Reflecting on The Adventure

I've finally made it home. After 13 ½ months, I've completed my trip around the world and it's nearly impossible to believe or really take in. I'm not really sure where to begin here... this is more or less the post that's supposed to wrap everything up, but I don't think that's possible at this point... I'll try to summarize some lessons that I've learned and ideas that I've picked up from this trip that I'll take with me for the rest of my life, and hopefully these are things that other people can benefit from as well.

First off, I want to acknowledge that I never planned on doing this. This was a completely unplanned, spontaneous round-the-world trip that just sort of happened as it continued to unfold. So don't think that even a crazy-adventure-life-changing-trip needs to be planned in the first place. Like most things in my life, I usually just go with the flow and do whatever feels right at the time, and this was no exception. My original plan was to travel around Europe for 3 months with my friend Alex, then possibly find work and live in Europe for awhile. That's it. In the back of my mind I thought about continuing to travel, possibly around the world, but that was so far from reality (mentally and financially) that I didn't think it would be possible, especially financially, but we'll get into that later.

Alex and I at the airport ready to go, with no idea of what was to come.

I should also start off by thanking my buddy Alex for convincing me to even quit my job and travel in the first place, regardless of how long I thought this trip would be. We made this plan at the end of 2013 and I had a lot of doubts and wasn't realistically sure it would happen after making a loose commitment to try and do it. I was always second guessing myself, asking myself if this was a good idea or not. I had a good, steady job with upward mobility and I was doing well financially. Alex would keep calling throughout those 9 months to check in and make sure that we were both still up for it, while I would loosely assure him that I was still committed when in reality I was never really sure. There was even one specific night that I remember vividly, maybe 2 months or less before we were set to quit our jobs and make this happen, when I really freaked out. I was so close to calling Alex and calling it off. I had student loans that I wanted to pay off and be debt free at the ripe age of 24, and that was a goal that I had wanted to achieve since I got my job and started making money. I told myself, "just wait 'till next year, when you'll be debt free and have money saved up again to travel." But Alex was set to go, and it was either travel with my best friend around Europe for awhile or wait through one more year of mystery where anything can happen and possibly prevent this opportunity from coming again. Thus, I decided to stick to the plan and I never looked back. So, thank you Alex for keeping me in it and continuing to motivate me to do this. I've never been great at making commitments, especially one this big, and I really don't think I could've made this one on my own.

What would unfold over the following 13 ½ months would be the most profound and amazing trip of my life, from which there are endless stories, experiences, and lessons to look back and reflect on. I definitely do not regret making this decision. My entire thought process about travel in general has completely changed, and I'd like to highlight some of the more important lessons that I learned here. These are lessons of life, travel, and a combination of both:

First and foremost, TRAVELING DOES NOT HAVE TO BE EXPENSIVE. I think this is one of the biggest misconceptions that people have about travel. In 13 ½ months I spent a grand total of $18,500 on my trip. That's an average of about $45/day, and I could've definitely done it cheaper. I was also paying off my student loans every month, a total of $270/month. If you add in my student loans, then I spent about $22,000 over the entire trip on everything. I saved up $20,000 for the trip, and set aside $5,000 of "emergency savings" that I wouldn't tap into unless I had to. I ended up tapping into about $2,000 of those savings in the end to extend the trip a bit :) but other than that, that's all of the money.

I'm especially happy with myself that I didn't let my student loans get in the way of preventing my trip from happening. This was my biggest financial concern, but I didn't let it stop me from having the best experience of my life. So, even if you have some debt to pay off every month, save enough to compensate and keep making those monthly payments while having the time of your life. No excuses.

Also, I discovered that when you do make an effort to travel for as cheap as possible (i.e. couchsurfing, hitchhiking, or searching for some local street food) you tend to have much better and more authentic cultural experiences. You interact far more with the local people, which is the best part of traveling in my opinion, and you learn much more about where you are than any guidebook can ever tell you.

My bag and I, hitchhiking across Myanmar in the back of a truck.

Another valuable lesson I learned while traveling was to avoid planning as much as possible. Now I'm not really a person who can just go and do something without a plan, and I never have been; but because this trip ended up being so spontaneous and just sort of happened, I actually got completely used to improvising and just traveling around wherever I wanted without a set plan or schedule. This was by far the best way to go about traveling. I had a general route that I eventually wanted to take around the world, but any specifics depended on whatever mood I was in, who I talked to, and last minute decisions. I came to learn that planning too much limits yourself, plain and simple. Traveling can also be much more exciting when you don't even know where you'll end up the next day. To have that kind of flexibility for even just a short time while traveling gives you a certain freedom that you almost never have back in your working life. It can seem a little intimidating at first to embark on a trip without a real plan of where you might go or what you might do, but I can assure you that you will get used to it and you'll be happy you didn't limit yourself in the end.

Next thing: please don't believe everything the media tells you. I understand that unfortunately the media is usually the only exposure people get to other parts of the world, but if you actually go and see things for yourself you'll be pleasantly surprised at what you might find. The news might tell you otherwise, but I traveled to Israel and Palestine and felt perfectly safe. We are so obsessed with negative happenings and scary situations that it clouds so much of our view of the world when we turn on the TV to see what's out there. Just because there's a war going on in a country doesn't mean that every square inch of that country is a war zone. In most cases, war zones comprise of a very small portion of a country, and if you just keep yourself informed and avoid walking into these war zones, you can be completely safe traveling to these places. Also, don't let the reputations of extremists and terrorist groups give you ideas about how an entire religion or group of people behave. These misguided extremists and terrorists that you might hear about in the news consist of a microscopically small group of people in the grand scheme of things, but it only takes a few bad apples to ruin the reputation of an entire population when it comes to the media. The media is not always a bad thing, and I understand that it's important to stay up to date on some of these affairs, but please don't let it influence your personal views of the world or its people, especially when it comes to traveling.

Alex and I celebrating Thanksgiving last year in Morocco. Our couchsurfing host in Marrakesh
cooked us a turkey tajine to help us celebrate Thanksgiving.

With that being said, I want to go a little more into the people aspect of traveling. I'll admit I wasn't the biggest fan of people before I got on this trip. I may not have ever shown it, but overall I honestly found people to be more annoying than interesting, in general. However, over the course of my traveling, the best part of the entire trip by far was the people that I met and interacted with. Couchsurfing also falls into this category, which was the ultimate highlight of my experience. Staying with a local person who can show you around their city, treat you like family, and point you in the right direction whenever you have a question about their city or culture is so much better than seeing any temple, coliseum, tower, or waterfall. I met the most amazing people I've ever met in my life on this trip, and I created relationships with these people that will last the rest of my life. Whether it's staying with a complete stranger who becomes a close friend, getting a ride from someone who doesn't speak a single word of your language, or just walking through a foreign place and smiling and waving at all of the locals who are welcoming you, it's this intangible connection that is felt between each other that reminds us that we are all the same. We are all humans, so we should embrace it and love each other for it. It's a drug that I became addicted to. I wanted to develop a connection with everyone I came into contact with, whether it was a smile, a 'hello,' or a small conversation that consisted of me embarrassing myself trying to speak a foreign language. We laugh and we rejoice, because we are human. There is nothing better than the human connection.

I also want to touch on the risk involved in doing what I did. I really hope that what I've done can inspire at least one person to do the same, or something similar. I feel like this upcoming generation of young people have the mentality to travel and they want to do it, but most of them seem to have trouble committing to it. This is obviously completely understandable as I had the exact same issue. I wanted to travel the world. I wanted to see cool things and meet new people and have new experiences, but I had a good job, money coming in, and a secure future for the time being. The hardest part is the commitment.

But when I thought about it, a couple things came to mind. First, I didn't want to be the person that would look back later in my life and say, "man, I really wish I had done that." Regret can be a painful thing to deal with and that's one thing I really don't want to have when I get older. Next thing I thought about was, "well, when the hell else am I gonna do this?" I was 23 years old at the time. Am I gonna do it 10 years later when I might be married or have a house and a family? That can make things a lot more difficult. It would still be possible, but a lot more difficult. Even if I waited one more year, how do I know that something won't happen that could prevent me from doing this? So, if I'm not gonna do it now when I'm young and don't have much tying me down, and if I might not be able to do it in the future when I don't even know what could happen, then am I just gonna wait until next life to do it? Obviously not. So I made the decision to do it.

With that being said, THERE WILL NEVER BE A PERFECT TIME TO DO WHAT I DID. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the stars will never align and nobody will ever tell you that now's the perfect time to quit your job and travel the world. You have to come to terms with the fact that the perfect situation will never come. The only time to do anything is now. So take a risk, do something life-changing, and correct course along the way. There's a good chance you won't regret it later in life.

The boys and I in Mumbai, India

Words simply cannot express how happy I am with the decision that I made. It's impossible to completely explain the endless benefits and lessons and experiences that I had. My biggest recommendation would be for you to do it yourself. And for those of you who might be concerned about leaving a good job or possible career opportunity and creating a "gap" in your resume, don't think that there aren't any benefits to be gained by traveling around the world long term, even in the corporate world. Now, I don't have a job yet but I'm not the least bit concerned in finding one. I have never been more confident in my life, and I'm excited to see what happens. There are endless skills and values to show when it comes to documenting this experience on my resume. Skills like independence, flexibility, negotiation, planning, boldness, self-sufficiency, improvisation, and communication have never been stronger. I can effectively adapt and communicate with people from different cultures and backgrounds in a way that has become natural for me. I know myself better now than I ever have before.

Two words: Life experience. That's where the most value in the world comes from, and traveling can fill your life with experience.

I want to thank every single person on this planet for being here. I want to thank Earth for being such a cool place, much cooler than what I thought before. Thank you to everyone who supported me on making this happen. I received an endless amount of support, much more than expected; even from my co-workers before I quit my job. Support is a huge thing, and that's something I'm forever grateful for. If you or anyone you know is thinking about doing something amazing, please support them as much as possible. It makes a huge difference. Thank you to my amazing parents for supporting me during the entire adventure and helping me make the transition from home-life to travel-life and back again. Everything would be infinitely more difficult without you two.

Thank you to everyone who hosted me, gave me a ride, gave me advice, taught me something, showed me something, cooked for me, or helped me in any way. You are the ones that made this experience what it is, and you changed my life.

And thank you to my bag. You're small in size, but you have a big pouch that fit all my things for a long time. You held up the entire time with hardly any issues and because of that, this trip went very smoothly. I still can't believe I lived out of you for 13 ½ months. It turns out you really don't need much to survive, especially when you're traveling through cities where you can usually find whatever you need whenever you need it. The minimalist lifestyle really works. I wouldn't have it any other way.

My sweet little bag. Thank you bag, ya done good.

I'll never forget on my last night of the trip I was in Bangkok in a taxi with my good friend Blair and some other friends. We were going to a club that night to celebrate the end of my trip. Blair's been a nomad for the last 15 years living, working, and traveling wherever he wants, doing whatever he wants. He's living proof of what we call "the dream," and there's others like him out there. I told him that I couldn't believe I was going home, back to the "real world," and I wasn't sure what I was gonna do. Blair told me "dude, what are you talking about? THIS is the real world! What you're doing now is reality, you're not going back to it, you're just leaving it for a short time." This blew my mind. I had never thought about it that way, but he was right. The "trip of a lifetime" that I had just taken was the "real world" for me. And I'm not sure if you can call it a "trip of a lifetime" if there's more like this to come :)

Enjoying reality while floating on the Dead Sea

The Final Month

Somehow I've made my way back to Bangkok yet again. It's hard to believe I decided to come back after my adventures down under, but I wanted to have one last 'hoorah' here before I finally head home.

I wanted to go back to Asia one more time, and since I don't have much money left to fully travel and explore a new place the way I'd like to, I thought it would be best to head back somewhere familiar that I can still have fun at while getting that exotic Asian experience. So Bangkok was calling my name and I'm really happy about my decision to spend my last month of the trip here.

Before coming back, I was able to book my flight in a way that allowed me to see Hong Kong for a day on a nice long layover. So I stopped in Hong Kong for a day, headed up Victoria Peak for a beautiful view of the city, and then met up with a friend (and SigEp brother) of mine who's living in nearby Shenzhen on mainland China. I will say that just from a quick observation and taste of Hong Kong it's a truly impressive and diverse place. Of course everywhere you go seems to be screaming business and money, but what blew me away the most was just how the heck they built this place on such an unfriendly landscape for building. Hong Kong is not really the flattest place in the world. In fact, it's quite hilly... and there's water everywhere. So don't ask me why or how they decided to build all of the amazing skyscrapers they have there, but it sure makes for an impressive skyline and view of the city.

Hong Kong selfie. Too hot to smile.

But alas, that's about the most I can write about Hong Kong after my quick trip there, and then it was back to that old familiar place: Bangkok. It felt good to be back, and I was already happy with my decision to return shortly after I arrived. To be honest, I don't have a ton of stories from this particular trip back to Bangkok. I've more or less just been enjoying my last days of the adventure, living and enjoying life in a foreign country as much as I can before heading back home.

However, one really interesting thing that I did this time around was take a little trip to northeast Thailand with my Ajahn (Thai for "teacher"). I first met my Ajahn through my first Thai friend I made during my first visit to Bangkok, and I briefly wrote about the first time I went to meet this old Thai wiseman in a previous blog post back in August. I was interested in paying him another visit now that I was back in town, so I contacted him and he invited me to join him in giving a guest lecture at a university in Nakhon Ratchasima, about 4 hours outside of Bangkok. He thought this would be a great opportunity for me to see parts of Thailand that I would never normally see as a tourist, and when he invited me to join him it was an easy invitation to accept.

So I met up with him the day before the lecture at his place in Nakhon Pathom, about 45 minutes outside of Bangkok, and we sipped some more Thai whiskey (as we did during my first visit) and talked about life and society. I was getting smarter by the sip, which is why I always enjoy making conversation with this guy. He's traveled the world, he's a successful artist, and he's been teaching in universities across Thailand for about 40 years, so he always brings a good perspective to the conversation.

It was good to be back, and the following morning we had a private mini bus take us straight to the Suranaree University of Technology in Nakhon Ratchasima. We arrived a bit early, which gave some of the students at the university time to show me around the campus and see what this place was all about. It was actually an impressively large campus, and it reminded me a lot of the traditional college campuses we have back home. There were the dorms, administration buildings, lecture halls, and various faculty buildings scattered around the area. I felt like I was back in school again, this time with no responsibility whatsoever, and it felt great.

Then it was time for the lecture, which was interesting in a comedic sort of way. We all made our way to a large lecture hall big enough to fit a few hundred students and my Ajahn proceeded to deliver his two hour lecture in Thai. It was funny, because here I was sitting front row in a giant lecture hall full of Thai university students listening to some guy who I came here with deliver a lecture for two hours about something in Thai while I was catching up with my journal, writing at my desk as if I was taking notes during the lecture. I thought it was pretty funny and found myself pausing and trying to put together where I was and how the heck I got myself into this situation. This is the beauty of long term travel. You just never know what kind of experiences the adventure will throw at you next.

Me and ajahn Winai. Just after he gave his lecture at Suranaree University of Technology. Thank you, ajahn!

So after what would have seemed like a very interesting lecture (if only I could understand more Thai) with plenty of power point slides and maps, we headed off to a local restaurant to get some dinner with my Ajahn and some of his colleagues from the university. We ate some of the local food and I must say, it was one of, if not the best meal that I had in Thailand. The food was great, the company was awesome, and after the meal we of course sipped on some whiskey and drank and talked the night away, sharing our cultural views and stories from our adventures through life. 

It was such a great experience, and after a great breakfast at our hotel and a couple random stops to a roadside attraction featuring really impressive scrap metal sculptures and yet another temple, we were back at my Ajahn's home in Nakhon Pathom and I was back in Bangkok the following day.

It was an awesome little 3 day trip and it was good to get out of Bangkok after a couple weeks of settling down. It's experiences like this that keep me going and keep this adventure interesting. Those kinds of things never get old.

Another highlight that I should probably briefly mention is the hotel party I decided to host before my departure. I have quite a few left over Hilton hotel points from my traveling during my old job, so what better way to use them up than throwing a pre-departure celebration party in a King Executive Suite at the Hilton in downtown Bangkok? Obviously don't need to go into too much detail here, but let's just say it was a huge success before getting the party shut down by management at 1am. But we took the party to the clubs after that and it was a great night. Thanks Hilton.

Doesn't get much better than Champagne in a hotel suite at the Hilton.

Other than that, I do want to mention one more thing that I've experienced in Bangkok that I haven't really anywhere else. Since I've been here for awhile now, over the course of about 4 different visits on this trip, I've actually been able to develop a social circle of friends here. This is not something that backpackers typically experience while traveling as you're never usually in one place long enough to meet some locals and hang out with them enough to actually develop a social group of friends. I think that it's really cool that I've actually been able to be part of a group of friends that live here, and even get caught up in some of the drama. It's a completely new experience for me and another experience of the adventure all the same. I'm glad I've been able to actually have the opportunity to experience something like this, and it's more or less been a great way to finish off the trip for me.

With that being said, I'm planning to come home very soon which is nearly impossible to fathom. I'm excited and scared at the same time, but at some point it's always good to get home and remind myself of some of the most important things in life: friends and family, the ones that helped me make this adventure possible to begin with. So here's to finishing off the last month strong and enjoying the final moments of what has become quite the adventure :)

My Kiwi Road Trip

Wow. Let me just start out by saying that New Zealand is hands down the most beautiful country I've ever been to. I knew that if I was gonna make it this far I was going to do everything I could do make it to New Zealand. I knew a little bit about what New Zealand had to offer and the intense natural landscapes and beauty that exists there. Also, it was a snowboarding destination that was definitely on my to do list. When I made it as far as Australia there was no doubt in my mind that NZ would be the next stop. And so it was, but after a bit of a delay...

I didn't really have any trouble getting into any countries before this on my trip, but it just so happens that NZ would be a bit more difficult than expected. I showed up to the Melbourne airport excited and ready to go, and when I went to the check in desk to get my boarding pass the woman at the desk asked me if I had an outbound flight out of NZ after my traveling there. I told her I didn't because I didn't know how long I was staying there or where I would go next, and that was the wrong answer.

She told me that I had to have an outbound flight in order to be let into NZ immigration and they weren't gonna let me on the plane. I did not accept this answer and I ran out of the terminal, hopped the fence, got on the tarmac, and jumped onto the plane.

My first glimpse of New Zealand when I finally got on that plane :)

...at least that's what I envisioned doing shortly after I got the bad news... but since that plan would've probably failed, I was forced to pay a slight change fee to get my flight to NZ changed for 2 days later. I booked a fully refundable return flight from NZ back to Melbourne, which I canceled shortly after arriving in NZ 2 days later, successfully. So yea, bit of a delay and $100 gone in fees but not a huge deal, all part of the experience...

When I finally got to Queenstown, I had some amazing contacts made through my great neighbors back home pick me up, and they let me make myself at home and use their place as a home base during my travels through New Zealand. The Bramwell family was my New Zealand family. They took great care of me and helped me with everything I needed, including figuring out where the heck I should go.

I had a rough idea of how I wanted to get around this country. I knew that hitchhiking was very common and very doable in New Zealand, but I wanted the ultimate flexibility of my own vehicle while I was there. When I heard about the options of pretty cheap camper vans to rent I had a good idea that that would be the way to go. So I did some research, booked a van, and after an EPIC powder day on my first day of snowboarding I hit the road.

Me and my good old Jucy van. We got close over the 2 weeks we had together..

I focused just on the south island for this trip since I was told that there was much more to see and do there. So, I hired the van for 2 weeks and tried to hit as many highlights as I could all around the south island. It's impossible to describe with words the things that I saw and the experiences I had on this road trip. My first recommendation would be to take a look at some of the photos I put up on Facebook, but some of the highlights include:

• Driving along the insanely stunning Milford Road all the way to Milford Sound.

• Seeing an avalanche on the other side of the majestically beautiful Lake Marian.

• Hiking up to the beyond scenic summit of Treble Cone ski field on a crystal clear day with 360 degree views of the southern alps and Lake Wanaka.

• Meeting and staying with the extremely nice and hospitable Harrington family outside Wanaka at their amazing property.

• Skydiving at Fox Glacier: Known as one of the best places to skydive in the world.

• Viewing the very bizarre and interesting pancake rocks of Punakaiki.

• Watching the sky light up a million different colors during sunset on the beach at Abel Tasman Nat'l Park.

• Getting partially attacked by an eel at a holiday park.

• Watching seal pups play in a swimming hole with the backdrop of snow covered mountains dropping down into the sea at Kaikoura.

• Meeting and staying with the amazingly kind and generous Thow family in Rangiora, just outside Christchurch.

• Seeing the brightest moon I've ever seen (and it was only a quarter moon) in the international dark sky reserve at Lake Tekapo.

An amazing shot of Lake Marian

It was great to actually have quite a bit of alone time on this road trip as well. I didn't meet many people during my trip and I was able to focus and reflect a lot on my own experiences and continue to get to know myself more. Also, I realized that I hadn't driven a car in about a year, and driving on the other side of the road was interesting, scary, and really fun at the same time.

New Zealand has been an incredible ride, and I was really surprised with how much I got through in just a couple weeks. Usually I prefer to travel at a much slower pace than how I did here, but I think it went extremely well for what it was, and New Zealand has proven to be a really magical and special place for me. 

In heaven at the top of Treble Cone Ski Field on a perfect day

There's so much more to do and see, and I'll be back here much sooner than later. New Zealand has been an overall highlight of the trip for me and I can't think of a better way to bring this trip to an end. Buuut I think one last stop to Asia is in order before I finally head home :)

Blog Post #50: One Year On the Road

So somehow I've been traveling for exactly one year now...

Alex and I one year ago, before embarking on our "European" adventure. First stop Dublin, Ireland.
If only we knew how successfully life changing this trip would be..

Wow. Time flies, doesn't it? Before I left I obviously had no idea how long I'd be gone for, but in my mind I was content with one or two years of being somewhere else in the world. I didn't know exactly where I'd end up, but had a rough idea of working somewhere in Europe for an extended period of time. In the back of my mind I had the crazy idea of being able to make this a 'round the world' trip but didn't think I was capable of planning it, let alone making it financially feasible. But somehow I've ended up in New Zealand one year later and I'm still traveling.

I think it's also important to mention that it hasn't been a year of full and complete happiness every day all the time. I've missed funerals, weddings, family holidays, and almost everyone's birthday. These have all been reality checks to me, a reminder that life still obviously continues back home and nothing is put on pause while I'm gone. To be gone for a year can mean a lot of sacrifice. I've had so many people ask me how much I miss my family and friends back home, and these are some of the main motivators for my travels to continue, so I can make it back to see them again.

Six months into the trip... passing through Dubai on the way to India.

You have to ask yourself if it's worth it, being gone for this long. For some people it might not be which is perfectly fine. One year is a long time and I don't recommend for everyone to travel for this long. But for me, it's been worth the sacrifice. The countless stories, experiences, and people that I've met in the past year have done nothing more than help me become a better and more capable person. I'm very thankful for that and this incredible opportunity that I've had to travel for this long. 

I'm not sure if I'll travel on a single trip for this long again, but I can definitely say that there's no way I can settle for one or two week vacations anymore. This past year has sort of transformed the idea of traveling for me. It's not a hobby or a fun thing to do in my free time. For me, traveling has become a lifestyle, a mentality, and I don't want that to change. Any future trips I take will probably need to be at least a month or two in order to get the experience that I want out of it, and there's plenty of places left to go.

This photo was taken 3 days ago at one of New Zealand's many ski resorts, just outside Queenstown.

I will also admit that I'm definitely surprised I've been able to keep this blog running for a year now. Believe it or not, it's actually pretty difficult to stay on top of something like this and write about the highlights of my experiences while trying to have them and plan them at the same time. But I'm really happy and proud that I've been able to keep it going, as I'm usually not great at documenting stuff properly. One year and 50 blog posts later and I'm still writing..

I want to thank everyone who's been reading the blog so far over the past year. I write this mostly for you guys so you can stay updated on what I'm doing and know that I'm still alive.

There will be more posts to come of course, as I continue my travels on the south Island of New Zealand. But I will say that after one year of traveling with not much left between here and home and not much money left in the bank, my adventure is coming to an end... more to come on that but until then, enjoy! One year in the books!

From Surviving King Kong Koala to My First AFL Game

I was about halfway through my adventures down under when I got into Sydney, and just in time for my friend Marco's 30th birthday. It was so wild showing up and seeing him again for the third time on my trip. The first time was wayyy back in early December when Alex and I were traveling through Italy and we visited Torino, the city that I studied abroad at over 4 years ago. We mainly went there so that I could revisit the city and show Alex around, but also to meet up with Marco. It was a lot of fun, and while I was there Marco invited me to come back to Torino for the holidays and spend Christmas and New Year's with him and his family. I didn't have anything else planned for the holidays so I was more than happy to accept the invitation, and about 2 weeks later after traveling through Italy and Budapest, I was back in Torino for the holidays. It was an amazing time that I documented in a separate blog post way back when, and when Marco told me that he was getting a working holiday visa to work in Australia for a year, I knew I would have to pay him a visit if I made it that far in my trip.

What's a blog post about Sydney without a picture with the Opera House?

Well, it turns out that I did make it this far and it was time to pay him a visit. So for the third time I got to hang out with Marco on my trip and we couldn't believe that we were seeing each other again, in Australia of all places!

Because Marco and his family were so kind to host me during the holidays, I really wanted to make it out to Sydney for his birthday and it just worked out perfectly. We were more or less freaking out when we first met up, and couldn't believe that things had worked out like this. But it was great to see him again and we went out a bit to celebrate.

Marco had just gotten back from doing some farm work up in Queensland but was living in Sydney for the first four months of the year, so he knew the general area and the places that I should see in the city. So each day basically consisted of us meeting up and him taking me around the city to see all of the main sites and cool places that Sydney had to offer. Sydney is a pretty cool city. It's HUGE and super diverse, too. For some reason, it actually reminds me a lot of San Francisco, and I almost forgot I was in Australia after walking around for awhile.

Highlights from Sydney obviously consisted of the opera house, which is really impressive in person, a really cool hike we did outside of Manly, a beautiful part in northeast Sydney, and some hilarious photos we got when we went up the Sydney Tower, which provides you with really good 360 degree views of the city (but not great views of the opera house). But there was one surprise we weren't quite expecting... KING KONG KOALA!!!!!!

We were standing in front of a green screen and were told to look up and wave when they took the picture.
Marco and I agreed not to smile for added effect, and when we saw the finished product we couldn't stop laughing.
KING KONG KOALA!

We gave a friendly wave to the king kong koala and kept a straight face. I think this gave him the impression that we wanted peace, but were ready to fight if he disagreed, so he let us go. All in all we survived, and Sydney was a really good time. The pleasure of reuniting with old friends continued during my visit.

I decided to keep going south and make my way to Melbourne, the last stop of my short visit to Australia. I had another friend reach out to me in Melbourne that invited me to stay at their place, so it was another good trip to make.

Alex and I met Summer in the Sahara desert during our time in Morocco and we became friends pretty quickly. Summer is great to hang out with and it was a no-brainer when she invited me to crash at her house with her roommates. Everyone was really nice and I had a really good time walking around the city and enjoying the atmosphere of Melbourne.

Highlights of Melbourne included going to my first ever Australian football game. Australian football is nothing like American football or even soccer. I don't know how to explain it other than just googling it to see it for yourself. Anyways, it's a big deal in Melbourne because it all started in this area, so everyone is a huge fan. I was told by multiple people to check out a game when I got there so I wanted to make sure that I had the chance to see one. It just so happened that there was a game going on at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) which is a massive stadium in the city.

Inside the massive MCG with no idea of what's going on.

I had no idea what was going on during the game but after a few beers it didn't really matter. It was really entertaining and really funny to watch all of the die hard fans get so into it. Everyone was dressed up in their team's colors, chanting and yelling at every play. At one point a man who had definitely been drinking earlier approached me and asked me "What do ya reckon?" I responded, "well, I'm from America and this is my first AFL game I've ever seen so I don't really know what's going on." He smiled and nodded and welcomed me and we had a brief conversation. He told me his grandfather used to play for one of the teams which may or may not have been true, but I made sure to follow him in all the chants and cheers whenever something good happened for his team. We were all rooting for the home team and I had a blast.

It was a really cool cultural experience and I'm really happy that I decided to check out a game. Australian football actually seems like a really well-rounded sport with a lot of intensity and physical contact. I would definitely recommend to anyone traveling in Victoria or Melbourne to check out a game if they get a chance.

My plan after Melbourne was to fly over to New Zealand. I knew that I wanted to explore the south island of New Zealand more than the north (there's more beautiful landscapes and outdoor things to do in the south island), so I found a relatively cheap direct flight from Melbourne to Queenstown.

After a slight delay (more on that later) I spent a total of one week in Melbourne and would be on my way to New Zealand. I couldn't believe I'd come this far on the trip, and the one year mark was quickly approaching. I would continue to be in awe of how far I've come when I arrived to Queenstown.