The time of my life

I'm finally home again. It feels great, almost unreal. Now I'm able to meet all the people I haven't seen in a long time, to sleep in my own bed and to eat something else than noodles. I don't know what the best thing was, to do this travel or to come home. Even if I think Sweden is a boring and cold country sometimes, it's my home. Summer is here soon and I've got this amazing trip to look back on, couldn't be better.

So, I spent the last 3 months in Australia. I did skydiving, bungy jumping, surfing and snorkelling. I did my first tattoo. Kangaroos, koalas, emus, dingos, platypuses, penguins, dolphins, sharks and turtles are just examples of all the wild animals I saw. I met old and new friends and people from all over the world. I spent my birthday on a beach and got free chocolate cake at a restaurant while everyone was singing for me. I went to lots of different places, everything from Sydney to villages with 7 inhabitants. I saw the Opera House, Ayers Rock, Blue Mountains and the 12 apostles. I saw cities, beaches, deserts, mountains, rainforests and the Great Barrier Reef. Everyone said something about my Heineken earrings and thought I was from Germany for some reason. I played guitar and sang in the nights at Surf Camp. I slept under the stars in the outback. I got a job interview. I ate kangaroo, camel and emu. I got invited to dinner by strangers. I hiked in the mountains in converse. I swam in waterfalls. I travelled endless miles by bus and plane. I had setbacks and I had moments when I was extremely happy.

This trip has been much more amazing than I could ever imagine. I've learned so much, especially about myself. I feel like I've improved more as a person than I've ever done before. I'm so glad that I did this, I really lived my dreams instead of just dreaming them. And I'm sure I will travel again and visit Australia again. This is not the end, it's only the beginning.

On this picture you can see the way I travelled all around the country. The black dots are some of the places I visited or passed by.

The last days

I spent my last days in Australia in Byron Bay and Sydney. In Byron I just took it easy, walked to the beach and met some people. The weather wasn't the best, but I'm glad I had the time to visit Byron anyway. I've heard so much about it.

As you may remember, I went to Sydney in the beginning of my trip. Now I just stayed there for a short visit to rest before my final flight and catch up with Lisa. It was great to see her again, we ate a nice dinner and had lots to tell each other. I'm gonna miss you Lisa!

Here you have some pictures from the beach in Byron Bay, the area in Sydney where I lived and from the dinner with Lisa.

The final countdown

I'm sitting at my hostel in Byron Bay now. Byron is nice, but it's been raining every day since I came here and I'm so tired. Think I need some time to sleep, rest and reflect on all the experiences from this trip. Tomorrow night I'm going to Sydney and right now there's only 4 days left until I'm sitting on the plane home! I'm looking so much forward to come home again. You really start to appreciate what you have at home when you've done a trip like this.

I've been at Susie's place outside of Brisbane the last week. She's a friend from home, so I've had the chance to practice my Swedish so I don't speak too much Swenglish when I'm home again. It was really nice to see her again. After all meetings with new people it felt good to see someone who knows me from before. She's studying, so I experienced Australian student life too. At least the good parts of it, I slept when the others went up early to study. We partied, chilled, hung out with her friends from uni and went to the beach the only day it wasn't raining. The area where she lived was nice even though it was in the middle of nowhere.

Here you have some pictures from my week outside of Brisbane.

A very special evening

Hope you all had a good "Valborg" yesterday! I didn't do anything special, just chilled, shopped and planned my remaining trip. I only have two weeks left now, feels nice that I'm going home soon, but at the same time very sad. I will miss Australia so much. This country is fantastic in so many ways.

This evening something very special happened to me, I have to tell you about it. I was sitting at a table in a park, reading. After a while, an old couple and two Japanese girls came to the table. The old woman asked me if they could sit there and I said "sure". Then they went away to grill some barbecue and when they came back, the woman asked me if I wanted to have dinner with them. I was so surprised, something like that would never happen in Sweden.

The couple were from Australia and the Japanese girls were currently living with them as they were studying English here. The couple told me that they usually take care of young travellers. They had been married for 50 years, but they both seemed very young at heart. We talked about differences between Sweden and Australia and I told them about everything I've done on this trip. They were really nice and even if they were two complete strangers to me, I felt like they could have been my grandparents or something. It felt so natural to sit there, eat dinner with them and talk about everything. We all agreed that it was a very special evening.

Tomorrow I'm leaving Cairns for Brisbane. I'm going there to see my friend Susie, looking forward to it.

I don't have any new pictures, so you'll get a funny song about Australia instead. (I haven't made the video).

Rainforest and Great Barrier Reef

Sorry that I haven't blogged in a while! I'm busy here in Cairns, there's so much to see and do.

Some days ago I went on a rainforest tour. We swam in waterfalls and a volcanic lake, walked in the rainforest, saw big spiders and colorful butterflies and looked for the Australian animal platypus. Platypus is not only the name of a Green Day song, it's also a strange and rare animal. I saw one, but sadly I didn't manage to take a picture. It was nice to swim in waterfalls even though the water was cold, not something you do everyday. Nice day overall, nice experiences and nice people. Nice is the word.

The three most common things people ask to me here in Australia:
1. Nice earrings, did you make them yourself? (No, I bought them, I'm not that creative)
2. Nice tattoo, it's something with a band, isn't it? (Yeah, and the band is called Green Fucking Day)
3. Are you from Germany? (No, 100 people have asked me before you did, but I'm actually from Sweden)

There are lots of Swedish people here in Cairns, much more than in any other place in Australia. I almost hear more Swedish than English. I met two Swedish girls in the beginning of this week and one of them came from my hometown! Not only my hometown, but my neighborhood too. I also randomly met one of the girls I shared a room with at Surf Camp 2 months ago. It's a small world.

Today I went on a snorkel trip to the Great Barrier Reef. To snorkel or dive was a must-do for me when I went here. I was going to do a diving course at first, but I'll do that some other time instead. You can't have time and money to do everything. Snorkelling there was so awesome, it was like swimming in a huge aquarium. So many fishes and corals in different colors. I was lucky enough to see a turtle and a little shark too! I got close to the shark, but it was a harmless one, so it wasn't scary. Most sharks are more afraid of us than we are of them. Anyway, you have to go and visit the Great Barrier Reef sometime in your life. It was exactly like people told me it would be, amazing.

Bungy jump

Today I've probably done the craziest thing I've ever done. A bungy jump! It was the first point on my must-do-list when I went to Australia, actually one of the reasons why I decided to go here. I did it very spontaneously, just like everything else I've done in this country. I think that's the best way, cause I didn't have much time to get nervous. 

Here in Cairns they have the only bungy jump in Australia and it's 50 meters high. It felt good to "only" jump 50 meters the first time. In New Zealand and other places you can jump 100 meters or even more, but that would have been too extreme I think. 

I got really nervous before I did it. I think the worst thing was to walk up the stairs to the platform, then you could see how high it was. 50 meters look higher when you're looking down than when you're standing down on the ground. At least it was a beautiful view over the rain forest. 

My strategy to manage to do it was to not think too much about it. The only things I thought were:

1. You know how much you wanna do it. 

2. You'll regret this if you don't do it.

3. You better do this now so you have it done.

Just like skydiving, the worst part of it was to jump. When you had managed to jump off the edge it was an amazing feeling. Scary, but amazing. I almost get an adrenaline rush just by thinking about it. It was scarier than skydiving, but not as scary as I expected it to be. Even if I was screaming so loud that whole Cairns could hear me it was so much fun. One of the guys that were working there called me extreme Emma, haha. He also said that I jumped so naturally that it seemed like I had done it before. 

I enjoyed it, I really did. I recommend everyone to do it once in a lifetime. Of course it's scary, but if you don't do things just because you're scared you'll get a pretty boring life. 

Here you have some pictures and a video! I have a video of the skydiving as well, but haven't been able to upload it. I'll show you guys when I come home. 

The lagoon and a piece of Sweden

My first day in Cairns has turned out good. The first thing that happened when I walked out on the street was that I found a Swedish shop. They sold Swedish candy and food and the staff spoke Swedish. I felt like I was at home for a while. I've missed Swedish stuff. It felt strange to speak Swedish though. Even if I can find words and expressions easier in Swedish it feels more natural to speak English now. It's weird. After I had bought some candy I found a sign which said "Bolands centre". It's funny, cause one of my old schools is called Boland.

In the afternoon I went on a walk along the coast line and then I went to the lagoon. It's a big pool area outdoors here in Cairns. I spent some time there swimming, sunbathing and chilling. It has been 32 degrees here today, not bad for an autumn day.

I think Cairns is my favorite city in Australia so far. It's not too big or too small, the surroundings are nice and I like it here. You know, you just like some cities more than others.