Dueling Backpacks

Australia was a fun time for us that felt like a break from our normal travels. Staying with friends really changed the whole experience of being somewhere. It was fun to catch up with people we hadn’t seen in years and I felt like we were getting all the local insights to everywhere we went. It was a different pace. We didn’t feel the need to run around everywhere and take in the sights. We were happy to just hang out and catch up. But, our friends, being the awesome tour guides they were, made sure we got around to all the big (and small) attractions in their area.

Day 207 (January 21, 2019) – Cairns, Australia We only had one reason to visit Cairns (Travis is always reminding me that it's pronounced "cans") and that was to see the Great Barrier Reef. After it was all said and done this few-day excursion was going to cost us a small fortune, but I didn’t want to go all the way to Australia and not see it. Travis had already been there twice, so this was more for my benefit than his.

Day 205 (January 19, 2019) - Melbourne & Bendigo, Australia After our excellent Canberra visit , it was time to head to Melbourne to visit Nick, Jenny, and their daughter Ada. Tami drove us to the bus station, where we caught a bus to a train. After about 8-9 hours in total we ended up at Southern Cross Station in Melbourne. We took a free tram to Chinatown, where we ate at Shanghai Village Dumpling, a restaurant recommended by Tami. It was BYOB, which we're always up for, so we got a cheap bottle of wine down the street and had a nice meal as we waited for Nick to make it back to his place in Melbourne from Bendigo (where he lives during the week for work).

Day 196 (January 10, 2019) - Canberra, Australia After spending a week in Sydney, we caught a bus to Canberra to visit Tami. Australians typically joke that there's nothing to do in Canberra. Even Tami, when I told her we'd be visiting her for about a week, joked: "8 days in Canberra. Yikes!" Canberra really isn't that bad, it's kind of like a smaller version of Washington, DC. It's Australia's national capital, and it's a sprawling planned city with lots of museums, restaurants, and outdoor activities (like hiking, canoeing, rowing, etc.). I had been to Canberra 15 years ago during the summer break, to both Nick's and Tami's houses, and I didn't think poorly of the city (which I think is different than saying I thought nice things about it). However, Tami was determined to leave us with a good impression of Canberra, so she set off planning what we could do there before we even arrived. She and her husband Tim even hosted us an...

Day 187 (January 1, 2019) - Sydney, Australia Ever since I left Australia in 2004 after studying abroad there for one year, I've been meaning to make it back. I've had several opportunities to do so, including a couple of friends' weddings, but things just never worked out. Since we were definitely going to Southeast Asia, and we had nothing but time, we decided to swing by Australia (this was actually the original reason we visited New Zealand too, because we had made the decision to go to Australia, and New Zealand was in the area, so why not go).