Australia Mate!

In June, I went to Australia! I spent 9 days visiting Adelaide and Sydney.  I happen to be a member of an awesome small group at my church, and several members of my group went to participate in a conference hosted by Influencers Church.  We also just wanted to experience Australian culture.  The trip to Australia involves over 25 hours of air travel.  We flew about 6 hours to San Fransisco from Raleigh, NC.  Afterward, we had a 16 hour flight to Sydney and 2 additional hours to Adelaide, Australia.  That is a lot of air time.  Here are a few things that were helpful for me with this long flight:

• I watched Youtube videos with suggestions about long haul travel
• I charged my mobile devices back up to 100% while in the airports.  There were not outlets and USB ports available on the flights. I also packed a portable charger to recharge my tablet when it died
• I packed both earbuds and over head earphones in my carry on.  The earbuds are great for listening to the in flight radio and drifting off to sleep. The over head earphones are better for blocking out the sound of the engine, upset small children, and additional background noises
• I packed an empty water bottle and good travel food such as canned chicken, nuts, dried fruit, and cheese sticks.  Nothing like blowing a quarter of your travel budget on airport food and airplane snacks.  The flight attendants were always willing to refill my water bottle when they came by with the snack carts.  I will never pay $5 for 16oz. of water in an airport again with this simple piece of advise. 
• One thing I failed to do was download movies to my tablet at home before leaving.  Airport service can be unreliable and isn't always available free of charge.  It is also not wise to take out your credit card in public to enter payment information onto your device.  

When we arrived in Adelaide, our host was waiting for us at the gate.  Imagine that! Australia trust it's residents to walk through the airport without a ticket to a departure destination.  One choice that I regret about my walk through customs is my decision to use a self-serve kiosk.  After 25+ hours of travel, the 2 mile line to make it through customs was not an inviting sight.  We learned we could skip it by using a self-serve kiosk.  However, this also meant that we skipped having our passports stamped.  :(.  I would like to have that stamp so that I can document all the places I have traveled to when I flip through my passport.  Lesson learned.  Highlights of my trip to Adelaide included shopping with friends at Rundle Mall, attending the BU Women's Conference, and seeing wildlife up close at Cleland Wildlife preserve.  I fed kangaroos and held a koala!  There was no guide.  You just walk through the park amongst the animals.  If they are hungry, they come and eat the food that you offer.  The little joeys were adorable.  The bigger kangaroos had teeth that I could feel when they were nibbling.  That was much less cute, as I enjoy having 10 whole fingers.  The park offers guest the opportunity to pay a bunch of money to hold a koala for about 90 seconds and take a picture.  I dished out the money.  When else will I get a chance to hold cute koala?  He was a bit heavy and much more interested in the eucalyptus leaves that were used to bribe him to climb into my arms that in me, but I enjoyed my special 90  seconds with him.  

The malls balls! These women make wonderful travel mates. We stopped our sightseeing and shopping at Rundle Mall for a photo. 

a beautiful view from the wildlife park

kangaroo selfies

we totally bonded....for a minute and a half

awesome fashion show during BU women's conference weekend

Don't judge.  I ate some kangaroo.  It was like having a piece of steak.  Yum!  Maybe that wildlife park I had visited the previous day was to protect the animals from curious, hungry tourist like me!

After Adelaide, we went to Sydney.  By we, I mean my mother and I.  I invited her to come from Ohio to join me on this trip and she didn't need any convincing. Guess my wanderlust came from her! We were originally going to head right back to the states, but decided to extend out 2 hour layover into a 2 day layover.  FYI, there was no additional charge with the airline for this extended layover.  We took a great walking tour in downtown Sydney that took us to several of the local tourist attractions.  I recommend this tour http://www.imfree.com.au, because it was free of charge and gave us an overview of Australian history, tourist attractions, and tips on how to use Sydney's reasonably priced great public transportation system rather than pay for taxis and water tours.

a more attentive tourist would have remembered the name of this cathedral.  Oops, sorry.  It's pretty though

Mom and I.  She started off laughing at my selfie stick, but was jumping in my selfies by the time the trip was over

the Sydney Harbour Bridge at Sunset

A view of the Sydney Opera House from a ferry on the Harbour.  I personally think this famous building is much more beautiful from a distance. It didn't impress me from up close.  

Another  beautiful photo in Sydney.

Overall, my trip to Australia was memorable and exciting!  I enjoyed doing the traditional tourist things.  I enjoyed sharing this experience with my mom and a group of awesome friends. I didn't love the fact that it was summer for us and winter for them, but everything can't be perfect.  I loved hearing the accents of Australians constantly.  It is funny how you can speak the same language and have so many differences.  It took me several minutes to order a sandwich at Subway one night because of confusion over the words that each of use was using.  I'll close out this post with a few words and phrases that have different meanings



Form a line here- Queue here
Public Restrooms- Toilets
How are you doing? - How are you going?
Would you like ketchup- Would you like tomato sauce?
For here to to go? - Dining in or take away?
You're welcome, No problem- No worries
Gum- chewies
Green peppers- capsicum
Friends- Mate
sweater- jumper
trunk of car- boot
hood of car- bonnet
french fries- chips