Welcome Back to Me(P.S. I'm still here in the land Down Under!)

 Alot has happened since my first and only post on this particular blog post, I've taken to writing in proper journals, so I haven't completed given up writing. 

One thing I must point out is that despite my original plans I am still in Australia.  When I arrived here in Sept 2019, I decided to do an East Coast Road trip, via greyhound of Australia and it was epic. I ran out of money along the way and ended up as an Au Pair to one family before switching to another and staying there until about 2 weeks ago. 

I was content to settle, but I'm tired, especially considering the way the world is and has currently been for the last year and a half. You all know we're in this pandemic, and I along with plenty of other millennials are tired of these once and a lifetime events happening in well..our lifetimes. 

I'm going to try to update this blog regularly because I enjoyed looking at my Holland blogs and I want to have that for here. Despite the fact that a whole year and half has passed since my first and only blog post here.  

Arrival: Sydney. Australia

I probably should have started this earlier, but I didn't think I wanted the responsibility of keeping this up again. But I want my folks back home and friends and whoever else wants an inside look of my year or two.

Hi, I'm Toni if I never said. I'm from California, and I am currently in Sydney, Australia on a Working Holiday Visa. The premise of this visa, basically allows me to get a job a here and work like a local to support myself and my travels.

I've been in Sydney about a week an a half. I arrived on the 18th of September, from a 17 hour flight. The flight was split into two, so it wasn't too bad. What was the worse was the jetlag. I arrived in Hawaii who is 3 hours behind California before my flight to Sydney. Sydney is 17 hours ahead of California, so that's been interesting, especially when it comes to calling my mom.

I went through a program to come here, I didn't need too, and I wish I would have saved my money, because I would be $1000 richer and so much better off. It's called BUNAC and its supposed to get you acclimated to your new surroundings. The Australia version of their company is called Work Travel Company, and they've been welcoming but not really.

Supposedly with this program you can meet like minded travelers like yourself and make some friends. That didn't happen with me, I had a group, where the majority of the group was German, and they like to stick together, then I had 2 other Americans, from New York and they didn't want to talk to me. There was a french girl with not the best English skills, I feel like if I knew French we could have hit it off, but I don't and we didn't.

BUNAC books you with their partner Hostel, which is amazing but you're paying $40 a night to stay there, thats crazy expensive for a hostel. You're not even getting your own bathroom in your room. I signed up for Ultimate Australia, and I guess I got it.

My first 7 days here were filled with activities that they planned for us. I only vaguely remember them because I didn't have much fun on them. I was alone for the majority of the time. I was starved for conversation, I still feel like I am.

I hiked 3 days in a row, and my leg currently hates me, but I have some pictures from those three hikes, that I will include later. The wifi here is so slow. The USA has completely spoiled me. It's been a struggle, just to get online.

I saw the Blue Mountains, went on a Bondi-Coogee Coastal hike, and climbed up the Harbour bridge Lookout Point. The views were pretty cool to look at, but I would have been okay not seeing them. We also went to a wildlife reserve and that was really fun. I guess I'll talk more about it in the next post. Thanks for Reading!