Heading to the north

Hi there! The last time i wrote during my 12 hours transfer from Meblourne to Sydney…This time the transfer is only 4 hours, from Brisbane to Murong, a small town innland.
After 8 months in Melbourne, last month in Sydney has passed quickly…..and now I’m in Queensland, without a clear destination….as a vagabond who keeps on walking, stopping from time to time to enjoy what surrounds him.
My planned final destination when I left Sydney was Cairns and it’s probably still the alleged one, it’s just a matter of time….

It’s been nice to stay for a while in Sydney, even if I admit I had many bias before arriving due probably to the eternal rivalry between the two biggest Aussie cities…no wonder every Melbournian told me Melbourne is better. So imagine how I felt when I stepped out from the bus the 31th December, surrounded by skyscrapers, cars, traffic….
After experienced personally Sydney’s life, I admit it’s a good place where to stay during the summer season, with all its beaches (Bondi in primis, the cult Maroubra, Manly, La perouse, where apparently Tom Cruise rode the bike in the last scene of IMF2, Tamarama, Bronte, Coogee)…Melbourne can’t compare from this point of view.
But….I finally prefer Melbourne! It’s one of those cities where you can feel like back home, probably as Lille was a couple of years ago.

I enjoyed NYE fireworks….amazing, the landscape, the atmosphere, the people….I baptized my first day in Victoria and Australia at the Great Ocean Road….and I Baptized my first in NSW with the fireworks, I actually couldn’t ask for more!

I celebrated my first birthday overseas!yeah!even during my year in Erasmus I came back home for xmas holiday, so this was the first. Marianna, my Erasmus mate, prepared a small surprise that I definitely appreciated.
The first 10 days have been Italian French…yeah, every second person I met in Bondi was either Italian or French…so I realized I had to do something…so I looked for an apartment by myself and…I found an fuckin awesome place!I remember I visited it during my birthday (a destiny’s sign?) with Danila,Diogo (brazilians) and Ashley (Canadian, canidiot as she likes to call..lol) and unofficially Reinaldo, Danila’s boyfriend who was always there.
They are simply amazing, extremely welcoming, we shared everything: food, time, fun, laughs…that’s probably the difference…we weren’t just roomies, we were mates…and I’ll be eternally grateful for letting me discover “How I met your mother” my new favourite series!

Brazilian parties, bbqs, Asutralian day, Sundays at the beach…I had such a great time with them and it’s been hard to leave them…
So after one month trying all the employment agencies I decided it was time to leave Sydney…one day Ashley went out for half an hour and she came back saying:” I decided, I’ll leave Sydney in 10 days, even if I’m moneyless, travelling with Michael and Ohran (2 swiss guys) in ùWicked van to Byron bay”.
It was probably the right input, the input that needed or waited for... I stuck for too much time in that city….
So In few days I organized my plans: I flew with Marianna to Byron bay (as she asked me many times…poor girl!) where we managed to meet up with the Wicked van guys!
Byron bay…the paradise according to many people…that means I had loads of expectations before arriving…and finally I can’t help but confirm it!
Well as first impression it might look too small for its celebrity, this is probably the point tho, it’s not meant to be a massive city, but a confy and welcoming place where to stay. There are heaps of sport activities, the beaches are so nice and quite, and there is also the most easterly point of Asutralia mainland. We took advantage having our first surf lesson…simply awesome!
And then there’s Nimbin….this small town inland where weed is pratically legal…we had a cake in two of us….the longest trip of my life…12 hours and was still high the day after! I needed the fresh water of the surf experience to wake me up…
Everything there was so characteristic, the Hemp embassy, the Nimbin museum, the blonde old lady…we were so fucked up after that, I walked through the forest with the panic of passing out!

It’s probably visiting Surfers Paradise that I finally appreciated Byron bay, I realized the difference between the 2 cities. Surfers is such a good place but so tourist…the name speaks itself. Apparently it’s the city where there’s the only Hard rock café in Australia (this is for HRC lovers).

And the Brisbane…I met up with ashley after the other guys left for different directions, Marianna back to Sydney, the Swiss guys to the north too but with different timing.

We were meant to find a fruitpicking job, but due to the rain and floated place, no job was available…
We spent 4 days in the third largest Aussie city…I didn’t like it that much, of course after being to Melbourne and Sydney it was not easy…but I managed to sleep one night in the Wicked van, and Experience I recommend to every backpacker!

Seeing there was no job available we joined the Wwoof (willing to work in an organic farm).
We went to Eudlo, somewhere in the middle of the bush, hosted by a family.
We helped them to build their house, we faced ours personal fears (spiders for Ashley, snakes for me) working and living surrounded by nothing else but nature!
The family was a mix of hippie and easygoing…René from South Africa, Kelly from Uk and 4 amzing kids 11, two 9 years old twins, and 1 year old adorable baby!
I will always remember kids’ politeness, they couldn’t’ stop thanking for helping them, and how they were fearless for animals and for the forest, walking barefoot in the middle of the night…
René was showing us Sunshine coast University, we were at the parking, it was raining, one of the girl saw some rubbish on the floor and…she asked her mum to stop in order to allow her to pick it up and throw it away…speechless….
We had a good bbq in Noosa, after seeing the big pinapple on the way to the beach. It’s actually one of the symbol of the local territory, like thi big banana, the big sheep in other part of the coutry.

Now I’m Finally by myself, travelling after Ashley had left to go back to Sydney where she will catch her flight to go back to Canada next week.

I always relied on someone’s help since my arrival in Australia, concerning finding accommodation or initial heads up, from now on there will be only me, myself and I.