So, how was Australia?

It’s over. We’re done and gone. Our visas have expired, our accounts have been closed permanently and we’re not welcome anymore. It was our home for 2 years and suddenly we can’t go back. 

I’m sitting in a little western coffee shop in Mumbai and it feels unreal that we won’t be returning to Australia after our travels. It’s all turning to memories of a past life. How we lived in rural Victoria, working as fruit pickers, living in our van as I caught covid and had to get up to go to a public toilet in the middle of the night in -2°C while having 39°C fever. How we got scammed by a farm owner while both our van and our relationship were falling apart. How we had to go home to Finland for the summer just to have a break of it all, gather ourselves and try again. And how it all turned around after that. 

The van broke down, but our relationship persisted. The hard work, strength, endurance and patience all started to pay off. 

How we finally found great jobs and a lovely house by the sea. I remember sitting on a ferry back home from a paradise island, after snorkeling with a turtle, seeing a baby koala and visiting amazing local brewery and thinking to myself how nice it was to go back to work on Monday. I remember having a nap outside our tent in Maria Island as a wombat wondered to my feet, had a sniff and continued its journey past my pillow. I remember learning about bush medicine from a traditional owner of the land who told us smiling that we were already locals. 

I remember visiting Sydney Harbour, Mungo National Park, Cradle Mountain, the Great Ocean road, Rainbow Beach, Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef, Daintree Rainforest and many more. 

Not only everything that happened but how it affected us. I was heartbroken by the way my studies had gone and by the fact that they had made me realize I was on a wrong path. It was so devastating, I couldn’t even stay till the end and ended up graduating in a hostel in Thailand. 

Australia changed the whole way I look at careers and work-life balance. When I learned how laid-back and fun working can be and how little we have to work to support an amazing travelling lifestyle – working lost its inherent value to me. Change has become such a natural and inevitable part of our lives that we’ve learned to transition between different life stages and lifestyles smoothly and it has changed the way we look at it. We’re not changing between work and life or working and holiday – we’re living different life stages, some with jobs and others without. Our priorities, routines or mindsets don’t change, sometimes we’re just less in charge of the flow of the day.

And so, when people ask me how Australia was, lifechanging feels like an understatement.

xx