In a nutshell, over that last three months, I’ve traveled from the North Island to the South Island in New Zealand, spent a rainy week in Fiji, did a whirlwind 5 city tour of Australia, went to Singapore and chilled, did a 2-week GAP tour of Egypt, a 1-week land & 1-week cruise of Greece and Turkey with Cosmos Tours, and now I am currently on a 2-week Cosmos tour of the Balkans: Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. I am in Bucharest and going onto Brasov tomorrow.
New Zealand was fantastic, and reminded me so much of Canada. I spent more time than I expected there but it was worth it. I did many activities such as sky diving, ice climbing and sand boarding. I am actually planning on going back in December to finish the bottom part of the South Island and go bungee jumping. I met so many cool people in New Zealand, and that definitely made my experience that much better.
Fiji was unexpected as it rained the entire week I was there, but the good news is that I went scuba diving three times! It was awesome and I am definitely getting my PADI certification. Plus there were some totally fun people that I met on the islands and on the Wana Taki boat who helped made the rain-filled days nicer.
Australia was more of a city tour than anything as I basically visited the private clubs in Hobart, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. I am planning on going back in November and traveling down the East coast and go surfing and scuba diving. Australia was definitely different from New Zealand, and the environment is much harsher and more extreme. I’m looking forward to going back and do some exploring, especially the contrast of the Great Barrier Reef and the Outbacks. I didn’t meet as many people in Australia as I did in New Zealand as I was doing the business thing, but the ones I did met were très cool.
Good old Singapore. I always love going back to see my lovely grandmother and all my relatives plus can’t forget the delicious cuisine. I spent a quick 3 days there just to recharge and see everyone, plus I managed to fit in 3 different potential clubs. I’ve made Singapore a kind of a base where I repacked and reevaluated what to bring, since I will be going back at least twice more.
Egypt was the first country where I experienced culture shock. I thought I was used to different cultures, after living in Singapore and Vancouver, both are pretty multicultural cities, but Egypt threw me for a loop. First of all, it was more Middle Eastern than I had expected. I didn’t realize that Egypt is more closely linked to the Middle East now than to Africa. Secondly, the Egyptian culture has pretty much been wiped out over the years by all the conquering nations, so the "Egyptian" culture I was expecting is no longer that evident. The two weeks I spent in Egypt was very educational and eye-opening. I definitely wasn’t as relaxed or happy-go-lucky as I was in New Zealand or Australia. But even though I did not have as much fun, it was still fun. I was glad that our GAP tour group was small, only 7 people and we all got along relatively well, which was crucial in a tour group. More details about Egypt on the next write up.
And now where am I? Well, I’m in the middle of 3 straight Cosmos tours of Eastern Europe. I just finished Greece and Turkey, now I’m doing Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania with a stopover in Serbia. I’m off to Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia next week. Let me just say that Eastern Europe is so cool and fun and definitely becoming more westernized (whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is up for debate). So stay tuned for the next write up, hopefully it’ll be sooner than three months! J
Lots of hugs!
xoxoxo