Dreaming of a Beachy Christmas

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When I first left home I was a little worried about how I would end up spending my holidays, since I would be away from all my family and friends. Turned out, though, that I had an amazing Christmas. Nicole and I had been thinking about how we would spend Christmas for a long time. We decided we would make a lot of food and watch our favorite Christmas movies and just be relaxed. The plan didn’t exactly turn out that way, but it was better.

I got back from the Great Ocean Road trip on the evening of the 23rd and found my house mates discussing their plans for Christmas. Nik had long since gone back to Tasmania to be with his family and Pete had moved out since his family had arrived in Australia and he was now touristing with them. Matt, Nik’s band mate had moved in to take his place and of course Marine and Scotty were still around. Both Scotty and Matt’s families live in Melbourne, so they wouldn’t be around too much, but the rest of us had big ideas. Nicole had invited Jack over, our friend from when we first arrived in Melbourne, and I had invited James and Nathan, who was back from Adelaide for a few days. We also invited Livvy, but she ended up spending it in Adelaide with some other friends.

Christmas Eve we ran around town finding the last few necessities. Nicole was going to make a big dinner - a full chicken in the oven, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, peas and beet root. I was going to make cookies for dessert. The three of us met Jack in town, who was providing the beer, and James met us at the house around 5pm. A series of text messages were exchanged with Nathan, who was staying at the other end of town, and it was quickly assumed that he wasn’t going to make it because he and his friends had decided to start celebrating Christmas by drinking before noon, and by dinner time it was quite clear that he wasn’t going to be able to make the long tram ride out to our house. But we made the big feast, drank lots of beer, and sat outside in the sun and warm weather till the early hours of the morning. It was loads of fun - James and Nicole bonded instantly and discovered they knew several people in common back home, we hadn’t seen Jack in weeks so that was great, Scotty came home late after his Christmas Eve shift and ate what would have been Nathan’s portion, and Marine was in an exceptionally good mood. I was the first person to fall asleep and that was around 3am. Jack and James both slept over in the lounge. Everyone was exhausted.

Christmas morning we all started off a little worse for wear. I cooked the biggest breakfast I had ever seen - pancakes, eggs, hash browns, bacon, and toast. I was missing out on mum’s Christmas morning waffles, so this breakfast made up for it. We didn’t have any presents, because we’re all backpackers on a budget, but it didn’t matter. Partly it didn’t even feel like Christmas because the weather was so unusual compared to home, and partly we kind of liked escaping the usual fuss made over Christmas in the Western World. James went back into town to get some things from his hostel and I headed out to Starbucks before everyone else so that I could call home. Since I have Skype, I could call home from my computer and use the camera and microphone to talk to my family. It was really nice to see them. For them it was Christmas Eve, so I made them open the presents I sent them - chocolate from my trip to Tasmania.

We spent Christmas Day at St. Kilda beach at the other end of the city. The five of us met up in the city centre and headed out to the south end of the city. We just spent the whole day lying in the sun and drinking wine and listening to music and dancing in the sand. We became the group of people that other people point at and say ‘did you see that loud group of kids at the other end of the beach?’, but we didn’t care; we were having far to much fun. Nathan and his friends came to meet us, which completely made my day. We were out on the beach until well after sunset. Jack left earlier in the day to meet other people and we stuffed Marine in a cab before we went home because she had reached her limit of wine and sun, and James, Nicole and I took the tram back into the city. I said my last goodbye to Nathan before leaving because I’m not going to see him again before leaving Australia. We left James in the centre before heading back to Brunswick. Back at the house Scotty and Matt were sitting around in the living room with Steph and Errol, the other members of Yolke (the band). Nicole and I tried to be social, but we were so tired and a little tipsy from the wine and suffering from some really wretched sunburns and ended up in bed before midnight.

Boxing Day we were incapable of doing anything, really. Glen, Nicole’s new Australian boyfriend, had flown in from Sydney to spend a couple days with her and James came over a little after lunch to watch movies and sit around zombie-like. For dinner the four of us went to the Retreat, the pub down the road for a pitcher and some food, and were all in bed early again. The 27th was Marine’s 19th birthday and we tried really hard to make it a good one. I bought her a cake and cooked up a lot of stir fry and Nicole bought her a present and Glen bought some beer to share. James came over and even brought her a present. Errol and Matt were at the house and together we all sang happy birthday to her. We went out to Fitzroy to a few bars. We started at the Provincial Hotel, where Marine’s friend Steve met us, and then went to Bimbo’s. When Bimbo’s closed at 3am we went to First Floor, which didn’t close till 5am. When we finally left the sun was starting to rise.

The 28th Nicole and I had tickets for the night bus from Melbourne to Sydney and we spent the day packing and sleeping. We said our goodbyes at the house before meeting James in town at our favorite chip shop one last time. Getting on the bus was rough - Nicole cried when she had to leave Glen, who had made plans months ago to be in Melbourne for New Year’s, and I was upset because I hate leaving people. We had been in Melbourne for a month and were starting to feel really at home there. Leaving our house and house mates and all the other people we had met along the way was heart breaking. But we were going to see old friends in Sydney, so its not all bad.

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Photos

Baking Cookies
the good old fashioned way - using a wine bottle as a rolling pin and drinking beer

On the Beach
me, Marine, and Nicole in our santa hats and bikinis

Wet
Nicole tackling me after jumping in the ocean

James and Nicole
a little bit of canada