Back in the Land Down Under

Saavuimme Melbourneen keskiyöllä kahdeksan tunnin lennon jälkeen. Kerrankin maahantuloprosessi oli kivuton, vaikka laitettiin meidät sentään huumekoirien haisteltaviksi. Taivaalla loisti tuttu Southern Cross -tähtikuvio, kun ajelimme tyhjillä moottoriteillä kohti Melbournen esikaupunkialueita. Tuntui kuin ei oltaisi juuri poissa oltukaan (täällä siis venähti pitkälti vuodet 2009-10).

Nukuksimme siis Rohanin perheen nurkissa, ja aika meni sukuloidessa. Rohan on puoliksi italialainen, joten sitä sukua myös riittää. Poskia on saanut pussailla sen verran, että juro suomalainenkin oppii tavoille. 

Australia Day picnic

Kengät jalassa sisällä talossa tepastelu tuntui väärältä. Outoa oli myös juoda pitkästä aikaa hanavettä. Öisin opossumit möykkäsivät talon katolla. Vaikka ulkona on helle, sisällä palelee. Kylmien talojen lisäksi liikenneruuhkia ja pitkiä välimatkoja ei ollut ikävä. Koko ajan meitä hellittiin Melbournessa +35 asteen helteillä, mutta saimme kokea myös Melbournen kuuluisat neljä vuodenaikaa yhdessä päivässä.

Muutamia päiviä vietimme Gippslandin maaseudulla, jossa Rohanin äidillä on maatila. Kaukana kaupunkien valoista näkyi taas se uskomaton tähtitaivas, mitä Suomessa tuli ikävä. Täällä Gippslandin alueella asuu muuten jättiläismatoja, jotka voivat kasvaa yli 3 metrin pituisiksi...

Night Market

Mitä odotin eniten paluulta? Food, glorious food! Ahh, Melbournen ravintola- ja kahvilakulttuuri. Mellussa oli selkeästi massakausi. Sushijunia, halpoja sushirullia, Victoria Streetin vietnamilaista, Chinatownin kinkkiä, Lygon Streetin italialaista. Raflavinkkinä pakko hehkuttaa trendikuppila ChiChi:tä, jossa meille tarjoiltiin seitsemän kielen mennessään vievää vietnamilais-thaikkuruokalajia. Parina keskiviikkoiltana kävimme Night Marketilla juomassa sangriaa, maistelemassa herkkuja ympäri maailmaa ja kuuntelemassa livemusiikkia.

Kävimme myös tsekkaamassa Roxetten konsertin Rod Laver Arenalla. Mahtia!

Kaupassa tuoreiden vihanneksien paljous sokaisee. Ausseissa ei eineksiä syödä. Ja joka kerta etsin tietysti turhaan hedelmävaakaa. Grillausta (sekä ihon että ruoan) ja piknikkejä, niistä on Mellun kesä tehty! Vastapainoksi rehkittiin salilla. Kaiken tämän keskellä unohdimme organisoida alkavaa reissua, kevyttä 25 000 kilometrin road trippiä Australian ympäri. Jatketaan siitä ensi kerralla!

Last Weeks in Melbourne

I had one month in Melbourne before going home. I had a nasty surprise waiting for me when I got home, as the chick I rented my apartment to while I was gone had trashed it, stolen a lot of my stuff and taken off. Winter was on it's way and the weather was getting chilly. Rohan spent a couple of weeks with me before going on his big trip. We did a lot of touristy things that I still hadn't got around to doing during my time in Melbourne. We visited the Old Melbourne Gaol. 

We also got a little taste of what it is like to be arrested and locked up in the City Watch House. I was a happy prisoner! 

I got a little taste of where I belong...

The infamous bushranger Ned Kelly among dozens of others were hanged here. The gaol was very intriguing and also a little bit creepy when you think of all the lunatics and killers who have stayed there. Definitely a must-see in Melbourne!

We also went to an Aussie Rules footy match at Etihad Stadium. Melbourne is all about the footy at this time of year, so you have to go and experience it. The atmosphere was fun and of course I had the hat and the scarf. No idea who was playing, but I think we won!

There is a place where you can go ice-skating in Melbourne so of course I had to take Rohan, who had never been on skates before.

We visited the Melbourne Museum as well, and wandered around discovering the street art in the maze of the Melbourne laneways. 

After a couple of weeks Rohan left on his big trip and I stayed in Melbourne. The last two weeks I felt stressed, sad and wistful. I knew it wouldn't take long before I would be missing Melbourne again, but at the moment I felt like it was time to go home. At least for a visit. 

Before going home, however, I somehow found myself in the middle of the hectic but beautiful VIETNAM!? Stay tuned!

Sometimes you have to go away to see things close up...

1 year on the road now. Above all, it’s been a journey into myself.

Have I changed as a person and how? I don’t feel much different, where is the enlightenment I was looking for?? I’m still the same shy girl from the country. But I suppose a year abroad would change anybody in some way. What I can think of now, I’ve probably become even more independent, more mature and I’ve got to know myself and what I want from life a lot better. Travelling, spending time and starting a new life by myself on the other side of the world, I think it’s inevitable that you get to know yourself better. :) Mostly however, I’m the same mess of a girl as always. Some things will never change.

Has it been what I expected? Yes and no. I didn’t have a lot of expectations. It had been my dream to go to Australia, and somehow I had painted this image in my head of this paradise, happy days under a palm tree with the sun shining, kangaroos jumping and handsome surfers around me :) Believe it or not, it hasn’t been just that! And even when it has, as great as it was, I realized happiness is not a destination, it is more of a way of travelling. 
 

What do I miss most about Finland? Apart from friends and family, Finnish summer and even winter. White Christmas. Snow. Finnish food, rye bread and cider above all. I miss the feeling of home and belongingness. Here in Australia I’m always a visitor, a foreigner, coming from the land far away… I’ve been here for so long that I even miss the small things that I used to hate. But I’m sure that once I get back, I’m gonna start hating them again :) 

Best times? What I enjoy most is going to a new place, so all trips. Also, getting to know new people and spending time with them.

Worst times? Well I feel pretty shit right now. Apparently breakups are just as bad down under. Life is a rollercoaster, just gotta ride it. Hopefully when I lie on the beach in Surfer’s Paradise I will have something else on my mind.

Best place? Vanuatu, Tasmania, Outback, Great Ocean Road… They were all amazing. I think I enjoyed the trip to the Outback the most so far. But there is still so much to see!

IS THE GRASS GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE? I guess mundane everyday rat race is the same regardless of where you are. Apparently there is no way to escape it :) But still, I would definitely much rather live my mundane everyday rat race here in Melbourne than in Lappeenranta.

Anyway, now that my situation has changed, I feel like I’ve sweeped the streets of Melbourne long enough and it’s time to turn the page. It would be best for my mental health to get the hell out of here asap and take the next plane anywhere, since everything here just reminds me of my misery, but unfortunately due to my personal financial crisis I might be stuck here for a while...

"Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." J.R Tolkien

Christmas Down Under

Christmas Down Under seems to have all the glitter and tinsel of an American Christmas; Streets, shops and homes are full of decorations and plastic Christmas trees. Christmas lighting is taken to extraordinary lengths by some ordinary households, too. Christmas starts early like in Finland, and the closer it gets to Christmas the crazier the razzmatazz gets. Christmas in Australia is their summer holiday season and the hottest time of the year, so we're just dreaming of White Christmas here.

 

 

Christmas tree is picked up and decorated early, too. Australians are not very religious people, but some families do attend the midnight mass. However, more families go to Carols by Candlelight, an outside concert where people sit on blankets, light candles and sing carols. 

Carols by Candlelight

Christmas seems to be a big thing here as well and it is spent with family. Extended family. All the aunties and uncles and cousins and friends and everybody. Christmas Dinner is often a barbeque on the backyard. The big day here is Christmas Day instead of Christmas Eve, and presents are unwrapped on Christmas Day when the kids wake up at dawn.

 

The Christmas spit

The Christmas sales start on Boxing Day. Early in the morning there were massive lines outside Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Myer and such. I had no desire whatsoever to go shopping that day and fight with 100,000 other people over a pair of socks that's a little bit cheaper than normally or line hours to try on clothes. Crazy.

To me it didn’t really feel like Christmas this year with just +39 degrees on the eve of Christmas Eve. Although I enjoy the heat, I really missed snow and the darkness and the atmosphere of a REAL (Finnish) Christmas.

Tomorrow morning at 5 am we’re off to Sydney to spend New Years, a modest 10-hour-drive.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Botanical Gardens & National Gallery

Last weekend I went to the Botanical Gardens, which is massive, I never realized it was so big. And pretty. Lots of cool trees, weird plants and birds, like black swans. Then we went to check out the war memorial, Shrine of Remembrance. There was this eternal flame that has been burning since the 1950s. I don’t know if I believe that though lol. Then we went to the National Gallery of Victoria, which was nice. There is this Salvador Dali exhibition at the moment, and we’re going to see it tomorrow! Yay.  

Shrine of remembrance

Work is going well. I’m getting more classes little by little… I really enjoy teaching them. It’s just that most of them are at 6 am. And as you know I’m NOT a morning person AT ALL. I like sleeping. And to get there in time I have to wake up at 4.30 am and it's KILLING me. I don't get people who want to train so early in the morning.

Seems like I’m going to Vanuatu next week, to get a new visa! I’m really excited about it, it’s nice to get out of the cold Melbourne and go somewhere warm and relax : ) First I was gonna go to NZ, but then I thought that it’s cold there as well so I’d rather pay a bit more and check out some of the tropical islands nearby. After all, it’s not like I can’t get flights to Vanuatu with 300 euros from Finland… Anyway, it should be around 30 degrees, white sand and crystal clear water… 

More photos at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=227172&id=750265704&l=e630411be4

The morning after...

There is no hangover that a bloody mary wouldn't fix... Sorry about the hideous picture, the so-called last night's princess :)

Anyway, on Sunday we went to the Melbourne Aquarium. I don't know if it was a wise decision to go to see sharks with that hangover. But the penguins were so cute!!! Walking in line, queuing to jump in the water! And there were dozens of them! :)Of course, my camera ran out of battery so I don't have many pics...

We cleaned our house for the first time! It's so shiny now!

Casa dolce casa...