I’ve been traveling a lot since I was a little kid. I’ve lived abroad. Spent my money on travels. Instead of anything else I’d save up for my next trip. You know the lifestyle. But there’s this one very special day I dreamt for a long time and to find out which day it was we have to go all the way back in year 2018.
I was 26 years old and working as a barista at a local café in Äkäslompolo, Ylläs, wondering why the hell am I living in here and doing time in a place I really needed to get away from. So during the loveliest wintertime (at the end of February), the busiest season some might say, I felt like I’ve had enough. When I left from work I went straight home and opened my laptop. I filled forms, forms and bit more forms and pressed ‘send’. Like a minute later I received an email from Australian Government and found out that my application status was granted. After reading that short email I started to count my savings, check flights and run around like crazy. The next day I told everyone at work that I’d go to Australia as soon as I have saved enough money. It was a nice thought but it took a bit more than just few weeks..
When you get your working holiday visa granted you have 365 days for your first entry to this magical land called Australia. And I stepped foot in Perth for the very first time, I’d say 361 days after getting my visa. So it took me almost a year to save enough money and for me it was around 8000 euros. And trust me, I worked my ass off to get that money. But as soon as I got into Perth I forgot I ever worked. I was on holiday. I was on holiday for months. No plans, nothing. And damn, it felt great.
I stayed in cheap hostels so that I could spend money on my everyday lattes and eating out. And to be honest I didn’t really cared about the prices. I flew to Cairns to live the dream in tropics and three months, at least 300 lattes and dinners later I realized I might need more money. Money goes but money never comes is not the best saying I’ve heard. I panicked a little and wondered what could I do… and I started to translate my CV in English and writing cover letters and everything. Few days later I hade a good pile of papers and I decided to drop my CV at least to twenty different places and hope that at least few of the places (restaurants, bars, cafés, hotels) would like to hire me. Luckily, the first place were I went was this place called The Bungalow Hotel and the manager wanted to see me in action immediately. So I was there behind the bar for an hour or so and he said that I got the job. And I started the very next day. I started to work with locals, hang out with locals, date locals, and after a while, live like locals. And I loved every second of it. I stayed there for six good months and decided to do the farm work to spend another year in Australia.
After few calls I got a job in a farm. In a banana farm. And I stayed there for 16 long weeks. And while I was done with my weeks my first year visa was also running out of time. And few days later since I got back to my everyday life away from farm and back in Cairns the covid-19 hit hard. I had a few hours time to think if I’d like to buy tickets to come to Finland. And before all flights got cancelled I found myself in one of the last flights heading to Europe. And since that I’ve been in Finland. But not a single day goes by without thinking of Australia and planning for my return. I’ll be back in tropics when the time’s right.
xx Sara