extreme

Bucketlist Checkoff

I have never actually sat down and written a bucket list, but my last few weeks have been quite intense and with all of my traveling and activities I do think that I have crossed off a quite a few things on the bucket list in my head…here are quick few worth mentioning

GO to Korea-I always knew I’d get to Korea, it was just a matter of when-check

Go to Australia-check

Scuba dive/snorkle in the great barrier reef-check

Bungy Jump-check

Skydive-check

Teach yoga-check

Scuba Certification-in progressss

Considering my list is in my head, it is a constant work in progress…I keep meeting new people who have done these awesome things and it is making my list much longer-a new addition to my list: get a 1 year working visa to Australia and travel up the east coast working random jobs and living out of hostels and such…

SO-an update on the past few days…

Jam Packed adventure week: starting with Monday, I woke up and went skydiving. Hands down the most intense/thrilling/coolest thing I have ever done. Signing up for the highest jump allowed-14,000 ft-there was no doubt in my mind I had to get as long of a free fall as possible. After signing waivers and such, we waited until our tandem partners called our names. Considering it was about 8:30 in the morning, I was quite out of it, but as soon as my name was called I stood up and I was faced with probably one of the best looking men I have ever seen-maybe in my top 5 category. It took me a second to stop staring and I finally introduced myself-turns out his name was Jez (adding to his attractiveness for sure). So getting past that, we hopped on a bus and headed to the airport…on the ride, Jez very quickly ran me through some safety precautions and told me what I had to do before jumping and before I knew it I was strapped into a harness and hopping up into the plane.
I am not exactly sure what I had imagined the whole process of skydiving would be like, but I definitely thought there would be more prep than 5-10 minutes…so rather than having any time to get nervous or anything, I had to just be ready. The charming qualities of Jez also somehow calmed me as well…haha

So we got in this tiny little plane-6 jumpers and their tandem partners making 12 total. The climb in the airplane took forever…at 5,000 feet the ground seemed ages away and I was looking out the window thinking “how the hell am I gonna jump out of this plan at 14,000!!!” But thankfully Jez sparked a quite normal conversation with me and got my mind off of everything. Turns out he’s from New Zealand, 28, and still deciding what he wants to do with his life-he has a pilot’s license, likes to surf, skydive, and bike….mmmmmm yeaa

And just like that, we were at 14,000 ft and 2^nd to jump out of the plane. Honestly, it all happened so fast I’m not really sure exactly what I was feeling-one second my legs were dangling out of the plane and next I was doing barrel rolls out of the plane. It was SO loud-I’m pretty sure I was screaming, but I couldn’t hear anything, and I hope Jez couldn’t hear it either- the feeling of free-falling through the sky is like nothing I’ve ever felt before-it was awesome in everywhere and even though I should have been scared, I wasn’t. All of a sudden VOOOOOP and we were just floating-he had pulled the parachute and instead of falling, it felt more like a roller coaster in the sky. The view was breathtaking-the reef in the distance, rainforest behind, and miles of coastline to gaze at…words or photos could never do this experience justice. Jez let me take the reins and I got to control the parachute-so we swooped around some clouds and he took control back and we gracefully landed on Mission Beach. It was quite romantic (haha totally kidding-its his job-but I like to think it was…) and it was over. I don’t have a grasp of the timing it took to get to the ground-but I know it wasn’t long enough. I wanted to hop right back in the plane and do it all over again. So now, I am adding skydiving certification to my bucket list.

Later that day, I hadn’t had enough thrill for a day, so I decided to do my bungy jump as well-I booked a package but wasn’t supposed to bungy until Thursday, but I figured why not and hopped on a bus to the bungy jump site. At this point I was riding quite an adrenaline rush from the skydiving, so there was no detection of fear whatsoever. I got to the jumping site-75 meters…eh not bad. I climbed to the top of the apparatus and looking over the edge kind of scared me-but nothing too bad. From the bottom it did not look so high, but looking downwards was a different perspective entirely. Oh well-I got strapped up in a harness, the instructors gave me a quick briefing and then I was at the ledge with my toes hanging over the edge. The man started to count down….5….4…3…STOP I told him I needed a second and had to breath-he continued…2….1….JUMP and I did…I swan dived the shit off of that ledge-if I had an extra $50 to blow, I would have bought the photos for proof, but I swear I did it. The free fall was intense-it felt like there was no end to it, but then all of a sudden whiplash. The whiplash didn’t hurt, but it shook my body a bit-I continued to bounce around a bit and eventually made it back to land. The rush wasn’t quite as good as the skydive-but it definitely was awesome. I decided to jump again. The first jump, they instruct you to jump a certain way, but with a second jump there are more options on how to depart the ledge. So I climbed back to the top and got all strapped up and in and decided to go off backwards-at this point I had made friends with the guys at the top and they told me going backwards was quite intense-so why not!! I got to the edge, turned around and the guy grabbed my harness and leaned me back so my center of gravity was no longer over the ledge (or anything for that matter-it was out into the abyss). He started counting and my heart was racing-jumping off a ledge without seeing where you’re going has to be one of the scariest things possible…he got to 1 and hadn’t dropped me yet…he asked me how I was feeling and before I had time to answer he had let go and I was off…the unexpectedness of the takeoff made it better and a more intense experience-wow…

So after that I had my fix and decided to head back to the hostel-here I met up with my new Danish friends!! We headed into town for dinner and drinks…Cairns is a typical beach town-standard outdoor restaurants line the main road that is parallel to the coast and there are also tons of touristy shops selling everything and anything you could possibly imagine-we decide on a seafood place…the food was so incredibly fresh; I couldn’t believe how fresh the shrimp and fish tasted! YUM-so after this we ended up at the foreigner bar-how fitting. Drinks flowing, live music playing, and tons of girls/boys dancing on tables-needless to say it got quite interesting. Every “spring break” town has these places, and I hate to admit this, but I absolutely love partying at them-I’m definitely guilty of hopping up on some tables and grooving a bit…after a few hours here we all decided to make our way back to the hostel…

Tuesday-rainforest/waterfall hopping! Picked up at the hostel around 7:45 am, and I was off on yet another new adventure. Rohan picked me up (yes his name was Rohan) and there I met the 10 other travelers-Chris, Melinda, Sara, Laura, Lara, Kevin, Karla, Robert, Anika, and Tammy-Rohan made sure we all knew each other’s names…

The first stop we made was for a hike in the rainforest-this was quite relaxing and similar to all other rainforest experiences that I have had…ridiculous vegetation, heaps of insect/bird noises coming from everywhere, and a strictly marked pathway with signs instructing travelers not to stray from the path. It was quite peaceful, and exactly what I needed to start off my morning.

Next stop: Josephine falls-here we got to go for a quick swim and slide down a natural rock slide. This was absolutely beautiful-but still reminded me of places in the Adirondack mountains that I have taken a plunge in.

Next stop: lunch-we went to the cutest little bed and breakfast places in the country…this old man runs the whole place and he grilled us chicken, made a potato salad, and risotto! MMM delicious.

Next stop: Milla Milla Falls-apparently famous for some British singer filming his music clip there. We got to swim up and in behind the waterfalls which was quite serene.

Next stop: Lake ______ (I can’t remember the name and I‘m too lazy to look it up)-again this lake reminded me of the Adirondacks-or maybe more of Green Lakes. It was very nice, but not anything I haven’t seen before. We spent a about an hour here where I swam and sunned a bit. Following this we went down the road a few kilometers and camped out to try and catch a platypus in it’s natural habitat. Platypus’ are an endangered species, but are quite popular in the area. We were lucky enough to catch on dilly dallying down a small creek-we followed him/her down the waterbed for about 10 minutes…

After the platypus sighting we hopped back on the bus and I was dropped off at my hostel…here I showered and got ready for the night. I ended up going out with some people I had met on the tour that day. 2 doctors from England, a couple on their honeymoon from Oregon, a woman from Sydney and a surfer from Byron Bay. We grabbed a quick dinner at the night markets and had a drink-at this point I was so exhausted from the full day I decided to head back to the hostel and pass out. Sleep felt so good.

DIVING

Obviously making my way to northern Australia, I had to hit the reef. Departing the wharf around 7:45 am, and we were off on an hour and half cruise out to the reef. 

Our first stop was near Upolu Cay…

Here we snorkeled and got some time to sun bathe…snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef lived up to all of its expectations. With a water temp of about 24 degrees Celsius, open water, and more life and vegetation to comprehend, it was the most beautiful natural phenomena that I have ever seen. The colors of the coral are indescribable…every orange, blue, green, red, yellow, and any other color glistened in the sun creating a perfect mesh of wildlife to observe. I saw Nemos, Doris, and every kind of fish possible. I even got to see 2 reef sharks!! There are so many species of animals in the ocean, and the captain actually told us that they predict there are nearly 750,000 unnamed species! WOW- After about an hour here we all gathered back on the boat and headed to the 2^nd sight. Here I geared up for a dive…I was going to get certified on the GBR but it ended up being WAY too expensive, so I will probably do this when I am in Thailand because the prices are significantly cheaper.

10 meters down and it was SO much better than snorkeling. Breathing underwater was kind of unnerving at first, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly. I swear in another life I was a fish. From my childhood I have always loved swimming, and this past summer in the Adirondacks confirms that I still do…I could swim for hours whether or not I’m by myself or with people-I just love being in the water. So, naturally, diving has quickly become my new favorite hobby. Definitely diving in Thailand, and thinking of how I’m going to pull off a few dives in Egypt as well…thennnn who knows after that.

But the dive was such an experience. Taking the whole experience in and trying to explain it here to you is impossible. I didn’t get an underwater unfortunately, but at least I have the images in my head…touching anemone, seeing a sting ray, picking up star fish, touching a turtle…the list goes on-diving is such an intense way to immerse yourself into a whole different world. I can see now, why so many people I know who dive absolutely love it-it’s quite addicting.

Hm, after the dive we had lunch-delicious…shrimp, crab, lunch meat platter, salad, salmon, potato salad mmm. After lunch I laid out in the sun for a while to kind of process everything…the views surrounding the boat were incredible-endless bright blue waters with no other boats around, at that moment there is nowhere else I wanted to be. I snorkeled a little more, did another dive and then we were carted back to the wharf. I got home to the hostel and showered and got ready for a night of absolutely nothing. I was so exhausted from going constantly that I decided to take a break, make a salad and head to bed.

This is when a little homesickness started to settle in-I’m about 5 weeks into the trip now and it is starting to feel like it. It is more of missing my comfort zone. I know I have preached about stepping out of your comfort zone continuously, but sometimes it is just so nice to see a familiar face or have a conversation with someone without explaining where you’re from, where you’re traveling, why you’re traveling blah blah. For all of you who know me pretty well, you know how much I love to be home and see friends and family, and this is definitely going to be the longest I will have gone without some Mark and Gina and Manlius in my life...I know this feeling is only natural and it was bound to happen-especially to me-but ugh, it is hard to snap out of it-so I popped a tylenol pm and passed out. 

Random Day: completely random and unplanned I rented a car with 2 girls from England and a guy from LA. The weather wasn’t that great so we figured we’d follow the sun up and down the coast. What an amazing spontaneous decision. I had nothing planned for Thursday so I was probably going to wallow and be homesick all day, so it was a blessing that I woke up and chatted with these people at my hostel and got in the car. Thankfully the girls from England could drive cause there was NO way I was going to try driving on the other side of the car on the other side of the road. We went up to Port Douglas, Palm Cove, and pulled over along the way to take in the views and snap photos. The weather wasn’t perfect, but the experience and company made up for it. 

Night…hmmm started off with some “goon” in the room with my roommates Mimi from London and Alyssa from Germany. We proceeded to go down to the lobby area of the hostel and play some trivia in hopes to win a $75 bar tab…no such luck. Considering none of us were from Australia, there was no way in hell we were going to be able to win-oh well…it was good fun and we met some New Zealanders (Clint and Tim) who helped us out. At the end we ended up getting 3^rd place out of 7 teams! Continuing with the night we ended up at Gilligans-a “night club” in Cairns. Absolutely hilarious, tons of people-mostly foreigners…it was a blast. Mimi and I lost Clint and Alyssa-turns out she had to go home-but we danced the night away on the platforms. I met loads of people from everywhere-Hong Kong, Scotland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, US, Australia-the list goes on. There is something about this little town. I labeled it as “spring break” like, but it is way cooler-instead of annoying US college students, it a group of people who all appreciate traveling. Yes, we’re all still in our 20s and like to party and go out and dance, but there’s nothing like hoping going across the globe to party with people from all over the world. So the club closed at 2, we got gyros and walked back to the hostel-epic night for sure. When I find Mimi on facebook I will be sure to grab some of her photos cause she was paparazzi-style snapping shots of us all night.

Hmmm…in case you haven’t noticed, I have been writing this blog post continuously over a few days-I’m starting to really think about my Thailand trip and I am really trying to fit in the Full Moon Party (google it!!) it looks absolutely fantastic and wild…it is a party on an island where close to 20,000 people go to watch the full moon rise and fall and basically djs and musicians play music all night and nobody sleeps…but I also want to get scuba certified…AH there are wayyy too many things I want to do and never enough time. Oh well, I will try and plan everything out as soon as I return back to Sydney.

Sidenote-I’m really really really looking forward to seeing Neekaleek in Israel-I know I will really be needing a familiar face when I get there!

Hm, I think that is enough for now…I just bbmed my parents telling them that after I return I think I will have to write a book about everything because my blog posts are close to 5,000 words each! My apologies!! So Ciao for now, and I will post an update on my Thailand plans as soon as they are solidified