Brooklin Bounce

Friday March 14th, 3:40pm (Australian Time) For a long while I have been anticipating my first solo adventure, and now I am well on the way. On this particular holiday I use the term 'solo' loosely as although I will travel to and from Europe and spend the weekdays alone, my nights and weekends will be filled with the familiar laughter of Kate and Emily. Solo travel on training wheels if you will, a concept that is most agreeable for my first lone voyage. Whilst mostly all of my friends from Sydney have trekked the globe with only themselves for company, the concept has always terrified me. I am a people person and my need to experience new things with company seems infinitely more enjoyable than attempting to do so alone. I have an innate ability ... read more

As I sit in the dungeon of our hostel I am happy that we are checking out and flying into London today. Besides the fact that we are yet again embarking on a new adventure, we are also leaving this hostel which we have grown to hate more and more every day. I am sleepy from being woken by the noise of every move on our matresses, which sound like they are covered in plastic but in reality have springs which Im sure were intended for use other than in a bed. That combined with the fact that we have had to put up with the most inconsiderate room buddies in a dorm of 14 people, is a recipe for sleep deprivation. I smell. Oh boy do I smell... and not because I enjoy offending people ... read more

Today is our last day in Bolivia. When we first booked La Paz into our itinerary we were a bit wary of what to expect when we got here (eventually after being delivered from Santa Cruz), but now we know that it was well worth the time filling between Machu Picchu (if it didn´t mud slide all over the place) and Carnival in Rio. After sleeping out all our bitterness on the first night here, we were off nice and early for our 4 hour bus trip to Copacabana. The countryside is quite beautiful besides most of the buildings being half finished and composed of mud/random pieces of wood. Copacabana is a quaint little town on the shores of Lake Titicaca, or so we thought until we got into the heart of the action. On the ... read more

After a rough start to our Peruvian travels we have reconciled with the fact that the closest we'll be to seeing Machu Picchu will be on the face of a postcard. But things have not turned out quite as badly as we expected. Which brings me to TRAVEL LESSON # 6 Every cloud has a silver lining. Once realising that Machu Picchu was nobodys feat this week/month/year or what ever the rumours say this hour, I could count my 4 QLD girlfriends in that category too. So Emily and I met with Rach, Linds, Karly and Kirst on what other day but Australia day. I find it really amusing that when you speak with other tourists on this day that and they realise that your Australian they wish you a happy Australia day - O.K thankyou. ... read more

Before I begin my colossal catch up blog I'd like to apologise for the neglect to everybody including darling boyfriend and darling Mother. As explained in my previous rant, it was exceptionally expensive in Vegas to utilise anything that you touched, and since we have left we have not had a chance to scratch ourselves let alone write my daily activities with the commitment I promised. So TRAVELLERS LESSON NUMBER have no idea anymore; Be prepared for all seasons. This is an obvious one, but I have found one that Emily and I may have overlooked on our trip out to the Grand Canyon, 2 days into our Vegas trip. We hired a car, stopped at a roadside diner, at the usual 'buffalo burger' and arrived at the Grand Canyon too late to see it due ... read more