Life gets oh-so-normal, oh-so-quickly..

Now. where were we.....

a standard evening spent lounging at The Nunnery

Ah yes, the days are getting shorter and colder with summer disappearing oh so quietly, and thanks to a bedroom shared with / heated by 9 other bodies, this fact was easy to escape, for a little while at least. My days were a mix&match of different elements, usually starting with me stumbling out of bed at 9:45 to get the only-till-10am free breakie. Next, a long sitting-chatting-drinking-tea session, then an extended getting-clean-and-dressed phase, mixed in with a distraction or two of some kind: facebook? ukulele? laundry? reading? Then it's probably lunchtime already... 2 hours later I'd emerge from the hostel, ready to face the world. I'd head to the library to work on my CV or hand out a few resumes, then suddenly it's already 5pm - time to start thinking about making dinner, preferably before the kitchen-rush around 6.30 or 7. Dinner would be followed by a night of poker? beer? tea in the kitchen? wandering up and down Brunswick St? Music improv in room 20? Finally, I'd go to bed, usually later than I'd hoped as I'd spent at least an hour wandering around the hostel chitchatting with diff people, unable to tear myself away from the stimulating company of others. I'd get out of bed late the next day, rinse, and repeat.

Our housewarming party; yes. that's beer pong. Chrissy's at the front, Carly's at the back

After about 6 weeks of this odd routine, I finally got an apartment and a job!! I got the apartment first; not the usual order of things, but ah well - needs must. Sometimes you have to seize opportunities as they come to you and worry about the details later. So now I live in a lovely share house with three other girls: Kayla - whom I met in Byron Bay back in September, Carly - an energetic and outgoing American gal, and Chrissy- a modest, funny Kiwi who works as a nurse at the local hospital. They're FABULOUS and I love them ever so much. Moving in, tho exciting, was also a bit saddening as I had made some great friends at The Nunnery, the hostel I'd been living in. Then I reminded myself that The Nunnery is about 5 mins away from my new place; Yay!!

Being in my new place that first night, in my first ever OWN apartment and OWN room was a very odd feeling. It was so.. quiet. I had space to think, to stretch out in all respects, and that felt very very good. I don't really have any furniture - save a bed&bedframe donated by an aussie friend whose family lives out of town, and a lamp I bought at IKEA, but it doesn't matter one lick! I've already committed a few housemate faux-pas; situations where i've displayed a shocking lack of awareness of those living with me, but I'm learning real quick. Noisy poker game in the backyard till 1am, just under my flatmate's window? when she has to work early the next day? Probably not a good idea. Derrr.

The front counter of yumminess at my new workplace

After the singular most frustrating job hunt of my life to date, I got a job! A selective job hunt was proving unfruitful, I needed to cast a much wider net. I resorted to handing out resumes on Lygon Street - a 6 block strip renowned for it's absurdly high concentration of family owned italian restaurants. A 10 minute walk down this street is either hilarious or annoying depending on your mood; big, old italian men planted about every 2m along the sidewalk lay the charm on thick as they attempt to lure you into their particular pasta and pizza eatery. This strip is also renowned for high staff turnover and employment of (read: exploitation of) backpackers. CV in hand, dressed all in black, I tried to convince any one of these people that YES I had waiting experience and NO I'm not leaving melbourne any time soon. *cough cough*. 4 days and one restaurant trial-shift later, I landed a job at an authentic french charcuterie owned and operated by a french man and his aussie-of-french-descent wife. (THANK YOU french-speaking-ability!!!) The pay is good for the work, and it's 4 days a week which gives me plenty of time for ukulele playing, blog writing, and a desperate attempt to get back into shape...

I was somewhat uneasy at first in thuis new job; the owner is a bit of a character. Her bluff manner initially intimidated me, but then quickly grew on me. Though always first and foremost our boss, she clearly sees the 6 of us who comprise her staff as "her girls" - asking about our love lives, trying to set us up with delivery boys, giving us food to take home at the end of every shift. And because we are a small staff we are quickly given responsibility: 4 days in, I had a key, the safe code, and was closing alone! I speak more french in an average day at work here than I do in Montreal, which is a good thing. Also, I am finally doing my French heritage proud by learning the difference between brie and camembert. The temptation to not continually snack alllll day on cheese, bread, and terrine is almost too much to handle. All in all, the job is great, and to top it all off, it's only a 5 minute walk from my apartment along Lygon. Well. 10 minutes if it's around dinner time.

Friends and more friends! L: Grant and Kayla in the living room, C: Rich and Jenny in my kitchen, R: Halifax friend Rob with other new friends at Trivia Night at the Royal Darby (where Kayla works.)

And thus is my life at the moment; living and working in a cute area called Carlton that is wedged between hipster-town and the university ghetto, in my all-black uniform for work AND play. I spend my days peddling paté and comté to melbourne's foodie community, and my evenings biking or jogging, trying out new soup recipes, and hanging out with my flatmates - aka doing normal things (how very unbackpacker of me.) I do, however, happily reunite with my backpacker buds from the nunnery and the arts factory on a regular basis, and even random friends from canada; keeping my toe in the water so to speak. And I manage to throw in the occasional new experience, like my first Aussie Rules Footie game...

Yup. Life is good.

2 blocks from my place, Melbourne at night...

Melbourne Beginnings

So, finally my blog catches up with me. Here I am, in Melbourne! Almost a year after I came the first time, when I discovered how much I like this city, this place so much like Montreal and yet not Montreal (definitely not 30 below at any rate.) This city of art/design/culture, ultra ultra hipsters, and mild weather. This is going to be the boring part of my adventure. Well.. exciting to me, but boring to you perhaps because I won't be moving around anymore for yet another big chunk of time. I'm basically here to try out real life. Actually, I reckon this will make my blog more interesting.
Yes, I DID just say I Reckon.

The sad truth is I need to work and save up cash. In other words, I unfortunately spent in Byron all the money I saved in Byron. Crud. On the upside, I now have one more thing to check off my list of typical-backpacker-experiences-to-have-in-oz: being terribly broke and desperate for employment!

First things first. When Tamar left, I stayed at "The Nunnery", a lovely homey hostel in Fitzroy (aka, Melbourne's Plateau Mont Royal...) Room 20 -- a ten share dorm with 5 sets of bunk beds, a dresser, a few narrow closets, and two couches in the middle -- was to become my new home. I couldn't have hoped for better roommates; mostly travelers like me who had just arrived to settle in Melbourne. These people, little did I know at that moment, were to become good friends of mine in the weeks following. Maybe even years following: who knows!

Top - Room 20, Below - some of Melbourne peeps, St Paddys day.

I was intent on starting my job and apartment hunt right away.. and... of course I procrastinated. Like MAD. But this was more than just normal job-hunt-avoidance. This procrastination was being fueled by EVERYONE at the hostel bemoaning the impossibility of finding a job and home due to 1) the fact that our arrival coincided with the beginning of the uni semester, 2) the global economic crisis, and 3) being a short term backpacker on top of it all. Who wants a housemate/employee who will leave in 2 months when they can have one for a full year?

Living in a hostel again didn't help either. The temptation to go out drinking every night proved irresistible, and I would up a few pounds heavier while my wallet got a few pounds lighter. That said, I had some really memorable nights! About a week into my time here we had a long music and beer fueled night with a few guitars, my uke, and lovely talented musicians and voices all around. The next few days as everyone recalled how fun that night had been, I recalled with a touch of sadness how fun and spontaneously musical just about every night in byron had been.

Music Nite! Chris, Corrine and Dee

(Ok, so I still missed Byron. Achem, still miss Byron. The feeling will subdue a bit over time, but I suspect it will never ever go away completely. It's like missing Saturday mornings as a kid. Or high school crushes. You know you can't relive these joys, can't actually revisit them, if you do it will be like going back to your high school as an adult - everything seems small, a bit cold, and a bit dirty and smelly.. But you can go there in your mind when you need to access that pure, naive joy you felt at the time. )

Having drinks with Madi and Kayla outside Black Cat

I spent scattered days pounding the Melbourne pavement, handing out resumes in shops, cafes & restos, lying through my teeth the whole time about my experience, my intended stay, etc. Job and house hunting became quite discouraging quite quickly! And then, on the cusp of reassessing my plan out of desperation, I was delivered a wonderful gift from Kayla; a new home in a lovely apartment with fabulous housemates just across the park from the hostel; exactly where I wanted to live. Though still unemployed, this was enough to keep me going, just enough of a taste of the months to come to revive my motivation. The next few months in Melbourne stared to take shape in my minds eye, and I found myself excited again.

thank god.

Grant, Rose, and my housemate Chrissy in the kitchen of my new home!

Just the Two of Us

After a frantic fun filled weekend in Sydney spent staying in Manly with Tamar's friend Ben, Tamar and I picked up our new home, AKA, the hippy camper, ready to leave Sydney in our dust. (thank god. Sorry, Sydney.)


We made our way out of the city late at night, it haven taken us the ENTIRE day to pick up the camper, repack all our crap, pack up the van (amazing how much we crammed in there) and then go! And of corse it started raining the moment we left. 2 hours later we were passing by Woolongong, driving through the most intense fog I have ever seen in my life, having already had a few near-death experiences, including hydro-planing on our way out of sydney.

In other words, our roadtrip was off to a perfect start!



The following days were a mishmash of small towns, rolling hills and picturesque farmland, lovely Australian scenery framed consistently by our car windshield, and one unusual 'free' overnight spot after another. We made an effort to mix it up; night number one was spent outside a random suburban home, number two saw us high up on a hill surrounded by green hills beyond which lay a stunning seaside view at sunrise. Three was a legitimately free campsite along 90mile beach (disappointingly, it was cold and rainy.) One night saw us camped JUST off chapel street; one of the main night-time streets in Melbourne. A few nights just beside the St Kilda botanical gardens... We only paid to sleep ONCE, and even that was only because our fridge battery needed recharging.


The best part of this 10 days was easily traveling with Tamar, my fabulous Scottish friend from the Arts Factory. I've never had a travel buddy with whom I was always so much on the same wavelength! It was an ease and a pleasure. Mostly.. as we were driving out of Sydney, she informed me of her infamous passenger-seat-nerves. ("Claire! The sign says 40km/h around the turn!! not 60!!" "Arent we going a bit fast?" "SLOW DOWN!" not to mention how her body would transform as we overtook other cars) (heheeeee you know i love ya tamar!!!!)



Something else from this roadtrip I'm sure never to forget: fire-ravaged Victoria. Before leaving Sydney, I was struck by the unfolding drama of news stories about the fires, fires which were spreading like.. well.. you know. The death toll, plastered across newsstands country-wide, climbed shockingly each day. But it was all so abstract; exactly what such a disaster would look and feel like was an elusive concept to me... until we passed through the small town of Yarram, a few hours out of Melbourne. Tamar and I had seen plenty of charred trees, apparently a fire-prevention strategy. But these trees, fields, bushes and grass had clearly been recently consumed by fire. If there was any doubt in our minds, the heavy smell of burning on the air was the answer... and then clouds of smoke coming off nearby forest... smoldering ground beside the road.... Five minutes of roadside exploration resulted in soot-blackened feet and shoes, and a smell of campfire in our hair and clothes that lingered for hours. Clearly the image will linger much longer in my mind.

We briefly passed through Melbourne on our way to the great ocean road, which is a very well marked touristic drive along, literally ALONG, the southern coast just west of melbourne. Stunning views. Koalas. The "12 Apostles." all that touristy stuff. We concluded our adventure with a week or so in Melbourne, hanging out, being bums, being backpackers, not really exploring Melbourne outside Fitzroy and St Kilda! Spent a few nights in the camper - including one very memorable one at the espy with John Bear, aka sexy bear, that American from Seattle who we all know and love. A few nights couch surfing, a few nights at my fave Melbourne hostel "The Nunnery." Saw Tamar off, back to Byron Bay, with a promise of a visit over bluesfest, and then that was that!



And so began the new, completely different part of my Australia trip.

More Pics....
Just the 2 of Us, Part One
Just the 2 of Us, Part Two