I will slowly add more of my belated trips from last year, however I wanted to write a little about the trips that I'm potentially going on this year:
Firstly, it's our wedding this year (September 12th!) so we're doing a bit of honeymoon planning at the moment. We are considering vanuatu, or perhaps somewhere else in the South Pacific. We were for a little while thinking of cruises, with everyone telling us how much fun they are, but I really don't think we'll do that as yet- we prefer to explore and there's only so much exploring you can do when 4 out of 7 days you're at sea (as is the case with some of those cruises). Also, we'd like to have some time to stay on the islands, but with cruises departing from Australia only it's a little difficult... so yes, we're thinking South Pacific, and we're thinking we'll skip on the cruise and find somewhere that we can relax and drink cocktails. After what will no doubt be a lot of planning and a little stress, we just want a honeymoon that is as relaxing as possible. We're also considering Malaysia as a possible destination as well- either south pacific (vanuatu or possibly new caledonia) or malaysia, I think. So, that will be our trip for September.
At work this year, I've got a couple of options: In November, I will be heading to Perth for a conference. Originally the idea was that I'd just attend this conference in Perth, and AnkoNick would come with me, and that would be it for our additional (work funded!) holidays for the year. Given that we've just bought a house, we don't have lots of money to splash around, and holidays (even half price ones!) are still somewhat expensive... However, my boss seems to believe that I also need to attend a conference being held in Wyoming, USA, in July. I don't know much about the area, but from what I have seen online it looks beautiful, albeit a little removed from civilisation. Now, I must be honest and admit that I'm not a fan of the idea of visiting the US. It's never been high on my travel priority list, and I guess I'm perhaps a little racist (nationist?) as far as Americans come, and I'm worried that I'll be surrounded by bunches of people who are arrogant, rude and very speak loudly. Of course, equally if they were also nationist (haha) they'd probably be waiting for me to come out with 'crickey!'... but anyway, the US wasn't on the top of my list, but Wyoming does look rather beautiful, and if my boss/the grant I work under will fund the whole trip, I will certainly go... meaning that the boy will come with me and likely have to skip Perth... which rather sucks as I'm not a fan of holidays alone, and neither of us have been to Perth, but obviously Perth is far more affordable than the US for us, so it would make sense that we go to the US whilst we can have a half-price trip if the offer remains there as the conference gets closer. I'll go to Perth regardless, but it's just a matter of if he can come with me or if I'll be tripping down there alone.
Either way, this year we have at least a couple of exciting trips planned- perhaps not as big as the europe trip (although a trip to the US would be rather big if we do end up going), but exciting nonetheless!
