Well, we made it back to the States without much trouble and to be honest, we actually had a little reverse culture shock when we arrived at LAX. However, once we got to DFW, we left the airport and went straight to a BBQ joint near by and felt right at home. Matt was sooo happy!
We then hit the ground full speed: seeing family, taking megabus between Dallas and Houston, going to a great friend's wedding, searching for cars/apartments/jobs, and regaining our bearings.
In order of progression:
While we were away, Kristin was actually offered her old job at EXCO and it was a no brainer to come back and take it. Luckily, she had about a month and a half of free time to adjust back to life before she went back to work. She spent most of that time enjoying being around family, seeing friends, looking for a car, and looking for an apartment.
Matt acted swiftly and got his dream car; an electric blue 2009 Toyota Corolla, what more could a boy want?
Soon after, Kristin found her a deal on a Honda CR-V (we are practical people).
After that, Matt emailed, called, visited, interviewed, and more for his job search. After it was all said and done, he chose to go to Dallas Samuell High School to teach Algebra I and coach Football. He's looking forward to continuing his career in education!
We felt like we were really back to reality once we found our apartment. We lucked out and ended up in a great location by White Rock lake, a part of Dallas we really enjoy, and it's smack dab in the middle of both our jobs (we got the apartment before we knew where Matt's job would be).
After we returned to our normal routines, what could possibly come next to add to the adventure?
Well, we got engaged!!! :-) On July 24th, Matt popped the question and Kristin said YES!! Part of his proposal involved this awesome collage he made of pictures from our trip!
This is Texans in Transit's last blog post, so we wanted to take a minute to say THANK YOU to all of our family, friends, and blog readers. It meant the world to us to know that people back home were sending us their thoughts, well wishes, prayers, encouragement, and love. We both feel incredibly blessed to have gone on this life-changing trip with each other :-). It was more than we could've imagined. Thank you again for reading, and please don't hesitate to contact us with questions or comments about anything!
- Matt and Kristin
BTW, one more thing.... We forgot to include this on the World Recap, so we'll just have to include it here.
We wanted to let y'all know that thanks to everyone's prayers and thoughts we were blessed during our trip with no mishaps. We were lucky enough to: not have ANYTHING stolen, no electronics broke, nothing was lost (passports, credit cards, etc), no bed bugs, NO injuries, no sicknesses (cold, flu, or serious stomach issues), no missed flights, no lost luggage, no accidents while on modes of transportation, no malaria, and lastly we didn't run out of money ;-). Thanks again for all the love!!!!
Recap of Texans in Transit's World Trip:
Time traveling: 10 months (July 8, 2012 - April 29, 2013)
Money spent: $20,700 USD each. Includes pre-trip costs such as vaccinations, storage costs for 11 months, netbook, etc. as well as ALL of our costs while we were gone! Not too bad given that we estimated a budget of $20,000 each....even if that budget was for 11-12 months ;-).
Food:
This was definitely one of our favorite parts about the whole trip (well, food and meeting people). If we had to choose favorite places for food, we'd say Thailand was at the top, and the Argentine beef (and wine) was a close second. Here is a jumbled collection of dishes we had around the world:
Grilled fish, fried fish, rice, beans, salads, "meat sticks", cinnabon, arepa con queso, sausages, guinea pig, llama steaks, various potatoes, pastas, great pizza, good pizza, very bad pizza, churascarrias, steaks (various cuts), empanadas, chimchurri sauce, choripan, McD's, fried chicken, BBQ chicken, griled chicken, lamb, pastries, bread, wines, beer, meat pies, kangaroo steak, fish 'n chips, gummy shark, sushi, dumplings, oysters, soups, noodles, ramen, pancit bihon, dosai, naan, red curry, green curry, yellow curry, papaya salad, roti, satay, laksa, pad thai, mee goreng, fried rice, banana pancakes, ice cream, coconut rice, shrimp, pork, avacados, crackers, trail mix, egg noodles, spring rolls, pho, coffee, tea, cocoa leaves, salami, cheese, warm yogurt, passion fruit, watermelon, mangoes, pineapples, thai tea, fruit smoothies, salads (only in NZ), fresh coffee, etc.
Of course, BEER:Aguila, Bogota Brewery, Poker, Pilsen, Club Colombia, Pilsener, Cusquena, Cristal, Pacena, Skol, Bavaria, Antarctica, Brahma, Bohemia, Quilmes, Andes, Patagonia, Victoria Bitter, Cooper's, Carlton, Speights, Tui, Monteith's, micro brews, Tiger, Anchor, Singha, Chang, Leo, San Miguel, Red Horse, Beerlao, Angkor, Klang, Saigon, Hanoi, home-made, etc.
Countries Visited (in order): Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and then back home to TEXAS!
Random Thoughts:
Transportation: Planes, trains, automobiles...AND bicycles, LOTS of walking, hiking, tuk-tuks, "tuk-truck", moto-taxis, motorbikes, taxis, scooters, busses, pangas, boats, ferries, jeepneys, kayaks, speed boats, go-kart buggies.
Landscapes: Waterfalls, beaches, palm trees, jungles, forests, caves, coral reefs, oceans, bays, lakes, rivers, salt flat, islands, mountains, glaciers, fjords, canyons, hills, farms, country side, cities, cliffs, karsts, valleys
Animals: Tigers, kangaroos, koalas, llamas, yacare caiman (Brazillian crocodiles), sea turtles, starfish, angel fish, trigger fish, king fish, clown fish, barracuda, golden dorado, parrot fish, eels, sea snakes, pink dolphins, whale sharks, red deer, sheep, wallabees, seals, nurse sharks, elephants, monkeys, rabbits, cattle, blue footed boobies, humpback whales, penguins, toucans, parrots, rats, lots of stray dogs, cats, roaches, goats, chickens, pigs, and of course we couldn't forget the roosters that woke us up bright and early in many countries.
Lodging: Hostels, guest-houses, hammocks, campgrounds, holiday parks, friends' homes, trains, buses, planes, airports, hotels, tents
Activities: Scuba diving, snorkeling, hiking, bike tours, self-guided tours, museums, city tours, markets, jumping off bridges, river sledging, island hopping boat tours, dune buggies, hot springs, kayaking, swimming, biking, zorbing, food/cooking classes, zoo, shopping, talking, eating, drinking, researching, relaxing with friends, and although there's more we're leaving out...last but not least, pictures and BLOGGING!
Nationalities of friends we made along the way: British, Australian (Aussie), American, Swiss, German, Swedish, Dutch, New Zealander (Kiwi), Italian, Israeli, South African, Brazilian, Canadian, Singaporean, Filipino, Malaysian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, French, and Irish.
In addition to the "random thought" lists, we thought we'd throw in a couple of the most commonly asked questions once we returned.
"What was your favorite place?"
It was way too hard for us to choose one favorite place because of the many various factors to consider such as food, weather, people we were with, activities, etc. Having said that, Colombia, Argentina, Thailand, and New Zealand were a few of our favorites because of the amazing scenery in those countries and delicious food in Thailand and Argentina!
"Besides family and friends, what did you miss the most?"
Matt: Barbeque, mexican food, and quality micro-brewed beers
Kristin: Salads, fresh vegetables, cooking, taking showers without flip-flops on, and clean sheets
"Where will your next trip be?"
Most likely, a road trip to the mountains of our very own American West. Sure, it's a place we have been and know, but there are still plenty of new places to see and perhaps there is a quaint village with our name on it that takes us back to memories of Patagonia and/or the South Island of NZ.
"What did you learn or take-away from your trip?"
We've learned so much about ourselves, each other, the world, and life, that it's hard to put it into words. A few key things though:
Keep life simple and enjoy each and every day you can with people you love; before you know it, it'll be gone.
Be thankful and aware of all that you have, materially speaking it is way more than most.
Love is the universal language: treat others as you want to be treated. Respect everyone.
Get outside your comfort zone and experience new things!
Travel is the only thing you can buy that will make you richer!!
We apologize for being so delayed in writing this post. We got caught up with life once we got back. Thanks for being patient! We have one more post, so stay tuned....
Recap of Vietnam:
Time in country: 14 days
Money spent: approximately $700 USD each
Currency: Vietnam Dong
Conversion Rate: 21,000 VND to 1 USD
Food:
The food in general was pretty tasty and made with herbs, spices, and vegetables. A relief after Cambodia!
Their biggest and most well known dish is Pho (pronounced f-uh). It contains a broth, rice noodles, herbs, and usually beef or pork. We loved it.
We also loved the spring rolls which were available either fried or fresh. Both very tasty, but the fresh ones were great.
Coffee was usually great here when done right. We liked it with condensed milk and over ice.
Places Visited (in order): Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, Hoi An, Hanoi, Halong Bay
Random Thoughts:
There are millions upon millions of motorbikes. You may have heard about this as we had, but it is hard to fathom until you actually experience it.
Women aren't afraid to wear hoodies, jeans, socks with their sandals, and masks to cover themselves head to toe in order to avoid the sun and prevent from darkening their skin. It was hard to find women's deoderant in Asia that did not have whitening in it!
The cities and most of what we saw was very developed. There wasn't the filth and poor infrastructure like we saw in Cambodia.
Recap of Cambodia:
Time in country: 10 days
Money spent: approximately $360 USD each
Currency: Riel (Only used for small change as coins as they operate on USD). USD is main currency.
Conversion Rate: 4000 Riel to 1 USD
Food:
Food is called Khmer and we truthfully didn't get true, traditional Khmer foods. We actually ate a lot of Mexican food and sandwiches.
Places Visited (in order): Kompong Cham, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville (Otres Beach)
Random Thoughts:
We found Cambodia to be kind of dirty. There was literally lots of trash on the side of the roads and throughout the country, not to mention that because of the time of year we were there, it was quite dusty and hot.
The people were friendly and nice. Surprisingly, and luckily since we had been warned, we were not overwhelmed by too many child beggars.
The videos shown on buses were HORRIBLE! It was Khmer music videos which included the same music played over and over with "dancers" making a few steps and doing some sort of hand waving thing.
Recap of Laos:
Time in country: 15 days
Money spent: approximately $480 USD each
Currency: Kip
Conversion Rate: 8000 Kip to 1 USD
Food:
The food wasn't that great and actually a mere imitation of Thai food.
There was a lot of French influences with Frech bistros and cafes. Also, lots of baguette sandwiches all over for very cheap ($1 or less). In Vang Vieng especially, there were food stalls up and down the road all selling the same thing: sandwiches, fruit shakes, burgers, and pancakes. They all wanted us to buy something whenever we walked by, it was hard to choose where to stop.
One thing we noticed is what many of the locals ate: in one hand the ate dried chicken and in the other they would roll up a ball of sticky rice and eat it together.
Lao BBQ, we saw a lot of signs, but only really had it in Luang Prabang. And the meat was delicious!
Places Visited (in order): Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, Thakhek (Konglor Cave), 4000 Islands (Don Det)
Random Thoughts:
The people were very nice and welcoming.
Maybe it was because we were in Laos during the dry season, still, we were surprised at how dry and dusty it was, unlike the lush greenery of other places in Asia.
The northern part of Laos, ie- Luang Prabang, was better than we expected. The French influence helped create a good atmosphere with a unique charm.
Recap of Thailand:
Time in country: 37 days (10 days in January for diving, then majority of time Feb.- March)
Money spent: approximately $1600 USD each
Currency: Baht
Conversion Rate: 30 Baht to 1 USD
Food:
First off, Thailand is a place with many different, delicious dishes. Overall, we agreed that the country has the best food.....perhaps in the WORLD (at least from where we've been)!
Noodles and rice are everywhere and are usually in some type of fried dish. It should be mentioned that in Thailand fried doesn't mean battered and deep fried, it simply means cooked in a wok with hot oil. There were thin glass noodles, a thicker rice noodle like what's in Pad Thai, and wide, fat noodles like in Pad See Ew. Then, mixed with veggies and/or meat.
Curries are popular as well and are made from pastes which are ground down herbs, spices, peppers, etc with a mortar and pestle. The paste is usually mixed with coconut milk, veggies, and meat in combinations depending on which dish is being cooked. There's red curry, massaman (yellow) curry, panang (peanut) curry, and green curry. The curries have different levels of spice depending on the peppers used in the paste.
There are also various soups, the most abundant and most obvious to us was the Tom Yum soup. Traditionally very spicy and made with shrimp. There was also coconut milk soup (not spicy), and plenty of other soups to choose from.
If you've read any of our Thailand posts you'd have heard about the infamous banana pancakes (also called rotee in certain areas). These are basically a crepe-like dough slapped around on a metal surface, filled with bananas (or sometimes mangoes or even egg if you want), and topped with various choices of toppings- chocolate (our favorite), honey, cinnamon, peanut butter, nutella, vanilla, etc. Delicious.
As in the Philippines and other countries, fruit shakes are abundant and available on every street corner. Great afternoon snacks :-).
Another drink we liked in Thailand was the Thai tea. It's red tea, condensed milk, and sugar. Yup, you guessed it, not healthy. But, a nice treat every so often.
Places Visited (in order): Koh Tao, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pai, Phuket, Koh Lanta, Krabi, Koh Samui
Random Thoughts:
In just about every city that had sewers and trash sitting out on the streets there were rats. Matt jumped and screeched like a small child any time we'd see a rat, or any time Kristin would mess with him and tell him there was a rat! They were pretty gross.
If you ever wanted a custom tailored suit, shirt, dress, etc; just take a stroll down the street in any touristy Thailand area. There were an abundant amount of tailor shops, usually run by Indian, Pakistani, Nepalese, Burmese, etc, where you could get custom made clothing for pretty cheap prices.
Every town, no matter how big or small, has a Buddhist Temple, known as a Wat. They are very detailed, ornate, and interesting to walk around. The dominant religion in Thailand, 95% of the population, is Buddhism.
Tourism is HUGE in Thailand. At times, it was a little too much with all the tourists, but it's understandable given that the country has so many great things to offer. Luckily, there's pretty good infrastructure to accommodate all the tourists.
If you don't pass by a restaurant/bar, custom tailor, or tourist agency, then most likely you're passing by a massage place. They are ALL over and offer great massages for cheap prices. Foot massages for $7/hour or an oil massage or Thai massage for $10/hour. Great addition to any vacation.
The national symbol of Thailand is the elephant. It has become a symbol of fortune, and is widely used for decorative purposes.
Another tid-bit we learned is that before a movie at the movie theaters the national anthem is played with a quick video and everyone stands while it's being played. The national anthem is also played in the morning and in the evening at the bus and train stations and again everyone stops what they're doing and stands while it's played.
Thailand has an extensive train system connecting most of the country. This is a fairly comfortable and affordable way to travel around different parts of the country given how huge it is. A 12 hour overnight train ticket for a sleeper train costs roughly $30 or so.
Recap of the Philippines:
Time in country: 40 days
Money spent: approximately $1450 USD each
Currency: Peso
Conversion Rate: 40 Pesos to 1 USD
Food:
Typical food was pork or chicken with rice. Rice was served with most dishes since it's cheap and abundant. Sometimes they'd throw in some cucumbers and tomatoes for the side dish.
Chicken/ Pork adobo, with rice, is one of the popular dishes and it was delicious. The sauce was made up of soy sauce, vinegar, and black peppercorns.
Another Filipino dish was Pancit Bihon, which was a combination of a few veggies like cabbage, green bean bits, carrots and a little meat mixed with thin glass noodles. This dish could be found almost anywhere for pretty cheap ($1- $2 USD).
 |
| image from google |
Mangoes in the Philippines are extra delicious because they're sweeter than most. Other tropical fruits are abundant as well.
With all the tropical fruit, naturally, comes smoothies. The smoothies are usually made with condensed milk, and although not nutritious, they're delicious.
Overall, the food in the Philippines is fairly bland and nothing to write home about.
There are only two kinds of Filipino beer- San Miguel (Pilsen and Light) and Red Horse (similar taste as San Miguel just a higher percentage alcohol). The beer isn't that great, but it's usually cheap.
Places Visited (in order): Sabang (Puerto Galera), Boracay, Sugar Beach (Sipalay), Dumaguete, Apo Island, Siquijor, Puerto Princesa, Port Barton, El Nido
Random Thoughts:
The Philippines is comprised of over 7,000 islands, roughly 2,000 of them are inhabited, and we barely skimmed 15 - 20 of them.
We read from a government agency that there are over 90 million people living in the Philippines (over half of the population lives on the island of Luzon) and over 50% of them live in poverty. The majority of the population is poor and has a very basic means of living.
Filipinos are some of the nicest people we've encountered so far on our journey. They were excited to see foreigners and would say "Hello, how are you, today?" as much as they could. We'd walk down a street and everyone, especially the kids, would say hello to us and smile big. The adults were very welcoming and helpful as well. I think we got more curious looks than most due to Matt being a much larger guy than the typical Filipino. It made it almost impossible trying to find shoes or shorts that fit him.
Filipinas really love their westerner foreign men. A few times, girls/ women even told us that they wish and hope to find themselves a westerner one day and move away. Lots of western men live in the Philippines and have restaurants, hotels, businesses, etc with their Filipina wives. The women told us that generally the Filipino men are no good. It was interesting to hear these sentiments.
Unlike most Asian countries, the dominant religion in the Philippines is Catholicism due to hundreds of years of Spanish rule.
As mentioned in previous posts, transportation in the Philippines was always interesting. From the questionable boat trips and rough waters to the packed non-a/c buses on unpaved roads. As the marketing tourism slogan says, "It's more fun in the Philippines" and that includes the transportation as well :-).
 |
| www.tourism.gov.ph |
Recap of Malaysia:
Time in country: 10 days
Money spent: approximately $425 USD each (seems high, but includes our nice hotel we splurged on for two nights)
Currency: Ringgit
Conversion Rate: 3 Ringgit to 1 USD
Food:
Typical food seemed to resemble a mix of Asian noodles or rice dish combined with Middle Eastern, Thai, and/or Indian flavor.
Places Visited (in order): Kuala Lumpur, Cameron Highlands, Penang
Random Thoughts:
We only made it through peninsular Malaysia. As you can see on the map, there's two other states we didn't get to. Borneo is supposed to be pretty cool, and maybe if we have extra time we can make it back that way.
Malaysian food, especially at food stalls, was fairly cheap and quite good.
We knew we were in SE Asia when we had multiple sightings of large rats in the streets. They made BOTH of us squirm.
From what we saw from being in the cities, Malaysians (and Singaporeans for that matter) love their shopping malls! It seems like there were malls on every other corner, and not just any malls, but big malls.
In Malaysia (and most Asian countries), shoes are removed before walking inside a home, shop, restaurant, etc. This is done to keep the filth/ dirt on shoes out of the house, as well as a symbol of respect. This sounds like a good idea; however, for Kristin who dislikes feet in general and dislikes feet being dirty, this was quite hard! Especially when it meant she had to walk around the hostel without any shoes on, ugh. Not to mention that when you're in a restaurant and want to use the ladies room you're not supposed to have any shoes on. What?!? She had difficulties getting used to the no shoes thing, and her feet being dirty most of the time.
After small troubles at the airport ticket counter in NZ and a 10 hour budget flight that served zero food worth the price, we finally made it to our last continent of our trip.
Being in Singapore felt like being in a typical big city, EXCEPT that it was extremely clean: the buildings, streets, markets, train stations, etc. It was a good introduction into SE Asia as English is the most well known and widely used language since Singapore is a melting pot of so many cultures.
Once again, we were in a big city that we gave ourselves a little over a day to explore (can you tell we like being outside the cities?). We ventured around the city and made it to a couple of interesting places. We went to Sim Lim Square, a place that is well known for electronics and technology; six floors of anything and everything "techie"- portable DVD players, cameras, phones, gear, gadgets, and gizmos. The only thing that would've made this place better is a pocket full of money to spend ;-).
We also made our way to Chinatown for lunch. On our flight to Singapore we sat next to a guy who was from NZ, but his parents moved to Singapore a few years ago, and he told us about a delicious Chinese food restaurant in Chinatown where the owner makes his own noodles and dumplings. We even got to watch him make the noodles. Both the noodles and steamed dumplings were pretty amazing! Beats Panda Express hands down ;-).
Singapore is also known for the plethora of shopping. We walked down the main shopping street (more malls than we could count) and there were plenty of Christmas decorations to enjoy and make us feel like we were back home for the holidays.
Later that evening we made it to see the famous, tall hotel that looks like a spaceship/boat (we'd say a combination of both), otherwise officially known as the Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino. It is quite the architectural piece of work! There was also a botanical garden across from the hotel/ bay that we walked around. Once the sun set, the garden was illuminated with colorful lights and there was a light show synced to music. Fun to watch!
The resort is quite impressive with a mall, museum, two theatres, seven restaurants, casino, ice skating rink and world's longest elevated pool just to name a few of the attractions. This is the infity edge swimming pool, almost 500 ft long, that is on top of the hotel. Of course our budget did not allow us to stay at the resort. This picture is courtesy of wikipedia :-).
The next morning we were scheduled to bus to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at 9am. This was our Christmas Day and Christmas Eve back home (14 hour time difference) so we woke up nice and early, 5 am, to make sure we could both skype our families while they were together. Matt's family does their big dinner and presents on Christmas Eve night, so he enjoyed seeing everyone via skype on their Christmas Eve. Kristin also got to skype with her family, although their big celebration is on Christmas Day. To get in the Christmas spirit Kristin wore her elf hat on the bus to KL.
Recap of New Zealand:
Time in country: 22 days
Money spent: approximately $1800 USD each
Currency: NZ Dollar
Conversion Rate: roughly 85 cents to 1 NZD
Food:
Food here again is similar to the U.S. and Australia: you can get lots of varieties of foods.
There are lots of meat pies and lots of fish & chips shops. The most popular fish in NZ seemed to be blue cod, and it was our favorite. We ate quite a bit of meat pies and fish and chips since they were so cheap. Helped the budget, but definitely not our waist lines :-).
Places Visited (in order): Queenstown, Milford Sound, Southland area, the Catlins, Lake Tekapo, Mt. Cook, Wanaka, West Coast area, Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers, Takaka, Abel Tasman Natl. Park, Picton, Wellington, Rotorua, and Auckland
Random Thoughts:
Both the south and the north islands are organized and set up very well for tourism. It's definitely a DIY (do-it-yourself) place where you can easily travel and see it all on your own. Most towns have iSite centers (visitor centers), for sure the major towns, providing all kinds of maps, brochures on lodging, activities, tours, and restaurants. Basically anything you'd want to know about the area you can find at the iSite center. Not to mention that there are also friendly Kiwis (what people from New Zealand are called) working there to answer any question you might have. When we arrived to Queenstown we had no idea what route we were going to take to get us from the south island to the north island; however, we took a map into the iSite center and a very helpful lady asked us what we wanted to see and then mapped out the best and most efficient route for us.
New Zealand, especially the south island, is full of tourists traveling by campervans. There are lots of rental cars/ vans on the road as well. NZ has an abundance of DOC (Department of Conservation) campsites throughout the country that make it cheap to park and sleep for the night, or pitch a tent like we did each night. DOC sites ranged from free to $12/ person a night.
FYI: NZ may not be the best place for someone who easily gets car sick ;-). There are very few straight roads in NZ. Most of the roads are windy and narrow through the mountains or along the coast. Having said that, you get to see some of the most beautiful scenery along the way. In our 22 days, we covered almost 3000 miles in Wally and were able to see a good amount of NZ.
The south island is much less populated than the north island; roughly 20% of NZ's 4.5 million population lives in the south island and the other 80% live in the north island. The south island is a nice place to go to get away from it all and "be one with nature".
NZ has every kind of landscape you can imagine. In one day you can see mountains, waterfalls, glaciers, lakes, farmland and the ocean. It is one of the most beautiful countries we've been to so far. Although it may be a long flight, it is more than worth it to see all the beauty NZ has to offer.
New Zealand can be a pretty expensive country, especially for items such as petrol (gas), alcohol, restaurants, tourist activities, etc. Yet, with a little planning and attention it can still be done on a backpacker's budget. We were very lucky to get such a deal on Wally, our white wagon. That is what really helped our budget for NZ.
Recap of Australia:
Time in country: 10 days
Money spent: approximately $900 USD each
Currency: Australian Dollar
Conversion Rate: roughly 1 to 1 for simplicity reasons
Food:
Food here is a bit like the U.S. due to the fact that you can get whatever you're after. Also, due to the country's proximity to Asia, there is an abundance of Asian cuisine offered around the country (and for pretty cheap).
Meat Pies. Similar to our chicken pot pies on a small, personal scale: a flaky pastry filled with various meats, veggies, and sauces depending on what you're looking for.
Fish & Chips (fries) shops are also everywhere. The most popular fish used is actually Gummy Shark, known as flake.
Australians love their "barbies", known to us as barbeques.
Places Visited (in order): Sydney, Portland, Great Ocean Road, Melbourne
Random Thoughts:
Australia, it's known as Oz.
As you can see on the map, we barely even covered a sliver of Australia. It's roughly the same size as the U.S., so there's lots to see; however, we didn't have the time and money to really "see" all of Australia on this trip. It's a very beautiful country though and somewhere we would love to go back to.
The Great Ocean Road is spectacular! If ever the opportunity to go experience it, Go!
Australia is a little bit more expensive than the U.S., and where we noticed it the most was the price of beer. A 6-pack of standard beer was well over $12, and a draft beer at a bar/ pub was $7- 8.
Australia is home to plenty of cool animals that we don't have back home, and they were such a treat to get to see. Kangaroos, koalas (they're not called koala bears apparently, just koalas), wallabies, etc.
The Australian hospitality was amazing! We were lucky to stay with friends on two different occasions, and they took wonderful care of us. It couldn't have been better! Thanks to our Australian friends.
