God Bless Airbnb

Simply put, I love Airbnb. It makes most of my travel possible. I can't imagine being able to afford this trip if I needed to stay in hotels along the way.  Even when I find inexpensive ones they are waaaay too expensive for a long trip.  To make my dollar stretch further, I'm perfectly fine with staying in hostels, but I prefer them for short periods of time and if I'm trying to cover a lot of ground throughout my travels. I don't love them for longer stays or if I'm looking for a more settled feeling along the way. I also prefer them if I'm traveling with someone else. Depending on the hostel and the room options I don't feel as safe as in a hotel or an Airbnb when I'm alone.  Additionally, there have been lots of times when I'm walking through a popular area and I pass hostels and I thought to myself, "Oh thank God I don't need to be around loud 20-somethings who are just interested in getting hammered and hooking up." In those moments I've also yelled at the kids to get off my lawn, even if there was no lawn around - just for posterity's sake.

Usually when I use Airbnb I book out entire apartments. I like knowing that I can use the space as I desire with little regard for others while I'm there. If my suitcase seems to have exploded in the living room - so be it! If I want to make a sandwich in the kitchen in my underwear - it's happening! If I my bathing suit and towel hang in the bathroom for three days straight - no one else is there to care!  My intention when planning the first stage of this trip was to book an entire apartment so that I could have that type of autonomy and privacy, but as the Whitsundays is a tourist area I couldn't reasonably afford to do so.  I decided to take a little bit of a risk at a new experience and rent a room in a house instead of an entire apartment. I was nervous doing so because as is with anything arranged over the internet, I was at the mercy of past reviewers.  I sought out a room in a house with a woman who had overwhelmingly positive reviews from past visitors and that was in a safe neighborhood.  I was pleased to find Renee (and her husband Marc), the host for my stay. She (and Marc) and the stay have been great so far. 

I'm staying in a house in a cute little hamlet of a little less than 2,000 residents called Jubilee Pocket.  It is about a 30-40 minute walk from the center of Airlie Beach and is surrounded by Conway National Park, which I have been told is actually a rain forest. Airlie Beach is on the Coral Sea. While the reef is not considered part of the Great Barrier Reef, it's fairly close. Looking at the map below you can see that Cairns is north of the Whitsundays. Cairns is where everyone goes when they want to go see the Great Barrier Reef. 

When I booked my room in Jubilee Pocket it didn't seem like that big of a deal to be that far out from the main attractions in Airlie Beach; I was optimistic about getting at least an hour of walking in each day.  I thought it was be a good idea, particularly because of recovering from my back surgery two months ago.  Movement is good for me, but I don't need to be overdoing anything.  A nice leisurely stroll to the beach every day seemed great.

I took me right about 36 hours to get from my parents' house in New York to the house in Jubilee Pocket. I arrived on January 1 and was unexpectedly awake and feeling like I could tackle the day. I slept like a champ on the plane and it made all of the difference for having a good day 1. I knew that travel and the time change could catch up with me though, so I was cautiously optimistic and was going to be happy if I made it to 7 PM without a nap. After I was welcomed by Renee, I took a shower to clean up and then headed out into town.  I was excited to get the lay of the land for my next 10 days, but mostly I wanted to make sure I was up and moving for as long as possible before I crashed.

Oh, I also met Bruiser, my hosts' dog. She's a sweetheart who doesn't give two hoots about anyone unless you have food. Then, and only then, does she tolerate pets and attention.

I pictured the neighborhood as being much more rustic. The description in the Airbnb ad was a fair representation, but I had an image in my head of it being much more jungle-esque. I thought the walk into town would be on dirt/sandy paths, with tree canopy overhead, not through a neighborhood with sidewalks. It's fair to say the stay is close to nature, but it's not directly embedded into nature as I expected.  Because the neighborhood is surrounded by the forest there is almost constant chatter from all of the birds. It would be easy to imagine it as really annoying, but for me it's quite relaxing.  I don't even hear the birds while I'm sleeping - and trust me, they chatter all night and day. Check out this video that I recorded on my first walk:

And also this video from one night when I was about to go to sleep:

On my first day I came face to face with Australian summer real fast. LOL Walking 30-40 minutes is not a big deal, unless you do it in 86 degrees and 80% humidity. Fun fact: The Whitsundays are between the Topic of Capricorn and the Equator.  The suns rays are POTENT here.  Ninety-eight percent of all of the sunscreen available is SPF 50 because everyone needs that much protection.  I've been using it all day, every day since I've been here and I've still gotten pink in some spots.  Anyway, that first walk into town was a bit rough. I knew I was being dramatic but my self talk sounded a little something like, "I'm going to die. I can't stop walking. It's not an option. Stop being a wuss (censored for delicate readers). I can't die here. But I'm going to die." Once I got into the heart of the town, I immediately walked into a car rental place and investigated renting a car for the rest of my time here. Just as I was about to put my debit card into the salesman's hand I decided against it for two reasons: 1) It wasn't in my budget for this portion of the trip, and 2) There's a public bus.

I hadn't noticed the bus initially because I arrived on January 1, a national holiday in Australia.  The busses were running, but the schedule was limited.  I had completely forgotten that when I booked the Airbnb one of the selling points was the fact that there was affordable public transportation. I hightailed it out of the car rental place before I laid down a lot of money when it was unnecessary. I told myself that I'd try out the bus and see how it went. If it was awful I'd rent a car, but if it worked out, well, then I would use the bus.  I knocked around the town for the rest of the day visiting the beach front, the pharmacy, the grocery store, and basically got my bearings. Ultimately, I was just trying to keep myself busy until it was acceptable to go to sleep.  The good thing about traveling for such a long period of time is that there's no pressure to use every single minute of every single day. I know a lot of people can do that, but it is not sustainable for me. I need more of a balance than that. I'm ok with knowing that I saw what I could see and experienced what I could experience, even if that means that I don't see or experience everything I "should".

This is the very small beach front in central Airlie Beach.  I walked into the water a little bit and then noticed that most people were not in the water and it seemed strange to me. As I walked back up to the boardwalk, I noticed this sign (second picture).

I knew that swimming in the ocean in Australia was risky, but I'll admit I didn't get the degree of the risk.  I learned from locals that November to May is peak season for stingers and that the jellyfish are more prevalent near than coast than further out in the ocean.  I also learned that locals don't really swim in the ocean here, unless they go to one area that has nets to prevent the larger box jellyfish from swimming close to the shore.  That still doesn't prevent the super small, 1-cm version from sneaking through.   

So, instead of risking getting stung, I went to the man-made lagoon in the center of town to get some sun and to splash around a little. It's definitely not the same, but it's a pretty good alternative to not having a place to go swimming when you can look at the ocean constantly. I think it would kill me to be in the sun and heat and only be able to look at the ocean. 

The beginning of this sabbatical trip definitely feels more like vacation than anything else. Something that lends to that feeling is the fact that I haven't touched any work at all. LOL In due time... but I recognize that I can't spend like I'm on vacation so I'm focusing on finding that balance between taking advantage of seeing and experiencing things I may never have the opportunity to do again, and recognizing that I can't live an eight-month vacation. Part of that process is grocery shopping and cooking at "home".  Another benefit of staying so far out of the town is that it's not easy to get a meal real quick. It requires a bit more effort.  I suspect this will help me be a bit healthier too. I was really proud of myself for starting out making these tacos and eating at least two meals (breakfast and dinner or lunch) at "home" right off the bat.

That does it for me for now! Next time I'll post about my over-night experience at Paradise Cove. 

Happy New Year!

Happy new year, everyone! It's been quite a while since I posted on this blog and since I decided to spend the bulk of 2020 away from home I figured I'd revive it.  Similarly to when I've traveled in the past, I'm not promising anyone that I'll keep up with posting, but I'll try... at least for a little while. :) If you find yourself looking at some old posts, please give me a lot of grace while you do so.  I often posted from my phone and/ or while I was tired so typos and sentences that don't quite make sense are more common than is comfortable for me. I'm also entirely too lazy to go back and try to fix any of it.

This year new year's eve was an interesting one for me in that I didn't really have one.  I departed Buffalo, NY on December 30 and arrived in Brisbane, Australia on January 1.  At what point in my travels it was December 31 and for how long I really don't know.  I asked a flight attendant if she knew when we'd actually hit midnight and she didn't know, but told me she'd find out. I promptly fell asleep after asking her about it and never revisited the topic except for during landing when she told me she'd stop at the bottle shop on the way home so that she could have a champagne breakfast. I felt like if we met under different circumstances we'd be friends.

All in all my travel to Australia went smoothly, but traveling across the world really kicks your ass no matter how well it plays out. Honestly, worse than the long flight across the Pacific were the domestic flights.  It took me about 11 hours to get to LAX from Buffalo via Atlanta. Ooooof. I was quite lucky to have a nice couple with an 11-month old baby sit next to me.  Henry nursed through take off and then passed out in a milk coma for the majority of the flight.

My layover in Atlanta was mostly summed up by me inhaling Shake Shack too fast and then feeling nauseous for about two hours. Why won't we have one of those in Rochester?? It's so delicious!  The real excitement of being in Atlanta was me realizing that one of my favorite tennis players, Madison Keys, was on the same fight path as me to Brisbane. I discovered this by looking at her Instagram story, which made me feel a little bit like a stalker. I'll admit I got a little giddy realizing that this professional athlete that I've followed for years was going to be in the same space I was.  It felt serendipitous and like some kind of surreal stamp of approval for my trip by the universe, seeing as my main motivation for coming to Australia was to go to the Australian Open.  I tried to avoid being a total spazz and respect her space, but a friend of a friend who knows her encouraged me to say hi and ask her for a picture if I saw her.  I didn't think that I would because I assumed that she was hanging out in the first class lounge, but after coming back from the bathroom and moving my seat I turned at the exact right moment and saw her walking by.  I cringe because I know I sounded like the exact person I didn't want to be,"Hi Madison, I'm sorry to bother you but I just wanted to let you know I'm a big fan..." Vomit. Of course she was super nice and took a picture with me. I'm clearly cheesing in this picture. I'm going to have to work on that.

When I arrived at LAX and was staring down a 14-hour flight I took advantage of the opportunity to upgrade to an exit row seat. When the cabin doors closed my seat mate and I were lucky enough to have an empty middle seat between us. We were also practically ecstatic when the pilot informed us that our documented flight time of 14 hours and 10 minutes was downgraded to 12 hours and 45 minutes. Don't ask me how that happened. They didn't even say they were making that time up in the air. It was as if we had the wrong estimated flight time from the beginning.

I can't complain about the long flight because I actually slept through most of it, which really surprised me. It seems that the extra leg room really made a difference - well, that, a new travel pillow, and a sleeping pill. (Side note: I cannot recommend the Trtl Travel Pillow enough, particularly for a girl like me who has a long neck and for whom traditional travel pillows do nothing.  You can check out a review of it here. I agree with the reviewer's comments about the downsides being packability and the pillow cumbersome when trying to wear headphones, but something he didn't say was how amazingly soft the fleece is.  It helped keep me warm on the cold, cold plane ride.) The last time I had a major flight like that was when I flew to Hong Kong and I remember being awake much more than this time. I legitimately think I slept for about 8 or 9 hours out of the trip and mainly in two chunks of about 3 to 4 hours at a time.  Sleeping this well really helped me be more rested for a full first day as well as keeping me from being super irritable.

After I landed I had another few hours of a layover and then was off to Prosperpine, which took about 1.5 hours. I slept through most of that flight, but managed to wake up for the snack. Weird that I would do that, huh? LOL Two notes about Virgin Australia: 1) The service was excellent. 2) The food was not. The two meals on the flight over the Pacific were gross. They aligned well with the stereotype of airline food being disgusting.  When I flew to Air China a few years ago their food was quite yummy so I probably had unrealistic expectations.  Something that was pretty cool was that on the long flight Virgin Australia had a little compartment in the bulkhead where they left water, juice, muesli bars, and fruit so that if you woke up during the flight and needed a little sustenance you could just go up and grab it. I'd never seen that before. On my flight from Brisbane to Prosperpine they offered a snack of a muesli bar or chickpea salt and vinegar bites.  I took the salt and vinegar bites.  They were really interesting in that I didn't love them, but I can imagine slowly becoming addicted to them. They definitely grew on me the more I ate.  I don't know if this was a move motivated by improving healthy decision-making, but I was also offered water, coffee, tea, or juice on this flight. I desperately wanted a Coke, but it was $4! So I passed and had water instead. I was pretty proud of myself because throughout the entire trip I did a really good job of mainly drinking water.  I only had ginger ale on one flight because my stomach was feeling unsettled.

As always seems to happen, my plan was to write about my entire first day in Australia, but it's 7:42 PM and I'm finding it difficult to keep my eyes open.  Spoiler alert: I did a great job staying up yesterday and didn't go to sleep at all until about 8:30 PM. I slept through the night like a rock and woke up a 5:30 AM ready to go. Of course, I told myself to F off and made myself go back to sleep for a few hours. My stimulant for my narcolepsy helps me adjust to the time change much better than if I had to deal with the jet lag 100% naturally, but it still seems to be creeping up on me. Days 1 and 2 will have to wait until next time. G'night!

Argentinian Glacier

I've been back in the USA for just slightly over a month and feel like I still haven't actually caught my breath. As is always in the beginning of a new semester this one started fast right out of the gate. The Spring semester typically feels faster than the Fall, but in some regard I still can't believe we're only two weeks away from Spring Break. I've spent these past four weeks prepping my classes, planning senior theses with students, traveling to NYC for a long weekend of networking our sport management club, and starting to plan our end of the year banquet (yeah, already).

I've been meaning to post more pictures from my trip and cover some of the parts of the trip that I didn't get to do while abroad, but when I have a couple hours to relax all I want to do is sleep or zone out. So don't be surprised if every once in a while I end up posting random pictures from the South American Adventure in an odd order. It likely will have no logic behind it, except to say that it will likely be what I feel like I can handle in the moment.

When I first returned to the States and anxiously downloaded the photos from my camera something really weird happened.  I was stoked to see that some of the photos are just breathtaking and came out better than I ever imagined my little Cyber Shot could take.  But amongst some of the stunning photos are splotches - dark spots in the same exact location over and over. Now, I know that sounds like it was probably just a smudge of dirt or a raindrop on the lens, but what's weird about this is that the spots aren't in every photo. It occurs at seemingly random intervals - picture 3, picture 7, picture 8, picture 10, etc.  At first I thought a series of the pictures within the total set had the marks, but then I recognized the tainted photos weren't sequential.  The only way I can make any sense of that is maybe there was something on the lens that caught the sunlight at only certain times. I really don't know. In the previous paragraph I said that the content of my future posts will likely be related to what I feel like I can handle in the moment.  That's because I have to edit some of the photos to try to minimize those smudges.

Here are some more of the photos from the Argentina Glacier National Park.