Goodbye L.A.

For our second visit to LA we decided not to rent a car (very expensive around the 4th of July) and move around by public transport. Everybody says that you can't stay in LA without a car so the challenge made it even more interesting. Spoiler: it's actually very hard and slow to move around the city without a car. I'm glad that we had already seen most of the interesting places during our previous trip.

Just married

Yes, we got married! All of you know by now, but we are still getting used to the idea... It wasn't anything we had planned before starting this trip, but we'd talked about it for some time. And when D took me on that flight over Mt. Cook, he was so glad he survived the flight that he proposed to me up there on the glaciers! And not too long after, we said why not get married during the trip! And where else to do it than in LA...

Tasmanian clouds

Tasmania is another name that has always evoked ideas of a far away foreign land, mysterious and full of strange creatures. The famous Tasmanian Devil and the quirky Platypus (once my favourite animal) inhabit the island, together with wallabies, wombats and other species.

The Grampians, going inland

And when we arrived to Port Fairy, at the end of the Great Ocean Road, the sea was yet again calm and flat, pretty but for us a disheartening sight. No surfing for us at one of the world's most famous spots. We'll have to hope that at least Sydney will be more merciful.

Too peaceful

The Great Ocean Road

Note: Wifi and internet connection in Australia is not as widespread, cheap and reliable as in Southeast Asia. For this reason it will be more difficult to update the blog. Expect delays.

The flight Kuching-Singapore went quite smoothly and we used the free wifi at Singapore airport to do a few things online and talk to our families. We enjoyed our stopover so much that we lost track of time... and almost lost our flight to Melbourne! We ended up running like crazy towards the gate and begging the guards to let us skip the queue. For a few minutes we seriously thought that we would miss the flight. Our road to Australia is paved with silly errors. But fortunately we made it on board eventually. The first half hour of the flight was rather turbulent and shaky, and we wondered whether all those problems weren't a way of Fate to keep us away from a bigger danger. Fate had nothing to do with it, the shaking stopped and we spent the rest of the flight eating the delicious meals of Singapore Airlines, watching a couple of movies and dozing off a little.

Couch surfing to the coast

And when we arrived to Takayama, it was all there. Super cold, raining... But happily for us, also Amber showed up to pick us up and take us to hers and her husband Joe's home. We cooked takoyaki for dinner, a traditional Japanese meal, consisting of fried balls filled with pieces of octopus or pretty much anything that you want to put in. It was so nice to finally speak to someone without having to use our arms and legs and single syllables only...