Jobhopping in Darwin

Australia is an expensive place to live… that’s why every backpacker sooner or later needs a job in order to pay for food, rent and the car. But even if Australia is an expensive place to live, it’s easy to make here some money. There are heaps of jobs all over the country and if u r a bit lucky you find a good and well paid job.

When we came to Darwin on the 24^th of January all four of us were pretty short on money. Some of us spent their last money to pay the rent for the apartment. As we found out a bit later we were really lucky with our apartment. An Italian guy in Adelaide told us about the YMCA and encouraged us to go there. So when we arrived in Darwin our first stop was the YMCA. And because the luck was on our side the guy provided us with a big nice and spacious apartment and this for only 100 Dollar per week. We also have a nice pool and bbq area. AND we live in the CBD. Pretty good deal, ay… ;) For the first couple of weeks there was just the four of us. But as there are six beds in the apartment the owner wanted to fill these beds too. So we kept looking for friends who want to move in and that’s why we share our flat now with Guglielmo, a geologist from Naples, and Brad our friend from New Zealand who recently moved to Darwin. But back again to the job hunt! We all needed money… as soon as possible. So on our first day in Darwin we went from restaurant to restaurant and from bar to bar and left them our CV’s. And it looked quite promising as everybody told us they are looking for staff and they will contact us. In the end we realized this is just the Australian way to tell u they don’t need u. At least not right now. In the end Shenannigans Irish Pub called us the same day and told us to start immediately. And that’s what Monika and I did. However, we don’t earn that well in the Irish Pub. 23.40 before tax and 16.40 after tax (however, u get ur tax back as soon as u leave OZ) and we can only make about 30 hours per week, which is simply not enough. That’s why we kept on looking for a second job. We contacted all the job agencies in Darwin and they provided us with some casual waitstaffing jobs at the Parliament or the Convention Center. Another event agency calls us, whenever they need people and that’s why we hop from one job to another.

However, Australia is a great place to make heaps of money. If u r willing to work hard u easily can make 1000 $ and more per week. These jobs, however, are very popular and u have to be at the right place at the right time. What u also need is patience and luck. And that’s why Monika and I are constantly looking for something else. Gardening, construction, mining and traffic control, there is no job we didn’t apply for… All we have to do now is contacting them over and over again and hope they are looking for people.

Daniel and Max on the other hand started working for Red Rooster – a fast food chain which basically concentrates on chicken. Daniel got a promotion the second day he worked there and he is now a supervisor – basically supervising Max. ;)

Darwin is a wonderful place to live. It’s a town with a population of about 70,000 people. However, characterizing for Darwin is its small-town atmosphere. There are basically two main streets, Smith Street and Mitchell Street. On Smith Street u have The Mall which is good for shopping, while Mitchell Street has heaps of bars, restaurants and clubs. Darwin Waterfront is a must-see just like Mindl Beach, Funny Bay and Cullen Bay. Another reason to spend a bit more time in Darwin is because of the people. Many Australians agree that the nicest people live in Darwin. We met some great people from Italy, Estonia, France, Germany and Australia. However, there are a lot of Aborigines in Darwin and that’s why it is also considered to be unsafe at night. However, we never had any problems and to be honest I don’t have the feeling that Darwin is not a safe place. As we want to stay in Darwin until the beginning of June we will keep on working for Shenannigans unless we find another, better paid job. Wish us luck…!!!! ;)))

  

 

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Melbourne, Great Ocean Road and the hooooooooooooooot Outback!!!

After we arrived in Melbourne and we did some shopping (everyone of us is now the proud owner of new all stars =)) we started our second road trip: Great Ocean Road and Outback!!

First stop: Lourne!! The guys spent here already some time because they celebrated New Years Eve here at the Falls Festival. Oh, btw: the guys are too lazy to write the blog to tell what they have done so fare during we girls were in NZ, so we update u shortly. After they had to leave Narry (yeah, they HAD to leave, just ask them why =))) they visited the Grampians National Park and went then to the falls festival in Lourne. Due to the fact that they had no ticket, they were walking every day for 2 hours through the forest (and it is an Australian forest with heaps of dangerous animals =)) to get on the campground and than they managed it somehow to pass the security control and to get on the festival. So they had the chance to see the kooks, the naked and famous, arctic monkeys and heaps of other bands. On the third of January they went to Melbourne and waited there for us.

So, back to our road trip and our fist stop Lourne. The guys showed us around and we took thousands of pictures of the beautiful coast!! The views we had on the great ocean road were just awesome!! we visited all the touristic staff (12 apostles, London Bridge, ...) and we tried to visit the famous lighthouse. But it was already really late when we arrived there and everything was closed, so we had the really great idea just to climb over the fence and to go to the lighthouse without paying and without permit =). but we didn’t realize that there were cameras everywhere and as well security guards who started looking for us as soon as they realized that someone is on the area! in the end we were running around like crazy to escape from the security guards and to get out of the area . it was really funny, but we had no chance to see the lighthouse =((

After we were done with the great ocean road we spent some days in Adelaide! we stayed at an awesome hostel and we met so funny people there! one of them was Steve from France, we were laughing our ass off with this crazy guy!! (the chair is brooooken, me cannot believe =))))).

Adelaide is full of Italians and one of them (Giulio) told us about a good place to stay in Darwin! but we will tell you later on more about it! Adelaide has as well heaps of good Italian restaurants and good shopping possibilities, but we were so broke that nobody could afford to buy something. after some sight seeing tours and a trip on the river with a paddle boat we decided to leave Adelaide and to finally go to the outback!!

So we started driving, and driving, and driving.... and again driving and driving and driving! as soon as we left the cities we had no reception anymore with our phone, cheers Vodafone for that =)). the outback was really, really hot.... and the bad thing was that we were just sleeping in our campervan, and this time we were 4 people!! so we had absolutely no space to sleep and it was soooo hot and some of us (it was max =)) had to go to the toilette about ten times during the night =))!

We passed a lot of little places in the outback, one of them was Coober Pedy! how can we describe this place... I think the Lonely Planet found the right words: an apocalyptic hell hole! it is in the middle of nowhere and really famous because it is the mining Mecca for opals. but it can get there really hot, around 50 degrees. so we spent not too much time there. next stop was Uluru or better known as the Ayres Rock. It was really impressive to stand in front of the ultimate symbol of Australia. We watched the sunset there and walked around the rock. Of course we didn’t climb on the Uluru, because it is still a holy place for the aborigines. even if some of us (it was max, again =)) wanted to go anyways. but luckily the climbing track was closed because it was too hot. the next day we visited the Olgas and the walking tracks there were as well closed because it was over 42 degrees. but we didn’t care and did the track anyways... and it was soooo hot. but the view was stunning and it was so awesome to walk through this bizarre and dominant rocks.

after we got back from Uluru and the Olgas we arrived in Alice Springs and we did some cool stuff there: Manu visited the Ghan Museum and Daniel, Max and me went to the reptile centre where we could touch lizards (one of them shit on me, very funny =)) and hold snakes there! and yes, Daniel and me did it!!! I was close to cry and it was disgusting but we are really proud that we did it!

after Alice Springs we wanted to go as soon as possible to Darwin, because we had definitely enough from the outback! so we just kept on driving the last 1500 km of our road trip. we stopt at some interesting bars like in Daly Waters or Tennant Creek and had a funny night in Katherine, where we visited the Katherine Gorge National Park (but everything was closed because of the wet season).

From Katherine it was not far to Darwin and so we arrived after 12 days in our new home town! it was raining like crazy, but it doesn’t matter: we really felt like "coming home" finally...

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