3 weeks and
counting!!!! If you pop by this blog regularly you may have picked up on the
fact that I am heading to Australia for the whole of November! One of my
amazing friends lives out there and I'm heading out there to
attend her wedding. I am ridiculously excited and as an added bonus
I'm one of her bridesmaids! So I leave the UK on the 30th October and arrive in
Oz on the 1st December, slightly terrified about the long journey by myself. I
think it's more about boredom than anything else, I may become a crazy
lady who starts chatting to myself! Any ideas on how I can entertain myself
would be very welcome!
So this post
is all about sharing with you my rough itinerary! I say rough as it's still a
work in progress, I have internal flights and hotels / hostels booked, but the
day to day and places to visit are still in the planning stages. Before I go
any further I better also state that I have been to Australia many years ago, I
backpacked from Cairns down the east coast to Sydney. I had an awesome time but
did it on the smallest budget ever so didn't necessarily get to do and see
everything I wanted. So this trip, as well as attending the wedding of the
year, I want to see a bit more of the country.
So the first
two weeks will be spent with my friends, catching up, doing all things wedding
and spending time with her family who I've not seen in so long. It's going to
be so lovely and special. The wedding is on the Gold Coast about an hour from
Brisbane.
After my two
weeks of all things Wedding I am then flying down to Sydney to meet
one of my besties from home whose flying out for my last two weeks to
travel around with me. We are going to spend 5 days in Sydney, staying a
hostel. Sydney is hopefully going to involve the opera house, darling harbor, trips
to Bondi Beach and Manly and maybe a surfing lesson thrown in? For
the last whole weekend in Australia we are going to fly out to Uluru
to see Ayres Rock. We have booked to stay in this very fancy hotel, which will
be lush after a few nights in a hostel. Whilst there for 3 nights, I
really want to do one of the sunrise or sunset trips which look incredible.
From Uluru
we are then heading down to Melbourne for 5 days, I'm particularly excited
about this bit of my trip as I never made it here last time and it was
something I wish I had done, therefore I'm feeling pretty lucky that I get to
have this experience! Ideas for Melbourne include visiting Ramsey Street
(sorry! Not sorry! Huge Neigbours fan here!), heading to a local winery and
checking out the graffiti art that's famed in the city.
Then it will
be time to head home! Boo! This thought already makes me feel sad! Luckily I'll
be home to get swept up with the crazy Christmas spirit that tends to
sweep up December so already have a few party's booked in to look forward
to!
Have you
been to Oz? Any suggestions of what other things I can add to my itinerary? Do
I have any massive holes here?? All help seriously welcome!
Welcome to Australia!!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm a Perth girl so OTHER side of the country all together, but I hope you have an absolutely brilliant time!
I love Melbourne and spent last Christmas there (which was wonderful!).
If you love sport make sure you do a tour (or at least a visit) of the MCG. And if you get a chance go to a cricket game. It should be about the Big Bash time which really doesn't require an understanding of cricket but it's still a lot of fun.
My other favourite place in Melbourne is the Espy. It's one of the best places to watch the sun go down.
You will have a brilliant time! But remember the Australian summer is HOT so slip slop slap!!!
(Slip on a shirt, Slop on some sunscreen, Slap on a hat)
Finally my very late comments. Hopefully this won't reach you too late as I have some ideas for you.
ReplyDeleteI'm in Bundaberg in northern Queensland at the moment still doing my soul destroying farm work but I'm nearly done!!!!! This weekend I'm snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef then heading to Sydney next Monday. I get there on Tuesday 17th at 7am. Will you be there then? Oh I'm so excited.
Anyway here are my suggestions. In Sydney check out some of the hidden bars. Google search 'sydney secret bars'. There are so many and they are so so cool. I plan on visiting a couple and doing a blog post on them.
Melbourne - I was there for 5 months in the winter (boo!) and regrettably I never visited Brighton beach so please please do that for me and take pictures. It's where the funky looking beach huts are in some pretty amazing colours and designs.
A trip to Victoria Market is a must. You can find some good bargains on all kinds of random stuff. Also in Melbs be sure to visit a restaurant called Lentil As Anything. I haven't met anyone who doesn't love it. There are several. There's a small one in St Kilda but my favourite is the one at Abbotsford Convent which is such a pretty place it's worth spending a couple of hours looking around. It's by Collingwood so easy to get to from the CBD.
Also whilst I'm on about food, Lord of the Fries is awesome. *drooool*
Hmm I might have to write a blog post about things to do in Melbourne actually. Whatever you decide to do I'm sure will be awesome. Hopefully it'll inspire you to get your working holiday visa once you're back home.
Enjoy!
Helen
Tea in the Tub
Oh flip. I forgot to mention. When you're in St Kilda go out to the pier around sunset to see all the extremely adorable wild little blue penguins. Handbag sized cuties.
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