So long!

Sorry it's been so long! I've had very few non-traveling days and those days have just been sleeping and hanging out with everyone before I say goodbye (sad!!).

I just got back from Alice Springs today. It was amazing!!! Sarah and I flew in Thursday, stayed the night at Alice Springs, got up at 6 am for our tour, rode camels, saw King's Canyon which was amazing, but it was POURING (crazy in the desert!!) so we didn't get to take many pictures of that. Camped in swags that night. Swags are these roll up mats that zip up and have a head flap to cover you in the cold desert nights. Basically like a cocoon. Got up at 6 Saturday to go to Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) which is a cool rock formation. We hiked that and then went to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) and watched the sun set. It was amazing. We camped again that night but slept on a sand dune so we could see the amazing stars that weren't blocked by any city lights. So beautiful. Then we woke up at 4:30 to see the sunrise on Uluru. The rock was HUGE. so much more impressive than i ever thought it could be. We couldn't climb it because most of the time it's closed because it's really dangerous and it's also offensive to the Aboriginal tribe there. It's probable that I wouldnt have climbed it anyway because of culture stuff, but luckily i didnt have to make the decision. We walked around Uluru though. It took about 2 hours to get around all of it. After that we went back to Alice Springs and spent 2 more nights there just hanging out with people we met on the tour (fun people!) and sleeping by the hostel pool.

Before Alice Springs was my trip to Tasmania and before that was my road trip around Brisbane/Gold Coast/Sunshine Coast.

The road trip was Oct 21-28th. It was my friends Sarah, Chris and I living in a "Wicked Campervan" which is a painted van that has 3 seats in the front, drawers & a table that turns into a bed, and in the back is a tiny sink/kitchen. It was a really good week. The three of us got along really well. Much better than i thought we would. The first day we stayed at my friend's apartment who goes to school in Brisbane. The second day we picked up the van after hanging out in a park in the morning. Drove down to Nimbin which is this crazy hippie town and then Byron Bay which is a cool beach town. We tried to get a camp site but got there too late at night so a cop knocked on the van that morning. We hung out at the beach that day and then went up and saw the light house. Walked out to the most easterly point in Australia. That night we camped at a site, made fajitas. The next day we drove up to Tweed's Head & Surfer's Paradise which are on the Gold Coast. The Indy 300 was goin on in Surfer's Paradise so it was SO crowded, not even any place to park in the city. We drove a long time that day looking for a place to stay and ended up staying at another camp site. On the way to going out that night we found this really cool play ground that had these crazy contraptions that are more fun for adults than for children, really high sea-saw like things that bounced and spun around. The next day we drove up to Brisbane and parked next to a golf course where we slept for the last three nights. One day we went up to Caloundra on the sunshine coast and spent hours body surfing, the next day we went to the XXXX brewery which was a really cool tour, very interactive and then we got free beer after. Then we went to an art museum and drove around the city trying to find a pizza hut (which we finally did). The last day we hung out in the park and played cards & ate lunch before dropping off the van and taking the bus & train back to the airport. You would think that 2 girls and a guy in a van for a week spending every minute together would be disastrous, but it was actually a really really good trip.

Tasmania was SO beautiful. We hiked up Cradle Mountain. So indescribably beautiful. It was a 7 hour hike up steep rocks. We were actually climbing boulders. Everyone's legs hurt so much the next day but it was SO worth it. It was really nice to see the people studying through Arcadia who i met at orientation but haven't seen since then.

I'll post pictures. Have to go get ready for going out tonight!!