Leaving Australia

I haven‘t blogged for way to long, I‘m very sorry. I bet there are many sad & confused people out there.

In 5 days I managed to do more than you can imagine.

• Spent 68 hours travelling 
• Went through 6 airports
• Flew with 4 flights
• Took 2 busses
• Took 1 train
• Read a whole book by Nicolas Sparks
• Threw away around 10 kg because of overweight

what stupid airline company checks hand-luggage anyways? haha terrible waste of perfumes, creams, high heels and clothes. :(

It was so terribly hard leaving Australia & all the people. We were in such a hurry though so in a way I didn't have time to be sad; pack, clean, sell, book tickets and boom! I was in a 12 hour flight leaving Australia.
At the same time though it became especially hard to leave because everyone was so insanely nice and helpful doing literally anything to make things easier for us.  

I also had to say goodbye to my penguins & that alone was one of the hardest things I've ever done. By coincidence there had been a break-in and two penguins were stolen the day before I let them know I was leaving, so unfair. If anyone, it should have been me stealing them! :( 

The gang plus kids in Rolz's mancave! haha

I had to middle land in Brunei, granted I only saw the airport but they didn‘t even have toilets, only a fancy hole in the ground. If the airport is like that it would be interesting to know how it would be in the actual town, haha!

I was thirsty and this was the most normal thing I could find. Tasted weird as and I still have no clue what it is.

The next flight I took wasn‘t so good, there came some turbulence, which I always love. Except this time it was a little bit too much, the emergency lights came on, flight attendances flying all over the place & the captain telling us to keep calm until further notice. All I thought was „oh this is just perfect, now I‘m going to die!“

Then there was a middle landing in Dubai, which honestly I didn‘t even know about so I was pretty shocked when the plane was all of a sudden landing. Spending some hours in Dubai made me feel better about the horrible plane-ride though, grown-up men everywhere dressed like big babies. Plus I was pretty tired & in the stage where everything gets funny.

Hands down though dubai int airport was the cleanest airport ever! I wasn‘t expecting to land so I didn‘t have my shoes on and walked through the whole airport in my white socks. I swear my socks were cleaner after having spent an hour walking around.

On the way to melbourne. I spent hours looking out the window looking at Australian bunch of nothing!

Now I'm finally arrived though, with 80% battery left on my ipad & 100% on my computer from a 68 hour journey… hahaha Im obviously getting a little bit too used to travelling 

-Kat

too optimistic?

Time optimistic 

What the hell is wrong with me, seriously? Why can I never be on time for anything, ever! 

This morning I was supposed to meet maddy for coffee at 9am, I woke up right before 7 because I was going to make A pancakes for breakfast and drive him to work so I would have the car.
At 8 min to 9 I find myself running around the apartment, I still hadn't eaten any breakfast, was not ready and on top on everything else I had no clue where I was going to meet her! 

How ?

I'm such a time optimist, I always calculate wrong how much time I need. If I'm supposed to be somewhere in 20 minutes and I know it takes 10 minutes driving there I will still leave the house 10 min to.
I never even so much as consider the fact that it maybe takes only 10 minutes driving there once I've hit the main road, or the fact that once I'm there I'll also have to look for parking and never EVER do I think of the fact that once I'm outside the house I still have to walk in (maybe from far away if there is no parking).

Setting my watch wrong only works on me two times out of six thousand, and having Adam over me screaming that I have to get ready also doesn't make me hurry at all, just makes me like him less. 

Charging optimist. 

I always think the battery of everything will last forever, at the moment my computer is battery dead along with the ipod, the Ipad is only on because I have it plugged in as I'm writing and my phone has been off for hours. 

I can't imagine how many times my family or friends have been mad at me because I'm impossible to reach, even when Adam and I just started going out my mom asked me for his number because else she would never find me. Sometimes she even called him before even trying to call me... awkward when your first starting to go out but oh well he's still with me so it can't have bothered him that much.

I refuse to believe that this is laziness, because I will arrive, just always fashionably late, classic 10 minutes. Not because I started preparing too late, believe me I could have 2 days to prepare and still be 10 minutes late.

From now on I'm always going to start going 5....even 10 minutes earlier than I would actually go 

Now I'm gonna get back to the dragon, seize the last moments I have with her/him? hahaha

-Kat

driving in australia

I can't get over the fact that soon we'll be home again and I will again have to get used to driving on the right side of the road. I just got used to driving on the left side & now I'll have to change again?? :( Why can't just everyone agree to do like 72% (yes, I googled it) of the world and keep it on the right side of the road?! 

"Just remember to stay on the left side" sounds pretty easy right?

Sure it is... (although I have one too many times caught myself driving on the wrong side of the road) but the fact is that there is so much more you have to be thinking about than just staying on the left side.... 

the whole car is completely wrong!

You sit in the wrong side of the car & that alone can be a little confusing, I don't think I've ever just gotten into the car without pausing for a few seconds standing in front of the car like a complete idiot thinking where I'm supposed to go, especially if I'm arriving to the car somewhere else than outside our house. I've only once been laughed at because of it though and that was by a guy with downs syndrome outside the supermarket, one of my brightest moments! Other times it's always with Adam & by the time I get in the wrong seat I just say "I'm driving" & think "... apparently.. egh" 

Both the windscreen cleaner & blinkers are also on the wrong side so when I'm making a turn, instead of letting people know in which direction I'm going I start cleaning my windows,great.. Then I get a little stressed I slam my hand in the door trying to change gears because the stick is also on the wrong side to what I'm used to.

Laws are holy.

At least when it comes to the speed limit. It's crazy how much Australians respect the speed limit! if your on a 80 road, the person in front and behind you are driving at EXACTLY 80 and as soon as you enter a 50 zone its as if the person in front of you has a panic attack and brakes as much as they can until they've reached exactly 50, or better yet, maybe 40... just to be on the safe side.

Animals

Another crazy thing about driving in Australia is that there are animals ALL OVER, so not only do you have to focus on being on the left side, watching the speed limit exactly but you'll also have to keep an eye out for animals bouncing all over the place. Rabbits, cats, snakes, possums & kangaroos, name it if they're anywhere it will be in Australia! The kangaroos also do this silly thing; if they jump over the street you should slow down because as soon as you're close to them they will cross the road AGAIN! Driving in the night is even worse, you're literally zick zacking the roads avoiding this & that animal, both dead & alive.

Silly road signs...

Watch out... not for kids like everywhere else, nono watch out for all the elderly people wondering around

Give way to the penguins..

Classic, watch out for the kangaroos

Stop creeping

Don't drive like a W-(Anchor)

Fatality stick, this one isn't a silly one, but they put them everywhere someone has died in a car crash 

Now if you see a mad person driving on the wrong side of the road in some months in Europe, that will be me!! 

-Kat

steep road

There's this really steep hill in Victor that we drove past the other day. It's insane, when your driving down you can't see the bottom for a long time so all you want to do is just brake as much as you can but if you do you'll be to slow to make it up the other end. 

sjæsen

That little dot there, that's me ;)

It's also so different since there are NO roads like this in Iceland, can't imagine how that would end though when there would come snow & frost! 

-Kat

Deep Creek

We took a little trip to Deep Creek & were going to take a hike there, after some time we decided to turn around because I wasn't feeling very well and we had just gone over a mountain and saw the path continuing ENDLESSLY so I lost all inspiration... 

Thank god we turned around because when we got back and saw the map we had only walked like 1/10 of the way. I'm still soon going to go back there and give it another try!

do you see it too?

Adam cutie

Adam arty

Adam romantic 

Ok, now I'm stopping 

Echidna that was terribly afraid of us and wouldn't come out of it's ball

There behind Adam you can see how the pathway continues, it went on endlessly so at that point we decided to head back, probably a good idea since it was getting dark and we didn't have water, phone or even a clock with us! 

We could still see the pathway continuing on that mountain that's the furthest away there. one day I'll make it though.... one day!

And my boyfriend has a death wish, obviously 

how cute

Oh my god, I was soo afraid there, if the look on my face isn't giving me away completely! We were standing on a rock that was at the end of a cliff and looking down there was just a steep hill filled with rocks all the way down, would have been a horrible way to die and there Adam is pretending to me that we're falling! 

On the way back everywhere we walked we kept hearing these rattle noises, if we then stood still they would stop... We first thought it was from crickets and were trying to look for them. In one place we lifted up a stone and found this baby snake under it. All I could think was " Oh crap! a baby snake, that means that there's a mom here somewhere furious that we're bothering her baby!" 

I guess stupidity like that is what gets tourists killed.. 

Anyways now after a day of being busy failing to walk a stupid hike and been busy not going to the gym but taking a nap instead I want to go into my dreams so I can at least pretend there I'm in great shape. Sadly that can't happen since I've noticed a mosquito in the room, I have 5 new bites already and if I won't catch it before I fall asleep I'll wake up with 20 more. Meanwhile Adam is of course sleeping like a baby because they only love me! so not fair! 

-Kat

kings-brook

I was working here today, in a vineyard/restaurant/b&b in the country side of Southern Australia... wonderful. Apparently they're booked for weddings almost every weekend... doesn't really surprise me, I would not be against getting married there, it was like stepping into a mama mia movie there! & the rooms were just amazing

Everything was really vintage with trees with pink roses growing on the walls

Even the ceiling was made from trees growing in every direction! & there's the not-so-traditional menu. 

This guy, along with his parrot friend lived in the restaurant, just walking between guests making them wonder which end was his head and which was the ass. His name is Luis and I think his main interests is to stand right in front of me when I'm trying to get somewhere! I also love that about Australia, how dogs are allowed everywhere, you never see a dog in any restaurant in Iceland but here they'll get their own little bowl for water.

It was a really nice working day though, fun to try out new things and a vineyard is especially something different from Iceland. 

-Kat

stop creeping.

Didgeridoo night

Tonight we went to the beach house to have dinner and some drinks with Adams co-workers, a birthday celebration. Everything was so in the Australian mood, there was even this one guy there called Jay Hoad playing the didgeridoo, amazing!! I’ve never actually heard one live so that was great!

I really really love the hippie feeling here in Australia, it just makes you feel like taking that pretty dress you're wearing that you can hardly move in along with those 12 cm high heels and throwing them out the window, running to the next beach store, buy some thongs and comfortable clothes and stay like that forever.

If you ever see me downtown wearing something I can actually move in, wearing thongs instead of high heels you'll know for sure Australia has done me some good, I’m just not strong enough yet to make the change!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKhry8sK1V4&feature=player_embedded#!

Here’s a video of Jay playing the didgeridoo!

Now it's 3 o'clock in the night and I'm going to make some sandwiches, can't go to sleep because of beer allergy. Despite knowing that I still keep on drinking it and always afterwards I get all clogged up, get a headache and my eyes tear up, just wonderful!

Note to self; from now on... stick to the wine.. or even water if we're making a change in the first place. 

Good night!! 

-Kat

day off

Last Friday we both had a day off work so we thought it would be a perfect chance to go do something, so we decide on taking a road trip. Now, since I am the master of planing trips online I sat down by my computer and didn’t stand up again until five hours later when the whole day was planned! Meanwhile Adam went and got us some food to take with us the next morning.

Our first destination was Currency Creek which is actually less than 15 km from our house, not bad!

old bridge that leads to nothing

Adam the monkey

Walking next to Adam on a trail goes something like this;
Your walking together in perfect harmony until you so much as look away from him for 2 sec, he’s GONE! then some seconds later you’ll hear; JUHUUU IM HERE! and yes, then he has found something to climb up and has reached the top ready to be photographed like a monkey in the zoo.

It was really nice walking through those huge grasses except for two things; 1. It had rained the day before so they were wet and 2. Adam’s shoulders are the same height as my head so when he walked in front of me at all splashed back into my face

Just a little off the pathway we found a little cove, outside there was a pair of shoes hung up, soobviously; I was sure there was a body in there because I mean what person walks that pathway back without their shoes?! Anyways, later I found out that’s a sign that some crazy people got lucky in there.

Adam slowly going more and more into it, quite the daredevil I have here!

I am Adams light at the end of the tunnel

To begin with we just used the flash of the camera to see a little into the cove, dying from curiosity we then slowly moved further and further until we reached the end and found ourselves at the bottom of a hole

Just your basic cheesy couple-in-a-cove pic

Terribly awkward that moment when you sweat on your knees from stress

Finally at the end of the cove/cave, whatever

A then went up the hole and took a picture looking down on me, pretty far down… good thing I’m not claustrophobic, looks like I’m in a grave there

Ah! the most annoying thing of all! Coming to the end of the pathway where you have to chose left or right… I always chose the wrong one and end up having to turn around and walk back

Finally reached the end of the trail, nice reflection in the water

Adam again, of course, had to climb up as high as he could go

Hallett Cove

the cozy sugarloaf there behind me

The beach, can’t be that comfortable though

 only bad thing about taking pictures in Australia is that they all come out upside down :/ 

originally we were gonna walk that little pink circle… all of a sudden we started feeling like we had gone to far and found this map… we had reached the other end of the conservatory park! I like to think its because we’re in too good of a shape, haha!

insane how much they can carry! I feel so sorry for them when I see them struggling for 5 minutes and walking only 10 cm forward… some days ago at the penguin center I took the bug the ant was carrying from it, thinking I could carry it for it to its hole… that didn’t work and the ant ended up running away, felt pretty bad afterwards …

love is in the air

Self timer is the best invention ever… right after the airplane

Adam’s glowing of happiness

hahah úúú watch out we gotta badass over here

what are they trying to say? no fat people allowed?

Perfect example of when you can’t blame mess on men… juck!

having a lunch “picnic”

Myponga river

so australia-ish

the sunset we had on our way home… mmmmm <3

happy happy happy happy happy

The trip was really amazing and just leaves you wanting to see more and more of Australia, next time we have a day off I already have a place in mind to go to hike! Then as soon as there will be 4 days off I really wanna go to the limestone coast and kangaroo island.. So much I want to do that I’m getting a bit worried I only have 80 years left, hopefully by then they will have found a way to live longer, I need way more time!

-Kat