Time has absolutely flown past these few weeks and I now find myself on the eve of my departure. This week has been amazing, it’s been non-stop – finishing work, finishing uni, seeing people in Melbourne, seeing people in Sydney, meeting up with Cat, closing bank accounts, finalising travelling plans, organising new people moving into our house and of course; packing up my life.
Having worked hard to get all my assignments in early so that I would get them back and marked before I left paid off, and I was pleased with my marks as well. A test on Wednesday afternoon signified my final academic commitment to UNSW and then I found myself on the home stretch.
Thursday I flew to Melbourne for a final hurrah. I spent the day at Geelong Grammar, seeing a few old faces that I hadn’t seen in a few years which is always quite fun. Cat, who I met and lived with 4 years ago at the school, met me with her boyfriend in Geelong. She hadn’t been back since we left so it was pretty fun to go round and remember all the things we used to do! After a few drinks at our old haunt, Scottish Chiefs, I went to meet a bunch of girls from the school who I used to teach for dinner which was awesome fun. I’m so glad I made the effort to get everyone together once more and see them all. After that we caught the late train back to Melbourne and made our way to my friends place in Carlton where we were crashing for a couple of nights.
Cat’s boyfriend, Mike, had never been to Australia before and Melbourne was their first stop on their travels so we had a wonder round on Friday showing him the hot spots. Melbourne is not really a city that has your typical “tourist sightseeing highlights”, there is no Opera House equivalent or Harbour bridge to ooo and ah at, it’s not that kind of city really. I think Melbourne is more of a place where you have to spend time in to really appreciate how cool it is. I love the funkyness of Melbourne, Federation Square, the gardens of the Museum and exterior of RMIT in the city – funky architecture, bright colours, and just cool stuff! We had some brunch on Brunswick Street which is still my favourite area of Melbourne I reckon. Then we caught a tram to St Kilda, which admittedly is a lot better in the summer when the sun is shining and hot Australian men play volleyball on the beach, but nevertheless we had a nice afternoon browsing the AMAZING bakeries they have there and some sale shopping. Late afternoon we headed back into Melbourne for drinks, a BBQ at a friend’s place, then more drinks, a final night out on the town – yay.
Saturday morning I headed back to Geelong to fly to Sydney for a dinner I had to get back for. A dinner at the epic Russian restaurant I’ve written about before – it was just as fun, just as delicious and just as drunken. Awesome. Sunday night was a big house party at ours which Cat and Mike were able to make after flying from Melbourne that afternoon, so that was really cool to introduce Cat to people and show her where I’d been living etc.
And now it’s Monday night and tomorrow I am leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again.
