It is far
far away, mostly empty and paid only a little attention and when paid attention
it is usually by backpack travellers running up the east coast. Well I’m about
to find out and experience everything about the country. For starters, to get
to know Australia a little better here are few facts about it:
1. It is
almost the size of Europe and USA with 7 692 024 square kilometers (USA: 9 826 675 km2 incl. Alaska). This makes it the largest island
in the world and that is also a continent.
2. However,
it has a population of only 23 million mainly living at the coast line in a few
cities (USA: over 300 million people all around the place) – Australia really
is an empty and spacious place.
3. From
Helsinki, Finland, it is about a 24-hour-trip to Australia depending on which
city you are travelling to. First, there’s flight of 9,5 hours to Hong Kong for
example – and you’re only half way there. Then you have to fly another 9 hours
to Sydney or 11 hours to Melbourne or 7 OR 17 hours to Cairns (you have to be
lucky to get straight flights to Cairns, while scanning my own tickets I noticed
there’s kind of few of them). All in all, it really is far away.
4. Australia
is an intriguing combination of familiarity and exoticness. It holds all so
cozy, comfortable, everyday-like western civilization with grand cities, people
speaking English and readable alphabetical signs. Yet located faraway and
isolated from the rest of the world it has unique climate and nature with
mighty sceneries and animals that exist nowhere else (koalas and kangaroos but
also platypus, cassowary and quokkas). And after all this we know only a little
about it - there’s not much about Australia in our news
5. I’m
going to live there for six months!!!
I’m a
travel-loving business student from the Aalto University School of Business and
I’m going to spend one semester in Perth, Western Australia, as an exchange
student in spring 2016. In addition, once in Down Under, we are checking out the East
Coast with a group of four students. On the 4th of Jan we set off
from Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport to tropical Cairns and travel down
all the way to Melbourne (3 568 km, having time about month and a half).
After that my real adventure begins at the not-so-famous but surely interesting
and exotic west coast, in Perth, in the University of Western Australia (UWA).
Sooo excited!
I’m writing
this blog during the following six months in Australia and I'm happy to share my stories with you. This blog is also for my
BIZ-program in Aalto University so in addition to all the travel posts I’ll
also tell you about applying for the exchange program and studies in UWA (not
forgetting all the fun stuff, no worries!) I'll try to write at least twice a month so see ya soon!
Hugs and kisses,
Anni
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