The first Sunday I was in Sydney, a whole flurry of plans was born between me, Ruth and Jenny.  While sitting on the beach, we decided that we all wanted to get out of Sydney and we decided to rent a camper van and drive down the coast to Melbourne.  On the way we would stop whenever we wanted to–seeing the sights and anything else random.  We thought it would be a good chance to see more of Australia, without staying in any one place too long.  So this was the plan for a few days, then we decided that we were running out of money, so we should try to go fruit picking before that, make some money and then drive down.  We found a farm that does blueberry and raspberry picking around this time of year in a place called Coffs Harbour—about 500km north of Sydney.  We had to stay in Sydney for 2 more weeks anyway because Ruth had signed up for these qualification courses for the next two Saturdays, and the berry picking didn’t start until the end of September—in a word, perfect.  So we were just waiting, walking around Sydney, hanging out at the Blue Parrot, drinking ‘goon,’ the infamous and cheap wine-in-a-box…so then the Monday before we are scheduled to leave rolls around (we’re checking out on Tuesday morning).  We call up to Coffs Harbour and they tell us that fruit picking is slow this year so it won’t be starting for another 2-3 weeks.  Hmm….our wallets aren’t liking those odds—we just can’t afford to wait around another few weeks without employment.  So we start looking at other fruit picking options up near Brisbane and in the outskirts of Sydney and between Sydney and Melbourne, but it seems that everywhere we look the fruit picking season is slow and won’t pick up for a little bit yet.  It was extremely frustrating to say the least.  So in about an hour we completely changed our plans and Ruth and I bought a one-way bus ticket down to Melbourne.  We both wanted to end up in Melbourne for a while anyway, so we decided just to go down and see what happened.  Jenny wanted to go north before going south, so we might still meet up with her before the year’s over. 

Anyway, Ruth and I got on an 8am bus the next morning, after another pretty crazy night out at the Sugar Mill and Ruth threatening to slap an Irish guy, and buckled down for a long 12 hour ride.  It wasn’t too bad because we both got seats to ourselves so we could stretch out a little bit.  We got to Melbourne about 10pm and checked into our new hostel, which was more like a hotel with bunk beds.  After staying for 3 weeks in the Blue Parrot which felt more like home than a hostel, it was weird going into a super clean, super big, super sterile environment.  I think it took us 3 days to talk to one of our roommates, and there were only 4 of us!  We spent most of the time that we were booked in the hostel looking for another one that was smaller and more friendly.

That search brought us to over 15 different hostels until we finally landed on Bev and Micks Backpackers.  They have really good reviews, that’s true, because the people are all pretty friendly, but the rooms were upstairs to a bar so it was loud and kinda crazy most nights.  You couldn’t really choose to get away from it like most other places.  I’m sure living on top of a bar would have been far more entertaining if I wasn’t trying to save money.  But it was only $100 for the week, and it was just a 4 person room, which is an exceptionally great deal if you’re not familiar w/ hostels.  Most other places were charging upwards of $160 a week for a 10 person room!  So we figured it would do for a few days while we looked for a job and another place to stay.

Melbourne is a beautiful city…it’s much colder than Sydney is at the moment, but it is very European with cafes and tiny boutiques lining the streets.  I was really glad we decided to come down—until about the 3^rd day when it seemed like I’d never get a job and I’d never find a decent place to stay!  Job-hunting is really quite depressing, especially when you’re looking at places you would so easily get at home, but you’re competing with so many people that you’d never get it here!  I thought it would be easy to work at a café or a bar or a restaurant, but all of the places that were looking for work wanted, no demanded, experience.  I worked in Eat N’ Park for 2 years, but after that, none of my work experience has been in the food service industry.  Who would have thought that would come and bite me in the ass?! 

After about a week of really depressing searching, we decided to swallow our pride and go work for a call center.  Bleh.  Not the best job in the world by far, but we get a base pay plus commission on top of that.  And the people in the center are all young travelers and its in a pretty good location.  Basically it could be a lot worse! And the day we got the job, we also found a decent little apartment that got us out of bunk beds and smelly hostels!  So that’s where I am now…job and apartment! No paycheck yet, but its on its way!  So if anyone calls and asks you to switch your electricity retailer…just give them a minute of your time…