Trains and Planes and Automobiles....

My Grandfather 'Vati' and I

I made it! I made it to Switzerland after oh... about 40 hours of traveling. I arrived last Monday and met my mom at the Airport, who had flown in from the States that morning as well. It was actually perfect timing. I was 2 hours late and she was 30 mins early so we arrived within 10 minutes of each other. I deliriously disembarked the plane and wondered down the escalator and saw a women at the bottom who looked quite alot like my very own mom. Not wanting to make a total fool of myself, and feeling even more blind then I normally am, I squinted my eyes and stared but was not about to wave at someone who might not be my mom. She was staring right at me and not waving... so it probably was not her. But it was, I only was sure, when I was about 10 feet away... a sign I really need to see the eye doctor!

I have to say it was quite an adjustment all around. When I left Cairns it was 36° and when I stepped outside in Bern it was snowing! As beautiful as it was, my body has completely vetoed the change in temp and it is not happy! I have unfortunately been sick since then. I am just glad my body waited until now, since I have my own bed and coach to lounge on... its the perfect place to the be under the weather.


Other then reading, playing solitare and doing puzzles, I have been hanging out lots with my family which has been great. My 94 year old grandparents are inspirational. They are in incredible shape for there age... although my grandfather likes to tell me he is ' old man river'! It always brings back such great memories of my childhood when I am here with them.

I have 2 more weeks here, and plan on heading to the mountians to do some hiking and skiing... which I can not wait for!


Whitehaven Beach... one of my last adventures in Oz


A dreary wet day in Bern

Hanging out with my Cousins cuties!

Can you tell by the mud what a good time we had on our walk?!?


The mountains... view from my uncle's house

So there is a brief view into my lazy time here in Switzerland. I will try to update when I take some more interesting pictures.

View from the shores of Airlie Beach

Hello mates!
Well the land down under has been treating us well and sure has lots to show! We have been moving constantly for the last 3 weeks and I won't lie I am getting a little tired. Which is ok because today Amy and I are boarding a sail boat for 3 days of sailing in the Whitsunday Islands. Airlie beach where we are and the boats leave, is a super cute little town. The water is crystal clear and very calm contrary to where we have been further south. The weather has been quite crazy, producing lots of rain, big swells, rip tides and lots of flooding up north( which is somewhat welcomed as they were in a drought). Some of the areas we saw where not as beautiful as they normally are due to all the wind and rain. The water was more of a brown color. We were still excited to see it all!

I was finally able to upload some pictures from the last 2 weeks, so I wanted to share a few with you.

Gold Coast somewhere... see the nasty seas behind me!

@ Australia Zoo- home of the Crocodile Hunter. That is a Koala in the tree, they are ever so cute!

Maybe my new favorite animal, the Kangaroo! At Australia Zoo you can walk around and there are Kangaroos bouncing all around or in this case being lazy.

About to go Surfing in Coolum... I have to say I might be the new master of surfing on ones knees! Its pretty stylish!

Lake Mackenzie on Fraser Island( the largest sand Island in the world)... pretty amazing place. This lake is in the middle of the Island and is completely freshwater and has some of the finest sand in the world. They say it is great to clean jewelry and also makes your skin and hair very soft and it great for wrinkles.. maybe a fountain of youth?

A dingo on Fraser Island. He came right over to the bus!

The view of Lady Musgrave Island ( you like the sideways shot!)

Lady Musgrave Island. This is the southern most point of the Great Barrier Reef.

Time to board the boat! Talk to you all soon!

Cheers,

Sanna

Aussie update

Hello!
I just got in from a morning surf. The water was nice and warm, but a tad dirty from all the rain they have had here on the Sunshine Coast. Amy and I have been traveling with her friend Lisa, who lives here, for the last week. It has been so nice having our own personal tour guide! We departed Sydney last Sunday via night bus which wasn't too bad and saved us a night on a hostel. Byron Bay was nice, but is super trendy these days. Our first hostel made us all feel like we were in High school again, our dorm room was filled with 10 other LOUD rowdy youngins! So we moved over to another hostel, The Belongil Beach house. This was recommended to me by Jim! and might I say it was a great recommendation!

Lisa has shown us tons of small towns along the way up the coast. We stayed in Palm Beach which is in between Tweed Heads and Surfers Paradise with some other friends for a few nights, before heading to Coolum which is on the Sunshine Coast. We are currently staying with Bill and Jill. They are Lisa's boyfriends parents, and they are awesome and so welcoming! It is so nice to be in a house and have space to spread out and not worry about who might be getting into our bags, other then the dogs! We have visited some markets, gone hiking, visited more casino's and played more 'Pookies'( thats what they call slots machines here) oh and I won another $40! and been surfing! All in all its been a great vacation.

We will be here a few more days and get some more surfing in before heading up to Fraser Island, then to 1770 to see Lady Musgrave Island and do some diving and snorkling in the reefs. Our last stops will be the Whitsundays and then Cairns. Can't believe that there are only 2 weeks left! Then its off to the cooler climates of the Alps! Man will I be in shock!

Sorry for the breif update! Its quite hard to get online here and well we have been super busy trying to fits so much in, in one month! I will try to upload some pictures in the near future.

Hope everyone is well. Cyclists at home I can hardly wait to get back on my bikes! Its torture to see so many people out for road rides here! So get ready! I cant wait to see you all.... now go ride your bikes for me and I will go for a surf for you!

Hello from the land down under

12 Apostles

Yes the toilets really do flush the other way! If you are like me, you have been dying to see this for yourself! So I happy to report that myth is TRUE!

I arrived last weekend in Melbourne, where I met up with my pal, Amy from High School. Arriving in the airport I almost felt like I was back home. It has been strange going from countries like Thailand and China that have so many differences to one that is rather similar to the States.

Amy and I at Apollo Bay
Upon arrival I took the bus into town and was dropped at the Southern Cross station and was told my hostel was a short walk down the road. I love to walk, so I thought why not. Well thank god it was down hill, because the temperature was a balmy 85 degrees at 11pm! So by the time I schlepped all my stuff to the hostel I was dripping, which was exactly the impression I wanted to leave on the very cute Aussie behind the counter at the hostel. Leave it to me to charming.
Urban Central turned out to be a great modern hostel with everything we needed!
An overlook on the Great Ocean Road

Ferns in the temperate rainforest

On Sunday Amy arrived and we got our barrings and made a general plan for our adventures. The rest of our time in Melbourne included, lots of walking and soaking up the sun and warm temps ( most so for Amy.. I am almost cold here sometimes!) Great dinners at places like the chocolate Buddha, short and lucrative visits to the Casino ( I won $48 on the slots machines!) a walk to Port Melbourne and most memorable a trip down the Great Ocean Road including a helicopter ride over the 12 apostles!
Sydney Opera House

We departed from Melbourne via bus last night, destination Sydney. Well 14 hours later we arrived in Sydney. Not the speediest way, but definitely cheap. Trust me there were moments I was questioning whether I would ever do this again. There were some great personalities on board, like the couple in front of me that hadn't bathed in a few days and reeked of nicotine... they we pretty awesome, or the guy who decided it would be cool to play the music on his phone for the whole bus to hear, also equally charming and wonderful at 2 am in the morning when you really want to sleep. Oh the experiences we are having. In the end we made it to Sydney and are loving it. We have already visited the harbour and did a speed boat tour which was a thrill. Our plan it to stay here until Sunday, but due to slight complication ( I left my passports, travelers checks and plane tickets in Melbourne) we may have a to stay a few more if the fed ex package doesn't arrive tomorrow. Oh the joys of traveling :)

Hope everyone is well!
Cheers,
S

Happy New Year

Cartwheels on the Beach!

Hope everyone had a great New Years! Mine was amazing. You know how people always hype up New Years and then it never seems to be that great, well I am happy to report that mine was quite fun! I decided to stay in Khoa Lak for the celebrations and to hangout with my pals just a few days longer. My friend from back home, Jonathan, arrived in Khoa Lak on Saturday, so he was able to partake in the celebrations as well.

Look its proof that Jonathan is here! (we were hiking in Khao Lak National Park)

Here is a quick recap of my last week!Wednesday the 26th, was the 3rd anniversary of the Tsunami. As I have written already I meet a wonderful women, Dee, who is a tsunami survivor. She is such a strong and positive person, it is joy to be around her. I went with her to several ceremonies and we even ventured out into the sea to place a wreathe, in honor of her boyfriend, and his parents who were all killed in the Tsunami, on a large rock near the coast. There were many frogs on these rocks.... I don't like frogs and they were jumping all over, so its a miracle I didn't abort the mission of finding the perfect place for the wreathe. We also attended a candle light vigil lead by a group of monks. It was a beautiful procession down to the beach where candles were placed along the beach. We then also lit lanterns in honor of Tom, Carole, and Colin. This is a Thai tradition and is absolutely beautiful! At one of the larger ceremonies they let off 5,000 lanterns into the night sky! Really an amazing sight, one that leaves you with goose bumps.

Letting a lantern fly away

Candle Light Vigil on the Beach
My last few days were filled with lots of time with friends and playing. I meet some other great volunteers too! There is Rene, who is originally from South Africa, but has been living in Australia for the last 10 years or so. Then there is the adorable Marc, my lovely Spanish friend. He is on month 2 of a year of traveling. I am hoping to meet up with him at some point somewhere. Marc has the best accent, especially when saying words like 'sheet' and 'beach'!

Dee and I- one of my last nights in Khao Lak

One of my favorite drink combos... Singha and Sprite ( usually they bring you a glass)

Marc introduced us all to a Spanish New years tradition, one I think I will keep. The last 12 seconds of the year you have to put one grape in your mouth each second. Since all the grapes in Thailand have seeds, we all prepared ours and had them lined up and ready to go. Funny thing is we somehow missed the first 4 seconds of the countdown and were forced to just shove half the grapes in at once! It was hilarious!

Marc with 12 grapes in his mouth!

Me, Rene, Marc, and Dee... New Years Eve
I spent my last few days on the beach, visiting the Khoa Lak National Park and just having a pretty amazing time with some amazing people. Wish you all could have been there too! I Have been a bit sleep deprived the last week... there just really has been no time to sleep. On New Years Day, I flew up to Bangkok on about 3 hours of sleep and well there has been lots to see here, so sleeping hasn't made too high on the priority list.

Jonathan, Me and Marc on New Years

Bangkok is a big big, somewhat dirty city. It does have some charm though. I have discovered KhoaSan road and well pretty much love it. It is the backpackers haven in the city, so I fit right in. I have found that I like the smaller, little sister of Khaosan, called Rambutri Rd. I thought my hotel was going to be in this area... and well its not, its in Chinatown,(I feel like I am in Hong Kong again)

Jonathan arrived the morning after I did, so we have been sightseeing and walking around the city. Both Jonathan and I need feet massages after the miles and miles we have walked in the last few days.

Coconut milk out of the coconut is so much better!

Riding in a tuk tuk in Bangkok with Jonathan

Tomorrow morning ( 4:30 am to be precise) I head off to the airport to fly to Melbourne! I am getting pretty excited to see my pal, Amy and to be in a country where they speak English and don't just look at you like you have 2 heads. My Thai ( that is the 20 words I know) is getting better, but still I need to try harder as I am a visitor in their country!

Can't believe how fast time is flying by. The last two weeks are a big blur and I feel like my head is spinning. Thanks to everyone for all the Christmas emails ( EX2 folks... the card made my day!!!) calls, etc. I have not been great about responding, but know I think about you all often! While there are countless other stories I could tell.... I need to go pack, so you will just have to wait until I get home! Miss you all and Happy New Year!