Solo Traveling to Australia [2/3]

2/3: IT WAS FUN AND FRESH TRIP, IN A POSSIBLY GOOD WAY

Hey, you better read my first story of Australia’s trip on my last post here.

It happened that I went to Sydney first, then Melbourne then went back to Sydney. I know, I know it’s confusing. I was wrong about buying the flight tickets. I bought domestic flight first from Sydney to Melbourne and the other way around. After that, I bought the international flight from my country to Sydney…hehehe, my bad. You guys would think how clumsy and foolish I am. I know, but well it had happened. So, that was just an intermezzo.

I stayed at Naomi’s house for a few days then stayed at the local Airbnb house. It was a great experience. Naomi’s house was truly lovely. It was all brick’s materials and a simple design. Experiencing to stay at Naomi's house was great. The bedroom was amazingly cozy. The bathroom smelled so good, I think it's because of all the soaps and shampoos. I once traveled to Auckland, New Zealand, and the bathroom smelled so good. My opinion about it is that Australia and New Zealand have a clean and neat environment, so even the bathroom air seemed to be in a perfect smell, LOL. The kitchen in Naomi's was fascinating. I had to see a lot of Asian left-over foods but the ambiance was really Australian. The whole house's floors were covered by carpets except bathrooms and kitchen. Besides Naomi's house, I got to stay in two places, one was in an apartment in Melbourne, and the other one was in an old house in Sydney. The apartment was great, but it's pretty standard. While the house in Newtown, Sydney, was freaking amazing! It has a bohemian style and the rooms were artsy even though they're small. If space is small but you're cozy in it, it's a good thing, right? I bet it is, everyone wants that concept now. Small space but cozy and effective. So, I loved it. I loved the house so much. It was also near to little-indie stores in Kingston Street in Newtown. 

The first city was actually Melbourne. I DID go to Sydney first, but the next day I flew to Melbourne with Naomi in the morning. Melbourne was... something. My impression of Melbourne was fun, young, and YOLO. Everything runs so great in here. It had a beautiful climate and a fun environment. 

Hosier Lane, Melbourne

Flinders  Railway Station, Flinders Street, Melbourne

Degraves Street, Melbourne

Street Art somewhere in Melbourne, I took this pic when I was on the train.

St Paul's Cathedral, Flinders Ln & Swanston Street, Melbourne

Pretty Naomi in Fitzroy Street. Sunset made this pic so much better.

Fitzroy Street at 5 pm, this was the most indie and coolest neighborhood in Melbourne.

In Melbourne, I got to experience a little bit of hiking in Kokoda Track Memorial Walk, Tree Fern Gully Track. It took an hour by train from Southern Cross Station Melbourne to the nearest station: Upper Ferntree Gully Station. Naomi and I went here for half-day. The track was totally hard and rough for me. I actually wasn't prepared enough to hike. We walked like 1-2 km from the station to the track, it hadn't even started yet. I was already tired, but Naomi wasn't. Naomi likes sport, especially hiking, because you can see beautiful nature from hiking. I expected breathtaking sceneries here in Kokoda Track Memorial Walk. But, honestly, it's not breathtaking, it's more to just good and a great experience for you who want to have a healthy exercise in nature. It's all the stairs and trees. I didn't see any wide sceneries, so that's a shame. I think the stairs were a thousand stairs and there were a lot of points for people to take a rest. I only hiked until the Alohaha Village point, so it's a half journey. I got too tired so we headed back. But I was grateful to go here. I saw a lot of families, from toddlers to senior citizens. It was an amazing moment to see a lot of people still want to do this, it's a healthy thing to do and it should be my routine also to exercise more. The air was freaking fresh. I could feel the freshness when I first stepped myself out of the train in the station there. It was a quiet and calm environment, good for people who like serenity surroundings. 

Melbourne to me is all about having fun. Naomi and I tried a lot of new food, the halal ones of course. We walked a lot, like A LOT. Naomi's walk was so fast I should always catch her walk phase haha! It's really fun to learn new things and I was accompanied by Naomi. Yes, I had to learn how to take a train, read maps (Google Maps are my life savior), and find halal foods nearby. I would be all alone in Sydney so I gotta prepare these things. I think the best about Melbourne was I tasted youth life here, both at day and night. The weather was always beautiful, even there's one time raining but not too heavy. Naomi got the chance to meet her friends also in Melbourne, so it's a win-win trip for us! She said she needed a quick getaway from her work in Sydney and I happened to travel in perfect time. So, yes, we were in absolute happy times when we were in Melbourne!

Flagstaff Gardens in the morning.

William Street

William Street near Queen Victoria Market.

Queen Victoria Market. Oh, you have no idea how happy I was when I saw this market.

One of the stalls in Queen Victoria Market, Ronnie Z juice.

A street near RMIT (University in Melbourne)

Brighton Beach with those iconical boxes!

Palais Theatre. I'm fine, it's said Norah Jonas would perform, I won't be there. It's only her. *heavily breathing*

St. Kilda beach. It. Was. Beautiful. I cried inside.

I took a stranger's pic, it was a great moment. 

It feels like in Los Angeles, am I the one who feel that way?

On the last day in Melbourne, I met one of my uncle's friends who works in Architecture Firm named Peddle Thorp Architects in Flinders Street Melbourne. She was lovely, her name is Ruth and I called her Kak Ruth. She has worked in Peddle Thorp for years. She was pregnant when I visited her office. We talked about everything, mostly architecture and her job. Yes, she's an achitect there. She told me about her life in Melbourne. It was fantastic. She talked about how hard it is to both work and do her life as a mom, getting ready to have higher education in Australia, how hard it was to have a permanent resident ther (I can relate, Austalian Government is becoming stricter these years). She also talked about pregnancy, her daughter's life, and my uncle who happened to be her ex-teacher when she was taking a bachelor program in Bandung!

Naomi and I went back to Sydney after our fun amazing four days in Melbourne. I was more than grateful and blessed to experience Melbourne with Naomi. We totally got along. Never I had an awkward moment with her when we were in Melbourne. Now, it's time to see how it went for me to travel around Sydney. I expected less. But the thing was, God gave me more, more than I expected. 

See you on the next post!

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All photos were taken by Yashica fx super 2000 and film Kodak Ultramax 400, Ektar 100, and Portra 400.

Next post: Solo Traveling to Australia [3/3]

Solo Traveling to Australia [1/3]

1/3: THE HISTORY OF THIS TRAVELING

I met an Australian friend named Naomi Dang in January 2016. She had a teaching program in Bandung and it was arranged by AIESEC. It was a volunteering program as well and I happened to become her buddy partner while she was in Bandung for two months. It was the time I started to know Naomi and her cultures through the personalities she had shown to me. She was an easy-going person who loves to travel and try new things outside her comfort zone. We became best friends, until now actually. She went back to Sydney, Australia in March 2016 and when the time was passing by, we chatted as much as we could, even though we had our own business.

In late 2018, I started thinking: maybe it would be nice if I could go to Naomi's country and it's her time to show me around! Without further thoughts, I made my own travel itineraries to Australia, gathered all the documents by myself and started saving some money. At first, my parents hadn't allowed me, but I said this was the time I needed to explore myself more, traveling alone and further from everyone I know. They understood. They did. It was the time I felt I had to be fully responsible for what I had decided on my own term. I had my preparation for almost six months and it was pretty organized, my parents helped me out a lot with the administration stuff. I asked Naomi if she would be free if I come to visit, and she said she would love to accompany me traveling even it's not full-time. I moved on for a while, I continued to finish my finals and just live. It was moving so fast I had to digest all of them slowly, yet consistently. Then, graduation came in March 2019 and my solo traveling would start from April 3rd. Yes, I was planning to go to Australia in April. My favorite month and it would be a starter for the Autumn season there.

There's a lot of thoughts going on when I was preparing myself to go to Australia. It's just... I thought I wasn't ready enough. My mind kept thinking, was this worth to try? The answer was definitely YES. I let myself be calm at home the day before going, I was scared the whole day, and I let myself be close to my mom. She understood my situation clearly. I intensely chatted with Naomi a week before I went actually, asking the places I should visit, what things I should bring, how much money I should bring, and so on. We missed each other so so much.

I present you, Naomi Dang!!! I took her picture while we were in Melbourne - gonna tell Melbourne trip soon!

When people asked me before I went, "Why Australia, Tika?" I asked myself about that question too every single day. I think the major reason was there's Naomi there, I have a friend in Sydney and that was why my parents let me. It must be a really hard decision for them to let me go traveling alone, but the presence of Naomi helped me, hahaha. Back to the question: Why Austalia? Why solo? I've been dreaming to go to English countries since I was in Junior High School. The UK happened to be my most beautiful dream when I was at school. But time went by and I absorbed a lot of knowledge basically about cultures and global information. And yes, I met Naomi, so that changed me. I could be easily adapted and be introduced by her country without getting a lot of information on my own. I could easily just asked her!

The second thought about traveling alone is to actually gain more inside me. I want to know who I am when I am alone. I want to know both of the worst and the best part of me when I am alone. This is a tough task for me. People have their own time to know who they truly are. The more I spend my time alone the more I gain information about myself and my surroundings. These thoughts had been haunting me while I was on my graduation break, so it was a perfect time for me to travel! Traveling alone makes you practice more about your independence and confidence by spending and thinking about what you should do, where you should go, everything could be handled by yourself and you're the one who takes in charge.

The time was satisfyingly perfect. I was terrific realizing it'll go in a good period of time. When the day came to go, I had prepared myself to go. This was it. I was ready. I took a Malaysian Air flight with one transit to Kuala Lumpur first, then Sydney. It took almost fifteen hours journey in total. But I enjoyed it. The first time I stepped into Sydney International Airport, I was soon searching for airport wi-fi and texted Naomi that I got delayed an hour before, so I was late. Almost two hours I waited in immigration, I finally went out of the airport and saw Naomi! It's such a huge relieved feeling for me. I hadn't met her for three years and I had this sweet chance to finally meet her. I met her dad and he was so kind and warm. The weather that day was a bit cloudy with the perfect wind.

The first day I was invited to look around Naomi's neighborhood. It was surreal. The neighborhood seemed so lovely and calm. I love the way people just said hi nicely to me and Naomi when we passed them by. I remember Naomi asked me to go to Cooks Park near her house. It was calming. We were just walking and talking, and of course, enjoying the afternoon breeze that day. I thought, "This will be an amazing trip of mine." We talked about updated stuff of ourselves since we missed each other for three years. Meeting a person like this, you never know how this friendship will lead you, but if you are kind, easy to communicate with that person, and believe you can maintain it persistently, you will get to have something nice and relieving at the end. I found that my friendship with Naomi is a bit chill, rare, and raw. We really enjoy being ourselves when we're communicating.

It's Earlwood suburbs, a sweet neighborhood.

Naomi in Cooks Park on April 4th, 2019 (My first day in Sydney).

All photos were taken by Yashica fx super 2000 and film Ektar 100 and Kodak Ultramax 400.

Next post: Solo Traveling to Australia [2/3]