Why you want to go to Australia once in a lifetime

Every day I get a sunny reminder on my phone. ‘Exactly one year ago you were here’, and then one of those Bondi Beach-like pictures attached. 23 January 2018. Back then, I was living in Sydney and was photographed by my Argentinian friend. Turned out to be the best photographer in South America. Goals. With my tanned skin and blonde hair that had permanent beachwaves in it, in a jumpsuit so tiny, it could have been taken in Madurodam. Homesickness to the max.

If you are even slightly considering going Down Under, I hereby command you: BOOK. Especially now, because the seasons in Australia are reversed. That means you'll be there in February claying sandcastles on Manly Beach. And trust me: there on that biggest surf beach in Sydney you want to be.

The east coast, west coast, the Red Centre, Sydney, Melbourne... You must have seen it. And Australia is not cheap, so that's why while you're travelling, go arbeit machen. I did that by working as an au pair for four months. I still managed to travel for eight months and didn't end up totally broke when I got back. It's also much better for the environment if you go away for a long time once, because those plane trips are not cheap.

Oceania, it sounds far and it is. I've been zooming around on Google Maps at times because it just doesn't feel like a 30-hour flight away from the Netherlands.

Australia is a backpacking mecca. The weather, those people, those beaches, those hikes; everything is hyper well organised. You can drink water from the tap, everything is clean, you can find a job in no time and you also get a decent wage. ‘Awesome’ isn't the most used word by Ozzies for nothing. There are more Australia pieces to come, because I want to tell you all the ins and outs. Starting with Sydney, why you should look for a job there and how to do it and which beaches you want to go to during your workbreak.

By the way, did you know that you can only stay a maximum of one year on that continent? That's for a reason, of course. Pa pa pa para para paradise.