A Warm Welcome in the Land Down Under

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Day 21: Much awaited arrival

The second leg of the journey turned out to be slightly longer than had been anticipated, mainly due to miscalculation on my part. Having skipped backwards and forwards across so many timezones recently, my ability to work out flight times is somewhat diminished. I'm starting to feel quite lost in time and space. Journey times weren't helped by AWOL passengers in Hong Kong, or the apparent necessity for all passengers to disembark in Adelaide and go through security again, thereby ensuring the immediate confiscation of any liquid duty free items that they may have purchased!

The plane finally arrived in Melbourne at about three in the afternoon. It was then a bus and a train to reach the suburb of Prahran, and then a half hour impromptu wander around the local neighbourhood carrying in excess of 20kg of luggage trying to find the hostel where I'd booked a dorm bed (approximately 200m from the train station).

Although much in need of a good rest and some sleep by the time I finally got there, I'd managed to turn up just in time for the weekly barbecue and so after a quick shower, and with the realisation that I probably wouldn't have got much sleep anyway with a party going on outside, I joined everyone else for much food and wine. There had even been some veggie food before I'd got there, but as a latecomer, I had to make do with salad sandwiches. (Although I'm definitely not complaining since it was a free feed!) Despite having to excuse myself from a night out clubbing, it turned out to be a really good evening. It was nice to meet some of the other people, many of them long stayers who had already been there a few months and were working in Melbourne. There's a pretty eclectic mix of people in the hostel of all ages and backgrounds. I'm sharing a dorm with a girl from Southampton who plays the Ukulele, Two Finnish girls, a teacher from Brazil and a real-life native Ozzie.

Day 22: I really must stop drinking....

Waking up a teensy bit hungover, I had conveniently forgotten that the night before, I'd agreed to join a group of ten others (and had paid) to go to the local annual 'Sexpo'. Described as "A four day public event looking at all aspects of health, sexuality, and adult lifestyles...", it did exactly what it said on the tin. Well it was a giggle for a short while, and there were a few 'educationally relevant' stalls on HIV/sexuality that noone was paying much attention to, but ultimately it was all a bit seedy. Fortunately my previous job working in sexual health in Brighton has adequately prepared me for such events (not that I intend to attend any more of them)! I managed to escape with the GP from Tasmania (attending a conference in Melbourne), who had also thought after a few drinks the night before that going to a 'Sexpo' was a great idea, and we retreated back to the hostel to compare and contrast shortcomings of respective health services!

I felt pretty rough for the rest of the afternoon and with yet another flight the following day, I packed a few things to take to Alice Springs and got to bed early, eventually getting to sleep as the chaos of the hostel quietened down to the level of dull roar.

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