Meanwhile Down Under...

On October 28, Ashlynn started her next big adventure when she flew to Cairns, Australia, a common jumping off point to get to the Great Barrier Reef. Rather than stay at a hostel in the city center, she opted to stay at Tropic Days, which was a little further out and less likely to attract visitors who just wanted to party. She was very pleased with her choice as it was clean...

...in a lovely setting and was full of nice people. Her goal was to find a job for three months so that she could earn a second one-year holiday/working visa. Although she only had limited restaurant experience beyond dishwashing, she hoped to find a job in hospitality. Her backup plan was to work on a farm, which would be grueling in the summer heat. Luckily she found a job fairly quickly and started on November 10 as a food server at Howlin’ Jay’s, which ironically was an American bar and fried chicken restaurant (she didn’t mention that she’s vegan).

On her third day in Cairns, she met Bjarne, a 20-year-old from Berlin, and they soon became inseparable.

Bjarne was a carnivore, but enjoyed cooking vegan meals with Ashlynn at the hostel.

Besides meeting a boy and finding a job, Ashlynn got a tattoo while in Cairns when a German tattoo artist stayed at the hostel.  

She had originally thought about getting this Korean symbol for Dream (the meaning of her name) while in Seoul, but the opportunity never really presented itself.

While I’m not a big tattoo fan, I like that it has truly special meaning to her and it kinda looks like a hare.