Day 286! It was another semi-lazy day today, since I didn’t have work. But I did start making some plans for my next adventure in Australia! I also had a wonderful dinner party at my friend’s apartment! Another great day in Melbourne.

I wanted to sleep in today… but my body decided it was time to get up nice and early. I definitely wanted more sleep, but it wasn’t happening. So I gave in and got up to start my day around 8am.

I made myself my regular breakfast and then kickstarted my day with a phone call with my parents.

I woke up today with the pretty firm decision that I was going to leave Melbourne in one week. I told my plan to my parents and also chatted with them about the past week. I also heard their updates as well!

It’s always nice chatting with them every week!

It was another beautiful morning. So after our phone call, I decided to take my book to the park again!

In the sun, it was nice and hot… but when the sun went behind the clouds, it got fairly chilly. So after an hour, I decided to head back to the hostel a bit earlier than I had planned.

When I got back, I ran into Callum and Theo. They were moving out today because they just got approved for an apartment nearby! I’m sad to see them leave the hostel, but excited to go hang out at their new digs.

I read for a bit more and then headed back outside for a grocery run. By the time I got back, it was time for lunch.

I made myself two splendid tuna sandwiches. I also had plenty of crackers with hummus, and two oranges. It was a very filling lunch!

After lunch I grabbed my laptop and headed to the TV room. Now that I have my plan, it’s time to figure out how to make this plan actually work…

I needed to figure out how to get to Yamba and what’s the cheapest way to do it as well. Also I was trying to figure out where to stay.

Originally I thought this would be nice and easy. But I was very wrong. The hostel I originally thought was going to be great… I’m not sure if it exists anymore! And most other hotels are expensive per night.

Luckily, the hotel manager gave me his number through our email exchanges, and told me to reach out. I called him, left him a message, and then he immediately called me back! It turns out, there’s plenty of jobs at the hotel since it’s ramping up into summer time. Which means I don’t necessarily need to rush my way to there.

So I’m thinking I’ll head to Sydney for a couple days and then continue on!

I’ll do some more digging tomorrow but 5pm rolled around and it was getting time for dinner at my friends house.

Immy, Q, Lewis, Samantha, and I were invited to some of our friend’s new sublet. They all stayed at the mansion as well, but found a deal of an airbnb for longterm. So they hosted us over for dinner and cooked us a traditional northern French meal.

We also stopped by a grocery store on the way over to get appetizers and desserts. I got a crème brûlée cake… but it just tasted like a lemon cake.

They cooked us Carbonade Flamand. This is a Flemish and French meal that is apparently a traditional northern French dish.

I really enjoyed it and it was wonderful hanging out with this crew again. They’ve been out of the hostel for over a week and the vibe has been a bit different. Maybe just a bit less hectic.

We hung out for a few hours, chatting, catching up on the week, and enjoying some good homemade food! We’re all going to try and hang out this weekend to spend a little more time together before I head off.

We headed back home on the train… but when we hopped off at Richmond we were met with the unpleasant surprise that the city loop train wasn’t running for some reason. So our options were to bus or to walk.

Immy and Lewis decided to take the bus, Q, Samantha, and I decided to walk. Our walk was quite nice, through two big parks. We got to see my first Australian possum on our walk back. Not to be confused with opossums from the US, these common bushtail possums are much cuter and tend to roam the parks at night.

Immy and Lewis beat us back to the hostel by only a couple of minutes. But I was exhausted so I didn’t stick around to chat. It was time for bed for me!

Tomorrow I plan on solidifying my plans (hopefully)… but this next step is going to be a little bit of a gamble! This job sounds pretty guaranteed, but I don’t want to get my hopes up too high. If all else fails, it’s an excuse to get out of Melbourne and explore more of this beautiful country! Also I can always come back to Melbourne or hop to another town to work… or find a farm!

The world is my oyster at the moment!

I can’t wait to see how it all pans out!

– Elie