Australia, 2002

For my 21st birthday my Great Aunt gave me a generous amount of money to spend how I wished. I had graduated from teachers college a few months before and was taking some time off after being at school since I was five. I had two girl friends that I hadn't seen since we were very young and I had itchy feet. Now seemed like the perfect time to take a wee holiday.

Another old (as in the amount of time we've known each and not in years - although after last nights conversation, one would be forgiven for mistaking her for a 65 year old) friend Tracy, decided to join me and we set off on a two week overseas adventure to Australia.

We started off with a week in Melbourne where my friend Katy lived. Katy's mother and mine were friends before we were born and we were inseparable until Katy's family moved to Australia when we were four. Ever since then we had stayed in touch through letters, and several short visits over the years. As we've grown older, we haven't made the hugest effort to stay in touch, but the wonder (or evils of) Facebook have put us back in touch. Anyway, I digress.

I'm looking at the photos of the trip in order to jog my memory and I really wish I had a scanner, these fashions are hilarious!!

Being that we were 21 you can imagine that our priorities were drinking, shopping and sight seeing. Probably in that order.

Each day started around lunchtime, because the night before was filled with lots of drinking and adventures out on the town. All the photos I have start out sweet and innocent and quickly evolve to beer bottles, ridiculous poses and blurry eyes. We went to some local pubs, a cocktail bar (that served one of my favourite drinks to this day) and some interesting places in between. We drank a lot of beer, a lot of spirits and even some absinthe at the end. The best bit was that the only toilet in the house was the ensuite of Katy's mother and stepfather. As you can imagine, while we did our best to sneak quietly through their room in the wee hours of the morning, being drunk meant we were terribly loud and boisterous. I remember being so drunk one night that I had to turn on the lights, I'm sure Jenny really appreciated us staying at that point.

During the day we went to the Victoria St Markets, where both Tracy and I bought didgeridoos. We had great intentions of learning to play - yeah, right! I don't know about Tracy, but I finally bit the bullet and threw my away last year during the great move of 2012. We went down to St Kilda, the Melbourne Zoo, the Butterfly House, the Botanic Gardens where I took a photo in front of the Fairy Tree just like the one taken there in 2002.

One day we drove down the Great Ocean Road to the Twelve Apostles. Many will know them, they are often used in iconic Australian imagery. They are amazing sea stacks, but only nine exist (or they did then, only eight exist now). I found them to pretty stunning and was pleased we made the journey.

After a week of heavy drinking and more heavy drinking we spent 16 hours on a bus that took us to Sydney. It was a great way to see the country, despite the leg cramp and teeny tiny toilet.

In Sydney we stayed for a week with my friend Linda. I met Linda at primary school, she lived up the road and we walked to school together. Linda was Australian, but that didn't stop me from being friends with her. When we were about eight I think it was, her family moved home to Canberra. We stayed in touch with letters and later emails. She had moved to Sydney to study which is where she was when Tracy and turned up on her doorstep.

After a week of heavy drinking, we were in need of break, so sightseeing took over. We did all those typically touristy things one expects to do in Sydney; See the Opera House, the Aquarium (where I couldn't bring myself to touch a snake or a baby alligator), the Chinese Gardens, Bondi Beach, and the Zoo. Tracy even managed to convince me to go to The Wonderland, an amusement park with a lot of roller coasters. I'm not sure how it happened, but she also convinced me to ride one. And then I was done. We did a day tour in to the Blue Mountains, where we saw the Three Sisters rock formation, another one of those iconic Australian images used to advertise tourism of Australia.

We couldn't leave Sydney without at least some drinking escapades. We went to the local University 'Drinking Olympics' as spectators. While fun to watch, we enjoyed the drinking and chatting up the Uni boys.

After a full on two weeks Tracy and I were exhausted, hungover and broke. It was time to come home. This holiday was the first overseas holiday I had been on that I paid for, that I organised and that I went on with a great friend rather than family. I don't remember being nervous about travelling overseas with out my parents to back me up, but I'm sure I was. Tracy and I had a blast, and there was definitely more travels in my future.

Along the trip I sent emails home to family, but unlike the first few trips I did, they were a lot longer and honestly, you've probably spent too much time of your time reading this blog post as it is. But here are a few highlights:

Day 1:
Check in was fine until we got to security where Tracy became the human starfish! She beeped going through the security thing and they made her spread her arms and legs so they could scan her. It ended up being her bracelet that set it off. While that was happening and I was just dying to pull out my camera and take a photo, her bag beeped on the x-ray machine. The dude looked pissed and told her that she scissors. She tried to tell him she didn't and I thought they were going to start this massive argument. She finally found them and he binned him.

Day 3 and Tracy's birthday:
Today Tracy decided her birthday present to herself was to moan at me to have the first shower, I didn't and she used all the hot water! I was soooo unimpressed! We walked into the city and then went out to the Queen Victoria Markets. We both spent a lot of money, I think Tracy and I have the word 'sucker' written on our foreheads. Our new motto is "Money is meant for spending".
Tracy is hilarious. Everyday I find myself rolling around on the floor with tears pouring out from laughing so hard. I wish I had a video camera! It probably wouldn't be funny for you guys, but we are having a blast and we have only been here three days!

Day 4:
I don't remember whether I told you all about Monday so if you didn't hear, email me and ask - if you want to know that is!
The thing is, 11 years later, I have no recollection of what happened on that Monday. Tracy, Mum, do you remember?! Can anyone clue me in here?!

Day 5:
. . .Once we finally got to the park we suddenly questioned whether we should walk through the park - what about those murders? Once we decided the plan if we were to be attacked (They would attack me, Tracy would flash them and I would run for help while Tracy did her karate on them!) we were fine. Until, we noticed all these possums at the bottom of a tree about five feet away. They weren't a possum family, oh no, it was a possum family reunion. They were all up the tree and one was on a branch about three feet above us. It was ogling us thinking "mmmmm lunch!". We ran screaming.