Okay, so I used to say that flying to Australia was ‘JUST a 24 hour flight’, oh how I was wrong. You forget when you’re planning your journey across Planet Earth to account for the rest stops in-between your journey, and the delays you most likely will entail. But, more importantly, you forget to account for the time difference and how this may affect your body. For me, the jet-lag was really, really bad. I struggled to stay awake (even after hours of sleep) I could barely communicate with people, I felt incredibly sick and couldn’t stop shaking. I initially thought I had caught a cold from the plane journey, but a quick google search suggested otherwise. Unlike most travellers, I was lucky - I had somewhere safe to stay where I wasn’t in a dorm room with 5-10 other people. This meant that I could spend some time trying to get through the jet lag; all in all this took around two weeks.
During this time, me and Adam were trying to get used to our surroundings. Its a strange thing waking up to an Australian accent when you’ve spent 23 years of your life waking up to a very broad Yorkshire accent. I also hadn’t seen my Dad in over 2 years (a lot of catching up as on the cards) and Adam had never met my Dad before.
Me and Adam considered ourselves really lucky that we had a base here in Australia, especially for the beginning of our adventure. My Dad and his wife helped us settle in to the Australia lifestyle and made sure that we had all the right things to hand to start us on our journey, e.g. bank cards and *medicare cards.
For a lot of travellers & backpackers coming here they’re thrust into a new place. They have to land on their feet immediately and be ready to figure their way through the big cities. Many of them don’t speak fluent English and have to learn fast. I have read first hand about backpackers who have really struggled with the transition to backpacker life. I sometimes wonder if me and Adam missed out on this, but looking back at how ill i felt i would have probably tried to quit before i even started. Plus, who, in their right mind, would give up a comfy bed, heating (in the winter) good food & family, for cold, crowded, hostel rooms? not me...
*for anyone coming from Britain (not sure about other countries), Australia and Britain have a reciprocal healthcare agreement. This just means you can apply for a medicare card which helps you when you go to the doctors or hospital to the receive necessary treatment. Some places do charge for care but I don’t know much about that because, thankfully, we haven’t needed any healthcare treatments. PHEW.
