So, here we are! I started writing a blog during my travels from the past year, but the blog was in Dutch. Since I made some English speaking friends, I thought; why not translating it to English? (and I also have a personal translator ofcourse 😊).
A small recap from the past few months; I returned to the Netherlands at the end of August after traveling for six months through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and San Diego. It was nice to see everyone again in the Netherlands, I enjoyed how easy it was to meetup and not having a time difference. I found a temporary job which was nice because that way I had a daily rhythm again (and money 😉). In addition, it was also nice to be able to play football every Saturday and enjoy ‘normal’ life in the Netherlands that way. By the way, I was lucky because I passed the strict voting committee of v.v. De Meern 6 and was allowed to join them, thanks guys! It didn’t help them much because I left with 0 goals too 😉
Samantha was still in America for the first few months, but she flew over at the end of October. It was her first time in Europe and we had 7 weeks before flying to Australia. Those 7 weeks were quite busy because I wanted to show her a lot of Europe and at the same time meet my friends (I apparently have them). That all worked out in the end; we saw Paris (France), the major cities in the Netherlands, Interlaken (Switzerland), Milan, Sassuolo, Venice (all in Italy), Salzburg (Austria), Aachen (Germany) and probably more. Obviously Utrecht was the most beautiful 😉
But enough about Europe, we are currently in Australia after all! A few months ago we applied for (and received) a work and travel visa. You can apply for this visa if you are between 20 and 30 years old and it allows you to stay in Australia for a year and you can also work with it if you wish. By the way, it is almost impossible to stay in Australia for a year and not work because let’s just say the costs are not the same as in Asia 😉. I’m a bit lucky because that temporary job is still my current job. Fortunately I don’t have to work for 40 hours because it’s very flexible, and that way I can at least earn a little extra while traveling 😊.
The journey here was quite decent because with a stopover at Paris and Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) the journey took about 36 hours, but then you are also on the other side of the world, right? Once we arrived in Melbourne we immediately saw something we recognized; they were filming Border Security. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we didn’t get on the screen, otherwise I would of course have said hello to you all. The first nights we had booked a hotel and the plan was to buy a camper with which we could tour Australia. Fortunately, that worked out quite smoothly and we are now the proud owners of a converted Mercedes Sprinter!
The first days we recovered from the jet lag and explored Melbourne. I thought Melbourne was a wonderful city, it has a nice mix of buildings and is located on the water. The people were also super friendly; very social and not afraid to help with everything. We have done several things, for example we went to our first cricket match and this was the first sporting match ever where I went home before the end. It was fun for an hour and a half but then they were just halfway through and we thought it was nice to leave. We were looking for something more spectacular and that’s what we got the next day when we went to a football derby; Melbourne City v Melbourne Victory. The game was abandoned after 20 minutes as Melbourne Victory supporters flocked onto the field to attack the Melbourne City goalkeeper for throwing a piece of decorative fireworks back into the crowd, so enough spectacle 😉
Enough of Melbourne; the past few days we drove the ‘Great Ocean Road’, just west of Melbourne and a famous route to drive. We made stops at various places and it was certainly a fun route to drive. We’ve been to the sea but also to the rainforest, so a bit of everything 😊. We have also seen a few kangaroos and koalas, so we can now say that we are officially in Australia. Unfortunately we also saw a spider, which was in our water tank, but we carefully let it drown (sorry spider). We have not encountered snakes yet, and as far as I am concerned we will keep it that way…
We are currently driving back to Melbourne and will make our way to Sydney, where we will probably celebrate New Year’s Eve. More on that in the next update. Thanks for reading and wishing you a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!
