Home of the Monaro VXR, here I come!

[margotgrissom]

*snoopydances*

My flights are booked, payed and confirmed. I have a shiny new passport including a shiny 'only a mother could love that' picture. I have... uhm, I'm working on the travel insurance. And I need to buy a suitcase. But anyway.

The living dead girl is going to Australia in November! :D

m_l_h, any tips for me?

Not only will that be my first holiday outside of Europe and the UK but also my first long distance flight. Could be interesting.

Comments

[margotgrissom.livejournal.com]

I'll stay for nearly 3 weeks. Mostly in Melbourne, but we're also gonna spend 5 days here:
http://www.grampiansgardens.com.au/index.html

;D

[m-l-h.livejournal.com]

*drools*

*sulks*

Um, yes. Didn't make it to Melbourne, so if that's where you're staying the whole time, I can't really be of much help. It's meant to be great though.

Generally speaking, and this is probably what I loved about Australia, it's a safe country - it's not like others (China and Africa come to mind) where you hide your money in your underwear (what?! I didn't have anywhere else to hide it. Ahem). I also recommend suncream (I'm trying not to sound like your mother, I promise!) even if you're just going out for a walk or shopping or whatever. I'd only a 15 minute to the office in the mornings and by the time I got there I was hugging the air con lol! Food's generally easy to come by if you're doing your own cooking - I did pretty much all my shopping in Woolworths. Oh, and you must try Gloria Jean's cafe. They do these amazing freeze thingies (dinks) made of ice and they're just to die for. As are the blueberry bagels with cream cheese *drools again*

[margotgrissom.livejournal.com]

*nods*

Well, Beloved can show me around Melbourne, so that's covered. ;)

Own cooking is a must, even though I don't look like it I'm a really difficult eater.

You really liked it there, hm? Country/customs/people wise?

*stuffs a big cookie into your pout*

[m-l-h.livejournal.com]

Mmmm cookie! *munches*

Yep, I adored it, fell completely and utterly in love with it. You're going at a good time; in Perth in November/early December it was around 26 degrees, which was comfortable. Ok, it was bloody hot at first, but that became my happy temperature by the time I left.

The funny thing about Perth (although maybe it was because of where I was staying) and I think Melbourne's the same, is that there's so many foreigners! I honestly didn't meet and talk to that many Aussies (although the one I did become friends with was rather hot *cough*). The Australians I worked with were great - one lot actually had an Australian Day for the Irish girl, and brought in 'Aussie' food so I could try it. They were excellent.

It's true that Australians are much more laid-back. One of my other favourite things was at Christmas you could walk around the city without being bombarded with music and tacky decorations. Perth had a few lights put up by the council, but I didn't find one store with decorations in, or Christmas music blasting. Which was nice.

And on a random note, their transport was very good too.

[margotgrissom.livejournal.com]

Sounds gooooooood. :)

Aside from the public transport, which I loathe in general and Beloved keeps complaining about.

[m-l-h.livejournal.com]

I would never consider getting on a train in Northern Ireland, but the trains in Perth were great. I loved being able to hop on a train, and 20 minutes later I was at the beach. Plus I felt remarkably safe on them.

I'm not sure what it's like in Melbourne, but if you get a chance to try the diving or snorkelling I'd do that. I did off the East coast and it was amazing; I would've done it off the West coast as well but I didn't get my act in gear in time.