I guess it doesn’t seem fair to cram the last week and a half of Australia into a single blog post, since I spent two blog posts on three days in Sydney, but a trilogy blog post on this entire trip seems fitting. So here goes, the third and final blog post from my trip down under–but I probably won’t be done talking about this for months on end.

The flight to Brisbane, Australia was short and sweet, about 45 minutes. Kind of like a flight to Vegas from Los Angeles. I got a window seat, and was lucky enough to peer out over the beautiful country that is Australia, and feel small. While peering, the gentleman in the middle seat leaned over to me slightly to take a peek outside of my window. I said to him, “So beautiful huh?” to which he responded, “Yep, that’s our country.”

I wasn’t party to the ‘our country’ in that statement, but a smile crept over my face none the less, because it was nice of him to include me, even though I’m sure he could tell from my accent that I was American.

It took awhile to get everyone and their luggage back to Roy and Dominique’s place, but after a few trips and a little hustle, we were sitting around watching State of Origin (a huge Rugby game) and eating pizza by 730pm. That was when I started getting pretty tired. I had maybe two drinks at that point, after my pizza, and I was ready to knock out. I had to repeatedly smack myself into staying up until at least 9.

It’s kind of hard to remember what we did each and every single day for the last week and a half, but I do remember all of the highlights. That first day in Brisbane we explored the Fourex brewery. Fourex is one of the more popular beers out there, and we got to take a tour of the brewery and learn all kinds of cool stuff about how Fourex is brewed. I’ve never taken a brewery tour before, and it was awesome to learn how long it took and how much is involved in making a single pint. I sure as hell take it for granted whenever I take a sip of any kind of brew. And the best part about it? By the end we got four free glasses of beer!

I can’t for the life of me remember what we did when we got back from this trip to the brewery, I just know I was tired, and we had a long train ride home.

That was probably the most tiring thing since we arrived in Brisbane–the train rides. The city was about 40 minutes from where Roy and Dom live, and traveling home after a burger and a few beers is enough to put anyone to sleep. Other than that of course, there was zero to complain about.

The last week and a half in Australia was pretty much a terrific blur of walking, train riding, drinking, watching Jurassic Park (and drinking every time that Hammond fellow says “spare no expense”), spending a lot of money at the grocery store, playing Apples to Apples, eating Tim Tams, and visiting the city. Here’s a quick photo stream of shit we have been up to the past week and a half. After the photo break, I’ll go into some of the places we visited.

Dominique’s sister and her husband came over to visit one night.

This was cool. Watching the weather channel except, it’s not our country.

Even though this leg of the trip wasn’t as extravagantly planned as Sydney, it was way better than anything, because I got to be around good friends, and again, I was in bloody Australia. The only thing better than this would have been seeing Adam. I missed him so much it was like… painful. I don’t think I’ll ever leave the country without him again.

Now to talk a bit about some of the cool things we did, and places we visited. A lot of the time we just went into the city to walk around, drink, eat, souvenir shop, and browse the malls, but a few places of note were: the Australia Zoo, Gold Coast, a museum, an art gallery, a hike in a national park, and a wonderful place to pub crawl called Caxton street.

First, the Australia Zoo.

I was excited about going before I went, but when I got there, I was even more excited. I learned that Steve Irwin had a hand in building the zoo into what it is today after his parents started it back in the 70s. Since Irwin’s death, it seems that his wife Teri and their two kids, have taken over. The daughter has her own show and published multiple books, as well as the son (age nine). We actually got to see Teri and the kids in a crocodile show too, which was really unexpected and sort of awesome.

Basically, we saw a shit ton of animals: tigers, rhinos, zebras, koalas, kangaroos, crocodiles, alligators, you name it. Or better, don’t name it, cause we didn’t see flamingos, monkeys, lions, or panthers, as Adam was quick to point out. But we saw more than the average Joe I’d say. I absolutely loved the koalas. I fell in love I think. And I saw a real live elephant! And got to pet some kangaroos! That was a really cool part of the trip because the kangaroos were just chillin in the grass, and anyone could just walk right up to them and feed them–or take a selfie.

This didn’t actually dawn on me until I was in the moment. It’s not like I went to Australia with the soul intention of taking a selfie with a kangaroo, cause if I did, you know, where would my priorities be. But still, it happened, and I think it’s probably the coolest thing I’ve done this year.

Here are a few more pics of some the animals we saw. I have a ton of great video footage of all of it too, which I’ll put up once I get everything together.

The next cool place was Gold Coast, which was like Santa Monica, only Gold Coast. It was sort of like third street promenade as well, only…Gold Coast. It’s basically this miles long stretch of coast that goes along the coast of Australia. Which side of the coast it was I have no clue. I learn these things in snippets and write the small bits that stay in my brain. Anyway here it is.

It just so happened to be absolutely beautiful that day, so we lucked out.

The museum and art gallery we visited were cool too,  but I didn’t take too many pictures there. I’ll admit, it was because there was free wifi there, and I was distracted trying to make contact with people while they were still awake.

I know it’s hard to believe that all of that happened over the span of a week and a half, but it did. We had a day or two of just relaxing too, which was nice.

The last few days of the trip went by at light speed. Gold Coast was Thursday, and after that it was all about prepping for the fourth of July party Roy and Dominique were throwing, mainly for us. It was such a huge shebang. The Facebook invite said there would be about 30 people showing up, and Dominique and Roy went all out with the costumes and decorations.

I was sort of overwhelmed with emotion (I know right) because of all of the trouble they went through to celebrate an American holiday. It’s kind of like those people who you never expect to show up for you at a funeral. I know that sounds morbid, but that’s how it felt. Like they knew exactly what we would need on that day, and they catered to us in the sweetest and simplest way possible to make us feel like we were at home. It was incredibly endearing.

The party soon became even more American when all of the guests showed up completely decked out in American garb. I was so shocked, I couldn’t believe everyone was dressing up for the fourth of July just for us! I drank so much Budweiser that night. Cuz new friends and America.

The next day saw us up at the crack of dawn for what the Aussie’s call a ‘bush walk’. Basically, a hike. We drove in separate cars about 2 hours away to Springbrook National Park, which reminded me a lot of Yosemite. We went on a short two mile-ish hike with Dominique’s dad as our tour guide to the Twin Falls.

Of course, there was a mini rainbow. We also got to stand behind the falls and see the wall of water rushing down from behind the water fall. It was the most refreshing and wonderful experience, feeling the spray of natural rushing water on your face. Here’s what I mean. (That’s us below, behind the water fall).

Dominique’s father was like our own private tour guide on the hike, and had a lot to say about the aboriginals who used to frequent the park back in the day. It was so neat to hike or “bush walk” in a different country, because in the US, everything down to the very leaf looks familiar. In a different country though, you know you’ve never seen any of it before (regardless of how similar it all looks).

After the hike we got something to eat, and said farewell to Dominique’s family. That was our last full day in Brisbane. When we got back to the house it was early evening, and there was a lot to do before boarding our 1035am flight the next morning. I will go into more about this last night, the flight, and the ensuing jet lag in the next blog post. That entire last night and day in Australia deserves its very own space.

Until then, I hope you’ve enjoyed this little trilogy of travel. I have tons of emails and work to catch up on, as I slowly make my way out of the fog that is international travel. Life is the most beautiful of madnesses.

This post is part of a weekly feature called the Passion Series…enjoy!

At the ripe age of 20 years old, Chris Coleman decided to go into business for himself. He dropped out of college and decided to pursue what interested him: becoming an entrepreneur, and motivating young adults to pursue things they were passionate about.

Since deciding to go into business for himself, he’s started a blog, published a book, and started two technology companies. What initially started as a hobby blogging about smartphones, slowly transformed the way he thought about life and how to make the best of it. His decision to successfully chase after his dreams inspired him to share his story through his blog in hopes of motivating both kids and adults to go after theirs.

One of my favorite lines from his “About” section, regarding how inspired he was to turn his life around, is “I wanted to escape the Matrix and enjoy life the way it was intended.”

I couldn’t agree with him more. I’ve recently been acknowledging the fact that life wasn’t intended to be cookie-cutter clean and soft around the edges. It doesn’t even have to go in the order society tells you to put it in (e.g., go to college and get your degree first). It was meant to be enjoyed like a glass of fresh water after a tough work out, and never to be taken for granted, which I think Chris definitely realizes. I absolutely envy his courage to go against the grain by dropping out of college, and pursuing the career of his dreams, no doubt a challenging feat. But, like the wonderful Erika Napoletano put it in a blog post recently: “If what you’re doing right now isn’t challenging, you’ll never find better.”

Here’s what he had to say.

Has blogging helped you in any emotional or creative way?

I would say blogging has helped in both ways. I started blogging when I was about 17-18, so almost five years now. When I first started I honestly had no idea what I was doing but I was interested in providing information about a topic I was very passionate about; smartphones. Blogging brought out my creativity in a way that school could not as you can be more personable in your blog post, less structured to a degree and not stuck writing about a topic that you have no interest in. In terms of emotional whenever I had something on my mind that was troubling I could always bury myself into writing, doing research on a story or just getting lost in translation as my words spilled onto paper.

Has blogging daily/weekly helped you achieve any personal goals?

Blogging daily has certainly helped me achieve personal goals. By being consistent and creating new content daily, even when I had no audience, allowed me to see the fruits of my labor as my audience began to grow and opportunities began coming my way. Blogging has not only allowed me to attend various events and provide coverage to literally readers from all around the world but it also allowed me the chance to connect with a whole group of people that I would never be able to interact with if I had not began blogging.

Another thing that blogging has helped me achieve is; giving me a platform to be able to share my experiences, my thoughts and my journey with people from all around the world who hopefully can find inspiration, motivation, etc,. from what I’m sharing.

Does the ritual of daily/weekly blogging give you motivation to pursue things you are passionate about?

Absolutely. Through blogging and looking to spread my message to as many people as possible, I’ve acquired a passion for helping others to go after their own dreams, desires, goals and passions. It is truly rewarding having someone watch a video I created or a blog post I have written and send me a message saying how my words have inspired them to take action or to keep pushing towards whatever it is they want.  I know I’m not famous or successful by societies standards but if I can motivate one person that brings me great joy!

It’s bloggers like Chris who remind me that I don’t have to follow one single path–I can be messy and all over the place, as long as I’m pursuing shit I love. Also, today is his birthday, so happy birthday Chris, and thanks for sharing your story with A Novel Quest.

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This post is part of a series on bloggers who have found direction or passion through blogging. If you would like to be featured in the Passion Series, please contact me through this form with responses to the above questions, and share your passions. Thanks!

See all Passion Series posts >>