The Travel Tales of Julia Sheldon

My goal was to get to 30 countries by my 30th birthday. I had a plan for 2018 of how to make this happen:  I would go to an island near Australia with my friend from Philippines in July when we both had some time, and then go to a different island for my 30th in October. But then I had to return to Canada from Australia in April and leave Aus for good in September, and my dear friend had lots of work travel on the go so we simply could not make our travel plans work. Luckily, my friends decided to go to Fiji in February and invited me along, so that was Country 29. And then in July, once I knew I'd be back in Canada as of mid-September, I set out recruiting people to join me on a 30th birthday trip in the Caribbean somewhere. I did a whole bunch of research on good deals at all-inclusives vs. rented apartments vs. hostels, and cool things to do in a week, and weather patterns (read: hurricane season), and eventually settled on Aruba. Originally, there were 6 people who sai...

August 24: Hobart Woke up early, did some quick online work, and my parents arrived at my house so we could catch an Uber to the airport. Dad and Jenny (stepmom) arrived in Australia July 4, and stayed until September 4. It was their first time in an Uber, and Dad was so cute: he tried to pay the driver with cash. Oh, Dad. ha It's an 80 minute flight from Melbourne to Hobart, on the southern tip of Tasmania. We grabbed the rental car and found our great AirBnB. The view was excellent! Once we were situated, we decided to go for a wander through the downtown core to Battery Point, the oldest suburb aka neighbourhood in Hobart. It was super cute, and adorable, and the iron lace was impressive - though, of course, I forgot to take a picture of that.  Hilarious decorative cabbage!  St David's Anglican stained glass  St David's Anglican Cathedral museum Being with my 72 year old folks meant that we were home by dusk, after grocery shop...