John:
3 and a half months ago I left the UK for Perth,
Western Australia. Having not had
a holiday in nearly 2 years and being new to this whole backpacking thing,
after a month Northbridge I’d pretty much drunk my way through all the money
I’d borrowed for my (RTW) trip.
So that WAS me f****d.
Luckily, as I’d been searching for work to replenish my
rapidly depleting funds, a stroke of luck (and a sign for a job ‘horse riding’,)
put me in contact with a decent job in Fremantle.
After moving out of Northbridge and keeping my head down for
2 months I was expecting money and ready for hitting the road again!
Meanwhile I’d received an email from WorldNomads.com (my
travel insurance company) telling that my random application for the Ambassador
program was pretty much a goer! –I was stoked!
The last thing I did for
the company I worked for meant taking a flight from Perth to Exmouth. So I worked it out that I’d
stay in Exmouth and move on up the West from there. 4 weeks later I was in Darwin, taking a flight down to Melbourne to meet my girlfriend Deirdra. She
was arriving in from Ireland
to join me on this adventure and will her new licence in hand –take some of the
blame if we crash it!
So after not seeing each other since I moved out of my flat
and drove my enormous amount of stuff from Belfast
to London 6
months ago, Deirdra is well and truly back! …Are we ready to spend 8 weeks in
an enclosed space? To‘test the limits of our relationship’ and try to have the
time of our life ‘without killing each other’? –F*** Yeah.
In fact she’s lying next to me right now, leafing through
the Lonely Planet, and reading random sections about Melbourne’s St Kilda district, The Esspie and
some band called ‘Vaginal Carnage’.
Sounds like my kind of place.
Deirdra:
In total contrast to John’s blog, I would like to begin by
saying I am from Strabane,- a small place in Northern Ireland once voted the
UK’s 3rd worst place to live, basically I don’t posses the cheesy
ability to write reams of inspirational travel-hippy type stuff and would like
to stand up and say- “Hello, I’m Deirdra and I’m a realist” and here be’s my
blog.
John deserted me 6 months ago in Belfast to “travel the world”, while I
finished my degree- consequentially it seems he spent 6 months screwing most of
Austrailia’s female population before getting bored and calling me again to do
this trip with him. (joke...?)
Basically because he wanted to
get fat and lazy again by lying around in bed all day, eating doughnuts and
farting. I suppose I wasn’t doing anything else after graduation so I blew
nearly 800 quid on a one way ticket to
Melbourne, Australia- city of culture, arts and music- (And the World Nomads
teeny tiny campervan!)
Arriving at the airport 2 days ago now seems like a lifetime
away, but it was officially one of the most surreal and mental moments I think
I’ve ever had- having spent months speaking to John on the phone- only hearing
a voice at the end of the line- meeting him face to face outside the freezing
Melbourne Airport at 7 in the morning- was weird to say the least. A lot of
running, bag throwing and crying was involved as I admitadly “freaked out”- my
john suddenly changed from this “voice” that came from my Nokia to a living,
breathing human being- and a tanner, skinnier one at that. Sweeet!
Anyway, so its been a great 2 days in Melbourne, perfect
place to start- enough culture to keep us going but not too much drama that
we’ve spoiled ourselves too early. The weather is pure Irish, the culture is
pure bohemian and the wine is pure tasty- sure I could still be in Strabane if
I closed my eyes.
