Wait... You're Still Here?

Oh hey.

Sorry for such a long hiatus...

And for now the world's worst apology post.

It's not that I haven't been traveling. I've definitely been traveling.

I just ran out of free time. 

Or I was too busy living.

Or school...

Or some other equally lame excuse.

And now I'm about to again be without internet for the next five or so days...

Sorry.

But, rest assured, I haven't forgotten about all of you readers (family that may still be keeping track of me)!

I feel like leaving my last post on the note of essentially binge drinking for a semester would be worrisome.

So, fear not! I'm still kickin'.

While I catching up on the last month and a half, enjoy this picture of me chillin' with a monkey...

Back soon, loves.

xoxox

 

How to Drink your way through a Country.

First.

Let me preface this post by saying, I do not condone excessive drinking or alcoholism or underage drinking or drinking under many medical conditions, WHICH MEANS YOU SHOULDN'T ACTUALLY TAKE THE TITLE SERIOUSLY IF YOU FALL UNDER ANY OF THE AFOREMENTIONED CATEGORIES.

I also fully support abstaining from drinking while also living every day to the fullest. Drinking doesn't mean you'll have a good time, and is in no way necessary to have a good time.

Anyways, let me continue.

Living out in Western Australia to some extent is like living in wine country in Napa Valley. When there is so much local variety available, how could one not try all the area has to offer?

(Again, see paragraphs one & two)

So here are some photos of vineyards and wineries and cider drinking and such.

Gambling & drinking with 50 lashes cider.

A note on cider: if you like apples or pears, this is the stuff for you. Alcoholic, bubbly, and usually reasonably priced pints. But, it's also usually too sweet and bubbly for more than a midi. 

Then there are all the meaderies. Hello fantastico.

Love honey? Prefer sweet wine? You've come to the right place.

I ended up buying a bottle of which the name escapes me.. But this was easily one of the most delicious places I've ever been to.

Full of honey and wine and bee paraphernalia.

And then there was the cutest darn winery down south of all time.

Winery/garden/cafe combo.

It was a little slice of heaven this side of Mount Barker.

Welcome to Gilbert's Winery.

This family owned & operated quaint little place was fantastic.

While waiting to start a tasting, Mrs. Gilbert suggested we wander through the garden and try a fig.

Easily one of the most delicious pieces of fruit I've ever eaten.

Where can one obtain fresh figs?

Does anyone have a fig tree I can bum from them?

Side note: can you tell that we're a bunch of tourists from this photo?

Gilbert's was adorable and delicious. And an incredibly inviting experience.

Each of us ended up buying a bottle of something sweet.

The best part was that the Gilberts didn't hesitate on giving a bunch of weary travelers the star treatment.

The most interesting story we heard? Behind the naming process of the Three Devils wines -

appropriately named after their three sons.

Three Lads developed after they had all matured some.

How adorable is that?!

If you happen to be down south, consider this a must do.

In stark contrast to our experience there was the following weekend in Swan Valley.

We stopped at a place where the first red flag should've been a charge on the tasting.

My expectations were already too high.

With each sip, I regretted every (figurative) penny spent.

**Note, pennies don't actually exist here. Numbers are rounded to the 5. Unless you're the bus. The bus does what the bus wants on the bus pass**

Upon first glance, the venue was overwhelmingly beautiful.

While the wine was overwhelmingly disappointing.

There were numerous times throughout the tasting where I legitimately started gagging.

The spit bucket was mostly full by the time our gang was done.

Beyond that, we were given negative attention by the sommelier. 

There were quite a few other parties looking to try wine, but you could see we were bottom on the priority list of being treated and he didn't even bother asking if we were interested in anything after our tasting had finished.

A slight rant, but an experience in stark contrast to the others.

But, back to a more positive note.

Beer.

I'm not fond of beer.

Let me rephrase, I don't like the taste of beer. In theory I like beer. I like the imagery of hangin' out and crackin' a few open. I even mostly enjoy the smell of beer.

But man, can I not get over how awful it can taste.

So, maybe somebody should've stopped me from ordering the sampling tray at this super cool restaurant?

But that would completely ruin the point of drinking for the sake of drinking in order to fully live by the when in Rome philosophy.

So, carpe diem, bitches?

Conversely:

http://www.aa.org.au/new-to-aa/message-for-young-people.php

Major photo cred to Anastasia and Kelsey <3

XOXOXO

Hanging out at the Edge of the Earth

This last weekend, Mother Goose swept us up, up and away to a land even further down under.

But, before I go much further, have I introduced Mother Goose yet?

A brief synopsis: He's our guide to the land down under.
And takes us on all of these fantastic adventures.
His name is mother goose, because we follow him around much like this:



So, Mother Goose was our guide to Albany, approximately a six hour drive.
In the back of a church bus.
Have I ever mentioned that I get really, reallllly motion sick?


And let me just tell you, Albany was absolutely gorgeous. If you get a sense from the map and the following pictures, it felt like we were on a cliff at the edge of the earth looking out at the abyss.
So, needless to say we had a fabulous time.
Despite any initial nausea.

In these pictures it's awfully hard to tell, but Albany was rainy and freezing for our weekend there. And it looks much closer to the coast of Ireland in my mind than the coast of southern Australia. My mind was blown.

At least all of this rain gear makes it appear like the weather was a bit gross.

We got to experience some pretty crazy things at the edge of the earth.

Including the natural bridge and the gap.

Here's the thing though, we spent a weekend in cold, windy, rainy generally speaking, crap, weather, but it definitely added to the beauty of everything.
It even made a shit photographer like myself make it look like something beautiful.

After the beauty that was the gap, we wandered over to a wind farm.
Let me just say, coming from the midwest and having to drive through wind farm country every time I want to drive somewhere, I was less than enthusiastic.
I was cold. And it was still gross out. And all I could think was, you want me to go back out there to hike up a hill and look at some windmills?
you've gotta be kidding me.


But even the windmills were beautiful.

And the view from above was spectacular.

If the weekend would've stopped there, I would've died happy just from the view I got to experience. 

But, we continued on to the Valley of the Giants.
This was... spectacular. Again, these photographs basically took themselves. Because I have negative skill.

And the whole gang:

And one of my favorite moments with one of my favorite girrrlz.

This picture doesn't do the height of the bridge justice. But I love this picture because it captures the energy of the weekend so greatly.

I'm sorry it's been so long since a post. 

I'm sorry for such a long, picture heavy blog post.

Okay. You caught me again, not really.

I took hundreds of gorgeous photos, and managed to narrow it down to these few, plus a few I stole from my besties that they captured.

But, for the sake of stopping this before it becomes a three page post, I'll cut it off now. This doesn't give a feel for the whole weekend, or explain the meadery or vineyards, but that's okay, because that'll just give me an excuse to post again :P

Tata for now.

XOXO