Ok, so this is it! We’ve been travelling since 6th March 2009 and after all that time on the road, 
we have finally reached our destination: Australia! It is sad to leave the backpacking behind us, but at this stage, we are looking forward to having somewhere more permanent to live and to have a home. We are currently trying to organise employment.....it’s been a while so we hope we remember how to do everything!
We’ve been in Australia now for 2½ weeks already. We spent the first week in Sydney with our friends Barry and Emily, and then the next week and a half with Conor’s brother John and his wife Kate in Canberra. So far, in our short time in Oz, we have checked out the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House and also managed to get a close up look at some wild Kangaroos bouncing around a hill near John and Kate’s house.
we have finally reached our destination: Australia! It is sad to leave the backpacking behind us, but at this stage, we are looking forward to having somewhere more permanent to live and to have a home. We are currently trying to organise employment.....it’s been a while so we hope we remember how to do everything!
We’ve been in Australia now for 2½ weeks already. We spent the first week in Sydney with our friends Barry and Emily, and then the next week and a half with Conor’s brother John and his wife Kate in Canberra. So far, in our short time in Oz, we have checked out the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House and also managed to get a close up look at some wild Kangaroos bouncing around a hill near John and Kate’s house.
Some facts about our trip......
Time travelling: 6.5 months
Countries visited: 15 (USA, Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, South Korea)
Miles travelled: Unknown!
No of separate flights: 25
No of different hostels/guesthouse stayed in: 74
Size and weight of our bags: 45L weighing 8-10kg
Modes of transport used: Walking, bicycle, motorbike, horse, tuktuk, car, pickup, bus, boat, tram, train, helicopter, plane.
No of nights spent sleeping on overnight busses/trains/boats/flights: 20
No of rats encountered in our rooms: 2
No of Irish pubs visited: 5
No of weddings missed: 1 (sorry Henry!)
No of photographs taken: 12,500 (that’s 46 GB)
No of embarrassing dancing videos: 68
No of blog entries: 83 (well done to anyone who’s read them all!)
No of old friends met along the way: 13 (Darin, Stan, Cónall, Ena, Fenton & Angela, Marcel, Myra & Graham, Helen & JP, Charlie & Pippa)
No of new friends met along the way: Too many to count, but special mention to the slow-boater in Laos!
Most useful items packed: Laptop, guidebooks....it would have been very different without them
Least useful items packed: Water purification tablets, rain cover for our rucksacks, PADI dive manual (we had to buy a new one when we started the course anyway)
Things we wished we brought: Map of the world (to show where Estonia is!)
Most luxurious place slept: Las Vegas (with Sapa, Vietnam a close second)
Least luxurious places slept: Hut in jungle in Thailand, Four Thousand Islands in Laos, Piste in Mexico
Items lost/stolen: None!
Length of time since Conor last had a hair cut: 7 months (and counting!)
Length of time since our last skydives: Too long!
No of Seven New Wonders of the World visited: 4/7 (Chichen Itza, Machu Picchu, Rio Statue of Christ, Chinese Great Wall)
We will miss:
- Exploring new and famous places
- Complete freedom to go wherever we want
- Some great cheap food and beer
- Not working
We will not miss:
- Brushing teeth with bottled water
- Wearing the same clothes everyday
- Constantly finding new places to stay
- Night busses
Well, we hope you enjoyed reading our blog along the way. As we’ve reached our destination, we don’t intend to keep it going, but fear not, this is not our last blog entry!!! Stay tuned as we are currently working on the video of embarrassing dances around the world and we’ll post it here whenever it’s ready.
Time travelling: 6.5 months
Countries visited: 15 (USA, Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, South Korea)
Miles travelled: Unknown!
No of separate flights: 25
No of different hostels/guesthouse stayed in: 74
Size and weight of our bags: 45L weighing 8-10kg
Modes of transport used: Walking, bicycle, motorbike, horse, tuktuk, car, pickup, bus, boat, tram, train, helicopter, plane.
No of nights spent sleeping on overnight busses/trains/boats/flights: 20
No of rats encountered in our rooms: 2
No of Irish pubs visited: 5
No of weddings missed: 1 (sorry Henry!)
No of photographs taken: 12,500 (that’s 46 GB)
No of embarrassing dancing videos: 68
No of blog entries: 83 (well done to anyone who’s read them all!)
No of old friends met along the way: 13 (Darin, Stan, Cónall, Ena, Fenton & Angela, Marcel, Myra & Graham, Helen & JP, Charlie & Pippa)
No of new friends met along the way: Too many to count, but special mention to the slow-boater in Laos!
Most useful items packed: Laptop, guidebooks....it would have been very different without them
Least useful items packed: Water purification tablets, rain cover for our rucksacks, PADI dive manual (we had to buy a new one when we started the course anyway)
Things we wished we brought: Map of the world (to show where Estonia is!)
Most luxurious place slept: Las Vegas (with Sapa, Vietnam a close second)
Least luxurious places slept: Hut in jungle in Thailand, Four Thousand Islands in Laos, Piste in Mexico
Items lost/stolen: None!
Length of time since Conor last had a hair cut: 7 months (and counting!)
Length of time since our last skydives: Too long!
No of Seven New Wonders of the World visited: 4/7 (Chichen Itza, Machu Picchu, Rio Statue of Christ, Chinese Great Wall)
We will miss:
- Exploring new and famous places
- Complete freedom to go wherever we want
- Some great cheap food and beer
- Not working
We will not miss:
- Brushing teeth with bottled water
- Wearing the same clothes everyday
- Constantly finding new places to stay
- Night busses
Well, we hope you enjoyed reading our blog along the way. As we’ve reached our destination, we don’t intend to keep it going, but fear not, this is not our last blog entry!!! Stay tuned as we are currently working on the video of embarrassing dances around the world and we’ll post it here whenever it’s ready.
Great job. Have been following your trip since the very beginning. I have been checking your blog every morning, it has almost become my routine. Anyway enjoy your time in Australia and best of luck to you getting back to "rat race" for money.
ReplyDeleteBtw, the pictue with Conor and his brother, I set myself a goal to find 5 differences between you two.. its been 4 hours and i have only found one.
Guys, i would say 16 countries - Australia too, or 17 if you count Ireland.
ReplyDeleteAlso, your map of the world suggests you were not actually in Rio!
Henry - me and John do actually look a bit more different than those pictures suggest!
ReplyDeleteFearghal - Oh yeah.....well, we were there!
Conor.
I'll miss your entries! Have fun in Oz!
ReplyDeleteHey Conor, Kadi,
ReplyDeletealso enjoyed your blog over the last few months, it was one helluva trip!
Conor - I knew you wouldn't be able to finish up without a bunch of statistics :-) .. couldn't get your spreadsheet into the blog no? This defo settles who was the biggest nerd in Team Spirit :-)
Miss you in the air Honey xxx
Hey!
ReplyDeleteGood luck on finding a job, so we can get to read another great blog about your new trip in one year time or so... :)
So we weren't the only ones who thought that in the picture was Conor "Before and After"... :D
You two really look the same.
Thanks for this great blog!
Henri and Helar
Thanks for sharing! It has been very interesting blog to follow.
ReplyDelete