I'M MOVING TO ANOTHER COUNTRY!?!

Hey Everyone,
It has been about 6 months since my last post so, long time no see. 
As you may have guessed by my title I AM MOVING!!! If you didn't know I am from Australia and for the next year I will be living in the Netherlands!

I have mentioned before that some things have been in the planning and this is it. I applied for a few scholarships over the past year to study overseas as an exchange student.
I won a scholarship!!
It has been a dream of mine since I was little and planning since I was about 11.
So I have 7 days until my adventure begins and I am so excitied!!! I am not going with any family or friends and only found out yesterday who with and where in this country I will be staying and it is all so amazing. I cannot find the words to describe my excitement and current feelings. 

One of the reasons I started this blog was to document my journey for myself to look back on in the future, share stories with friends and family of my experiences, give an example of life as an exchange student for those who are planning to go on an exchange or for well, anyone who is interested :) 

So I suppose the next post I make will have been typed in another country... Wow.

Are there any particular things you guys want me to write about?  I'm just curious. I have a few planned so far.Don't forget to follow on Instagram, pinterest and Bloglovin'I hope you have a wonderful day/night..TTFNMads xx

Sydney Stay Before Christmas

I said in my last post I would write a separate post for the time I spent in Sydney just so they are shorter to read. So here it is!

While in New South Wales, just before Christmas we went down to Sydney for a few days. It was great :) 

We went down on the train, I don't mind this train ride because you can see such a contrast in landscapes, wind your way through the hills and see some little towns on the way through. We were only in Sydney for two nights because accommodation is so expensive; I think sydney is designed for couples because you can find a room for two easily enough and it can be reasonably priced, but we had the four of us and that made cheap accommodation hard to find. Especially because it is so close to Christmas. Our room was great though, directly across from the bridge into Darling Harbour. It was also about the third level from the top floor, so we had an awesome view.

 

 Our time in Sydney consisted of showing our friend around Sydney, including Darling Harbour, Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, The Rocks, Paddy's Markets, King Street, Queen Victoria Building and we also went to Sky Zone which is a trampoline and rock climbing place.  We were planning on going to Bondi but unfortunately the weather was bad, it was cold, wet and windy. Unfortunately we arrived a day or two after Little Sea's Concert.

Darling Harbour

The first day we got lunch at Darling Harbour and there was this pesky seagull, like you find at any sea side location that sells food. He had this look in his eye like not getting food was not an option.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

we took a ferry from Darling Harbour to Circular quay, I think it is one of the best was to see the harbour and isn't too expensive.

Queen Vic Building

I adore the Queen Vic Building, the old architecture, the detail, the clock, cafe's and little boutiques. As it was nearly Christmas, it was also decorated with lights and of course the Christmas Tree, this years theme the Swarovski Crystals. It was so beautiful.

Last time we were in sydney my parents wanted to surprise me by visiting Zumbo's cafe in Rozelle, we took a bus out, got off near by and ended up walking for centuries to try and find it, we eventually did...  We found the one in Balmain. We could never figure out what happened and why we walked sooooooooo far, so this time it seemed only right to actually go to the Zumbo Cafe in Rozelle. WE FOUND IT! It turns out last time we must have been a street over and walked straight past it all the was up and down hills o the smaller shop in Balmain... So anyway it was great, we got a hot pie ( which I didn't know was available) when we got there becasue it was cold and raining and we did still have a shortish walk from the bus stop. For dessert we got these tarts to share, aren't they pretty?!? Of course we had to get a macaroon also, so we got two to go.

We had an amazing dinner at Brazza, a Brazilian churrascaria restaurant grill barbecue house. Last time we were in Sydney we went to Churrasco, it was amazing so this time when my brother came to see us while we were there we took him to Brazza, the one at Darling Harbour because it was closer to where we were staying. For those who don't know this place is an all you can eat Brazilian barbecue buffet, where you don't even need to get up! They literally walk around with all of the food, particularly meat, ask you if you want any, if you do they give you how ever much you would like and if not they leave. Amazing. 
There was a difference at this restaurant though, here, later on in the night the atmosphere was good, it was loud, people talking, we were almost full, and then all of a sudden these drums started going off and these Brazilian Drummers and Dancers came out for a while.  

I do warn you if you are vegan or vegetarian, I believe they do have some food options available but it is a barbecue, sooooo... Just a warning. I am obviously neither vegetarian or vegan because I love this place.

On the way home from this restaurant on the last night we were walking through Darling Harbour and came across this play area for kids, it had a playground and this water feature thing, where you can change the way the water goes and block the water paths and thing, the picture below is what I am talking about.

Anyway,  we were like omg, this is so cool, lets go play with it. So we did and it was great at first... Then my mum slipped. Luckily she managed to stay out of the water, which is good because it was cold, but she was trapped on one of the little islands so my dad and I had to help her out of it. My dad thought it was broken. Which my mum refused to believe. In the end he convinced here to go to the hospital to get it checked out, the doctors also thought it was broken because she is really tough but was in so much pain. Turns out she tore some ligaments I think and no brakes. She was on crutches for two to three weeks and when at home doesn't need them so yay :)  Almost completely better.

We got back to Newcastle and stayed the rest of the trip with our family, I talked about a few things we did while there in my last post :)

Are there any particular things you guys want me to write about?  I'm just curious.I have a few planned so far.

Don't forget to follow on Instagram, pinterest and Bloglovin'

I hope you have a wonderful day/night..

TTFN

Mads xx

A Christmas Holiday to NSW

So much has happened in the past month, Christmas, New Years and... My brother got engaged! Congradulations brother, good on you. All while this has been going on we were in NSW.
 If you follow me on Instagram, you will see I have been away for the past couple of weeks , that is where we have been, and if you don't follow me on Insta you should (you can find the link to my page just under the blog header or here).

Anyway, it all started about a week before Christmas...
The day we headed to the airport, we decided to take a friend to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary just outside of brisbane. If you have been here, let me know what you think about it in the comments. If you don know, it is a small koala sanctuary which also houses many other Australian animals such as: the platypus, wombats, kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, birds of all kinds, echidnas, snakes and cassowaries... it is a lovely place, all the animals seem well looked after and were really active when we visited. Well, a koala can only be so active. The sanctuary also offers tours and you are able to take a pictures holding a koala. This place is were many celebrities such as Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift have been to hold a koala while in Australia. If you didn't know, you can only hold a koala in the state of Queensland.

Tasmanian Devil, can you spot him?

They must have known I was coming

Do you know what a cassowary is?
They are viscious and I suggest you
avoid one as much as possible.
I AM NOT JOKING!

Hello Mr Koala

After the sanctuary we decided to have lunch/afternoon tea at South bank and while we where there went on The Wheel of Brisbane. Lovely panoramic views, we were only expecting to go around like twice but it just kept going round. In the end I think we went around about 8 times, maybe.

We headed to the airport after this to catch a plane to Newcastle, NSW. In Newcastle we stayed with some family, which was lovely. So While in New South Wales, just before Christmas we went down to Sydney for a few days. It was great :) I have decided to put the Sydney stay in a different post, just to shorten each a little other wise you may get sick of reading. so That is what is happening.

We got back to Newcastle and stayed the rest of the trip with our family. We had a realxed Christmas, nothing too fancy because I already got my Christmas present. Over the rest of the holiday we did many things such as:

Walk along the Anzac Memorial Bridge. This beautiful walk was covered with information about the wars and people from the towm who went to war. It had lovely 360 degree views over the ocean, beaches and town, as seen below.

We went kayaking a few times in some of the many rivers in the area. This was the first time I had ever been kayaking and I think I have found a favourite activity. I also learnt in this time I realy need to do some arm workouts becasue apparently I have zero muscle.
On New years eve we had a barbecue and then went to watch the fireworks, which were beautiful, and had a beach day at Fingal Bay on New Years. The days we were able to o these things, were the only few real summer days we had while we were away. By real summer I mean the sun was out, skies clear and didn't need a light jacket, in other words the best days. After the beach on New years day we went to Nelsons Bay for lucnh and then a gorgeous lookout.

We visited the vineyards, cheese factories and chocolate factories in the Hinter Valley, which was great. I love going out there, even just for the views. I of course bought so much good chocolate from the factories, in particular this dark chocolate bar with bits of home made honeycomb in it. Yum. I think my favourite place was probably the Audrey Wilkinson Winery because it was just so beautiful. It is a the top of a hill, in a gorgeous building surrounded by the most beautiful scenery. It even has a helicopter pad and you can hold weddings there. 

The night before we left my Dad, Cousin, Uncle and I drove into Sydney one last time to watch the Liverpool and Australian legends match, it was lots of fun and Liverpool won, WOOHOO! It was a good game, good night, great atmosphere, bad chips and an overall good time. I love events like this, when everyone gets involved, like concerts or other sporting events. 

So This is mostly what we got up to while away, all lovely ways to enjoy northern NSW. Other than that we went shopping, stayed at home, spent time with the family visited a small small towns, spent time at home in the pool and ate.

Are there any particular things you guys want me to write about?  I'm just curious,I have a few planned so far.

Don't forget to follow on Instagram, pinterest and Bloglovin'

I hope you have a wonderful day/night..

TTFN

Mads xx

Exploring Uluru

G'day All, I'm Back from my little trip! Well, I have actually been back for a week but have had so much stuff to catch up on because I was away. I think that's all over now though, luckily... So if you follow me on Instagram, read the title or looked at the picture above you would know I recently visited Uluru (aka Airs Rock) in central Australia.
I had a great time with my dad and some friends. We actually went with a friend from overseas and I don't think he knew how big Uluru is... We told him we were going to see a rock and was like "Okay..." you could sort of tell he was thinking like 'A rock? Seriously? There is heaps of those here'.

First we went to Alice Springs, a town about 4 hours away from Uluru I think, we met some friends there and visited a few places like Simpsons Gap and the Desert Park.

There were these gorgeous little flowers all over the Desert Park

But I wanted to go swimming in the gravel @Simpsons Gap

Its okay, we found some water

 The first day I was a little worried it was going to be hot. I only took one pair of shorts and they didn't exactly match all my tops. The next day on the way to the rock it was cold again, so it was good I took something a bit warmer, by the time we got there it was quite late in the afternoon and we could have gone to the sunset viewing are but I don't think anyone could be bothered; so we just unpacked and made some spag bol for dinner. 

The First Sight

The following morning was the perfect weather, it was actually amazing. Sunny skies, slight cool wind, about a 27 degree Celsius day. Lovely. So we drove to Airs Rock and I think what could have been a 5 minute trip took like 30 minutes. Not because we were driving excessively slowly but because the roads are like all over the place, you think you're heading straight to the rock and then you end up driving away. Then you think you're going to end up arriving at the left side but take a turn and drive all the way to the left. I just don't get it...  All of the roads in this area were like this. 

by the time we got there, it was mid-morning. The place was packed, there were so many people and that's when I noticed... The gate to climb it was open. OPEN. So obviously we had to do it, while reading the info signs about the climb and stuff, I saw the major thing saying 'People have been seriously injured or died attempting this walk, know it is at your own risk' or something similar. The great idea suddenly shrank to something a little bit worrying, how many people have actually read this because there were young kids climbing it... Oh well, I will just stay where I am comfortable, I told myself. About 30m up after a few slips due to lack of grip on my shoes and unexpectedly steep slopes, I decided I would cling to some rock which comes up to your chest; sort of acting like a hand rail. Turns out I am not a fan of heights when I don't have anything like a harness on. Give me a harness, anchor and rope and I'm usually pretty good. I can assure you I am never going pro as a free climber. The others continued a little but also didn't get to the chain, which takes you to the top. 

   




Once we reached the safe ground again we went for a walk around the base which was lovely. There were free guided tours but we missed them, so that was unfortunate. We then drove around to the fa side of the rock at a sunrise viewing are; I thought it was great there because you can get the Olgas and Uluru in one Photo. Again, even the walkway was unnecessarily long. 

Afterwards we drove to the Olgas viewing point, we pre made lunch and just ate it here. I warn you there are flies. Unfortunately we didn't walk around the Olgas because we needed more time but everyone we spoke to said it was fantastic.

We went to the sunset viewing area, along with about 100 other people, sat out some chairs and ate some chips. It was absolutely beautiful.  I was planning to take a photo from the same spot every 10 minutes but my phone died so this is the result.

The next day we drove back to Alice Springs and it started raining, our friend was so surprised the desert was cold and we; good timing I guess. We left from Alice a day later. 

It was a great little trip and totally suggest if you get the chance to visit Uluru (aka Airs Rock) 

I am thinking about showing you my Maybelline Priceline sale haul, anyone interested?

Are there any particular things you guys want me to write about?  I'm just curious.

I hope you enjoyed and have a wonderful day/night.

TTFN

Mads xx

5 SECONDS OF SUMMER

Hello Everybody,
How are you all goin'? Yes, I am back!!!
So if you follow me on Instagram, you would notice I didn't post that much over the past week, sorry about that, I was planning too. I didn't even say where I was because I thought I mentioned that in my last post (I didn't and am sorry, you may have been a bit confused...). Anyway, I was in Brisbane to visit a friend and see 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER and STATE CHAMPS!!!

It was an amazing show and great holiday, so obviously this post is going to be about the trip.

So I flew down in the early morning of Thursday  to Brisbane and from there went straight to the Gold Coast, that day we didn't do much, walked around and explored. The next day we went to Movie World, we went on almost every ride except the huge Green Lantern and Batman rides because they were closed that day. When we were about to go on the superman, literally next in line (After waiting over half an hour) there was a "technical difficulty" so it was closed, it was so frustrating. The people that were on it before were okay though, so it was all good.
Did another loop of the rides and eventually came back and it was working so we lined up again, we got to actually go on this time. My goodness, it was so fun and scary and every other word you can use to describe a roller coaster. I'm glad I ended up going on it.
Besides the Superman ride, most lines were short and we were almost able to walk strait or not wait very long.

The day after we went to Bounce, I think I mentioned this place in another post. It is a huge building just filled with trampolines and giant pillows and cool things so you can do tricks. It is heaps of fun, even if you like me and the best trick you can do is jump high and then land on the tramp sitting down, then jump back up. It doesn't matter your skill level, I totally recommend going. We went shopping after this because you pay by the hour.

We went to Time Zone, an arcade, one of the days and it is so much fun. You pay your choice of money for as card which gives you points and keeps your tickets. some games you can play as much as you want and others there is a limit. You can also get access to Laser Skirmish, Dodgem Cars, Mini Golf, Simulators, etc. Then at the end you count you tickets and trade it in for some prizes, I got a small basketball, a world stress ball and a marble. After this we went to Infinite, I sort of maze thing, I don't really know how to describe it. You go through a set of themed rooms and have to find the door, there are no normal lights if there are lights at all, do not go in if you a claustrophobic or scared of the dark. its heaps of fun though. To finish the day we walked around, looked at some shops and walked past the beach (It was far too cold to go for a swim though)

One night we decided to go to a drive in movie, so much fun. It was freezing though and we spilt lollies through the car...

We got to Brisbane for the concert a few days earlier, explored/walked around and went through the shopping centre. Though, surprising me too, I bought a shirt, a few souvenirs and food throughout the whole trip. Go me :)

The night of the concert we were so excited, for both 5 Seconds of Summer and State Champs, when I heard they were the opening act I was so happy. Go 5sos, good choice. They both bands played amazingly, it was the most AMAZING night ever. Before the concert the crowd started a Mexican Wave, so that was pretty cool.  They played their new song 'Permanent Vacation'; I am so excited for their new album, which they said was coming out this year. This was the loudest crowd I have ever heard, when they said it was their last song, I couldn't even hear my own thoughts and during the encore it became even louder and by far was the best part of the entire show. It was truly fantastic.

However, my phones camera decided to pack it in, it still takes photos but the quality is now terrible, it is really old now though so it was bound to happen sooner or later. So, I ended up taking my old digital camera, which didn't have the best quality either, but hey, it was better than my phone. When I used I think it took people a while to figure out what it was because who uses a little digital camera anymore. Oh well, I still use him, especially when camping.

                             

 

So overall it was a great time, I hope you enjoyed this post.

If you like 5 Seconds of Summer or State Champs or have been to one of their concerts let me know what you thought in the comments :) 

Once again check out my Instagram and Pinterest, I think 10 of you have found me on both, which is great. Also there are 235 of you amazing people on Bloglovin' which is AMAZING, 

THANK YOU!!!

Have a fantastic day/night

TTFN 

Mads =)