When I first told my mom that I wanted to backpack for a few months around Australia and Southeast Asia, I know she had many reservations. And from a previous post, you can see that during the two and a half weeks she spent with me in Australia, I have, for the most part, eased her concerns. So it is with great humor that I tell you how the beginning of my solo backpacking experience transpired. Financially, Friday, Feb 24th just happened to be the best day for my parents to travel back to the States, which just happened to coincide with my birthday. Not a big deal I thought, we can celebrate early, I’m not picky.
Murphy had other plans for me though. I awoke the morning of the 24th with a sore throat. No biggie. I just assumed that AC had been blowing on my face too much the previous night. So I got up, and helped my parents pack up and get ready for their flight home.
I sent my parents on their merry way and set out for my first hostel located on Bondi Beach (literally ON THE BEACH!)
Got to my room, and met Pauline (Toronto), Mary (Quebec), and Hannah (Sweden). We all decided to go out for dinner and when they found out it was my birthday, we decided to celebrate a little by getting a bottle of wine and drinking on the beach! Great Idea! So we headed back to the room to grab a towel to sit on. About 30 minutes later, as we chatted and sipped our wine, the heavens opened up and it started to rain. Now this wasn’t just a sprinkle, this was a downpour! We grabbed our towels, phones, and wallets and ran to the nearest shelter laughing hysterically. Didn’t see that one coming! So we sat at a picnic table under the shelter til the rain slowed to a manageable level, to run back to the hostel without becoming drowned cats. …that’s when I realized I didn’t have my wallet. Somewhere between the wine shop and the dash back to the hostel, either my wallet was stolen, or it fell out of my pocket. In a semi panic, I searched the room and retraced all my steps back to the wine shop, no wallet. Dumped my backpack out, no wallet.
The sore throat that had been only a dull annoyance earlier that day reared its ugly head that night and became a full-on head cold, congestion and all that night. No easy sleep for me. Woke up the next morning congested and hacking up a lung (wonderful! … NOT)
I still needed to find my wallet though, so I researched the beach and my room, no wallet. So much for a relaxing start to a trip! I guess it was a good thing that it was raining that first day because after a quick stop at the EZmart near the hostel, I spent the afternoon in bed, calling the bank to have them reissue me new cards. Thankfully I had brought along an old ID (shh, don’t tell anybody) and didn’t put all my money in one place, but it was still extremely frustrating.
It continued to rain for my last few days at the beach, but it did give me amply excuse to just lay in bed and recover. Reminder to myself, Advil and Excedrin are nice to have, but bring some Dayquil, or even better Nyquil, next time.
A few days later I said my farewells to Sydney and headed off to Hobart Tasmania. Did I mention it was sunny here in Australia? It is the end of their summer here, so sunblock and sunnies (sunglasses) are a necessity. That is unless you leave them in your bag and crack them, ha whoops. Par for the course I guess. It just means I get to go buy a new pair of sunnies!
At this point I just have to chuckle at life. I’m hoping and praying that these trials are the last for my trip and that I’m getting them all over with early. In the grand scheme of things they aren’t horrible, but I do hope that this is the worst of it. If you can’t laugh at the comedy of it, then what can you do? Because seriously, I’m in Australia, enjoying life! So bring it on Australia because I’m not easily overcome!