books about chess (yeah don’t ask me cos I have no idea why so many could write about it…) it really was a gorgeous and interesting building.

After snooping around for a bit, it was then time for me to get my stuff and head off to the airport to catch my flight to the wonderful city of Sydney.

My flight was fast and smooth sailing. My taxi driver was a proper chatterbox giving me all the advice any traveller would appreciate on where to go and what to see.

Obviously I already had some highlights written down but before I do anything, I first needed some dinner and to relax before hitting the streets of this concrete jungle.

My first morning here I went to find a laundry shop and breakfast. After settling for some eggs on toast (also a good start to the day), I then made my way to the botanical gardens.

Within my first few minutes in the gardens I had already bumped into my favourite friend.. a golden orb spider dangling in front of my face.

Yaaay… I immediately asked myself why on heavens earth have I come to the country where the spiders are as big as your head and most are deadly?!

Shoving that question right back into the far deep end of my mind I managed to keep myself calm enough to take a photo (always need evidence when I say a spider is big or my dad will never believe me…) to then hastily walk away shuddering with every step.

After my delightful wake up call with mr. Spider, I then walked around the whole gardens and ended up at the entrance of the Opera House.

What a sight to see… It was gorgeous!

Somehow it did seem smaller than I imagined but still it was awesome in every way. After walking around and about I decided to visit the museum of Sydney. There they played a video about the Opera House when it was being built, they explained the structure, how it was put together but also hoe divided the people were on the design and having it there. Many said it was atrocious and others absolutely loved it.

I think it is like the discussion of Chardonnay or Papaya. You either love it or hate it.

I personally like the design, it’s quirky, different and definitely stands out. I love the fact that it is white and when you get a little closer, you can see the tiles that make the roof glimmer and shine in the sun.

After the museum I headed back through the gardens and make one big final loop around before taking a break on a bench opposite the bridge and Opera House.

The water glistened and the birds sang. It was a small heaven on earth moment, again here I tried to focus on my breathing and the sight before me. Taking it all in and being present.

After my walk I headed back – may I mention that I knew the way without maps! Ash would be proud -, once back at the hotel I picked up laundry and repacked everything. Like I said before the whole repacking your bag can be a pain in the arse BUT when all your clothes are clean and fresh I actually find it fun to do so. Call me OCD, but it’s somewhat relaxing.🤷‍♀️🙈

After laundry I got myself some snacks (read: dried fruit, crisps and water) and relaxed in my room. Because lunch at the gardens was pretty big and heavy I wasn’t hungry and therefore stayed inside that evening.

It was nice to just have a night to myself making a plan for the next few days and then relaxing a bit.

It is so important to also plan relax days or nights in-between whilst travelling. It helps calm your mind as you see so many new things and get so many new impressions constantly, sometimes it’s good to just give yourself a break.

Therefore that night I binge watched my series until I fell asleep. Btw i’m loving Netflix here, so many episodes and other series are available here 🤩.

My second full day out I headed to the Darling Harbour. I heard that there is a lot that goes on here which is always a fun thing to witness. I first entered the Chinese Garden of Friendship.

It was gorgeous and yet very awkward as every corner I turned there were couples having a moment. I felt like an awkward third wheel everytime and so after seeing the full garden I headed out to walk around the marina before entering the Maritime museum.

The reason why I wanted to visit was because they had the Wildlife Photography Award winners exhibition.

This years photographs were stunning, breathtaking and also have me goosebumps. Some were extraordinary while others was heartbreaking with their backstory.

It truly is amazing how these photographers managed to capture such precious moments.

This years winner is David Lloyd who captured two brothers rubbing heads against each-other as a sort of greeting for a few moments before setting down.

Below you can see this magnificent display.

If you’re interested in the other photo’s & of course the winning photo, you can view them here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year

After an emotional exhibition I then went off to have a glass of rosé at the marina and enjoy the view before heading back to the hotel.

Tonight Beyonce’s documentary Homecoming was on my list of things to enjoy and boy did I enjoy! It was a really feel good documentary with such a good message, so I definitely recommend you guys watching it when you have a night off!

The next morning I took it nice and slow. I walked around for a bit before catching the bus to go to the town hall where i’ll be starting a 3 hour free walk tour of Sydney.

Our guide Jany did a fabulous job! We walked around many streets sightseeing and taking in all the history.

Sydney has so much history it’s amazing and way too long to share with you all so below I have written a few little fun facts that I learned on the way:

The coat of arms is made up of a kangaroo and emu. The reason why these two animals were chosen was because that cannot walk backwards, meaning Australia can only go forward. Not only this but Australia is the only place in the world that eats both animals on their coat of arms… I’ll let you decide on what you think of that.

In one of the streets we walked down there was an art display where they had loads of birdcages and some had speakers in them which played the sounds certain birds that used to live in Sydney make.

On the pavement they had tiles with these birds names on them.

Sydney isn’t the capitol city of Australia as Melbourne and Sydney were always in competition about who was the better city? And so Australia decided that Canberra (which sits in between the two) would become the capitol.

Sydney’s brief history: obviously the aboriginal people were the first people that lived in Australia. There is sooo much history on them that i’ll let you do the digging on that one just because it is so much and so varied I wouldn’t even know where to start… BUT the Dutch were the first people to arrive on the west coast and sometime later the British visited the east coast. In 1770 following James Cook’s mapping of the east coast the British government examined the possibility of a permanent base in the South Pacific.

After Britain lost the American colonies in 1781, it formulated plans for a colony in New South Wales. Therefore they sent a fleet of 11 ships carrying 1000 convicts to build Sydney and a colony. Sounds like a great plan right? Haha.

Anyhow so there are some buildings such as the first ever built hospital that was built by and for the convicts. But because no-one wanted to grant the money to do so, the governor then made a deal with the convicts: in exchange for a three year monopoly on the import of alcohol (mainly Rum) they would build the hospital.

The north wing has now become the parliament house (great to be able to say the house was funded thanks to alcohol). The central wing is still a hospital and the south wing has become a museum.

Honestly there is still so much I could write about the history of all these amazing places and buildings but imma let you guys come over and have a look for yourselves and find out why I have fallen in love with this city.

After the tour (we ended up of course at the Opera House) I had dinner with one of the girls I met on the tour. We really hit it off and so we decided to hang out and wander around the Harbour Bridge. We decided to walk a bit of the bridge, which for me is another fear. I always feel uncomfortable on bridges because well to be blunt: I don’t trust them. I don’t get how it can do it’s job, just never made sense to me. Plus it goes over water. Another fave of mine haha.

When we reached the part that went over the water I started cramping up and walking like a penguin, well to be more accurate: like I was about to poop myself, which to be fair, it felt like I was going to that’s how nervous I was.

We didn’t go far (surprise surprise) but made some awesome photo’s before heading back.

The next day we met up again to go to the Rocks market and museum.

The Rocks is a neighbourhood of historic laneways in the shadow of Sydney Harbour Bridge. The oldest house of Sydney can be found here. Again there is sooo much history, my thumbs are going slightly numb from this typing so if you wanna know more about this specific place please visit their website: https://www.therocks.com/history-and-heritage?mobile=1&alttemplate=MobileProduct&showSection=History

After The Rocks we went to have tea at the “Tea Cosy” where they also have scones with clotted cream and jam 🤩.

These I haven’t had in ages so I was so excited, like a little girl at Christmas.

I think my face says it all.

Once I had gobbled up my scones and had my tea we again wandered around and ended up at the gardens, admiring the sight before I headed back to my hotel to collect my things and be on my way to the airport.

My next destination will be Brisbane where I shall stay with my aunt & uncle and work for a few months. Travelling is harsh, seeing all your money from long and hard work just going and going.

As much as I am nervous for this new adventure, I also am very excited and extremely grateful that I have my family with me and am not totally alone.

Anyways, in Brizzy I shall have more adventures only my updates might not be as frequent but i’ll definitely keep you all posted.

I mean knowing me i’ll most probably have many clumsy moments I will have to share!

Such as driving of the lefthand side of the road… that should be fun 😅.

Thank you ever so much for reading my blogs and travelling with me up until now!

Looking forward to writing my next blog soon.

Lot’s of love,

G.