Halloween & our travel planning - Week 44

Monday, 29.10.2018

On Monday, I worked all day.

Tuesday, 30.10.2018

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to work a lot as well.

Wednesday, 31.10.2018

Halloween was approaching. Since I had a day off today, Halloween was the main focus. Marie, Karen, and I arranged to meet Karen's acquaintances in the late afternoon. These acquaintances have two children who go trick-or-treating with their friends. We joined them. After spending the whole morning trying to find theater makeup (which was more difficult than expected, many stores in our area do not sell theater makeup or similar products) and then applying the makeup appropriately, we took the train across the city. The train ride was quite amusing and also very uncomfortable. Since we traveled for a total of one hour and met the children quite early, we were the only ones already in Halloween costumes. It was a bit uncomfortable to attract all the stares, but luckily there were three of us. When we arrived at the family's house, the area was already lovingly decorated. We set off with what felt like 10 children and 4 parents. Everyone was dressed in elaborate and crazy costumes. Before even walking down the street, masses of children with parents in costumes were coming towards us. It was impressive to see how the parents also celebrated Halloween. Many neighbors had decorated their entire house as a kind of horror house. Blood was sticking to the windows, R.I.P. signs were scattered in the garden, and the residents were mostly sitting on their terraces, waiting for children to come onto their property so they could greet them in a spooky way. It was a completely different experience. It was new for all of us that the parents also joined in the craziness. After about an hour, the children's bags were already full and it was time to go home. We also headed home and ended the evening with a horror movie.

Thursday, 01.11.2018

Ben and I both had the day off on Thursday. So we took care of our further travel planning. We can say that we were very successful. In the afternoon, we went to Sta Travel in our area. They advised us very well and it was also a bit cheaper to book through Sta Travel in Australia than through Sta Travel in Germany (we had always had them send us offers). So we booked our trip right away. We will fly to Cairns at the end of November and explore the East Coast from Cairns to Sydney by Greyhound bus. We chose to fly to Cairns because it does not coincide with the upcoming rainy season. We debated for a long time whether or not to skip Canberra because of that, but almost everyone recommended flying to Cairns. We'll see. Ben and I are really looking forward to the trip. Although Melbourne and especially our work are also really nice. So we are enjoying November in Melbourne and then finally starting our travel for our work and travel stay.

Friday, 02.11.2018

In the morning, Ben and I continued planning our trip. We looked at accommodations and already reserved one for Cairns. Then Ben showed a good friend from Hanover around Melbourne. During that time, the girls had a nice afternoon together. I was supposed to work from 5 pm to 10 pm on Friday, but due to poor weather, the restaurant was really empty. After only 2.5 hours, I had the rest of the evening off and went to eat in St. Kilda. Afterwards, we all spent the evening together.

Saturday, 03.11.2018

On Saturday, I was also supposed to work from 11 am to 9 pm, but again the weather was not very good, so not many people were at the beach and the restaurant. My shift was also reduced to 3.5 hours in the evening. In the afternoon, Karen and I had time to do a little interval training. Afterwards, we had a nice chat with Marie. Ben worked in the afternoon.

Sunday, 04.11.2018

On Sunday, Ben and I had another day of work.

The weeks are flying by so quickly at the moment. I have been on the road for over 3 months. All of us - Karen, Marie, Ben, and I - feel so comfortable in our current accommodation that we could probably spend a few more months here. However, that is not the point. But at the moment, things are going really well, especially for Ben and me. We work in such a nice environment. Everyone is very funny and friendly. Especially with my coworkers, it already feels like we have known each other forever. It's really nice.