Ready to go

I'm leaving to Australia in less than two hours. I'm planning to stay in the country for almost five months (return flight booked for 2nd August). My travel companion for the first month is my friend Inka, whom I've known since we were 13 and in the same class in secondary school. The following four months I'll be on my own.

"I" am a 22-year-old Finnish student, having a well-deserved gap year between my Bachelor and Master's degrees. I went to study economics and business administration to a Finnish university straight after high school, and after graduating recently, was desperate to do something not involving books or class rooms. I've been an incurable travel addict for a few years now, so when Inka offered to accompany me to Australia, I only considered not accepting for about 30 seconds.

During my studies I spent one semester doing a student exchange program in Hong Kong and travelling in Eastern and South-East Asia, altogether for five months. After finishing my Bachelor studies in the spring 2009, I spent 9 months doing an internship in Germany. (In my profile you can find my blogs from those periods, unfortunately only in Finnish.) Therefore, the trip to Down Under will be my third longer stay abroad, and my first time on the Southern side of the Equator.

Many people have asked where in Australia I'm going. Usually my answer has been a vague "everywhere". Actually, I do have an approximate travel plan, trying to make the most out of my 5 months, knowing that I won't have time to stop for more than max 2 weeks in one place, and that I still won't see everything.
I placed the cities on the map without checking, so try not to mind if they are 1000 kilometers off from where they should be...

- The first month I'm going to spend with Inka on the purple route, heading south from Sydney to Melbourne and Tasmania, driving up the coast to Adelaide, and flying to the red centre to visit Uluru and Alice Springs, returning to Sydney in the end so that Inka can fly back home.
- The following 1,5-2 months I've received for the green route up the East Coast. I'm planning to buy a Greyhound bus pass, to have 45 days time to travel from Sydney up to Cairns.
- The third, yellow bit will be the West Coast. I'm planning to fly over to Perth from Cairns, and head up north along the coastline all the way to Darwin. This can take 1,5-2months as well.


Wikipedia summarizes the role I have in mind:

"Beach bum is a term used to denote a subculture, the characteristics of which often include aspects of but do not necessarily extend to the surfer, the stoner or the hippie subcultures. The members of this subculture are typically ocean and beach-going people who enjoy spending spare time sitting or relaxing on a beach. As such, the life of a beach bum is usually one of leisure. This holds true if the particular beach bum is a local, a retiree, a vacationer, or just someone who enjoys life by the ocean.
Not to be confused with naked buttocks on a nude beach."

And what I'm planning to do? Enjoy it. Be outdoors on the beaches and cities and mountains, try new things such as surfing and diving. Meet new people. Make memories. And of course take loads of pictures (if my not-insured camera doesn't break down nor get stolen, fingers crossed).

I'll try to update this blog whenever the three forces (time, energy and internet access) meet. You can also follow me on Facebook.

English is not my first language. I wanted to move away from blogging only in Finnish because I wanted to offer my foreign friends a chance to follow my journey. Language enthusiasts, please feel free to post comments correcting my language, I'm happy to learn more!