On Memories, Kangaroos And Why Do I Always Choose Countries With No Heating in Winter

It has been almost a month since I arrived in Australia, but I think the moment I truly felt my travel has started was only two weeks ago. It doesn't always happen, but there are times, during a journey, when you stop and realise "I'm here. I arrived where I wanted to be". For me, this moment happened a week after arriving Downunder, during my first night in Sydney. After a very long and tiring day I had spent travelling, I walked through CBD to reach Circular Quay and found myself with the Sydney Opera House on one side and the Harbour Bridge on the other, and I finally felt like I was in the right place.

Sydney Opera House from Circular Quay 

Maybe because of the weather - it rained half of the days I spent there - or maybe because I was very jetlagged and tired and worried about some things back home, but I didn't enjoy my time in Perth as much as I would've liked to. I was starting to wonder whether the reasons that moved me to take this trip to Australia were right, if I had made the right decision choosing to leave in such a delicate moment for myself and my family - because, as much as I would like to think that travelling is always the right thing to do, sometimes it just isn't the right moment for you to take a trip. The moment I arrived in Sydney, though, every doubt cleared my mind and I knew that it was the right time for me to be there.

Perth skyline from Elizabeth Quay

I fell in love with Sydney and I believe it earned its right to be in my top 3 favourite cities of the world. It reminded me of Lisbon and London at the same time, I know it sounds impossible but it did. Every corner has a story and its full of tiny details that make it buzzing and exciting at any time of the day or night. It is so much more than just the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge - I absolutely loved the historical neighborhood of The Rocks, where you can feel like you went back in time to Victorian London and are about to die of childbirth or fatigue because you have been working in the docks for forteen hours.

Enough talk about the cities though - I will make specific posts about them and what to do and see there.

Sunset over the Australian bush

So, for those who don't know, I came to Australia for the first time when I was 17, in 2010, on a school exchange that started with two months in Canberra and I am not sure I ever saw the end of it. It was the beginning of my volunteer activity with AFS Intercultura, which, especially in the past four years, gave me the opportunity to live some great experiences around Italy, Europe and now the world. On the 28th of June I left Rome leading a group of kids who came here on the same premises, and almost 24 hours later we landed in Perth. 

I decided to take this long trip because, well, first I had the chance to do so, and, secondly, because I was starving for intercultural adventures. As I said, though, when I was in Perth I was in a weird mood - tired and feeling like I needed time alone to figure some things out - so I didn't really force any interaction with people. I did better in Sydney, where at one point I forced myself to get out there and I was nicely rewarded.

View of my bike and a nice cliff on Rottnest Island

About a week ago I arrived at the Walkabout Park, a private foundation where I am volunteering in exchange for food and accomodation (you can learn more about this kind of exchanges on Workaway). Well, I guess past me did something good spending hours and hours browsing the website looking for the perfect opportunity - never in my life I thought I would have lived in the Australian bush, with kangaroos freely jumping around and exotic birds waking me up at dawn (it gets annoying on day 2, trust me). I can see the sun rising and setting down everyday from the window next to my bed and around us is nothing but trees and bushes. The bad thing is: it's Winter here (at night we have around 12°) and there's no heating and I have to walk through the forest if I want to use the toilet or take a shower. I guess the Winter I spent freezing in Lisbon, with all the tricks I developed to keep warm, has come handy here - even though in Lisbon I didn't risk to encounter a venoumous snake on my way to the shower. But hey, there's worse than this - and I can now genuinely say I enjoy camping.

Sydney skyline from Mrs Macquaries' view point

Anyway, since I came here I had some moments of clarity that not only confirmed me that I was doing the right thing being here, but also helped me starting figuring out the next steps of my life.

As the poor souls who had to bear with me in the past twelve months know, I had a rough year. I went through some of the most difficult moments one can have in a lifetime - heartbreak, loss of solid pilars in my life, parents' illnesses, unemployment - all at once and at times it has been a little bit overwhelming. I felt lost and lonely for most part of the past months, and the uncertainty that came after my graduation had me develop doubts about myself, about my priorities in life and about what I want to do in my future. I only went through it thanks to professional help and some very good friends who, most of the times not even being aware of the help they were giving me, stood by me.

You can't see it, but the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge are there

Since I came here, though, I started gaining back some of the certainties that I had lost. Who I am, what I want from life, what are my skills and my flaws. When I left Italy I thought this kind of realization would come much later in the journey and, most likely, from talking with someone else. Surprisingly, it came from myself. An other proof of how we should give ourselves more credit, sometimes. I realized this during an interview about my school exchange (long story), when I was asked "when do you think this experience comes to an end?" and I found myself replying "I don't think it ever does". I mean, it's nothing new, it's what anyone who has ever had this kind of personal experience would tell, but for the first time in years it sounded true to my ears. As I was saying this, in fact, I could see how much all the people, all the things I experienced in Australia and in Portugal had shaped my personality and my general being, not to mention some of my life choices. I would definitely not be the same person, with the same interests and skills, if I had not had my exchange with Intercultura; this past year from hell would have never happened if I hadn't been to Lisbon, but it was thanks to this that I started solving things out with myself and with some relationships in my life.

Sydney. Again. 

So, in the end, I guess everything is as it should be. I can ask myself over and over again how things would be if I had done things differently at one point, taken different decisions, been an other person basically, but at the end of the day this is the only possible outcome as it is the one that happened. The universe always has a way of sorting things out, if you listen to it.

Ok, you know what this is. 

I am now halfway through my journey, I'll be back in Sydney on Tuesday and then my next stop is Canberra, where everything began and where I am looking forward to have more flashbacks and memories from my exchange. Now the unplanned part of my trip begins, let's see where it leads me.