Day 287! It’s official! I’m heading to Yamba! I’ll dive into all the details in this post, but I’ll be leaving next Tuesday… so 7 days left of living in Melbourne for now. I had a nice day visiting my friend Callum’s new apartment and hanging out with my friend Sam as well!

I was able to sleep in till around 9am today. It would have been nice to sleep in a little later, since I’ve still been tired from my late night out, but oh well.

It was another gorgeous day out. So I threw on my shorts, tee shirt, and sandals and headed downstairs for breakfast.

This may look like regular avocado toast for breakfast… but it’s actually Vegemite toast with avocado on top of it. It was insanely delicious!

I then went to the TV room, grabbed the guitar, and brought it outside to our hostel’s little yard. I sat in the warm sun strumming away for around an hour. It was nice to be able to play outside and enjoy the day.

I wanted to continue enjoying the good weather. I put the guitar away and grabbed my book. I decided to walk to the nearby park and find a semi-shady bench to read on. It was super hot in the sun, but in the shade it felt really nice. While I was reading, a random guy, about my age, came up to me and asked me, “what type of sandals are you wearing?”

I told him and then he sparked up a 5 minute conversation about where I was from and what I was doing in Australia. If I remember correctly, his name was Hugh. It was a very odd interaction, but a nice one!

I was starting to get hungry. So after almost 2 hours of reading in the park, it was time for lunch.

I whipped up another couple tuna sandwiches. But after eating, it was time to get to work!

I needed to figure out my plans going forth. My stay at the hostel was set to end on Monday the 21st so I needed to get cracking on figuring out what I was going to do.

Yesterday I really struggled finding how to piece the puzzle together. I was looking for greyhound busses… but today I decided to try the train website. This made the process insanely simple!

I put in my starting destination (Melbourne) and my final destination (Yamba) and the website did all the work! It pulled up exactly what I needed.

Unfortunately there were no tickets for Monday the 21st. But Tuesday the 22nd was available! So I booked my ticket all the way to Yamba!

This ticket included an 11 hour train ride to Sydney, 11 hours overnight in Sydney, an almost 10 hour train ride to Grafton, and then finally a bus from Grafton to Yamba. I was super excited to have this figured out… but I wasn’t done yet, I needed to book my stays in Sydney and Yamba.

Unfortunately, covid wiped the hostels out of Yamba and after calling what I thought would be a hostel, it turned out it was a hotel as well. Funnily enough, the cheapest option in Yamba was at the hotel I might be working at. So for $89 a night, I booked two nights in hopes that I can get an interview in asap once I get there.

My accommodation in Sydney was put off because my friend Immy was wanting to go get a piercing and wanted moral support from her friends. So I met her, Callum, and Q at the piercing parlor and we hung out there till it was her time to go.

After her piercing was done, we headed to Callum’s new apartment in the heart of the city!

His apartment was super pretty and definitely an upgrade from our stay at the hostel. It reminded me of my apartment back in Kansas City… except up 40 flights! He lives on the 43rd floor of this complex!

We hung out in his living room chit chatting for a while and then Q said there was a cheap happy hour nearby. So him and I went over to the Asian Beer Cafe and met our friend Molly for $10 beer pitchers.

While we were sitting and drinking, it started to downpour out of nowhere… and then it quickly went away. Today had been one of the warmest days in Australia for me and even with the unpredictability of the Melbourne weather, it stayed warm the rest of the night!

While I was sitting with my friends at the bar, my friend Sam texted me saying he was 30 minutes away from the flinders street station and ready to hang out! We made plans a couple days ago to hang out, but I hadn’t heard from him all day, so I wasn’t sure if he was still coming. So I started walking towards the station to meet him.

We ended up going to the same dumplings place as the last time we hung out in the city. We caught up about the past month of not seeing each other and wandered around the busy city streets! Even though it was a Tuesday night, there were a ton of people out enjoying the warm weather.

One of the big reasons Sam came down to the city, not only to hang out, was to give me my Australian debit card that finally came in the mail… but, we forgot. So I guess I’ll need to see him one more time before I head out!

It was a very productive day and a very pleasant one with beautiful weather. I really enjoy the friends I’ve made in Melbourne and I actually like Melbourne, as a city, a lot! But… the beach is calling! I didn’t leave a city in the US to live in a city in Australia, I’ll find my surfer bum life soon enough!

– Elie