The first one in Ozz

 This was when I was living in sunny Sydney. I was there to do work experience during collage.

The first half a year I lived at a few places around Coogee. The second half of the year I lived in Coogee.

Oooww coogee…

When I just arrived I stayed with friends of my parent in Frenches forrest. A beautiful places north of Sydney. If I remember it correctly it took me nearly two hours by public transport to get to Coogee from there place. My work experience was in Coogee. So I had to look for a place nearby.

In one of my first weeks in Coogee I met some  Dutch boy’s in the bus: Simon and Martijn. They invited me to their place; Vicarstreet. I bet if you have been backpacking in Australia and you have been to Coogee, you have heard about this place. It was a apartment block just of the main street. This block was run (I don’t know if she owned it) by a lady called Sarah. A very shabby lady who could be quite frightening. There were about 36 apartments. In every apartment there where about 6/7/8 backpackers living! I’m not kidding!! They shared kitchen, bathroom and living room. Most apartments had two bedrooms, some had three. They, the backpackers, slept together in the bedrooms on mattresses. I’ve heard quite a few complains about bedbugs….

Imagine the world of a backpacker. Coming to Sydney eagerly looking for work or working. After a day’s work they would come home to THE Vicarstreet. Mention the backpackers weren’t the only one’s living in the area.  It was also full of cockroaches. They loooooved the place!

Anyway…so did I. I have met a lot of really,really nice people there (even though I didn’t live there). Some I’m still in contact with.

Remember my holiday blog? Remember I mentioned all the fish in the Ozzy-sea? Well that’s what this story is a little bit about.

I met a boy. I will remember his name in a minute…. I met him in one of the apartments in Vicarstreet. He had just arrived in Australia. He knew somebody in the apartment where the Dutch boy’s where living. So we all went out for a drink. After a few day’s we did again.

Maybe you can imagine that Vicarstreet was a little, well actually not a little, like a small town. We all kept bumping in to each other on the street, in the supermarket and at the popular Coogee beer garden around the corner.

So did I with Keith. He was so cute! Amazingly friendly. Wanted to be a fireman. Even now, when I look at the pictures I think: dam, he was handsome!

We got a long pretty well and started hanging out quite a lot and started dating. I would meet him after work and we would have dinner together and meet others for drinks in the beer garden. It was a great time.

We had a great time but…. he was a little bit full-on and I was young and not ready for anything serious. I remember telling myself: he’s here to travel, he isn’t gonna stay, so don’t get yourself all wound up.

He then told me that he was thinking of staying in Sydney to stay with me. I think that was the moment when I snapped. When I though: ooow my! Then is has to work out, because he is going to leave all his adventure travelling plans behind to stay with me. Holy crab! Let’s…..not do that!

On my birthday he took me to the Sydney Zoo and we had a lovelly day. In the weekend I had a party with all my housemates (a memorable party) and our friends. Off course Keith was there too.

From my point of view he was within 1 meter of me the whole time. I felt like I couldn’t move. So I started kicking. When I was drunk I told him off and I took of with my housemates. We were going for a night swim in the ocean. Because we were in Australia it was December and it was summer!

I guess that was the start of the end of Keith.

A few weeks after that I went on holiday with his group of friends and him. That was kind of awkward. Some moments I still liked him and he still liked me. I remember when we went out one night he told a stranger (a boy I had been flirting with all night) that I was his girlfriend. That really pissed me off! That was the definite end. And the definite, definite end was when he left Coogee.

It would be interesting to know what he ended up doing and seeing in Australia and if he became the fireman he wanted to be (like his brother, who was married with…a Dutch woman).

As mentioned Australia was a time when I spotted a lot of fish in the sea. So there will be more Australia story’s.

For now…hope you like reading this experience.