My time in Australia was coming to an end, so I had to start saying goodbye to people.
The first one was Bron. We caught up in the city on Easter monday over a coffee.
At dancing the following day a few people said goodbye who wouldn’t be there on my last day, the Thursday.
On Wednesday I had invited over 30 people to Muttis Restaurant in Carlton for a farewell dinner. Of the 24 people I had expected from the feedback I had gotten about 18 turned up. Some had to cancel in the last minute, some got the date wrong. Luckily a few people showed up where I wasn’t sure if they would. In the end I had a good 20 people to celebrate my farewell with. It was a very nice evening with great food, drinks and company.
On Thursday it was time to say goodbye to everyone at dancing. After the social Paula, Angela, Nicole and I went over to the Firehouse to have a hot drink and some sweets together. More goodbys.
Friday night the Brodies had invited me for dinner at a vietnamese restaurant in Richmond, Loi Loi. The Brodies have been tutoring the 2 girls of the family who runs that place for ages. In return they looked after us really well. Carole had also invited her dad+stepmum, her cousin from the UK who was flying back the next morning and her 2 friends. The same 3 girls that were over at the Brodies nearly 2 weeks before.
It was a feast! We got so many different things for starters and mains that no wishes were left unfulfilled. For dessert we got a big plate of fruit (including lychees) and Garry ordered a “deepfried icecream” for me because I’ve never had that before. It was a big scoop of deep frozen icecream, surrounded by a sweet skin of cocunut bits, and the whole thing was fried in the deep fryer. It was then served and eaten with maple sirup on top.
Very sweet, but absolutely delicious! It is probably obvious that I felt as round as a ball after that 😉
Saturday night Garry and I went to the football again to see St. Kilda playing. Luckily they won, just like the previous week where we had also been at Etihad Stadium. 3 times I’ve seen St. Kilda live during this stay, and each time they have won 🙂 no surprise they’re my favourite team!
Sunday morning, the Whitsunday Crew caught up one last time to have breakfast at Knox (Bar Bosh). In case you don’t remember or simply don’t know, I originally met Sam and Priscilla in Airlie Beach, Queensland, where I sailed around the Whitsunday Islands.
In the afternoon I packed all my stuff before Paula picked me up. We visited Jess and Deanne (more goodbys) at their new place in Brunswick, then had some dinner in Fitzroy before we went to the Night Cat one last time. When Paula dropped me back home it was one of the last goodbys I had to get through, only the Brodies were left.
Erin was still up and I said goodbye to her. The next morning I had to get up really early, said goodbye to Carole and then Garry drove me to the airport. A quick goodbye at the dropoff zone and I was alone. I checked in, went through security, then through passport control. I was now officially out of Australia, and that was hard to bear. I walked through the massive duty free zone, past the lounge, through another duty free zone and finally sat down at the gate. I had to wait for an hour to board the plane and off I went. The hardest goodbye of all, because it is the accumulation of many, many goodbyes: Goodbye Australia.
It was an amazing time and it is hard to leave all these great people behind. I sincerely hope to see at least some of them over the next years at home in Germany. But only time can tell…