'Stralya

Before I say anything about anything, I'm just going to say that I feel pretty fuggin lucky to be able to travel. I mean, consistent adventuring to the level that one can taste, see and go fast in half-a-dozen new countries per year. I consider myself even more lucky to have people to visit & travel with, because seeing new places and doing neat things wouldn't be worth much if there wasn't anyone to share it with. It also has the added bonus of keeping the ever-looming and crippling loneliness at bay. 

This trip was planned in a rather hastily manner since my two good pals Adam "Mangia" Petrini and Erin "NO YA GOTTA MANGIA" Schiffner. This charming pair had moved to Australia for the year to do a bit of supply teaching in a country somehow MORE pleasant and magical than the Canadian motherland. Yeah, tough luck eh?

EH?

Heh. They had told me to 'swing by' as their stay in Australia wasn't going to be a permanent one, so as hastily and impulsively as one possibly could, the flight was booked, the currency exchanged, and the dates set for a week in the land of poisonous everything and meat for every meal. Good hangs were compounded by another friend flying over from her studies abroad in Sydney, even if she was rude to the 'roos (learn your manners Avery).  

The single most memorable thing from the trip was the food, pour MANGIA. While Chinese food is pretty tasty, arriving in a Western country brought back the magic that I had forgotten about back home. Freshly baked bread, locally brewed beer, chocolate, deli meats, fresh oysters, doughnuts, cheese - Good god, the CHEESE. There were OCEANS of stomach-rumbling goodness to be found on every city block. If we ever enjoy a beverage of sorts this summer, I will have to tell you the full story of the charming cheese lady that sold me many servings of delicious feta cheese. 
 I sorely missed the satisfaction of enjoying a full deli sandwich, the thirst-quenching satisfaction of a Melbourne Bitter, or some Brazilian BBQ fresh from a food truck. And if you haven't enjoyed the wonders of a meat pie, you my friend, are depriving yourself of a complete experience. 

Good cafes are found on nearly every street corner, with a compliment of fresh baked goods & sandwiches out front. Iced coffee is quite the rage here too. It's too hot for the regular stuff, so they make it cold and serve it large containers, and it brings new life to a tired body that's already eaten 2 paninis, a litre of pesto, and a slice of peanut butter crunch cheesecake for lunch. However, the magical secrets of Australian cuisine lie in the cookie known as Tim Tams. Only the main type is available in Canada, but even that is enough to convert you into a believer of chocolate-coated wafer cookie sandwiches. If you want to make your life complete, you'll do yourself a favour and try a Tim Tam slam. It will open your mind to new perspectives and bring you to a new level of conciousness never thought possible. 

 While Melbourne is the first, and only (to date) Australian city I've visited, just a little wee taste of this place gives you a feel that it is an entirely unique and captivating country with a pretty decent bunch of people. My most common problem was walking on the wrong side of everything (considering they drive/walk/breathe on the opposite side), my constant Canadian mutterings of "Oup, sorry" were always met with "Nah, you're alrioght mate" or  "Ah, no wirries". Turns out that despite the constant hazards of being poisoned, eaten, or fried by the sun, the Aussies are a really chill, friendly and laid-back people. Almost like what I imagined if you took British tradition, Californian chill-levels, Canadian distances between everything, and the cattle grazing, sunny & dusty landscape of Texas and mixed them into one fantastic place. 
Like any big city, there's tons to see and do, especially if you've only got a week to see it all. I probably spent over $100 and a good chunk of my total daylight hours in museums. WARNING: BORING HISTORY AHEAD: The immigration museum goes over the surprisingly heavy dependence on newcomers that made Australia what it is today. The Museum of the Moving Picture had some fantastic exhibits on the history & technology of movies within Australia and internationally. 
Despite being a big city, the whole place was totally laid back and relaxed. A lot of stuff was on the expensive side, but you get what you pay for, and HO BOY do you get a decent time. 

On top of all this, the perfect weather and absence of winter preserves the metals that make up old cars to almost-museum level perfection. I was green with envy at some of the old motors that were still in use around town, this place is truly a gear-head promised land. 
 

Yep. The beach was pretty fantastic. What a fuggin city.

And then there's the 'roos. Avery and I found these medium-sized stinkers on the Moonlit Sanctuary about an hours drive outside of Melbourne. They're cute, they're quiet, they're gentle and furry and fantastic animals. The little guy in the top left corner is a wallaby, a little mini kangaroo. They're like rabbits and horses combined, and they're really nice.

That's it. There ya go. Go fuggin travel and see it for yourself because WHY NOT.  

Inter-Continental Conundrums: Malaysia

As people are aware, the sole purpose a liberating bonus of being a teacher is the handy vacation time. While my calendar doesn't quite match up with what you might remember from school in Canada, I had a a 9 day almost-into-the-summer spring break (it's 30 degrees here now, we don't really have a spring). I took advantage of my being-an-adult-I-do-what-I-want freedom to swoop down to the lovely countries of Malaysia and Australia and see what kind of trouble I could get myself into (and perhaps see a few friends in the process).

First Stop: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Land of a thousand Foods (I made that up, it probably has a national motto or something). Jade, an awesome lady from teacher's college who landed herself a job there.

It feels pretty good to be a grown up sometimes. and see your friends be grown ups and say to ourselves "We're grown ups, look at us", so we talked about grown up life for the past year before she sent me out with her scooter to explore the city while she did something that I forgot. I promptly found that Kuala Lumpur's roadworks would have been more organized and logical if the infrastructural blueprints were a plate of spaghetti. I'm talking about roads that turn into highways, highways that turn into roads, special motorcycle lanes that separate from the highway and only sometimes rejoin it, roads that block other roads and require you to take fourteen u-turns just to get back on the street you were on, while struggling to follow the Malaysian roadsigns to get you back.

 After postponing the plans of the entire group, I flagged down a food delivery-person on his way back from a drop-off who guided me back to where I needed to be. Things went from stressfully disastrous to pretty decent once I got to hang out with some awesome people in the process, all Canadians (thank GOD) to show me what a night out in KL looks like.

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The Batu Caves are a place. That's right, a place. I forget the details but here's some pictures to fill up the spaces where words should be. 

Because Malaysia is an intensely multicultural country, it's got an arsenal of fresh, locally-made foods that come from most other places in Asia (and some places outside of it). If you like to eat, get your keister down to Malaysia, just don't melt in the sun or get lost on your way there.