City Girl

Happy New Year everyone! Everyone should long be over their hangovers by now. This year's Christmas and New Years were definitely ones to be remembered. After spending my time in Canberra in bed I spent Christmas with a good friend of mine and his family. We were staying in a place called Brogers Creek. Which is only abut 2.30 hours away from Sydney but is somehow in the middle of nowhere. It was odd not to have any cell phone reception or internet. On the second day we were there my friend pointed out a kookaburra sitting on the fence. I immediately grabbed my camera and set out to take a picture of it. Since my eyes were on the kookaburra and my eyes were not focused on the ground I didn't see the big snake slithering near my legs. I suddenly saw something moving from the corner of my eye. I instantly froze and slowly walked away. Once I thought I had gone far enough for it not to be able to bite me I zoomed in with my camera, took a picture and ran back to the house. 

Luckily I had been told what I should do in case I came across a snake and fortunately for me this was a black snake. Black snakes and brown snakes are both poisonous but black snakes aren't aggressive whereas a brown snake would've come after me. This was actually already the second snake I had seen and I finished my stay having seen no less than 5 snakes.

We went for a bush walk and I got a leech on my shoe. But the effort was definitely worth it because the place was absolutely beautiful. 

I had heard that the best place to be in Australia with New Years is Sydney. So we took the train up to Sydney and spent two nights in a house there. Compared to my New Years in Amsterdam, Sydney seemed a lot more organized. There were fences everywhere around the main fireworks area where you could only enter if you had special tickets. (Normally public places). There were alcohol-free areas and areas where alcohol was allowed to be consumed. Finally we just decided to sit on a patch of grass where you had a slight view of the opera house and would be able to see the fireworks. There were fireworks at 9 o'clock for the families. And fireworks at midnight for everyone else. We stayed for both.

So now after my bush adventures and New Years in the big city I'm finally back in Brisbane where I'll be staying for a while.

Love from Saskia :3