AUSTRALIA Vs USA

People always say that reading books  helps you to write. Now I’ve never really agreed with this nor seen any positive outcome. Maybe I have just been reading the wrong books? Today I started Bill Bryson- Down Under. Okay so I love Australia but I will be the first one to admit I have been all about USA this year. Anyway, the book was at our house in Wales and mum thought she would bring it back for me a have a read.

Recently I have been making a few decisions on how I plan on spending the next three years of living. After returning from The US in May I was pretty sure that I would obtain a Canadian Working Holiday Visa ( since then I have realised they are not the easiest things to obtain, only get released at certain times of year, I need to pay £100 to BUNAC to help with my application AND there’s no guarantee I would be one of the 2000 chosen people) Anyway..I can pay my £100 on 14th September- 3 days from now and I was all set on doing that until about 15 minutes ago.

I have just finished Chapter 1 of ‘Down Under’ and I have had a mini revelation. In Fact- it was this line which got me. ‘ The world whose first Englishmen found was famously inverted- its seasons back to front, its constellations upside down- and unlike anything any of them had seen before’ I think it was the thing about stars which got me. I remember the stars, I remember looking for the Southern Cross one starry starry night in The Whitsundays and realising that I could look at the sky forever and never get bored/fail to be amazed. As a shooting star whizzed past, my decision was confirmed. ‘One day, I will live in Australia’

Australia, now compared with USA seems like such a long time ago- often I forget about it. Its like a faded memory. So this post as titled has nothing really to do with whether or not I will get a Canadian Visa or an Australian one because inevitably.. I will do both. Order yet to be confirmed. The main topic of this post follows below:

AUSTRALIA Vs USA

Whenever people ask ‘ Where did you prefer USA or Australia?,  it really does make me feel incredibly uncomfortable, it causes the biggest conflict in my head and gives me a bit of a headache trying to answer. I hypothetically thought up a situation in which I could only ever go back to one in my lifetime and I had to quickly put something on the TV so I wouldn’t burst into tears. Ultimately I do feel as though the longer you go without something you do tend to get over it and I feel that can be easily said about Australia ..until I think about it more deeply, or listen to a song or hear from a friend. ..or in this case READ A BOOK!

Although I spent more time in USA than in Australia and covered a lot more land geographically, I still feel like I have more than half of USA to do, whereas Australia in less than three weeks I had gone from Cape Tribulation to Sydney. And although I am aware that I need to visit Melbourne, Perth, Uluru etc , I feel that in comparison to US Cities and sites, Australia would take much less time. In short I’ve seen more of Australia than The USA. Not that this fact gets me any closer to returning to just one,  but was a meandering thought that sprung to my mind in help to answer my hypothetical question.

I can’t even compare how I felt whilst I was in each place. I was a broken woman when I arrived in Cairns, Australia in June 2014, when I arrived in San Fran, USA April 2015. I hadn’t been in such a good state of mind.. well ever. Australia saved me, whereas The USA had nothing to save. I enjoyed both. At the time I enjoyed both equally. .. Ultimately, however: Had I not gone to Australia I never would have gone to USA in the same way which I did. Sure I probably would have some point visited Vegas, San Fran, LA  ( had already been to NYC and Orlando) But I never would have found myself in Savannah, Georgia playing Wiffle Ball into the rosy pink dusk of the South. Or rafting down a river in Durango, Colorado, the freezing cold freshness of the morning curing my hangover from the night before.

One can argue that even if I was to go back to both I wouldn’t feel the same way second time round. Things would be different, It might ruin it for me. Maybe I would just be better off just replaying the time vat I have in my head and live my life without risk of disappointment.  But hey, I never would have started travelling in the first place if risk frightened me.

In conclusion, THERE IS NO CONCLUSION. I can’t chose, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to. NYC does remain my favourite city in the world whereas The Great Barrier Reef is my happiest place on earth. I love the USA, I love Australia, I love the way I felt when I was in both. The person I was. My state of mind. These things can’t be repeated, nor be exactly the same. I know that. I’ll never chose out of principle.
BUT I am overly excited for the day in which I return to either for new feelings, discoveries and ultimately ADVENTURES.

Kate

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