#i bought them while waiting for the ferry boat lol

[just-call-mefr1es]

GRRRR I LOVE THESE LIL STAR EARRINGS DEF ONE OF THE BEST THINGS I BOUGHT RAHHH🐺🐺⛓️⛓️💥💥💥

[pauonabudget-blog]

Siquijor 2019

Tada!!! After 7 (??) years, I am back doing my first love - blogging. So for my first entry (again), I wanna share with you my solo travel adventure to Isla de Fuego aka Siquijor Island. It’s my 2nd solo travel for this year (6th overall) and I must say it is one of my favorites! (PS all photos are mine unless stated otherwise hehe). Btw I went to Siquijor June 16-18, 2019. All currencies stated are in Philippine Pesos

HOW DID I GET THERE?

Since I am always on the look out for piso fares, I got my roundtrip tickets Manila-Dumaguete-Manila for roughly 1,600.00 during Cebu Pacific’s snap sale (99.00 base fare). Not bad.

From Dumaguete airport, there are tricycles/habal habals (single motorcycles) that can take you to Dumaguete Port. If you don’t have that much of luggage with you (or if you are still not so sure on your haggling skills), it’s best that you find your preferred mode of transportation OUTSIDE of the airport since the drivers on the airport  tend to overcharge. 

Okay so once you have hailed a driver, tell him to drop you off at the ticketing counter of your preferred ferry going to Siquijor, So in my case, I told the habal to drop me off at Oceanjet ticketing office. Ticketing office is walking distance from the port entrance. To be on the safe side also, you can purchase your return trip ticket as well to avoid hassle on the day you’re going back to mainland Dumaguete.

<Schedule and ticket price of June 2019>

Oceanjet from Dumaguete port to Siquijor port is roughly 50 mins to 1 hour. Just a reminder: Dumaguete port is really wavy. I don’t get dizzy easily but man Dumaguete port tested me lol. Before stepping inside the port, you need to pay P13.00 (I forgot what is it for lol but there is a window beside the port entrance). The port itself is clean and spacious by the way and there are kiosks there for those who’ll go hungry while waiting for the scheduled boat trips.

Once you arrive at Siquijor Port, there are tricycles/habal habals waiting outside the port. Up to you what you’ll take. Being a solo traveller and having just one backpack, I contracted a habal to take me to my accommodation and tour the whole island. Kuya Elbert (my habal driver/ tour guide. VERY NICE) and I have agreed for P800.00 for a whole island tour plus him bringing me to my accommodation and to the port. I also paid for his lunches and snacks. Kuya Elbert  +639068382558

<Arrival at Siquijor Port (the water is so clear that I wanted to jump right in)>

<Outside of Siquijor Port>

WHERE DID I STAY?

I stayed at JJ’s Backpackers Village (As recommended by the British solo traveller I met on Siargao). They have bunk beds there for 400/night. One dorm room contains 6 beds (2 single beds and 2 double deck beds) and a bathroom (decent, clean, well maintained, working flush lol). The hostel also has its own in-house restaurant and bar so there’s no need to worry of going hungry lol. But the real selling point of JJ’s Backpackers is the killer beach front since it is along Solangon Beach. It’s very chill and relaxing that I can just lay in the hammock all day and do nothing kind of vibe. 

<Beach front of JJ’s Backpackers>

<Do not disturb mood>

<Dorm room 400/night> PS bring your own padlocks for the lockers.

You may contact them at +639989704452 or go to their Facebook page

WHERE DID I GO?

Siquijor Island is so small that you can tour it in less than a day. There are even some travellers that do daytour and then goes back to Dumaguete. Here are the highlights of my habal tour:

1. SALAGDOONG BEACH

This is where the famous cliffdiving site in Siquijor is located. For those who want that jolt of adrenaline rush on the body, this is your place to go. I chickened out the last minute because the jump site is so high and scary hahaha so I opted to stay on the shore and swim. There is an entrance fee going here (I think 30 pesos but correct me if I am wrong).

2. PALITON BEACH

The beach where you can find the instagram worthy palm tree shots. When I was here, I can’t believe how chill and peaceful it is here. There are also locals who is standing by the famous palm tree that is ready to assist you on your creative instagram photo (just don’t forget to give them a tip - I gave P50.00). My favorite beach of all beaches!! Free entrance!!

3. CAMBUGAHAY FALLS

I fell in love with Cambugahay falls. The water is unbelievably blue like it will take your breath away. So for this destination, Kuya Elbert stayed on the motorcycle parking as there was a designated tour guide going down the falls (it has different levels btw). We went there as early as 7:00AM (normally there is an entrance fee but when we got there, the collector was still not on his post so that means it is FREE again lol). So yeah trying going there early plus also to avoid large crowds as it gets pretty crowded around 9:00 am onwards. So after frolicking in the blue waters and braving the tarzan swing, time to go up again. I gave my guide P100.00 plus I paid the motor parking P10.00

4. CENTURY OLD BALETE TREE AND FISH SPA

I did not try the fish spa since I am a ticklish person but the fishes were big so no thanks lol. The tree looks enchanting tho but I like the one in Baler. There is also a souvenir shop beside it. You can buy shirts, ref magnets, voodoo doll keychains and the infamous love potion in a bottle. 

5. HAPITANAN CAFE AND RESTAURANT

I didn’t do the famous broomstick photo because I was not in the mood lol. But I did chill for a little bit on their backyard.

WHERE TO EAT

So for 3 days, this is how I survived lol

DAY 1

Breakfast - Cinnabon sticks and coffee from the airport (<300.00)

Lunch - 2 pcs chicken with rice and bottled water bought from one of the Dumaguete Port kiosk (P80.00)

Dinner - A hearty plate of gnocchi from Dolce Amore. This is the first time I tasted Gnocchi and it was da bomb!!! (plus their homemade chocolate cake and homemade coconut gelato - shared by us 3 roommates). My plate of gnocchi was P180.00 but it was so worth it! The desserts cost were split between us 3. (Spent around 285.00 for my meal)

<Me with my roommates Elo (Brazil - jumper) and Maria (Spain - red top)>

DAY 2

Breakfast - Leftover cinnabon sticks (I still have 4 sticks left lol) plus coconut juice (40.00 for the coconut juice of Kuya Elbert and I)

Lunch - Kuya Elbert and I ate at an eatery at downtown. Hearty lunch for 2 is at P200.00

2 cans of beer - P120.00

Dinner - Beef burger with homemade patties at JJ’s (P180.00)

DAY 3 (I took the first trip of Oceanjet back to Dumaguete 6:00 AM since I have a 10:15am flight back to Manila)

Breakfast - Sansrival Bistro Dumaguete  (continental Filipino Breakfast) - (P220.00) *walking distance from Dumaguete port*

Lunch - Since our flight was delayed for 2.5 hours, we had free lunch from Jollibee (FREE)

TAKE NOTE

1. Bring sunblock and cap

2. INSECT REPELLENT IS A MUST. Mosquitoes there are annoying as f*ck. Off lotion will not be enough

3. Always make sure to have your phones and powerbanks fully charged since there are schedules of power interruption on the island.

4. Be friendly to the locals and also to your fellow travellers.

5. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR RUBBISH ALONG THE BEACH. Throw them properly.

To end my post, I won’t be able to give exact amount but I can give you my DIY itinerary. I think 5,000.00 will be enough for 3 days as long as you have prepared your expenses. Let me know if you have questions.

Siquijor became one of my favorite destinations. Mark my words: I will be back!

[harley-wanders]

Oh, hi there!

My apologies for the lack of posting. Tumblr only wants to work when the internet is good (spotty wifi doesn't lend itself well to it).

After the ferry from Wellington to Picton (no, not PEC area, there's no black river cheese factory or Waupoos winery around the Picton and Wellington here....and the ferry is 3 hours, not 15 minutes). There is, however, a delightful bakery in Picton that we stopped at. I bought some of the "world's best carrot cake" (which I could only eat half of...and...oh well, stay tuned for what happened to the other half).

So we took the Ferry to Picton and then drove to Abel Tasman. Once we got there we jumped on a water taxi to a house boat (it was pissing rain by this point but somehow Marie and I managed to grab a seat at the front so we were under the tarp/cover).

The water taxi was SUPER bumpy (and a hell of a lot of fun. We giggled and couldn't stop smiling the whole 30 mins...at least us in the front, whoops - sorry backseaters). When we arrived to the house boat the rain had died out to a drizzle.

Marie, Olivia, and I all got the room on the main floor....it only had a double bed but we agreed we could cuddle haha. The rest of the group were in the bunks down below (which, for the record, looked super cool. I'm just happy I didn't have to climb up and down when. i needed to use the washroom in the middle of the night). Anyway, after we out our stuff away we all went for a swim.

Most of us, me included, jumped off the top of the house boat (~4 metres) into the water. It was beautiful and a really nice swim. We took some pics with my underwater camera (to be uploaded once I'm home) - by the way, for all the pictures go to my facebook. I may try again to load them here but I can only do 10 at a time and it glitches a lot.

After the swim we ate a great meal (and didn't have to do dishes - yay 🙌) and played Mafia (thanks Marcus - it's such a fun game!).

I got the right side of the bed, Marie was in the middle, and Olivia was on her left. It was definitely a tight squeeze but we managed to fall asleep. Marie did end up going to one of the bunk closer to morning because it was too hot in the middle haha.

In the morning we ate breakfast (pancakes ftw!) and got the call that due to the massive amount of rainfall, our canyoning was cancelled. Bummer. Oh well, that means we can do that 12.5 km hike afterall 🙌 .....sounds fun right? Yeah, it would have been if it weren't for the torrrential downpours.

We had a short water taxi ride over to the shore in the rain (we were all wet by now) and then dried our feet and out our socks and shoes on. Summer tomd us most of the track was covered by the forest canopy so we weren't in too bad of spirits. I think by this point we still found our luck with houseboats and beautiful places funny.

The track wasn't covered...and when you're csrrying ~40lbs of (dry) stuff it's not so much fun. At some points the water was up to my knee! I was just hella happy that I packed using ziplock bags as compression things as it kept all my important stuff dry.

After 12.5km we reached the end of the track. We walked another km to our accomodation - Old Macdonalds Farm and met Summer at the reception. Wifi was $5 and towrls were $2. Easy decision as the towel i brought was soaked and there wouldn't be much to do. Olivia dropped something when paying for hers and I bent down to pick it up and then RRRRRRIIIIIIPPPPP....there goes my pants hahaha.

Anyway, we got our room (it was a camping site thing so literally a small room with a bunk and single bed it in....not much room). Summer drove us all up to the communal showers to wash and warm up before putting on dry clothes. Oh, and the trailer we had (new bus and trailer in the south island...goodbye Gus!) Leaked. So not only were the belongings we were carrying soaked, but many peoples' big packs were as well. Again, I'm thankful for my ziplocks... It was just my other travel towel and a couple pther things in the bottom that were wet. Unfortunately Olivia's entire pack was drenched....including her passport. A few peoples' passports, actually.

Summer gave us change to use the dryers and found a big outdoor propane heater that we hung things up around to dry them...we even took the soles out of our shoes and held them up.

It was a really shitty thing but again, we had the best group because we mostly laughed it off (aside from a little initial crying for some). I found it hilarious and counted myself lucky that my passport and phones were okay.

That night we had a bug family supper (stir fry) and played a few games (two truths and a lie, as well as where you have a name on your forehead and you have to guess whobyou are by asking questions). It was a good night after all the stress of the day. Oh, at one point Marie, Olivia, and I went to the cafe and on the way back we saw an eel in the culvert - that shows you how much rain we got!

The next day we were en route to Westport (no...not the Westport north of Kingston). A cafe we stopped at had adorable ceramic salt and pepper shakers that was a hippie van and camper - in blue and purple of all colours. I had to resist the urge to buy them.

Then we went to Kilkenny lookout and Cape Foulwind where we saw a seal colony (including baby seals!!!) It was awesome!

Our accomodation that night was Tripinn Hostel. It had good wifi and comfortable beds (with lots of room). The grounds were beautiful and some of us did yoga on the grass to stretch out after the last couple days (I led it but I madr sure everyone knew I was not a certified teacher yet and to only do what was comfortable).

That night we had a wine tasting (many bought a bottle of wine each and we tried some of all of them) and a family dinner - mexican this time. We watched peoples' skydive videos and Summer's canyon swing vid.

The next day we stopped in Punakaiki where I carved a necklace out of beef bone with a lady named Karen. I made a koru and I love it! It's really cool to be able to say I made it myself. She works out of her home (or rather her workshop/shed out back). It was a beautiful little walk through forest to get there. On the way back to wait for the bus she asked if anyone wanted to milk a goat (she has dogs, goats, chickens, and other wildlife). No one raised their hand so naturally, I did. You don't turn down the offer to milk a goat when one presents itself. It was interesting. The goat was mounting/shedding so I only did a bit - you can't really drink milk when there's goat hair in it. Then Niki and I pet some horses down the road while the guys chatted. Summer picked us up to meet with the rest of the group (they did a walk) and we were able to scoot down and see the "pancake rocks." They were really cool.

After that we made our way to Franz Josef where (surprise) Oliva, Marie, and I shared a room again. This one had a king bed and a bunk bed....we all shared the king lol.

For dinner that night we had a veggie or pork option but they ran out of pork so we were able to choose whether we wanted to stick with veggie or have all you can eat pizza, garlic bread, fries, and 1 alcoholic bevvy. Marie, Olivia, and I stuck with salads (Olivia can't have any milk products and Marie and I had eaten way too many baked goods at all those cafe stops) :p when they brought our the fries we all grabbed a couple and then one of the (power-hungry) waitresses yelled at us and said if we didn't get the all-you-can-eat and ate any of the pizza/fries/garlic bread that we'd be kicked out. .....then they proceeded to put the first pizza (veggie) right in front of us....we regretted our decision. And then we got our salad....literally a side salad portion of mixed greens, a slice of beetroot, a couple cubes of pumpkin, and some feta. We were very creative with sneaking food after that hahaha. The boys all felt bad so they were giving us a fry or tiny piece of garlic bread under the table.

We were having a few drinks too and there was a pitcher with some money and a lemon that said if you can balance a dollar coin on the lemon you get a free shot of tequila. Worth a shot, right? Luckily there were some bills along the side and it was no problem getting that loonie (sorry, dollar) to stay on the lemon as the bills kind of kept it in place. Yay free tequila! Then we played Piccolo (which is a drinking game app) and one kf the guys, Matt, had to run around the room flapping his arms like a chicken. Nad, who is completely deaf, was really amused by this.

We called it a fairly early night as we had heli-hike and ice climbing the next day.

I'm going to post this in case tumblr glitches so I don't lose it and I'll pick right back up...

[stayandsea-blog]

highlights 2017

adventures with michael:

snowy columbus circle central park --> plaza hotel --> roosevelt island --> ruins --> noodles --> tram --> dtut coffee bar --> across park, around lake, guided by christmas lights

brooklyn heights --> cobble hill --> gowanus --> park slope --> prospect park --> mansion

cloisters randomly, their majesty and that of the park, the tapas when starving, more walking through the winding park

rockaway beach and coney island in may, before cr

casey snow riverside park :) 

eclipsin road trip

bubbles by the schukyll on my birthday

other otherwordly experiences --

that hike at point reyes

stonehenge bike ride

ruins and history and magnificient buildings

walking 12 miles in a day in london with tom - from highland park to soho to the interesting art museum, playing which piece would you take home, trying and failing to talk art, 

the good date at the soane museum, so wicked cool and crowded with things like the barnes, not to be missed in london

dancing with hot german phd student

seeing call me by your name with my parents, knowing they understand the gravity of love and life more than I can imagine, I’m so proud of them and to be theirs.

Being there for my mom after her surgery, watching her marvel at her own recovery, witnessing her strength in the face of pain and learning life can be without it. 

the warmth of my lab, staying there too late after a participant or occasional chats with jeb. nate’s refreshing honesty, hilarity and our shared culture. guannan and I’s deep political and cultural exchanges, our sense of sisterhood, marking with pride and love her life transitions, getting married and home and thinking of children, learning from her wit and sharp, scientific mind. rebecca being so sweet and always there when we need a pick me up chat, her competence growing, gratitude for her help and her sincerity and sense of spunky fun

the wildlife animal exhibit with jeb and seeing jane goddal talk, and exploring the museum together. not a date.  

***every waking minute spent with cameron millar, even the train rides, in their giggles, recalls and quiet - fake love makes you read into nothing***

-hiking on the moors with his parents and freddy the pup, apparently i fell asleep on his shoulder, accident, I promise! his parents, so charming, thoughtful, sweet, always offering me drinks and taking care of me so warmly

-coffee house overlooking st. michaels mount,  waiting on line with good humor, lying around in the grass with each other afterwards, inside not impressive but the view was (but cam doesn’t like heights! remember that, and yet we sought them out, over and over) drinking it in slowly, long line for the ferry boat back, laughing about little kids and making up their futures.  farmers grouse whiskey walk back along the ocean, tension and card games (spit drinking game!) on the train back - every time we saw a sign prohibiting drinking, we drank.

-every moment knowing he liked me back, that thought, that feeling, made me so deeply warm. 

-every morning, the routine of him making me softboiled eggs and toast; every evening, baileys and coffee and chatting until we couldnt keep our eyes open

--falmouth castle pool cobblestones freeezing ocean, his good humor as we starved and walked and waited and it rained and rained. i bought him tequila to try and make him drunk and love me. lol.  

-being pissy that he didn’t like me, no longer trying so ate a pound of amazing nepalese eggplant and garlic nan, then, finally, sharing a blanket on the coach, opposite sides, the tension is making me boil, I start teasing, he gets slightly hurt, asks what else is ‘on’ in my life - aka, am i seeing anyone. I lie, because he is all I see, all I feel is for him, and that genuinely makes it okay. he isn’t. we finally snuggle close, I lay on him.. finally. finally. and then...ugh. well otherwise he’s perfection, warm, fully supportive, sweetness, embodied.

-morning chat with his mom about radical compassion for mothers struggling to adhere to social norms and high standards and having their children taken away from them, the injustices of social inequity, the toll of true sacrifice of self, family, quality of life to advance egalitarianism - to stifle ones potential to develop that of others

-plymouth, the heaven of plymouth, walking around from his house to the barbacian (he bought condoms and chocolate orange heaven and weird british snacks on the way), we go to mt. edgecombe by ferry and I bust at it’s beauty, hiking through the woods, to the ruin, with the sheep, steep hike up a hill overlooking drake island and the harbor. ahhhhhh. its my favorite site to recall from my minds eye. what a feeling washes over me! walking back around plymouth cobbles beauty, exploring it on my own for a bit and marveling, decieding its entitrely doable or exceeds allwhere else. he leaves, I take the ferry and follow, he *really* does have to work and I want him but he’s busy, so I hang out with his friends brother and a kid and a girlfriend and we chat on the beach while watching the amazing, then medicore fireworks. I catch up with him, he holds me while we watch the fireworks, I can’t catch my breath, pressing against him, in his arms. we walk so far back, we get drinks bc its so fucking cold, its the happiest longest walk. I’m bodily exhausted but my heart is so very full. crying as we part at 3am, waking up, the heaviness of knowing it was over, it was not probably real. I didn’t cry the first time in 2012...I did cry now, probably obviously. I sobbed on the taxi, the bus, the pasty he thought to have me get.

why arent my happiest memories in my glorious city? do I tire of her? no, the moments of majesty are smaller, discoveries more rountine, giving my life a sense or potential for wonder daily

[sixthousandninehundredmiles]

December 4, 2017

So today started off pretty early, because there was quite a bit that we wanted to do. However we didn’t actually get to fit most of it in… LOL So we started by going to Damnoen floating market. This floating market was actually really far from our Airbnb, it’s about an hour and a half car ride there. But it was pretty worth it in my opinion. The first floating market that we wanted to go to, I think it was called amphawa was closed, so we had to go to Damnoen. We were split into two boats- Josh, Crystal, Vincent, and I were in one, Katie, John, Bonnie, and Ryo were in the other. The market was set up so that there’s just shops set up along the riverbank, and if we wanted something we would just tell our boat driver to stop and we could get off to shop around. I ended up buying a pair of elephant pants there, and ugh I regret it because it was 350 Baht, and we could have found it for so much cheaper if we waited haha. Vincent and I both bought a pair because we were the only ones who didn’t have any because everyone else bought it while they were in Phuket. We also stopped along one of the restaurants for lunch, and hmm I wasn’t the biggest fan? I got the shrimp sautéed with basil and chili over rice. I just thought some things tasted funny, and I really didn’t want to risk anything so I didn’t really eat. Oh this is also something super random, but the soda here tastes different… a good different but different… LOL I cant put my finger on it, but it just tastes so good. After lunch, we just continued along the mini river and it was an overall relaxing experience. We also stopped at a temple, so we took a few pictures there. They’re pretty strict with the dress code here, so when I got there, one of the ladies gave me a scarf to put over my shoulders because I was wearing a dress.

Oh gosh, it’s times like these where I get to spend a lot of time with Josh do I realize how much I’m going to miss him when we have to leave. I have less than 20 days with him and it’s insane to think about that. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten so close to someone like him before. He’s not exactly the person that I would be willing to tell everything to, but he is someone that I am extremely comfortable around. It’s like I grew up with him or something. Maybe because I know that he’s gay? So it just makes me more relaxed around him without a guard? Idk. But gosh im gonna miss him so much. He’s also so considerate so he always takes care of me. Like whenever we get on and off the boat, he’s always the one to steady me to make sure I’m okay, or if im getting attacked by flies he’s the one that will fan me. He treats me like his little sister and it just makes me happy haha.

Anyways! After the boat ride, we took an uber to go back. And overall the uber costed around 80 usd roundtrip. Which is not that bad, like 20 dollars per person for an hours drive? But hmmm a bit pricier than I would be happy to pay for. We were all so tired though, we all knocked the fuck out LOL. And the traffic back was horrendous, so we were stuck in traffic for about 2-2.5 hours. SMH. That’s also why we didn’t have time to go to the temples on the same day. Which is fine, but I just wish that we didn’t have to waste so much time on transportation.

After that we went back to our Airbnb to just relax for a bit, and I ended up falling asleep for like 45 minutes. I guess a powernap never hurts anyone, especially someone who has been consistently running on 4 hours of sleep ugh save me. After that, we went to the Asiatique Waterfront. Basically it’s like a boardwalk almost? A bunch of shops, more shops than we had time to walk around, and there’s a ferris wheel and a carousel there as well. Pretty cool. We had dinner at a random restaurant there, but ugh it was kinda disappointing. The bill turned out to be around 350 per person, which isn’t bad but the portion sizes were so small I feel like no one was full at the end of the meal. My favorite thing that I tried there had to be the pineapple fried rice though. Then we all walked around some more, took a few pictures before splitting up. A group of us went to go find the fish spa- basically you stick your feet into a tub of water that’s filled with fish that attack you and eat your skin. LOL ok that sounds a lot scarier than it is because they only eat the dead skin cells off. It was honestly such a weird sensation though, and we were all screaming when we first put our feet in because it’s just SO STRANGE. It’s like a thousand tiny little nips that are ticklish. Hard to explain but LOL it was so cool though. It was like 3 usd for 15 minutes. After the spa, our feet felt so much softer. I would definitely do it again haha. It was also nice because I think a lot of them ate the skin off of calves where my bug bites were so hopefully it’ll help with the scarring?

After the fish spa, we walked around some more and did some souvenir shopping! I bought these really cute pouches that say “Thailand” on them, and also elephant pants for ssgc. LOL this is why I thought it was such a rip off to buy them at the floating market because I got them for 150 at these markets. I paid over 2x the price for my first pair… smh smh. I also bought an extra pair IN CASE you would like them. If not, then yay another pair for myself. LOL But I figured they’re super comfortable and if you’re willing to wear them it’d be pretty cool.

Then we just met up with everyone else at around 11:30 pm, and we headed back to our Airbnb. HOWEVER, the night wasn’t over yet. Because some pretty freaky shit happened at our Airbnb. So one thing that I didn’t mention yet is that our Airbnb has some wacky locks. Like you know the design of keys in necklaces? How it looks like a fairytale key, yeah that was the key to our front gate. I don’t even know how it works, I just know that if we stick it in it works? LOL but then there’s also 3 more layers of doors to the front door. One of the layers is closed with a padlock… yeah you just literally lock a padlock on it. And the last one is this seemingly normal lock in the door, only it won’t lock from the inside half the time. L o l. ok anyways. So freaky thing number 1- the lights in the hallway flickr… a lot. Ok scary shit number two: Bonnie was showering and afterwards she came downstairs laughing telling us that we were being lame. And we were like what? Because Josh, Vincent, Katie and I were chilling at the second level living room, and they were with me the entire time. And she was like “one of you guys kicked my door hella hard” and we were like …. Wtf no one did. And she just kept laughing and saying I know one of you guys did just stop. And it just got freakier because she was so sure that it was one of us when we all knew that it wasn’t. And then she took us upstairs to demonstrate how loud the bang was and it was extremely loud and there’s no way that it would’ve been caused by wind. Ok scary shit number 3: josh was like “im going to go upstairs to check on crystal” and then he walks up stairs and we all heard a really loud bang and he came downstairs and said that while he was walking by our room, my door suddenly slammed hella hard. LOL like wtfffff

Ok yeah so a bunch of freaky shit happened so katie and I packed up our stuff and we were about to sleep downstairs, but after we all calmed down we decided that it’s probably ok to just sleep in our room lol but yeah it was pretty freaky. Other than that it was a really fun day haha. Pretty cool to see the city.

[breaksandbites]

Sydney was bright, shiny and warm when we opened our eyes in the morning. It was the 18th day of our tour and by now we were so worn out, tanned, tired and exhausted. We sure were excited about exploring a whole new city but we needed to sleep and that’s what we did. We started our day late with visiting just a small portion of Hyde Park, it was too hot and we were not in a mood to walk either so we decided to move forward and visit Sydney’s most hyped beach – Bondi. (We had bought the ‘Opal‘ cards which can be used on all public transport modes in Sydney – Bus, train, ferry)

Glimpses from Hyde Park

All about old trees and lush green grass

Don’t know what those bullets symbolize

Quickly we boarded the train to Bondi Junction from where we had to take a bus which was supposed take us to the beach. This all sounds so easy.. no? but it wasn’t! (P.S. most of the buses in Sydney are not stroller friendly as well) We got off at wrong junction, embarked on a wrong bus and came to know about it when the bus reached it’s last station and Bondi beach was nowhere in sight. Hahaha (*facepalm moment* you can laugh on us :P)

Platform and train…

I kinda liked the Sydney trains

We then entered a small mall in the same area, bought some fresh fruits to recharge our spirits before finding our way to Bondi beach once again. This time we asked multiple random passers by to make sure that we get the directions correctly. Caught the bus to Bondi junction which was a happening area with lots of food and shopping options. We walked past them briskly because we were already running behind schedule according to our day’s plan.

It was a hot sunny day perfect to carry out beach activities hence the Bus stand was crowded with lots of people carrying surf boats, picnic baskets and accessories. And we had to wait for the buses as well, finally the wait was over and buses came into sight which got full beyond their capacity in seconds. We disembarked from the bus with the people who looked like going to beach (lol, that was the safest bet at that time I tell you :p). Bought some chips and drinks while we walked towards the beach and voila! we were there after crossing some blocks. FINALLY!

The beach panorama

Bondi Beach

I was so excited to find this pool over here. Seen it on facebook sometime back and did not know it is situated there at Bondi

B-)

Loved this pool though

Us not on the beach :p

The beach from another angle

A white sand beach stretched from right to left right with a hint of rocks on either side was there there in front of us where loads and loads of people were chilling, some were having a good time playing with the waves and few of those were trying to surf (one of which required lifeguard assistance afterwards). It was jam packed in all directions! Although it was a good day to carry out beach action but we chose not to touch the water and strolled along the sea shore inhaling in the typical Sydney vibes from our surroundings. I did a live session on my Facebook page from there too, check it out below 😉

The beach stretch itself was small as compared to many other beaches I have seen before but there is a 6 km long scenic trail which starts precisely from the left corner of the beach and goes all the way to Coogee beach. That is one beautiful path ( I know that because my sister Samina has been there and she totally fell in love with the panoramas she beheld) which we did not take because all our energy was drained out already and 6 kms looked like 600 kms. Also, the views were not much appealing to us – consequences of coming back from New Zealand (not bragging at all… seriously) :p

We then marched towards the bus stop and headed Circular Quay (via bus and then train) which is the harbour where iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge are located. These were the structures I was excited to see the most in Sydney. As soon as we came out of the station they both peek-a-booed us, Opera House from the right and Harbour bridge from the left. The atmosphere around the place was charged with lots of tourists and trendy restaurants. Check out for yourself in the pictures and video below:

The Landmark

Another Landmark

This was the 4th largest cruise of the world

Both of them in one shot – almosttt

uff the mooooon ❤

Me with both the beauties

Took a sneak peek of the Royal Botanical Gardens situated to the right of Opera House till the sun started descending.

Not me but the gardens are 200 years old

We then also sauntered in the direction of Circular Quay and took a ferry down to Darling Harbour from where our hotel was located a few blocks away (Read about our excursions of Darling Harbour and surrounding areas here). Have a look at the scenes from the cruise, the moon was glaring and eye catchy – made our boat ride even more enthralling 🙂

Upon reaching the harbour we moved (read crawled) towards our destination (the hotel), stopped mid way to enjoy fresh halal burger and chicken broast from Oporto.

Our dinner!! yummm

Our feet were literally limp but somehow we managed to reach the hotel. Embraced our blankets and went into deep slumber until the next day.

Find out what we did next in the next post about Sydney…  Until then, tataaa

P.S. I know this series has turned into a star plus-kinda-never-ending-soap because of so many breaks but just a few more days are left and then it’ll be over… Take my word on that! :p I hope you are enjoying it (feeling super optimistic… lol)

Scintillating Sydney – Trip Of Lifetime Day 18 Sydney was bright, shiny and warm when we opened our eyes in the morning. It was the 18th day of our tour and by now we were so worn out, tanned, tired and exhausted.

[travellingthoughts]

Friday the 7th of July 2017

After 4 days in Zakynthos/Kefalonia I was on a journey and a half to Larissa. Literally travelled by boat, car, taxi and bus over an 11 hour journey. I loved it though because I could just relax after being so busy in Zakynthos. Anyone who knows me well knows that I literally sleep my life away! I can sleep at what ever time, in whatever position and literally be out cold. It certainly has come in handy on this trip I'll tell you that much! So I slept the entire journey no problems asked. In Larissa, I was staying with Jamie's Nouna, Dina, for the week! Larissa is a relatively large town north of Athens. It has it all; amazing shopping, lively night life, and most importantly lovely people. I have a LOT of family there like legit we sat down to have dinner and two of my cousins (which I didn't know I had) just happened to walk past! I spent my first couple of days getting a tattoo (which was an awesome and sentimental experience) and roaming around Larissa doing some shopping and discovering. However on the third day I woke up ill as fuck. Like my stomach was in so much pain so I kept going to bed thinking that I'll wake up feeling better.... which never happened. Ended up realising at 8:30pm at night that it just wasn't to happen and finally got out of bed. After that it's a bit of a blur because my SISTERS GOT OUT OF A TAXI AND SURPRISED THE FUCK OUT OF ME IN GREECE!!!!!! Oh my god it was fkn wild, I literally had no clue they were coming. About a week before this happened I was on the phone telling them to just book their fkn tickets and come and lie with my on a beach somewhere in Santorini. Little did I know the bitches were muting themselves on our phone call and laughing because they HAD ALREADY BOOKED THEIR TICKETS 😆 The joke was clearly on me! Check out on Facebook the video of my jaw literally hitting the floor, the swearing, the scream and the many cuddles that were shared when this all unfolded! What an incredible experience to be able to share such an amazing journey with two of my bestest friends. I still pinch my self when I get their phone call in the morning saying 'what are we doing today?' ☺️ In all seriousness though, thank the lord they have me because A) they were fighting within the first 5 minutes of arriving in Mykonos, B) they are weak as shit and can't carry 25kgs up 50 stairs so I had to do it FOR BOTH OF THEM and C) they have no clue what they're doing so I am pretty much their personal tour guide 🙃 We have already had so many laughs and fun times, and I know these are memories that will last a lifetime. Anyway back to Larissa. It turned out I had fkn drunk the water by accident in Zakynthos and became sick as a fkn dog for the next 6 days. Literally whatever went down my throat came out again within maximum 5 minutes. Couldn't keep anything in my stomach, not even water. As shitty (pun intended) as being sick was, I definitely was very lucky to have my sisters constantly checking up on me and the fact that I was with my family who went above and beyond to get me on the road to recovery. Wouldn't have had it any other way. So my fun in Larissa ended after Tez and Jays arrived 😂 We did go to Karditsa, Farsala and Stomio to see more family which was fantastic. The girls went to Thessaloniki as well but I didn't make it because I was still really sick. Before I knew it (...literally because I had slept my life away!!) we were on our way to Piraeus which is one of the main ports of Greece. Conveniently, Terri's Nona lives there with her family so we stayed for a night before catching the 7am ferry to Mykonos the next day. That night was so much fun, we went for a stroll around town and went to Haagen-Daaz for some waffles and icecream! It wasn't what we did but it was the amazing company we had 😍 The 7am kick off to get to Mykonos was interesting 😂 As per usual we were running late and how we made it on that boat is fkn beyond me. The ride consisted of Terri not allowing me to fall asleep because everything single time I almost did, she would tickle my nose or something ridiculous. Could have punched her square in the face but decided that wasn't the best idea...so I made her buy me a hot chocolate which cost 5.80�� 😂 Our first impression of Mykonos is that it's fucking stunning. Whatever image comes to your head (crystal clear beaches with white houses on hills) is EXACTLY what it was like. However we were fortunate enough to discover the island from North to South and East to West. We hired a car and I, the driver, officially banned Terri from being in the front seat because she almost pulled the handbrake on me twice ❌ While the main town looks picturesque, the rest is actually quite hilly, rocky, windy and underdeveloped. It was astonishing to see the island for what it really is, with some of the most amazing beaches and hidden gems we would have only discovered by hiring that car. Highly suggest it... however there is a funny story that comes along with that 😂 So Greeks drive like fucking crazy okay. That's the perfect and only intro you need into this story. I was going down a really narrow and windy road when another car comes speeding around a corner (how the fuck they didn't spin out idk?) and is pretty much in my lane now still going fast. So I slam on the brake (dirt road btw so skidded instead of halted) and pulled over. In the process, I marked the car with about a 2.5cm BLACK scratch on a WHITE CAR. I was gutted because I knew they were going to notice it when we returned the car and that they were going to charge me a fuck tonne for it. So we go to the damn beach we were driving to when this happened and were then driving to the next beach when I spot a fucking mechanics (and probably the only one on the island) and swerve in like James Bond. And can I say I had luck just like James Bond! I'm trying to communicate in Greek to this guy and he is literally laughing at me stressing #bitch. He tells me to wait a minute and before I know he comes back with a cloth and some charcoal coloured substance. I freak out even more because like I said it's a white car and I'm thinking that he will make it worse #lenthinkingsheknowseverything. He rubs it on the car and then like magic before my eyes, the mark was gone. I literally told him that I love him and that he saved my life and that he is the best person to walk this earth. And before I could even finish we were back on our way dancing like absolute idiots out of pure joy 🙃 Mykonos is by far my favourite island out of the 3; including Ios and Santorini. It is absolutely stunning by day and night, the beaches are crystal clear and is good for a great boogie. My only fault is that it's expensive as fuck. But so so worth it. I met some amazing people in my dorm (you know who you are) and proceeded to go out until the AM partying and bar (that did just get autocorrected to bae) hoping. We had so much luck that night because every place we went to we were treated like royalty. Skipped the lines, skipped the entry fee, got given free shots and drinks. It was to die for 😍 The night ended with Souvlaki's and a really drunk walk home 😂 Next stop was Ios. I fkn loved Ios for its party scene. I FROTH a good time and that's the vibe that Ios had. Funny story: when we rocked up by bus at FarOut I was laughing because we saw teeny ass canvas tents and I said 'that would suck if you had to stay in one of them'. Before I know it I received my keys and found my... MOTHERFUCKING TENT FML 😫 Don't know how I fucked up so bad but like legit this thing had a door that was just about off its hinges, a "window" that was made of a holy mesh (mosquito friendly which means Eleni says ❌❌❌), and beds that should have been bought by a massage parlour. The girls (who at least booked a place with aircon and walls) weren't happy with their room either, so we upgraded to a villa with three beds and a bathroom! Fuck yessssssss! Life in Ios was pretty sweet after the accomodation sitch was sorted. We didn't do much exploring like we did in Mykonos. Partying by day and night was the plan ✔️ Met some sick chickens whilst partying, and also spent loads of time with Jack, Yianni, Emma, Jess and Amy who we knew from home. Bar crawls and wet t-shirt contests were (regrettably) attended. Let's just say... anyone who went on that stage in the wet tshirt comp would have needed a deadly amount of alcohol and a few types of drugs to morally get through. Other then partying double parked, time was spent on the beach or by the pool soaking up grecian rays ☀️ Then came the biggest disappointment that is Santorini. I should have never expected anything and that's why I feel let down. The white walls you see everyone taking photos of are pretty much only in Oia which is ridiculously expensive. It's the place to supposedly see the sunset but what you don't expect is thousands of tourists trying to get through streets which are 2 meters wide. Forget the balcony or castle where people take sunset pictures from. It is gorgeous though minus the tourists. However a positive is that they do have an entire street of clubs and bars so when you get bored at one, the next isn't too far away ☺️ Fira, another town close by where we stayed, was nice and lively but the streets in the centre couldn't compare to Mykonos'. As I'm writing this my time in the Greek islands is up. I'm on a ferry which came 1.5 hours late (welcome to Greek time...it's legit a thing) and is so rocky I think I'm going over board. My next few days include Athens with my Nouna and Nono. Going to take my sisters around to see some sights and then will go to The Ranch (where my god brother works) and say our final goodbyes :( So excited for my family's cuddles and kisses 😍 It's a good night from me xx P.S- wish me luck because the boat is about to tip P.P.S - I can't swim or even doggy paddle. P.P.P.S- the last PPS reminds me of another LOL- in Santorini, the girls and I did a tour to the volcano, thermal springs, Thirasia and Oia. When we reached the hot springs, which is literally in the middle of the ocean next to the rocks, Jamie and I thought it would be a fabulous idea to suss it out. So we jumped off the boat into the water and the waves were going over our heads. We start laughing (out of pure panic) because we can't swim for shit and it made trying to battle the waves so much harder. We looked at eachother whilst all of this was going on and knew what we were both thinking; that we are going to drown. I told Jamie to calm down and just keep your body afloat. Anyway, we clearly made the 200m distance back to the boat because I'm writing this now P.P.P.P.S - don't tell my mum that last story because I'll cop an ear full 😂