This past winter I went on a once in a lifetime backpacking journey to the land down under! Australia stole my heart. No really, I absolutely love Australia. If you haven’t read already, I started off in Hong Kong first to break up my travel time.  Unfortunately on my way home, I decided that I wasn’t to stop anywhere for a few days and after 25 hours straight of traveling, I realized that this was very much a bad idea. Tips for anyone wanting to head over to the other side of the world: STAY A FEW DAYS IN YOUR LAYOVER DESTINATION TO CATCH UP ON SLEEP. It is always going to be worth it. I don’t even know where to begin telling the stories of my adventures in Australia. I was there for 4 and half weeks and only managed to see Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth. That sounds like a lot and it definitely is but there was still an entire East coast that I missed. Which I guess only really means that I just have to go back;)  None of this adventure would of happened if it hadn’t been for my little vacation in Vietnam last year that ended up sparking some awesome friendships with some awesome Aussies.  Shout out to my Aussies friends for taking me in and showing me around!  For more photos you can always head over to my instagram to see what else I was up to! MELBOURNE ADELAIDE PERTH   I managed to see a lot in Syndey! There was the Bondi to Coogee (great name) coastal trail that my new American friend Claudia and I half walked.  We made it all the way to Bronte before we threw in the towel and decided to join the locals in some sunbathing and swimming.  When I later met with my friend Nick to check out Sydney’s city festival, he made fun of me for pronouncing it “Bon-dee” and not “Bond-I”.  I never made that mistake again! Nick and Jess later took me to Australia’s version of The Blue Mountains. Clearly much more epic then Ontario’s Blue Mountains, this place was breathtaking.  It is home to the notorious “Three Sisters” and many hiking trails. We decided to take a “45-minute” “EASY” trail to get to this cool little cable car that zooms across and brings you back to where you first started.  With an ill-equipped map we ended up lost for two hours taking on some serious steep hills. Thank goodness we were going down and not up or I’m sure I would of never made it out of there alive! Some other highlights from my trip: –       The Opera House –       Sydney’s Botanical Gardens (By far the best I have ever seen) –       Hyde Park –       Sydney’s Harbor –       Darling Harbor –       Sydney Harbor Bridge –       Manly Scenic Walk –       Ferry Rides –       St. Mary’s Cathedra –       Feeding Koalas and Kangaroos