Breakfast was an early start-630 am! But there was nutella so it was bearable! Reminded me of hostels in Switzerland where we had nutella every morning! Mmmm. Hopefully that is the case! Since I'm talking about food our meals are included on this trip. Breakfast is pretty standard- toast or cereal. Lunch has been make your own sandwiches with different veggies cheese meat and spreads and the bread changes so it might not get too too boring after a week (sarcasm). Dinner is always different. Last night was amazing!! Home made lasagna and they even made a little piece for me (I am the one vegetarian on the trip...) it was so tasty and came with a big salad and bread! I can't describe how great it felt to have a big plate of food for dinner so I actually felt full after! Alexa and I finally weighed ourselves the other day, so far we have lost at least 5 pounds each! It really makes me realize how much we eat in America. And for so cheap! Here we order a dish and it's expensive so we expect a big plate. When it comes out it always seems too small! I miss my American portions... Makes splitting meals almost impossible! The exception to this is Asian food which is always affordable and a lot of food!
Of course I know most people in the world are lucky to just have food in front of them so these are really trivial complaints but it's just interesting to realize how much food we've come to expect and how the rest of the world isn't like that. And people wonder why there is an obesity problem in America...
Ok sorry back to our day! (I love talking about food a little too much...) after bfast we drove to a wildlife sanctuary called Grenough wildlife park. So many creatures: kangaroos, dingos, emus, crocs, ostrich, goats, piggy, turkeys, parrots and cockatoos, snakes! Most cute! Emus scare me and may be one of the few animals I really don't like. They are so creepy and look like they walked right out of dinosaur times and they are always peering at you. My friend katelyn told me they can debowel people so that is the root of my fear! Don't worry tho I have no intention of giving them the chance!! So those creepers were lurking around somewhere but the rest were great! We were able to feed all the vegetarian animals including lots of kangas! We held a baby kangaroo barely the size of a cat. Yes it is as cute as you think!! Alexa held a snake and had a snake-lace! Brave lady! I would have no big deal but I was feeling sick and like a party pooper so I just took photos!
Ps it was valentines day so we treated ourselves :) we bought caramel Tim tams (heaven in the form of cookies aka biscuits here) we sipped pink soda out of a can with 2 straws (very romantic) I bought myself a new toothbrush which I know was a splurge but, why not on valentines day!! We finished the day with a walk on the beach at sunset. Doesn't get much better than that!
After the animal stuff we drove to kalbarri which has a national park and saw some beautiful coastlines rivaling the great ocean road! We even saw trees that grow horizontally because the wind is so strong!
On the way there we left Australia and entered the Hutt River Province and met the prince and princess. It is the second biggest country in Australia. They seceded 40 years ago. The now prince was a farmer living in Australia and the government controlled the price of his wheat. He was also a genius and since has written codes for NASA and done a lot of math stuff Emma would appreciate but I didn't really follow. He wrote his own set of numbers or something, and did a mathematical formula which explains how earth was created? I don't know but anyway he read the laws in West Australia and saw that the land had never been claimed by Australia. So he told the government and they saw he was right and he claimed his plot! The loophole has since been closed.
Needless to say the guy is eccentric. He is in his 80s now so it's cute but he told us all about his country and has his own post office and church. He gets gifts from people and countries all over the world including a Rolls Royce. Sadly he can't drive it because as he said, you can't drive yourself in a rolls Royce. You need a driver. He has money from all over the world including a Confederate $5 bill! He also has a dinner plate from Prince Charles and Princess Di's wedding he attended. His great pride was a world map from some other country that they made which puts his country on the map! For $2 we got an entry and exit visa in our passports! Yay one more country we have visited this year! Wish it had a cooler name tho...
Anyway we saw the coastal drive after and continued our long journey to a beach town where we stayed for the night. I also bought myself hay fever medicine so I am hopeful!
After our romantic beach walk we had the BBQ! So good. Alexa tried kangaroo and apparently it was delicious. (Alexa: it was amazing!! Tasted like steak tips). Some people couldn't do it after holding the baby kangaroo that morning in the sanctuary. Alexa has no time for that! I was worried I had nothing because all that was out was chicken and burgers and then the driver handed me a plate and said this is yours! A personal feast! Hash browns with like 5 pieces of falafel and really good veggie dogs. I really appreciate the food on this trip :) did I mention that yet? So once again we went to bed full and happy! We finally made friends at dinner. Not finally in a bad way but we kept sitting near the Germans and we find Germany is very hard to infiltrate. Luckily we sat with the Irish this time, who doesn't love the Irish?!, so we had a great night learning about their travels.
Non-US citizens can apply for a second year work/holiday visa if they complete 4 months of farm labor in their first year. So basically anyone who wants to stay has to at some point work on a farm. Apparently the Australian farmers are well aware of this and take advantage. The couple we met had to pay room and board to stay on a farm and pick potatoes. They hated it and said they wont be eating potatoes for a long time! I refrained from any Irish potato jokes because they were clearly still traumatized from their experiences. Fun fact: in Ireland they use miles and inches and pounds and feet! It's great! We finally have someone else who speaks our language :) they use stones also when talking about weight and I guess one stone is 14 pounds. Very cool
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