The travel experience I’m missing most right now is grabbing a backpack/suitcase, a friend, and your courage and heading to a faraway region of the world to follow a route you’ve created for yourself. It’s equal parts terrifying and exhilarating, and I find a lot of joy in hearing about other people’s experiences engaging in independent travel.
Recently, I was able to sit down with a friend of mine who studied abroad at the University of Melbourne in spring 2020. Although her program was cut short by that monstrosity we call “COVID-19,” she certainly made the most of her time in Australia by doing what many young travelers do best: packing as many excursions and locations as possible into just a few weeks. Hannah’s account of her travels brims with excitement and adventure! Hopefully, she will be able to return and complete her travel plans once the pandemic has passed. *Note: all photos on the blog are Hannah’s!*
Why did you choose Australia as a study abroad destination?
It was a place I’d always wanted to go because it felt like somewhere completely different from the place I’d been raised. I’d heard that Australia has an amazing atmosphere and there are many interesting places to travel. Even though I ended up studying in a city, there were a lot of natural landscapes I wanted to see. Growing up in New England, I had the opportunity to experience some nature, but these opportunities were fairly limited.
Could you explain what you mean when you say that the atmosphere of Australia appealed to you?
A lot of the people I came across were willing to go about living their lives for the joy of it. When I was outside of the Australian cities, in particular, it felt like escaping from the rigid “9-to-5” culture I had grown up with outside of Boston. I’ve been raised around ambitious people who are very goal-oriented and find happiness mainly through work, but in Australia, I saw that work didn’t have to be the main thing people found happiness in—especially in more rural places! Regardless of age, there were people hiking and taking road trips. Even in Melbourne, people seemed much more “alive” than they do in Boston. It appeared as though their lives were being fulfilled and they had a lot of interests.
As a vegan, can you tell me about the food you ate?
The vegan food is so much better in Australia! I wasn’t vegan when I first decided I wanted to go, but there’s a thriving vegan population and there were so many vegan events in the short time I was there. A great way to meet new people was asking them to come out to dinner and try new foods with me. My favorite place in Melbourne is called “Smith and Daughters.” It’s part store, part vegan butchery, and it has lots of different vegan cheeses! The craziest part about being vegan in Australia was the insane number of vegan options in the chain grocery stores. One of the biggest things I miss from Australia is that every time you walk into a bakery section in their chain stores (like Woolworths), there are vegan pastry options everywhere.
Tell me about your experience traveling independently before your classes at the University of Melbourne started.
I actually flew to Australia on my birthday! It was the date the other people I was traveling with were free, and we decided to travel together because we were all headed to the same region.
We started in Tasmania, which is an island off the Australian coast. We went for a week, and we started out staying in a suburb called Blackmans Bay. It was my favorite place because there were so many pretty beaches and my favorite type of weather (high 60s, low 70s). There were cliff walks available, and we did a lot of walking the whole time! We were also very excited about the different types of grocery stores.
After Tasmania, we went to Sydney for a week. It took some time to get used to it because it is a very overwhelming city, and there are parts of it that really feel like NYC. We loved a section of the city called Newtown, which was the main vegan area. There was a whole strip of vegan restaurants, and we sampled several desserts, from gelato to pavlova (a tasty New Zealand dessert). I also spent some time with a friend from school who had been living in Sydney for a while; that was my chance to hit the beach and do a few more “tourist-y” things.
What is one of the craziest things that happened to you while traveling?
Both Sydney and Melbourne have crazy weather, but the most memorable weather-related event happened in Sydney. It was in the high 90s and sunny for the first few days, but one night, there was a rainstorm and a whole lot of wind. I slipped on the street and got soaked because I discovered that my raincoat was “water-resistant,” not waterproof. Still, it wasn’t all bad—my travel companion and I had made some new friends, and we were able to get donuts for them that evening. At the time the weather incident happened, I was headed to a fast food joint called “Lord of the Fries.”
What was the most challenging aspect of independent travel?
Figuring out how to deal with different personalities while traveling, because I was traveling with people I didn’t know very well before.
What was your favorite class you took at the University of Melbourne?
I really liked my International Gender Politics class, as well as my Indigenous Politics class. It was fascinating learning about both of these subject areas from an Australian perspective.
Did you get a chance to travel after you had arrived in Melbourne?
I took a road trip on the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne for a camping trip—it was 8 hours of driving on the left side! Sadly, the day I went camping on the Great Ocean Road was cloudy, but it was still beautiful.
What other travel experiences would you have added to your study abroad semester if COVID hadn’t happened?
I originally wanted to go to Japan over Spring Break to see the cherry blossoms. I also wanted to visit Uluru in the center of the country with an environmental tour group. The tour group I was going to go with was mostly students, and we were going to be taken on tours by indigenous guides. This was supposed to be an eleven-day hiking trip! I would love to go back to Australia in the future, do a road trip, and see the clear skies in the Outback.
