Melbourne – Ritz for Backpackers. Jessica House. Carlisle St, St. Kilda. McIlwrick St, Windsor.
Seven homes in eleven months. I lived in all these places for various amounts of time in Australia, from one week at the Ritz to four months in Windsor. These are not simply names of places I’ve stopped over during a fun weekend on the Gold Coast or holiday in the Whitsunday Islands – they each had a special impact on me and at one point I considered each of these my home.
Think of your favorite place in the world. The place you go to in the back of your mind to calm you, focus, or meditate. If anyone has done relaxation exercises before a big race or big exam – you know what I’m talking about. It’s your “happy” place. Well, without going further melodramatic on everyone, I’ve found that place of mine. It’s a park at the end of the main street in Port Douglas, Queensland. A circle of grass carved out over the rocks with tall, outlining palm trees overlooking the ocean and mountains of the Daintree Rain forest beyond. Em and I went there the other day to take what must be the millionth photo and soak up the sunshine. We got to talking. Like I said, it’s my “happy” place….it brings out thoughts, emotions, laughter, reminiscing and smiles.
I leave Australia one month from TODAY. Eleven months have passed….and where have they gone??? Well, for one thing – it hasn’t gone like I expected. We rocked up to this country with wayyyy too much luggage, expecting to sort out comfortable housing, proper jobs and a steady life pretty easily. Mistake number 1. Things may look difficult, but that doesn’t mean it has to be terrible. I look back and we had the time of our lives just trying to figure out the journey. We thought hostel living would be the worst thing that ever happened to us. “Sharing a communal bathroom?? Yuck.” Well, without Ritz I wouldn’t have met the amazing friends that truly made up some of my best times in those first few months. And Jessica House...that’s just funny. I got to have a puppy for a few weeks, but really the only life lesson with that move was – don’t rush into things!! Our house on Carlisle Street in St. Kilda was a step up in the fact that we had our own place to take care of and call our own. We literally had to put the bunk beds together piece by piece and clean the bathroom with fuming chemicals until it finally went back to that original shade of bright green. We created a life of friends and work in an environment that almost made you feel guilty if you were homesick or woke up in a bad mood. People thrived on making the most of life. We lived around the corner from a sunny beach, cappuccino strip, the iconic Luna Park and a pier where penguins would play around sunset. Did I have the “proper” job that I originally intended to find?? No. We both had to work our butts off in hospitality this entire year to make our way through this country, but I don’t regret a minute of it. Each job, each person and each place taught me something about myself that I didn’t know before.
So the grand plans of AUSTRALIA!....beaches. bbqs, surfing, sunshine, sheilas, crocodile dundee, 'no worries, mate' mentality…..became something entirely different to me. Em and I didn’t end up living in a sunny beach town (pretty much opposite until now) traveling to New Zealand or Southeast Asia, and could name about a hundred more places in Australia we’d like to still see for that matter. But when I stepped off that plane last September, I would never have guessed I’d make the friendships, however fleeting, that would impact me for a lifetime, that I’d make instant connections with people and still keep in touch – even if it means months/years without seeing them, find love and discover heartbreak, and explore a country that always seems to offer more as soon as you feel you might have reached an endpoint. Eleven months ago, I would never have expected to find Melbourne the city that I will always consider my “home away from home”. When we made it to Perth, I found friendships that made me realize, once again, why I am traveling. It's sometimes not the places you end up, but the people you meet along the way that make it significant. As poor as we all were, get ten good friends in one room and somehow you all creatively make feasts from nothing and have wine and laughter to last night after night.
Now, I find myself sitting in one of my favorite places in the world in Port Douglas. It is in every way paradise….small and friendly, a gorgeous main strip lined with palm trees and coral colored buildings, and set in Northeast Australia with tropical rain forests to one side and white beaches to the other. I live in a small room with my best friend plus four other people. I work at the hostel for free rent and live out of a bag. I eat at free bbqs and only cook when I have a bunch of friends to share it with. I’m renting a van to live in as three of us travel down the east coast for my last three weeks in Australia. I’m in no way living in luxury or working a “proper” job….but I couldn’t be happier. All these months and experiences have shaped me into who I am now. I can finally say that I’m living like a “true” backpacker (shout out, Josh!). This lifestyle is not forever – so I guess it’s easier to live out of a bag when you know there’s an endpoint – but it does enable you to live in the present and cherish where you are and the friends that you get to share it with.
Em and I have moved all the way from the lovely Ritz backpackers, dusty Jessica House, creepy Carlisle, “home away from home” McIlwrick, heartbreaking Sundancers, bogan Hilton and now to the laid back, tropical Parrotfish. I’m home in one month and Emily is off to teach in China for one year. I really hope I won’t move seven times next year as I travel back home to Columbus, Ohio….but at the same time, I don’t see this as the end as my life as a nomad. Even if I settle back in the Midwest, I plan to keep traveling and discover the world. It’s a passion that I don’t want to let go of and now I have friends all over the world to help me out! Australia, Canada, England, Mexico, France, Holland, Germany, Ireland…..I will even have my best friend in China.
I have one more month with Em to explore the sunnier parts of this country and weave our way back down to Melbourne, back to where our adventure began. The ending will be bittersweet, but not something I'd like to dwell on now! If you’ve made it this far, thanks for following this sappy blog. More to come soon of life in Port Douglas, funny diets, swims in the Great Barrier Reef, encounters of the rain forest and plans of the upcoming weeks :)
Cheers and good day, mate
No comments:
Post a Comment