Welcome to Australia

I have officially been in Australia for six weeks now. The feelings of home sickness come and go but I haven't felt the "culture shock" that UT had advised me to be "inevitable." Australia reminds me so much of the United States...we all speak the same language (just in sexier accents), eat the same food, drive the same cars, have the appearance of the American culture (very diverse), and honestly have the same sense of humor (thank god for the continuing sarcasm). This trip started out with alternate motives to the normal desires to travel, experience a new culture, and be independent...and it has turned into more than I could have hoped for. Australia has brought parts of myself that I thought had lost in the past year. I finally feel like myself again...the feelings of loss and sadness have faded. This trip has been and will be the experience of a lifetime...

So far we have been to the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Stradbroke Island, and Sydney.

Our first excursion to the Gold Coast was an ideal weekend trip that included a group of friends from our home-sweet-home Altitude apartment complex. We went along all the beaches, my favorite being Snapper Rock in Coolangatta. The shops and restaurants were located right along the beaches, perfect for the ideal "car less" international college students. Surfer's Paradise was the ideal tourist spot. It has unlimited activities and an ongoing list of theme parks and entertainment. Our hostel was called Surf N Sun, nice but interesting, and solely fulfilled its purpose as a place to sleep. By nightfall we had enlisted for a "bar crawl." If unaware of what this entails, WELL THEN you will just need to go on one. This particular event had a little under 200 people traveling from bar to bar in a group with the chosen stickers on each person's shirt either being yellow: horny, green: single, or red: in a relationship. Some being clever decided to mix and match to keep the mystery alive. At each bar free drinks of beer or wine were served and various "sex game" competitions were held. Fact: I go to the University of Texas at Austin (number one party school in the nation) and have never blacked out...sooo being in Australia with the drinking age at 18 I decided to make my night most memorable by setting the goal to reach the stage of blackout. Success. So there is no more to say about the antics of the Gold Coast. All in all beautiful, very touristy, and uncountable options of entertainment.

Our second attempt in experiencing the essence of Australia was our trip to the Sunshine Coast. Girls trip only. A group of 6 of us endured the two trains and a bus to get to this oasis of beaches. We stayed in a really cool hostel called Halse Lodge. It had a bar, large sitting areas, a computer lab, and plenty of interesting people to meet. The particular area we stayed in was called Noosa Heads (so far my favorite beach). Unlike Surfer's Paradise it is tranquil and intended to meet the feelings of being in the natural environment. The entire area surrounded the beach and had all of the shops and restaurants all within walking distance of the beach. We ate twice at a pizza place called Zachary's Gourmet Pizza...it was amazing. But advice: do not try to wear flip flops into the bars or clubs because they will NOT let you in--nice shoes and heels only. An early night sleep was on the itinerary for me and an early morning to see the sunrise. The following day had a stunning sunrise over the beach for my three friends and I who braved the early morning. The whole day was filled with eating icecream and sleeping on the beach until our 2:00 bus came to take us back our lovely town of Brisbane.

Stradbroke Island: Specific location was Moreton Bay...
This trip was through our University of Queensland and what an experience it was. Beautiful- YES...fun-need I say more than it was an experience. We went to Moreton Bay for research and that is what we did. It was a three day trip that entailed all 7 of our Altitude brigade all bunking together. I would love to use some enthusiastic description with amazing details from day one, but to be quite frank it was little deserving of the words interesting and utterly miserable. It was absolutely freezing, raining, and we were up to our knees as the high tide came in. Interesting accounted for the moments we saw starfish, sea cucumbers, octopuses, soldier crabs, sting rays, and other various sea animals that we found...miserable accounted for the rest. Day two consisted of the work portion of the weekend. Our group: Me, Frankie, Marc, and Jens. Our topic: Sea Cucumbers. Hypothesis: The greater the distances from the shore then the longer the sea cucumber...our hypothesis turned out to be invalid and our findings proved that the size of the sea cucumbers didn't coincide with it's location (at least 100 meters from the shore). Interesting right? Now only to write a 6 page paper on our findings and research...lovely. Day three consisted of a free for all. We went hiking along the beaches on the north side of the island that were gorgeous! We saw whales on the horizon and explored countless tide pools, laid out, and many got in the water and swam for the afternoon. Basically...the trip had it's ups and downs but forced me to pull out of the other various school trips that were scheduled and book another trip over mid semester break to the WHITSUNDAY ISLANDS (on the Great Barrier Reef) with a few friends.

SYDNEY, Australia...an amazing trip to say the least. About ten of our friends went in a group and stayed in the lovely hostel "Wake Up" while I stayed with my friend who is studying there for the semester (Brynn). The plane ride was just under two hours. When going through the airport there was absolutely no security? We never even showed our passports and we were allowed to bring anything in our carry ons and have as many and as large liquids as we wanted...I guess Australia doesn't have terrorism? My base in Sydney with my friend was just outside the city in a suburb called Coogee. It was so cute and collectic. It was situated right on the beach and was just far enough from the hustle and bustle of the city, had the quiet, tranquil life next to the beach, and close enough to go into the city each day or to bar hop. My first night in Sydney consisted of bar hopping in Coogee with Brynn and her house mates. It was very similar to the Brisbane night scene. The next day we started bright and early and went to the Sydney Opera House, Botanic Gardens, Darling Harbour, and then went out to a bar called "UniPackers" that looked over the harbour. The Opera House was everything we thought it would be and more but the word "majestic" fits best. The Botanic Gardens were very similar to those in Brisbane. It was very open with winding paths throughout the couple miles of unique plants and ponds. But most beautiful was that it wrapped around the outskirts of the harbour and had the Opera House as its background on the horizon. The next day we went to Sydney Tower and Watson Bay. The tower was intriguing on the outside as it was a very skinny base with a huge ball onto where we went to look out over all of Sydney. I had no idea that Sydney was so scattered over the harbour and bays but it was amazing to see everything from the top. After our very touristy morning we took a ferry to Watson Bay due to the fact that all other fairies were grounded from the choppy waves and high winds (we had originally wanted to go to Manly Beach). But Watson turned out to be spectacular! It breath taking cliffs, bushwalking trails, and a cute little harbour of sail boats. We really enjoyed it and marked it as a success in "spontaneity." The next day was favorite of all. We went hiking in the Blue Mountains. The morning started early around 7:00 a.m. and went till ABOUT... 7:00 p.m. We went on a guided tour that took us through the mountains, cliffs, and rainforests. We hiked for hours and saw so many amazing things including: The Three Sisters (a formation of three mountain peaks), wild kangaroos, Wentworth Falls, hiked the Darwin trail, bushwalking up the Furber Steps, explored the hanging swamp, weeping falls, hiked through the temperate rainforest, and rode the world's steepest train up one side of the mountain. We also learned cool facts about the lyrebird...a bird that can mimic absolutely anything! Look it up on YouTube if you don't believe me! And when we were on our hike I spotted one! Glroious! The Blue Mountains are 100% recommended to anyone traveling to Sydney. After our long but perfect day I went out for the night with Sydney John. Need I say more. Our last and final day consisted of a walk along the Sydney Bridge, a relaxing afternoon at Coogee beach, a trip to the Sydney Aquarium, and a nice Subway lunch in Darling Harbour. The Aquarium was very informative and had cool walk ways where you could walk under sharks, stingrays, and various fish, but it was not everything I had hoped for. I plan on going back to Sydney to complete the Bondi run, go to Manly Beach, see the Toronga Zoo, and surf for a relaxed and less touristy weekend.

So far this trip has been a dream...I know when I get back to "the states" (as they call it here) I will look back and think it was all a dream. But for now I am residing in this fantasy at:

Erin Redwine
72/35 Morrow Street
Taringa
QLD 4068
Australia