Making Moves

Hello fabulous people of the World Wide Web! I’ve whipped up a blog post to recap the happenings of a (brie) cheesy Bogen in the land of Bogans! I left marvelous Melbourne in a teary state of sleep-deprived delirium and Anna and I found ourselves in beautiful Byron Bay.  After a few blissful days exploring and realizing we weren’t the only ones who wanted to work in paradise, we traveled north to the amusingly tacky Surfer’s Paradise, home to theme park aficionados and people whose hair prefers to stay classy in the front and party in the back (aka a mullet). Anna and I were applying for jobs in other cities online while looking for jobs on the Gold Coast and things kept leading us to Sydney. The adventure continued onto another tarmac and we landed as two Wyoming women on a mission to get employed! But before I became a penny-pinching cheapo, there was a lot of good fun to be had in Melbourne!

Melbourne: Surviving The Great Ocean Road, The Heat Wave and Saying Goodbye

Anna, our friend Dagmar and I hit the road and went on a short trip down the Great Ocean Road (GOR). All claims that I have questionable driving skills at times were shattered by my effortless ability to drive on the other side and not kill anything! The largest challenge: avoiding putting on the windshield wipers instead of the turning signal. The drive was spectacular because the water was so gorgeous and the road was so windy. Any trip, if possible, isn’t complete without a stop to a cheese factory, so we enjoyed what could only be described as good old midwestern fun! We felt like we had teleported to Wisconsin. Another highlight was seeing a graceful pack of cockatoos flying above us. It sure beat the only other wildlife we saw which was a dead kangaroo on the beach that Anna creepily photographed much too enthusiastically haha It was a really great time with the best of company: good girlfriends, good tunes and so much sun!

During a fierce week of high temperatures in Melbourne, I spent a weird amount of time sitting in a puddle of my own sweat and fantasizing about skinny-dipping in the arctic. Melbourne was experiencing a major heat wave and the whole city was freaking out. Trains couldn’t run, little ball kids at the Australian Open were passing out and I was relaying much too greatly on popsicles as a coping mechanism. In our eyes, the only logical way to spend the day was to lie around in a blow up pool we filled in the back patio. I’d never felt such feelings of love for an inanimate, heavily plastic-scented item.

Anna and I had thought about leaving Melbourne to go to a beach town for a while but I never knew how hard it would be to leave. For a bit in the beginning after Anna and I had left I’d even wondered why I’d moved on at all. I missed the quirky little city I’d called home and couldn’t stop thinking of what I’d left behind. I kept hoping things would work out for Anna and I and it would all be worth it. In hindsight it all did but there are still so many things I miss (among millions of other things): hours spent in parks doing random things, beach days in St. Kilda, watching unexpected fireworks, rooftop cider bars, volleyball sessions, sitting in the flower cooler at my job and being surround by coldness and beauty, dodging possums in the park, random Scottish dance parties, conversations in the Nunnery kitchen while drinking tea, moonlight cinema, grooving down the streets to Dutch dance tunes, walking through Federation Square at night, spending time with our adopted Aussie family, alleyway cafes, laughing myself to the point that it was a stomach workout with Team America, holidays at the Nunnery and most importantly meeting so many incredible people who I greatly admired and even loved. It was a really magical couple of months.

The Unemployed Life

Gone were the days of politely refusing to take the last mini Nutella packet at the hostel so someone else could enjoy it. Being unemployed made Anna and I have no shame in being ruthlessly assertive females. We excelled at things such as being overly competitive in backpacker volleyball to get a free beer or giving a menacing stink eye while scoping out something equally appealing to someone else on the free food shelf at the hostel. Although we’ve always been a fan of freebies, we had a new appreciation for anything that we didn’t have to pay for. Take for example people watching. One time, I enjoyed a particularly invigorating 30 minutes watching a wee ginger scare pigeons. Or that other time when the Friday night streets of Surfer’s Paradise turned into a feast for the eyes. We spent a good 2 hours on a bench with an equally amused elderly German couple. The grand daddy of all free events, however, was the Hurley Australian Open of Surfing where I came dangerously close to giving myself whiplash on not one but 229 separate occasions from a new hobby/possible life path I’ve found called “looking for hot surfer guys and making crazy, indiscreet gestures of excitement when I see them”. Anna and I decided that if you’re a surfer it’s also impossible to be an ugly person. The sport doesn’t allow it. And if you’re ugly and you’re surfing you will be eaten by a shark. Sorry but that’s the world we live in. 

Surfer's Paradise

Unemployment also lead to many creative schemes to make money that we unfortunately decided weren’t quite right for us. Such brilliant ideas included: donating eggs (sadly, I posses the short person gene although Anna and I think we can combine both of ours to create the world’s greatest human being), setting up webcams of me eating for people with food fetishes (this flies in Asia but hasn’t quite reached the Aussie market. Man, Asians are always ahead of us in everything!), hurling ourselves in front of public transport to sue the city (sacrificing limbs is not worth it), sugar daddy (still looking. Let us know if you have any leads) and becoming street performers (I can do some cool gymnastics tricks and Anna has some mad flute skills, but we are uncomfortable with eyes burning into us. We don’t care for the stare. Also, we would like to say we have some sweet dance moves but sadly we are Macarena sort of people :/).

The Employed Life

Thankfully I found a job, and a great one at that! This time around I’ll be working full time at the front desk of Sydney Harbour YHA, a really nice hostel right near Circular Quay in The Rocks, one of the most popular tourist areas of Sydney. It’s also an upscale business district so I spend my time commuting with a sea of suited up city folk. Thankfully I have experience working in the hotel industry so I’m not a complete idiot at the desk but there’s still a lot to learn. I love my coworkers. They are patient and funny and the atmosphere is so nice. As an added bonus, my odd dream to speak over a PA system has been granted because I get to advertise hostel events throughout the whole complex with my booming, God-like voice! The occasional manly tones that my pesky vocal chords produce really shine when put on the spot. As well, I’ll be taught to be a barista. I’m looking forward to making wild little milk creatures on top of people’s coffee!

Sydney Harbour YHA

Final Thoughts….

I believe there’s a little nook in my heart especially for keeping the memory of all the incredible people and places I’ve known in this wandering life of mine. Melbourne found its way there, as many have before and many will. I found myself alone swimming in the waves here in Sydney and felt some of the purest joy I’ve know. I couldn’t keep the smile off my face or the giggles from toppling out. The ocean makes me so happy and I’m really excited to be here in Sydney where a beautiful city full of opportunity happens to be fringed by spectacular beaches. I’ll always have the memory of Melbourne and now I’ll have another one of Sydney. Things always seem to have a way of working themselves out. Can life always be like this? I sure hope so because it’s what I live for. Unreal moments that turn into the realest feelings and unexpected circumstances that become instances in which the heart can only expect to be one way: happy :)

Beach walk in Sydney! 

An Australian Life

Nine weeks later, I’m reminiscing over when I first landed on Australian soil and was overwhelmed by everything: finding a place to live, a job, friends and the fear that salted caramel hadn’t yet caught on in this foreign land of bronzed hunks and cuddly creatures in trees. It’s nice to think of how much things have changed since then and how relieved I am that it all worked out. I’ve found a place here and have discovered that strangers can turn into family, some of the most beautiful art in the world can be seen on the walls of undiscovered alleyways and although Australians have found a love for salted caramel (insert sigh of relief) they have something even better: honeycomb. Australians are known to have a really high standard of living and their cities constantly top lists of the best places in the world to live. I’m so thankful to have the experience to confirm that this is not just a claim, it’s true. And the best part is that this is only the beginning…

                                                        Backpacking in Oz: Where it all began

I spent some time backpacking around Australia to decide where I wanted to settle down. I had heard so many different opinions about the largest cities in Australia and wanted to see for myself which would fit me the best. I started in Sydney and was welcomed by impossibly beautiful blue skies and perfect weather. I was so stunned by Sydney! Seriously, what a babe! It really had the best of everything: amazing, clean city beaches, beautiful harbors and an exciting first-class city full of things to do and places to explore. The only word used to describe it was impressive. I spent a few days there and kept thinking to myself “wow, I could really live here!”  I especially loved taking the ferry across the harbor to Manly beach and seeing the skyline. I left Sydney completely understanding what all the hype was about and when I flew to Brisbane I didn’t know how it could top what I had seen.

Brisbane was a pleasant city with a really different vibe and it was nice to be able to compare Sydney to somewhere else. I was able to see one of my friends that I met when I was working in Greece and she showed me around the city. It was so nice catching up and we even met some good lookin’ new friends :)

Melbourne: Finding Home

My last stop was Melbourne. Interestingly the majority of people I had talked to told me that was where they would live so I was really intrigued. I arrived and my first thought was that I was cold! What the heck?! I never imagined I would feel that way in Australia because of the image we all have of sun, sand and surf. And no jackets in sight. And god forbid a scarf! It was a dreary, drizzly day and my first impression wasn’t as I’d thought. From there, though, I ended up falling for Melbourne a little more each day, creating the best kind of love. I found myself extending my stay a few days at a time until I realized I just didn’t want to leave. Unlike Sydney where everything amazing is right in your face, Melbourne you really have to dig into. And if you do, you end up finding so many amazing treasures and you realize why it is so spectacular. Melbourne is home to amazing street art, music, food, café culture and coffee. It’s very European-esque and I think it has a lot of hints of California. There are tons of cool neighborhoods, from the hippest hipster to the swankiest business district to funky St. Kilda with its beach. People call it the cultural capital of Australia for a reason. The only downside is the weather, which to be frank, is totally whack. Lonely Planet says it well: “If you’ve ever experienced Melbourne’s inclination to plummet from searing heat to drizzling rain in the space of an hour, you’ll understand that this must be the true definition of unconditional love”. Amen.

A big reason why I found myself loving Melbourne so much was because I met so many awesome people right in the beginning and we all know people make the place. I stayed at a hostel with a mix of travelers and people on the working holiday visa and it reminded me of being in a college dorm again. A dangerous amount of fun! There was always something going on, from bbqs to pub crawls to endless park sessions and it was so nice to have new people always around to do something and familiar faces to come home to. I still consider most of the people I met there my closest friends here and I’m so thankful for that. I also hadn’t ever stayed at a hostel where I felt so at home. I’ll always remember it and smile and I miss the hostel living a lot (not the career snorers though. I don’t miss them at all. Nope.)

I got a job working at a flower shop in a northern suburb, which is a world away from Melbourne. I have found it really interesting because working in a commercial shop is so different than what I’m used to. I’d never even wired flowers before and now I’m a pro! I spend most of my time with giant piles of flowers making as many bouquets as I can (sometimes over 100!) and running the front counter. I really love flowers and am learning a ton. Australians also have really high wages so I have no complaints about the money! The only bummer is that it’s only part time, but it has left me with lots of time to explore this awesome city. I’ve also fallen in love with an 81 year-old man named Ernie who works a few days a week for a couple of hours. He calls me darlin and brings me muffins while I’m working :)  What more could a girl ask for?

Anna and I were also really lucky to meet a kind, generous and fun family here in Melbourne. They have been so incredibly nice and helpful and we have found ourselves with a little adopted family, which is beyond awesome. They are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met traveling and a true testament to Australian hospitality. We’ve learned a lot about Australian life by staying with them, which is a really cool experience not all backpackers are lucky enough to have. They also love Jackson, which automatically makes them amazing! Anna and I can’t thank them enough.

Tasty Treats

Aussies know how to create some food addictions. Here are some that top the list (I’d like to take this moment to send out a special shout out to the Brits for throwing all your prisoners over here. You left some good food traditions with them!):

Tim Tams

Addicting little chocolate covered cookies that come in a variety of flavors and make eating the whole box in one sitting ridiculously easy and guilt- inducing

Pies

If I were famous, I would do everything in my power to become sponsored by Pie Face. I would become the Face of Pie Face. I would proudly represent flaky pastry with delicious fillings and mashed potatoes and gravy on top.

Pavlova

A meringue crust layered with heaps of whipped cream and fresh fruit that melds into a soft, delicious treat #winning

Crumpets

The irresistible love child of an English muffin and a pancake. Hallelujah!

Cider

Come on USA. Get with it. Cider is the best beverage in the whole world. Why would you not have any?! For a special treat on rare occasions, I buy the $12 passion fruit flavor :)

Kangaroo

I accidently ate a kangaroo burger without knowing it at a barbie. I thought it tasted a little odd and when it was confirmed that what I ate was not beef and in fact a cute marsupial, I still found I had pleasantly enjoyed it and continued on to have kangaroo on other occasions. While in Australia do as the Australians do, right?!

 Bats, Possums and Goon*, oh my!

The bats of Melbourne constantly fascinate me. Every night when the sun goes down, they start roaming the skies and are GIANT! These are no Wyoming bats. The whole sky has them all over and it’s so cool to me because I’d never seen anything like that before. If you find yourself inspired by the bats and are feeling particularly zoologist-like you can go through any of the parks and examine possums in their natural habitat. If you are really lucky, you can even see a backpacker or ten wasted off of goon too! How fun is Oz?!

Anna Banana!

I’d like to add a special shout out to my friend Anna who came to Melbourne a few weeks after I’d arrived. It’s been so amazing having one of my closest friends here and we have had so much fun cooking, laughing, high-fiving, playing volleyball, enjoying hours of Game of Thrones, having spontaneous dance parties in random locations, being basically hilarious in textual form, eating tasty cheese and heaps of other things. I’m so glad to have her here. If you don’t know her, get to know her because she’s way cooler than me.

                                                                          Future plans

I hope to master the art of looking the right way before crossing the street and to perfect an Aussie accent. Ask anyone, I’m really close. Like scarily close. (Only kidding. Every time I try, somehow it creepily morphs into a southern American accent and I don’t even know how it happens). On a more serious note, Anna and I plan to head to the east coast to work, hopefully in a small surf town. It will be so hard to leave this beautiful city but we are in search of the Aussie cliché. I’m thinking half-naked men on the beach smothering vegemite on themselves surround by koalas riding kangaroos while Men at Work’s “Down Under” plays in the background. We will see if it happens, there is a small chance I’m setting my hopes too high.

*Goon is “wine packaged as a bag-in-a-box. Most people in Australia know it and most backpackers drink it almost daily. On one side it is a cheap alcoholic drink that ice-cold or mixed can taste pretty good. On the other side, it can be disgusting and might contain remains of fish and eggs. Some optimistic mates say: ‘well then it’s like a whole meal’.”