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 ... 

Fruitshack, Australia

The week after the grapes and my harvesting experience was a week full of rain! And as we know by now: wether is the boss! Which simply means no work. And when there's no work,  backpackers do what backpackers has to do. Which simply means drinking. And as Ben and Canadian Tara's birthdays where coming up that week, we simply found  no reason not to. 

Michael and Debbie threw us a 'end of harvest dinner' that week as well, to celebrate that we finished the grapeseason. Evryone gathered together around the table sharing story's and holding speeches. Such a great end of a great grape harvest and a grapeful time. And delicious food! 

Picking & packing

That weekend we finally got to go back to work, to pick more oranges! I couldn't be more exited. When I say that I love picking oranges, I'm not including the 'carrying the ladder' part. The ladders are not necessarily heavy, it's just that they're hard to balance while carrying them. I wasn't very lucky with the ladder this first day and as it was too muddy as well, it didn't stick to the ground properly. 2 times I fell off while climbing down the ladder with a too heavy orange filled bag on my back. 2 times I fell into the tree, which actually isn't too bad as it makes you realize that you're able to reach a lot more. 2 times the ladder fell on me while carrying it and ended up facing the ground, stuck under the ladder and surrounded by oranges and while screaming for help. 

The whole next week I went to the farm of Stina's old boss to pack oranges. Probably one of the best jobs you'll get, so i was more than thankful. We had the weekend off again, cause of the rain and had a highly tearful godbye party to Alina, who was leaving for Sydney and New Zealand the next morning. And for Jouline and Lana who was leaving as well. And I made my final decision to leave by the next weekend. 

I wasn't at all looking foward to leave that last week. Specially not since Kat turned up, back at the fruitshack on early Tuesday. She finished her travels up east cost and went back to South australia to sell her car before ending up at where it all started, Fruitshack, to save up some money. It was great to se her again, even only for a couple of days!   I was working that last week packing oranges again, or picking them for the same farmer with Kelly, Ben and Anthony. My last day picking turned out to be quite eventful as I got into a huge fight with the ladder again. I genuinely haven't hated something so much as I hated the ladder by that point that day. The trees we're picking stood on a little hill which made it so much harder to stretch to the sides without the ladder falling over, or carrying it without ending up on the floor.  As it started to rain we finished early, and I walked in to town with Annalisa for a coffe at good old La fresco (the cafe where Stina use to work, and where Annalisa's now working) 

My last night was a sad night. It felt so much emotionally harder to leave this time compare to last time I was leaving the shack. Probably cause I left with my friends last time while I had to leave everyone behind this day. And after 2 months living together we all become quite close to eachother, and there was a part of me who really didn't want to get down to Melbourne at all. If it wasn't for my friends Cornelia and Fiona (who was about to come to Melbourne only for a couple of days) I'd probably end up staying at the shack a lot longer. 

Fruitshack, Australia

So it been 2 months and 5 days of amazing travels before finding myself back at good old Fruitshack. I must say I was highly exited. I was prepared for a different experience this time with twise as many people ready for the grapeseason, but I didn't really know what to expect. 

 The shack looked exactly as I remember it. The dirty bathrooms, messy kitchen, the double decker, the goonroom with the same smell of old beer and cigarettes and then of course; all the 27 cats. I ended back in my same old room, which I now shared with a German girl and British Saffron and Kelly. 

There's only one major thing that makes the difference from my last stay. I don't know anyone. (Except from German Ben who arrived to the shack just the day before we left in December). It's wierd thought, that all of sudden I was 'the new girl' even if I've been there the longest. Everything looked the same, but everyone is different. And the amount of people!! Thank god that I'm good with names.  

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It turned out that it'd be at least another week before the grapes would start, so we all had a lot of days off during this period of time. And as there's basically nothing to do around everyone ended up spending way to many nights doing what backpackers does best; drink! Which true is good fun, but easily put you in a lazy hangover mood the next morning and way to many hours in from of the TV with chocolate bars and crisp. We did manage to walked into town together one of my first day spending a few hours in the park drinking bottled beer and chatting around. We got ourselves to the river one day and I few of us made it to the pool another. I got myself and a few of the other girls into running every day and luckily I ended up being one of the few getting a smaller job from Michael spraying weeds every morning for a few days. 

We had a birthday party for one of the French girls that Friday. As both me and British Adam were out of beer and none of us got a car we decided to ride the bikes into town. Now this is the worst bikes I have ever used, and halfway there it started to rain. To top it all the police stopped us for not wearing helmets. It's an Australian law for everyone to wear helmets or the fine would be about 66 dollar. To get away without the fine we made ourselves look like stupid tourist pretending we just arrived to the country and simply didn't know better. They let us get away with it even if we had to turn back, in the wind and the rain to get ourselves a helmet which made us look even more stupid. 

Grapeseason 

Finally, after 10 days delay the grapeseason was ready to be started. Me and Kelly woke up that morning singing 'I'm so exited, I just can't hide it', while Anton played 'Facination' on the loudest volume in the kitchen when we all where having breakfast. Everyone seemed to keep up their best mood ready for hard work. We all headed out in the field and got given a pair of kippers and a name tag for our buckets. We teamed up, 4 people on every row starting from opposite ends working towards eachother. There were 24 of us picking with three 'bucket boys'. Their job was to counting and emptying our buckets into the tractor bin that Michael later's driving to the winery. I got teamed up with a lonesome German girl. She's living in her car and have no intentions of socialize with anyone. However, she turned out to be super nice, even if acting a bit weird, and we ended up chatting the hours away. The day's went by super fast and after 3,5 days of early mornings, early nights and 138 buckets we finished the first variety of grapes. Saffron, Kelly, Anton and I came with Michael to the winery that afternoon to follow the winemaking process. We got promised that we could taste some but since we didn't bring our ID we wasn't allowed too. Even if it was obvious that we're all over 18 coming straight from picking field. 

To get enough people ready for the grape harvest Michael got more people come to the shack this weeks. People had to move into the bus, tents and sleep in their cars to make room for everyone

Fruit picking, or even farmwork is clearly not for anyone, and you'll constantly hearing people moan about it. Most of them stick around to it anyway, some of them simply just leave. Micheal got us 5 more Swedish girls the first weeks in the grapes. They lasted a week. The very first day in the grapes, even the first hour - two German girls couldn't even survive the day, and when they thought that no one was around the sneaked away from the field, grabed their stuff and escaped without a word with no intention to ever come back!!

We started off with the new variety of grapes in the beginning of next week. We finished every field faster than expected, and by the end of that Thursday we finished the second variety. Since the winery wouldn't let us start the last variety just yet we got a orange picking job lined up during the weekend. 

I love orange picking, and climbing those threes like a little child. Beeing on top of the ladder, falling into the tree reaching for the ones I never thought I'd be able to reach. Just love it. It wasn't as easy the second day thought as we all had a massive drink the night before celebrations Phil's 23rd birthday. Rounds and rounds of flipcup and 3man throughout the night turned out not to be the best way to prepare yourselves for a full day of orange picking. We did allright thought as It was 10 of us picking all together. And since we got Alina as one of them you can possibly not end up laughing. She's one of the most positive and energetic person I've ever met. And funny-  without having the intention to. No needs for sit-ups, a conversation with her and you'll laught yourselves to a six pack. She might not be the fastest picker, or hardest worker but she does put a smile on peoples faces. 

Two more days off and we're back in the grape field for the last variety. It took us only another few days and by Friday afternoon we could simply congrat ourselves for finishing the 2014 grape harvest. 

Toorak Harvesting

Since I hadn't had a hourly paid work for a while (by choice since I rather picked oranges for 30 dollars a day only to climb the lovely ladders) Michael offered me a 12 hours nightshift job at the nearby winery that weekend. Basically I was picking grapes using a harvest machine. There was three of us working, one driving the harvest over the vines, one driving the tractor next to it. The machine is separating the grapes from the vines, into the machinery and over a conveyor to the back the tractor. My job was to stand on the harvest and keep the machinery clean by keeping sticks away and make sure that no grapes gets stuck. Quite easy job as I didn't had to do it constantly.  As soon as I got to the winery that night they put me straight into one of the tractors to drive to the field. I did try to say that I've never been driving one before, even if I'd love to try. All alone in the front seat I followed the harvesters every turn and a bumpy 5 k later, and still alive I got myself and the tractor to the right field. I had so much fun, in the tractor, in the dark, on the wrong side of the road! Considering that I started by midnight I was beeing responsible trying to get as much sleep as possible that day instead of hanging out with my friend who was drinking in the goone room. The guy driving the tractor did simply not share the same way of thinking and got dropped off by a drunken kid coming straight from an Australian bogan party. As we was right next to him in the field we could constantly see him letting his face head bang the steering wheel. He didn't last the whole night. 

I was prepeard for a cold night by literally putting all my warm clothes on. Saying that means leggings and hoodie which wasn't even close to enough as it turned out to be a super cold -under 10 degrees- night. In between my pulling sticks sessions I went inside chatting to the driver to keep myself from freezing and to keep him awake. He even let me drive for a while just to try it, and for me to be able to say that I actually have been driving a harvest machine. 

I managed to get a few hours of sleep back at the shack before I woke up by a phonecall from the farmer asking me to come back the very same night. Beeing to tired and to confused to even know what time of the day it was I said yes without fully understand what I was saying yes to. The second night ended up beeing harder than the first one, probably because I didn't got enough sleep. And we worked faster as we got another tractor driver this night who obviously didn't need to stop for a leg stretcher in between every row to keep himself awake. I still enjoyd it just as much!   

By the end of the day (morning?) I realized that I somehow manage to loose my phone somewhere in the field. Which is funny since Ben found it in the fruitshackbus just the day before, after it being  gone for over a week. Well I'm not getting it back this time. Learn from my mistakes and don't put your phone in the zip less pocket of your hoodie when you're bending over!

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Melbourne, Australia

Melbourne CBD

I ended up staying in Melbourne for almost three weeks as we tried to stick to the plan of  finding ourselves a work and place to stay for a couple of months. To get a work in Melbourne turned out to be harder than we'd ever imagine. We arrived Thursday night and after all the hitch hiking it took us the weekend to rest and to get back on track. I signed up for a RSA course straight away which I completed Sunday afternoon. Responsible service of alcohol. We booked and paid for a week at a hostel in the CBD and spend every day looking for work. We went to different suburbs every day handing our resumes out but with no success. 

Sunday was the first night since we got here that me and Stina had enought energy to go out meeting people. We went for a drink with my friend Chloe who I know from when I stay'd with Kehla my first time in Brisbane. They use to be roomies before Chloe moved to Melbourne to study. Together we ended up at a great bar called LaLa Land, where we got super well along with the Bartender Corey. He offered us a free jug of beer and our friendship was settled. 

Tuesday the 4th of February was the day when Stina been in Australia for exactly one year. Since Corey had that night off he promised to take us for a pubcrowl to celebrate. After another unsuccessful day of job searching that day we went to Chloe's work for a beer before meeting up with Corey at La La Land. We met another girl named Gen who joined us on our pub-crawl that night. Corey showed us around several different places before we saw ourselves back at La La.

Later that week Stina realized that she met a guy from Melbourne on the plane to Sydney, one year ago. She found his name, William, and number in her notebook and decided to text him just to see if he remembered her. He did, and we all met up for a couple of beers that Thursday night. Since we've never been to crown, melbournes casino, William insisted in taking us there. Not for gambling but to play games and dance on those mats we had as kids. We met up with Corey as well for a couple of beers, before heading to another place for a game of pool. 

Allthought our luck with finding jobs been quite unsuccessful we've done great with making friends. After one week we had four best friends. Chloe, Corey, Gen and William. And all of them is really trying to help us finding work as well as they want us to stay in Melbourne.  

Carlton

As we already paid for one week at the hostel we had to stay for one week at the hostel. Which was quite enoying when we after 3 days realized that we got bedbugs. I've never had bedbugs before and it's such a fuzz to get rid of. We got moved to a different room, but after a few days the disgusting animals found us there too. We were happy to move out to finally get rid of them and moved in to Chloe's place in Carlton, where we got to stay another week. Our friend Hugo came down from Brisbane that weekend as well, and we spend as much time as possible with him.  Me and Stina continued with everyday job hunting, and every night hanging out with our friends. We were getting more and more depressed, stressed over our non successfulness and started looking for other options. We got called to an interview for door to door sales, which is not a dream job but might be an oppertunity to get a little bit of money.  Stina finally got herself a trial at a cafe down in st Kilda later that week while I was considering going back to leeton to complete my farmdays.

 It turned out that Amy and Terry, my English friends that I met in Malaysia and Gilli, Indonesia recently got themselves to Melbourne as well. After my and Stina's 'sales interview' and that days unsuccessful job searching we met up with them for a couple of drinks and catch up. Great seeing them again! We got from there to queen Victoria's night market where we met up Hugo and Gen. The market was packed with people, and exept from the company, not very enjoying. 

Brunswick

After one week at Chloe's we moved to stay with Gen in Brunswick, north of Melbourne. Her roommate recently moved out so she got a spare room for us to stay in until her new roommate was about to move in. By this point we've been in Melbourne for two weeks and made the decision to stop looking for work. I decided to go back to Fruitshack as their season was coming up, and Stina decided that if she wouldn't get the job at the cafe she'll come with me. We still went for our training cource for the salesjob on Friday, mainly for the experience. It actually ended up beeing quite fun as well. 

As it was Valentines that day, Stina went off on a date with William. Gen was meeting up with an old friend and I was walking myself in to town, which took almost 2 hours with my sense of directions. I had a beer at Chloe's bar while she was closing up for the night. Together with her, a friend of hers and the British guy she's working with we went out for dance, drinks and a late night that brought me back to Chloe's to crash in about 8am. 

Sunday afternoon I walked myself in to town to meet Stina and Corey at La La Land after her 37,5 hour long date and trial at the cafe. Her morning trial went perfectly good and the would let her know by Tuesday whether she would get it or not. So I was waiting for that decision to be made before heading to Leeton. 

Stina decided to start the salesjob that Monday, just to have the oppertunity to stay even if she wouldn't get the cafejob. She did get it that same day, and could start work there by Friday. By then I decided to head to Leeton the very next morning. That night me, Stina and Gen went inte town to meet Corey and Celebrate that Stina got a job, and not celebrations that it was my last night. 

Since we got ourselves to bed after 4am, and I had to be up at 6, I ended up missing my train. Even if Stina told me never to go to bed when you're gonna have less than three hours sleep. She couldn't be more right and even if I've done that mistake so many times, I did it again. I considered hitch hiking, but in the end I couldn't be bothered. I walked in to town to see Chloe who's off from work for feeling sick. I met up with Amy and Terry again for a couple of drinks in the afternoon before spending the evening hanging out with Corey at st Kilda beach park playing frisbee and listening to music. 

East cost, Australia

Surfers Paradise, Gold Cost

Rainbow beach become our most northern part of our Australian travels this time, since our money situation forced us to head back south to find some kind of work. We had to stand by the road and wait for a ride for about 20 minutes this time, which is the longest we ever had to wait. Also because there's not really anyone driving past Rainbow. Anyhow, this lovely mid age lady finally gave us a ride down the cost. After about 2,5 hours we got dropped us at a service station about an hour north of Brisbane. By that time we got there we met the same person who gave us a lift from Noosa to Rainbow. Turned out that he's together with his son is heading to the south of Brisbane and offered us a ride, for the second time. Since he was driving a youth, We all had to fit in the front seat together with he's sons 1 year old python snake. It was a lot of fun with the cutest 10 year old you could imagine, chatting the ride away teaching us about snakes and surfing. After a few other shorter lifts we got ourselves to Surfers paradise where we checked into a hostel for the night. Unfortunately, it turned out that Stina been running  out of money. We went to get some out from her Swedish savings account to put back into the Australian one. Clever as, she put all her money into the ATM without keeping any to use the next couple of days. And since it was Friday evening, before a long Australian holiday weekend, the bank wouldn't be open until Tuesday. That left her with 71 cent on  bank account which had to last her until then. Obviously, you can't go far with that so we both ended up sharing my budget for the next day, which forced us to live cheaper than one can imagine. 

Since Stina never experienced the Surfer's nightlife and we hadn't been out dancing for a while, that was what we aimed for that night. We played a game of pool at our hostel before they kicked us out, and another one at one of the bars before we went out looking for a club where we didn't had to pay entrance. Since we couldn't afford drinks but still wanted to meet people it's a good way to either play pool or go dancing. We ended up quite disgust of the clubs thought with their slinky atmosphere and posh downed-dressed people so we went back home instead. 

Nobby's beach, Gold Cost

We took a local bus from Surfers down to Nobbys beach, where Elis's currently staying with 5 other Australia guys. I met 2 of them while we were in Bali together a couple of months ago. Nobby's was so different from Surfers in every possible way and I do understand how Elis been stuck there for the last 4 months. It's a lot less backpackers, a lot smaller and more easy going people. The wether wasn't too great so we basically spend the day hanging out with Elis housemates, running in between the house and the bar 10 meters down the street. It was great fun meeting Elis again even if the rest of the guys could be a bit hard to socialize with. 

Byron Bay

26th of Januari, known as Australia Day. As usual me and Stina made no specific plans for this day even if we would like to head down from Nobby's to Byron which would be about 2 hours drive. We stood beside the road in Nobby's next to the highway, and got picked up by a sweet aus boy who lived just around the corner but felt like he didn't had anything else to do than giving us a lift down the road. He dropped us of at a service station almost half way to Byron where we met a lovely man, who use to be a hitchhiker himself in Europe back in the 80's. While he was driving us we picked up another hitchhiker, a German girl who was going a little bit further south. 

We checked into the same old campspot hanged around for a while with all the people around before walking in to town. We went back to our favorite bar for a while and met one of our kiwi friends before going dancing. As my sandals hit their last expiring day a few weeks ago, this night was the end for them and I found myself walking out on the street barefoot. Outside the abraKEBABra later that night we met Australian Callen who we started chatting with. Turned out that he was about to drive down south tomorrow, and had two spear seats in he's car. We easily decided to join them for a roadtrip down to Newcastle the next morning. 

Newcastle

While we were waiting for our ride in the morning we spent the hours trying to dig out all glass I got in my foot. Since I ended up beeing barefoot the night before and dark as it was I managed to step on glass on our way home. We sorted it out thought with the help of an English guy from our camp. 

Callen and his 2 friends picked up us in early arvo to start our 8 hour roadtrip down south. The car was packed, with the five of us and all our luggage. Especially mine and Stina's. We spent the hours chatting, singing, listening to way to loud music and all this typical road-trip things. We did a stop in Coffs Harbour to get pictures in front of the giant banana the have there, a touristy attraction. Other than that we tried to drive straight to Newcastle.

 Me and Stina kindly got offered to stay with Callen and his mother who is - exept from my own of cource - one of the most lovely mothers I have ever met. And I'm sure we did a good first impression as well, as she wrote the sweetest update about us on her facebookpage. 

 

 Even if me and Stina wanted to get to Melbourne as fast as possible we decided to stay one day in Newcastle to check it out and to hang out with our friend. Callan had a day off the next day and happily showed us around Newcastle. It reminds me a bit of Canberra with the fact that you'll have to drive everywhere since the city is quite spread out. There wasn't much to see really, but we had a nice day including beach and pool table. Nothing can go wrong there. 

Canberra

Callan dropped us off at a nearby service station on his way to work, around 6.30 in the morning. We got picked up by 26 year old Ian on his way to work at the central cost. Ian wasn't even the slightest motivated to work that morning, and would be at least an hour late already. After we shared our stories, inspired him to travel and make him realize how amazing we are he ended up calling sick that day to hang out with us a couple of more hours. We started off with visiting his father in northern Sydney. Even if Ian's working less than an hour from there, he hadn't been in Sydney for the last year. He claims it too far, while we find a one hour drive as nothing by now. He's father was super nice, funny old man who ended up joining us for a drive to the southern part of Sydney where he bought us lunch before dropping us off at another service station. After a few other drives we ended up with the greatest mid age man on our way to Canberra. We shared all our adventurous hitch hike stories and by the end of the day he got the two of us booked in and paid for in a lovely hotel in Canberra city. The room, the atmosphere, and all the surroundings was amazing, and did not fel like anything that we deserved. We felt a little bad for accepting this wonderful gift even if he never really gave us any choice. 

   As we now did got the loveliest room, just between me and Stina, we stayed in the entire evening taking advantage of our luxury facilities. We obviously had the best sleep ever, before checking out the next morning to continue our travels towards Melbourne.  

Melbourne

The same man as yesterday picked us up outside the hotel he got us booked in to the day before. We couldn't thank him enought when he dropped us off along the highway going between Sydney and Melbourne on his way to work. We ended up sharing rides with around 6 different but wonderful drivers before we finally reached our goal that evening. After 3 weeks of hithhiking, 2464 km, and at least 30 different drivers.  By this point we were extremely exhausted. Fysically and socially and spend our first few days recovering with super early nights and sleep in mornings. Since we've been hitch hiking we have never really been able to sleep during our travels, and we always have to socialize and be talkative. I do believe that we inspired so many people during our way, and learnt so much from others. And we loved and appreciated every single bit of it. We couldn't be more thankful for every single person helping us out, giving us a lift and sharing their stories. This is something I'd look back to and remember as one of my best experiences for the rest of my life. But even if we've had amazing travel experiences from the last few weeks we both felt that it was getting time for something new, the excitement to start the next chapter of our Australian adventures. 

East Cost, Australia

Byron Bay

Me and Stina decided to do some traveling, since she's been in Australia for almost a year without beeing anywhere other than Sydney and Leeton. Our plan was to head up east cost, but without really making any plans. We got ourselves an early flight to Byron bay, and as we are way to cheap to pay for a hostel night only for a few hours, we ended up spending the night on McDonalds again. Just like I did my last time there as well. After a not that great sleep, and a hour flight we got ourselves to Ballina airport where we catched the local bus to Byron. We met up with Kat in the morning, who was on her way to Brisbane to try to find work. The three of us went for breakfast and a stroll around town. All the hostel seemed to be fully booked that night and Instead of spending the night outside in the rain (which was our first plan) we ended up buying a tiny tent to stay at a camping spot nearby, where Kat was staying as well. 

We put ourselves to sleep really early that night and got a 13 hour sleep before waking up to say goodbuy to Kat who was off to Brisbane. Me and Stina walked in to town to meet Isabella again. Together with her and her boyfriend we spent hours catching up and playing pool over a couple of beers. Me and Stina walked back to our camping where we happend to run in to Nikolaj and his girlfriend. Funny thing is that Stina just had a dream the day before about how we're meeting them in Byron bay, as we knew that they're traveling east cost as well. And here they are, standing at the same camping area. 

Me and Stina walked back into the city after sharing a couple of beers with our tent neighbors, 4 guys from New Zealand who's currently working in Byron. We met Isabella and Eric again when we went for pre drinks in the courtyard of their hostel. The same hostel as I stay'd in during my last stay in Byron. We all had a quite big, late night out together and it wasn't until 1 pm we woke up in our tent the next morning. As it was still raining, and I couldn't get in touch with Isabella, me end Stina spend the day hanging out with our kiwi camp neighbors. We went back into the city that night as well to celebrate one of the guys 25th birthday. And for me and Stina to get a chance to improve our pool skills. We're getting pretty good. 

We met up with Isabella and Eric at the beach the next morning, even if it took me and Stina a while to get there since I remembered the way wrong. We spent a few hours on the beach, got to meet her family for a short while before there were driving back to Brisbane to catch a flight back home to Sweden. Me and Stina went for a coffe at the cafe where two of our new Zealand neighbor was working. They're just about to finish their shift for the day by the time we got there and decided to come with us for a walk up to the lighthouse, and the Australia's most eastern point. It was a bit of a hike to get there, but we got the most amazing sea view with sharks and dolphins  in the water as well.  We walked over to the lighthouse and historical museum, before heading back down to the beach. As it was our last night in Byron, we found ourselves back at the bar again that evening. And because of our kiwi friends who are currently working in the bar. 

Broadbeach, Gold Cost

Neighter me or Stina had any plans or suggestions where to go next, we just wanted to travel. But up north would be preferable. As none of us been trying hitch hiking yet, we decided to give it a go. We wrote a sign saying 'anywhere pleace!! :)' and stood on the road just beside the campingarea as that's the one leading to the highway.  We stood there for less than 5 minutes before we got picked up by 24 year old Jesse from New Zealand. He gave us a lift to Broadbeach, just next to Surfers paradise where I did go my last time at Gold Cost. Jesse was super friendly and apparently he had a spare room in the house he's sharing with some friends,  where we was happy to stay. We spent that whole day chilling out in their backyard pool, just next to the river before going out for dinner. Me and Stina managed to convince Jesse to walk there instead of driving. It wasn't far but he managed to get os lost in every single way possible. And he's been living there for the last year. In the end we managed to get ourselves to the cinema to catch one of the movies. We ended up with 'hunger games 2' which was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. My expectations was quite high thought since I've read the books as well, but this was quite ridiculous. I didn't feel bad by falling asleep.  

Me and Stina with our sign in Jesse's backyard. 

We woke up the next day to go to the Broadbeach beach. We had to hide from the rain for a while thought and looked for a Internet cafe for Stina to sort her second year visa out. We didn't really found one and went back to the beach where Jesse met us after finishing work. Together with one of his housemates we went back out for dinner again and back home to spend the night drinking beer in their backyard. 

Me and Stina walked along the beach from Broadbeach to Surfers Paradise the next day to meet up with Elis. He's currently staying at a nearby beach at gold cost together with a couple of Australians that we all met in Bali, and just got back to gold cost from beeing somewhere else. We spend some time hanging out at the beach, and some games of pool before he was heading to work and me and Stina went back home to spend our last night at Jesse's place. 

Brisbane

Since Jesse worked in Brisbane, he gave us a ride to one of the suburbs early in the morning. We got ourselves into the city where we spent hours on the mission to find a place to storage our bags. Just for a couple of hours while we're waiting for Isabella to wake up. Shouldn't be too hard, you think. No one seemed to be very helpful so we just had to carry our bags around until Isabella called us to tell us where to go in about mid day. We got on the local bus to Hugo's place. One of my and Isabella's friend from home who's currently staying studying in Brisbane. He lives a little bit out in the suburbs in a house that he's sharing with a few other Australians. One of them turned out be well unhappy by us staying there, but I'll get to that. We spend that day, drinking beer and hanging out in the sun of Hugo's backyard. We took the bus down to south bank in the evening, but ended up back at Hugo's as the last bus back runs around 11.

After a good night sleep in the couch we spent hours cleaning the house as ther're selling it and have people to come look at it that day. And since the four of us got to stay there for free, we felt that's a way for us to show our appreciation.  We went to the fake beach in southbank in the afternoon. Basically a beach next to a pool in the middle of the city. We happened to run into Nikolaj and his girlfriend again and decided to try to meet up with them over a couple of beers the same evening. As Hugo was off for hokey training me, Stina, Eric and Isabella walked to west end for a beer. We told Nikolaj to meet us there, but they happend to walk in the wrong direction for ages because their GPS told them so and never got to the right place. We met back up with Hugo to take the bus back home. We decided not to stay at the veranda this night as Hugo's neighbor complained about us beeing to loud the night before. Hugo happend to get into a huge fight with one of his housemates as soon as we got into the front door. He was extremely unhappy, and started to scream at Hugo going mad over the fact that we were staying there. The four of us felt a bit bad for still beeing there after that,  but it was way to late to find somewhere else anyway. And he was definitely overreacting. 

  We walked down to a nearby park to listen to music, drinking wine and chatting the hours away. 

The police came chatting with us for a while too, since the were getting really bored that night. They are usually super friendly in this country. When we got back to Hugo's all 5 of us got in to he's room not to pist his housemate off even more. We got back way too late to get up in decent time the next morning thought. 

Coulandra, Sushine cost

Since Hugo live in the southeast part of Brisbane, and me and Stina was going north we had to travel by local buses across the town to find a good spot to hitch hike.  And we all stay'd in bed a little too long as well and didn't hit the road until the afternoon. Isabella and Eric was about to leave the same day as well to go back south to Byron bay. By hitch hiking as well. 

Even if we did travel across town to find a good hitch hiking spot, we didn't really. We stood on the road leading out of the city to the highway, but the traffic was little too fast. We got a little bit worried, especially since it was already getting late. After just a few minutes, a girl in our age came up to us offering a lift to the highway service station. As soon as we got to the service station (after having dinner) we met a wonderful mid age woman who drove us all the way to sunshine cost, where she's currently staying. So it all worked out pretty good after all. 

We checked in to a backpacker hostel, our first hostel since we started our travels. Bought a couple of beers chatting with people on the hostels common area. As it was Friday, the majority of the people staying there where all off to to clubbing later that night. By the time they left, which was pretty late, me and Stina went to bed. 

We went to check out the beach the next morning and spend a couple of hours in the sun. Since both me and Stina is really eager to improve our pool skills we ended up spending hours and hours at a sports bar that evening. We went together with an Australian guy who helped us out giving us tips how to get better. 

Mooloolaba, sunshine cost

We was about to leave for Noosa the next evening, but when we told the owners of the hostel that we planned to hitch hike the offered us a lift to their other hostel in Mooloolaba as the're going there anyway. It was only an 20 minutes drive, but at least it got us a little bit along our way up north. 

We stay'd in Mooloolaba only for the night thought, and headed for Noosa in the morning. 

Noosa, Sunshine cost

While we were walking down the street, dragging our bags after us this man pulled over asking where we're going. When we told him that we were looking for a good spot to hitching from he offered us a ride just to the next closest city along the way to Noosa. He couldn't find a spot good enought to drop us off so he ended up driving us all the way to Noosa, and back. He was very kind. 

During our travels throught Australia we've heard only good things about Noosa, and therefore our expectation was quite high. It is not very big, but very spread out. We stay'd at a tiny camping ground outside Noosaville, and for us to walk to Noosa head, or Noosa junction would take us almost an hour. 

As Patrick and his friend arrived to Noosa the same day we went back to Noosa head after dropping our luggage off, to meet them at the main beach. We decided to meet up again that evening for a couple of drinks as me and Stina went back to the camping for a while. 

The campground itself was extremely basic, and we weren't allowed in the area between 9.30 and 4.30 since the scouts were gonna be there at that time. The Mosquitos were killing us, there was not very many people staying there (understandable), but at least it was cheep. 

We walked back into Noosa junction where we was about to meet Patrick at a bar where they met some other friends. We found ourselves walking for ages and ages, on the darkestpath way, not knowing if we were walking in the right direction. And after an hour, always there I realized that I forgot to bring my id. Normally we'd probably be able to find a place where they don't check Id, but today they had some kind of happening in town and guards outside every pub. Patrick came to meet us anyway, so we ended up buying some beer drinking at the beach for a couple of hours. We ended up having a great time thought even if I did feel quite stupid walking for hours to get into the bar without bringing id. 

We walked to sunshine beach the next morning, which is a beautiful beach in the area where Patrick where staying. About 1,5 hour walking from our camp site. We spend a few hours on the beach before me and Stina where off to the Internet cafe to sort some stuff out. Me went back into town a few hours later, with my id this time, for some beer and pool game. Patrick joined us as well so we all improved our pools skills. We went to meet up with Patricks friends for a while before me and Stina started our one hour walk back home. 

Rainbow beach

Since Patrick and his friend where off to Rainbow beach the next morning, me and Stina decided to try to get there as well. We stood by the road just outside our campsite and got picked up by an Australian guy's living about half way to rainbow and offered us a lift there. After talking with us, and realizing how nice we were, he ended up driving us all way to rainbow beach. We stopped at his place on the way for a coffe,  beautiful located in the forest. We checked into a hostel in Rainbow, had lunch and a swim in the ocean together with our driver before he was heading back home. Me and Stina met up with Patrick and his friend at their hostel bar, where we spend the next couple of hours playing pool and chatting the night away. Since this was about to be the most northest part me and Stina reach this time (because of our money situation), and Patrick where heading further north the next morning this was about to be our last chance to hang out in a very long time. 

Sydney, Australia

Since Paulo was about to come to Sydney for a few days as well, just over new year, we'd love to spend the day with him and Nikolaj and his girlfriend. But also With Kat, Patrick and his friend. Nikolaj, Paulo and James wanted to go up at 6 in the morning to stand in the queue for hours into the botanical garden, where you're suppose to have the best view over the fireworks over Harbour bridge and the opera house. Kat went away to a park with some of the people from our hostel way to early as well. In the end, me and Stina decided not to follow anyone and just do our own thing, in our own way. And we ended up having the best day. 

As Stina couldn't be bothered walking back to Glebe last night, and to sneak into our hostel is too easy, She ended up spending the night there as well. We started the day going for brunch at kings cross, she waited for me to get my stuff ready before we were off to Glebe. We spend a couple of hours at the pool together with Canadian Nilusha, who's the one living there.mUnfortunately she felt a bit too sick to come with us later on.  Me and Stina decided to go for dinner, and ended up at this lovely Indian restaurant. We shared a bottle of whine, delicious food, and talked for hours. We bought ourselves some beer and a bottle of champagne on our way back to welcome the new year with. We ended up walking to Bulmain, which is a big park not too far from Glebe, with a view over the Harbour bridge, and where a lot of people go for the fireworks. The walk there was a bit longer than we expected, and when we finally got there we weren't allowed in since we were carrying alcohol. We finished our beer at a tiny grass spot outside, and hide the champagne in my bag with the help of Stina's scarf and it worked perfectly. We met up with Patrick and his friend in the park as well just before the fireworks started off. 

Even if the firework itself wasn't as amazing as expected, I was in the happiest place. In an amazing country, surrounded by gorgeous people after a perfect day. Me and Stina agreed that after this moment, nothing could go wrong. We shared our bottle of champagne, cheering and hugging around. Made New Years conclusions including not making plans (as that was we went for today, which gave us the perfect day), live in the moment, and make as much of it as possible.

The fireworks ended quite quickly, and we're all thinking about heading back, or somewhere else. As it was impossible to even think about getting a cab, or even the bus, we started walking. By this time it was Me and Stina together with Patrick and a bunch of his friends friend. Probably the biggest group of Swedish people I've been around since I got here. It was a bit of a walk, almost 2 hours, but me and Stina enjoyd every second of it since we had such an amazing day and nothing could change that. We lost the others during our walk since they walked way to slow. You know how it's hard to keep a big group to walk in the same speed. We met Patrick back at kings cross, but the rest of them went to bed. We was suppose to meet up with Paulo, Nikolaj and James as well, but since they all been up since 6 in the morning queuing to the botanical garden, they were all back home by the time we got back. We we're not in a mood for clubbing so we went to a more quiet bar for another drink together with a British guy from our hostel. As we felt like the night was about to come to an end, and the sun was about to rise we're soon enought finding ourselves back in bed as well. 

Me and Patrick during fireworks at new years eve

Our first day of 2014, we wanted to spend on the beach. Paulo Said he was gonna meet us there vut headed of to blue montains instead. Me and Kat met up with Stina and her gorgeous canadian friend Nilusha, and we went down to Bondi together were we met James, Nikolaj and his girlfriend, who basically just came to visit him for a few weeks. The beach was absolutely packed with people, and the wether wasn't great, but it was still worth going and we a great time. As it was Kat's last night, and James's last night as well we decided to all meet up for a few drinks later on. Even if it is New Year's Day. I didn't stay up for too long thought as me and Stina where getting up early in the morning to visit Livy in Wollongong. 

Me and Kat checked out from the hostel and I went to meet Stina at the trainstation at 9. Turned out that she hadn't got any sleep at all yet, since she and James decided to stay at the bar quite a while after the rest of us left. So she had a great sleep during our 1,5 journey to Woolongong. So did I and we almost missed our stop in Wollongong, in which by the way turned out to be the wrong one. Livy got her friend to drive there and pick us up and arrived to the sight of me and Stina sleeping on each others shoulders. We did had a lovely day together even if Stina was a bit out of energi. We had a coffe, a look around the beautiful little town before we went to the beach for a while. Livy seemed to be living an amizing life in Wollongong. She's been getting up early every morning doing yoga, eating healthy, drinking te instead of alcohol and felt just great while me and Stina where complaining about how much our body's hurt and how bad we felt after our kings cross alcoholic lifestyle. 

Stina had a little nap that afternoon, and we woke her up just a few minutes before we had to leave for the train back to Sydney. As she still wasn't really awake, she accidently took Livys phone for her own (as they have the same one) and brought it with her to Sydney. It took us a few hours before we found out later that night. It's quite funny too since Livy been so unlucky with her technology, lost her old phone in blue montains and just bought a new one. We managed to send it back to her a few days later. We met up with Kat back at kings cross since she decided to stay another night. She also forced us to another night out since she claimed that this was her last night (again). Neither me or Stina enjoyd that night out, since we felt to fed up with the kings cross nightlife. All three of us, me, Kat and Stina, sneaked back in to our old hostel to sleep even if we didn't pay for the night. They did question it in the morning thought so I needed to find another place to stay by then. 

Kat left us in the morning, sadly enough, and me and Stina walked down town to get her a new suitcase for her future adventures.  We met up with her friend Nilusha who couldn't wait to tell us all about her morning being on a date with this guy she met last night. As soon as we saw her we could tell that she was on clouds of happiness and just couldn't stop smiling. She told us her story over and over again as we were walking to Broadway's shoppingmall close to Glebe. Stina got her suitcase, or a package of 7 bags, so I got one of them for myself as well. 

Even if me and Stina made the decision not to go out that night, Patrick managed to convince us to come with them to this club in darling Harbour. And since I didn't had anywhere to stay that night, we thought that we might as well go there and stay out all night until we could check into our new hostel in Glebe the next morning. Great plan huh. I went back to kings cross to collect my luggage before heading back to Stina's where I could storage them at Nilushas place during the night. By this point, Stina just picked up all her stuff that she left in her old apartment before she went away to Leeton a couple of months ago and was just in the session of sorting stuff out. We had a few beers while we were sorting and packing which took us a while and it wasn't before 2am we met Patrick and his friends in the club. In the end, both of us ended up sleeping on the floor of Nilushas tiny studio apartment for just an hour or two. 

We spent that day on Glebe's Saturday market as well as sorting and packing some more, leaving giant bags of Stina's old stuff to charity before we finally went to check in to our hostel in Glebe. On our way there Stina's big new suitcase manage to brake for being overpacked and she ended up drag it all way there in which obviously made it brake even more. 

After having our earliest night in weeks we woke up after a great full nights sleep to meet up with Nilusha. We went for a morning swim in her rooftop pool before getting some breakfast, or more like brunch. We headed back to the hostel to re-organize Stina's baggage with her new bag. Playing ping pong with an Estonian guy from our room before having another early night.  

Since we woke up at decent time we decided to try to walk to the beach. It took us about 2 hours to coogee wich is one of the beach southern suburbs of Sydney. We spend a couple of ours working on our tans, swimming in crazy waves and strong currents. A British guy that we met in kings cross came to join us as well. Nilusha told us about this Swedish pizza restaurant called 'sven's Viking pizza' in the area which we obviously had to check out as well. Turned out that it was closed only at Mondays though so we ended up at a sushi train place instead. We went for a game of pool, and me and Stina almost managed to beat the British guy even if we lost in the end. We finished the day with a sunset walk along the cliffs by the beach. 

Our last day in Sydney we went to the cinema to watch 'the secret life of Walter Miller'. Not a great movie, but it got a lot better halfway throught (I obviously fell asleep for a little bit in the beginning, because that's how I usally end up spending my time at cinemas). After the movie we met up with Nilusha for a last dinner together, and to finally try to make it to this Mexican place where our friend Tom use to as a bar manager before coming to fruitshack. We had a tasty meal and a few drinks together before saying goodbuy to Nilusha for this time. 

Me and Stina stay'd in town for a couple of more hours to meet Patrick for a last couple of drink as well. Even if we'd probably see him soon enought anyway since they're traveling up east cost as well.