What if Dorothy Had Stayed in Oz?

The beautiful Sydney Harbour

When Dorothy found herself trapped in Oz, she desperately wanted to get home before she even took a good look around.  As she followed that yellow brick road, she met interesting people, saw strange colorful sights, and endured some struggles that ultimately made her a stronger and more confident person.  Why would she want to leave?  I think she just didn’t give it a chance, and instead she let culture shock take control.

I had dreamed of traveling to Australia for longer than I can remember, probably just because it’s about as far away as you can get from the east coast of the United States.  I don’t think I even knew anything about Oz when this dream first took root in my mind, at least nothing more than kangaroos and koalas.  I finally got there a few months ago, completing a bigger goal to step foot on all 7 continents before my 30^th birthday, but it felt more like I was starting something rather than finishing something.  On March 26, 2010, as my flight from Singapore touched down in Perth, I expected to feel excited, but I hadn’t anticipated feeling calm and experiencing a wave of relief.  I don’t think I really even understood it at first.

Travel Dreams becoming a reality

The next day my friend Simone picked me up and showed me around Perth.  She also took me about an hour outside the city to John Forrest National Park where we wandered for a few hours, and I took dozens of pictures.  Eventually we decided to get something to drink at the little tavern near where we parked, and when we walked around to the patio in the back, we were greeted by a group (A pack? A herd?) of kangaroos.  Total cliché of Australia I know, but this was one of the highlights of my trip.  I felt like a kid again dreaming of the land of the kangaroos, and then there I was just inches away from them bouncing around in the wild.

The rest of my short time in Australia was filled with those typical things tourists do when they visit Oz.  I saw to the unimaginably huge Ayers Rock where I also ate crocodile and kangaroo for dinner. (No chance I ate one of the cute kangaroos I saw in Perth the day before, right?)  I snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef and toured a rainforest near Cairns.  I finished my trip in Sydney where I admired the Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge.  Despite the clichés, this trip changed something inside me.  Maybe it was all the round-the-world backpackers I met, maybe it was the Australians who were horrified when I told them I was on such a short trip because I only have 3 weeks of vacation per year.  Maybe it was the Australian beer.

Uluru

Before I left for this trip, several people asked me what I was going to do go after I crossed off all 7 continents.  I always thought this was a crazy question because there is still so much to see out there.  But maybe a little part of me did worry about what it would be like to no longer have that big goal to work towards.  That feeling of relief when the plane touched down in Perth?  It might not make much sense, but I think that’s when I felt like I officially silenced all the inquisitive voices from people who thought I would be “done” once I hit all 7 continents.  Of course I’ll never be done!  These goals I set up for myself when I travel are fun, but they are not the reason I travel.  If anything those travel goals are just a way for me to distract myself in between trips.

Each trip I take pushes me closer and closer to wanting something more, something different.  I find it harder to come back and recover from each trip I take.  There is

Millaa Millaa Falls near Cairns

more to life than the monotonous routine of going back and forth to work.  Travel helps me break that routine, and I become a totally different person willing to try things I would never try at home.  Dorothy should’ve gotten a tour from the munchkins, tried those big lollipops, gone zip-lining through the forest where the lion lived, volunteered on the farm where the scarecrow lived, and maybe gotten a bed in the Emerald City Hostel.  She should’ve kicked off those uncomfortable ruby slippers, traded them in for some comfy walking shoes, and stayed, at least for a week or so.  I know I’ve changed because of my time in Australia, even if it wasn’t because of that specific location.  Australia was the right place at the right time for me.  I felt like I belonged in Oz, and I didn’t want to go back to Kansas…I mean Atlanta.

Alison Garland is a travel junkie who lives and works in Atlanta but is originally from New Jersey.  She is studying Spanish in the hopes of eventually being fluent.  She is always trying to fit more travel into her life, and her passion has led her to visit all 7 continents before her 30^th birthday.  Her next big trips are to Ecuador for a Spanish class and to Prague.  You can follow her on Twitter and on her blog Ali’s Adventures.