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Published: October 23rd 2006
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The Three Sisters
Famous rock formations at the Blue Mountains If you’ve been reading the comment zone you’ll see a particular comment from two Kin girls asking for more stories. Sorry girls, nothing juicy yet but I have given this entry a little more of a personal element.
My day at the Blue Mountains was certainly a blue one. Not only what the weather horrible but my mood followed. It was probably one of the loneliest days I’ve ever had in my life. As I expected, being in a country where no one really knows or truly cares about you is a tough thing to swallow. As I’ve said before, hearing from people at home is the only thing that keeps me going some days. So thanks again, your comments are wonderful!
Since I arrived, I had been spending everyday mainly on my own. I found my hostel to be particularly unfriendly. The only people really hanging around in the common room and out on the patio seemed to be long term guests who already had their cliques and weren’t interested in adding to them. My sole roommate at the time was one of them. Every morning at 6am her alarm would go off for work and she would
We all scream for ice cream!
This was some of the best ice cream ever, it was homemade everyday. press snooze until she got up at 7am. Then I wouldn’t see her all day and she would sneak in late at night when I was already in bed. I tried to find people to join me in seeing the sites of Sydney but timing never really worked out with the few people actually doing them. I think after many days with very little personal contact, my Blue Mountains tour brought me to the last straw. I was disappointed with the weather because I could tell the place could have been very beautiful but it really wasn’t worth seeing the day I went. It was also freezing!!! Much colder than when I left Sydney that morning. After spending the day trying to get my money’s worth but not really enjoying myself, I sat on the 2 hr train ride home barely holding the tears in. I decided to stop at an internet cafe on my way home to check for blog messages. Luckily there were quite a few of them which partly comforted me but also brought on a mini breakdown. Haha, I can only imagine what everyone at the computers around me were thinking.
Luckily the next day picked up dramatically. I had a new roommate, a very cool girl named Jenny from the UK. She’s been traveling on her own for quite a while now and has lots of advice and experiences to pass on (including dealing with loneliness). She’s been helping me plan my trip up the East coast which I really wouldn’t have been able to do without her. She’s also going to be doing many of the same countries I want to see in Southeast Asia. She’s already done some of Thailand last year but is going back to do more in February so hopefully I’ll see her again.
Yesterday I spend the day with Jen and a guy we met named Matt also from the UK. That morning Jen and I were sitting on the patio eating our breakfast and Matt sat down and started making conversation. He had clearly been out on the town the night before and Jen and I watched in amazement as he downed 2L of OJ in less than an hour. Matt is here on business but chooses to stay in hostels to meet more people. The three of us agreed on the unfriendliness of our hostel and decided to spend the day together. We took a walk through the Botanical Gardens down to the harbour and through The Rocks. Every weekend there’s a market at the rocks so we checked that out then Matt treated us to very large ice creams. It was so nice to finally meet up with people where silence was never an option; the three of us had so much to say. That night we went out to a pub that offers free Sunday night roast beef dinners to hostel visitors presuming they’ll buy lots of drinks. There we met a couple also from the UK and had a great night chatting away. By the end of the night I was thinking in a British accent and making a conscious effort not to use words like lovely and brilliant.
This morning Jen and I woke up to find that Matt, knowing Jen and I had planned to picnic in the Botanical Gardens, had left us his $20 key deposit to treat us once again. Later through text messages we found out he had checked out too early to get it back and didn’t want the crabby lady at the front desk to keep it. So once again we were treating ourselves (this time to fruit salad) on Matt’s dollar. It’s been a wonderful two days.
Tonight I have planned to leave for Byron Bay on a 12 hour night bus. Unfortunately the late night must have done me in because I woke up this morning feeling achy with cold symptoms. It’s probably not the best timing to take a night bus but regardless it saves me a night’s accommodation.
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Steph
non-member comment
lovely!
Hey buddy! I'm really glad you met some fun new people, it can be rough to be in a new place and feel so... insignificant almost. Really glad to hear that things improved drastically :) (Note to self: don't stay at that hostel!!) I laughed out loud at you thinking in 'British', and could actually picture you trying so hard not to use their words!! (hehe brilliant) Love you tons and tons, thanks for writing so frequently! xoxo Steph