As I write this it is 2011.…but still 2010 at home. At home it will be 2011 in about 15
minutes. Today marks a new year. Today marks the day I have officially been away
from home for 6 months. I can’t believe
I have hit the 6 month mark. New Year’s
celebrations were pretty low key - hanging out with Stacey’s family and friends
close to Merimbula. We watched the fireworks at Sydney on the
television and I couldn’t help but get reminded of watching the ball drop at
Time’s Square in NYC. Roughly around 12
I got two text messages from home: one
from my father and one from my sister. I
couldn’t help but feel a surge of emotion, knowing that they were thinking of
my New Year’s even though it was 8:00 in the morning at home. It made me miss home. Every New Year’s Eve morning at home I would
wake up and watch the fireworks in Sydney on TV and think “someday, I will be
there. Someday, I will be one of the
first in the world to celebrate the new year.
And this time it happened. I may
not have seen fireworks, but I am thinking that this is a reason that I should
stick around for 2012 celebrations. I
felt a little homesick and took a walk outside shortly after 12. I stood and gazed at the hundreds of stars
above me. Thank goodness it was a clear
night and I could be comforted by the stars.
I am surprised by how much I missed home during these holidays. When I came in I distracted my feelings with
dancing with all the partygoers and a few glasses of champagne helped wash way
my troubles. New Year’s resolution: drink less!
6 months. I can’t believe
it. 2 and a half have been spent in
Australia. I still don’t have a
job. I still haven’t found a place yet
that I can call home. I’ve come to a
couple of potential places, and who knows, perhaps I can call them home, but at
the moment I am still a nomad.
I have spent the last 2 weeks in Melbourne. It is the longest time that I have stayed in
one place on my trip. Most of the time
has been staying with Stacey and Francis although I have also stayed at a
hostel in the CBD and also at St. Kilda.
I wasn’t sure what to make of Melbourne in the beginning and couldn’t
help but compare it to Sydney even though they are two completely different
places. I have learned to appreciate
Melbourne. I love its skyline. The buildings are so clean cut and
sharp. The CBD (central business
district) is quite compact and most of Melbourne just sprawls out with lots of
different districts. Each one has its
own train station and main strip littered with cafes and small shops. What I really love is that no matter where
you are in other parts of the city you can often catch the CBD in the
distance. Part of the skyline is a tall
skyscraper called the Eureka Tower. It
is long, thin, and covered with gold on top.
It boasts being the tallest residential building in Australia (but the Q
Deck in Surfer’s Paradise also claims this, so I am not sure which one is
correct). When the sun is setting the
gold on the tower absolutely glows and is set afire. It reminds me of the sun setting upon the
gold topped cathedrals in St. Petersburg.
Melbourne is one of those cities that slowly grows on you I think. It contains many secrets that the average
tourist wouldn’t know about. Stacey,
Francis, and my friend Adam have all taken me to different pubs and restaurants
in small side allies that I never would have thought to have gone to on my
own. Stacey has shown me a few rooftop
bars, one that had 6 different types of cider on tap. Melbourne takes its coffee very
seriously. There are so many cafes where
you can sit and enjoy yourself. There is
amazing Chinese and other Asian cuisine here that I have eaten heaps of. There are hundreds of small boutiques to shop
from. Some of the buildings in the CBD
are quite modern while others have an older look. The Flinder’s Street train station has a
beautiful color and structure to it.
Town Hall is a lovely older building as well.
The day before I left to go to Merimbula to celebrate new year’s eve I
spent the day in the city on my own. The
sun was actually out and it was quite warm and lovely. I went first to St. Kilda and visited my
favorite place in the city. You go to
the end of the wharf and sit down on the side by the rocks. It is quite windy but at this spot you are
sheltered and you can sit, soak in the sun and watch the light illuminate the
skyline. The Eureka Tower is set
ablaze. It is a very touristy place to
visit - in fact if I closed my eyes I would have thought I was in Europe with
all the French and German I was hearing.
The place makes me think of my sister now and our last night together
that we spent here. After awhile I
decided to go to Southbank, my other favorite place in the city. It’s an area on the river where you’ve got
the Eureka Tower and other tall buildings behind you and the rest of the
skyline in front of you. The riverbank
is filled with expensive bars and restaurants and street performers attempting
to make a few bucks off of their guitar playing. There are benches along the water where you
can just sit and look at the skyline. At
night it’s absolutely brilliant as the buildings all become lit. Perhaps you might think I am boring for doing
all this sitting and looking at the skyline.
But when you have been traveling awhile, you learn to take a moment and
appreciate your surroundings. After an
hour or so of viewing the city I met up with Stacey and Francis and went out on
the town with some of their friends.
I’ve done a few things in Melbourne that I had never done before. I went to a sandcastle presentation where
various people have created massive designs in the sand for the public to view
for the rest of the summer. The artwork
towers over your head and there are animals, insects, people, cars, and other
designs carved impressively into the sand.
I’ve never seen anything like it.
We also went to a “moonlight cinema” in which you could go to the
botanical gardens, have a picnic, watch the sun set and then watch a movie on a
large, blowup screen set in front of the river.
It was pretty cool for me to observe all the people sitting on the lawn,
having a good time. To my amusement it
looked like a lot of couples were on cozy dates, sipping wine and eating cheese
that they had brought. The movie was not
the greatest, and I got eaten alive by the bugs but I still loved the
experience.
Apologies for the random musings but this is where I am….6 months into
this. What am I doing next? Still unknown. What will 2011 hold for me? Not sure.
But I know that I need to keep the adventure alive. There is still so much that I want to see and
do with my life. I need to get on
it.
