For this summer, I chose to spend a whole month in Australia! My mother is a native Australian who has lived in the U.S. for over 30 years (she met my dad at age 18 in Australia and quickly moved to the U.S. after they married). Both of my parents have told me that a visit to Australia requires more than a month to visit “properly.”
With everything there is to do in Australia and with the long flight, my parents insisted that I would need longer than a couple weeks. The problem…how would I ever be able to take this time off from work? Since I am in between jobs, now was the time to take this trip of a lifetime!
- Before an extremely long nap after my flight with Milo.
The trip to Australia from Boston is arduous – about 25 hours of time in the air, not including layover time. From the start, my flights with United Airlines were a disaster. My travel over included my itinerary changing, staying on the tarmac on a hot plane for hours, getting off said plan because it was on fire, missing a connection and spending a night in San Francisco, even a bomb square in my terminal.
My plane itself from LAX to Melbourne also didn’t have any TV’s working, or light to read (a 14 hour plane ride). Bottom line: things happen and sometimes everything that can go wrong will. Having a sense of humor is key.
After making it to Melbourne in the morning, I spend nearly a whole day sleeping, eating with family, and then going back to bed for the night. Even with sleeping on the plane, a voyage to Australia takes the life out of you. Luckily, I was had my uncle and his family waiting for me – along with their beautiful cats.
After spending a day resting up, I spent the following day going to local places that were relevant to my mom’s life. The highlight was the church where my parents got married in a town called Ascot Vale.
In addition to light sightseeing, we indulged in a Melbourne favorite: coffee. Melbourne should really be the coffee capital of the world because cafe’s are everywhere!
For the next month I will be covering more Melbourne highlights and gems from traveling, including coverage of exhibits and my life away exploring the Aussie countryside.
Petite Activist 