It’s been almost 2 years since my last ‘big trip’ and given how insane the past few months have been, I’m definitely due for another adventure.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, I’d rather be busy than bored.  Sometimes, you just need to take a well-deserved break.

A trip to Australia with my best friend Emma was already in the offing over Christmas and we were looking forward to that.  However, Emma’s work visa has expired and her extension was denied so now she’s being deported.  A bit of a bummer, but hey, when life gives you lemons…you change your plans, pack your bags, and leave the country for 3 months.  Which is EXACTLY what we’re doing.

I’ve managed to secure a leave of absence from work, and I’m beyond grateful for that.  I wouldn’t be able to do this otherwise.  Once my leave was confirmed, Emma and I started planning.  We decided that if we were going to to do this…

1. We’d need to establish a budget, well duh, and actually stick to it
2. We needed to commit to only bringing one piece of carry on each as this would reduce our time waiting in line to both check and retrieve our bags when flying and eliminate any baggage fees, which, let’s face it, are a little out of control of late. After a lot of research, we’ve both selected our carry on bags for this trip which we will discuss in a future blog post.
3. That there were a few things that NEEDED to checked off our bucket lists (La Tomatina and Oktoberfest anyone?) a balloon ride over Turkey is also on this list, but one of my colleagues from Turkey has warned us against doing this since “a lot of people die doing this every year”.  His words, not mine.
4. That we would circulate our agenda to friends and family and invite anyone who wanted to join us to do so at any point during our trip…the more the merrier right?
5. That I could write about our adventures and post them here 🙂