As I mentioned before, the theme surrounding 2014 seems to be reunions! It's amazing how many people who've come to visit me and who iv visited this year, and Brisbane was a place for even more reunions. I gave myself a week after the cruise to spend with Hayley in her home city of Brisbane. This would be the 5th country we've been in together! Having spent only a week in Brisbane it actually seems like a much longer time in reality and in the best way possible. By the end of the week it felt like I lived here and I was creating all these memories and new friends.

Hayley went our of her way to be show me everything she could and introduce me to her nearest and dearest! I met so many people that week including her boyfriend Richard and her housemate Shona who kindly picked us up from the airport. I met her closest friends, both sides of her family and managed to reunite with my old Greenpeace mate Braden and my friend Tamara who I met in Canada years ago when Hayley was over visiting her.

We attended Hayley's moms birthday BBQ at her house, had fish n chips by the beach for her cousins Chelsea's birthday, went shopping with Tamara, spent time sunbathing at Redcliffes beach and at the Gold Coast, a dinner party at Braden's place and lastly a trip to Nimbin the marijuana capital of Aussie, before I left!

It's amazing how much you can do in a week and I can't thank her enough for such a warm welcome and amazingly comfortable blow up bed! We spent time driving with the music blaring, laughing so loud it made us cry and admiring the amazing scenery! Not without our fare share of girly gossiping of course. I got to experience the real Brisbane, far from what I failed to experience all those years ago when myself and Nic arrived and were not too keen on the place.

The key to getting the real local experience is pretty obvious, mingle with the locals! Mine and Hayley's friendship all started back when I stayed with my first couch host in Toronto, Tamara and from then on we've kept in contact, visited each other and even gone on an epic cruise. I'll never forget picking up those hilarious hitch hikers in the rain after a day in Nimbin, Leesa belting out Taylor Swift songs on the way to the Gold Coast, Braden's yummy homemade perogies, playing Rapidough with Tess, falling asleep on the beach in Burleigh Heads, girly gossips, slagging each other's accents, seeing over 11 police cars/2 ambulances/a fire brigade and a few hot cops after that crash on the highway, standing in two different time zones at once and most of all catching up with old friends! Thanks thanks thanks Hayley, hope to see you soon! (And thanks for the premium economy upgrade, I'm writing this post with lots of leg room in front of me!)

<3

I had three days in Sydney before my cruise was to leave to the pacific islands and so, months before I had planned where I was going to stay- Coogee Beach. I knew this because this was the place I lived 7 years ago when I was on my first travel trip and I had so many memories there. I booked my hostel in advance and the day I landed, I took the local bus to the junction of Coogee Bay Road and opted to walk the length of the road to the beach. Along the way I saw lots of familiar places including my old flat and many restaurants/cafés I used to go to. It was a strange feeling but a really nice one. I felt comfortable here.

I spent time at the beautiful beach, browsing in the many surf shops and one evening I took a lovely walk to Bondi Beach via the Coogee to Bondi coastal track. It took me 4 hours as I kept stopping for photos and in Bondi I spent some time wandering around before heading back on the dark track. The following evening I had a message from my great friend Susie who I met in Rishikesh, who had also arrived in Sydney! We met up that evening at the beach for a catch up and some dinner which was amazing and so surreal! When Hayley arrived, I moved into a hostel in the city where we met up and explored the Sydney opera house, darling harbour and the Sydney harbour bridge, recreating some old photos I had from all those years ago! After that, we met up with a friend of hers who was in Sydney for the day and then later on that evening as arranged earlier that day I got to spend the evening with some amazing girls from my yoga teacher training in Rishikesh. Susie, Melissa, Steph, Hayley and I met at Bungalow 8 at Darling Harbour where we laughed the night away, reminisced, cried, ate dinner, laughed some more and caught up with each other's lives. It was an amazing evening and I'm so glad we all had the chance to come together that night.

Sydney was full of so many memories and it was an amazing experience to recreate some of these memories, visit some familiar places and meet some of my old friends from a different time in my life also. It was a great way to spend my time in Sydney and I couldn't have asked for more.