Days 485-491! Wow… it’s already May?! I guess time truly flys when you’re having fun! In this week, I wrapped up my time in Yamba, I made my way up the coast to Brisbane, and then I decided to skedaddle even further up the coast to a town called Mooloolaba. And, to cap it all off, I turned freaking 27!

To finish off my time in Yamba, I had a couple more studio sessions scheduled to wrap up my EP! Jack and I were starting to get really close to finishing all 5 songs, which is super exciting!

So on Thursday, May 1st, I hopped on a bus to Maclean and got picked up by Jack to continue working.

But before I left, I had an early family phone call to celebrate one of my siblings birthdays!

Jack and I for a solid 5 hours or so and made a lot of progress on the final songs. But we still had more work to do, so we called it a day and Jack dropped me off at one of the bus stops.

This bus stop happened to be outside of Maclean High School… which also doubles as the Maclean cemetery.

I didn’t have much to do in the afternoon, so after relaxing when I got home, it was time for a final load of laundry and to repack my bags! It’s been a while since I’ve last put my clothes in packing cubes and shoved them into my backpack.

But it felt good to finally be doing it again! I’m ready to get back on the road!

I wasn’t leaving town yet and on the morning of Friday, May 2nd I grabbed a coffee with a new (and late addition) friend! I met a Dutch traveler, whose name’s Roos, on Anzac Day and we made plans to hang out before I left town.

Now unfortunately, we probably wouldn’t be able to hang out again any time soon, but it’s always nice to connect with someone new. Especially a down to earth traveler. She also offered to drive me to Maclean for my studio session, which was super nice of her!

After being dropped off, Jack and I got right back to it! Since it was our final day, we had to make sure we cranked everything out.

We ended up having a pretty long and successful session and got everything we needed done!

Now technically, we weren’t all the way finished yet, some of the songs still needed drums. But we were all done with everything I needed to be present for! It was a super accomplishing feeling knowing that all the time and effort put in was paying off. And that we were creating music that I wrote and personally really enjoy listening to!

Friday night, I met up with my friends Bryce and Izzie and we got a couple drinks at the Pub.

Tonight was my final night, so I couldn’t ask for a better, and lowkey, send off! My other bartender friends were working, so I was able to say my “see you laters” to them too.

I had to call it an early night because my bus was leaving ungodly early the following morning. It’s always sad leaving a place, but I really enjoyed my time in Yamba, it was definitely a whirlwind of months.

From getting a fun job at the pub, to breaking my foot surfing after two weeks, to plenty of hang outs with new friends and beach time, troublesome roommates, snagging a last minute farm job, adding two new families to my worldwide connections, and working on producing music I wrote with two different producers… I couldn’t have asked for a better time!

Who knows if I’ll come back to Australia anytime soon, but if I do, I’ll definitely will be taking a pitstop to Yamba to see everyone again and enjoy this LOVELY town!

I woke up before 4am on Saturday, May 3rd. My bus was leaving Yamba at 4:30am anddd of course, Yamba sent me off with a morning filled with torrential downpour!

The greyhound was promptly on time and full of sleeping travelers coming from Sydney and other towns south of Yamba. I found a seat that wasn’t taken by someone sleeping (I was trying my best not to disturb people) and plopped down to enjoy my ride.

For most of the ride I was actually asleep. But when I did wake up, I started listening to the 3rd book of the Fourth Wing series, Onyx Storm. It’s not off to a great start, but I’ve read the first two, so I might as well see where this one goes!

6 and a half hours later, I was finally in Brisbane! I immediately got out of my layers, because it was a very warm day in the city!

As I waited for my friend Sam to come and pick me up, I hopped on another family call to celebrate my other siblings birthday! If you’ve been following along with my journey since last year, you’ll realize it’s time for birthday week again!

What’s really great, is in just a couple of weeks, we won’t need to be FaceTiming and we’ll all be in the same place!! I’m looking forward to that!

My friend Sam eventually scooped me from the bus station and we made our way through the city and into the suburb he lives in. We were both very hungry, so we stopped at his favorite sushi train restaurant.

We spent most of the day relaxing at Sam’s house and then later in the day, a couple of his friends came over to hang out too! We spent the evening having some drinks, playing some games, and then headed out to a nearby pub that they like to go to!

It was a very nice way to kick off my visit to Brisbane and I was glad to finally be in a new part of Australia!

On Sunday, May 4th, Sam was busy with family events. His brother, and my friend, Paddy was off to start his military training. So there were some events and ceremonies for him to attend. I relaxed at his house and then for lunch went on a walk around his suburb to find a place to eat.

I ended up finding a hearty meal at an Indian restaurant before heading back to his house. Once Sam got home, we took a trip to the grocery store and ended up spending a pretty chill rest of the day at his place. We stayed up fairly late the night before, so it was nice to lounge about.

I was starting to get hints from Sam that his “stay as long as you like” offer wasn’t actually literal. So, on Monday, May 5th, I started digging into other places I could go!

(It is frustrating that I was having to change my plans so quick, but at the same time not everyone understands the slow pace of how I’m traveling. So no ill will towards Sam at all! I’m very happy he let me crash at his place for a few days)

I’m not much of a city kid anymore (I’m still considered a kid, right?) so I was looking into the other coastal towns that I had on my list when I was originally applying for jobs up the coast from Melbourne.

I could’ve gone into the city, but since it was a public holiday, most things were going to be closed. So, instead, I hung out with Sam, went on the errands he was running and also played some video games at his place too. It’s been a longggg time since I’ve played video games!

Other than that, Monday was a very lowkey day.

Tuesday, May 6th brought more excitement. I was finally going to go check out the city!

I joined Sam on his commute into the city, which included a car ride to the ferry stop, and then catching a beautiful ferry ride into the city.

It was a bit on the chillier side this morning, but I knew it was going to heat up, so I didn’t bring a sweatshirt. The walk to his office was only a couple minutes from where we got off the ferry. It was ALSO near the cities botanical gardens!

So after parting ways, I went on a walk through the gardens.

I really enjoy walking through botanical gardens and this one was filled with runners, bikers, and people commuting to work! Something I learned while in Bangkok, I love being around the busyness of cities because I know I don’t have to rush anywhere. It’s fun just being able to observe the chaos!

I had a bit of time to kill before my activity of the day, so I FaceTimed my parents and my grandparents!

It’s always great catching up with them, it had been awhile since our last FaceTime (minus the rest of the family). But I can’t wait to see them, my grandparents, and the rest of my family and friends when I get home in a couple weeks!!

I continued on my walk through the city. There were still lots of commuters out and the city was alive! I made my way to the city hall and sat in King George Square (the courtyard) until the start of… my Brisbane free walking tour!

This one wasn’t through the same company as the fantastic one I went on in Sydney with my parents, but it was still just as good! It was a small group, just me, a couple from Montreal, and the friendly tour guide whose name was Duncan. Duncan was a spry (probably) early 70 year old man who gave tours every two weeks.

This tour was called “Greeters Choice” which meant he was going to show and talk about all the things he loved in the city. I was excited to learn about the city but also it’s always super fun listening to someone talk about something they’re very passionate about.

I won’t talk about everything he went over, but the town hall had some fun history and stories! The first of which is that the cost of the building is pretty much the same as the cost to build the Sydney harbor bridge… wild. But this is because of many different reasons, one of which being that the staircase on the inside was made out of the same marble that Michelangelo used for the David statue.

Another fun tidbit about this city hall is that there’s a lot of British elements to it. One of them being the lions from Trafalgar Square, complete with the dog hind legs just like the statues in England.

The final thing of note about the city hall was that they spent so much money on the building, they ran out of funds for the classic lady that stands at the top of most city halls. So, allegedly, they turned to their plumber, Fred Johnson, who was apparently very creative, and gave him £5 to complete something to top the building. If you look back to the picture above, you’ll see it’s a weird ball made of slotted metal. Well, the slotted metal is from some sort of cooking basin and the pole in the middle is from the plumbing of a toilet… and it’s still there today!

(I haven’t fact checked this story, but if it’s true, it’s hilarious!)

Duncan took us all around the city, pointing out lots of cool architecture, historical facts, and showed us some of his favorite spots. One of which being a view from the new casino overlooking the city.

A couple other Brisbane and Australia fun facts (and some not so fun). The city streets are men’s names in one direction and women’s names in the other direction! And apparently, during WWII, after Japan dropped bombs on Pearl Harbor, the US created the Brisbane line. A line that went from Brisbane all the way to the western side of the country. The US troops said they’d only protect that line and south… and then Darwin proceeded to be bombed more times than Pearl Harbor. Good job USA! The thing they didn’t teach you in school.

The best thing I learned, is that the World Greeters network is all over the world! So now when I go to new cities I’ll always look up the free walking tours and see what I can learn from the locals!

We parted ways and I made my way to go get lunch. I found myself in an area called Southbank (fitting for where I was farming) and reddit helped me find a cheap place to eat. The restaurant was called Vegeme and it was vegetarian south East Asian cuisine!

Southbank was also home to the museums and galleries of Brisbane. So after eating, I took a stroll over to the art galleries. I checked out the modern art gallery and the Queensland art gallery. Both were fairly underwhelming… the modern gallery had only one exhibit open, it looked like more would be open later in the month. And the other art gallery had interesting art, but not a lot I was excited about. So that experience didn’t last much more than an hour.

I decided to treat myself to a mango smoothie and find a place to sit along the river and people watch.

I found a nice spot with a great view of the city (and the casino I mentioned before). There were also plenty of people walking and biking by too!

Crazily enough, one of the people stopped and stared at me, then said, “your Clancey and Lily’s friend.” And I was like yeahhhhh, very confused at first on how this person knew me.

Then it clicked! She was in town around the holiday time and we hung out one night when she was in town and I was hanging out with Will and his friends. Such a small world! She was just out on a walk with her friend and happened to walk by the place I randomly was sitting.

Eventually, I wondered back across the city to the botanical gardens again. I waited for Sam to get off work and watched people play rugby in the park! Sam unfortunately got off a lot later than expected, but we headed back out of the city and back to his house.

I had made up my mind that tomorrow I would head to a coastal town called Mooloolaba and get out of his hairs. We called it an early night after dinner.

The following day, was a very special day! It was my birthday (in Australia)!

I woke up on Wednesday, May 7th to my second birthday on the road! The big 27! Sam and his roommates headed off to work in the morning and I thanked them for letting me crash the last few days. But I’d be seeing them again in a few weeks when I came back to the city for my flight out of the country.

I relaxed at Sam’s house, packed up my bags, and then hopped on the final family call of birthday week!

After a very nice FaceTime, I had a birthday call with my grandparents, and then put on my bags and went out the door to start my next adventure.

I made my way to a nearby bus stop and caught a bus a few minutes later into the city. This bus took me all the way to central station, where I had a bit of a wait until the train I needed to catch.

I didn’t get a picture of it, but a train full of cows came through the station! I had never seen that before in a city train station.

My train arrived just after 10am and I was off, heading further north!

It was a beautiful ride up the coast. We actually passed by some mountains (I’d consider them tall enough to be mountains) and over the 1.5 hours on the train, I actually wrote the majority of this blog post!

I also received a birthday call from my Uncle Brad and my Auntie Sharon! It was great to hear from them and I cannot wait to see them in person!!

The train stopped at Landsborough, and that was my stop to get off. The Australia Zoo (owned by the Irwin’s) is at this stop, so maybe I’ll have to check that out on my way back to Brisbane!

I caught a bus headed towards Mooloolaba and after a seamless 40 minute bus ride, I was in the new town! It was a gorgeous day out which made the quick walk to my hostel even nicer. When I arrived, the bed was ready for me and I was able to put my stuff down right away.

I could immediately tell this was going to be a fun and social hostel and it was EXACTLY what I needed after months and months of being surrounded by very Aussie Australians. I went back downstairs and started chatting with a couple of guys from the UK, Sam and Jake. I asked them where I should get lunch and they pointed me in the direction of the town’s esplanade.

As I was walking in that direction, I spotted a Thai restaurant and immediately knew that was going to be my lunch spot. That’s two years in a row eating Thai on my birthday! I walked to the beach after lunch to check it out and was met with a beautiful coastline that had plenty of people enjoying the hot day!

I was eager to go for a swim. So I walked back to the hostel and changed into my beach clothes. Before I went back to the beach I ran into Sam again and sat down to chat with him some more. He’s a nice guy from London and we actually dove into some deep chatter fairly quickly! I’ve missed the hostel vibes of being able to talk to pretty much everyone and talk about pretty much anything.

After a while, I decided it was time to step away from the conversation and get to the beach. There were no surfing waves today, but there were body surfing waves! I set my stuff down and ran into the water for a solid 30 minutes of bodysurfing! It was a blast and there were a handful of other locals and tourists body surfing as well.

I spent another hour and a half after that sitting in the sand and then sitting in the grassy area behind the beach. But before I moved, I noticed that I had unfortunately lost a lens to my sunglasses! Which is a big bummer. Thankfully they have a lifetime warranty on them, so I will make sure to send them in to be fixed when I can!

When I finally decided to leave the beach, I didn’t walk back to the hostel right away. Instead I made my way to the nearby Coles (thankfully it’s within walking distance). I needed soap and deodorant for the last leg of the trip, important things!

On my walk home, I was walking alongside a guy who looked like he was walking back to the hostel too. So I asked him and it turned out he was! His name was Charlie and he’s from Ireland. I asked him if he had any plans tonight and he said he didn’t. So we made plans to meet up in a few hours to grab dinner at a bar serving 50 cent wings.

I showered and then relaxed by the hostel pool a bit as the sun set. Once it did, I moved to the TV area, which is in the lobby of this hostel, and sat on one of the comfy couches. I met another traveler from the UK and we chatted for a while as well. It’s so refreshing to be in this environment and get all the cooped up social time out! Yamba was amazing but wasn’t the best for interactions with travelers or people my age for that matter.

I met back up with Charlie around 6pm and we started walking towards the bar called Taps. Just as we were heading out, Charlie’s friend Sam (a different Sam) caught up and joined us! This Sam was from a small town in Wales! As solo traveling goes, I wasn’t really alone! I was content with the idea of spending a birthday by myself, but I was also very happy to have people to spend it with.

Now it came up in conversation that it was my birthday, but they didn’t know that at the beginning! We had a nice time chatting about our travel stories, jobs in Australia, life back home, and plans for the future. It was a great evening! Randomly, this bar had 3 Americans working in it (from Ohio, New York, and California) and one Canadian as well… just about more Americans in one place than I’ve met in Australia!

After dinner, I saw some people playing pool and I couldn’t resist asking to join in! I met Killian and Harry from Ireland, Andrea from Italy, and Adam from England. We played for a while until people who had to work the following day went off to bed. And then I made my way to the movie area where they were about halfway through the movie Hancock (a super hero movie).

That wrapped up and then it was time to head to bed! As the night went on I received texts from other friends and family members which capped off a stellar birthday! As a birthday on the road goes, I’d say this was a great one! New friends, new town, and the beach!!

I have one more night booked at this hostel, but I have a feeling I’ll extend for another day or two. But we’ll see! The rain is coming back as that might twist my arm to move on… but only time will tell!

Thank you to everyone who’s following along, sent birthday wishes, and friends I’ve met along the way! Here’s to many more years of adventure 🙂

– Elie