Philippines

Considering that phillipines worked out of 700 different island, it's a totally different experience travelling around than what I'm use too. Instead of hitting any travel agency to book the next best bus to the place you're looking to go to you actually have to book flight tickets to get around. And that is not only more expensive but also takes a bit more of planning. Which I'm not good at despite the fact that I'm living out of the quote 'the best plan is to make no plan'. This was not really working for me travelling the phillipines. I'm also really indecisive and during my time traveling alone the thing I missed most was to have someone to help me make decisions. Turns out that Alice and Louise are both worse than me and since I've done a lot of travels already they kinda relied on me to make the decisions for us. Which I did, with their approval.

Manilla

3am was suddenly 4 am when we arrived to Manilla airport. I had organized a couchsurfer who happily would let us stay for the night. We took a cab to her place in the city where we got about 5.30. Just before she headed for work. Rica lived on the 37th floor, and we all stood on her balcony chatting as we watched the sun rise. As we barely got any sleep yet we went back to bed where we stay'd until early afternoon before we headed for the mall. We needed to fix this phone Louise bought secon hand in Siem reap, that wasn't working anymore thanks to Alice's idea of resetting it. Well, the people who say that MBK in Bangkok is big has obviously never been to Mall Asia in Manilla. It is huge. We got lost countless of times before we found the rig shop to help us. This mission took us all day. 

We got back to Rica's place and hit the Internet cafe to book us a ticket out of Manilla. This city is not a place where you want to stay for too long. With the hectic city traffic hitting you straight int he face I felt like leaving straight away. After a lot of hassle getting this ticked booked and me having an emotinal breakdown that Alice had to save me from, we managed to book a ticket to Borocay the next morning. My mood improved a lot having that done and I could happily enjoy a good Mexican dinner and a couple of beers with Rica that night before heading to bed. 

Rica, Louise, Alice and I having a red house (local beer) 

Boracay

I'm not gonna lie. Borocay is an amazing place but I'm sure we could all agree that our time there is a bit blurry. We met a lot of people at 'Frendz' hostel, and created our own little drunken family during this time. And we did have the best time together.  I felt really sorry for Australian Jason who ended up having all his valuables stolen. Creditcard, passport, money -everything. Cause I'm traveling with my Australian credit card I happily helped him out with having him transfer money to me so that I could give it back in local cash. I sure know how it feels to have your things stolen, you appreciate all the help you can get. 

There was a crazy Swedish guy who created what he named a 'Swedish breakfast'. This basically means one beer, and would be the way everybody started the day.  I 'accidentally' tricked Alice into having one one morning, before she was aware of the concept. That was fun. Later that day our hostel organized a free pasta night, where everyone gathers together in the common area for dinner, drinks and with live music. When the hostelbar closed we headed for a local bar where we ended the night with bongo drums, dancing and tons of new local friends.

Our hostel crew, before heading to the local bar 

The next morning we went on a boat trip to 'magic island'. A day full of cliff jumping - one of my favourite activities. There was probably about 15 of us, jumping, drinking and socializing. So much fun. I went again the next day to 'Ariel's point' where you able to jump of 15 meters. I'm prod to say that I was one of the few- and the first, to achieve this. That nigh we created a party in the tattoo shop, where the Swedish guy was getting a tattoo of Kenny's face on his ass. Don't ask. They're absolutely mental. But everyone wanted to witness this happen. 

Our last day we spent on the beach before heading to spiderhouse for a beautiful sunset view. A few beers later we headed back in time for another free pasta night at the hostel together with live music. It was quite sad having our last night together with everyone and we were tempted to stay a few days longer. This was also Australian Luke's birthday night which everyone came out to celebrate. A fun night that brought us back way to late to be able to function at 8 in the morning. 

One of Borocay's amazing sunsets 

t's easy to get stuck at a place where you meet amazing people at an amazing place, specially when you're never sober enough to make a decision to leave. After beeing there 6 days, we finally found ourselves on he road again. To save some money we travelled the local way across the ocean and to Cebu. 6 hours in a minivan took us to Iloilo, from where they luckily enough had a ferry leaving for Cebu the same night. The night ferry was an experience itself. Several floors covered with bunk beds, shared by only locals except from three of us. Despite that we was houndereds of people sharing this journey someone thought it was a great idea to bring their roosters. On a night ferry. I know that cockfights are a big thing in the phillipines and that some people care more for their roosters than their children. But on a night ferry ..

Bohol

Having no plans or no idea what direction to head when getting ourselves to Cebu city we simply caught a taxi to somewhere in the centre, after getting the driver well confused. As Cebu city itself seemed to be similar to Manilla we decided not to stay. Catching a taxi back to the pier we headed over to Bohol, the big island next door. After being on land travelling for 35 hours straight we finally found ourselves in a hostel called 'nut huts' next to a river, In the middle of the forest, 267 steps downhill and isolated from the civilization. Living it back to basics. 

After a well needed amazing 12 hour sleep we woke up to the sound of nature. Ah. Such a contrast to our life in Boracay. So beautifully quiet. We walked the 267 steps uphill, and 800 meters through the forest to get to the main road where we hired motorbikes for the day. As it was the first time driving for Alice and Louise we got one each. We spend the day driving around Bohol, which turned out to be so much smaller than I thought. But with an amazing nature. And what a freedom to be one with the nature, just driving around enjoying its quietness. We started of heading to the chocolate hills that we've heard so much about. It was cool, sure, but I wouldn't brag to much about it. We continued with heading down the tiniest road to a spectacular waterfall. Definitely my favourite one in the phillipines. And we got it all to ourselves. We enjoyd our take-away lunch next to it's scenery. Went for a swim before we were  back on the road. Next thing we headed for the national park and the Tasiers- tiny monkeys with big big eyes. So damn cute. Before heading back we drove for another hour along the coastline as the sun was about to set.

Alice and I by the waterfall

Panglao

Next morning we headed to the tiny island south of Bohol, Panglao. We decided to get a jeepney there. The local's way of public transportation. This turned out to be a mistake. A journey that shouldn't take longer than 20 minutes took us 4 hours in this thing. Seriously. 

As panglao is famous for their diving, I booked us one for the next day. This turned out to be the worst tour in my life. The diving itself was amazing. But the company we manage too book with had no idea what they're doing and handled everything extremely unprofessional. Stared of with having us wait for an hour before getting on the boat. With our dive master and our gear already on the sea. The left us at an island where we waited another hour not knowing if this dive was actually going to happen. When we met the dive master out on the sea he started bragging over having us to pay money, that we already paid. The gear we got was way to big and had already been used by someone else. But in the end, while in the water, we looked past all that cause this was actually truly amazing. And we got the sight of not less than 12 turtles. 

That night I ran into Thor on the beach. Just randomly. One of the guys Carro and I traveled with in Thailand about 16 months back. The world must be smaller than we think. We didn't get to spend much time together as we was leaving ridiculously early the next morning. 

Cebu 

That day we got up at 5am, to travel by boat across to Cebu and Oslob, south of Cebu city. We had our moods on top and was well excited to swim with the whalesharks. This is definitely one of the best experiences. Around ten meters big creatures surrounding you under the water. Amazing!  From there we headed north with a couple of local busses and got ourselves to Moalboal. The tiniest little beach town on cebu's west cost. The following day we hired scooters to drive to the Kazan waterfalls. This was a quite cool experience as we got to go on a bamboo under the waterfall. It was a quite big one as well and fell so heavily is hurted getting it onto your shoulders.

The next day we booked ourselves into diving again. With a more serious company this time which turned out to be the best experience. And we got it all pictured as well. The same afternoon we took a taxi to Cebu city. We was planning to take the local bus but the taxi driver was going to the city anyway and gave us an extremely good price. We checked into a hostel just for the night before catching an early flight. 

El nido, Palawan

Our last week in the Philipines we spent together with our favourite Borocay friend, Luke from Sydney.  Leaving Boracay he simply lost the ability of making decisions and ended up stuck in Manilla. As we love eachothers company we invited him to come with us to Palawan. Flying into puerto princesa we met our friend at the airport. Together we caught the minivan down to El Nido, a 6 hour drive and not a single second was spend in silence. Luke has the best personality and are super easy to talk to. By this point he know every single thing about the three of us. Getting to El Nido we checked in to a hostel before heading for dinner. We've heard that they have an amazing pizza bar, with life changily good pizzas. I'm not sure if I understand what all this fuzz comes from but Alice sure fell in love. Matti should know he's up for some serious competition. Waiting for a table we ran into another of our lovely Borocay friends, Jaimie, and who we ended up spending the night in the bar with. And who ended up getting hit in the face by one of the locals for joking around a bit. Poor guy. 

Luke, Jaime and I our first night in El Nido 

The next day we rented scooters to go to waterfalls and beautiful beaches. Luke and I shared one and Alice and Louise another. On the tiniest roads close to the waterfalls we happened to run in to more of our Borocayfriends. Canadian Jeremy and Greham (that's not how you spell his name, but it makes more sense), and Sabine from holland. One of their scooters just broke down so they're waiting for someone to fix it. We left them to it and headed into the bush for the waterfall. It was a small one but allright still. We swam and jumped off cliffs for quite a while before heading back. After 20 minutes walking and having Louise describing all the different ways she could kill us, we got back to our bescooters. From there we headed for a magical beach. It was a hell of a road to get there. Dirty tracks and pools covering the whole pathway was not easy to get through. And with Luke on the back as well. Needless to say that he had to drive back. The beach was impressive still, even if we would have enjoyed it more with better weather. It was getting cloudy by the time we went. Sunset would have been amazing, but those roads in the dark? I don't think so.  

Jeremy and Greham met us at our hostel so that we could head for full moon party together. We bought drinks and headed for their place where we played rounds of 'ring of fire' before getting a tricycle to the full moon party. We met Jaimie as well who was doing some sort of lightshow. Alice somehow disappeared into a serious deeptalk with a local guy, as Louise went for a beach walk with Greham leaving Luke and I to think that they all went home without us. We soon realized that they'd never do that and we soon met up to head home together. The next day I felt terribly, terrible. Not only did I woke up with a hangover, but with a massive cold and fever. Good thing we had no plans for this day. We hung around at the beach, I had a afternoon nap before dinner, and fell back asleep as soon as we got back. I was not the best company this day. 

Island hopping, Palawan

We got ourselves booked into a wonderful island hopping tour. With snorkeling, islands, BBQ lunch, secret beach and hidden beach where you have to swim between and under the rocks to reach. It was ridicously beautiful. It's too bad it's getting into such a touristy thing which means we had to share the experience with tons of other people. The four of us still had the most fun together with our beers and silliness. Getting back to el nido we ran into a German friend of ours and ended up joining his friends for a few drinks at the dive center they're staying at. After a well needed shower and Alice's favorite dinner we went for games of pool before hitting the bars. After a long, intense but great day we finally found ourself walking back home, ready for bed. Louise and I was doing push-ups on the street, don't ask me why, but got told by Luke that we were doing it wrong. As he showed us how to do them correctly Alice stepped back to take a picture and accidently fell, up to her waist, right into the sewer.  The toiletwater from the houses that's running next to the streets. We found this extremely funny and of course - we laughed.  Louise and I who was already on the ground couldn't stand up for at least 20 minutes just laughing our asses off. We finally god ourself home, carrying Louise as she still laughed to hard to walk or talk. This didn't stop for over an hour. Never in my life have I seen someone laugh this hard. So hard that we stopped laughing at Alice and started laughing at Louise insteead. 

The four of us and three random locals we just met at the island 

One day of a long sleep in, and a trek to another waterfall brought us to an early night before spending our last day in el Nido diving. We booked it throught a new open dive center, and the friends of the German guy we've been hanging out with lately. It was again, amazing experience. During our first dive Luke, Alice, Louise and I dove together and our German friend joined us during the second one. It was a lot of fun and Alice and I had a session of pretty impressive dancemoves before heading up to the surface. After diving we headed to a deserted island for lunch. 

We realized that none of us had enough cash left to pay for the diving. El nido doesn't have any ATM's,  and no card readers. We tried everything. Australian banks are also stupid that way that you can't transfer any money whithout having a phone to receive a security code on SMS. After hours of struggling we managed to get it work through paypal, which would refuse to work at first. 

As we got back I spent hours and hours trying to book us a flightticket to Bankok the following day. We simply decided to skip our flight to Borneo and head to Laos instead. Mainly because it's redicously much cheaper to travel there, and it'd give me more time in Philippines. I frustrated myself with poor internet connection and Asian websites doing this. The prices raised and when I finally found a resonable ticket I got kicked out from the website four times just before purchasing my payment. I was just about giving up when Luke got his computer and booked it for me. One last night in el nido brought us back at 5 in the morning. After 3 hours sleep we had an emotional goodbye to our Australian friend before getting not the bus back to puerto princesa.  Our phillipino adventures had come to an end. 

Cambodia

It's a long non easy way travelling from Melbourne to Sihanoukville, Cambodia. After a last brunch with Stina at the Deli for goodbyes, I headed for the airport. 9 hours and 35 minutes to Bangkok felt like an eternity. Beeing to cheap to pay for the entertainment screen surely payed off.  I finally found myself back at the airport of Bangkok, 8.30 pm local time. I didn't really have any plans from there but I somehow convinced myself that there would be a nightbus waiting for me at the the airport. My quote 'the best plan is to have no plan' is probably not always the way to go. I headed straight for the tourist information where the man kindly informed me that there's no nightbuses going to Cambodia at this time, but that I could wait for the one leaving at 11 am. Beeing to overexcited to see my dear long lost sister I was not looking forward to spend 14 hours at the airport before beeing able to move in her direction. There must be a better option. Taking a shot I got into a taxi to the local bus station 45 minutes and 400 bath away. There's better be a bus. I tried to ask the taxi driver whether the bus station was still open at this times, or if I was just wasting my time. The only thing I got out of his answer was that he offered to drive me all the way to sihanoukville for $500. I was tempted. 

At 10.03 pm I got dropped of at the bus station. I ran up to the counter and asked for the next bus to Trat, which would be the city closest to the border. She gave me a ticket and told me to run, there's a bus leaving at 10. On shaky legs I got myself a seat on the bus I shared with only locals as we took of. 5 sleepy hours later and beeing the only one left at the bus I got to Trat. Despite that it was 3 am I cuddled up next to Bert on a bench and slept until the first bus was leaving to the border. 

Getting pass immigration was easy and way more comfortable when your away from the crowds. While at the Cambodian side I had to figure out how to get to sihanoukville. Just that last bit. I got on the back of a moto taking me to the bus stop. 

'8 o clock' he said and pointed at his armwatch. 15 minutes. 

I was happier than ever, knowing that my sister was only a few hours away. And with the wind in my hair gliding pass the beauty of Cambodia. I should be worried about missing this bus, but I wasn't. This little journey had proved to me that everything's always works out the way it should. At least so far. As we got into to the city we saw the bus driving away. Did I miss it? My driver started shouting in Cambodian to the locals behind us who started pointing in the direction we just saw the bus leaving. The driver turned around and went straight after it. We got just behind it and when the driver realized that we were hunting them he stopped for us. People are so nice. I thanked my driving hero to pieces while entering the bus that in 4 hours would bring me to the reunion with my sister. 

Sihanoukville

I found her beautiful smile in the cafeteria of 'Led zephyrs' having hangover breakfast with Louise. After tons of hugs and 'OMG I can't believe you're here' I joined them. I hadn't had anything to eat since my breakfast with Stina, 32 hours ago. Fried noodles have never tasted that good. Louise's hangover brought her back to bed while Alice and I went for the beach. We couldn't stop talking. We chatted the hours away in a way you can only talk with you sister. God - I've missed her. 

That night I dragged Alice and Louise out to the bars even if they're still recovering from yesterday. I was like 'I'm not spending my only night in sihanoukville in bed'. We played killer pool with an English- American group of guys, went pub crawling for free drinks and ended up with an ocean swim.  I also happened to run into Hanna at one of the bars! a Swedish friend of mine that Eric and I hung out with in Melbourne. Small world, huh? 

Koh Rong

We caught the boat to Koh Rong the next morning, with its beautiful nature, beaches and cosy atmosphere. We spend the day at the beach and the night at the bar after running into the crazy Irish boys that kept Alice and Louise up all night just before I arrived. And they was about to do it again. 'Drop and give me 10' became a standard game among them when you basically challenge someone to get down and do 10 push-ups, or the almont that you wish. You can do this anywhere, anytime as long as the person who announce it does it as well. If you refuse, you simply have to take your pants off. I tried this with Alice and Louise way later. Sadly enough without any success. 

The next day we went for the trek across the island to Long beach. Remembering that last time I was doing that, Caroline and I followed the wrong track for ages I promised myself and my company not to that again. Even I'd I wasn't the one leading us the right way we finally found ourselves in paradise. 7 km of the whitest sand and clear blue water. And sand flies. How could I forget the sand flies? After hours on the beach getting eaten alive and caught bites that would haunt us for weeks, we watched the sun set at the horizon as we took the long boat back to our beach. 

We ran into our English-American group of friends again that night and who kept us company until we were ready for bed. We had a boat to catch in the morning. 

To Siem Reap

We took the boat back to sihanoukville where we spend the day getting massages, getting our laundry done and doing absolutely nothing in the bar of 'led zephyr' as we waited for the nightbus to take us to Siem reap. I've never had a better sleep at a bus than this one. There was no seats at all, but bunk bets covering the inside. One bed was to share between two people, which wouldn't be a problem if you don't happen to found yourself next to a greasy old man. As a young girl, that would make you feel highly uncomfortable. I told Alice and Louise that if that happens to me I'd jump in with them. They got the biggest bed of all, the one across in the back and had heaps of free space. I had to share my bed with a girl, but ended up giving my seat away and get cosy with Alice and Louise anyway. There was one poor little girl sitting on the floor cause she refused to get on next to the wierd old man in front. I gave her my seat and she couldn't be more appreciative. 16 hours on a bus on bumpy roads took us to Sihanoukville. We dumped our bags on a hostel for the day and went for a shopping tour. I was in desperately need to get myself a backpack instead of my cotton- salvos bag I've been dragging round over one shoulder so far. And we had to Louise a new phone as her IPhone got stolen that night in sihanoukville, just before I got there. 

Our flight was leaving at midnight, and we had a tuk tuk to pick us up and drive us to the airport. We spend our last hours in Siem reap at pub street with the Angkor beers. Just as we ordered the third round we realized how how late it got and had to down it in one before heading back for our pickup.

We got to the airport with plenty of time, but was refused to enter the plane that would take us to the Philipines without having an outgoing ticket. 

'Well, we don't have an outgoing ticket' I tried but got explained that without an outgoing ticket they could not let us on the plain. I quickly borrowed their computer and booked us the cheapest ticket out of there, 3 weeks later. Borneo. I always wanted to go there anyway. 

And so we entered the plane, full of excitement for our next destination. Phillipines. 

Tasmania, Australia

I got a ticket to Tasmania as a birthday present to Stina who desperately need some time away from work, and who have a good friend in Hobart we could stay at. We woke up at 3.30 am that morning to get a cab to the skybus that'd take us to Hobart that morning.  A. We got there after an hour in the flight. As soon as we walked out of the airport in stood waiting in the cold I realized that I probably did not bring enough clothes. In Melbourne the wether is just starting to get warmer. Apparently that's not for Tasmania. We got picked up by Frank, who quickly showed us around battery point and Salamanca market for a coffee, before driving us home to his. Feeling extremely jet lagged after our one hour flight within the same time zone, Stina and I hit the napping land. We didn't do much the rest of the day except strolling around the city, drinking beer and playing pool. That is after all what we're best at. 

Mona's

We hit the harbourcruice to Mona's art gallery the next morning. The $75 million Museum of old and new art is the owners own collection of his favorite art from across the world. The extraordinary installation is arrayed between three underground levels concealed inside a sheer rock face. It was all pretty impressive. It got something for everyone, even the non art fans. Rooms of paintings, wierd lights, rain that creates words, a wall full of different skulptured vaginas, pictures, stories, movies you name it.  Wegot given an iPhone each where you could track every different installation and read about it. 

Mt Wellington

We packed our leftover food from last night for today's day trip up the famous mt Wellington, just half an hour away from Hobart. It's possible to take the shuttle bus all the way to the top, and many people do this. For us, that'd be taking the elevator up kebnekaise. The feeling of beeing at the top of a montain is not only the fact that you're actually there, but that you've actually earned to be there. So we hiked! It is not a hard trek, only a few hours up and down. Comparing to my hiking experiences, and Stina's adventures up the Nepal Himalayan, this was more like gliding up a hill. 

We're prepeaed for cold weather and put on literally all our clothes. Saying that, we still wasn't dressed for trekking. While at the bus stop the driver asked us where we're going. 

'Fern hill, climbing my Wellington' 

With a worried look she scanned us up and down, then up again. We were both wearing jeans, I was in leather jacket and trainers, Stina got her regular boots. 

'You know it gets a bit cold up there, do you have any rain gear?' 

'Oh, We will be fine' we said as we took a seat. Not worried at all. 

We got off at Fern tree, where we went off in between the trees in a jungle of different tracks having no idea which one to follow. We took a change and followed one that would sure take us the right direction. Up!  

As we started walking my fears for not bringing enough clothes was long gone. I was stupidly hot, desperately regretting not bringing my shorts. As sweat ran down my face I started considering taking my jeans off to make my top into a tiny skirt. I'm glad I didn't do that. 

We found ourselves on the right track and about 2,5 hours along the zigzag track took us to the top of mount Wellington. Terribly strong wind hit us straight in the face and tried to blow us straight back down. We fought it desperately trying to run and hide, but the wind kept hunting us down.  Finally reaching the other side of the top we got into the top hut, where it wasn't necessary warmer but where we could escape the wind. We enjoyed our lunch together with beautiful scenery, before heading out facing the horribly cold again while trying to enjoy the view. We ran across the top field to keep our blood circulation going and as soon as we got down only a few meters the wind was gone. Aahh. We much rather sat enjoying the view from there than freezing to death on the top. 

Our beautiful singingvoices and several rounds of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' accompanied us all the way back down to fern tree. We enjoying a cold beer in sunshine, a few rounds of pool before heading back to Hobart. 

Eagle Hawk neck

Saturday morning we headed for the famous Salamancan market. A bit under my expectations to be honest. Similar to any other market, and pricy. We had a stroll around, enjoyed a coffe in the sunshine before catching a bus that'd take us to Eagle hawk neck. 

I knew nothing about eagle hawk neck other than what I've been told by my precious lonely planet. Tasman peninsula is connected to the mainland with only a 100 meter strip, thats eagle hawk neck. And It seemed to be a beautiful location, got a cheap hostel and with the famous history attraction 'port Arthur' close by. Feeling the need of a city getaway we simply decided to give it a shot. Jumping on a local bus we got drop off next to a tiny roadway supposedly leading to our hostel. We were basically in the middle of nowhere. Not knowing exactly where this little roadway would take us we followed it. We finally reached the hostel after about 2 km just to face the sign 'no vacancy'. Luckily they had put a number underneath referring to the dive center. Despite the fact of being in the middle of nowhere we wasn't given any phone signal.  We looked at the sign, than at eachother and laughed. What else can you do in situations like this? It was getting dark, and we hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast. Having no idea where this hostel was we couldn't do else than turn around walking back the same way we came from. A police car drive by and stopped right next to us.

'Hey girls, where are you going?' 

'Well, we honestly don't really know anymore' we said, referring to the sign. 

He offered to drive us to the dive center and we got in the car. About 5km uphill took us took us to the hostel. Needless to say that we was well happy not having to walk all that way. 

We woke up to the sound of sunshine (?) and headed out for a long beach walk along 'Pirate bay'. This bay view extended to the rugged coastline beyond is truly incredible. We stopped for magnificent lookouts and precipitous coastal formations such as 'tessellated pavement', 'Blowhole' and 'Tasman Arch'.  We had better weather than south east Australia have faced in months and got sunburned for the first time since Easter. This truly improved our mood even more. On our way back we were on a supermarket mission. Beeing in the middle of nowhere this isn't easy to find. As Stina ran out of cigarettes and I ran out of tampons we considered ourselves being in a quite desperate situation. We managed to find a little kiosk up a hill who could supplie us with what we needed for the day. 

Port Arthur

Not knowing where the bus stop was, if there existed one, we decided to hitchhike to the historical site 'Port Arthur'. We had just only put our thumbs up when the man outside a house across the street started shouting at us. 

'Where're you girls going?'

'Port Arthur', we yelled back

'Might have a friend who can drive you there, he works as a bus driver. Let me just give him a quick call'  

We could see him talking with over the phone and not more than 10 minutes later an empty tourbus stopped at the road, right next to us. He was driving a group from Hobart to Port Arthur and back in the afternoon and had some spare time to kill. We thanked him lots and booked us in for the ride back to Hobart later that day. 

As Tasman peninsula is connected to the mainland with only a 100 meter strip it use to confine prisoners who had committed further crimes in the colony. From 1830 - 1877, 12500 convicts did hard brutal prison time at port Arthur. We cruised around the Harbour for a bit around the island there they used to keep prisoners as well. Then we spend the day walking around all the tiny houses, this little community. To see how people lived, read along and improve our acknowledge of the Tasmanian history. 

Back to Hobart

Our day back in Hobart before heading back to Melbourne we spend on the Hobart museum. We took it easy thought as we felt quite 'outcultured' after our adventures at Mona's and port Arthur. I did found it interesting how well you could connect that history to the one from port Arthur. How the Brittish colonies came taking over Tasmania and where some of them in the end ended up at port Arthur. 

We got into a bit of trouble with our flight back to Melbourne. As I happened to read my email earlier the same day I came across the information that our flight had been cancelled. Since I had a flight from Melbourne to Bankok the next day I was in desperate need to get into Melbourne tonight. After what felt like hours on the phone queue we finally got in contact with Jetstar who kindly enought booked us on another flight a few hours earlier. Lucky I checked my email in time. As they never sent me a confirmation mail we ended up getting ourselves to the airport hours before, just to be safe. 

Melbourne, Australia

I found out that my Brittish friend Natalie was making a living in Melbourne as well and we met up for the first time since our travels in Cambodia and Vietnam 1,5 year prior. I saw her lovely face at flinders station that evening, beeing 30 minutes late. Nothing has change. We hit the bars catching up and chatting the night away. I missed the last tram and ended up walking all the way back to st Kilda. 

Meeting Natalie again was lovely, even if she had dragged herself into a lot of drug-related problems lately. Something I wish for my life to stay away from. 

I kept seeing her a lot, and she became a very important part of my life during this time. I did my best to support her, which in the end would have to mean for her leaving Melbourne. So she did. But being Natalie she ended up forgetting her passport on the plane that went all the way back to Melbourne. 

That same weekend our friend Emma came to visit us before flying home. She and Stef was traveling together but went separate paths after fruitshack. After a lovely weekend I followed her to the airport Monday morning to say goodbye and to get Natalie's passport back. 

The story with the tram fine 

I ended up a bit unlucky with my valuables during my last weeks in Melbourne. Or just stupid. One night I simply decided it was super funny throwing my phone at people (?) and woke up without it the next morning. Remembering that Natalie gave me an old broken iPhone before she left, decided to see if it's working. Now when I didn't have one. For beeing a person who's never had an iPhone before I just simply assumed that you have to take off the back to put the SIM card in. It's been broken already and the corner of the back was already unhooked. I grabbed it and peeled the whole back off. It made a funny notice, as it does if you brake something or do something completely wrong. I was so confused. Still couldn't figure out where to put the damn SIM card in I took the battery out. Standing there with the phone in one hand, battery in the other and the back of the phone on the table Stef walked into the room. 

'What are you doing' she simply yelled out

'I'm just trying to put the SIM card in', I explained quite desperately

'Thats NOT how you do it!' 

Learn from this everyone. And do never ever ever give me an iPhone!  

It doesn't end there. The very same week I as I was heading home from one of my regular 7am gym classes, I managed to leave my wallet on the tram. Which leads to a funny story about me getting caught on the tram for not having a ticket.  I just had a lovely breakfast with Stina before heading off towards my last rock climbing session. As I sat on the tram I realized the massive storm of fully custumed ticket polices coming in from every door and every angle of the tram.  Usally I'd always travel with a tramcard that I'll top on in this cases. Or I'll simply run off. There's no way escaping this time .. 

'Ticket miss?'  

'Umm.. Sorry, don't really have one. Wallet got stolen. Know that's not a reason but ..' I suddenly felt like the smallest person in the world. He described that I have failed showing a valid ticket and can choose to pay $70 on the spot or get a $218 send home. 

'I pay the 70' I said eagerly looking for money in my pocket. Realizing I only had a 50 I tried to agociate the price. No succes. They don't even take cash. We've come to the point where they needed my personal details and address. I suddenly remembered last time this happened when I fist got to Melbourne and I got I $212 fine sent to my old work. People kept asking me why I didn't just lie about my identity. If they wouldn't be able to find me they will simply give up and let me go right? Saying this, I'm the worst lier in the world. So told them my real first name. I said my last name. I told them my date of birth. But that's when something went crazy inside my mind and by a reason I could never explain I've head myself telling them the wrong month. Crap. What did a do that for? This is not ending well .. 

I obviously couldn't proof my identity as I didn't had an id. And I couldn't confirm my address either. What normal kind of human being walks around with their bills in their pockets? I'm not even the one paying my bills. When they asked to call my friends I had to apologize for the fact that I have lost my phone as well. They stared at me as I was completely stupid. There was about 3 of them around me now. All starting to get really annoyed saying that if I don't prove who I am they have to call the police. 

I emptied my bag showing that I actually don't have any phone or prof of identification in there. Looking at all my climbing gear they asked me if a was a member of a gym. They googled the number to the 'hard rock climbing' and talked to a poor little boy who had no idea what was going on. Hearing him confirming my details it occurs to me that this is going to be the wrong date of birth. Or the right. Shit. They drag me off at the next stop to call the police as I still couldn't give them proof of my address. How can they have the energy going throught all this trouble? I'm overlooking the station I'm at. it's pretty busy. What changes would I have just running off? Probably not very good, specially not with the police on the way. And I have put myself in enough trouble already. Tried to explain that I'm leaving in less than a week and there's no way I'd be able to pay the fine anyway.  Finally they asked me where I was working. Finally. You think that would be one of the first questions to ask? Using their precious google again they found the number to the deli, and ended up deciding to send the fine there. They let me go. With a $218 fine, and more than an hour late to my climbing session. 

The end 

My last weeks in Melbourne went a bit mad. I became really close friend with Eric and I ended up spending to much time with him. I had good fun, it's just not good for my health.  His friend Ashleigh just moves to Melbourne and in to the hostel across the road, and every other day we would end up there for drinking. And when it came to the weekend it got pretty intense with full hours working shifts on top.

I felt a bit sad leaving in the end, just as a got so many new friends at the hostel. Mainly backpackers thought, so none of them would be staying for much longer. But also as I really liked it at my work. I felt appreciated and knew what I was doing. But for all we know I might actually end up back there agin. Stef was leaving just a couple of days before me, and for her last night we went for a nice dinner with our flatmates Cam and Chelsea. On our way home i ran into Eric on the street outside the hostel where they where having a party. As Stef was heading home for packing I ended up staying with them as well as it was my last weekend before leaving. We had so much fun that I simply forgot to go home and suddenly realized I had to go straight to work. I'm never doing that again. I struggled with reading my own handwriting and towards the end of my shift I was so tired that I found myself falling asleep (for only a second) as I was behind the counter taking order from a costumer. 

Eric to the left, with a bunch of people from the hostel.

Anyway, my time in Melbourne had come to an end. I had to face tearful goodbyes to Stina, Stef, Chloe, Eric, Will, Ashleigh, flatmates, coworkers, climbing buddies and everyone. I've had an amazing time in Melbourne and couldn't be asking for better friends than the ones I've met, or the job that I've been giving, or simply the beauty of st Kilda!  This was a goodbye, but not a goodbye for ever. 

Melbourne, Australia

Tilly's cafe

Stina and I moved into a four room apartment, where we shared a room (and a bed). We loved it. With a perfect location in the hearth of st Kilda we finally got our own space and a place we could call 'home' whithout referring to a hostel. We shared it with Stina's coworker Cameron and his fiancé Chelsea, in the room next to ours. My friend Stef ended up moving into the last and smallest room of the apartment. Stef was one of the people I left behind me while leaving the fruitshack. She had now decided to follow my footsteps and leave the farm to search for better luck in the city of Melbourne. I met her in the bar the night she arrived after finishing my last workshift in the resturant. The very next day we decided that she's moving in. 

I kept working at the cafe, I learned how to make coffee and truly improved my work overall. It was just one problem - I didn't got enough hours. And it wasn't reliable hours. There was just so many days he texted me in the morning saying that I didn't need to come in. In the end I ended up working about 3 days a week, and only 4.5 hour shifts. I struggled a lot to make a living. With so much free time, but with no money to spend I began gym- hopping. I invented this myself. Gym hopping basically means applying for a 3 or 7- day trial at the gym, whatever the gym is offering. When that trial is over, you kindly turn down the membership options just to do the same thing to another gym. I probably went throught 7 different gyms if I counted it right, and never had to pay a cent. Expect from gymming I spent I lot of time applying for more jobs, obviously, and hanging out with Chloe. She was on her way to Alaska traveling with her father, and we spent countless hours of backpack shopping for that amazing adventure filled with kayaking, hiking, cycling and flying around the mountains. I couldn't be more jealous! 

Chloe and I on her last night before heading of to Alaska

On a night out in st Kilda Stef and I ended up at 'Abbey road' chatting with some Irish lad calling himself 'big gay Eric'. We hit the bars together that night and he happened to mention, in his drunken stage of cource, that he might be able to get me a job at his place. Trying not to take things to seriously I popped in to 'Albert park deli' with my resume the next day, mentioning that I knew Eric in the kitchen. It's is a fairly busy cafe, deli and takeaway shop, with dining services during week nights. The called me in for a trial a couple of days later and decided to keep me on during evenings and weekends. As the Deli gave me a lot more responsibilities in its busy environment I found myself getting bored at my first job. And I soon found out what a struggle it was getting between them. I started my first job at 11, stayed until 3.30, rushed for all I had to catch the train into the city where I ran for the tram to albert park, to hopefully be able to start my shift at 4.30. I knew I couldn't keep going that way so when the Deli offered me full time I started considerate leaving Tilly's. 

I went to work that day, mentally prepereard to tell my boss that I'm leaving. Or at least cutting down my hours. But before I've even walked into the door he spit out the fact that the other girl, on the same hours as me, resigned yesterday. I didn't have the heart to tell him I was leaving too. And when he offered me more hours, still only half day shifts, I heard myself saying yes even if that surely wasn't what was going on in my head. So instead of cutting down my hours, I got more.  This basically meant that I every day would have to rush between jobs instead of having a full 8 hour day at the deli, with the same wages. Which would be I reasonable thing to do. It took me a couple of weeks or so before I had strength enought to tell him. This timing was not better than the last, as one of the full timers was leaving as well. That also meant that I got offered full time job, with barista training. From having no jobs I now had two ... 

Birthday celebration

While I was still on 2 jobs, late June, Our German friend Kat left the fruitshack for the second time and came down to Melbourne. I met her in the city one morning after Stef and I had finished our 7 am spinning class and took her back to st Kilda. We spend a lovely long weekend together with Stina and Stef, knowing we wouldn't see eachother for a long while now as she was flying back home to Germany that following week. 

My 21st birthday was coming up and I decided to ask for the day off, which ended up beeing my first day completely off work in over a month. Stina, Stef and I hit the bars the night before. Making a st Kilda pub craw we strolled down the bars on flitzroy street, the esplanade just to end up at our regular place 'abbey road' by the time the clock passed midnight. Stina, who started work just a few hours later went home and left me and Stef at the dance floor where we stay'd until early morning. On my birthday morning I made a promise to Stina to come by her cafe for a coffee. As Stef and I sat down Cam put Stevie wonders 'happy birthday' playing on the speakers while Stina brought me a candle filled muffin and presents. I felt so loved and when they asked my to make a wish while blowing out the candle I honestly couldn't think of anything. Stef and I left for a lovely breakfast and bubbles before having a stroll around the south Melbourne market. 

Later that day I headed away to meet Chloe who got back from Alaska the same morning. Srill jet lagged she told me the most amazing stories from her trip over a few beers in her new apartment in Brunswick. That evening we hit the city and met Stef and Stina at an cosy resturant for a birthday meal. Feeling too jet lagged to function, Chloe headed home to sleep. Stina, Stef and I went for a couple of drinks and games of pool before heading home as well when my birthday was officially over! 

Albert park deli 

The Deli became to feel like a second home away from home. Work became something I could look forward too, and I enjoyed every moment. Almost. There was one Saturday where I felt terribly hangover after catching a few drink with Eric the night before. I simply forgot that I had to work in the morning and had no intentions to go to bed until one of the bouncers suggested it to me - way to late. All morning I struggled with not being sick and promised myself not to ever touch alcohol again. 

Me and Eric out in the club 

As I worked a lot of 12-9 hours I tried to get myself into a good daily rutin. After all the gym hopping I finally signed up one, same as Stef's one. A couple of times a week I'd go for a 7am gym class. I loved that. And then I could enjoy having all morning to myself. Every other day I'd go running before work or go for breakfast with Stina. At least once a week I'd go rock climbing. That was one thing I'd always look forward to every week when working so much. I met new friends there every week, and went climbing a lot together with this one Australian guy Greg. I'm in serious love! (With the climbing, not the guy). The adrenalin you get when challenging yourself to the top. God, I could live for that. 

Spending so much time at work, my colleagues became my new best friends. Specially Charlotte, and American Will. It was not unrarely for us to catch a drink or two after closing together. Unfortunately, Charlotte was leaving early august to travel the east cost before heading home to Germany. So after her last shift we headed to hofrahaus, the German bar in the city. The beers there are unreal, and far to big to hold only with one hand. We met Will, and the Australian girl who's working with us chatting the hours away. From there we headed to a hidden rooftop bar. You basically had to go throught what looks like a Chinese dumling place, take the elevator to 4th floor which will take you to the bar. Up there and around the corner we followed a staircase to a beautiful beer garden on the top. Beeing almost the only ones there, we stood for ages overlooking the beautiful city. 

Melbourne, Australia

I got down to Melbourne after an 8 hours uneventful train ride. The loud, busy city environment hit me straight in the face and made me wanna turn around and jump on the first train back to Leeton.  As I by this point didn't have any credit on my phone I had to relie on my friends to call me, which they did only when I was unable to pick up thanks to the service on the train.  In a jungle of traffic lights and cars, dusty streets, smelly people, taxi drivers and trams I finally found my way to St Kilda where I met Stina just at where I left her 2 months ago - in the bar. 

The main reason for me to head back to Melbourne this specific time was because of Fiona, one of my best friends from school who just got to Australia with her friend Fanny and would be in Melbourne only for a few days. Not only was Fiona and Fanny here during this time but my dear friend Cornelia who I keep bumping into in different places all over the world. 

That night i headed in to the city for a night out with Chloe. We met up with Cornelia and Paula who seemed to have dragged their whole hostel along and ended up at one of the rooftops. As Fiona and fanny stay'd in st Kilda as well I catched up with them first thing in the morning. As we were walking towards the beach we passed an Australian footy court where they had a female practice game. Trying to understas the rules we started chatting to the camera guy, Callum, who kindly did his best to make  us understand. Apparently we must have make some kind of impression as he decided to come to st Kilda the very same night to meet us in the bar. He then offered to drive us to Philip island a couple of days later to watch the penguins. And we did. 

Fanny, Fiona, their Italian friend Lorenzo and I took the train down to Callums area of town where he picked us up for a 2 hour roadtrip to Philip island. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, and more of  tourist attraction kinda of thing. But it was cool watching the penguins wandering down the beach in the sunset even if it looked more like tine white spots from where we were sitting. And as Callum a I was chatting away we manage to lose our friend which made the whole situation feel more like a first date. I tried to spend as much time as possible with Cornelia and Paula before they left, after just a couple of days in Melbourne. Fanny and Fiona followed a few days after. I kept seeing Callum for a few weeks, but it didn't last very long. He showed me me around his favorite spots in the are where he lives and took me up to the viewpoint one night where we got a stunning view over the city all lightened up in the dark. 

Job hunting

In the middle of all this I did my best trying to find work as a slowly but steady started to run completely out of money again. I got a trial at Stina's cafe but they were looking for someone more experienced. I got a trial at a kebabshop down the street from ours, who turned into a full 8 hour day of training. And in the end they didn't even want me in the shop but on the corner of the street as the 'promotion girl' handing out flyers to drunk people trying to get them to buy kebab in the early morning. I did this once. And of all the jobs I've ever done, including endless hours at the farm, this is by far the worst and most depressing one. From 12 - 4 am outside in the winter cold. No way. I'd much rather go back to the fruitshack! The next day I got a trial up in Carlton, Chloe's area,  in an Italian restaurant. During the 2 hours I was there I didn't seem to do anything right. I also didn't speek Italian which seemed to be the employers way of communication. Their menu was to be fair thicker than the bible itself. I got straight into taking orders from a table of 10, who all wanted shared starters and different types of food, all modify to suit each one of them. I got everything wrong. I felt sorry for the owner as a walked out laughing at my own stupidity knowing that I would never hear from that place again. 

Up the street, in Carlton as well, I ended up waitressing during the dining service in an Italian -ish resturant. The owner was the most greedy, depressing Slovakian man I've ever met and the way their business was working and the way he treated his staff was nothing but disgusting. I lasted a week. A week of endless yelling and under appreciation. I knew at once I wouldn't last. During the weekend he had 3 people in on trial, each day, with no intention to keep any of them. In that way he wouldn't need to pay them. He surely knew how to use poor backpackers desperate for jobs, and I happend to be one of them. I lasted a week, as mentioned, before I accidently dropped a tray of drinks over a table of people during a highly busy Saturday night. That caused major chaos. It wasn't my fault really, even if it surely looked that way. As I was announcing the drinks one girl raised her hand that tipped the tray over. Glass went everywhere as it hit the floor. Lemon soda, vodka red bull and diet cokes all over the table, floor and not to mention the poor girl. Straight after cleaning up my own mess I got sent home. I didn't at all mind the fact that I never got called back, but I did mind the fact that he did all he could to avoid giving me my paycheck. After calling him unnumberous times I turned up at the footstep of his resturant forcing him to pay me. So he did, but not even close to the almont he owned me. I didn't have the energy to fight for it. I was done with that place! 

During my week at the resturant I manage to get a daytime job at a cafe to combine the hours. This was a dreamjob compared to my last experience. Located in the Australian vision building, in the western suburb I found myself in 'Tillys cafe'. I loved it from the first time I went throught the doors on my way to my trial - which I got paid for! The owner, who's also the boss and the head chef (only chef), is a mid age, super nice and fair man treating his staff with nothing but respect and appreciation. Apart from him there was only three other staff members. We were a great funny team who created happy atmosphere and comfortable working environment.  I felt as my melbourneon life finally fell into pieces. Or so I thought ...