Hey all,
It's been a long time between drinks....and emails.
I'm back in dear old Melbourne now...have been for about 2 weeks now - and that's scary enough in itself, just how quickly that time has gone by. I'd been looking forward to this for a while - once I'd gotten used to the idea of going home that is, but now that i'm here, i'm in a very weird head-space. More on that in a mo.
I've been waaaaay too busy over the past 6 weeks of travelling around the United States to even think about writing this blog, let alone actually put fingers to keyboard. But it was sensational! I had an absolute blast tripping all over California, Arizona and Nevada, spending time with friends and lobbing up on strangers' doorstops to crash on thier couch (those couchsurfing/globalfreeloader websites are a budget travellers dream come true!)
So my next task now, aside from the usual settling down stuff - job/house hunting and getting a local life again - is to put those 6 weeks worth of experiences down on paper, or...up on screen. This will take time. I've been trying to get myself in the 'zone' to do it since i've been back, but with so much else going on, i haven't really felt like it to be honest. But now I kinda do.
It has been very weird to be back here. Very surreal to one day be struttin' 'round San Francisco, U S of A, and the next day to be thrust into the boring, soulless, and bleary Northern suburbs of Melbourne, stuck in the old teenage bedroom of my parents house.
The first two days I didn't leave the house. Refused to go outside. Not because of jetlag or anything like that. I just didn't want to face it. I knew that the moment I walked outside and wandered around suburban Thomastown would be the moment that made it all real. And then when i did, it was, but real in a virtual reality kind of way....like, I recognise these streets and houses, but its like i'm in a hyper-real dream state, like i'm stuck in a computer/video game of my life or something. Very strange I know, but that's how it felt, and it felt like that for another 2 or 3 days after that. I couldn't even sleep in my old bed for about 6 nights!, coz my room was so absolutely full of crap that i'd accumulated over the past 2+ years - on top of the pigsty condition i'd left it in - I had to sleep in my sisters old bedroom!! Even now, 2 weeks down the track, I still feel very, very Out Of Place.
Anyway, keep yer eyes peeled over the coming weeks to intermittent instalments of my USA wanderings.
Til then, keep it real.
Tony
