Australia

The changing faces of friendship

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friendship long distanceThe Christmas just gone I spent a whole month in Australia. One. Whole. Month. Which should be enough time to catch up with everyone, shouldn’t it? Well it was, and it wasn’t. Juggling Christmas, with family commitments, holidays and going back to work, time seemed to get sucked away

I want to see everyone. I want to spend time with everyone. And not just time, but quality time. I want alone-time with my girlfriends, I want alone-time with all my friends together in a group, and I want additional catch ups with hubby there. Perhaps a week with every friend and family member would do it.

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Long Trips – Christmas in Australia – warmth, sunshine, family & friends

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Australia - catching up with family Portsea PubReturning after a holiday always leads to a multitude of questions: How was it? What did you do? And you answer: Yeah, it was awesome! We did heaps of cool stuff! But where do you go after that? How do you pick out just a few notables that that particular person might be interested in hearing about?

Well, I just spend a month in Australia. And it was awesome! And we did heaps of cool stuff! And if you really want to know more, keep reading!

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25 Real Differences between Austria and Australia

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Austria Australia differences

To celebrate my 100th blog post (yay) I thought I’d attempt to answer a question I still get asked a lot: What are the real differences between Austria and Australia? And it’s a difficult one to answer, because it’s a kind of same/same but different thing – all the little factors weigh up to create a big difference.

There are the obvious ones – the language, the food, the location, the culture, the weather… I’m not going to focus on those… I’m going to let you in on some of the more subtle differences between Austria and Australia.

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Creating the perfect trip = attempting the impossible

debbiekaye19803 Comments

Before we went to Australia on our most recent holiday, I made a lot of lists. I like making lists. Lists of friends I wanted to see, things I wanted to do, food I wanted to eat, places I wanted to visit, food I wanted to buy and bring back… the list(s) goes on.

You see, what I was doing, was trying to organise the perfect trip home.

Australia sunset beach walk
Perfect sunset beach walks with the Captain

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Longer Trips – Australia – and suddenly it feels like a holiday

debbiekaye19802 Comments

sunset australia mornington beach

I’ve been back to Australia three times since moving to Austria, but it wasn’t until the most recent trip that it actually felt like a holiday.

The first time, triggered by an expiring plane ticket, was spent madly running around, organising documents, throwing stuff out and working out exactly what I would need in Austria for the next x number of months/years (under 30kg). The second time was our wedding, which, while it was perfect, involved quite a lot of time-consuming organisation which I could only do once I arrived in the country.

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Homeward bound – the push and pull of ‘the new’ over ‘the familiar’

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Backpack flying home
Can’t wait to be carrying my trusty old backpack round again!

The lead-up to any holiday is exciting, the lead-up to a trip home when you live overseas is something else entirely.

On one hand, you’re super excited to be heading back into familiar territory, to have the chance to talk properly to people who have known you your whole life and understand your subtle nuances … and just the opportunity, to put it simply… to feel less isolated.

On the other hand, you’re just going home. You’ve been there before – many times. You grew up there. It can hardly be called a holiday, right?

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10 Practical things to consider before moving overseas

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The day before I left
The day before I left

Moving overseas is an adventure! But it is also a lengthy and difficult experience, and along with all the emotional ups and downs, there are plenty of annoyances and bureaucratic processes that you have to deal with, usually when you least expect them or have time to deal with them. This post might not be much fun, but if you want an idea of some of the more practical things you should try to do before you leave your home country, keep reading.

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