When I set off to travel I knew I was going to be away for at least a year, which inevitably meant spending Christmas in another country, more specifically Australia (about as far away from home as I could be!) I accepted this a long time ago and I thought I would dread it but when it came around it really wasn't as bad as I thought. A lot of people have asked me what it's been like to be away from home so here's a short and sweet blog post (after almost a 2 month long blogging break :/) about my Christmas down under.
The Christmas build - up was really surreal. The 1st of December marked the first day of summer for Australia and the weather really warmed up (albeit slowly and erratically, thanks Melbourne) over the weeks. Christmas decorations below blue skies and pictures of families enjoying a Christmas barbecue is just not something I'm used to, but when you speak to Australians they can't imagine it being cold and dark during Christmas time, so there you go!
Another thing I noticed was that Australia, or Melbourne at least, really doesn't seem to do Christmas as big as we do back in the UK. There's so much more hype back home and Christmas is everywhere, in people's homes, on the radio, on the TV, every brand has their own special Christmas advert and all the shops play Christmas music from at least November. I barley saw anybody adorn their house with lights in Melbourne and I could count on one hand the amount of Christmas songs I heard. I also didn't have an endless list of parties/christmas dos/family gatherings to attend being so far away from home, so I could see it all happening on social media but I wasn't involved, so it really didn't feel like it was happening.
Luckily I live in a big house share where every housemate is British or Irish, so we made big plans for the day. It's a backpacking tradition to go to the beach so after we made a Christmas day feast (barbecue meat and salad) we headed 5 minutes down the road to St Kilda beach.
The atmosphere was phenomenal, the beach was packed and it was a whopping 38 degrees. It was like a huge festival with everybody playing music from speakers, dancing, drinking and chilling in the ocean. The majority of people are young backpackers from all over the world so it was really diverse and an amazing way to celebrate Christmas day.
Christmas is a time of tradition, family and more significatly, home, so homesickness during the build - up was inevitable and I did crave familiarity, but when it came to the day I had such an amazing experience I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to see what Christmas is like on the other side of the world. Definitely one I will always remember.
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