Back to Burlington
Just a quick update from Canada. Gavin and I are in Burlington, which is my hometown and about 40 minutes outside of Toronto. We have been splitting our time between here and Toronto (divorced parents and all). It's really wonderful to be back home. The weather has been warm the last few days and not much snow left in these parts. Gavin is coping well with meeting my family for the second time and listening to lots of wedding talk, I won't have too many chanced since I am moving back to Banff! We are going to Niagara Falls on Thursday as he's never been. This weekend is our engagement party so I'm pretty excited about that. I've been feeling pretty jet lagged, after travelling for about 50 hours in 4 days and 14 time zones. Finally today I slept past 5am and made it up past 9pm last night. Let's hope it gets better.
London Baby!
We made it! The plane rides went pretty quickly. I made it through 4 movies and slept for nearly 8 hours. We had a 3 hour stopover in Singapore and the rumours about them having an area with showers/massages/beds are true, plus they had tons of shopping. That was all within the transfer hall since so many people have layovers there. When we got to London however Gavin and I were the last ones left waiting at the bag carasole. And waiting.... We found Gavin's, it was in transfers by accident. Mine was a no show though, so we had to leave and wait for it to be delivered. My bag arrived 12 hours after me (apparently it was stuck somewhere between Term 1 & 4, someone thought it was meant to be transferred again) which was not all that fun to arrive in london wearing a light long sleeved top in 0 degrees. It's bloody cold here! I'm Canadian, I should be able to walk back into the cold and feel fine. But since we've been in +30 degree heat since November I guess it's understandable.
We are staying with yet another generous traveller, James who we worked with Sunshine. He lives in a beautiful apartment at Liverpool Street. It's safe to say I've never been in a place this big in London before, who knew people had this much room? He's supplied us with maps, extra cell phone, internet and a futon in the living room; sweet! Yesterday we had a nap and met up with friends. Actually I got to see my cousin Dan! That was great, he's studying at the London Business School and took us on a little tour of that too. Then it was off to All Bar One for dinner and drinks with a few people and I came back to meet the baggage people (thank god) and an early night. Today we are going for a big sightseeing day, The British Museum and lunch and dinner with different friends. We're trying to squeeze it all in! Tomorrow it's up to Darby to see Simon and Lucy and relive Nepal memories, then Fridya it's CANADA.
So... until we get to Canada I will say goodbye.
TRIP FACTS
Between 22 hours on the plane, them losing my luggage at Heathrow and a 3 hour stopover in Singapore I had some time to think about our trip over the last few days, 36 hours to be precise. Below are a few tidbits for you guys.
# of Airports - 15Calgary, Toronto, London Heathrow, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Lukla, Mumbai, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Alice Springs, Auckland, Brisbane, Singapore, Gatwick
# of Flights - 18
# of Countries - 7
England, Scotland, Thailand, Nepal, India, Australia, New Zealand
Time Away from Banff - 6.5 months or 196 days
Favourite Place - Nepal mountains/The Himalayas
Least Fav - Day 1 in India, the city of Gorakphur with about 10 million people crowding the streets (and the train station) and 10 hours to waste. Yikes.
Coldest Place - Hiking & Sleeping at 18,000 feet in Nepal and attempting to have a shower/bucket wash or sleep. I slept in a -12 degree C bag, hat, long pants etc and was still cold.
Hottest Place - Alice Springs, middle of Australia and 42 degrees Celcius. Seriously, SO HOT it was like a sauna.
You know you have travelled to long when:-You know your passport number by memory from writing it down so many times.
-You are excited to start working again
-The left/other side of the road looks normal to drive on
-You've replaced all of the shampoo, toothpaste, cream etc you brought with you more than once.
-Half of your bag is filled with new clothes and souvenirs
-Even the lure of a London visit doesn't compare with the thought of hearing 'welcome to Canada' announced by the pilot as the plane lands on home soil
-It's winter at home and you've pretty much missed 2 entire seasons. Everyone at home will be white and tanless and I have a sandal tan of brown stripes on my feet!
Goodbye Australia, hello London and Canada.
Just an update from Brisbane. We fly out tomorrow, Mon 19th at 1:45pm and arrive in London on Tues 20th at 5AM. That is about 22 hours of flying time - ouch! I'm not entirely sure where we are staying in London yet, with a friend of Gavin's though. We are going up to Derby on Thursday to see our trekking friends Simon & Lucy, that should be a laugh. Then we leave London on Fri 23rd March and get to Toronto that evening. OH CANADA. Very exciting but also sad to be ending this amazing adventure.
I was going through our photos last night to downsize and make a bit of a photo album/slideshow thing to show people at home. We sure have seen a lot of amazing things. Nepal was by far my favourite (hence the most photos!) but I enjoyed everywhere. Sure there was 3 hard weeks in India at the beginning, and I likely wouldn't go back there BUT I am glad we did it. We saw some cool things, learned a bit more about ourselves and humanity and tested our patience levels. Australia has been wonderful, I've loved catching up with friends and getting to know them on their own territory. It's a great country with some super friendly and funny people. There are more Australian sayings and short forms for things than you could ever imagine though.
So goodbye to Australia - to Cass & Pete, Rowan, Emma, Andy, Kelly & Trent, Fiona & Curt & Murphy, Kathryn, Serina & Adam and all of the friends I met along the way. We hope to have our own place at some point where we can return the favour of your wonderful hospitality, Rocky Mountain style.
And to all of those in Ontario and Alberta - we will see you soon! I'm smiling at the thought of the old "Welcome to Canada" announcement over the plane speaker. Ketchup chips, Tim Horton's, opposite side of the road for driving, snow, friends and family all await us. Oh and I suppose some stability and a wedding to plan!!!
I will update again from Toronto and include engagement party photos too.
Photos of Serina & Adam's engagement party
Agh... aren't they cute. It was a great party, and on St. Patty's Day to boot. Surprisingly there is a lot of booze left. The one on the bottom is Serina with her 2 sisters. And lest we not forget Gavin showing off his big fish, he ended up carrying that photo around with him all night cuz everyone who had heard about it kept asking him about it! too funny.
A few days in the Gold Coast
Hey people,
It's my last day at the beach today. Gavin and I are in the Gold Coast (known for Surfer's Paradise if any of you have heard of it) at his friends Steele and Alex's house. I must say, we definitely have friends in good places! We are about 1 hour away from downtown Brisbane, and will go back to Serina and Adam's when we leave. Gavin is here for the week and I'm here for 2 nights. Last night we sat on the porch and had an awesome bbq. Today Gavin and I went for a jog on the beach, it's beautiful down there. We're going to hang out there today for the rest of the afternoon. Tonight we are having dinner with another old work friend, Beth from the Body Shop a few summer's ago. Small world! :) In a week we'll be in London, i'm getting really excited to get back to Canada too. Might just be in need for a borrowed winter coat for the few weeks I'm in Toronto though! I'll be seeing some of you soon. Love from Melanie
Crikey, she's a real beauty!!
This weekend we went out to the 'country' with Serina and Adam for some good old country fun. Serina's parents live about 3 hours away from Brissy and have a 1200 acre plot of land. It's like going to a national park! We stayed for two nights and were blessed with clear skies, a cool breeze blowing through the old Queenslander house, and Gavin's big catch in the dam! We spent the morning doing some clay pigeon shooting (okay not me, I fired the big shotgun once and hated it. That's the 2nd time I have fired a gun and not liked it, lesson learned). Then we drove the ute (low truck in Aussie terms) for 15 minutes across the property to go fishing.
We brought out some rods, and since we didn't have any real bait thought it was pretty unlikely we would catch anything. Well Gavin had thrown the line out about 5 times when I asked him to show me how to do it. I'd never fished before, so he threw the line out again and then it started to pull and out came this massive yellow belly! Serina and Adam were really surprised, they don't see fish that big in the dam. It was about 6 kilos and nearly 2 feet long. That just added to our great weekend away, although it did take ages to cook!
Last Australian stop: BRISBANE
I woke up this morning at 6:30AM and couldn't fall back to sleep. Granted I am a bit jet lagged from the 3 hour time difference between Brisbane and Auckland. But 2 weeks from today we will be flying to London and then a few days after that, back to CANADA. Needless to say this morning Gavin and I both felt really excited and slightly overwhelmed that our big trip is nearly over.
We arrived in Brisbane on Saturday morning. I flew in from Auckland and Gavin took the bus from the Sunshine Coast, to coincide with my flight arrival. Serina and Gavin both met me off the plane. I last saw Serina Oct 2005, she was leaving Canada after we'd had a year working at Sunshine Village together and hanging out. We were sad then but knew we'd meet up in Brisbane on our trip, so it was really exciting to see her!
The weekend was fun. Saturday night Serina and Adam had a bbq with a few people and so we chilled out and had some laughs. On Sunday we drove out to Glasshouse Mountain, the hinterland of the Brisbane area. Not exactly mountains by our standards but really pretty nonetheless. Another friend I worked with in Banff was Kathryn, she and I spent most of last summer together between hiking and chatting to The Body Shop customers. She lives in Brissy too, so we went with her on our Sunday outing. How lucky am I to get to see all these wonderful people again? Very, I must say there are so many beautiful people in the world. The scenery on our day trip was greener than I would have thought, and so pretty too. There were a lot of rolling hills and cute towns like Maleny and Moreton with little cafes and parks. We did a bit of a hike and those are the views with Kathryn in the pink and Serina on the other side of me. After a stop at the cheese factory, lunch and a walk through some forests(where i got a bit scared after some boys mentioned they'd seen a big snake moments before crossing the path) we drove back.
We are just trying to make plans for the next 2 weeks here. Surfers Paradise and The Gold Coast are about an hour south on the train line, so we'll visit a few friends there and make use of the beautiful beaches. Tomorrow we are going downtown (about 30 mins by train) to explore the city and meet Kathryn for dinner and a walk. I might also go to the Australian Zoo, the one Steve Irwin worked at, everyone raves about it. It looks pricy though, so we have to see if it's worth it. This coming weekend Serina is taking us to her parents farm, we can see how the locals live! I love doing that. Then on St. Patty's Day they are having their Engagement party. I'm really happy that we are here to celebrate that with them. There will be about 60 people at their house with pizza and wine etc, should be fun!
Gavin wants the computer now and I have been hogging it. Today was a day for chilling out though, we made it out for a jog at noon and man was it hot. It's so humid here. I'll see most of you soon!!
Auckland photos
Hello - here are a few photos of Auckland. That's Fe, Curt and gorgeous little Murphy at Mission Bay on a Friday night. Auckland is right on the water so that's the city from our drive to Mission Bay, with the Sky Tower in the distance. Then that's the Auckland Museum at the Domain, a lovely park that I used to go to a lot when I lived there too. It's quite a pretty city and I had a great time being back.
