Our last day in Melbourne meant getting up at 7 for a long day ahead, to ensure that we didn't miss our bus to Canberra in the evening. What started off as a warm sunny morning ended up being what Mikaela likes to call a "cold day" (about 19°). However, our weather inappropriate attire attracted the attention of a woman sitting opposite on the train, who proceeded to tell us about the virtues of sewing your own clothes on a rainy day. So really our outfits w...

A chilled out morning quickly descended into chaos when we decided to go to Queen Victoria Market before it closed, two hours earlier than initially planned, resulting in Mikaela's grandma frantically driving us across the carpark and to the station. The chaos was maybe indicative of things to come as upon settling into the train Mikaela discovered that her phone (with Google Maps and internet access) was not in her handbag but rather on the dining room tabl...

Sorry for the lack of updates, it all got a bit crazy once we actually started doing things! We ended up booking Greyhound online, which meant that we got to St Kilda a lot later than we expected. We thought this would mean it was a bit cooler, but apparently going from -3° and snow to 33°and hot shoes will always be unbearable. When we finally arrived at the beach it had finally cooled down and we watched the sun set while admiring the beauty of St Kilda bea...

I was honoured yesterday to have a true Australian BBQ, cooked by Australians and in the company of a family of Australians. I'm now feeling pretty Australian. I'm also slowly being taught new words by Mikaela to help me through my month here: snags (sausages), lollies (sweets), icy poles (ice lollies), bogan (chav), blowies (flies). After a rather emotional goodbye to Mikaela's mum and little sisters at the airport, we went into the city to drink, because it's...

It feels very strange to say I am writing this from Australia, with Mikaela sat next to me! After a very stressful 3 weeks, which included changing travelling dates and companions and trying to get everything ready from booking flights to attempting to fit 2 months worth of clothes and toiletries into my rucksack, I finally got on the flight. The first leg of the journey was quite comfortable - I had 4 seats to myself - but was then ruined by a family with 3 of...