I try to post on my blog at least once a month, but I have not had time to write anything for July. The past two months have been incredibly busy. In April I accepted a job at Google in New York City, we spent the month of May in Australia, June was spent preparing out house for sale, I took a brief trip to Mexico City to update my visa, now we are finally in New York City and next week we are moving out of temporary housing into our our place.
In May I finally got to return to Australia. Being my wife's first time to Australia, I tried to pack in as much variety as possible. Here are some of my favourite travel photos.
Queen Street, Brisbane - right in front of our hotel.
South Bank Beach, Brisbane
A narrow road on the drive from Brisbane to Mount Tamborine.
Country side in Queensland.
Mount Tamborine is gorgeous.
A waterfall in Mount Tamborine.
The view from our hotel balcony in Surfers' Paradise.
Marvellous Melbourne!
Another laneway in Melbourne. I recommend you take the laneway walking tour - you can find a miniture brochure containing a walking map at the Visitor Centre in Federation Square.
Went on a road trip with my parents from Melbourne to Adelaide.
Rundle Mall, Adelaide - the first, longest, and best pedestrian mall in Australia!
A laneway in Adelaide.
A charming little backstreet in Adelaide.
A modern shared space in Adelaide. I feel bad for never really appreciating my hometown until I moved away.
Somewhere along the coast in suburban Adelaide.
My wife feeding a Monkey.
A giant Buddha statue under construction along the drive from Adelaide to Victor Harbor.
One of the highlights was getting to see some of the new construction that was going up to see the latest trends in Australian suburbia.
A new residential subdivision in the suburb of Northgate.
We walked through about half a dozen showhomes.
The backyard of a show home. Lot sizes are shrinking in Australian cities, so newer developments typically build over the entire lot. There was room for a barbeque behind me, but unfortunately I could not fit it all in the picture.
A bedroom overlooking the above backyard.
My wife commented that the largest thing I have been homesick about is the difference in the housing, and thinking about it, I think she is right because where you end up at the end of everyday needs to feel like home - to feel like home.
Overall, it was a great trip. Upon returning to the United States, we spent most of June preparing our house for sale.
Because I was changing employer, I had to leave the United States briefly for a new visa stamp, so I ended up going alone on a 10 day vacation to Mexico. I occupied most of my time by going on guided day tours.
Mexico City is the hidden gem of North America.
A pedestrian traffic jam in Mexico City.
Pyramids at Teotihuacán. I climbed that huge one in the background.
The pyramid was built to copy the silhouette of the mountain.
Fun day out!
Posted by Andrew Price on Tuesday, June 30, 2015
A beautiful street in Puebla.
Having lunch overlooking the village of Taxco.
A typical street in Taxco.
From the main square
Posted by Andrew Price on Monday, July 6, 2015
It is amazing to think how Mexico still has many buildings around from the 1500s, while still being considered 'New World' just like the United States.
Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral.
Mexico is amazing. A beautiful country worth visitng - at a fifth of the price of flying to Europe!
A glass cup, metal cutlery, cloth napkins, porceline porcelain. I was impressed with the food onboard American Airlines.
About 3 weeks ago we arrived New York City and are settling in. We have been looking for a place to live, and finally settled on a townhome in Hoboken, New Jersey that we will be moving into sometime next week. We chose Hoboken for three reasons:
- Hoboken, at least the parts have been gentrified, feels very clean and comfortable - neither of us are into gritty urbanism.
- It is a short commute into Manhattan.
- The tax benefit of living in New Jersey more than covers the worst case of us having to purchase two sets of transit passes.
Hoboken also calls itself America's Most Walkable city. About 50,000 people in about 1.3 square miles. So theoretically, a person should be able to walk anywhere in the city in less than 15 minutes. It is mostly townhomes and low-rise apartments and very community oriented, so it sounds kind of ideal.
That sums up why I have not had much time to write a proper blog post this month. I am also writing on a book - I am about 38 pages in and saving my best content for that.