...on the road again

New places to see, new people to meet and new adventures ahead! The main target of this trip is Australia, Southeast Asia and possibly a trip around the globe through Europe on the way back to the US. The world is such a big place but seems a little smaller and life seems to make a little more sense the more places I visit.

With the real estate market slowing in Florida, I decided to leave my previous job and take some time to travel before moving on to the next venture. I put all my belongings in storage, bought a new hiking bag and a series of one-way plane tickets.....and the adventure begins.

From Tampa I flew into New York City to hang out with Miller for a few days before driving up to New Hampshire for Parmelee's “surprise wedding”, yes, that’s correct, a “surprise wedding”. What a great ceremony and fun event, congrats again Mr. and Mrs. Parmelee!! I continued up to the White Mountains of NH to spend a week with my parents and reconnect with some old friends. In true New England summer style we had a lobstah’ clam bake….mmmm. After a stopover in Portsmouth and a few days in Baltimore I made my way out to Hawaii. I spent 5 days on Oahu with the newly wed Mr. and Mrs. Pond which was a blast, brought back a lot of great memories. From snorkeling to surfing, BBQing, sailing (Mai Tai Catamaran) and enjoying the Waikiki nightlife; the weather was perfect and the water was warm.

I finally left the sunny islands and continued on to Australia and stepped off the plane to slightly cooler temps (the winter season is beginning now). A friend of a friend picked me up at the airport and took me to a little hotel/hostel above a bar in an area of Sydney called Woolloomooloo (quite a name). I'm now sitting in this very small room with my laptop open and feet up, ready for some sleep. I walked all over the city today looking at apartments to share (with all sorts of people from all over the world) and am going to check out a few more places this weekend before deciding where to stay put for a month or so. This really is a cool city though, lots going on.

It's great to be in a different country again, all the little things that seem different at first will eventually become normal. Remembering that an apartment is called a "flat"; that a regular coffee means a latte; remembering to look right before left when crossing the street and getting in on the other side of a car/cab; remembering that it's not weird to see men sitting at a pub at 11 in the morning with a pint of beer in front of them; that 30 degrees is actually a very warm day (celsius); that nobody measures in feet; that American football means nothing and Rugby means everything; and that I'm now the one with the funny accent.

More details to come, I just wanted to get this TravelBlog up and running again. I hope everyone is well and have a great weekend!

cheers!

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