Coming soon

After a long time with no wifi I thought I would post a quick update. I will be continuing to upload my G Adventures posts when I arrive in Darwin as I still need to sort out my photos for each post. 

Just got back into civilisation after 4 days in the outback and I loved it. Eve the remoteness off it all. It's been so nice to have been off the 'grid' for a bit. Everyone should do it. Met some great people and will be travelling down the east coast with them when the tour is over. Having too much fun to stop moving at the moment. 

Can't wait to share with you all the amazing things I have been doing. 

G Adventures - Day 3 19-09-14

Early wake up times are going to be a regular event on this trip it seems but I feel this is how we will be loading as much as possible into our days as possible. Falling asleep on the bus is becoming inevitable and now we are all getting up to mischief taking selfies of those that do fall asleep, I think this shows how well our group has bonded in such a short time.

G Adventures - Day 2 18-09-14

So day two of my G Adventures south to north tour yesterday was a long one. I will be honest I didn't really feel like updating after such a long day I was so tired all I wanted to do was sleep. We were all up early for breakfast first thing before loading ourselves back onto the bus to head to our first stop of the day which was London Bridge. The weather was unfortunately the same as the the afternoon before and really wet and windy and absolutely freezing. 

G Adventures - Day One 17-09-14

This morning I took off up the Great Ocean Road with my tour group from G Adventures. There is quite a mix of us in the group and different nationalities. We left Melbourne's high rises and bustle bright and early to make out way up to Bells Beach for our first stop of the day. Brett (our guide or CEO) told us all it is the beach where Point Break was filmed. For me it's probably the first proper beach I have stepped foot on for about 4 years with golden sand, crashing waves and surfers. 

Melbourne Instagram Diary

Melbourne - See You Soon

After a week in Melbourne I am on the move. I can't believe how quickly time has passed. I made some incredible friends in such a short time and everyone has been so warm and welcoming with so many great tale, I feel like I've known them for ages not just a few days (I'm looking at you two Lucy and Abby, looking forward to out reunion). It has been the perfect week to start my travels on.

Melbourne - Eureka Skydeck

I took myself to Eureka Skydeck 88 yesterday as I always love seeing cities from different perspective and I am a bit of a sucker for a good view. After Top of the Rock in NYC and The Shard in London Eureka seemed like an obvious choice and at $19.50 is more reasonably priced than The Shard and Top of the Rock.

Melbourne - Hamer Hall and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

On Friday night (12.09.14) my friend Hannah took me to Hamer hall to watch Melbourne symphony orchestra preform clasics by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. I met Hannah 5 years ago (we think) when on a trip to Rome so it was really good to reconnect and get to spend time with a local.

Melbourne - Settling in

So I have been In Australia 3 days so far and I am loving it. After getting over a bit of jet lag on day 2 and 3 I got the best night sleep last night and am feeling ready to take on my tour on Tuesday. 

At the time of writing this it is 10am and I have already woken up, been to the market for fresh vegetables and fruit, supermarket for basics and cooked a healthy breakfast (omelette with mushrooms and tomatoes, Yum) while catching up on social media and writing this post. Very productive.

I'm really enjoying cooking what I buy in the morning, the produce tastes so much better here than the UK I can't quite explain it. The locals are much friendlier too.

Melbourne, from what I am told, is going through a bit of a cold patch but is still stunningly beautiful. I have taken a couple of walks at night and while it is freezing it is so amazing to look at. So far I have walked most of the CBD and a little of Southbank and today we are going to find some of the lane ways for graffiti art.

Last night I went up the Eureka Skydeck which was on my Aussie bucket list, check one off, and then my friend Hannah took me to watch Melbourne Symphony Orchestra play at Hamer Hall. More on both of these soon. 

Touchdown - Melbourne, Australia

Landed in Melbourne this morning and so far I am feeling like I hit the ground running. After 2 long flights which I happened to luck out on and have nobody sitting by me on either (score!) I arrived this morning at 6am and feel like I have hit the ground running. 

I've already had a wander around and got my barings, been good shopping for the next few days and made 3 new friends in the hostel already. So far so good, even the hostel looks good and has a comfy feeling bed only downside is the lift is being renovated so we have to take the stairs up to our floor on 5. I figure this is my gym work out while I am here.

I'm feeling quite lucky because I don't think I have jet lag yet as it's mid afternoon and I still feel wide awake. We will see what the days have in store for me. Joining in some evening entertainment tonight and then tomorrow is a free pancake breakfast held by the hostel so we shall see what happens. 

See You Down Under!

So here I am, sat in Heathrow airport terminal 4 waiting to catch my flight. I'm a little emotional but I am ok. It was hard having so say goodbye to my parents, I feel a little like I may cry as I write this but then I remind myself I will look like a weirdo crying by myself in the middle of a huge airport.

I'm still not quite sure where the time has gone. It barely seems like yesterday I was sat in STA Nottingham planning and booking, now all of a sudden it's here.

I won't lie the last week has been hard. The goodbyes, the last minute bits to get, the stress it all made me really tired and yet I have been having completely disturbed sleep. Today though I woke up tired, I haven't felt stressed just a little sad to be leaving everything behind but that's what happens in life I suppose, we move to chapters new. Now I just want to get through the next 24hours of flying and transfers and get started and settled.

Thanks to everyone who sent me good luck messages, it has been a great support. See you all in Melbourne!

Follow My Adventure

"Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller"

 -Ibn Battuta

I know a lot of people reading this might be new to reading blogs so I thought I would give you a few ideas on the easiest ways to follow my adventures.

Instagram

 

Ok so Instagram comes first on the list because it happens to be my favourite form on social media. Pictures speak a thousand words and photography is a small passion of mine. My account @Japanesecherry is my my main account, I had opened a second but it is honestly a bit too much trying to run two accounts so I will be uploading all my adventures on my original account. Find a link to it in my sidebar or here

 Twitter

I have set up an official blog twitter (@ReluctantWlust) which will stay as an open profile. I still have my original twitter (@japanesecherry) but I am considering making that feed private so if you want my twitter updates or want to drop me a tweet to say hey follow me here. I'll share my blog posts, instagrams, other photos and tweets of what I am up to here. There is also a Widget in my sidebar to see my most recent tweets.

Bloglovin' 

Now this is probably the easiest way to follow any blog. Bloglovin for those who don't know is your one stop shop to follow all your favourite blogs. It puts all the posts in one feed by order of when they were posted once you have read the posts it will put them to the bottom of your feed until you have read everything. They have a handy app for iPhone and iPad too so you can keep up-to-date on the move. All you need to do is create and account and follow your favorite blogs. Find mine here or follow from the widget in my sidebar.

Pinterest

Follow Emily's board Blog: The Reluctant Wanderlust on Pinterest.

It's no secret to my close friends that I am obsessed with this site (even after 2 years) so I will be pinning each post to a blog specific board on Pinterest. To make it even more fun I have added a map to the board so I can tag where each post was written to each pin! This makes it just as much fun for me when I come back to read them that I have a world map tracking where I have been, double whammy! 

Google+

There is a link in the top of my sidebar if you use Google+ to add me to your circles. I'll be honest I am still pretty new to this one but all my posts will automatically share to google+ so if you have me in your circles you should be able to see them.

Email

Just type your email address into the 'Follow By Email' section in the sidebar and you should get my blog posts straight to your inbox.

         Or simply add my blog to your web explorer bookmarks and check back now and then. Do you use something different to follow your favourite blogs? If so let me know so I can look into it.

Less Than A Week To Go

"All glory comes from daring to begin"

I'm on the final days of my countdown till I go to Australia and I think the reality is starting to really sink in. I'm still really enthusiastic about my trip, don't get me wrong here, but the stress of time to sort things and get everything done before I go is becoming less and less and with it the stress becoming a little more.

I won't lie packing your life into a suitcase is hard. Especially when you are not really sure what you will and won't need all the time when you get there. I have to just remind myself that I can post home anything I do not need after the first few months. Add into it not just the fact that I will be travelling but looking for work while I am out there and having to take CV's and certificates with me add in all my normal paranoia (I'm naturally a fairly paranoid person) and I then start stressing myself out more. 

I know it will all be alright in the end, I just have to enjoy the journey with all it's ups and downs and remember not to get too stressed.

Instagrammers That Give Me Wanderlust

"You miss 100% of the shots you didn’t take."

- Wayne Gretzky

Instagram is definitely my favourite form of social media, whether is is because pictures speak a thousand words or that I don't notice so much negativity and moaning because the picture is used to draw you in to the comments, I love that this app has helped me develop my creative skills and get to know some fantastic people from all over the globe. (My feed is here)