Miracles happening, visiting Taronga Zoo and saying goodbye!

BADOOM! I'm feeling better than ever! The medicine did make a miracle even though it took more than 5 hours, more specifically it took 15 hours... Right now I'm packing and cleaning my hotel room because I'll fly back home today, yay! (or actually nay because I'll miss this place sooo much). I visited Taronga Zoo today in Sydney, accompanied by Abigail. Taronga Zoo cares for 4000 animals from over 350 species, many of which are threatened. I wish I'd more time to be able to see all 4000 of them but the time didn't serve. Now I'll tell you what the day looked like:

Abi and I hired two bikes to bike all the way to the zoo: the distance from the hotel wasn't far away at all! We had already booked tickets beforehand so we could skip the long queue and get some extra time! Taronga Zoo is the biggest zoo I've been at and I was so fascinated all the time. There were animals everywhere (okay not literally everywhere, but in cages and inside fences) and I even got a bit scared. We saw everything from giraffes and sea-lions to penguins and Tasmanian devils. Taronga Zoo was enormous compared to the swedish zoos. I was about to cry during the entire trip due to my allergy to pollen. It was awful and my eyes were more than just tumescent.

                                 I love the contrast between the giraffes and the skyscrapers

After a couple hours of sightseeing and feeding animals, we went to the nearest restaurant to get some food. With a starving stomach I could eat grass if I have too. Both me and Abigail tried out a shrimpsoup which in my opinion wasn't very good... Seafood has never been a favourite to me.

   While laughing and talking with Abigail, I suddenly began to cry because I knew this would be the last 3 hours together with her. We both exhanged PO-box addresses so we could send things to eachother and then we started to ride the bicycles back to the hotel again. Now I'm sitting on my bed, double-checking the tickets (It wouldn't be sad if the tickets were wrong and I had to stay in Australia my entire life). In less than 10 minutes I'll head down to the entrance to get in the taxi I booked. 

    I never thought that a trip to Australia could give such a strong impression to me. I'll never forget this journey, never. And a huge hug for all of you readers who have shared this amazing experience with me! I should get going now since the taxi is here and my plane is set to head off at 9 pm. Thank you once again. <3 // Angelica Huynh

Tortured by sickness and disappointment

Hello fellow! The atmosphere right now is very erroneous. I'm at my hotel in Sydney again, all cuddled up in blankets. Unfortunately, I got sick yesterday when I arrived home. I guess it could be the weather disparity between Sydney and Canberra that caused my high fever because it was cold at night when we sat at Santana's porch. I haven't been able to do a single thing today, other than utilising Abigail as an assistant. She went to the market five times today (I love her for that!!) because I craved Ben&Jerrys in different periods of time. It made me disappointed that I couldn't do anything today, because I really wanted to see kangaroos and all special kinds of animals. The clock is now 4 pm and I've pretty much used up two boxes of tissues. I went to the doctor this morning to see if I could get any miracle medicins so I could pause my cold for a day or so. No one wants to miss out on a day in Australia! The doctor said that the medicin would operate in about 5 hours, and it has passed 4,5 hours now. Please let this medicine work! If I actually feel better later on the day, I'll update to you guys but if I don't, you'll here from me tomorrow instead! Bye. // A sick Angelica

Second day in Canberra

Hello sunshines! To continue from the last post, I've discovered some culture differences between Sweden and Australia. Okay, to be honest I haven't actually "discovered" them, I've just discussed them with one of Abigail's neighbours called Santana, who's a highly educated specialist doctor. It was a very great idea talking to her because she has travelled around several countries in less than half a year so I thought she would have some knowledge about culture disparities. One of the main differences between Sweden and Australia is the citizens attitudes. In Sweden, the inhabitants are shy and cold-like. We don't show our emotions as much as the people in Australia do. Here in Australia, people dare to look you in the eyes even though they don't know you, and sometimes they even come to have a sophisticated conversation with you. I know that for the reason that I've talked to a handful of strangers in just two days. I could never imagine that happening to me here in Sweden. Both Australians and Swedes are the "partying" and laid back time, or that's at least what I've experienced. I'm obviously taking a huge generalization because everyone have their own uniqueness but because I'm looking for culture differences, some type of generalization has to appear. I haven't done anything special today, other than sitting on Santana's porch eating all kinds of cakes. She's tremendously good at baking cakes and she also teached me some techniques. We baked a cake called "Red Velvet Cake" and I had no clue about what red velvet was. Maybe it's something that many swedish people already know or not know, either way it's BREATHTAKING! I can say it like this: my taste buds went to heaven and back to earth again.
   Another disparity between these two countries are the weather. I was so shocked when I arrived to Sydney because it was really hot. It was certainly summer in Sweden (it's still summer) but the difference in weather is still big. Our swedish summers lasts for about 2 months while an australian summer lasts all year around. Furthermore, the winters and summers in Sweden are the opposite to the winters and summers in Australia which makes it hard for me to inure. The food is strangely kind of the same in Australia and Sweden. It's all about fish and all types of seafood!
  The last difference that I will mention is the school. In Australia, the high schools are more like the visions we have of high schools, for example from american movies like "High School Musical". The thing that distinguishes australian high schools from the typical "american" high schools in movies are the uniforms. Every high school in Australia has its own specific logo and uniform to represent their school and that is something that I adore. Telopea Park School also has a "freedom-day" every month where the students can wear whatever they want, therefore the name contains the word "freedom".

It's sad that I couldn't find any place where I could discover more distinctive disparities but I still hope that it'll be enough for you guys. Sorry!
  Tomorrow, I'll take the bus back to Sydney together with Abigail because it's my last free day until I fly back home to the cold Sweden (Abigail needs to pack her belongings as well). We both have agreed on going on a trip the last day to discover the wildlife of Australia because come on, how can you not want to see kangaroos and koalas when you're visiting Australia? We don't know which one we'll go to yet, so I guess we'll decide that tomorrow morning. Have a great day my readers and I'll see you tomorrow! Hooroo! // Ang H

Telopea Park School and exploring Canberra

Goodmorning! I got woken up by someone knocking at the door and it was Abigail who wanted me to eat breakfast with her due to her not so well social skills. This morning, we decided to take a long ride by bus all the way to Canberra. Yup you heard right, Canberra! Even though it's 288 kilometres distance between Sydney and Canberra it won't stop me from taking the chance to explore another enormous part of the country, which is also the capital. Many people think that the capital of Australia is either Sydney or Melbourne but in fact, it's Canberra (For not so long ago I was one of those "many people). Abigail was forced to return to her high school in Canberra for the reason that she had to sign her graduation document (I was so confused because in Sweden we don't need to sign any kind of graduation document, we just receive them). I wanted to come along because I hadn't planned anything anyway. If I haven't told you this before, I'll say it now instead. I'm travel-sick, so the fact that I was taking a long busride to Canberra wasn't anything positive against my feels. I almost puked even though I was chewing gum at that time (okay, it might have been TMI). You might wonder how I handled the busrides before, for example the taxi I took from the airport to my hotel? Well, easy, I felt bad at those times as well but didn't bother to write about it since it wasn't anything serious. This time the busride took over an hour so it would have been a miracle if I felt good during the busride.
   When we arrived to Canberra our first stop was Telopea Park School, which is also Abigail's high school! When I was walking in to the school I noticed how different everything was. To begin with,  they had a HUGE flag outside their school building and the flag was supposed to symbolize their "school-logo". It's kind of cool that every high school in Australia has its own specific logo because here in Sweden we rarely use any symbols for a school. The second thing I realised was their outfits, red uniforms! Wow, they looked so organised and synchronized walking down all dressed in red. I haven't been able to build my own opinion about it yet because I think it's unpersonal but at the same time it gives the school some type of value.

The whole "document signing" stuff took longer than we thought because they didn't finish until 5 pm. We've planned to stay here in Canberra for 2 days but since today's errand took longer than expected, we'll have to cut some plans off. Sigh, because Canberra is one of my favourite cities in the world. The clock was almost 5.30 pm and we headed of to Abigail's home to eat some food. Her parents were very excited to see me because they thought that I had unique clothes (I literally wore a black t-shirt and a pair of lightwashed blue jeans) but I guess it's all about differences in different countries and cultures. After a huge meal which gave me complications to walk, we all gathered up to play monopoly (yes it's called Monopoly in Australia meanwhile we in Sweden call it Monopol). People say that Monopoly destroys relationships and I totally agree! Abigail lost and she kept being mad at her parents until the next morning when she accidentally forgot that she was supposed to be angry. Now it's 11 am in the morning and we're going to explore some culture differences between Sweden and Australia! But the blog will suffer until then, see you!

Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Royal Botanic Gardens

Hi readers! Regrettably I haven't kept my promise about blogging more frequently but I hope you all can forgive me! Monday was my lazy day because of the jetlag I had, so I only did things such as sleeping, watching tv, eating and going down to the market. Tuesday and Wednesday were the days where things actually happened and you'll get to hear about that in a second. I also got a new friend called Abigail and she's staying at the same hotel as me! Abigail is orginally Australian but she's visiting Sydney so that's why she's staying at this hotel. Anyway, during this day I've visited so many places and gotten so much closer with the australian culture (primarily the australian food ^_^). So what have I done exactly?

Day 2 - Tuesday
After a good night sleep I was all prepared to explore the city. When I was done with my morning routine and breakfast, I met up with Abigail and we immediately took the bus to visit the world-famous Sydney Harbour Bridge. The purpose was of course to take pictures and see the bridge live, but we had also planned to do some bridge climbing. Oh my it was so scary!! Even if I don't have a fear of heights I was so anxious about the fact that I might fall (I was obviously secured), but it all went well in the end. And the view was magnificent up there. Australia has loads of skyscrapers compared to Sweden which made the view just thrilling.

                                                     Just look at the view, so breathtaking!

After the bridge climbing we decided to go to the Opera House as well since it was located nearby and my expectations were once again exceeded. WOW! Just by scrolling down Google pictures of the Opera house my jaw was already dropped so imagine my face expression when I actually saw it in reality... After taking a couple of pictures (okay actually around 100) we strolled down the park to find something to eat and we really did! While walking we're encountered by a barbeque-stall, or what the australians call it "barbie". I found out that this kind of barbeque was one of the most popular and typical australian food so I was more than excited to try it. We sat at the outdoor-seating waiting for the food to arrive and I chose a burger with tomato and barbeque sause while Abigail picked sausages with bearnaise sause. I think that my taste buds were still settling down in the australian surrounding because I didn't really like the food. Pity, but as everyone says "Never judge a book by its cover" so I should try more australian food before giving my opinion :) I was fascinated by the difference that you bascially can see 20 different food-stalls just by looking down the street. In Sweden, or more exactly in Nyköping you can rarely see any food-stalls on the streets on the daily-basis which in my opinion is sad. After an hour of eating we decided to head back home because we didn't want to put to much pressure on our feet and we also wanted to do some more sightseeing tomorrow.

Next morning, we ate breakfast as usually and then we went down to the market to buy some fruits and sandwiches. I'm being so ambiguous right now but we had planned to have a picknick so that's why we bought those things.
Abigail wanted us to eat atthe Royal Botanic Gardens because she considered it the most beautiful gardens she has ever seen in her lifetime. Sounded nice to me so I approved, and I was not disappointed. Firstly, there is a kind of long pathway you have to go before entering the Royal Botanic Gardens but it will all be worth it when you've arrived. It's glorious, delightful and full of ponds with the skyscrapers in the backround. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? We sat down at a bench and even though we planned to eat all the food we bought, we ended up using half of it to feed the ducks (they're sooo cute!). From early morning to late afternoon, we spent our time being in the botanical gardens doing things such as feeding ducks, walking around and take pictures and also trying out jet boating (which I recommend you all to try because it was surealy one of the mest moments of my life).

Even though we wanted to keep strolling down the australian parks and do some more sightseeing, our legs resisted. We took our tiredness as a hint for us to take the bus back home and when we came home I literally fell asleep at the floor in my hotelroom. For dinner I decided to buy some take-away food and then I think that I will sleep for a bunch of hours because more adventures are waiting tomorrow.

As for now, goodnight and thank you for following me through this journey! // Angelica

Sydney 15.04.20

Hi everyone! Since my last post (my first post) on the blog, alot of bad things occured... To begin with, my flight to Australia on Friday was delayed to Saturday, so I had to stay the night on a hotel near the airport. Fortunately the airline company payed for the hotel cost which made it easier for me considering my low budget for the entire trip. 

I arrived at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport at approximately two o'clock last night and I immediately took a taxi to get to my hotel. If you haven't figured it out already, I'm staying at a hotel in Sydney! Believe me, it was such a dilemma deciding which city I wanted to live in, but after a bunch of this and that I managed to choose Sydney. I chose this city because of many reasons. One of the reasons is that Sydney has many things nearby, for example the airport I'm flying back to Sweden with, tourist attractions and also supermarkets. It's nice to have supermarkets near my hotel because I only get free breakfast here and the prices for lunch and dinner are way out of my budget. You can also buy souvenirs in the supermarkets, so I need to remember to get some of those before I return to Sweden. 

Oh and I almost forgot! I'm currently staying at a hotel called "Y Hotel City South" and I chose this hotel because of the great reviews it got. It's a budgethotel with access to an own TV, refrigerator and free Internet which is great considering my daily blogposts! I'll post some pictures of the hotel down below but keep in mind that the source of the pictures come from the hotel's own website. I'm charging my camera at the moment so I'm not able to take my own pictures. It's almost 5.00 pm and I need to quickly go to the market because I'm vastly hungry! But I'll make sure to post some more from now on. Other than that, I hope you all have a great day and feel free to leave some comments of places you would like me to visit during these 7 days, I'd love to get some recommendations because I'm not familiar with Australia at all. 

// Angelica 

                                                          Cafe/Breakfastroom

The livingroom and also the biggest room of them all!

The beginning of something marvelous

Last year, I graduated from high school and has since then worked part-time at a cafeteria. One day when I was working in the cafeteria, I heard two customers discussing about what the meaning of life was. Both of them said that it was to travel around the world and not be stuck in the same place. It made me wonder, do I really want to spend my whole life in this cafeteria? If I have to choose between spending my life in Sweden or traveling around the world, I think the answer will be very predictable. And that's why I'm taking a flight tomorrow to head down to Australia, the country of kangaroos. I wanted to travel to a country where everything was different compared to Sweden such as culture and weather, and Australia was the best option. This trip will last for approximately 7 days and within these days I'll try my best to experience the most extraordinary time of my life. I haven't planned this trip so well because I think that the spontaneous parts of this journey will also be the best ones. With that said, I hope you all want to experience Australia with me because we'll have the most amazing time of our lives. Promise! Now before I go to sleep, I'm going to pack down the last few bits and bobs to make sure I have everything I need. 

See you next time. Hooroo cobbers! /Angelica