So, we have officially settled for a while here in Melbourne. It feels like a whole different country to the rest of Australia we have seen so far, starting with the weather! Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have a cold glass of water from the tap rather than the usual luke warm, but it is absolutely freezing here now. There is actually snow capped mountains a couple of hours away where people go skiing, which I definitely didn't expect of an Australian Winter.
Today, after living in hostels for a whole 4 months, we moved into an apartment and I can hardly contain my excitement. Obviously there are positives and negatives to hostel living; the main good point is the social side, and we have made almost all of our friends in our hostel room/bar/kitchen. But I'm going to take this opportunity to list all the things I won't miss in a hurry:
- That one weirdo in your room (there's always one)
- Feeling like your bed has been placed slap bang in the middle of a hardcore dancefloor til 3am
- Sharing a kitchen with 200 backpackers. Enough said, uni was bad enough sharing with 4 or 5
- Drunken idiots, 24/7
- Drunken idiots, attempting to have sex in bunk beds
- Hungover idiots, and having to listen to them spew all day
I know that sounds like a lot of moaning, especially towards alcohol, but you really would be surprised at how many people in their mid 20's who just can't handle their drink! I thought I'd meet a lot of younger people in hostels, 18, 19 year olds' but most people have been my age or even a bit older. (Yay!) I just think it's a massive shame to go travelling, spend all your money going out at night then sleeping all day. And SO many people do that. Don't get me wrong I like to go out, I'm not boring, but I didn't come to the other side of the world to do what I can do at home. What's the point? I know if you're travelling alone drinking is the best way to make friends, but make those friends and then do something other than get drunk every night! There is so much to see and do over here and it really frustrates me when I see people wasting their time.
So we're moving onwards and upwards in the sleeping department. It's a lovely cosy place, modern with a balcony and the most exciting thing, an oven to cook our food in! When an oven is exciting you know you've spent too long in a hostel. The job front however is not moving anywhere, I'm still doing awful telesales and it's killing me. The last thing I came over here to do, was bother Aussies about switching electricity companies. But I know it's all part of the experience, having to do whatever means possible to earn money to stay travelling for longer. But seriously the amount of stress we are under in that job isn't really worth it, and we're a team made up of 75% backpackers. I'm 3 weeks in now and I think I deserve a medal.
SO that's enough moaning for one day :)
Hopefully my next post will be a bit cheerier, I'll have a well paid bar job and visiting interesting places on my days off. I'll feel like an actual grown up, living in the city in a nice apartment with my boyfriend. When he's at work I'll have friends round and entertain, like working adults do. That is the plan!
See you there x
