Today marks the first time that I leave a city without the intention of ever returning. Like many travellers before me and no doubt countless to come, we head for the bright city lights of Brisbane with the hope of reviving our bank balances during the eternal traveller cycle of either waiting to start our farming with eager anticipation or thankfully escaping the fields after 88 days.
I loosely fit into the second category and will be leaving Brisbane with better savings (though this is somewhat debatable) a tan, a great sense of creative boredom and a group of truly good friends from every corner of the globe. However don’t be one to assume that the past few months have not been enjoyable in Brisbane. The weather is warm, the people are pleasant and if you are lucky (like I have been) you find yourself in one of the few and far between artsy areas of town where someone like me can forge a home. On top of this a good hostel and a stable job meant I was quick to feel comfortable enough to endure some months with the help of a few bags of ‘goon’ along the way. Yet the creative boredom has been overpowering. I’ve felt stifled by the small opportunities that Brisbane has had to offer and long for the stimulation of a city that, in my opinion at least has more of a soul. In Brisbane you quickly risk falling into the trap of working and drinking your way through the year without having actually achieved or seen anything interesting and though it might be a nice city for a family it certainly wasn’t the city for me. What comes alongside my departure is the realisation that I might never see some of my fellow backpacking friends again. Yet as we all drift in various directions each on our own journey, and as I look forwards to restarting my Melbourne life just where I’d left it, I remain grateful to have played a small role in other people’s stories - as they have in mine. As you can see I leave the bright city lights in the rear view of a very early morning drive to the airport with very mixed feelings. Nonetheless as I sit here on the airport floor writing to you whilst finally accepting that the dream I had longed for (my return to Melbourne) is finally becoming a reality I am left with two very powerful thoughts. This unrivalled excitement at my Melbourne homecoming is something that I am yet to feel about London or England as a whole - but a topic that I will address perhaps at a later time. And secondly, deep in the pits of my stomach the recently dormant excitement that erupts only when waiting in a foreign airport has been reignited and the traveller itch has flooded back in full force. I count the days until I find myself in this bittersweet position once again in a mere 6 weeks.
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Tamara DavisonNepal, China, Malaysia, Australia, Argentina. Archives
November 2017
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