I love making the beds

Work. Rest. Work. Sleep.
In the mornings I pull on a red T-shirt, shorts and runners. I push forward a yellow housekeepers trolley that has all the stuff in and on it: bed linens, different type of towels, rugs, cleaning liquids, teas, coffees etc to change and refill whatever needs changing or refilling.
It's a teamwork of 2 or 3 people. At least there is no Susan character that I still remember from US housekeeping times. Susan was religious countrywoman, who in each roomed turned on a TV and switched it right onto tele-preaching programme. I hated Sundays.
Here there is no time to turn on the wide flatscreen. You gotta push it forward. After 2 or 3 hours you have a break. Coffee and 2 biscuits. And then back to the rooms and apartments. After my first shift I was so tired, I slept 2h at home before going back to work at 6pm.
In the evenings I pull on a black jacket, black pants and black socks and shoes. I walk the 1.2km to work while reading my notes and trying to learn by heart the different abbreviations for food orders and/or memorizing the alcoholic beverages available in the bar in their location order in the refrigerators/shelves. And the 9 steps of customer service.
It's a fancy restaurant. You know the one with wine glasses on the tables and entree plates and cutlery. I carry the light and loose-balanced wineglasses and heavy waterglasses on the tray on left arm and while putting the glasses onto the table, pray that the tray does not loose balance. (Maybe Susan was onto something after all)
So far so good. Regarding the glasses.
Yesterday was pretty ok already. My trainer said I did good, except couple of mistakes. But at least none of those charging the bill on the wrong room. You really don't want to charge wrongly the 60+ dollars dinner per person on average ...
Today we will go out for a few beers with some of the colleagues, which is good. I would like to get to know the people more.
8.15AM however I need to pull on that red T-shirt again and start walking towards the yellow trolley.

Oh, and the title refers to what my housekeeping trainer told me today. She was happy not to be doing the wiping and vacuuming. "I love making the beds," and her happy face confirmed it. While I was mopping yet another bathroom, I was thinking that however hard I look, I can't see a career in this. It made me doubt the second year of travelling. Then again, perhaps there are career opportunities in the restaurant line of work. Live and see. At the moment I'm just looking forward to my first paycheck on Monday :)

8 notes on Brisbane

1.    Jogging gear 24/7 as I already mentioned, but I just can't get over it
2.    If and when people dress up (I went to a stand-up  comedy  show) it is perfectly ok to wear flip flops with a beautiful dress provided your toenails are painted
3.    Nice solid heals is a no no.  If you want to go that extra mile from flip flops, next benchmark is 8cm high stilettos.
4.    “How are you?” is actually a question and people expect an answer. You can’t just reply “Hi, how are you?” Of course the answer expected is anything up from “I’m well” on the scale. Most Australians claim to do “fantastic”. Even when it’s an evening of the day they have spent working at a supermarket counter.
5.    Service is excellent and very attentive, yet not hovering over you. I hated that in Manila where the staff just follows you around.  “Enter your pin whenever you are ready” was the cherry on the cake. I should have challenged her with “Sorry, I’m not ready for that yet”.
6.    Alcohol is sold only in specialized bottle shops. It’s worth to ask “What can you tell me about this wine?” I was immediately offered “Would you like to try it?” “Uhm, yes!”  Before leaving I got to taste  4 other wines besides this lovely Portuguese red. Note, Australian red wine is pretty rubbish though. Even the 30+ dollar bottle that he fetched (ok, in Europe the same bottle would be sold probably for 12 euros max. Taxation here is horrendous. ) I left the bottle shop in an elevated mood and a discount.
7.    Public transport is even more expensive than in Melbourne. Imagine, 5.10 dollars per ride! Jesus. Ticket lasts 2h, but who cares. If you live in a suburb, and everyone does, you spend 10+ dollars just to go to downtown. Crazy. You can get across the whole Nepal with that money.
8.    Dating. My German friend Mirko, who has lived in Australia for several years, explained to me, that it’s hard to get on with Aussie girls. That you really need to promote yourself and what kind of great job you have and be pretty insistent and straight forward.  My Aussi friend Marius on the other hand said, that you can’t be straight forward and need to be  coy when talking to a girl. Interested, but then looking somewhere else and what not. Can’t show your intentions directly. I don’t know. On my one and only night out in Brisbane when I got a lift home at 5AM, this Aussie guy says “I have noticed you are pretty gorgeous. I wonder if I may kiss you?”
Why would someone say something like that? I say, if u don't have the guts, drop it and walk away.

Bed with my name on it in Brisbane

Brisbane is a place where everyone seems just about to go for a jog in the park. Thats the clothing fashion. And not nice sporty clothes like in Estonia, but like really ordinary jogging outfit. In the freaking city centre. The family daughter where I stayed, confirmed: "People in Brisbane have no style." "You can detect a foreigner by their clothing. They are the only ones to wear nice clothes"
Be it as it may with the fashion style or lack thereof, Brisbane itself did not give me the feeling that I got in Melbourne. In Melbourne I felt I could live there.

Saying that, I must admit, I haven't seen much of the city. It has been raining and the bigger part of last 7 days I have spent indoors, in my confinement on the cellar level of an Australian family house. Finding a job while not knowing which job to aim for. Farm work gives a visa, but the idea of 88 fruit picking-packing puts me off. Office work would be great, but is hard to get and im impatient. Hospitality work, maybe.

I added up the numbers and saw I have spent so far 10 000 euros. This includes round the world ticket (plus the extra half the world ticket from London to Philippines because of the India deportation drama) and insurance and gear I had to buy plus any expenditure as from 14OCT. And 10 000 is the sum that I planned to invest for this year off. So the conclusion was very obvious - get your act together and find some income.

So I kind took the attitude I will go for whatever comes first and has acceptable conditions. And what came is a 4 star accommodation in a place called Roma, 500km inland from Brisbane. Place where nothing is going on besides oil and wheat. I will see it with my own eyes already tomorrow.

And my lovely Australian mother said that the bed downstairs has my name on it, so I can return any time I want. She is so sweet, really.

As a farewell I cooked the family some Estonian peasant food - Keedukartul ja kapsas hakklihaga - Cabboge with minced meat and boiled potatoes. They loved it. At least said so. It is not much to look at, but with sourcream on top, is pretty good for a strange experiment I believe.

Tomorrow morning I leave with the leftover cabbage in my backpack to take the 7h busride to Roma. Life is about to change.

Adopted in Brisbane

After a few phonecalls and little background study, i decided that I will leave Victoria, Melbourne. It really was hard decision, because I got to be fond of the place. But it seemed that finding farm work might be better up in Queensland. Yes, farmwork. I have this idea at the moment, that I need to keep my options open should I want to return to Australia. In order to do that, I need a visa extension and for that need to work in farms in rural Australia for 88 days. Or pay someone off who signs the papers.
Last thing i did in Melbourne was to buy a laptop. It turns out it is essential here, especially as I want to find work, need to do research etc. Smartphone just isn't enough and internet stations are bloody expensive. So I got a 1kg baby from Bosnian 2nd hand computer shop.
I contacted a friend who I made in the Philippines, Marius. He had repeatedly said, that when I come to Brisbane, he can offer me a place to stay for a few days. So I did and he confirmed.
I arrived to Brisbane on Saturday evening and I have seen him so far for maybe 3 minutes, but his mother has totally adopted me. She is so incredibly sweet. And she doesn't even know me (or is that the reason why?:)) So I'm just staying in this house and she has made beautiful dinners and I have internet access and can use my laptop to search for a job.
And I can read her short stories. She used to be a journalist, but now retired, but started to write little stories of her life. She said I can read them if I wanted to, I did, though was a bit afraid. What if I don't like them? But they are so well written and so interesting. Mature persons stories about her life. I wish to hear such stories from my mother.
Today one farmer said I can come over there. He had this really board Australian accent. I can't help it, I find it a bit scary. I will give it a day or two to hear from other applications as well before heading out to no man's land.

Hobart, the buzzling capital of Tasmania

After the trek the Germans and I went to the capital (drum drum drum) Hobart.

The main attraction there is a modern art Museum called Mona. This boasts things like the shit producing machine from Belgium artist, anus kisses (like lipstick kisses on paper) and video of a couple slapping each other’s face until one can’t take it any longer. But there are loads of really cool things as well. When watching the dancing and lip-singing “Rowing on the river” video of 2 guys, me and Berna (one of the funniest people I have met) where laughing so hard and imitating the dance, that I think we became the attraction to other people.

In the evening, capital of Hobart had exactly 2 dining places open. A real ghost town, I could not believe it. Some more wine and many more laughs. And next morning my friends left back to mainland.

I went for another hike, Mt Wellington. Figured its nice enough day and as its Labor Day, the town is completely dead anyway. Good choice. I met two girls just at the start of the trek. One German, of course, and one from Taiwan. Never met anyone from Taiwan before, I think. And now I want to go there. Apparently they have heaps of 3000+ mountains there in the centre of the island. And in Taipei huge night markets and the prices are low. And I just really liked her. That’s the problem when travelling, you meet people from so many countries who stories of even more countries and then you want to experience it yourself.

Next day was beach day. Went there with an Irish guy Moggi, who I met in the hostel and who has one meter long eyelashes. I brought food and he brought wine and we were off to 7 Miles Beach. It’s a long long beach, I take a wild guess and say about 7 miles. Water was really cold. But the wine tasted well. I don’t know was it because of the sun or the time of day, but I think I have never got as drunk from one bottle of wine as this before. I still cant figure out what was it. I mean, I fell asleep on the way back from nature toilet. Mind you, it was not 7 miles walk, but perhaps 100m max. I remember I was heading back towards my towel, but just had to sit down. The sand was so warm and soft, I could not resist to just lay down completely. You know like usually you have this resistance to put your head directly on the sand? No problem! An unaccountable time later, Moggi is waking me up. For a while I didn’t get what’s going on, but then I realized, I never made it to my towel. He had fallen asleep as well, at least.

We went for a swim again, it did not help. Went to eat out back in Hobart, it did not help. At midnight when packing my things, I still felt drunk. That’s like 8h later. And it was even harder to sleep, bcs not only had I to think how I should visit Taiwan, but also I was inspired by Moggi’s travelling and convinced that some months in New Zealand and Canada are also to strongly consider.

I’m still far from having realized what I want, but I'm really loving the search and the time off. And yes, not all of it is so serious and I do fall asleep in strange places. But I have met incredible people, heard inspiring stories, seen so beautiful places and different cultures and I think all this has opened my mind in a way that I can't explain now, but will realize later on, looking back.

It has been more than five months since I left Brussels. And there is a bit more than five months left to return.

Overwater/land track

The only thing I had arranged before arriving to Australia was a 7 day trek in Tasmania. It's called The Overland track and it passes through inland of Tasmania over 65km plus the sidetreks. It's completely self supported. You need to carry everything with you both in and out. No shops or dining places. There are some huts to sleep, but they can be full, so tent is kinda mandatory. And your cooking gear. Fire is forbidded.
Despite knowing all this I of course underprepared as usual. But then again I went on this treck together with 5 Germans! And you know what they say about the Germans :) For the record, the crew was Sabine, my friend from Brussels, his brother Mirko, cousin Berna, and the brother's two friends Juergen and Betti.
So, yeah, I was reading this long list of things suggested to bring to the treck with you in order to survive and a made my own selection of it. I did buy gaiters, to protect your calves and pants while going through the mud or over the tree roots, bushes and they are helpful for occasional poisoneus snake bites. So I already felt like hard core hiker having those. I contemplated over buying waterproof pants, but the 80 dollar ones where not in my size and 200 bucks is just too much. Better just cross it from the list.
9pm in the evening before leaving the next morning, I realised that it really sucks that I don't have any sleeping mat to put under my superlight summer sleeping bag. I read in the guide again that one should expect to snow any time of year in the Tasmanian mountains, so all of the sudden I was really worried. It's the best to realise such things late at night before taking the plane.
But in Mirko's place at the time there was another of his German friends who naturally does have a sleeping mat, so I went over and begged him.
Out of cooking gear/cutlery I had a fork and a swiss army knife, so I considered myself good to go.
Plane to Tassie. Immediate drop in temperature about 8 degrees. Transfer to the camping site at the beginning of the track. Rain. Rain. Rain. Luckily got a hut and did not need to sleep out in the tent.
By the next morning the weather had changed. It was raining even more. Despite the conditions we were in good mood. I think we walked 5 hours that day and about 5 minutes of it there was no rain. Soon enough the track as such ceased to exist as it had turned into streams of water. Sometimes more like a little river. After 3 hours my boots where turned into a swimming pool so my feet enjoyed spa treatment, as did the rest of the body...rainproof jacket from Nepal could not deal with Tasmanian weather either.
For 5 seconds there was sunshine. You could get a glimpse of how beautiful it MUST be when its good weather.
Equally pleasant view that day was the sight of the hut to sleep. It was so packed as there was no single person who would be crazy enough to prefer sleeping in a tent. So all 35 people who are allowed to start the overland track in one day, where gathered there. Wet clothes hanging everywhere and wet boots surrounding the heater which did not work as it was above 10 degrees. But at least the existence of the heater provides moral support.
Next morning though, the boots were still soaking wet and the weather was the same. But my clothes were almost dry! Imagine that.
Day 2 was a short day anyway and close to the end it stopped raining. I was really glad though that even when the conditions where pretty shitty, we all kept a good mood, there was constant laughter and overall positive attitutude.
Magically from the third day onwards the weather made a complete change, blue sky and sunshine all through the next days. And thats when you really start to appreciate the landscape. It was amazing. Real wilderness. Its completely different floora and fauna than I have ever seen before. The fact that they only let 35 people to start the treck each day also means that most of the time you are walking by yourself with no other persons in view.
We did two peaks as well, one of them, Mt Ossa, being the highest peak of Tasmania, 1617m. On top of that I felt that there is no way to describe the view. Honestly, words would just diminish it. I had wondered if after Himalaya Tasmania can really impress me. It can and it did. Just to give you an idea, here is one link I found on google with the view: http://www.lukeobrien.com.au/images/ossa.jpg
So the days were beautiful and the evenings really funny. I introduced massage sessions so we all get some relaxation to our backs and shoulders. The nights were a bit tough in my summer sleeping bag on a small mattrass. It also turned out the mattrass is a bit broken, so when letting the air in, there is a huge air bubble in the middle. So either you sleep on a little mountain under your back or hip or just hardly put any air in ... but I can rough it out for a while no problem.
The food started to ran out as well. Its pretty hard to plan for the whole week! But some nice people left free food behind and as I have had a good soviet upbringing, I immediately took anything there is to take. It helped other girls as well, as their bread went all bad and so on. It's good to have guys in the group. They bring loads of snacks. Nah, not only for that. They also carry the heavy stuff. :) Just kidding.
All in all we did 94km. On the 7th day we completed the treck by finishing in Lake St Claire camping site. We reached the overpriced restaurant, put down our bags and didnt get further to our huts before 10pm perhaps. 8 dollar beer tasted too good for that. And we surely had an excuse to celebrate.