Travel – Page 10

Confessions of a Traveler #2

April 6, 2017 by Alicia 4 Comments

Hey there! Happy Thursday!! Now that I am in Europe I feel more in the present day, because living in Australia, I was basically living in the future LOL. I had some thoughts in my head today as I was walking around the streets of Paris, so I thought I would stop in with Confessions of a Traveler (I did post #1 here). Also thanks to Amanda for Thinking Out Loud.

New Pet Peeve: people taking pictures when there are signs/pictures (like camera with an X) that say no photography right in front of them. The signs are so in front of them, they will be in their photo…

I’ve noticed when I am in museums, I am in the present moment (even though I am usually reading about the past…how ironic) and I don’t really take a lot of pictures. I feel like a person needs to experience the museum for themselves. I don’t need to take photos of everything for them.

On another note, one of my favorite things about traveling is taking pictures of the scenery and people. I love my new camera and playing around on manual to learn what looks good. I still have a long way to go and admit to shooting mostly on automatic, but slowly I am learning manual.

I keep forgetting my birthday is this weekend. Actually I keep forgetting it is April. I have been traveling for over 3 months now!!

I have been enjoying traveling, but I am ready to get back to a routine. Now I just need to find a job when I return home…

So I was thinking, they need to invent a travel size spice cabinet. This might be really hard though with traveling between countries, but it is nice to dream…seriously all my food is getting rather plain, but I like cooking, but I can’t buy spices every 4 days in a new place.

I love when self timer photos work!!

I realize I never did a recap of our last destination in Australia, Port Douglas. Mostly it was a resort type place, but we stayed in an Airbnb room off of someone’s house near the beach. We walked the beach (can’t go swimming due to crocs!! And stingers!!) and enjoyed use of our host’s pool because it was HOT. I somehow went from 90 degrees and crazy humidity to 50 degrees and like no humidity in Europe…

Do you find you need routine after traveling?

Where is your favorite place to travel?

Travel to London and Europe Plans

April 3, 2017 by Alicia Leave a Comment

I know this is a couple days late, but let’s be real, my days blurred together for a bit during that time travel and flying to London.

I still can’t believe I am in London or that it is April now. My birthday is in 6 days and I will be in France then. My Europe plan is London – Paris – South France – Barcelona – Dublin and home. Yep I am finally heading home soon and back on the job hunt. I definitely think I am ready for more of a routine again and to hit up the gym consistently and gain some muscles back.

For now, I have been enjoying London even though the jet lag has made sleeping rough. It was sure a long day of travel to get here.

I left Cairns, Australia at 11:10pm Thursday March 30^th. I arrived in London at 9:30pm (local time) Friday March 31^st. This means it was really 6:30am on April 1^st in Australia by the time I landed!! I had nearly a 10 hour layover in the Philippines which was definitely a LONG day. We had landed early in the Philippines and I was in one of the first rows of the plane so I was like the third one off the plane. I don’t know why I rushed so much just to sit for 10 hours in the airport, but I did. I started in the transit lounge while waiting for a breakfast voucher. That took a few hours and while I tried to curl up in one of the chairs to sleep more, it wasn’t too comfortable and I was pretty awake after sleeping for most of the 6 hour flight. At least I had wifi in the airport.

Once I got my breakfast voucher, I had no idea where to go, so I followed 2 other girls that got their vouchers and were also heading to London. The voucher was good for 300 pesos (equivalent $6 USD) in Philippine’s currency. I wasn’t much of a fan of the food choices, but I was hungry and settled on a chocolate croissant and tea. Not that the chocolate or the carb loaded croissant would keep me full, but it was better than nothing and my snack stash was getting low. A little later I purchased a can of Pringles from one of the stands in the airport. Thankfully they were ok with taking USD. No shame, I totally ate the entire can which stated it was 4.5 servings, but that was pretty much all I ate during the 10 hours sitting around the airport. Thankfully the Philippines airport has great water bottle machines for cold water as I drank tons of water since I usually get dehydrated while traveling and drinking tons of water during the 10 hour period made me at least have an excuse to get up to pee.

I wish I could offer advice on what to do during a 10 hour layover, but I was pretty bored myself. It was nice that I met two other girls on my flight so we chatted in between doing our own thing. I finished up Good Witch on Netflix and chatted with a few people online. Then came the time where I was going nuts because I had sat for so long, so I just stood up for a while and started to listen to podcasts on my phone.

Finally at noon (my flight was at 1), we lined up to get our boarding passes checked. Then we were roped in, back where we had sat all day anyway except we lost our seats so I stuck to standing for a while. One o’clock came around and they were just getting ready to start boarding. By the time we took off it was about 2pm. It was just the beginning of the 14 hour flight to London.

Normally I sleep most of the flight when I have long flights but it was daytime and I just wasn’t tired when we boarded. It took a while to board and get moving so I brought out my kindle and started reading. I was actually so into my book that I forgot I was on a plane for a moment.

I had a window seat which was nice. What I didn’t like was that the Philippines airlines crew enforced closing the window shades after take off and making it dark I guess so people could sleep despite the fact that it was an afternoon flight.

I passed the time between watching movies, sleeping and listening to podcasts. As we came into London at 9pm local time, I could make out the London Eye from above which was cool.

When we touched down, in my head I was just thinking, FINALLY. Finally this traveling is over. Though I still needed to figure out how to get in touch with my Airbnb host and the airport things. I made it through customs and then headed to baggage claim.

I ran into the two girls on my flight whom I met in the Philippines. Since they were both from the UK, I was able to use one of their phones to inform my Airbnb when I would arrive. I got my bag and headed to the Heathrow Express train. It was really easy to figure that out and I got 50% off my ticket by booking online 2 weeks ahead of time. The train expressed to Paddington Station and while I could have gone searching for another train to switch to, it was easier for me to grab a taxi since it was nearly 11pm. It was about a 20 minute taxi ride to my address and the taxi driver was very friendly. I was telling him about my time in Australia and how I am planning a few weeks in Europe.

Now once the taxi dropped me off, I was standing at the door, but no one was there. I couldn’t call because my phone doesn’t work in the UK. I had told them I would arrive at 11:30 and it was only 11:10 so I was just waiting. Then a guy parked his car on the street and walked by asking if I was OK. I explained I needed to call a number for my room but my phone doesn’t work here. He let me borrow his phone and a few minutes later, the person came down to let me in. Thankfully I had nice people who let me borrow their phones.

Once I got into my room and all checked in, I immediately looked for some clean clothes, took a shower and hopped into bed. The only issue was that I wasn’t tired, at all. Also I didn’t have the UK adaptor so my batteries were running low on my phone and computer.

So I got out my kindle and continued reading for a while. I decided to just finish the book and then try to sleep. It was sometime after 2am that I finally went to sleep. I woke up at 5 and then tossed and turned for a bit until 5:30 when I finally decided I was so hungry and ready for breakfast. Luckily my Airbnb included breakfast which was good for my first morning. I had some cereal and then got dressed for yoga.

The hour and 15 minute class flew by and the chaturangas just flowed. I actually felt strong, which surprised me after all the sitting and 30+ hours of travel. I felt strong, but it was still challenging and offered so many great stretches after being confined to airplane chairs for so long.

This was a great start to my first day in London even if the days all blurred together with the travel. I was happy to be back on solid ground and spent 4 hours seeing different sites around London in the afternoon.

Since this post is already super long I will save that for the next post. Also I went on the Harry Potter tour yesterday and it was AMAZING so that will be a post of itself.

How do you handle long layovers?

Cairns Reef Quest Snorkel and First Scuba Dive

March 28, 2017 by Alicia Leave a Comment

As I mentioned in my previous post, we made it to Cairns Monday evening after 22.5 hours of traveling, since we had to go South to go North. Although I napped on the train and plane, I was excited, as was Brian, for a proper bed in an air conditioned room. It wasn’t long after check in that we both crashed on the bed.

Tuesday morning our alarms were set for 6:30am. We had to check in to our boat at 8am and wanted to stop for breakfast. Our hostel offers free breakfast but of course it doesn’t start until 8. We got moving and packed our bag and started walking to the marina. We noticed a pancake house and decided to stop there. I got 2 pancakes and bacon and Brian got the Mexican crepe. Great filling breakfasts, though I later wished I had had 1 pancake.

We made it to the line for our boat, Reef Quest, right at 8am and got settled. As soon as we started, they went over some safety things. The waters were really quite rough going out and I couldn’t stay inside the boat long. We had a brief talk about our diving, but I couldn’t stay as I was feeling so sick. I had taken pills before the ride, but I needed fresh air. I went up to the back of the second floor and just tucked into a corner, feeling the breeze and taking tiny sips of water here and there. The big breakfast I ate didn’t help, but I managed to just breathe through it all, while wondering why I put myself through these boat rides.

When we finally anchored, our scuba instructor worked with me to go over the last few details and I scored 100% on the quiz even though I missed most of the discussion. Now it was time to get our gear on and hop into the water. The gear was heavy but I am pretty used to carrying all my bags now so it wasn’t bad. Once you get in the water, you kinda forget since the tank is like a big float with the air in it. It took some getting used to with breathing, but since I am getting better at snorkeling, that helped.

We went around to the side of the boat to hold onto a bar underwater. My ears are super sensitive to any altitude change. While the guy said we hadn’t reached a meter where we needed to equalize our ears, I already needed to equalize mine. I couldn’t get the hold the nose and pop your ear thing, but just swallowing helped.

Honestly, at first I was kinda freaked out I was underwater so long. I was breathing, but it felt weird and I didn’t like the pressure on my ears. I almost wanted to back out of the dive, but I kept going. We slowly kept lowering and lowering the bar and then the 4 of us grabbed onto the instructor and went for a ride. The whole time, we were on the instructor and I was fine with that, knowing he was looking out.

We swam right to the bottom of the ocean floor and apparently I am the only one that managed to get sand up one leg of my suit. We then swam up close to coral and fish. We got our pictures taken with some clownfish and swam some more. It was neat.

Towards the end, my tank was nearly in the red zone as I was nervous and breathing a lot. I really focused on my breath to stay calm. When we reached the surface, I was excited to say I survived a scuba dive.

I think towards the end, I was finally calming down a bit. Brian loved the dive and signed up for a second dive, while I was fine with just snorkeling the second time.

We were at a pretty good reef spot and even the snorkeling was amazing in the open water. Some of the reef areas were just an arm’s length from the surface. I saw so many different fish. Brian saw a turtle during his second dive which would have been cool to see. Then Brian came snorkeling and we saw a white tip reef shark. I was surprised it was so small and just swam around the reef.

After our snorkeling, it was time to view our pictures and snack on some fruit. The pictures were pricey, but the packages were well worth it as we got bonus reef pictures. Plus I don’t know when I will get around to diving again. In fact, we only had the dive because the backpackers place had a deal for a free intro dive which would normally be $70, so at least we saved there.

The boat ride back to Cairns was so much smoother as we went with the waves instead of against. I was outside for a bit, but it was quite hot so I went inside and ended up napping on the seats for an hour and soon we were back.

My experience seeing the Great Barrier Reef this time around was much better than my first snorkel experience 6 years ago. I finally am used to breathing through the snorkel and that helped a lot with my first scuba experience. I am sure there will be more snorkeling and scuba at some point in the future while traveling, but for now, I am happy to just be on land.

Have you ever Scuba Dived?

*all photos thanks to Reef Quest that I purchased

Mackay Australia: Feels Like Home

March 28, 2017 by Alicia Leave a Comment

We stopped in MacKay before and after our trip to Airlie Beach and the WhitSundays. MacKay is not a popular backpacker stop, but my friend Laura lives there and it was nice to visit her. Even nicer was just feeling so at home. Unfortunately most of our time in MacKay was rainy, but we made the most of it. It was actually kind of nice to sit around, watch some tv, catch up on writing and posting pictures, etc.

The First Weekend in MacKay (3/16-3/19/17)

Our first stop in MacKay, Laura’s fiancé was out of town for work and we arrived on a Thursday night so my friend worked Friday. We hung out at the house, playing with her dog, George, who is full of energy as an 8 month old pup.

Our first night, I couldn’t resist making chocolate chip cookies to go along with our salads and meat for dinner. Finally was able to satisfy my craving for cookies with soft chocolate chip cookies from Pinch of Yum.

pinch of yum best soft chocolate chip cookie — cookie dough is so good

On Saturday, Laura took us to Eungella National Park to see the platypuses. We weren’t there at the prime viewing time but amazingly saw 2 platypuses. I think because it rained there was more activity. Rain was off and on, but we had a good time watching the platypuses and turtles in the wild and enjoyed the view from the top of the mountain.

I was pleased with the light activity for the day. We put together a lovely dinner and again I baked cookies because they were delicious and we may have polished off the leftovers for breakfast.

Sunday we brought the pup to the beach to run around. He had a blast! He still doesn’t quite get the idea of fetch and bringing the ball back, he just likes to run and run. He also went a bit into the water and it was funny to watch him leap and run out of the water.

Unfortunately we had to cut our time at the beach short due to thunder and a storm coming. Though it actually took a while for the storm to really come. At least we had success tiring out the pup. Then it was time to pack for our boat adventure.

The Second Weekend in Mackay (3/22-3/26/17)

We returned from our boat trip on Wednesday and arrived in Mackay again Wednesday evening. This time we got to meet my friend’s fiancé, Dean. When we arrived, I couldn’t wait to take a real shower and it was late so we talked a bit and then pretty much headed to bed.

Thursday they were off to work. Brian and I slept in, though I was up by 7:30. I had some breakfast and worked on uploading photos and some writing. We headed out to lunch at the mall when Dean got home early from work and also did some grocery shopping. Then Brian and Dean enjoyed talking and playing some games on the playstation. It was really entertaining to watch the games.

Friday, my accomplishment was getting a load of laundry done in between rain storms as I had to hang my clothes outside to dry. We also found some old movies, James and the Giant Peach and Tarzan 2 on TV, talk about memories!

In the evening, the boys headed out. Since they were gone for a while, Laura cooked up some fish and chips for dinner and we finished eating just as they walked through the door. I have to say the fresh reef fish don’t taste all that fishy so I have enjoyed it.

Saturday was a bit of a rainy day, off and on as it had been doing. In the morning we headed to the mall to get our nails done. All 4 of us!!

Everyone got pedicures and Laura also got her nails redone. I seem to have the worst luck with pedicures as the woman scraped my heel so much she made it bleed. While it had briefly stopped when my toenails were drying, it started again as soon as I started to walk. Luckily a pharmacy was in the mall and Brian and I headed to pick up giant bandaids. Between that and the previous pedicure in Melbourne where the woman took a whole chunk of the side of my nail off leaving my toe in pain for 3 days, I think I am taking a break from pedicures for a bit. It’s 3 days later and my heel still hurts. Hopefully it will recover soon.

Anyway, while waiting for Laura we went to the grocery store. Somehow Dean shopped and then headed home to put the groceries away because we couldn’t all fit in the car with all the bags. At least it is only like a 10 minute drive away. Once we got home, we made a late lunch of steak sandwiches. Shortly after, Laura and I headed out to see Beauty and the Beast while the boys went out.

Both of us enjoyed the movie, though we agreed it was hard to picture Emma Watson as someone other than Hermione Granger. I did enjoy how they added a few pieces that were not in the original animated version and the acting was well done.

By the time we got back, it was after 7 and we had an early wake up for the train (or so we thought). Basically my dinner was popcorn from the movie and a muffin as me and Laura got to baking again.

I headed to bed shortly after 9 thinking we had to wake up around 3:30am for the train. Then an hour later, Brian got a text that the train was canceled and we would take a bus around 7am instead of 4am. The issue was the bus was only going part way. Even worse, it was going to where the eye of Cyclone Debbie was predicted to hit. Why would we want to be bussed there?!

Sunday morning came and we headed to the train station to confirm of the buses stopping at Townsville. Brian decided to try to switch our ticket to go South instead of North. We now had an extra full day with Laura and Dean since the southbound train would depart in the evening. We switched our ticket to Brisbane and hoped to fly from Brisbane to Cairns.

Laura cooked up a delicious breakfast with bacon and eggs. Then we went out to lunch at a pub/casino place. Laura and I pretended to know what we were doing as we hit the spin button on the slot machines. We only played a couple and didn’t lose too much money, though didn’t gain any either.

The rest of the afternoon was down time. It was windy and rainy as the storm was approaching even though it still had 36 hours or so before predicted landfall. The storm was moving more south and my friend’s area will definitely have to be prepared.

mackay beach before cyclone debbie — checked out the waves building at the beach on Sunday before Cyclone Debbie hit

After dinner, Brian and I headed to the train station again in the evening. Our train finally left at 10:30pm. We had a 14 hour ride ahead and it was time to sleep.

Update: We made it to Brisbane and got an evening flight to Cairns which was surprisingly smooth considering we passed the storm. I took 2 motion sick pills and was totally out on the plane. We made it to our accommodation in Cairns 22.5 hours after leaving Mackay and headed to bed before diving and snorkeling in the morning.

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