Landing in the Land of Oz!!

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So I left Thailand feeling pretty sad, but excited to see Australia and travelled over to Singapore before my connecting flight to Perth there was an 11 hour wait. I landed in the morning and so I decided to head out into Singapore and spend some of the time I had looking around and seeing what I could of Singapore.

I spoke to a travel guide and bought a ticket for the Singapore Flyer; this was like England's version of the London Eye (which I still have not been on yet). It cost me $30 SD and I had to get the tube to the flyer. It turned out to be very simple and the tube was so cheap! $4.50 return. I had to make 3 changes but I had a map (obvious tourist) and all the information which I needed.

The people of singapore were so trendy and everything was so different to Thailand. Everybody had expensive mobile phones and the best outfits you could find. They all spoke English and I loved the vibe I got from the place. I really like the short amount of time I had there.

I arrived at the station to which the Singapore Flyer was near and headed in the direction that somebody had told me, looking above I found the Singapore Flyer and walked towards it. I noticed that everybody drove on the left side as well as we do in the UK. I had spoken to a guy at the airport who gave me some history of Singapore and found out that English is thier first language before they learn manderin. This may have been known to most people but as I was not quite an angel in school it was not apparent to me and I liked learning this information!

I arrived at the Singapore Flyer and went on the Wheel. The views were amazing and I took several pictures of them as you will see from Facebook! I saw the Sea, boats and lots of the City!! It was still pretty unreal considering I had just come from Thailand that was so different!!

Once I had come off the flyer I decided it was getting late and so I had better head back to the airport before dark, plus there seemed to be a storm on its way. The storm was pretty crazy, loud crashes of thunder, lots of lightning and a heavy downpour of rain. It was quite good to watch! (Luckily I did not get wet as I was inside the tube station by this point.)

I got back to the airport around 8pm and had something to eat before making my way to the gate for departure. The flight from Singapore to Perth was just under 5 hours and I slept for half of it. I arrived in Perth at 4.50am their time, and I was shattered and wanted to get changed. As soon as I got my bag I went to get changed and attempted to find my way around the airport for a way to some sort of transport to the hostel. Nothing was really open and as it was so early I assumed that I could not get the room at the hostel and so I just slept at the airport on a bench for an hour or so.

Once I woke up, I felt lost and didn’t really know how to get to the hostel as there were no information desks in the airport and it appeared to me not to be as tourist friendly as Thailand was. I found a sign for the taxi rank and although I knew this would be expensive I just wanted to get some sleep at the hostel. It turned out to cost me $55 and I was shocked but paid it reluctantly.

I got into my room and I was on the top bunk, there was only one girl in my room who was still asleep and there were four other beds that were occupied but they were empty so the occupiers must have gone out for the day. I jumped up on the top bunk and went straight to sleep...I needed it.

I woke up after about 5 hours and the girl that was asleep when I walked in was getting dressed. We began talking and her name was Liis; she was from Estonia and she spoke very good English. She was a year older than me and she was travelling with a working holiday visa. She was a very sweet girl who I ended up spending the rest of my time with in Perth. We decided to head out for the day, get some lunch and see what was about.

We walked around trying to find somewhere fairly cheap to eat but I was so shocked to see how high the prices were ($16.95 for a sandwich and fries for example!) We found a place that served food for $10 and so we went inside. We chatted the entire way through lunch, Liis was so lovely and I found out that she had been in Oz for 3 months and she was now looking for work over the seasonal period. She seemed pretty desperate to get work and didn’t know how to find work very easily. Little to know I thought it would have been quite easy to find work!

After lunch we went to meet a guy who Liis said that she had been chatting to on facebook who was from the same country as she, wanted to meet up to chat about work and experiences etc. We were going to meet him at the hostel. We headed back and in the reception I got chatting to an English guy from Stoke who was there on his own. We told him we may be heading out that evening and he wanted to join us so he gave me his number so that I could contact him later.

Once Liis's friend turned up we went to a local bar where we sat outside sipping a cider (so tasty as I hadnt been able to get cider in Thailand!!) We chatted for a while about his experiences and work etc and then Liis and I decided we would walk to the shop to get some wine to share that evening. The liquor store was not particularly local, we had to walk about 20 minutes along the road to get there and luckily it was still open as it was due to close at 9pm and it was about 8.50pm. (The time still shocked me - everything closed so early!!).

Once back at the hostel we sat in our room having some wine and chatting, I helped Liis find some jobs online and she cleaned up her cv. She managed to get herself a few interests and the next day she was due to have an interview in a job centre.

As the evening grew on, two ladies entered our room. They were sister's from Melbourne but were coming to visit as their Brother was in hospital in Perth after suffering a stroke. They were very kind to us and offered us a night stay at theirs if we ever went to Melbourne. I definitely wanted to take them up on this!! One of the sister's had a son who was in Perth Job searching and so in the morning she would introduce Liis to her son; Sean.

In the morning after Liis and Sean had met I went to meet them in the lobby to go out job searching with them for the day - hoping to see some sights for the day. I bumped into Mark (the English guy from Stoke). He said that he was going to the beach that day but the weather was a bit pants and so he was sitting waiting for it to brighten up. I invited him for a walk around with us if he wanted to and so we all set off.

We walked around several recruitment agencies so Sean and Liis could hand out thier CVs and apply for jobs. Around the way Mark and myself messed around in the tourist bits as we were not job hunting and we were not dressed for the occasion either so we waited outside for the guys as they went into each agency.

After a few hours Sean went off to visit his uncle in hospital and the rest of us decided we would get some food to cook that evening and a box of Goon (aka boxed wine) to share. We went to Woolworths to get the ingredients (I found this a bit weird as woolworths was not a supermarket in the UK). We ended up making a pasta dish which we made for about 6 people rather than 3 and we were so full up we all had food coma. We eventually woke up and sat in the Hostel drinking goon and chatting. At 10pm the back yard (smoking area) was supposed to be closed and no alcohol was allowed to be consumed, at around 11.30pm we were asked to go inside. We decided to play a few games of pool and finish our wine which we had snuck in with us. We stayed up until around 2am and then knowing I had to be up in a few hours to get my flight to Melbourne I went off to bed.

I woke early and headed down to enquire about getting the shuttle bus to the airport in time for my flight. It was only $20 and I wished that I had known about the shuttle bus before I got the taxi to the hostel after my first experience with Australian expense!!

The shuttle bus picked me up at around 7.30am from around the corner and I bumped into Mark and Sean who were wasted! They had been up all night and gone out drinking in a local bar. They helped me with my bag and waved me off. I had swapped numbers with them and Liis so we could stay in touch. Mark did say he was thinkng of coming to Sydney so I told him to get in contact with me when he did, and as Sean came from Melbourne we discussed meeting up if he came back whilst I was there.

My flight to Melbourne was about 4 hours and the time difference was +3 hours. I landed at 4.50pm thier time and got the shuttle bus to my hostel. It was called the Habitat HQ and was a pretty modern hostel. It was $40 a night but it was all I could find at short notice. The rooms were nice and I was in a 6 bed female dorm.

I headed out to find a shop at around 8pm after sorting my stuff out and I got to Aldi in time for it to just close. Fed up of the strange hours things were open I decided the only thing I could do for food was to get a pizza from the takeaway around the corner. I ate even though it was horrible and then headed back to my hostel for an early night as I was pretty shattered from the travelling and pretty fed up as I was missing Thailand. I slept until 2pm the next afternoon - lazy I know!!! I got up and started chatting to two of the girls who were also staying in my room. We decided that we would all go out to the Base Hostel that evening as they were selling cheap vodka. (anything cheap got me interested at that time!)

I sat in the room with the girls chatting and getting ready for the night out. I hadn’t eaten much that day and so after playing a drinking game I felt pretty drunk. I decided I would make myself some noodles to soba me up a little and it didn’t work so I found myself in bed! It was only 11pm!!

I was to move hostel the next morning to meet my friend Holly from the UK who has been living in Melbourne for the last few months. I was pretty excited about seeing her so I wasn’t bothered about crashing out early!

I arrived in the hostel that I had booked for myself and I was not allowed in my room until 4pm as they needed to clean etc so I just sat in the bar trying to entertain myself. I was pretty bored and still worried about spending money as everything was so expensive and I had still not adjusted to it yet. I had a phone call from Mark to say that he was coming to Melbourne and asked which hostel I was in so we arranged to meet the next day and he was to come and stay in the same hostel as me and Holly.

I waited around for Holly which felt like for hours. I finally got in my room, had a nap and got ready to meet her. She had been on a road trip with her friends (Michelle who was a lovely lass from Canada and her fella Blake) so they had only got the hostel at around 9pm. It turned out she was only in the room next to me and it was so great to see her!! We had a massive hug and then we all got lots of wine and sat around in the hostel drinking as much as we could before heading out!! We went out at about 12am and then headed into St Kilda where we were staying. It was such a giggle seeing her and we all had a great night. Lots of beers, a great bar and such a good night.

I was so made up to see Holly I was buzzing and it was a really good night. I had been finding it really difficult to adjust to Australia and the way it was, so I really needed a good night out with a familiar face!!

The next day we all got up late and decided that night we would head out again! Mark arrived and he was staying in Holly’s room so I introduced them all. We all headed out and had a ridiculously drunk night. It was Monday night (aka Gay night in St Kilda) and it was such a giggle. We bar hopped and it all got pretty messy but it was very fun and I had a great night. Holly was due to leave for Perth the following day so I was pretty sad to see her go, so we had to have a night to remember and it certainly was one of those nights! Messy and hilarious!! Pictures were taken with Transvestites, dares went on, and I won’t say more…. We got home at around 7am and we all deserved a good sleep!

I was so sad to say goodbye to Holly the following day and had a great couple of days with her, Michelle and Blake. It was nice to see her and meet her friends.

Mark stayed with me for a couple more days in Melbourne, in which time we went into the city to explore and entertained ourselves! We also met up with Sean who was back in the city and he took us out to the casino and showed us around a little. I found my little self very amused in the casino and had fun but not much money to bet. I dont win that often so I quit after winning $6 on a 5c machine!

After 5 great days in Melbourne it was time to depart to Sydney to get ready for the Christmas Countdown…..I was very excited!!!

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