Planes Trains and Automobiles (become Steve Martin)
Hey everyone! Just a quick little update for ya'll this time :)
I have officially left Brisbane! It was nice while it lasted, not gonna lie, having and actual friendly house to live in and my own room to myself felt so nice after sharing rooms for a month. As interesting
as it is to stay in a hostel, I do not understand the people who stay at these places full time. I get it if it's for the social aspect, cause there's always people around and it is really nice to always have
people to talk to (even if it's about nothing important), but otherwise, imo, it's super not worth it hot DAMN. Now that I'm back to sharing a sauna of a room with 5 other people I think I can finally say I
prefer staying in a private space for extended visits.
But yes, Brisbane is out, and Port Macquarie is in, at least for now!! It's also relevant to the title of this update, as Port Macquarie is a medium sized town with very expensive plane
tickets. So to get here I did the only logical thing: I messaged some random guy from a Facebook group and offered to split the cost of fuel if he let me ride in his car with him down to Port M. Now some of
you may be thinking "OH UH THAT'S KIND OF DANGEROUS???".
I mean...
yeah it kinda is...
but he was really nice so it doesn't matter ahahaha!
Yeah so I messaged this guy named James on a "Australia Backpacker Rideshare" Facebook group since he said he was driving from Cairns to Melbourne and would be making a stop in Brisbane on his way. I shot him
a message and, lo and behold, he was stopping in Brisbane the exact day I wanted to head out! Perfect! So we met up near the place I was staying (did not give him the address I'm not doxxing my
family friends like that), and we headed out. Unfortunately by the time we left,there was no way we were making it to Port Macquarie in one go, so we had to stop and CAMP at a little spot called
New Italy. He had a sick-ass tent setup on his SUV, and a little extra tent for me :) It was super uncomfortable, I literally slept on a blanket and
used my backpack as a pillow, but it was one of the most memorable experiences of this whole trip for me, not even gonna lie. New Italy was super cute, I got some nice raisin toast, and we made it to Port
Macquarie in one piece. Dude was so cool as well, he had Waze installed on his phone, and apparently you can make your car appear as a Warthog from Halo AND have Master Chief be your TTS voice
when driving around. So we got to drive around listening to Master Chief giving us directions with some good old Breaking Benjamin to accompany it.
What a legend. Absolute chad.
And since we were driving, that means we got to stop at the Coffs Harbour BIG BANANA OH MY GOODNESS this was literally the best shit EVER, it really was just a big banana and it OWNED, it was
SO FRIGGING COOL. Here is a fun picture of me in front of the banana :)
Anyways, now I'm here in Port Macquarie and I have a dillema: Should I stay or should I go? As much as I like this little town, after now having been here a couple of days, there's some things I miss from the
bigger cities that they don't have here, mostly dancing and a vibing D+D community. Right now Melbourne's sounding pretty good (cause Sydney is competetive as all hell), but here's my list of Pros and Cons
for both:
Going to Melbourne:
Pros:
- There's a lot of fun clubs to go dancing at and live concerts to go see (I love doing these)
- A D+D community that's super easy to get into, plus other hobbies are way easier to keep up
- Jobs aplenty. Rooms to rent aplenty
- Bigger, more stuff to explore
- I already know people down there (plus people I met in Sydney AND the cool guy I rode with to Port M are both there)
Cons:
- Beaches aren't as nice
- Weather is shit
- There's more stuff to explore, but the environment isn't as unique as New South Wales
- More jobs/rooms, but WAY more competition
- While I know people there, I don't know them that well.
- Lots of tourists and backpackers (yeah I know that's what I am but that doesn't mean I want to interact with them)
Staying in Port Macquarie:
Pros:
- Beaches are the most beautiful I've seen
- The environment is exactly what I'd expect from Australia, unique ecology and geology
- More native Australians
- Tourist season so lots of jobs and stuff
- Cheaper cost of living? I think??
- Way more interesting to explore
Cons:
- I don't know anyone here
- Way less to do in terms of hobbies, D+D and otherwise
- No cool live music/concerts or clubs to dance at
- IDK how good the internet is and I wanna play games with the homies
- It's mostly old people and kids here, less likely to meet cool friends (I don't care for the hostel people)
Idk, it's a lot to think about without a lot of time to think it over :/ hopefully I will make up my mind soon! If you have any advice please hit me up via DMs or something sometime, I'd really appreciate it
LOL.
Anyways, that's gonna do it for today, like I said, little update. Catch you guys later probably for Christmas where I will be crying my eyes out perfectly fine :)
See you everyone! Safe travels and have a lovely morning or afternoon or evening or night :)