Backpacker's life
I would have learnt how to live with a very few stuff, and with no address.
‘My life now weighs 20 kilos of luggages, but tons of love & souvenirs.’ said Esra.
Oh – and guess what – I would also have learnt how TO LIVE WITHOUT NIGHTLIFE !! Can you believe that shit ?!?
Ok, let me explain. To get hired at the restaurant, I had to accept to work every single weekend, ‘weekend’ here actually means ‘from Wednesday to Sunday included, afternoon + evening until closing (midnight)’ .
Subtitles ?? : No more weekends => Always working on the ‘party nights’ => Days off on Monday & Tuesday => Absolutely no way to have a good night out on any of these 2 fucked up days off…
But, of course most of the weekends was very hard for me. I had to manage to go to the party (cuz I was influenced by friendsJ) and go to work without sleeping even 4 hours…I couldn’t renounce completely to the nightlife…!
Well, well, well… Even though I’m learning/experiencing a lot of stuff by travelling through Australia, in the long term, constantly having to ‘building yourself a new life’ anytime you ‘change address’ can be a pretty tough thing… Make new friends, new habits etc.
I DO MISS EUROPE!
I’m not gonna lie to you, let’s make things clear out there, nightlife in Australia SUCKS SO BAD. Every bar/club shuts around 1, or eventually 2am if you’re really lucky and, another thing, you get automatically kicked out whenever you’re slightly drunk….. What’s the fuck Australia ?!? Getting drunk IS THE PURPOSE of your establishment !!!!
Well, I will never forget my very first Xmas abroad… I could never have imagined it would have been so much fun to celebrate it abroad ..!
Indoors BBQ, spending 600 bucks (all together) to have unlimited alcohol, good dinner, some presents and stuffs, beach at midnight!
WOOOOOOOOOOW !! This is what I mean by' Xmas beautiful disaster party' ..! =D
'NO FINESSE AT ALL !!!! (Photo supporting on the top)
Cuz yeah, I now live in a massive house with something like 25 people !! The building is basically divided in 6 five person flats, but the concept is pretty good ; only foreigners !!!!!!
So it still feels like I’m living in a backpacker, but with a bit more of comfort & privacy.
By ‘privacy’ I mean sharing one room with only 2 other girls (instead of 4, 5 when I used to live in Sydney city) and by ‘comfort’, I mean having a regular single bed instead of a f*cking shaky bunk bed that I use to share with some random people as I was still living in an actual hostel.
So yeah, life has its ups and downs, I do not hide, it’s part of the game ..!
Now, let’s resume the 3 challenges to being a backpacker:
1) LIVING IN A STRICT BUDGET
All backpacker wish to travel longer and farther, so you have occasional splurges while backpacking but for the most part, you’re limiting yourself on food, activities, drinking, and transportation.
« Being a backpacker is mostly about learning how to cut down on cost of living. It’s for example to constantly know where to find the cheapest tobacco place in a radius of 10Ks around(…), it’s always being after free wifi spots, it’s travelling around with a disabled train ticket cuz it’s 10 times cheaper than a regular full fare ticket…
But being a backpacker is also learning how to properly enjoy free stuff & especially human relationships. The generosity and support from other backpackers travelling around worth over than all of these ridiculous dollars. »
Oh !!! Yes, before I forget, I mostly save on alcohol !! Brace yourselves => I haven’t buy any spirit (or maybe once or twice) in almost 4 months that I’m Australia now ..! Fuck me, who would have thought of me writing such a sentence some day ..!
But it’s true, since a regular bottle of vodka cost approximately at least $40 (€33), it goes straight in the ‘non-affordable-products’ category. So then I mostly drink beers & ‘goon’, that disgusting Aussie wine sold in a box which gives you the worst hangover ever… Backpackers will know what I mean, THIS is a real sacrifice.
So yeah, this life that I lead now is not that easy every day. ‘Down under’ made/makes me go through ups and downs. One cannot win every time, otherwise victories would be tasteless.
« Everything’s gonna be alright in the end. If it’s not alright, it’s not the end. »
The only real thing you gotta never forget is why you’re doing all that.
I do those sacrifices in order to save money to travel, always further away, and that is what I try to remember anytime I feel down
2) BEING SEPARATED FROM CLOSED FRIENDS AND FAMILY
The reality of the situation is you’re busy, they’re busy, and a long backpacking trip results in you loosing contact with old friends.
A simple detail that takes a lot of proportions when it comes to have a Skype conversation with someone who’s in Europe, there is a 10 HOUR jet-lag with Australia… = Pretty impossible to talk to people you love !
So believe me, I miss so much most of you but it doesn’t means that I m done with travelling, because it’s just something addictive. When you start traveling you have only one desire: to continue…
3) DEALING WITH THE UNEXPECTED
This seems like a vague challenge for a backpacker to deal with. Yes, everyone has to deal with the unexpected – be you a doctor, a grad student, or a backpacker. However, the difference for a backpacker is that you’re very often dealing with the unexpected in an area you’re unfamiliar with..
It’s one thing to catch the flu when you’re home in France. You know where to go, who to see, and what to do. Try getting seriously ill in Sydney. When you’re out of your usual comfort zone, the unexpected challenge can be a lot harder to deal with.
And here, yes I got sick, I was bitten by some bed bucks! And trust me, this shit is horrible, so itchy, so grows, I don’t even find the words to describe how it’s disturbing! So, yes I had a heap of bite on me and I had to go to work, to be a waitress in a pretty good restaurant. So, I had to restrain myself from itching (can you imagine à waitress who doesn’t keeps to scratch herself and serve you!)
Well, thanks to read me the next article is gonna deals with my next plan...
See yaa soon guys !
