Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back in the States! Thanksgiving here in Australia is a non-event for the masses (quite obviously they don’t even remotely acknowledge our US holiday) but the German girls I’ve been traveling with for a bit now (Pauline and Linda) and myself decided to go out to dinner as a celebration of the holiday.
Pauline, Linda, and I have been traveling together down the coast for nearly two weeks at this point and we are getting along smashingly well; I am so grateful to have found such welcoming …

After leaving the beaches of Wollongong I a bit of weariness was already setting in…Kiama was my next stop on my trip down the south coast of Oz and I was a little bit taken aback by how remote these coastal towns are…I just expected it to be more developed, much like the US. But it’s not.
Kiama is the quintessential small south coast “city,” this tiny town literally has one main street and one claim to fame: the Kiama Blow Hole.

The whole of the town is situated right on the …

After absorbing the quiet beauty of the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney it was time for a change of venue – this time to the relaxing beaches and charming small towns on the South Coast of Australia.  First stop on the itinerary: Wollongong (which actually isn’t small at all but still had a bit of charm after big-city Sydney).
Now to be honest, there really isn’t a whole lot to do in Wollongong except relax on the beach and head to the pub in the evenings. The water was a …

I loved my first scenic hike of the Giant Staircase in the Blue Mountains, following up the view of the Three Sisters at sunset was going to be difficult but the promise of a five hour hike to see Wentworth Falls sounded promising. Ross said this hike would be just three and a half hours, so at five hours his estimations more on target!
The hike to Wentworth Falls is actually much like the hike that ends in the Giant Staircase but this part of the mountains is simply full of waterfalls …

Wouldn’t luck have it that I am hunkered down on the southcoast of Australia during one of the bigget storms this state has seem in years.  It’s pretty cold and about as windy as a tropical storm (or more) – trees have fallen down in the middle of all of the major raods.
Luckily I have some friendly faces and fast friends. A pair of German girls are also stranded here during the storm and we have been cooking (questionably tasty) meals together in the evenings. My culinary skills need some …

Don’t send out a call to the embassy guys, I am 100 percent ok :) – my biggest problem right now has been finding reliable internet in Australia.  As strange as this is going to sound, considering I am in Australia, it seems as though I have gone back about ten years in the internet boom.
The owner of the last hostel I was in didn’t even really understand the concept of wireless internet…a shocker to me at first, but then again, this is one of the many pre-conceived notions I …

I spent a very exhausting yet thoroughly relaxing four days hiking in the Blue Mountains north of Sydney, Australia.  This mountain range is utterly beautiful and takes its name from the blue haze that hovers above the mountains everywhere you look.  Interestingly enough, the blue haze is actually formed by oil released from eucalyptus plants – there is so much eucalyptus releasing oil that it tints the entire mountain range blue!

I encountered a few backpackers claiming that I should just day-trip it up to the mountain town of Katoomba (it’s …

Foreign countries bring to mind exotic scents and sites, the lovely lilt of foreign dialects, and a taste of new cultures.  Well, put a halt to that train of thought and ponder for a moment the more practical problems – the ones that come from operating on auto-pilot as I wander the streets of Sydney on this first week of my RTW trip.
Now, I consider myself a bright girl yet I have the very real and daily problem of nearly getting myself run over every time I cross the street …