Click here to re-read Taking a Trip Down Under: Part Two

My Great Australian Love Story…

This final part was the most emotional post for me write out of the three by far. Each time I tried to write this post, I felt like my heart was too full so I would pause from writing for a week or two. Now it is finally written and I hope you all enjoy this very happy story.

When I mapped out my trip to Australia, I chose to arrive in Sydney and depart from Melbourne. I initially planned to only see those two cities, but later decided to visit a third over a 3-4 day time period. I contacted someone I met traveling around Western Europe on a 30-day Contiki tour and asked her if I could visit her up north in Cairns. She replied that she had just moved out of Cairns to an unexciting town and advised me to visit someplace more beautiful and lively. I then remembered another girl from the same Contiki tour had recently posted on Facebook that she had begun working as a Beauty Therapist at a resort on Cradle Mountain, Tasmania. I sent her a message asking if she had any recommendations for visiting Tasmania and she immediately sent me a message inviting me to come visit her and stay with her in the staff housing. How could I say no to that? I bought my flight to Launceston, Tasmania the next day.

Arriving in Australia

After traveling for 20 hours from Paris, I finally arrived in Sydney. A wonderful friend I had previously met traveling around Scotland picked me up from the airport and hosted me for 10 days in Sydney and Bathurst. Sydney was an absolute dream. The hospitality, the brunch scene, the views—I couldn’t have had a better time. (More Sydney details will be shared in a future post).

When I arrived in Tasmania, I flew into a small town called Launceston. The original plan was to head straight to Cradle Mountain and spend 3 days there. However, the only bus heading to Cradle Mountain left a day later, so I was forced to stay in Launceston for one night and cut my trip to Cradle Mountain to 2 days. I remember feeling really alone when I arrive in Launceston. It was the first time in two weeks that I had been by myself, and naturally that gave me a lot of time to reflect and think about the events from two weeks prior. That night in the hotel, I called the bus company to confirm my ticket for the following morning. They informed me that if it snowed on Wednesday, I would not be able to make it back in time for my flight to Melbourne. This really discouraged me and I already felt like “what am I doing here?”, so I called the airline to change my flight to Melbourne for the next day. After 45 minutes of waiting on the phone, they told me it would cost 3x what I had initially paid to change my flight. I hung up the phone and thought myself, “fuck it. You’re making it up this mountain one way or another.” The next morning, I got on this tiny bus with an Indian backpacker and we headed up to Cradle Mountain.

Three hours later, I finally arrived in Cradle Mountain. Yay! However, at the bus station they informed me that there was not a bus or a taxi that could drive me up to the resort. They said there was a bus that stopped across the street from the resort for a regulation check-in, but it normally does not drop anyone off. I guess they saw the desperation in my face, since they then told me I could take the bus with ease. I got on this bus full of Chinese tourists and the driver put my giant suitcase in the passenger seat. When I boarded the bus, the driver made an announcement that I was an American tourist and everyone started cheering and clapping. It was weird.

After a few hours drive and an unexpected shuttle bus ride full of enthusiastic Chinese tourists, I HAD FINALLY ARRIVED IN CRADLE MOUNTAIN!!!

Arriving in Cradle Mountain

When I finally arrived at the resort in Cradle Mountain, I went into the lobby to try to track down my friend. They notified her that I had arrived and she came out of the staff lounge with the look of both excitement and relief on her face. She truly was not sure if I would ever make it up to Cradle Mountain, as I had no cell service and wasn’t able to tell her I was on my way.

As we were walking to the staff cabin that she lived in with 9 other employees, my friend mentioned that there were two Belgian guys working at the resort on working holiday and had been living there for almost 7 months. As I live in France and Belgium is located just north of the border, I found this interesting and was looking forward to meeting them later.

After exploring the beautiful nature around the resort, my friend took me to the resort spa where we enjoyed cheese, chocolate boards and the indoor/outdoor hot tub with a view of the stunning nature. In the hot tub, we talked a bit about our dating lives and I vividly remember saying, “I don’t want to date or be touched by another man for at least two years.”

Once our spa date came to an end, my friend and I headed to one of the restaurants at the resort, The Tavern, for dinner. When we walked in, my friend pointed towards the kitchen hot-food window and said, “That’s Jan, one of the Belgian guys.” When I saw him, I felt a weird feeling in my stomach. I’ve never been one to see someone and feel something right away. This was a feeling I’ve never had before. I smiled at him and waved, and he did the same in return.

Later that night, Jan and his friend came over to the girls cabin to watch the previous night’s episode of Game of Thrones. When Jan walked in, I could see that he had an awkward shy smile on his face. I could tell he felt what I was feeling too. When he sat down on the couch, he started asking me questions about myself and life in Paris. We really spoke for no more than 5 minutes. After the Game of Thrones episode, I completely passed out on the couch and when I woke up, the guys had left. I remember at this time I really tried to not overanalyze or build up anything in my head. I was obviously feeling something, but I tried very hard to ignore it.

*The i*
*ncredible nature on Cradle Mountain*

The next day

After a 3-hour incredibly beautiful nature walk in the pouring rain around Dove Lake, this beautiful lake at the bottom of Cradle Mountain, I returned back to my friend’s cabin. When she was finished with work, I asked her if we could eat at the Tavern again for dinner. As we were walking toward the restaurant, I asked my friend if we would see Jan at the restaurant. She said probably not as he was working pastry, which meant he was in the very back of the kitchen. However, when we sat down to eat, Jan popped his head in the window and stared at me with a little smile on his face. I felt like my cheeks were on fire. I kept trying to tell myself he wasn’t looking at me, but it was really obvious what he was doing. Butterflies in my stomach x1000.

Later that night at my friend’s cabin, I was sitting in the living room alone. My friend walked in and asked me if I was alright, of course thinking that I was sitting in the living room sulking about the events that occurred two weeks prior. However, I was sitting there hoping that Jan would walk in through the door at any moment. I tried to be subtle and ask her if the Belgian guys would be coming over later and my friend started screaming, “Oh my god! I KNEW you would hit it off with Jan! This is a match made in heaven. You guys would be perfect together!” I was like…please stop. Then she said she was going to send him a message and I absolutely protested. But when I told her not to message him, I got this awful feeling that I might miss out on something good. So I told her to go ahead and do it. She basically just asked him what he was up to and he said he was in bed early since he had the 4am shift the next morning. She then told him that I was leaving tomorrow at noon and he was completely shocked that I was leaving so soon. He immediately sent me a friend request on Facebook and sent me a message. The next day, I left at noon to fly to Melbourne.

Over the next 4.5 months…

When I left Cradle Mountain on August 16th, 2017, I had no idea what the next 4.5 months would entail. I went back to Paris a week later and Jan then left Cradle Mountain two weeks after that to continue traveling around Australia and Southeast Asia for the next 4.5 months with his best friend. From the day I left Tasmania, we spoke nearly every day for 4.5 months. We spoke like friends—just getting to know each other, finding out the tons of things we have in common, sending each other songs to listen to regularly, telling each other news and stories. It was never a dull moment. I told my closest friends that I felt really hopeful and excited about a potential relationship with Jan when he returned home to Belgium after traveling for nearly 1.5 years. Some of my friends were doubtful, some jealous, but most were just as enthusiastic as me. I always kept in my mind that things could easily go south, but that fortunately never happened.

Sometime in September 2017, I had booked my plane tickets to New York for Christmas break. I flew with Icelandair, which offers a free stopover program to passengers. Um, amazing. I decided to do a stopover in Reykjavik for 3 days before heading to New York. A month later, after booking all of my Icelandic adventures, I asked Jan if he would like to join me. I know, ballsy move, but I felt like, why not? What’s the worst that could happen? If we turned out to only work as friends, at least we got to see such a beautiful country together. A week later, Jan FaceTimed me while he was in Cambodia and told me he bought his tickets to Iceland. I was so excited.

At the end of December, Jan was finally back in Europe after being away from home for 15 months. I was so happy to finally have him so much closer in proximity to me! For the previous 2 months, we kept texting each other things like “49 days!”, “ 27 days, how about that?”, “6 more days!!”. I was so happy that we were finally going to see each other again after so much time had passed.

The night before our flights (mine from Paris, his from Brussels), Jan FaceTimed me. I could see on his face that something was wrong the moment I answered the call. He told me that Brussels Airport was having a strike and his flight had been cancelled. They offered a replacement bus to bring him to Paris from Brussels, but he wouldn’t have been able to make it in time—so the airline gave him a full refund. I couldn’t believe it. The disappointment was really heavy. I just started crying. I could see the pain in his face.

The next day came and off I went to Iceland alone for three days. Although I was so disappointed that Jan wasn’t there with me, I had the most incredible time!! I ate the most incredible Icelandic pastries, went snowmobiling, saw glaciers, went to the hot springs—it was magical. When I was in Iceland, I wasn't talking to Jan as much. I was being careful and was still a bit sore from his flight not working out. But after 24 hours, I realized that this was just life and Jan had not done anything malicious. So I moved past the cancelled flight and we still kept in touch. When I was leaving New York to head home to Paris, I texted him that I was boarding my flight. He responded with, “See you at the airport!”. I couldn’t believe what I had read! I didn’t even get a chance to respond before I had to switch my phone onto airplane mode and take off. The entire 7-hour flight, all I could think about was seeing him at the airport in Paris. I was so excited and so ready to see him.

Charles de Gaulle Airport

On January 3rd, 2018, I landed in Paris around 11am. When I left baggage claim, there he was waiting for me holding a sign with my name on it. When we saw each other, we were smiling so hard. We kept hugging, looking at each other, hugging again, looking at each other. Eventually, I just kissed him and we’ve been together ever since. One week later, we told each other that we loved each other. And on our one-year anniversary, we moved in together into an apartment in Paris. I still can’t believe our love story. It still makes me emotional when I talk about it. It’s just really special and unique in this day and age. Jan is an incredible man and I feel so lucky to have him in my life. He is honest, respectful, humble, selfless, reliable, consistent, adventurous, curious, affectionate, sensitive, thoughtful, funny, smart, easy-going, fun, has incredible taste in music, loves to travel, loves to try new food, has a passion for cooking—he’s my dream guy. Sometimes I find myself looking over at him with tears in my eyes because I can’t believe he’s “that guy I met in Tasmania”. Jan has changed my life by filling it with so much love. I feel incredibly lucky to have someone who gives love right back to me and doesn’t take it for granted. An American girl living in France meets a small town Belgian man in Australia—it still amazes me. This is the great love I dreamed of when I was a teenager. It’s even better than I ever imagined.

Jan, this is my love letter to you.

Love,

Katherine