In any event I have travelled quite a bit since 2014 and will do more for the rest of this year. It's going to be my final semester at the bottom half of this year and I'll never get the opportunity to go on exchange again.
To begin I went to Melbourne for 3 days early 2014 (I know it's nothing amazing, but I've never travelled by myself nor have I been anywhere in Australia but NSW). That kicked things off and I became more excited to travel, and to travel within Australia too. Beyond the normal, almost annual visit to Hong Kong and China, I planned a trip to New York and Boston totalling 10 days (and 6 hours in Seattle) in January this year. The thing I learnt about travelling is that I have difficulty relaying my experiences, it really felt like you had to be there. Be there for the good, the bad and the lonely. Even if you don't go alone, you can feel lonely and overwhelmed, but by the end of it, you'd wish you could stay longer.
I loved Boston more than New York City. NYC was great with its bright lights but not as great as I thought. The stores were amazingly open at midnight at Times Square despite the cold weather. That was enjoyable - to see stores open past 5:01 pm as they do in Australia. Boston was great because there was so much to see in a small city and it's just a beautiful place with lots of great food and culture and nice people. Haha not that New Yorkers weren't nice. The Boston Commons and Central Park were arguably my favourite places of the trip. The two short 3 hour layovers I had in Seattle were great, I made the most out of them actually being able to get to town, Pike Place Markets, the first ever Starbucks and back because the city was only 20 mins away.
The Brisbane trip in April was just as spontaneous as the Melbourne trip, I just bought my flights there one day and it was surprisingly good. Most of my friends were like 'why are you going there?', but Brisbane is not a hole. It's a beautiful city with great weather too. It's got so many things to see and I loved the arts district with museums and art galleries. Although I prefer Sydney's MCA, GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art) was one of the highlights of my trip (I missed out on MOMA at New York in January). However I loved, actually loved the science museum and it's FREE. It was so good and it reminded me how much I love science and animals. I was also fascinated with their city planning where a lot of the buses have their own highways and it was so convenient to get around.
Later in July I'll be going to Columbia in NYC during the summer to knock off 6 units. The trip also promises tours to the 911 Memorial and I will find time to go to MOMA. This is really a once in a lifetime opportunity and I can't want to go, despite the daunting 4000 word essay looming at the end. I'm also taking this time to visit LA, DC and probably SF (it's so expensive) so that will be fun. I'm actually just excited for In-and-Out more than anything. I'll spend about 3-4 weeks before returning to Sydney to finish that essay and I am off again...
And the big one, the long one spanning at least 6 months, to Sweden where I will do my exchange at Lund University. My final semester and I'm going to end it on an exchange and I really can't think of a better way. Of course there will be struggles but it will definitely be an amazingly rewarding experience. And come on it's Europe where everything is so close so I'll definitely be hitting up the airports and I really can't wait, I just have to get everything organised and sorted, especially the heavy paper work. But I can't wait. I really can't wait.
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