Personal thoughts from Melbourne

Turns out its fairly difficult to keep a travel blog when you’re not traveling. I guess that makes sense, though. Last anybody knew I had arrived in Melbourne…well, that was about two months ago and I’m still here. Melbourne is an animated city. It actually reminds me of Boston, which is nice. I miss home. It’s been nine months since I left and any reminder or source of familiarity can be comforting. Traveling really occupies the mind and settling down anywhere, this side of the world or that, can bring discomfort at times. Fact is, I’m on that side of the world with nothing I can really call mine. It’s disorienting, but I didn’t embark on this journey to stay oriented. I came for new things, new thoughts, new people, new experiences. And now I’ve got all that. But how do I process it? My guess is that I won’t even be able to start to process what I’ve learned until I’ve settled back home. Don’t know when that will be, though. So really, I don’t know much of much these days.

My visa expires in three months which means I’m three-quarters of the way through with the trip I never thought I’d even begin. It almost seems like it never happened and I just magically appeared here in Australia with all this new information in my back pocket. If it weren’t for the photos I’d probably be able to convince myself it never happened at all. So I’ve got three months left. Time to string some more memories together so I can keep the dream alive.

I’ve worked three jobs in the past two months, all in hospitality. I started out bartending at a beachfront cafe in St. Kilda, a city-like suburb just south of the actual city of Melbourne. When management got a bit funny on me I decided to take up a second job at a 4-star hotel just across the road. Turns out food service ain’t my thing, so I quit both and took up a position at the trendy (rival) bar right next door to the former; same beach, same view (add one palm tree), but this time I’m serving drinks almost directly onto the beach, not just inside the building. My commute to work is about 34 seconds longer but I’m willing to live with that.

So I’ve got some time left. Not much, but still time enough to do some things. Like see Tasmania. Flights will be less than $200AU round trip and, just my luck, Melbourne is the jump-off point. I need to do some research and start working on an itinerary but I’m guessing I’ll make it to Tassie sometime in March. My diving trip in Cairns never worked out either so I may have to make a trip back out just to go diving. I’m pretty much sitting right next to the Great Barrier Reef–why not take full advantage of that!? The next few months are all still up in the air, but fact of the matter is that I need to sort some things out and figure out what I’m doing.

What I am fairly certain of, though, is that I’ll be moving on to New Zealand when my visa expires. I won’t have enough money to just travel and then head home so I’m going to have to set up shop for a couple months. My aim is to travel first and earn second, but I’m not going to make a big deal over such details. Funny how things like that become so trivial. May as well just jump countries. NBD.

So, for the time being, I’m going to keep my eyes on the prize. Prize being my life three months from now. I guess we’ll see where that takes me!