The adventure of a lifetime..

STRAYA! 

The other side of the world... exactly 24 hours away from my little hometown of Northern Ireland. Before I started university in 2012, visiting Australia had always been a dream of mine, but I had struggled with the decision to either pursue my love of writing or to take my chances and save for the trip of a lifetime.

Despite my love for Australia my lifelong dream of becoming a fully qualified journalist and the possibility of being able to do something I love for a living took precedence.

Blood sweat and tears. 3 years of it in fact. Do I regret a thing? Not at all. If anything my choice to go to university had enabled me to make the decision to take the jump and jet set off to the land of Oz. After a year and a half of being together, myself a self-confessed Aussie lover and my boyfriend Peter who had been to Australia before and absolutely loved it booked the trip of a lifetime. It's safe to say it didn't take much persuading between us to enquire about taking the year out in Oz.

We had mentioned to our parents and friends that we had been researching our options for travelling Australia for a year. In July 2015 we booked an appointment with STA Travel in Belfast to discuss flights, visa's etc. Ten minutes into the appointment and we were paying for our working holiday visa. We laughed for ages on our way home, absolutely delirious and in a state of shock that we had  done it. WE HAD BOOKED IT!

If you can imagine how shocked we were at the time, you can only imagine how stunned our parents were. What a mix of emotions it was. 7 months later and it's now exactly 4 weeks and 6 days until we fly from Dublin to Dubai, spending two nights in Dubai before heading to our first stop of Brisbane. 

I can't tell you how excited I am to start this amazing adventure with my best friend. It's also a time of very mixed emotions. Having worked since I was 16, arriving and travelling in Australia with no job will be very strange. Obviously leaving my family and friends for the other side of the world is one of the toughest challenges I will face but I know I'll always have my little piece of home in Peter, which is extremely comforting.

Over the course of the next few weeks I'll be sharing my preparations for Australia for any of you keen back-packers out there!

"We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”