Meredith: [voiceover] We like to think that we are rational beings; humane, conscientious, civilized, thoughtful. But when things fall apart, even just a little, it becomes clear we are no better than animals. We have opposable thumbs, we think, we walk erect, we speak, we dream, but deep down we are all still routing around in the primordial ooze; biting, clawing, scratching out an existence in the cold, dark world like the rest of the tree-toads and sloths.
I landed in Melbourne on the 4th of November. It was my first time in Australia and by that time the only thought in my mind was: I need a cigarette. That was because during my 13 hour layover in Beijing, I wasn't allowed to leave the airport to have a quick smoke and inside the building there were no smoking facilities, plus they took away my lighter at the security check point. Luckily shortly after exiting the airport a young guy approached me and asked if I had a cigarette. I told him that I'd be happy to share one with him (back then I was blissfully unaware of how crazy-expensive cigarettes are in this country) in exchange for a light.
While smoking happily in this beautiful country, the guy told me that he was a local guy going to Perth for a bit and even gave me his lighter (he had others, plus I got to use this lighter for over a month and a half). He told me that to get into town I have to take a big red double decker, otherwise it's a long walk to the centre (I really should have done my homework first).
So I bought a one-way ticket to the city (18$!!!). Luckily the bus had a wifi, so I was able to get in touch with the world again and activate a sim card that I had purchased earlier from the airport (also still blissfully unaware that though this provider had one of the best network coverages throughout all of Australia, it was also one of the most expensive ones).
I got off from the Southern Cross Station and dragged my ass to the hostel, through a surprisingly warm day (I was expecting something much colder for this time of year). And of course as soon as I stepped out from the station, one of the first things I did - take a quick photo for Instagram, but since I hate looking like a tourist, it took me about 4 seconds to take the picture. Just took my phone out and took a quick snap at a big(ish) intersection. Wasn't one of my masterpieces, but the Instagram filters saved it a bit(ish).
My first hostel that I stayed at was called Nomads. I got a big room with bunkbeds with places for 14 people and one tiny shower room (without a sink) per room and one bathroom (with a sink) per floor.
While staying there, most of my time in the evenings went on watching the old episodes of Grey's Anatomy (in April 2016 I started from the fourth season (because the first three I've seen much more, but never anything again from that point on) and by the time I had reached the hostel, I was on the 10th season).
One evening there were two young British backpackers watching new episodes of "The Walking dead" and they started watching right where I had left off back home (the 2nd episode of the 7th season). And even though they were watching it from a small screen (I think 10 inches or maybe a little less) and using earphones for audio and on a lower bunk, I still watched the next two episodes from my top bunk, my curiosity just wouldn't let me be. The guys did offer not to watch it with earphones, but I politely declined, because I thought that it might disturb others, as it was 11pm or after that and others were trying to sleep (which didn't bother these guys though, when they sometimes during midnight or even later would turn on the lights in the room and talk quite loud to each other as if it was the middle of the day or something. I personally could have cared less, because usually at that time I was still watching Grey's Anatomy).
In the beginning most of my time outside of the hostel went on aimlessly walking around the city (and then finding my way back with the help of Google maps). It's a very beautiful city, to be honest. I like it how there are some really old looking houses right next to brand new ones. And already after walking around the CBD (Central Business District) for a few days, I begun recognising some streets, so the CBD area isn't that big, but I heard that the city itself (along with its suburbs) stretches about 30 kilometers each way.
For the past few years I was a bit of a hermit, so while being here I thought why not try meeting some new people. So I opened up some dating apps and in total went out with 4 guys.
The first one I met on the 6th of November. He didn't really want to come out, so I went to his place. I remember it was a few kilometers away from the CBD and even though there are free trams within the CBD area, I walked there, just to get to see more of the city. When I got to his place, this really tall guy opened up the door. We talked for a bit, had coffee and some fun (if you know what I mean). One awesome fact that he told me was that the first season of Underbelly was partly shot on the street next to his (which I later took to walk back to the hostel) and one American movie that I can't remember anymore. I think in total I spent about an hour and a half at his place.
The second guy I met on the 9th of November. I'll nickname him Cam (I don't use real names for others). Initially we were supposed to meet on the next day, but I couldn't wait that long. So after his shift ended, somewhere around 11:30pm, we met up at the Flagstaff gardens for a short walk. Nothing happened, we just chatted and walked around the park and in about 20 minutes he got in his car and took off.
On the 10th of November I switched rooms. Initially I didn't know how long I'd want to stay in the hostel, so I booked my room (or to be more precise "bed") only until the 10th. But since there were no availabilities in the room I was staying at, I got another room, a bit more expensive one.
And I also had to check out at 10am, then wander around and check-in was available from 14:00 again.
Luckily I was able to drop off my luggage (for free!) at one of their storage rooms, so I didn't have to carry that around the city.
I met up with Cam, we had a quick coffee and then he showed me around the city. Mostly we just walked around and talked. I had been walking earlier on my own only on this side of the river, but he took me for a walk on the other side of the Yarra river, showed me a bit of the gorgeous gardens that are on that side.
Around four in the afternoon he went to work and I went to check into my new room. This time the room had bunk beds for 8 people and the whole floor looked like it had just gotten a facelift. It looked much better than the earlier floor and room. The only down side was that in this room there was no shower. The shower and the bathrooms were in the hallway, luckily there were more than one of those, so there were never any queues.
The free complimentary breakfast in this hostel was the best I had had anywhere else. They offered free pancakes for all the residents every morning from 7am (or 8am) until 10am (or 9am). The weren't big pancakes, but they were delicious and you could take more than one.
On the 11th of November I met another guy. This one picked me up near the Flagstaff gardens and drove me around his suburbs (Toorak). If I remember correctly, then he was a real-estate agent and he showed me a lot of mansions and told me about their history. Later after the tour we hopped by his place for a quickie and then he took me back to my hostel.
The next day was quite a busy day. During the day time I went to the National Gallery Victoria with the fourth guy. He was good looking, but quite shy, which occasionally left some awkward pauses in our chats, but luckily the museum was interesting enough that we didn't have to talk much while being in there and if, then mostly about the art. If anyone ever happens to be in Melbourne, then I definitely recommend seeing that museum. It's completely free (except some parts of it, but I didn't go to those) and it's really worth the time.
I got back to the hostel somewhere in the afternoon. While being in the city alone, I never took any trams or anything like that, just walked from one point to another all the time, so I was pretty exhausted when I got back to my room. When I walked in this time, two people were already there - a cute blond girl from Ireland and one nice looking guy from somewhere in England. I can't remember how it started, but we got talking and the guy gave me a lot of (useful) advice. Saying things like I should grab every moment, stop worrying about others, because I might never see them again and things like that. I knew he was right about everything he said, but it doesn't come that easy to me. I just get so nervous meeting and talking to new people. He said that later he'll have some drinks in the bar on the first floor and I should join him.
In the evening I met up with Cam again. He had just come back from a company event and was pretty tired, so we didn't do much. Just walked around the Flagstaff gardens and talked about everything. :)
After he had gone home, I decided to take my temporary roommate up on his offer. I marched to the bar and saw him sitting there with a group of people, with his back towards the main entrance. If he would have been facing the main entrance, it would have been much easier, but nooo, he had to be with his back to it. So I went to the bar and bought a drink for myself. At first I was too chicken to walk up to him and say "I'm here, can I join", so I nervously went to sit by myself for a bit, played with my phone and enjoyed my drink. When I finished it, I got up and I was already about to walk out, when he jumped up to buy some more drinks and spotted me and called me over. I said that I need to go up to my room first to drop off my backpack and then I'll join. And that's what I did - basically ran up the stairs (my room was on the fourth floor, which for us, Estonians, actually means the fifth floor, because we count the ground floor as the first floor, but over here they don't, which occasionally is quite confusing).
When I got back down, he was again with his group and with his back to the main entrance. So I got myself another drink and with shaking hands (and a heart that was beating like a tractors engine), I tapped him on his shoulder. Luckily he wasn't that drunk yet, so he recognised me and invited me in. We played some group game, just talked and laughed a bit (while I stayed mostly quiet, because even though it was fun, they were still all new people to me and I felt quite a lot of pressure, as I usually do with new people). In total I had four drinks and went to bed around 3am and I would say that it was a successful day. I'd still need a lot more experiences with new people to overcome my irrational fears and anxieties, but it was a good start.
I was afraid that I'd have a terrible hangover the next day, but luckily it wasn't bad at all. Generally I can have a hangover the next day even after a few glasses of wine (granted it won't be a killer of a hangover, but I'll still feel it). After waking up late, a shower and a walk in the city, I ended up in bed quite early. The British guys from the other room had given me a link to a website, which had all my favourite shows for free (with some annoying pup-up ads, but if you close them quick enough it's not that bad), so I was able to catch up on the latest episodes of Grey's Anatomy (who are currently on their 13th season and have also been renewed for a 14th season, yeey!!) and other shows that I'm currently following. I had just purchased an internet "ticket" from the hostel, so for the next 24h I could watch anything I wanted without it being deducted from my (very expensive) mobile data.
On the 14th of November I changed hostels and the Urban Central hostel was the lucky choice for the next three days. So far that hostel has been the best one I've stayed at. The room that I got had four beds (=two bunkbeds). When I first got there only one was occupied, but the other beds got a backpacker in them within the next days. That hostel felt the best because it was the most cleanest, most remodelled with the friendliest staff. All the hallways and bathrooms and showers looked like they had been just recently renovated.
Their breakfast was more modest: cereal, milk, bread, butter, toaster, peanut-butter and Vegemite and there was also a coffee machine which would fill up a cup if you put a dollar in it. On my first breakfast there I accidentally thought that the Vegemite is Nutella and spread it nicely all over the bread. Suffice to say it not a nice surprise when it turned out that it wasn't Nutella on my bread. My previous roommates had once given me a taste of Vegemite (which they had brought back from their stay in Australia) and the memory of it was much worse than reality was. It wasn't delicious, but it wasn't as awful as I had remembered.
And though the hostel was on the other side of the Yarra river (which should have given me plenty of reasons to explore "the other side" more), I still kept on coming to the side where most of the CBD is and wandering around there, looking for "help wanted" signs and keeping hope alive. In the evenings I'd use the hostels wifi to search for jobs and finding a way to make a cv with my phone (because that's what most companies here want to see).
On the 17th of November I moved yet again. This time to the Discovery Melbourne Hostel. Right as I was standing in line to check-in, I encountered my first "unpleasantness" - the receptionist allowed the guy who was before me to keep his bag in the room behind the counter until it's possible to check into the room (you could do the check-in before 14:00, but you couldn't get to your room before that, because it was being cleaned). But to me that b*tch said that I need to put my suitcase in a locker, which was 8$ (considering that my wallet had about 20$ in it, it was a big deal for me). But I didn't say a word. I just put my suitcase in the locker and went off to the city to keep looking for "help wanted" signs (back then I didn't know yet that I don't need that sign in order to just walk in and drop off my resume, which actually at that point I still didn't have).
The room a I got had 10 beds in it and I got lucky with cool people again. I didn't talk to all of them, but I had it all - people with awesome stories, people with helpful tips and eye candy. :)
Over there the breakfast was as modest and as typical as it had been in the previous hostel, with the exception that they offered tea and instant coffee.
Unfortunately within all the time I had spent in Melbourne, I had not yet managed to find a job and since the little cash I had taken with me had ran out, I needed a new plan.
Luckily Cam was kind enough to let me come and stay at his place from the 22nd of November. Before I came to his place, I had struck a deal with a friend from back home that he'll send me some money, which was supposed to take me to Tasmania (a friend had done her farm days there and gave me the contacts for the hostel and the farm).
Then I spent the next week or so waiting for the money to arrive. I tried to be as respectful and quiet and considerate as possible to Cam and Mitch, in the fears that they'd discover that they don't like me and would kick me out. Luckily this didn't happen. I got along really well with both of them and they seemed to enjoy my company too (at least that's what they said).
With Cam we already had talked enough to be comfortable around each other and fortunately I got along as well with Mitch. He astonishes me with his knowledge about Game of Thrones (it's amazing how one person can know all the backstories of almost all the characters in the show), science, games and other topics. That guy for me is the definition of a gamer, because he's been playing so many different games on so many different consoles for years (like X-Box, Playstation (1, 2, 3, 4), GameCube, Wii and so on. He just constantly keeps on amazing me with his memory and the ability to retain incredible details. Plus he was also kind enough to share with me his tobacco, so I could save money on buying (ridiculously expensive) cigarettes.
When the money finally arrived (about a week later) I booked a flight to Tasmania right away. I had considered taking a boat to Tasmania, but the flight was cheaper and it would take me straight to Hobart.
On the 30th of November Cam took me to the airport and off I went.
As soon as I had landed and gotten my suitcase, I realised that in order to get to Hobart I needed to get a bus (something I should have checked before I got on a plane), because the airport was pretty far away from the city (about 50 minutes by bus). So at first I wandered around trying not to look like a lost little puppy. I found the buses, but it took me a while to get around to ask them if they take a credit card (because I didn't have cash on my at that moment) and by the time I did, they had already departed. Luckily on the other side of the airport (which wasn't that big luckily) I found a mini-bus that accepted credit cards and dropped me off in front of the hostel that I was staying at. Honest to G, if I ever can, I will do that drive again, because the scenic view was just incredible.
I stayed at "The Nook Backpackers" hostel and got a room with five bunkbeds in it. I just chose my bed (had some difficulties at first, because the bed I chose looked like it was made up for a newcomer, when in fact it was taken), dropped off my bag and went out to find something to eat. After a short search I found Subway and took a nice six inch meal. After devouring the sandwich I went back to the hostel where I talked a bit with two travelling roommates. They were a very good looking couple who were travelling in Tasmania and were taking a break from basically living in the wild for weeks. After that I made a few reassuring phone calls (like telling my mother that yes yes I'm still alive and everything is going by the plan). Then a bit of TV shows (back then I had just started with "Fresh of the Boat", which I love, mostly because of the way Constance Wu plays her character) and went to sleep.
I had to wake up early the next day, because check-out was at 10 and I still wanted to have shower, brush my teeth and have the complimentary breakfast (bread, butter, cereal, milk, jam, instant oat flakes, instant coffee and of course Vegemite). The bus to my next destination also took off pretty early, so there was no time to loose.
I got my act together early in the morning and rushed to the bus station. On my way I didn't see any ATMs, so I just prayed, that the bus driver accepts credit cards. I got to the station in time to have a cigarette and to witness a confused young (-looking) Asian girl(?) going from one timesheet table to another and then back again.
When the bus driver arrived, the girl realised that we're going to the same bus, so she very carefully approached me and asked if I know if the bus is going to the destination that she was pointing at on a paper in her hand. I said that my destination was just two stops before hers and she sort of apologised and backed off. I let her board first and then I asked the driver if he accepts credit cards. He says "no", so I get off the bus and start heading back towards the CBD to find an ATM.
When I had walked about 10 steps away from the bus, the girl comes running out from the bus and basically says that she'll cover for my charge and I can pay it back later.
Though she was a shy and mostly a quiet girl with maybe not the most perfect English skills, she did tell me a bit about herself on our (hour long) drive. She was originally from Osaka and she had also come here to try out the backpackers lifestyle and she found work in a strawberry picking farm. I had heard from different sources that it's one heck of a killer job and it doesn't pay as much as others do, but I kept that knowledge to myself.
Around 11 I arrived in Hounville. The hostel that I was planning to stay at was just a few (50?/100?) steps away in a fairly remote tiny little town in the middle of a beautiful valley. I walked to the hostel, found the manager and started the check-in process.
Soo... During the check-in it turned out that even though I could afford the weekly rent, I wasn't able to afford the bond that they required... Since there was no other way of staying there I asked when leaves the next bus back to Hobart and said my farewells. Quickly (with the help of Google maps) I located the nearest ATM and took out enough for the driver and went to the bus stop to wait for the bus. Thank G that there was someone else waiting for the bus with me, because it was the last bus back to Hobart and it was about 25 minutes late and if it weren't for the other passenger waiting for me, I might have already lost all hope by that point.
By the time I got back to Hobart, Cam had already basically said that it's okay with him if I'd come back to their place. He still needed to double check with Mitch, but he said it shouldn't be a problem. So I started looking for plane tickets back to Melbourne. I found one price (the lowest available) that was exactly enough money that I had, so I jumped right to it. And you know what - the website wouldn't work. It kept on giving me error messages. After about an hour (or two) of investigating the issue with Cam, it turned out that the jet company's website was down and they were working on repairing it. Since at that point I had only two options (either stay in Hobart and try to find work asap there or use up my money by coming back to Melbourne and trying to find work here) I had chosen the second option. In the last moment of desperation I got on to the bus that took me to the airport and (about three hours after starting to try) I was finally able to purchase the ticket. Well, actually at first I didn't know if I had actually purchased it or not, because even though the website still kept on giving me an error message, the money had been taken off of my account, which left me hopeful that it had gone through and I was finally able to relax a little bit and take in the amazing scenery around me.
About 15 minutes after I had arrived to the airport I received the confirmation e-mail saying that my ticket had been purchased and that online check-in was ready. After checking myself in, the wait begun. You have no idea how boring it is, when you're stuck in a small airport with no money and no buddy and no laptop (typing and watching videos from a phone screen just isn't the same). Even "the local market" was dry as hell, because the airport was so far from the city. But the 5 hour wait there, in Hobart, was nothing compared to the 13 hour wait in Beijing, but it was still no cake walk. Luckily I could watch "Fresh off the boat" and play "Words with friends" with strangers to help pass the time.
The more time went on, the more anxious I got, because some of the flights kept on getting delayed and then eventually cancelled and the queue to the check-in point grew by the minute.
Finally (after standing in the queue for over half an hour) I walked up to the young woman who'd check my passport and take my luggage and as soon as she saw my passport she went: "Oh! Eestlane!" ("Oh, an Estonian!" in our native language). That was an awesome surprise. She said that usually she's not checking bags in, but thanks to all the delays and cancellations, today she helped out. We didn't talk much, because she had to act fast, but it was still an awesome surprise to find in a place I never would have thought.
After that I had one quick smoke and then passed the security gates (because I new there was no smoking lounge beyond the security check). Then I relaxed with "Fresh off the boat" for another hour or so and then it was time to board and take off. Initially my plane was supposed to take off at 20:55, but in the end we took off at 23:05. Later I found out that the flights that got cancelled were supposed to go to Sydney and the reason why they got cancelled was that Sydney's airport closes at 23:00 and if these flights would have taken off, then wouldn't have made it to the airport before it closes.
I landed about half an hour after midnight, so technically already on the 1st of December. Cam was kind enough to come and pick me up from the airport after his shift ended. Initially my plan was to walk back to their place, but Cam thought it would be easier if he comes and picks me up, rather than me walking 10k (which I did once many months later and it wasn't such a big deal).
And it's the beginning of May and I'm still here... I've sent out my resume to countless of companies, submitted it to a number of recruitment agencies, had a few job interviews, but overall no luck with work (except one three-day labour thing, but I'll get more into it next time). But hope still remains! I will find a way to get me to a farm to do work that would count towards my second year visa. Just need to find out how. :)
Meredith: [voiceover] There’s a little animal in all of us and maybe that’s something to celebrate. Our animal instinct is what makes us seek comfort, warmth, a pack to run with. We may feel caged, we may feel trapped, but still as humans we can find ways to feel free. We are each other’s keepers, we are the guardians of our own humanity and even though there’s a beast inside all of us, what sets us apart from the animals is that we can think, feel, dream and love. And against all odds, against all instinct, we evolve.
Flume & Chet Faker - Drop the Game
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