the end is the beginning.

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Hello!

So we've sadly finished our round the world travels and have finally touched down in Vancouver. We are absolutely exhausted!!! The last 5 months have absolutely killed us and we need a holiday for our holiday - don't get us wrong we had a myriad amazing experiences but after almost half a year of sleeping in hostels with up to 20 other smelly backpackers, living on bread and jam for days at a time, trying to learn almost 20 new languages, and having no income on which to live, it becomes extremely tiring and most of all stressful.

But the wonderful experiences we've had outweighs the bad by far. Seeing many of our friends overseas - Rohan and Jodie in Phuket, Libz in Amsterdam, Jamie and Richard for 3 weeks in Europe, Anne, Nan, Ross, Litty and Anna in London, Aaron's cousins in Iceland, Brent and Kim in California and Yeumee in San Fran - was just absolutely surreal and the company much appreciated. It is a little lonely in Vancouver but we will soon have the likes of Simon in September, and a few more potential visits over Christmas and NYE.

Whilst we do not miss the 'backpacker lifestyle' we do already miss the excitement of entering new cities and countries, the colourful locals of each place and the culinary 'treats' such as broiled dog in Vietnam, deep-fried crickets in Thailand and putrefied shark flesh in Iceland. No, not really on that last one. It would bore you for hours for me to go through everything we've done so feel free to see our blog if you so desire. Louis and Jen, FYI we have taken 11,268 photos and counting, so your generous gift has been getting a lot of action!

In the last week we have been madly rushing around trying to set ourselves up in Vancouver, and it has been extremely tricky without a credit rating. Even though we have good credit history in Australia it doesn't transfer across; so at the moment I am not even allowed to go on a $15/month plan with a mobile phone company even though my bank in Australia asked me to up my limit to a ridiculous $10k per month. Needless to say it has been extremely stressful trying to find a place to live, but a few days ago we signed a lease for a new 1br condo in Burnaby, about 25 minutes from Downtown Vancouver. The landlord is lovely and understands our sitation, and all the major appliances come with the rent so it saves us forking out thousands on things we will just have to sell again in a year or two. The Burnaby area is a little suburban-ish for our liking, kinda similar to the Rouse Hill development, but beggars can't be choosers. Now, we just have to work on getting jobs!!

We have set up bank accounts, mobile phones, Social Insurance Numbers, driver license IDs and have been madly applying for jobs like mad hatters. But at least we have a place to live, and it will be so much more beneficial for our mental well-beings to be job-hunting in the comfort of our own homes as opposed to the closet-sized hostel room we are in right now (we move in a few days). We have a lovely friend we met through Sam called Chloe, who is helping us out by introducing us to her network of friends and answering questions as a dutiful Vancouverite.

We are sad that we have finished traveling for now, and it is so surreal to look back over our photographs and see what we've done since leaving Sydney in March. It was probably more of a whirlwind adventure than we should have prepared but we survived, just. There are times we wish we were back home with all of you, especially when people ask us why we left a comfortable home and a rewarding job to go to the other side of the world with neither home nor job. But the last 5 months has taught us so much about ourselves and each other; about other cultures and their way of life; about how lucky we have it in Australia when countries like Iceland and Malaysia and even the UK have governments going through such political turmoil at the moment; and most of all we have seen what's out there and want to see more! We have already begun to plan our return trip home which involves South America, London, Egypt and Thailand again...........But lets work on getting jobs first!

So, thanks to those for sharing some great travel memories over the last 5 months, to those who we have met in our travels, and to those for keeping in touch with us over the last 5 months - it is so much appreciated. We miss you all and look forward to catching up again, whether in Canada, Australia, or somewhere else in this world!

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Comments

[Elise]

Oh wow I can't believe it has come to the end of the travel blogging from round the world and i cant believe how long it has been since u left! Time flys.....wow! Im so glad your settling in, in Vancouver and have a friend to help u out in the process! Can't wait to hear about your jobs which im sure will come soon! Take it easy....Love and miss you xXx

[anonymous]

awww i will miss this diary!!! can't wait for the next installment :P email me your address, biatches so i can send you mail xxxx

[sara w]

i misssssss you guys