Travelling space

Ever since we arrived in Australia I've been craving my own space. Three and a half months of hostel hopping had worn me out and although we will travel Australia later on in the year, our first port of call is to find work, settle and save as much as we can. As soon as the idea of work embedded my thoughts my mind shifted. Hostels didn't seem so appealing. I couldn't wait to find work, find a house share and create my own space to live a new life in. Unfortunately it didn't dawn on me that building a completely new life pretty much from scratch takes time. Searching for all of these things at once alongside the personal admin that comes with them (phone number, bank account, generally becoming a person again) is a lengthy process. In the meantime I had to live in a hostel.

Unlike hostels in South East Asia, the majority of people are here on a working holiday visa and this brings a mix of people who are working and living long-term at the hostel or looking for work and getting settled alongside those who are travelling. This made living at the hostel great fun and a huge pain in equal measures. There were a lot of pros; you make a huge amount of friends, are welcomed into a community of like minded people which gives you a good base network in a new city, you pick up a lot of tips and helpful information from your new friends and also have a lot of fun, cheap nights out. Then there are the cons; sharing a small kitchen and cooking a meal with around 15 other people simultaneously, all of whom are cooking a completely different meal (and there's never any forks), sharing a bedroom with 6 other people all with different routines, when you have to get up at 6am for work the next day (especially on a weekend), not having any room to empty out your bag and just generally not having any space.

When I was backpacking South East Asia, none of these things bothered me. Travelling is about a sense of freedom, being wild and spontaneous, not living by routine but on whim, choosing to do whatever you want whenever you want to. Hostels cultivate the perfect environment for this. However, as soon as you have to work, you want to create a routine that sits alongside it. I wanted stability and comfort. I wanted to empty my bag and hang all of my clothes up. I wanted a space to write and blog with nobody else around. When your time is more limited, you seize it, direct it and make the most of it.

After three weeks we found a short-term lease in an apartment in the C.B.D. As soon as I moved in it was a huge breath of fresh air. I felt so much more relaxed. One of the greatest things about travelling (and about anything really) is that everything is always temporary. You can change anything that you want to, and if something isn't working out I need to remember that in time and with a little work and in time it will change. In another three weeks we need to move again! House-hunting is next on the list!

Grace xo