Coming towards the end of the program we have had the privilege to travel a lot throughout Australia and to Bali! Our First trip was to 3 different cities in 3 days. We had a 3 day weekend because of labor day so my friends and I, 5 of us, decided to take a trip up north. We took a flight into Byron Bay which was an awesome beach town and spent the night there in a hostel. The next day we took a bus to Brisbane which is another city similar to Sydney, again we stayed in a hostel. Lastly we woke up on the third day and took an hour uber to the gold coast which was another beach town. This was a really cool and fun weekend, it was nice to get out of Sydney and experience some different parts of Australia. I really wish we were able to spend a few days in each area because there was some things that I wanted to see that we couldn’t just because of time but I am glad that we were able to get there.
The next place we visited was Bali, Indonesia. We planned this for our spring break and it was so much fun. All of our roommates got a villa, it was a beautiful house with a pool, a maid, a chef all for a very affordable price. And we were about a 5 to 10 minute walk from the beach. Also about 20 of our other friends all had villas all in the same area so we were all able to meet up and hang out at the beach and take trips together. Some of the excursions that we did in bali included hiking a volcano at the peak of sunset, rafting down the river ayu which was in the rainforest, and visiting a monkey forest, and of course spending plenty of time at the beach. Overall it was by far the coolest spring break trip I have ever been on.
The last place we have visited so far is Cairns, Australia. This is very far north and is home to the rainforest and the great barrier reef. This was just a weekend trip but we were able to hike through the rainforest and we also got the chance to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. Both awesome experiences!
Traveling during my time abroad has been unbelievable. I thought coming into it that it was going to be difficult because of class and my internship but they are very flexible with you because they know that you want to get as much out of this as you can. My advice is to get out and squeeze as much as you can out of your time abroad because it is a once in a lifetime opportunity!