Backpacker in Australia - 9 month
I am almost here for a month now and it feels like several months already. I came alone, ready to begin my next adventure on the other side of the world. Without any plans or imagines. Already on my second flight, from Dubai to Sydney, I met a german girl and we were talking a bit. She was walking around all the time and was not able to sit for more than an hour. I already liked her.
We´ve got a shuttle who drove us from the airport to our hostel. The first days I was walking around more with my "airplane" girl, explore Sydneys downtown, the Harbour Bridge and of course: the Opera House.
One day, we wanted to use the ferry to come to Mandly Beach. The first days in Sydney were over, we felt good and safe, but we were also afraid not to find a job fast enough. We were all sure we want to work first, safe some money and travel afterwords.
Right after 5 days me, my friend and other girls from the Hostel booked a 5 day surf camp and we all ended up in one room - where we became a little family. We got to know each other, we were talking a lot, we are not alone anymore.
We really enjoyed the time in surf camp. The slogan was "eat, surf, sleep - repeat" and that was the perfect description for the whole week. We woke up at around 7, had breakfast and got ready for the first 2 1/2 h of surf lesson. Afterwords we got dressed, washed the wetsuit and we had lunch. After lunch we had to get our wetsuits on again and we had the next 2 1/2 h of surf lesson. After that we washed our wetsuit again and took a shower. Then we had our dinner. After dinner we were tired from the day, it was cold but we were sitting out there with new people that we met, played card games and talked until 10pm (quiet time).
We enjoyed our time, with not a lot of service for our phones, what was fine ! And then we had to leave this perfect aloha friendly place, that reminded me a lot of my time in Hawaii and went back to Sydney Downtown in an hostel to look for a job again.
5 days later (seems like something big happens every 5 days),I moved to a family in Sydney, because I got a job as an au pair. 2 kids, aged 2 and 4, a beautiful house and a friendly family. The first 2 days I worked together with the old au pair, she showed me her schedule and I helped her. At this point I already figured out, that the host-mom is pretty picky about cleaning. She wanted to have everything clean and perfect, even if I was working with the kids. Kids laundry every day, sponges and towels separately, everything while kids are around in my working hours. Alright. After the 2 days I enjoyed the weekend, came down earlier for dinner (15 minutes earlier), to set the table and may do same dishes. When I just came down the mom told me, she would like me to come down earlier, so I could help and not sit down right away and eat. I didn't respond anything and just made the dishes, kinda mad that she said that, especially because I came down earlier for that.
The first day working alone was okay. The kids were fighting a lot, what was okay for me, I could handle that, but I knew the mom doesn't like it when you use negative things, like saying no. And to talk to a child who kicks his brother in his face positive is something that I never did before. So on my second day the big brother wanted to get a toy from his little brother and the little brother hold it, to safe it. Before someone got hurt, I also hold it in the middle, tried to calm the big brother down and talked in "a possitive way" to him. I said "we want to be kind to each other, let your brother play with this toy, I am sure you can use it too!", while he was screaming and hitting his brother (or my arms, who safed his brothers face). The mom ran down, took the toy, gave it to the big brother, looked mad at me and said "what happened?". I explained. She said I was screaming at her son and fighting with him about the toy. She didn't want to hear that I wasn't screaming, so I just asked her what she would do. So she told me, to give the big brother the toy, take the little one and play something else and ignore the big one for a bit. So actually she wants me, to take the toy from the brother who had the toy first, because his big brother is fighting for it and let the little one cry. At the same time, I would teach the big one that he gets what he wants if he is doing that (screaming, hitting, kicking). I told her okay, even if I really didn't like the idea, but she is the mom. Afterword she gave me a book, that she wanted me to read. About "a positive way to teach children" or something. I like this "positive" thing, absolutely! But not in the way she handled this situation. So I took the book, without being willing to read it.
Just half an hour later, she came down to bring the kids to school and checked the lunch box I've made. And she became super mad. I cut the bread just in half and not in a triangle. I also forgot to cut the crust off. She said that I am not listening, that I don't want to listen, that she is coming late to school now, just because of me and that she thought I would have experiences. Even after I apologized she kept talking very mad. (After she told me a day before, I have to cut the strawberrys in a special way, he doesn't like apple and oranges, but his brother does, I should use not half empty bread, 'cause it's older, I have to put paper under the strawberry, crust is okay, but not on a special bread, he likes avocado, vegemite ...). And then I've got the point that I wanted to leave. This is not a situation where I wanted to be in. I wanted to enjoy a family life and help to take care of their children, but not this kind of a perfection mess.
So I started looking for a new job, with a guilty feeling in my breast. Hoping I could leave as soon as possible to feel comfortable again. I've got some jobs, but they didn't pay enough money. I know, that money is not everything, but I really wanted to do this big roadtrip and I knew I need enough money for it, so I kept looking. On friday the mom came back from work and she asked me if I started reading the book already. I said no, I did other things in my free time. She asked me if I really want to do this and then I found the perfect situation. I told her "no". And then she said I can finish work today and leave tomorrow. And I finally felt good again. Even if I didn't have a new job I just felt good.
So I moved out, came back to Sydney Downtown into an hostel. Beside my headache and tummy hurtings I felt really good and free again. And I actually got a call, that I have a new au pair job in Melbourne, 50 minutes from the city away. I had to work just 3 days a week and I am off from friday to monday. So I had enough time to get a second job and safe more money.
And that's it. Here I am. Ready for my second job in one month. Ready for my flight ...
Then I met another really cute and awesome hostfamily. My
hostparents were easy, nice, funny and really understanding. My hostkids (two
girls - twins - 2 years old) were super cute and absolutely easy going! They
were listening better then any other kid I´ve met. Sadly, I wasn´t able to
find another job, but to safe enough money !
I finished my job after 3 months and left a few days before
christmas - I flew to Hawaii, to see my hostdad and his new au pair for
christmas (the kids were with their mom in Maryland). He had a job on Maui and
I came for two weeks to spend time with them and explore another beautiful
island of Hawaii.
After christmas I flew to Australia for new years – to
Sydney! Here I met my travelbuddy I mentioned before – the girl from the
airport in Dubai – FRIDA. We wanted to start our adventure around Australia,
but we lost car no. 1 before we were even able to start our roadtrip. Eventhough
we lost a car, we were excited for the new year and went to the Sydney Harbour Bridge
at like 11am already (you need to safe a little place, otherwise it would be
gone haha). We went there with Chris, a friend we met in Sydney who is from Germany,
too. We played cards, watched a movie, waited in line for food for more then an
hour (same with the bathroom) and talked about everything until FINALLY the
kids firework at 9pm began. Even THIS was the best firework I´ve ever seen.
Obviously just until I saw the midnight firework.
(For the people who want to enjoy new years in Sydney – look
out for friends who live there. Hotels/Hostels/etc. are way to expensive and
you usually have to book for a whole week.)
January 1st we drove back to „Melbourne“ (Garfield is the
name of that cute little place we stayed at, but no one knows) to look out for
another job, after we lost our car. We were able to live in a shared flat with
4 men for free (I met one of them when I worked there as an au pair and he said
we can stay there for a while). But after 2 months we realized that we wouldn´t
find a job in such a small town, so I decited to buy my own car and we´d start
our roadtrip and go as far as we get with our money. We bought a Holden Zafira
(Opel in Germany) and build our own bed in there, after we were fighting to get
the back-seat out oft hat car.
We started on the Great Ocean Road and passed (and stoped
by) Grampians, Adelaide, Port Lincoln, the famous Nullarbor, Esperance/Cape Le
Grande, Perth, Ningaloo Reef, Hutt Lagoon, Exmouth and Kalbarri National Park.
After just a few weeks of roadtripping it happened… before we were able to stop
at the side of the street to take a rest, the car stoped working… and didn´t
start again. We opened the front oft he car and waited for help. Even through
we were in the middle of nowhere, we didn´t have to wait very long. Two nice
guys stoped and checked our car and told us, that our engine is broken and we
can´t drive that car anymore. They asked us if we want to take a shower and
offered us to take a rest at their place. And yes, we knew it sounds pretty
obvious, but actually YES – this is exactly what we needed and wanted. So we
said yes. It might have been pretty stupid of us, but these two guys were the
best that could happen to us that day. They gave us food, a bathroom, ice
cream, drinks, they offered us their pool – and yes, we took the offer and in
the end, they offered us their guestroom for one night. I am actually really
glad, that we just trusted these two australian people, ´cause we couldn´t end
up better that night.
In the next morning, they droped us off at our car and we
started packing. I am honest – my mood was more then shitty. It was early,
cold, we didn´t know how to get to Broome (our first idea to go to. It is close
and we thought we might be able to work there), because it is the next big
city, but still 5 hours away, there were sandflies who started biting us and oh
yes, I lost my 4.000 AUS$ car I planed to sell after our roadtrip.
We draw a sign that said „BROOME“, we were standing on the
side of the street holding up the sign and our thumb and hoped… We hoped, that
we will survive and actually find a place to sleep. We hoped that there will be
someone who can take us at least closer to Broome. 10 Minute and 3 cars later,
an SUV stoped. In the car was just one driver, male and about 40 or older. He
told us, what a coincidence, that he is actually on his way straight to Broome
and that he can take us. Gonna be honest – we were scared. Coincidence, really?
We looked at each other, but in the end we decited to go with him – because he
was actually the person we didn´t even try to hope for – nonstop to Broome for
5 hours. I sent 2 friends in Australia the type of the car, a really bad photo
of the driver that I took from the back and the licence sign when he stoped at
the gas/petrol station. In the end he was just a really kind guy who saved our
lives and who works the weekdays in Broome. He got us coffee and felt so sorry
for us. He droped us off at the cheapest hostel in Broome he knows of and it
turned out to be the best hostel I´ve ever been to. We droped our stuff in our
14 people room and sat at the pool with a notice paper and a pen – time to plan
our „trip“. Not even 5 minute later, we got invited to the pool from a bunch of
people who didn´t let go, to play a game with us. These people were so amazing
and entertained us the whole night with the role game „mafia“ I totally fell in
love with.
In that hostel we found a group of 7 boys who planed to
continue the route we planed to drive and offered us to take us ´till Darwin,
which is a bigger city then Broom in the north of Australia. Since we still got
some money, we said yes and continued our trip. Because it was rainy season, we
were not able to see that much on our way to Darwin, but we swom in the biggest
lake in Australia with 25.000 crocodiles (which are not supposed to be
dangerous), we actually saw some crocodiles and we spend some pretty awesome
nights in Darwin in a beautiful, luxuary appartment with a rooftop pool.
There is a video on Youtube from our Trip Broome to Darwin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JD3wjop_rU&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0cFHHYbOvZIaESD3Ii_dCEmO_3ZUOUgVAyqxoVug6RbIGmzskXiYX01oc
After my last cute little adventure alone, I flew to Sydney
for 2 days. Where everything started and I actually still knew my way around,
found my hostel right away and walked to the AIFS (my agency) office to check
if I am ready to go. Ready to leave. After 9 months in Australia, I was ready
to go. But not ready to go home, no. I was ready for my new adventure – in
Asia.
for more pictures - instagram: Monjas_lifestyleexperience_
https://www.instagram.com/monjas_lifestyleexperience_/
Comments
Post a Comment