{ Angel's Landing }

I crossed something big off my Bucket List last weekend.

Something people thought I couldn't accomplish.

Something I wasn't sure I could do, honestly. 

But, guess what.

I made it to the summit of Angel's Landing.

And Jake did too, of course.

Don't think I would have made it without his support. 

I'd like to put these pictures around the house,

so I can remember that I can do really hard things.

The chain part wasn't nearly as scary as I had made it up to be,

though waiting for people to pass coming the opposite direction got really tedious sometimes.

When we got to the summit, I was absolutely awed by the view.

I really could have sat there and admired it all day.

And I was just do dang proud of myself.

I didn't think I would be able to make it.

Hiking wasn't really my thing when I was younger.

But if every hike ends in this same feeling of accomplishment,

I think I'll hike much more often.

(our summit selfie)

Knarraville Falls

On our way home from Saint George, 

we stopped in Knarraville to do my favorite day hike.

It's absolutely gorgeous.

  

If you're ever in the Cedar City area,

go check this hike out. 

It's absolutely incredible.

Sydney, Australia

After a completely awesome day at the Australia Zoo, I boarded my flight to Sydney, a little worried about the hostel I had chosen to spend my next two nights in. This leg of the trip was going to be me completely on my own, and I won't lie... I was excited, but way more nervous than anything else. The flight was good and I sat on my own little isle, and I spent my time reviewing the directions to my hostel and praying that I would have just as much as an amazing time in Sydney as I had in Brisbane and Melbourne.

We landed right as the sun went down, so I was a little concerned about finding my place. I took the subway under the airport to the Queens Cross terminal and walked up to the street, completely unsure which direction I needed to go.

double decker subway train!

Thankfully a kind Aussie saw my confusion and lead me in the right direction. He was pretty impressed that I was in Australia alone, all the way from the States. I checked into my hostel, Chiliblue Backpackers and lugged my bags up three flights of stairs to my room. There, waiting for me was a huge German guy lounging on his bunk, and a shirtless Austrian dude lying on his. So I turned a little red and introduced myself, trying to look as unembarrassed as possible. There was one bed left, and it happened to be a queen size, so I was super worried some person would check in during the middle of the night and get in bed with me.

Needless to say, I did not sleep too well that night. Not to mention my sunburn from the beach was killing me at the same time.

I woke up in time for the free breakfast provided by the hostel, and quickly snarfed down the eggs and toast they were serving. I attempted a shower, but the water never got warm so I vetoed that idea. The shower was just this little room with a door that locked. Same with the toilet.

So I finished getting ready and I headed out to join up with a free tour of Sydney, so I could see all the sights with a native, like i was used to.

A shot of my room door, just for remembering sake

It took me forever to figure out my map, so I was really glad I left at 9:20 to meet up with the tour at 10:30. The girl running the tour was very nice and chatty, and she knew where Utah was right away! We started on the tour and she pointed out all the awesome buildings because she's an architecture major and loves the little details, which made me very happy.

Old churches are wedged between modern buildings.
It's pretty awesome looking.

A really cool architechural part of Sydney's history is the word Eternity written all over the city. A drunk guy heard his first sermon a few years after Sydney was settled, and the word Eternity really stuck out to him, so he learned to spell it, and wrote it everywhere he could. Bell towers have Eternity engraved on them, sidewalks, chairs and even a church bell got their tags. This cement square was at the base of a very pretty waterfall, and it was the best picture of all the Eternities I could get.

The largest shopping area in Sydney is the Queen Victoria Mall, and outside the building is this statue of Queen Victoria's favorite dog. Get this. It talks if you wave at it.

With all the expanding of Sydney, a lot of bird species died out and moved away once their trees were cut down. This alleyway has dozens of bird cages hanging from wires, and there is audio of birds chirping playing quietly. In the sidewalk. there are bricks with each species carved into them. It's like the "sorry we killed your habitat" exposition.

Sydney has a lot of statues througout the city that are replicas and 'sister statues' of others in other countries. The man reading the paper can also be found somewhere in England, and somewhere in the States. The doughnut ring things can also be found in Scotland.

She took us into the immigration building to show us the coolest map of Sydney. it's a scale replica of the city, set under the plexiglass floor. Unfortunately lighting was too sucky to take a picture of the entire thing, but I found the Opera House and took a picture of it.

We had been on the tour for about 2.5 hours by this point, and I was ready to finally see the Opera House. We stopped for a tidbit session with this bridge in the distance, and she started talking about how you could pay hundreds of dollars to hike that thing and get beautiful views of the Opera House. So I got excited, looking around for the majestic white building that I had first laid eyes on in Finding Nemo.

I'm serious. Finding Nemo is what put Australia on my list of places to go as a kid.  I wanted to see the shiny white building for myself.

So we continued on, and walked up a crapload of steps to a viewing platform. And there it was.

I just stood there for minutes that seemed like hours, just in awe that I was finally gazing at the Sydney Opera House with my very own eyes.

It is absolutely beautiful, with the sun shining off the peaks and glittering into the water.

The tour ended there, so I tipped her my last 4 dollars in coins and sat and stared at the building for a little longer. Finally I felt a little creepy and got up to wander around the city myself.

I spent about 3 hours in the coolest art museum I've ever toured, and it was free! Yes!

After spending the day looking at sights, I got myself some sushi rolls at the Queen Victoria mall and once it was dark I headed back to my hostel.

Will I ever stay in a hostel again? Not if I'm alone I won't! I luckily got moved to a different bed that night, so I wasn't worried some stranger would get in bed with me, so I slept a lot better night two.

I woke up on the 22nd and ate my last breakfast in Australia. I attempted a shower again, and gave up when the water was still ice cold. I got dressed, packed up my bags, locked everything shut and checked out of my room. I took the subway back to the airport and before I knew it, I was boarding my flight back home.

So I'm home, and I am so grateful to my friends for hosting me for such a long time! I had the absolute time of my life, and I can not express how thankful I am for my friends Naomi, Connor, Jordan, Melissa and Sharleen. I miss you guys already!

I am so incredibly lucky to have such adventure in my life!
~Courtney

Long Flights, Sushi and Tim Tam Slams

Oh my goodness, I can not believe I'm in AUSTRALIA!! My flights were great. The Salt Lake to Los Angeles leg was quick and easy, and I practically slept through the entire 16 hour flight to Melbourne. We boarded the plane around 11 PM, and they served us 'dinner' around 1 AM. The food was really yummy, and completely shattered the 'awful plane food' rumor I've heard all my life. During 'dinner' I popped back a melatonin pill, and shortly after they had cleared my plate I was sleeping. I slept for 8 or 9 hours, because the next thing I remember was the flight attendant waking me up for my breakfast order. I think my flight went so well because we left really late at night, and I got to sleep through the time zone change.
When I landed I got herded around like a sheep through customs and baggage claim, probably looking like a lost little puppy all on my lonesome. Connor had given me directions to find him the day before my flight, so I kept repeating to myself "White shirt. Long line of people, white shirt". I had collected my bag and followed the crowd of people and we all turned a corner; I could immediately see this long line of people he had talked about. I immediately started scanning the crowd for my tall, blonde friend wearing a white shirt. He was all the way at the end of the line, and he saw me in my red striped shirt and started waving like crazy. I (embarrassingly) started running down the isle toward him with this massive smile on my face. Best reuinion ever! We hugged and he took my suitcase and lead me outside. It was cold outside (it is their winter after all) but it felt like Utah's fall season. Jordan had driven to the airport and was driving around to avoid the expensive parking fee, so Connor called him up and we eventually found his tiny little car. Jordan saw me and came crazy running down the street towards me. When I say crazy running, I mean hands waving about in the air, run/skipping at full speed. It was awesome. We all piled into the car, and Connor lead me to the driver's side... only to remember cars are opposite in Australia! So I climbed in the 'passenger' seat and sat on edge as we zoomed past cars on the wrong side of the road on the freeway. 

We drove to Connor's flat in Prahram, which was this adorably tiny little place in the center of the city. I brushed my teeth and fixed my hair and we headed back out into the city. Jordan had to leave for work about an hour after we got there, so it was Connor and me for the rest of the day. 
Melbourne has a lot of art and museums, so we spent the day looking at beautiful architechure and spent a few hours at this exhibit where we got to see the costumes from dozens of movies. For lunch we got sushi, and I was so confused when we walked up to the store front. Connor ordered 2 sushi, and being american I  figured he would be handed 2 little slices of sushi. I figured I'd follow suit and ordered 2 as well. The lady pulled them out of the container and they were logs of sushi! It's very common to buy sushi rolls in Australia, and it's not super common to have sushi served on a plate all cut up like they do in the states. So we ate our sushi rolls and sat outside in the I-can't-believe-this-is-your-winter weather. We finished out our day looking at all the different bridges across the Yarra River, and got mud all over our shoes from a park nearby. We went back to Connor's place where I washed my poor red toms and stuck them outside to start drying. Connor made dinner and we sat and talked for a few hours. 

Finally Naomi was off work and was able to come get me from Connor's. It was so good to see her again!  The best part about my first day in Australia was all the reunions with the people I have missed so much.
 
Naomi had work again today, so I caught a train at 8:30 to meet up with Connor at Flinder's Street Station at 10:22. I came here determined to see all the beautiful graffiti in Melbourne, so we spent a good portion of the day walking to different alleyways filled with artwork. We checked out some beautiful cathedrals and churches and the fantastic archetechure at all the train stations. I'm sorta jealous Connor gets to live here and walk through all these beautiful stations and buildings every day. 

RMIT

The ceiling of the library

The main library room

The weather has been really nice. Connor keeps saying I've broken winter, because it's usually a lot colder than it has been. It's really windy here though, and the wind is ice cold. I wish I would have packed some gloves and ear mufs, because those are the two body parts that are the coldest throughout the day. 

Seriously, the wind was ridiculous

We had meat pies for lunch; can I just say they are DELICIOUS and we need to make them a popular thing in the states. Mine had steak and mushrooms covered in this savory gravy, all wrapped up in flaky pastry crust. it was seriously divine. I'm salivating typing this right now, I want another one that badly. Connor pointed out a bakery Naomi loves afterwards, so we checked it out and I bought a 'cream horn' that tasted like a rich eclaire without the chocolate on top. Oh man, I want another one of those too. Connor showed me around his university, RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) and we walked through the Melbourne Library, where he does a lot of his studying. These pictures don't do the building justice. It was incredible. We saw the singing clock at Melbourne Center Station go off, and I noticed a group of sister missionaries talking with people at the station! I thought that was quite cool, but I didn't get a chance to talk with any of them. 

The random singing clock

By this point my feet were killing me, so we headed back to Connor's for dinner and we played Mario Kart while we waited for Naomi to get off work. Naomi brought Tim Tam cookies with her so I could have my first Tim Tam slam. She made it look so easy! It took me a few minutes... and a lot of laughter... before I successfully did one. Connor just thought it was sooooo funny. He fell on the floor laughing at one point. I blame the fact that he gave me his huge Tigger mug, which meant i had to shove my face into the cup to suck up enough Milo. It was seriously delicious though. The melty choclate inside and the slightly crunchy cookie... ohhhh man. I'm going to get fat on this trip for sure.

So that's day one and two! Naomi and I are going to see the Penguin Parade tomorrow! I'm excited for the penguins, but I think i'm more excited for the chance to hang out with Naomi all day long! Yay for the weekend!