a little flashback

Flying is not the greatest fun for me. Upset stomach, headache, butterflies in my stomach; and yet I always look forward to landing in a different place on this planet. I feel the curiosity boiling inside me, the heartbeats to discover different new things.

In between, it's half past 5 in the morning in Tropical North Wonderland and I sit with my tired eyes, my morning strong black tea and 'it's the end of the world as we know it' in my cozy window seat.

Gracefully, the fast virgin, aka Virgin Australia, makes its way through the bizarre cloud formations towards the south. Below me lies the purple sea and Trinity Bay surrounded by rainforest-covered hills that move past me like a shadow play in the darkest green. On the horizon, you can see the sun climbing over the edge of the white-gray monsters, not as effortlessly as in the last few days. Pink, red, orange, yellow. I am blown away by the sight of Mother Nature and float in thoughts about the coming days until suddenly a damp and cool fingertip taps on my shoulder and brings me back to the reality of the plane floor.

A short moment later I notice my Asian neighbor sitting next to me, who points me to the flight attendant who wants to get rid of her snack packages. I smile and accept gratefully while ordering a can of milk for my tea. Unfortunately, this did not draw the Asian looks away. Milk in tea, yes, that seemed like a pretty perverse version of my favorite hot drink to me four months ago.

And then suddenly it's there, this feeling, this 'I'm leaving a place that I have come to love and won't see again anytime soon' feeling, the place where I had milk tea for the first time, where I saw so many beautiful landscapes and where I met the warmest people, my starting point on Terra Australis, my home for the past four and a half months, my Tropical North Wonderland.

One hour west of Cairns, in the Tablelands, I lived and worked as an au pair, and now it was time to say 'See ya later, Alligator. In a while crocodile!'