Life of Twenty-Something.....

Friday 3 October 2014

Travels both past and future

I have recently returned from Pensacola, Florida visiting family. It was amazing, although it was the most chilled out holiday I have been on in a while it was much needed. The district is based on the border of Alabama and Florida therefore it was based away from the Orlando hype. We went to the beach and ate way too much!! I will keep it brief because I want to discuss my new adventure.

All I will say is that based on the gulf of Mexico it is beautiful and well hidden. Also the picture shows me paddle boarding which was awesome! Well worth a go.

AUSTRALIA TRAVELS

So I have graduated, been working at an insurance firm for just over a year and now have saved up just about enough money to hit the travelling road.

My plan was always to take a gap year and I will be exploring Australia mainly and hopefully we will branch out from there.

Last weekend after much discussion and hesitation I have booked my flights and applied for my AUSTRALIA WORKING VISA. Flights were leaving this Jan, stopover in Singapore for 4 days and then onto Brisbane, these came in at $638 (sorry that is GBP for some reason my keyboard doesn't have a pound sign!!) I thought this was really good considering; its a one-way flight because who knows when I will be coming back. The main advice I would have with the flights is to do it sooner rather than later, also shop around. I checked on the main airlines website firstly -- Singapore Airlines are really cheap -- although when it came to adding another passenger they had put the price up with taxes etc. I then looked on Opodo which gave me the same price as Singapore Airlines (1 passenger) even if I booked for 2, there were not any extra charges.

I have also been looking at STA Travel a lot as I know they are a reputable company, I did call to see if they could do a price match although they advised that was a really good price and they couldn't match. Although they did offer a flight for a little bit more with Emirates but there was an additional stop in Dubai. Even though it would have been lovely to see Dubai again I felt that the extra stop would be tiring!!

### VISA APPLICATION ###

This was the most daunting thing to apply for as you can imagine. I couldn't believe how easy the AUS government had made it. Really basic questions were asked about health and nationality, age and gender etc. Mine was completed in under 30 mins! The best thing was the application was approved in under 2 hrs, that's correct guys 2hrs!!!!! Apparently the Aus government are really quick with these online applications and if you meet all the requirements they do not hesitate to grant the visa. They email you once the visa has been granted with your unique reference.

So that's it at the moment, I still have a few things I need to book and look into and I will keep you updated!!!

Chloe Jade

XOXO