C'est Christine l Solo Female Travel Blog

How I wear my memories: jewelry from around the world

I never thought I was much of a souvenir-collector on my travels—and then while completing my ABCs of travel, I noticed my jewelry case. About half of my pieces were foraged from my mom’s 1970s jewelry box, and the rest were bought abroad—in markets, boutiques and those hallowed halls of Galleries Lafayette. It’s easily the [...]

January 15, 2012 Continue reading…

#11: Visiting the wombat rescue center

Wombats might be my new favorite Australian animal: soft, cuddly and incredibly cute. At the Wombat Fauna and Rescue in Ceduna, not only did I get to pet my first wombat–they’re usually nocturnal and live in secluded holes–but I got to hold the world’s only white wombat. The Wombat Fauna and Rescue is an incredible [...]

January 13, 2012 Continue reading…

Postcard from the best beaches in Australia

I’m having trouble finding the words to describe the beaches of Cape Le Grande. Perfect seems a bit too cliché, but honestly, each little grain of sand is so perfectly spherical that it squeaks when you walk. Seriously. And each perfectly spherical grain of sand is so white that not only does it look like [...]

January 11, 2012 Continue reading…

City girl works on farm: a week WWOOFing at Coodlie Park

Let’s make one thing very clear: I am a city girl. I have sworn to always live within five minutes from a grocery store (because I am also that girl who goes grocery shopping for milk and leaves with a full cart minus the milk), twenty minutes from a hospital and an hour from the [...]

January 10, 2012 Continue reading…

Vegemite: less is more, but a bit is delicious

When it comes to Vegemite, less is more. Seriously. Too many non-Australians come down under, smear a heap of Vegemite on toast like it’s sugary sweet Nutella, and then wrinkle up their nose in disgust and spit out a spoonful of perfectly good Vegemite. As an American who loves Vegemite—yes, you read that correctly—I can [...]

January 8, 2012 Continue reading…

The adventures of Xtreme Xtine

After a particularly bad-ass left-handed goal, I was given the nickname “Xtreme Xtine” as a rookie playing lacrosse at California State University, Chico. At the time, I was anything but extreme: despite my love of a sport that left me with a few choice bruises, I liked things that were sensible and safe and aspired [...]

January 5, 2012 Continue reading…

Postcard from Koonalda Homestead

The Koonalda Homestead is an eerie place, a wide stretch of empty land suddenly littered with cars that sputtered to a stop in the middle of the Nullarbor in the 1950s. Originally a sheep shearing station, the Gurney family also established a fuel and rest stop for weary Nullarbor travellers from the 1950s into the [...]