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Trip Start
Oct 12, 2003
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Trip End
Mar 14, 2004
ok. i've been in oz for one week now and i guess it's time to start writing about it, after being really busy for the last couple of days. we flew in on tuesday, 14th at 5 in the morning, after sitting on a plane for 21 hours without talking to anyone because the couple next to me didn't even talk to each other. at the airport i met sophie from berlin who had come to oz with councilexchanges' help, too. we were brought to our hostel and went straight out again to explore the city and go to the councilexchanges headquarter office. well, all i can say is that sydney is ok, but just that, not wow i wanna live here or i gotta come here again. pretty much like any big city. tuesday night another girl from germany, nicole, moved into our hostel room and the next day we had a work&travel-orientation. on thursday i had to move to another hostel as we had only got two hostel vouchers from CIEE and it was time to find a cheaper place to stay. my hostel was in kings cross and REALLY nice. it looked nice, the people were nice and kings cross is nice, too. that same day i went to the kings cross car market and two german guys instantly came up to me. well, i had a look at their ford falcon station wagon and it was ok, but just to make sure i had taken advantage of all the other options i had, i went to a garage that sells cars to travellers and then buys them back. the problem was that they only give you a buy back guarantee if you buy a car over 3000 dollars. well, not for me, then. the next day i went back to the car market, had the ford checked by a mechanic and everything was ok, so i bought it for 2400 dollars after knocking there price down from 2800. it's from 87 and it looks like it's gonna fall apart in a second, but it is big enough to sleep in and, most important, it works really well, despite its age. the guys who sold me the car, tom and dirk, were friends with two hippie girls that we hung out with after buying/selling the car and angie offered me her guitar for a mere fifty bucks. i played a little bit on it and decided i had to make it mine. on saturday we had the paperwork done, the guys invited me for a beer (at 11 in the morning) to celebrate their short stay in the garage (only two days, some wait 2 weeks to sell their car)and afterwards i went downtown to hang out with sophie and nicole. the same on sunday, we went to the botanic gardens and then on to darling harbour, a really nice place to hang out at. we just sat there the whole afternoon and chatted. on monday, i prepared my big trip ( i had decided to change my plans because of the heat, so, instead of going up the east coast slowly, i'm gonna drive to cairns as fast as i can and then drive back down slowly) and put little flyers on message boards in hostels to look for people who wanted to come with me so i could reduce the fuel costs and the boredom on those long drives, like i had already done on sunday and saturday. at night me and the girls went to a hostel near mine in order to hang out with some german smartass they had met at some point. it actually turned out to be really nice. we had a couple of bottles of wine to get rid of and there was a whole bunch of really nice people. tuesday started bad. i had to get up early because i didn't wanna drive during rush hour, but as i was getting my stuff together, i realized that all the paperwork for the car was gone. i felt panic creeping up my throat, started crying about this big bad world and called ron, called sophie if they had it in their hostel downtown where i had been the night before, nothing. so i asked her to check with the 7/11 downtown where i had bought stamps on monday and ten minutes later she gave me a call that was nothing but pure relief, she had found the paperwork there. so i went to the car market, drove downtown to get my paperwork and then drove straight out of the city. driving in sydney is a nightmare just like anywhere. so on tuesday (yesterday, actually), i made it to coffs harbour, about 600 km from sydney. i found myself a bed at a yha hostel that was more or less a shithole because of its unfriendly atmosphere. after such a long day of driving i had hoped to find some nice people to hang out with or at least someone wanting to go to cairns, but again, nada. so i went to bed really really early and left town as soon as i could this morning, after getting my rear tyres changed. i made it to brisbane today and found a hostel, right now this is everything i need. well, all i can say is that australia seems to be a very beautiful country (although i have only seen the scenery along the pacific highway and a couple of dead kangaroos next to the road so far), but driving such long distances without anyone that you can chat with is more than depressing. after a while you just start working like a machine, turning the steering wheel and putting your foot on the gas pedal is basically everything you do. it's so boooooring being all by myself. well, i'll look for someone to come with me again, put flyers on hostels' message boards and i hope that, getting closer to cairns, there are higher chances to find someone willing to do the same tour. we'll see. i hope you're all doing ok and having a great time.
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