The end and a new beginning

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5 and a half months have passed since I touched down in Australia. There's been ups, downs, and full circles. I've had a job I enjoy, a house, a great circle of friends and a brilliant social life all centred in Melbourne. I LOVE Melbourne. Such a great city that I truly felt part of; so when the time came for me to leave I felt like I was leaving a part of myself.

On 18th June 2013 I flew out of Melbourne and onto Adelaide, the first stop of a big Australia tour. This is why I'm here - to see this amazing country. The time was right to leave Melbourne, and the life I'd created, and go out and explore. This blog is the story of my final weeks in Melbourne, the great friends I have and my thoughts heading into the next chapter.

I have spent the past 6 weeks living and working in the western suburbs of Melbourne, just 20 minutes outside of the city centre and my friends. At least twice a week I'd head into the city after work, maybe just to a cafe, sometimes the pub, the cinema, or (often) for Japanese food. I have discovered and come to love Japanese food since being in Australia, largely down to having a housemate who lived in Japan for a year and also living opposite an Asian grocery. I'm hoping I'll still be able get Mochi (google it) somewhere when back in the UK. I've become addicted to the stuff. Yum yum. Weekends are about fun in the city. Champagne, cocktails, lunches, bowling, dancing, Aussie footy, wine tours, museums... always plenty to do in Melbourne. I'll focus here though on my last 2 weekends. They were about making the most of the city and the state of Victoria before I travelled onwards to South Australia.

First weekend of June was a bank holiday weekend. In Oz they get a day off for the Queen's birthday. In England, where the queen lives and reigns, we get no such thing. I find that very odd. A long weekend presents the perfect opportunity to escape the city. Me and my Pommy Sheila's (as I was once referred to at work) Becca & Jo headed out on a road trip. We hired a car and relished our re-found freedom. Stocked up on rolo's, jelly snakes, cereal bars and chocolate marshmallows, we head east, to the border of New South Wales, to a country town called Albury. We planned as little as possible. On the drive towards Albury we stopped anywhere we thought might be pretty, or have something going on. We walked through tiny country villages, took a ridiculous number of photos of a ridiculous number of rivers and lakes, sang at the top of our voices to the radio, called into local pubs and spotted wildlife as we went (alerting Becca to close her eyes each time I spotted roadkill - the first kangaroo she sees in Australia should not be lying squashed on the road).

We reached Albury. We spotted an English themed pub and popped in for a drink and a snack, chatting about the trip so far. The weather had been beautiful, the drive stress-free and we felt like explorers. Afterwards, we headed to our hotel, unsure of what to expect given how cheap it was.... It was fine. Dated, but clean, roomy and comforting. We relaxed. Until Becca found a hand-written note tucked inside the brochure. "sometimes in life things don't go as planned. Im dealing with it". Bec managed to convince herself it was a suicide note and started checking the room for signs of death. Another theory was that these were the words of a murderer on the loose - out taking care of anyone who made their life difficult. We bolted the door and tried to forget about it.

Back in January, on Australia Day, I was in Albury. I met some great people who I hadn't seen much of since. The weekend gave us the opportunity to catch up. We met my friends Katie & Shannon. We sat in the local pub, ate an amazing steak sandwich, then headed to a bar. The music was eclectic, the bar modern, and the cocktails amazing. Mission for when back in the UK - find a bar that makes a Red Corvette cocktails. Being a country town everyone knew everyone but made us feel so welcome into that. the other great thing was that girls left their bags, jackets etc under tables and mobile phones on tables, while they went dancing. no-one touched what wasn't theirs. only in the country! Come 1am, we headed home, tired, happy and a little drunk after an amazing first day of the trip.

We started day 2 well - with a big breakfast. I had the best French Toast ever! Feeling re-energised it was back into the car. We were staying overnight in Echuca, north of Victoria. Again, on the way we stopped at all sorts of random places. My favourite was Rutherglen. They had some amazing wineries there, a huge market, a farmers market and the best pie shop ever. And I mean ever! We had a kangaroo and red jelly pie; I can't even find the words to describe how good it was. We explored Rutherglen for a good 4 or 5 hours, wondering around the markets, visited the wine centre and took a tour around a whiskey distillery and chocolatier. We had tea and cake in cafes, stopped in a few pubs, and enjoyed being free and having no time schedule.

We made our way towards Echuca, stopping at a creepy lake. Really creepy. It used to be a town, which they relocated in order to flood the old site and build a dam. The trees have all died but stick up above the lake surface. I wouldn't want to be there at night; it looked like something straight out of a horror movie. Echuca was a gorgeous town with loads going on. It was really busy and we struggled to get a table for dinner, despite it only being 6pm when we tried. We ended up in a great little pub where we flashed the barman a smile and he gave us a free slice of chocolate cake to share :-) we ate, drank and chatted the night away. On the Monday we headed back to Melbourne, via a little bakery in a town called Kilmore, tired and chilled out after a great weekend exploring. I had the best time. A car, close friends, snacks, sunshine and the open road. It's what weekends were made for! That was my 2nd to last weekend in Victoria. I headed home and into my final week in Melbourne.

Can't believe how fast 5 months seem to have gone, though it's only looking back now I realise just how long it is I've been out here and just how much I've seen and experienced. My final week was about packing, throwing loads away, re-packing, finalising stuff at work and hosting 2 leaving parties. My final weekend me and 7 friends hired a private karaoke room, drank a lot of gin, and sang the night away. Incredible night, except some goodbyes at the end. I shed a few tears but the worst was yet to come. The Tuesday was my final day. My boss and the rest of my team took me out for lunch, paid for everything and gave me a card and presents. Just being the temp i expected none of it and i ended up getting a little emotional, despite my best efforts not to. I was lucky to work with such a great team and I'll miss them. That evening was my final night in Melbourne. 6 of us went to a little Korean restaurant I like. We sipped cocktails, ate and talked about all the good and funny times over the months. The night ended with me having to say goodbye to each of them. I can feel my eyes welling up even now as I write this. We'd all become pretty close and many of them I'll see again back in the UK. It's my Aussie and American friends who I'm not sure when I'll ever be able to see them. Thankfully, we live in an age of Skype, but it didn't make saying goodbye any easier. As my housemate and good friend Tina dropped me off at the train station, as I headed to the airport, we both sobbed as I waved from the window, leaving her on the platform. I cried up until I was on the plane.

It was so tough saying goodbye, but I remind myself that I was upset because the 5 months had been so great and wonderful. They've changed me for the better and enriched my life. I'm smiling at the memories I have forever. Now I'm ready for the next adventure... there's a lot more country to see and a lot more space on my cameras memory. Time to fill it.

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