Two girls, ten days, four cities.

The thing about going to Australia is... FOURTEEN HOUR FLIGHT.

Which is bad enough to complain about, but that's actually 14 hour flight out of LAX so if you want to tally up the total hours I logged getting from Indy to Sydney you're looking somewhere south of 18 hours in a window seat.

So when you are planning on spending an entire day getting somewhere (factor in the time travel phenomenon and you're actually killing two days getting there) you want to make sure you don't waste any time while you're there.

Hence why we tackled 4 cities in that 10 day span between November 14-24th.

I don't have any special formula as to why we picked the cities we did. In all honesty I think when we booked the flights back in February and Jenn laid out the four places I just smiled and handed over my first born child, I mean my credit card.

Our itinerary went a little something like this:

Days 1&2 (Thurs/Fri): In time travel/transit. Because Sydney is 16 hours ahead of Indy time, Friday never existed for me)
Day 3 (Sat): Arrive in
Sydney around 8am
Day 4 (Sun): Sydney
Day 5 (Mon): Sydney
Day 6 (Tues): Fly to Cairns
Day 7 (Wed): Cairns
Day 8 (Thurs): Fly to Brisbane, train to Surfers Paradise
Day 9 (Fri): Surfer's Paradise
Day 10 (Sat): Take train back to Brisbane
Day 11 (Sun): In time travel/transit back to LAX. And because of the time change again, we left Brisbane at 11am Sunday and arrived in LAX at 6am Sunday. Thank goodness for iPhones that automatically change times!

We booked everything in one fell swoop through Qantas, using the "Mult-City" option and struck a pretty great deal, with the total for all airfare somewhere $1500/person.

Flying into one major city and out of the other helped prevent us from backtracking too, so we were able to see more.  (Surfer's was an afterthought, in retrospect we could have flown directly into the Gold Coast and avoided the train, but it was only an hour ride and not bad at all!)

My reflections: ten days was nowhere near enough. We were warned of this, and didn't have much of a choice though so we made due! And the flights aren't as terrible as they seem. Sleeping pills, halfway decent airplane food, traveling with your best friend and unlimited movies and TV shows made them pretty easy in all actuality!

Thankful.

What am I thankful for?
The wanderlust that my grandparents and parents instilled in me, the job that affords me to do so, and the people who accompany me along the way. I've been sang happy birthday to by a Virgin Islander taxi driver, snorkeled the great barrier reef, rode horses along the beaches of the Dominican, snowboarded in Park City, cliff dove in Jamaica, swam with the dolphins in Mexico, snuggled a koala in Australia, shared bubble gum with an ape in Cancun, para-sailed a handful of the prettiest coastlines across the Caribbean, and met some of the most awesome people, hands down.

I can’t wait to see what adventures my passport and I stumble upon next!

 

Good ol' Southern (hemisphere) Hospitality

One of the first, and most enduring, things I noticed about Australia was the genuine kindness everyone seemed to possess.

From the moment we stepped foot onto our Qantas flight in LAX until those last lingering moments as we hit US soil ten days later it was true Southern Hospitality. Southern Hemisphere that is!

We continuously laughed about one of the flights, in which the "please stow away all electronics and prepare for landing" recording was played, and the flight attendant walked by smiling to us, with a "oh finish your page love, no hurry!"

There was never any annoyance as we fumbled through their coins trying to distinguish between the two dollar coin and the ten cent coin, every ticket station worker smiled and directed us to the correct platform, random people would chime in as we stared blankly at a bus map telling us where to hop off and even offering suggestions for places to visit, waitresses kindly explained the steered us from ordering "entrees" which are more like 'small plates' so we wouldn't be disappointed in tiny portions, random cafe owners would give us the wifi passwords so we could communicate with everyone back home.

Everyone loved to hear where we were from, why we came there, where we were headed, what we thought so far.

There was never a favor too big, a question too dumb, or an unworthy comment. And believe me, this says a lot! I've traveled a handful of places where you just felt like an annoyance.

Being from the midwest we often get praised from visitors as being so kind, for once I finally understood what they meant. The impact it had on is was resounding. I've never felt more welcomed into any place in my life!
    

Auto-pilot.

My clock says it's 8:30 Monday morning... my body says it's 11:30 Monday night.

Against all speculation, I actually did return from Australia. Believe me, it took a lot of talking into to not accidentally miss my flight home.

My mind is on auto-pilot today as I stare blankly at my computer screen at work. I'm here... what more do you want from me?!
 

At least I didn't bring my waffle iron.

Hi, my name is Chelsea and I am a recovering overpacker addict.

Not exaggerating, I would take a different swimsuit for every day we would be on the beach. Every day.

Half of my shoes closet? PACK IT!

Three varieties of perfume? PACK THEM!

Ping pong balls, Catch Phrase, snorkeling masks, football? Yes. Yes. Yes. All of the above!

In my defense, my mother is the woman who took a waffle iron to Florida. I get it honestly people.

Until I realized, lugging around that 60lb suitcase is a pain, paying the Overweight Luggage fee every trip is frustrating, and waiting for the very last bag to drop onto the baggage claim (I swear the unloaders do it on purpose, to punish me for giving them hernias) was annoying.

I present to you, my friends, eleven days worth of vacationy goodness, IN. A. CARRY ON.

Go ahead and bow down to my greatness.