CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

February 7 to February 8, 2023 — When I arrived back in Melbourne, high off the awesomeness of my Great Ocean Road tour, it was 7:30pm. I had two hours to kill until I got on the Greyhound bus that would take me on an overnight journey to Sydney.

My plan was to head to McDonalds for dinner. I hadn’t been since I started travelling and, although it had just barely been two weeks, I decided to have a treat. The other part of my plan was to stop by one of the souvenir shops I’d seen in Melbourne and pick up a postcard to remember the city by, as I’ve decided to try and do everywhere I go. Unluckily, the shops were closed and I couldn’t get a Melbourne postcard. I was, however, able to get several cards when I was on the Great Ocean Road, so those will serve as a Melbourne memento as well.

McDonalds in Australia, thankfully, has my favourite meal — chicken McNuggets. I ordered a meal with fries and a chocolate shake — one of my favourite splurges — and sat and ate and tried to while away the hours a bit.

Unfortunately, when I finished eating, it was only just past 8:00pm. I checked directions to the bus terminal on my phone, but wound up unable to find the entrance to the train station that I was supposed to take to get the bus. I decided to walk rather than get even more frustrated trying to find the train station. It was actually nice, walking as the sun faded from the sky and seeing a little bit different area of Melbourne than I’d seen while I was there.

I made it to the bus station with plenty of time to spare and planned to do some work on the blog, but ended up reading on my phone for a while as I waited for the bus. I loved seeing everyone else waiting (for the same bus, as it turned out) with their backpacks, as the bulk of them appeared to be backpacking just like me.

I had to be at the station at 9:40pm anyway for boarding, so I was only waiting for about an hour. Our bus pulled into the bay and then opened up the doors and we all lined up to get inside. I put my 40L bag in the bottom of the bus and boarded with my little bag of essentials. I sat in seat 5A. My seat mate was really nice; she was from Germany and taking a little gap trip before starting school. She’d started her journey in New Zealand and was spending a few days in Sydney before heading back to Geelong, where she has relatives. She had also just come back from a self-guided trip on the Great Ocean Road with people she’d met. We spent a while chatting before we both tucked in for some sleep.

I read for a while before drifting off and getting a fairly solid hour of sleep. I dozed for the next hour, until we stopped at a service station in Barnawartha. Everyone got off the bus and stretched their legs. I was surprised at the size of the service station — it was huge! It had a convenience store and a full fast-service restaurant, Hungry Jack’s. It even had a truckers’ lounge, which I found really neat.

We got back on the bus and settled back in. One of my favourite parts about taking the Greyhound was that I could recline so much more in my seat, which helped reduce neck cricks and helped me sleep a little better. I still did only manage about hour-long stretches of sleep as we made our way toward Canberra.

We stopped for about half an hour in Canberra, the capital of Australia (which, you might remember, was only built because neither Sydney nor Melbourne could agree who should be the capital of the country). From what I could see out the window, it really is quite a built-up city and it would be interesting to see on a return trip to Australia. I didn’t bother getting off the bus and when we got moving again, I worked on the blog and on Instagram for a while because I was starting to feel so awake. It was just after 7:00am. After about a half hour, though, I was tired and drifting again. The bus was cold again because we’d switched drivers for the third time and he’d turned the A/C cooler. I bundled up in my sweater and tucked my coat against my lap, leaned back in my seat, and tried to sleep. Incredibly, it worked! I was out like a light for the last couple hours, until we were closing in on the airport stops.

The bus stopped at the Sydney Airport before continuing on to Central Station. At 10:45am, I was finally in Sydney proper, with the sun on my shoulders and a heat to the air that I’d been missing.

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