When one chapter ends, another one begins.
After 4 amazing months in Australia, with ups and downs, my experience in Oz came to an end and even though I had a great time, I was counting the days to go home to my loved ones. As I said in the last post, there were quite some tensions between some of us internationals and the whole emotional rollercoaster got on my nerves. All I wanted to do was seeing familiar faces, throw myself in the arms of people I knew and trust, I wanted to be reassured before going off to another 5 months of strangeness again, I wanted to feel home. Of course I was also sad to leave this truly awesome place, say good bye to friends that I made and take a last glimpse of the sun for quite a while. No matter how many downs I had, there were without doubt more ups! I saw so many cool places, met people with interesting stories and learned quite a deal about myself and my abilities, and for that I am so thankful! I'd recommand everybody to go abroad for a while, you'll not only learn so much about a different culture, people or places, you'll also get to know yourselves in ways you could never imagine. Also travel on your own, road-tripping with friends is super fun but with strangers even more, believe me you won't be alone for a long time! All in all, I will never forget Australia and I'd probably bore my friends and family to death with stories of 'when I was in Australia'
The final week was filled with studying as exams were approaching, but after my last paper I had another 3 great days in Robina and two days in Brisbane before I left. There were a few things I needed to do before getting into that airplane, so I went to the pool and beach one last time, I had a chai latte in the library, went to a way too crowded house party to leave 10 minutes after and go out with friends in surfers one last time, made a day trip to byron bay and had food at the market place. Conclusion: a happy and satisfied me ready to close that door and open the next one, who knows what adventures are hiding behind it.
After having spend a relaxing and fun day in Byron with Mark and Matthias, I had to pack my bags the next day which was the opposite of relaxing. Not only did I have too many clothes and hence, had to go through the painful experience of throwing stuff away, furthermore did I have two new flatmates making my day a living hell. Yup my roomies all moved out at that point so how come you were not alone at home? I had the lovely company of a spider as big as a hand chilling in the living room and a fast but noisy gecko making himself comfortable under my bed. The spider wasn't there for long, well I don't actually know, as it just suddenly vanished (and no I really do not want to know how close to me it was, neither do I want to think about whether it was hiding somewhere ready to attack...all I know is that it wasn't in my backpack when I got home so I will never see it again, thank you very much!). The gecko which I tried to get out, as I really do not like those kinds of animals in my personal space and certainly not in between my clothes in my suitcase, was too fast for me and ran under the bed, making it impossible for me to get my hands on him. Well I thought, it's just a gecko, they're somehow funny and do you no harm right? Yeah right (beware ironie) that little bastard woke me up in the middle of the night crawling on the wall behind my head making the most annoying noises you can imagine. It was squealing like an angry/sad pig, who knew that such noises can come out of such a tiny weird animal?? I certainly didn't and was glad to leave my room behind in the morning, I'll never share my room with a gecko again...lesson learned!
So I left in the morning and took the train to Brisbane, which of course got cancelled halfway through, so that I had to take another bus and tram to get to my hostel. Well annoying but I had the whole day so not that bad you think? True, if you don't have to carry a huge and heavy backpack on your shoulders, a laptop bag and purse in your hand and a fully packed suitcase in the other hand. I nearly broke my back, bursted into tears and screamed at bus drivers which is really not my style...you see I was desperate. How I was looking forward to making my way to the airport by train the next day at 6 in the morning! Anyways I ended up in the hostel, which wasn't very nice and the staff wasn't very helpful either. Just my luck: to get in you had to climb stairs before getting to a door which is quite difficult with all my bags, leaving my bags on the street right next to the station...not ideal, but I managed (on my own, as I said the staff didn't really care about me making funny noises and head as read as a tomato). I do not need to add that it was boiling hot outside and that I was sweating out all the calories I had to consume after this trip to be happy again. Having brought all my belongings to my bedroom, I could finally move again and forced myself to not fall down on my bed but instead enjoy my last day and see a bit of the city. So I went to Starbucks, got myself a strong yummy coffee, wandered around in the city and watched the christmas parade in the evening. It was kind of weird seeing Santa Claus and his little helpers dancing and waving to christmas songs while wearing shorts and shirts. 15th December at 7pm and the people are singing along to let it snow while eating ice cream and getting a sunburn, yeah it is weird for those of us who are not used to this. Anyways it was a nice way to end the semester abroad, with laughter and singing in my ears I returned to my hostel room. After having bought some tim tams and arizona ice tea (I had to take advantage one last time) I went to bed early to be fit for the extremely exhausting journey ahead of me.
After more than a day in planes, airports and buses I finally arrived in Frankfurt where my dad picked me up. My last flight was really exhausting and scary, I thought it would be okay because we were flying during night time and I tried not to sleep before so that I'd get in that plane and just sleep through those 12 hours. Nope, we had rough weather conditions which meant that every time I started falling asleep, the plane jiggled me right back into reality. A few years back I had to take something to calm my nerves before entering a plane, by now after all those journeys, I got used to flying and even though still nervous I didn't mind and managed to lay back and not worry too much. This time however, the fear came back and there was a point (probably when they decided not to serve any food or drinks because it was too bumpy and dangerous) when I almost broke out in tears. In my head hell was breaking loose, I imagined all the bad things that could happen...uhm yeah I am a worst case scenario kind of person! Only solution was to watch happy disney movies and try to think of something else. Not to worry I made it out just fine, it calmed down for the last few hours and I landed safely! My dad came to pick me up from the airport, he even took a day off work so that I wouldn't have to go by train and bus with all my heavy luggage. And I'm very grateful that he did because I was on the edge of breakin down with so many kgs on my back and not enough sleep. Thanks dad <3 During the flight, when I wasn't imagining the worst, I was looking forward to coming home so much that it took all of my energy to stay seated instead of dancing around out of joy. So naturally when I saw my dad standing there waiting for me, I had to cry, I tried my best not to but I've got to admit I'm such a sensible person and I was so happy to see a familiar face... Travelling is awesome I love it, but coming home is pretty damn cool too! Once you've been away for a longer time, you really appreciate your family and friends but most of all the comfort of having them around, knowing that they are always there for you.
The final week was filled with studying as exams were approaching, but after my last paper I had another 3 great days in Robina and two days in Brisbane before I left. There were a few things I needed to do before getting into that airplane, so I went to the pool and beach one last time, I had a chai latte in the library, went to a way too crowded house party to leave 10 minutes after and go out with friends in surfers one last time, made a day trip to byron bay and had food at the market place. Conclusion: a happy and satisfied me ready to close that door and open the next one, who knows what adventures are hiding behind it.
After having spend a relaxing and fun day in Byron with Mark and Matthias, I had to pack my bags the next day which was the opposite of relaxing. Not only did I have too many clothes and hence, had to go through the painful experience of throwing stuff away, furthermore did I have two new flatmates making my day a living hell. Yup my roomies all moved out at that point so how come you were not alone at home? I had the lovely company of a spider as big as a hand chilling in the living room and a fast but noisy gecko making himself comfortable under my bed. The spider wasn't there for long, well I don't actually know, as it just suddenly vanished (and no I really do not want to know how close to me it was, neither do I want to think about whether it was hiding somewhere ready to attack...all I know is that it wasn't in my backpack when I got home so I will never see it again, thank you very much!). The gecko which I tried to get out, as I really do not like those kinds of animals in my personal space and certainly not in between my clothes in my suitcase, was too fast for me and ran under the bed, making it impossible for me to get my hands on him. Well I thought, it's just a gecko, they're somehow funny and do you no harm right? Yeah right (beware ironie) that little bastard woke me up in the middle of the night crawling on the wall behind my head making the most annoying noises you can imagine. It was squealing like an angry/sad pig, who knew that such noises can come out of such a tiny weird animal?? I certainly didn't and was glad to leave my room behind in the morning, I'll never share my room with a gecko again...lesson learned!
So I left in the morning and took the train to Brisbane, which of course got cancelled halfway through, so that I had to take another bus and tram to get to my hostel. Well annoying but I had the whole day so not that bad you think? True, if you don't have to carry a huge and heavy backpack on your shoulders, a laptop bag and purse in your hand and a fully packed suitcase in the other hand. I nearly broke my back, bursted into tears and screamed at bus drivers which is really not my style...you see I was desperate. How I was looking forward to making my way to the airport by train the next day at 6 in the morning! Anyways I ended up in the hostel, which wasn't very nice and the staff wasn't very helpful either. Just my luck: to get in you had to climb stairs before getting to a door which is quite difficult with all my bags, leaving my bags on the street right next to the station...not ideal, but I managed (on my own, as I said the staff didn't really care about me making funny noises and head as read as a tomato). I do not need to add that it was boiling hot outside and that I was sweating out all the calories I had to consume after this trip to be happy again. Having brought all my belongings to my bedroom, I could finally move again and forced myself to not fall down on my bed but instead enjoy my last day and see a bit of the city. So I went to Starbucks, got myself a strong yummy coffee, wandered around in the city and watched the christmas parade in the evening. It was kind of weird seeing Santa Claus and his little helpers dancing and waving to christmas songs while wearing shorts and shirts. 15th December at 7pm and the people are singing along to let it snow while eating ice cream and getting a sunburn, yeah it is weird for those of us who are not used to this. Anyways it was a nice way to end the semester abroad, with laughter and singing in my ears I returned to my hostel room. After having bought some tim tams and arizona ice tea (I had to take advantage one last time) I went to bed early to be fit for the extremely exhausting journey ahead of me.
Maybe it's not the people we are longing to see again, maybe it's more of a selfish thing. It is the feeling we get when we are around them, the way they make us feel. It's the memories and the childhood. It's the safety and happiness. I'm glad I went home for Christmas because I realised that exact moment that I needed this and that no matter how much fun I could have had staying a while longer in Australia, spending the holidays at home was the best I could do before throwing myself into the unknown again.
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