Return of the Mrk!

Well hello! It's been quite a while since I've visited this blog, but I figure after almost 2 weeks in Aus, it was time to dust her off, and get back to the somewhat indulgent practice of writing about myself and my travels, so here goes.

I’ve actually been trying to update this old blog for days, but strangely, Internet is extremely difficult to come by in Australia! Practically nowhere has free wifi! But listen to me, complaining about my 1st world problems-really there are no complaints over here, and my Mum and I have been having a great time. We are in Melbourne now, and have been for about 5 days, and then will be heading out to the Whitsunday Islands on the east coast in Queensland, after having spent a week in Tasmania, and NYE in Sydney.

I hope that you're all keeping warm (as I've heard about the psychotic weather back home) and are embracing snow pants or one piece snowsuits (preferably belted) as acceptable fashion choices. Not to be dick, but I sure am glad to be skipping my third winter in 7 years!

As most of you know, I originally started this blog 3 years ago when I went travelling for 6 months before I started law school, and so I called it 170 days without Spike (my huge mean but glorious Ottawa cat) This time around however, I have another cat to miss, and the more truthful title of the blog would be more like 215 days without both Spike and Pompom (but being an interwebs dingdong, I don't know how to change the title. It was quite hard to say goodbye to my 2 cats  (though I skyped with both of them today--hurrah for cat lady lunacy!) and I already miss all my fave peeps in TO and elsewhere already. Yes, I am an emotional suck.

But, I am having a grand old time! As most of you know, I've been travelling with my Mum, the one and only Susie Mrk! Here we are leaving Toronto in somewhat matching purple hoodies (not planned, and sort of the bane of my existence as b/c the hoodies are the only warm things we each have, we are often dressed alike-ugh, the worst). 

One of the first things we learned when we got to Sydney is that you can’t buy a regular cup of coffee anywhere here (actually, I sort of already knew this from travelling in New Zealand 3 years ago). Despite the fact that Aussies and Kiwis take their caffeine really seriously, you can’t get drip coffee, only espresso drinks. And because my mom and I LOVE coffee, and all you can get are designer drinks, and everything in Aus. costs one million dollars, we have probably spent, no joke, over $200 on drinking “flat whites” (a shot of espresso with steamed milk but no froth) in the past 2 weeks. As soon as I find a place to live, I’m gonna have to buy myself a little bodum and make myself coffee at home b/c I swear I could use up the rest of my line of credit just at cafés!

Lots of adventures to update you on, and pics to share so keep checking back (I'm going to try and do some marathon blogging today while I have internet access!) I don't always have access to email (b/c of the aforementioned bizarre Internet issues) but for some strange reason the phone plan I have has free and unlimited access to facebook and twitter, so feel free to get at me that way. 

Also, my mobile # is +61 403 126 887 in case any of y'all want to What's App, text or iMessage. 

Toodaloo!