Essay Collection

Travel Essay

Grace Crilly
Professor Boulous
Travel Essay
28 February 2022
Australia Travel Essay

Hello again, as you may or may not know me I am Grace Crilly. I post YouTube Videos every Friday, if you are not familiar with my channel and you want to see more, click subscribe and click one more time in order to get notifications for every time I upload a brand new video. This video will be about the vacation that I took to Sydney, Australia two weeks ago. Today, I'll be telling you about my vacation to Australia based on the rundown of what it cost me, how long it took to get there, fun activities you would find in Australia, as well as the country's cultural customs, history, and what their music is like. In this essay, I'll be discussing the essentials of Australia based on the aspects of the cost of travel, fun activities in Australia, music focus, cultural customs, and the country's orientation and history.

Both before I went on this trip and during this trip, I did some research about the country based on paying for my plane ticket there and back as well as the expenses for how much I would be spending per day, as well as how I should pack, where I'd be staying at, and what I should be expecting with their cultural customs. I went on this vacation with one of my best friends, Julia, so expenses were two times more than what it would be for a single traveler. The air travel for the two of us each was $2,275 in addition to taxes that was $258.49, which added up to $2,533.49. When we were paying for the tickets we used Cheapflights.com and Justfly.com. I had my passport all up to date, Julia needed to renew her's a week before we went on the trip. The day that we went was March 21st and that night our flight time was 5 o'clock in the evening to 8 o'clock, then we had a layover that lasted an hour and 19 minutes in Phoenix. We were lucky with this trip that had short layovers to get to Australia from the U.S.A. We got back on our flight at 9:25 to 9:54 at night, then we had another short layover that was 46 minutes. Our next flight was from 10:40 at night until nine in the morning, which was when we arrived. The time when we were flying was estimated as nineteen hours there and back (according to Travelmath). Our flight going back home on the 28th was from 11:15 am to six am. After being on the plane for about nineteen hours, we had another two-hour and forty-five-minute layover in Los Angeles. As part of our layover time, we made sure to do essential things such as getting food, going to the bathroom, and we did go to some gift shops but didn't buy anything. Where we thought with our expenses is that we would get a T-shirt or something when we're in Australia. The time of our flight to go back home was at 8:45 in the morning and we arrived back home at the airport around 2:45 in the afternoon.

Julia and I used Booking.com when we were looking for what hotel we would be staying at. The hotel we chose was Melton Hotel Auburn, which cost us $492 for the hotel alone for the week we stayed there. The money we spent on food between us going to restaurants and bringing food back to our hotel was around $100. I read online on how much people in Australia would spend on food for a week would be about $91 versus how much in a year would be that's estimated as $4,740. One of the souvenirs I spent on, is this necklace that I am wearing. It is a Gold-Plated Ecuplaytous Leaf, this has a single leaf that was $25, and my best friend got one for herself, so we have matching necklaces. The store we went to when we got these necklaces was called The Rocks Market, where we went there on the weekend of coming home. Bits of Australia is another store that we went to, where I got myself a small aboriginal art notepad that was $5. We went to Bits of Australia on Tuesday in the middle of the day. I wrote down everything we paid for in this notebook as well as fun activities we did and wrote what I ate each day. We also got a koala magnet that was $6 and a Sydney gift bag that was on sale for $3.50.

The shopping we did was one of the activities we did in Australia but that wasn't all. The morning of Tuesday we went on a Sydney The Rocks Guided Tour. On our stroll on this tour, we got to see views of the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbor Bridge, past Cadman's Cottage, and Campbell's Cove. Some other highlights from the tour we got to learn about are that the oldest surviving cottage was built as Cadman's Cottage in 1816. What was inconvenient on the tour is that it started to drizzle and had a bit of light rain. Julia and I didn't prepare for the rain, because we were in our tank tops and shorts. The weather that we expected for Australia that we read online, that their climate is traditionally humid and dry. Most of our belongings were tank tops, shorts, flip flops, short-sleeves, pants, and gym shoes. We also had the idea of staying hydrated, because of the humidity we brought water bottles with us about everywhere we went. Thankfully, the rain only lasted thirty minutes, it did interrupt the tour, but then the rest of the day was clear of rain. In addition to the tour we also went on a cruise on a Sydney Harbor Tall Ship, which was between one o'clock and two-thirty in the afternoon, it was about an hour and a half. Before we went on the cruise we went out to lunch at a restaurant called Friggitoria. The boat we were on was able to fit fifty people. This cruise cost us $35.88 per adult, for the two of us came out to $71.76. This tour allowed us to sail and sightsee the Fort Denison, Sydney Opera House, and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Wednesday, the next day we went on the Sydney Opera House Official Guided Walking Tour. The tour cost us $31.49 per adult. On our tour one of the things we learned was the production of SIX the Musical was performed throughout that week. We got information about the production which is about, the musical is a modern retelling of the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII presented as a pop concert, as the wives take turns singing and telling their story to see who suffered the most due to Henry and should, therefore, become the group's lead singer. The tickets we spent to see this musical was estimated at $59 per person, so it added up to $118. After seeing SIX the Musical that night, when Julia and I were back in our hotel room winding down from the day, Julia and I realized some artists that we're familiar with that are Australian such as Troye Sivan, Sia, Iggy Azalea, and Dean Lewis. As I mentioned before, I did some research before we left and when we were there, I learned more about taboos In Australia. I had this on my mind, because when it came to going to stores, Sydney Harbor Tall Shop, and the Sydney Opera House Tour, I was nervous about being able to film. An employee at The Rock Market and Bits of Australia I was told not to film when I had my camera out, so I put my camera away. I was allowed to film when we were on the Sydney Harbor Tall Ship, but not the Sydney Opera House Tour. Filming is not as much different than in Australia I realized, because it mainly has to do with respecting other people's privacy and making sure you have permission to film. In my case I didn't want to disrespect anyone and further had the impression that it had to do with permission and privacy. I first thought filming was a taboo in Australia, which it's not. What I've learned about taboos in Australia such as if you're a smoker, you need to have permission in order to smoke in another person's house or car before going in. Asking how much you paid for something is considered rude in Australia, Julia did this when we were in Bits of Australia at the register and the lady who was checking us out got really defensive at Julia. Two other things I actually found to be more polite in general or that's just my opinion is that you don't want to walk or stand too close to people as well as not staring at people. One taboo that surprised me in general as well was the fact you should avoid asking people to do tasks that you're clearly capable of doing. I find it surprising only because I've never been around people who would actually do this between living in America, traveling to places such as Spain, England, and now Australia. Going from place to place in Australia we actually found ourselves being greeted, "Hi, how are you," more often than G'day mate. Saying G'day mate is apparently less common in cities of Australia.