It’s only 9 o’clock in the morning and what an eventful day it has been already! I woke up, ready to start my regular morning routine as I got out of bed. I look to my right and see something scurry across my room floor, and you’ll bet I was screaming. My roommates run in and laugh at my fear of a skink that had made its way into my room sometime between last night and this morning. I was definitely warned that there would be creepy crawlies when I came to Australia but didn’t imagine anything actually happening! It was definitely a new way to start my morning. That is definitely one thing about Australia, the animals are not afraid of human interaction here, that’s the cool/scary thing.
Fast fast forwarding to five hours later, I am on a 5 hour train (not fun at all) to spend the weekend in the Blue Mountains, a very popular tourist attraction in New South Wales. We will be traveling to the city of Katoomba and we will be staying in a hostel, and going on a 5 hour hike! It will be much colder than it has been in Newcastle, which I am not excited for. I have been soaking up all of the Aussie sun, the cold just sounds dreadful to me! Nonetheless, I am excited to see mountains! Fun fact: being that I am from Florida, this will be my first time seeing mountains!
Update after the hike: Definitely harder than it looked! I didn’t realize how steep the climb would be, my legs are definitely going to feel this in the morning. Though five hours in nature was very peaceful. That is definitely one of my most enjoyed things about Australia is how easy it is to get away from the city to find pace and quiet in nature. Now we are back at the hostel, and everyone is exhausted. We will meet soon for a pizza dinner!
Oh yeah, that’s another thing about Australia, portion sizes are MUCH smaller than the United States. A large at dominos is what we would call a personal pan in the states!?