How this all started

Before I started my journey I really thought I would start writing a blog of my travels. But when I got here I never seemed to find the time to do it and I pushed the idea to the back of my mind. Two months flew by and now that I'm settled for a while here in Hervey Bay I really started thinking I should start writing, it's a long overdue.

I came to Australia the first time eight years ago and instantly fell in love with the country! And I just kept on coming back. My third trip to Australia in 2010 triggered something inside me and in May last year I really started to think about coming over with the working & holiday visa. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to come. It took a lot of courage to make the decision, tell my family and friends and quit my job. After working past ten years it wasn’t that easy to just leave everything familiar and safe behind. It’s the people I left behind that I miss the most, not the safety of steady income or a proper home. I don’t have my own place like back in Finland to call home, but I feel I’m home.

Being broken hearted and far away from my friends and family sucks a little bit, but don’t they say that what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger? At least so I’ve been told. The work here at the hostel makes it a whole lot easier as, because I have something else to concentrate on (other than sunbathing and walking on the beach! :D). And working here is absolutely wonderful! I have a really wonderful workmate and two nice bosses, what else can you wish for? The work isn’t always that nice when you’re scrubbing the toilets or sweating changing beds in the heat, but when you meet all these travellers, you don’t even remember those unpleasant tasks. Though I have to say that I actually kind of like changing the beds, but it can be hard work!

Two hermit crabs meeting.

I still don’t like spiders, snakes and beetles that much, but I guess I’m quite used to the smaller ones by now. The other day I found myself thinking where the spider in our bathroom had disappeared! I was so used to seeing it every day that it felt weird not to see it in its web in one corner. One night I tried to catch a cricket to take it outside but it disappeared under a cupboard. But still I was able to be proud of myself that my first thought wasn’t to kill it. And I can tell I wasn’t so calm with all kind of beetles and spiders when I arrived here. I’ve had a couple of hilarious encounters with harmless spiders and cockroaches. And it’s not only spiders, beetles and cockroaches that have scared me. One afternoon I was walking on the beach during the low tide and I saw this beautiful small shell on the beach and I picked it up. You can imagine my reaction when I felt a claw on my finger! A hermit crab had already taken the shell to protect its soft and vulnerable abdomen and it wasn’t happy to have an intruder. But my reaction was probably even funnier when I was scared by a living clam jumping along the beach! :D

Life in a smallish town is pretty nice. Hervey Bay has a population of 62 000, but it’s still quiet and peaceful place to live and stay. Well, I kind of didn’t think that this as a quiet place this morning when it took me five minutes to just get out from parking lot at transit centre! And it would have taken a lot more time if one lady hadn’t given me way to go first. I think it was way nicer to drive yesterday when the streets were deserted. And no, it’s doesn’t feel funny to drive on “the wrong side” of the road! :D
I must say I’m living my dream at the moment. The fact, that I don’t know what my future is, isn’t scary. I have all the doors open in my life and anything can happen, anything.

"Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is the gift.
That's why it's called the present."
- Bil Keane -