Australia

In 2019 my boyfriend and I decided to take an extra long trip of 6 weeks and go to Australia. The flight from Vancouver to Melbourne was 16 hours long, and by the time you land, you have lost all sense of time.

It’s hard to compare Australia to anywhere else I’ve been. They seem a bit like the UK, but with nicer weather and less of a class system. One of the first things I noticed was that the cars do not stop for you. As a result people will jaywalk. We felt a bit silly as the polite Canadians who were often waiting for the walk signal.

My favorite part of the trip was when we stayed in the tropical north in Cairns. This is the place to go if you want to visit the Great Barrier Reef. We took a (slightly) smaller, less touristy boat out to the reef and went snorkelling. It was so exciting to see all of the marine life, especially considering the reef is in danger from climate change. This was sort of a bucket list experience for me, even though I hadn’t thought about it ahead of time.