The shortest month of the year will seem like the longest.

Only 1 month left until my American Adventure!! I am so excited!

I bet I will be dead tired when I land in Boston, but I will do the same as I did when I went to Australia and stay awake until night-time. I didn't get jet-lagged then so I hope it works this time as well, at least the flight isn't as long! It will be strange to fly "back in time" though, I've only done that when flying to the UK but that's only 1 hour difference so it's not really noticeable.

I will be starting my adventure in Boston, where I am meeting my friend Anne and maybe my friend Jan. We will spend a few days exploring Boston, Salem and Maine before heading down to New York. I am really looking forward to it all, especially Salem as I have been wanting to visit the town since I learned about it's history with all the witch trials.

New York will be amazing as well, we're spending a day and a half there. I have seen it on TV plenty of times, but when it comes to imagining myself actually being there I draw a blank. There is so much I want to see, and we're even going to a Broadway show! I'm excited to find out what I feel about the city, I'm not one for big busy cities so it will be interesting to see if I find it too busy or not. Maybe I'll love it and want to go back? I am anyway really looking forward to seeing it.

The day before I fly down to Orlando the plan is to go to Washington DC, I love the thought of going to the capitol of the United States, just like I did in Australia. I've not really thought a lot about what I want to see in DC other than the White House and the Washington Monument, but it looks like a pretty city from what I've seen on TV.

Orlando... I'm just so excited! My friend Mat was in Oslo for a couple of days this week and I mentioned that it would be really cool if she was going with me, and now she's actually going to look into coming! It would be amazing if she could come but I think it will be magical on my own as well. I've also got a friend who works at the Hilton down there that I haven't seen in a few years so it would be really cool if I could meet up with her.

I arrive late afternoon/early evening to Orlando but apparently the Downtown Disney Area and Disney BoardWalk is open quite late, so I think I might explore those the day I arrive as the other days I'll be busy walking around the parks.

There'll be plenty of walking on my holiday so I think the main thing to remember to pack is some good shoes!

Has anyone been to any of the places I'm going? What did you think? Any suggestions as to what I should see/do?

Top places in Australia

Everybody has different places they like in a country, different things they want to see and do and that they want other people to see and do too. Here is the list of what I liked in Australia, which I think other people should see and do too.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know what you think. What are your favourite places in Australia?

Adelaide

• Central Market (cheap food)
• Old Adelaide Gaol
• Blackeby’s Old Sweet Shop
• Migration Museum

Airlie Beach

• Whitsunday Islands, but go for longer than just one day.

Brisbane

• Mt. Coot-tha lookout and botanical gardens
• South Bank
• GOMA
• Australia Zoo

Byron Bay

• The lighthouse

Cairns                                                                        

• Great Barrier Reef, snorkelling is good, but if you can you should go diving and for more than just one day.
• Kuranda Scenic Railway
• Tjapukai Cultural Park
• Daintree Rainforest, get some ice cream from the Daintree Ice Cream Company!

Canberra

• Lovely city just to walk around in and see all the statues and monuments
• Mt. Ainslie, it’s pretty cool how you can see how the city is laid out from up there.

Darwin

• Chinese Temple
• The termite mounds, just the size of them is really impressive!
• Mindil Beach Sunset Markets, they are on a Thursday and Sunday night during the dry season.

Fraser Island

• Lake McKenzie
• The pinnacles
• It’s a personal choice, depending on what you want to see, if you want to go just for a day, which is what I did and thought was enough, or more.

Hobart

• MONA
• Mt. Wellington
• Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, or somewhere else where  you can see the Tasmanian devil
• Port Arthur (I didn’t get to go inside, but I wish I had)
• Salamanca Market

Melbourne

• St. Kilda, for Luna park and the penguins in the evening
• Great Ocean Road
• Just take a walk around the city and look at the street art

Perth

• Clock tower, don’t  necessarily go in, just see it
• King’s gardens
• Freemantle Prison

Port Macquarie

• Koala Sanctuary
• The painted rocks along the esplanade

Sydney

• The Opera House
• Fireworks at Darling Harbour at least once (Awesome on Australia Day)
• Bondi Beach , if you go during winter it’s not too busy
• Harbour Bridge
• Go to Manly and laugh yourself silly because of how they use the name

Yulara

• Uluru
• Kata Tjuta, everybody seems to focus on Uluru, but the Kata Tjutas are definitely worth a visit as well!

Canberra

Day 1

The Canberra City YHA seems okay. They’ve got a swimming pool and spa (just a fancy word for hot tub, not an actual SPA), pool table, big tv and key card instead of a normal key. I’m staying in a room for 10 people, it’s the biggest dorm I’ve seen so far and it’s got lots of floor space, but we have to keep our belongings under or on top of the bed or the cleaner will (re)move them. Which is fair enough I guess, at least that way it stays clean and tidy. This is also the first mixed room I’ve stayed in. So far I know there are two other women in the room and one guy, but I don’t know what the other 6 are… Not that it matters. As long as my pyjama top stays in one place!

There is also a big balcony with a clothes line just for this dorm, which would be handy if I had loads of washing. No pegs though, so it would probably just fly away.

 Canberra is the quietest capital I’ve seen. It’s just seems like a strange place to be honest. I’m not sure why, very pretty though. There are hardly any people here! But then again, I guess it’s not very often that capitals actually gets designed to be capitals. I think it would be very hard to get lost here as well. I walked around in Canberra Shopping Centre for a bit. It’s HUGE! At least I know I can go window-shopping if I’m bored.

 I’m loving the weather today, makes a change from yesterday’s grey wall. Apparently it’s unusually hot for Canberra today; I hope it stays like this until I leave.

Day 2

I walked up to Mount Ainslie today. It was a long walk, 11-12kilometers there and back, I’m glad I remembered to bring some water! There weren’t footpaths all the way, but I managed to find my way. I was a bit worried about spiders and snakes when I was walking up Mount Ainslie Drive, but except for a lot of butterflies and a dead kangaroo I didn’t see any wildlife or creepy-crawlies. On the way down I found a walking trail and I was even more worried about snakes and spiders, I almost wished I had just walked on the road, but I didn’t see anything there either.

 The view was really nice from the top of Mt Ainslie, I could really see how planned the city is. I was almost surprised there wasn’t a café or anything up there, but at the same time it was quite nice that there wasn’t anything up there to take money from tourists.

 I didn’t meet anyone else walking up to Mt. Ainslie today, but there were quite a few people cycling. I almost wish I had rented a bike myself so I could have rested my feet on the way back down, but it would have been hellish going up.

 I pretty much just relaxed the rest of the day as I was too knackered to do anything after my long walk. I do have to say though that Canberra seems like a nice city and I wouldn’t have minded living here. It’s not too busy or full of tourists and it’s pretty and clean. There are also so many statues and sculptures that I would probably be able to discover a new one every day if I wanted to. I’m looking forward to seeing more of the city tomorrow.

Day 3

I was in a really bad mood this morning. It just didn’t start right. So to calm down I lost myself in a book for a few hours. By 1.30pm I had calmed down and the rain had stopped as well, so I went out to see the Captain Cook Memorial Water Jet as it’s only on between 2 and 4pm.

 After I had taken a couple of pictures of it I walked around the lake to Kings Avenue Bridge and from there up to Capital Hill. I could not see a single shop on that side of the bridge, only government buildings, but then I guess that was the plan of it. Or maybe it was because I only walked within the “triangle”.

 I wandered down Federation Mall and from there to Commonwealth Avenue Bridge. I was thinking about looking at some more things on the government side of the lake, but my feet are absolutely killing me from my long walk up Mount Ainslie yesterday, and since I walked just as far today my feet are not happy. But I got to see all the things that were on my "must-see"-list in Canberra so I'm happy,

I went out with someone in my dorm tonight for a couple of drinks. Canberra is not really very busy on a Monday night! It’s rather dead actually. But the two places we went to still had their music on so loud that we had to shout to hear each other.

I’ve liked Canberra and I wouldn’t mind spending more time here, but I’m also looking forward to going to Melbourne and seeing what’s there, and also meeting Luna and her daddies while I’m there. Mai, who came to Byron Bay with me, is also meeting me again down there. I've got a feeling it's going to be a busy week in Melbourne!