Cairns

Cairns was an extremely quick stop on my Australian tour. As I have grown up I would like to think I have become quite accustomed to what I like and dislike. Hot weather, partying and sun sea and sand is a little out of my comfort zone. It requires me to completely relax, and I am not so sure I like that. I enjoy to do, go see sights, places, see people wandering being busy, drinking coffee. I like accessibility, places like Cairns are not about accessibility. 

Despite that, I had such an enjoyable time. Unknown to me, I went to the biggest party hostel in the whole of Cairns, Gillingans. Right smack bang in the middle of China Town in Cairns (the Chinese are everywhere!). The people here were extremely friendly and this was definitely your typical backpacker hostel. The people I met were great, within the first 3 hours I had already made my 'Cairns friends' shall I say. 1 Singaporean, 1 German born Vietnamese, 1 Korean and 1 French. We spent the evening in the bar and did little else. 

The following morning we went for an over-priced breakfast. Cairns is not the cheapest of places, both with their food and their activities. In Cairns there is very little else to do than go and join tour groups, to The Great Barrier Reef or the Rainforest and many many other activities. But they are all over $99 AUD.

Bing-su, what a lonely bing-su. Having spent the evening and the day with people, I needed some alone time, and to catch up with friends and family at home. Cairns has free public wi-fi, that is the best part about this little town!

Australia love to decorate their trees, and I love the decorated trees, it always reminds me of Asian dramas making everything appear so magical and romantic. (ew, sap)

This path and trees is located right by the lagoon. It is such a pleasant place during the evening, it is not overcrowded and yet it is still busy enough to not feel alone. People gather to swim, to sit and barbecue and just enjoy the mildly warm evening.

On my final full day I went to the Great Barrier Reef, and holy smokes was it magical. Spending the day on a tour is something that causes me anxiety, the feeling of restriction and trapped in one location. I cannot make any of my own decisions like where to eat, what to eat, what time to eat (a lot of it is based on food haha), it makes me feel a little funny. However, I managed to meet two people within the 30mins who put my mind at ease. 1 young German and 1 French. 

After the hour journey out to sea, far far away from land (water causes anxiety too - which is probably why you're wondering why I went to the big ol' ocean as a lone traveller and additionally spent $200 AUD on the trip), but when you are in a location you cannot NOT do these types of things. I spent the day snorkelling and eating with my new companions, looking at all the small and big fishies, the star fish and of course the Great Barrier Reef.

During the last few hours, we spent the last of our time together trying to have a bbQ, it ended up not happening and we ended up at the Night Market with rubbish asian food. Always asian food, I was most definitely SICK to the stomach of asian food by the end of my Australian travels.

Cairns was a blast, I met some really cool people, had little sleep (due to the club being RIGHT BENEATH my hostel) saw one the World's Greatest Heritage Sites and actually got to experience a warm climate in Australia.

And so the 4am wake up call begins the next morning for my 6am flight to Melbourne!

Brisbane

Everywhere in Australia is a pretty long distance apart, this means there are various "big cities" and somehow I found myself in another big city, Brisbane. The weather here is just perfect, the sunshines most days of the year and the winter peaks at mid 20's celsius. 

The gardens and South bank are beautiful here, and in the sunshine everything instantly looks prettier. I am extremely easily pleased and happiness comes in extreme waves for me.

A tree we found in the many many parks, I have not climbed a tree since I was around 10 years old, even then I was a little scaredy cat who would try and hardest to avoid anything. Considering I have lost so much upper arm strength during my travels I was pleasantly surprised by my ability to get even this far! 

Brisbane Art Scene was actually okay, I was not amazed by it as I was the MCA in Sydney but in Brisbane it was worth a visit seeing as there was very little else to do. Most people around this area seemed to be backpackers making a quick stop or studying.

It has amazing weather though, so if that is what you want to enjoy all year round - why the hell not!

Seeing this man made me extremely happy, he looks so content playing his instrument finding solitude to retreat to and play. A lot makes me happy, I am a simpleton.

Korean Fried Chicken, nothing beats fried chicken like this. It definitely did not live up to actual KOREA Korean Fried Chicken, but all in all I enjoyed it. It did not help my illness though, sore throat = moany Christine.

City views from above always get me, it makes me super nostalgic and sentimental and get all emotionally messy and think about everything and life and deep things and I turn into Drake.

On a Sunday evening we went to a folky live music bar, perfect atmosphere for chilling and a couple glasses of wine. Folk music is just warms my soul.

Brisbane only lasted for a few days, but that was plenty. I left with a liking of Brisbane, but nowhere I will be in a hurry to return to. Onto the next!

Sydney

Australia came as a surprise to me and my family and friends. An extremely long story short, I had planned to make a trip to Australia but several things were planned during an awkward period, therefore not enough time to go to Australia, yada yada, these plans cancelled and thus AUSTRALIA HAPPENED. It is safe to say, neither of my parents were that delighted having only found out the day before my departure. Anyways, I'm thankful for having such understanding parents who were probably secretly angry at me, having only seen me for 2 days due to their 10 day departure to Beijing straight after I retuned from Asia.

The 24 hour journey out to Sydney was surprisingly okay, mostly I sleep on planes and Singapore Airlines is amazingly comfortable for a girl as little as me. The first thing I learnt about Sydney was the term CBD, there is nothing else anybody ever talks about but the CBD and the lockout, similar to the extent of that and the weather with English people.

Sydney has consistently gorgeous weather, and if you know me, you know I like cold weather, coming at the perfect time of the year. What I didn't expect was the coldest Australian winter since lord knows when, so it is safe to say I did NOT prepare myself.

Despite it being the 'coldest winter' I still managed to get away with wearing a jumper during the day time, at 18 degrees celsius I was not exactly suffering. This was a little excursion away from the CBD, can you believe that friends told me to go to Cockatoo Island, COCKATOO ISLAND. If you've ever been here you would understand why I was so disappointed when I got there. It is a convict island, sure that does sound exciting, but not when there are literally derelict buildings and a lack of historical signs. Disappointed but still a beautiful day, it provides a great place to see the Sydney Harbour Bridge from a distance though. 

Not too shabby of a view for a convict Island

At least they had these massive chest pieces at Cockatoo Island, that definitely killed some time. 

Can we just take a moment to look at how BIG Australian coins are, I cannot fathom why you would need to make coins these big that weigh down your entire bag and pockets.

It had been roughly a year since me and Livia met in Hongdae, Korea. Spending an entire week navigating the streets and nightlife of Korea with other new friends, and here we are again reuniting in Sydney. It is crazy how you can have such good conversation with people who have hardly been in your life, just catching up on the many events I missed out on in Korea.

The fact I look like I am strangling and forcing Livia to take this picture with me makes me laugh a lot, reminding me of how many wines I should not be drinking. You can even see the red wine stains on my lips and teeth, how embarrassing.

A very well known attraction - BONDI BEACH. Reunited in Sydney, me and Louise made our way towards Bondi Beach, in the middle of winter and it was still packed, with tens of people sunbathing, taking a walk and just enjoying the sunshine. Sydney is bliss... :(

Me and Louise being cringe and forcing a stranger to help us take a photo, we just had to disturb his lunch and be annoying.

This walk took us across several beaches and took us just over 1 hour and half, in this UV rich sunshine, we English girls were almost sweating. Coogee beach was totally worth it though, the views from the walk made it bearable.

In the evenings I maybe drank one too many wines, on several occasions. Sydney has a midnight to 1pm lockout for bars/clubs/alcohol so it was not like I was partying excessively, just a good chill out with friends.

The famous Opera House and Opera Bar was so incredible, these famous landmarks always remind me of how lucky I am to be in these locations, I was totally in awe at this view during the evening.

Sydney Harbour Bridge does not disappoint, I found myself looking at it from a distance wondering what the spectacle was all about, and then I rode across it on a motorbike, and in those moments is when I become overly sentimental and nostalgic. The more I go away the more sentimental I become, the cold hearted me is experiencing defaults.

Widjaja is one of those people that casts light upon your life, the ones that remind you of the good people out there, with dreams and deep spirituality. He is also a serial scallop and oyster eater so good luck fighting him for that.

The famous fish market, filled with what seemed like EVERY ASIAN person in Sydney, it was not the best idea for me to go on a Sunday either, but the food, THE FOOD. It just all looked delicious and fresh and priced so cheaply. In times like these I wish I had a never ending appetite.

From the house I was staying at in Pyrmont, the location was 5 mins walk from Darling Harbour right near the CBD and light rail. The company even better, my hosts were so generous and had such a beautiful house.

So I did not actually take this photo, somebody I met did in a location in The Gold Coast.

A new found love for Oysters in Sydney, although these were slightly disappointing. I mean $22 a portion was not extremely cheap or extremely expensive, but oh so salty....

Every day there is a beautiful sunset in Sydney, it is one of those things I'll miss most about Sydney. Sun and cold actually is my perfect combination making me the happy bunny that I can occasionally be.

Typical feet in the sand photo, hello toes, hello feet, hello sand sea and silence. At this point it was 10am in the morning and freezing cold actually, so this was all for a photo.

Sushi is by far one of the best cuisines in Sydney. The sushi is incredibly fresh, if at times with a little weird combinations, but actually surprisingly cheap. My platter cost a total of $24 AUD, in my opinion pretty good considering I could not even finish it.

Martin on the other hand was happy to do so for me. Undoubtedly one of my favourite people in Sydney because of his incredibly opinionated discussions. From Japan to UK to Sydney, we managed to see each other again in the space of 2 months! To celebrate my last night in Sydney before departing to the rest of the East Coast, we had a little party down in Newtown where it seems people actually party and do not leave for bed at 12am!

After my journey around the East Coast, I made my return to Sydney for 2 nights in order to say goodbye to all those people who I am unlikely to see for a long long time. I am such a sentimental soul, sometimes I hate myself too, god, I apologise.

Well, despite the sentimental stuff I can sometimes look like a TOTAL THUG TOO, I man TOTAL THUG.... right?

This journey took me to an unknown place in Sydney, but also to all those places that tourists go for my very last evening. I rode over and under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and honestly it was one of those movie moments where you get all emotional and try and act cool because it summarised the amazing experiences that I get to experience. (OMG, I'M A SAP)

The last supper with Louise, after spending 3 years together in University and 2 years living in the exact same household with people who became both our friend and foes, we made it. We made it to the end of University together, all the drunken nights and puking, all the fighting with our other halves, all the friendship making, the long nights spent watching shit television, drinking until oblivion, and to Australia, it has been one hell of a journey. This marked the end, and it was the last person I saw and wanted to see before departing Australia. Until next time Sydney!