Some Solo Travel Blues

As foreshadowed last week, I moved to a hostel in the city on Tuesday.  Although it's only about 15 minutes away from where I was staying, it feels like a whole new experience.  Heads up - I wrote this at two different parts of the week so the mood may change a bit here and there.

The first day I checked in and got some food at the store.  When I got back to the hostel, I didn't really know what to do.  I was sitting outside on the balcony and got a little too caught up in my head.  I've stayed in hostels a fair amount but this time is a bit different.  The hostel is essentially my home for now.  This doesn't happen often whilst traveling but I felt a wave of loneliness.  Going from a family home living with your friend to a hostel with a bunch of strangers is not the easiest transition.

Later in the day, I went on a walk around town and remembered this was sort of how I felt the day I got to Poland.  Krakow was my first solo trip and it took about a day to get over the feeling of being lonely. 

I'm not really clicking with any of the people staying here.  Everyone is nice and civil but I don't see any friendships emerging.  That and people don't stay here for long.  I've gone through 7 "roommates" and it hasn't even been a week.  I tried meeting up with some local friends to feel more social but nothing panned out.

All the other places I've stayed in hostels, I was constantly doing the tourist stuff so there was hardly any down time.  I've collectively lived in Adelaide for almost two months now and so it's kind of a "now what" sort of feeling since I've done the tourist thing.  I have nothing to do during the day besides looking for jobs which gets pretty tedious after a while. 

With not much else to do, I started looking for house shares.  I checked out three different houses.  The first was in a pretty good location and the room was big but found out there would be 7 people living there, including a newborn.  Absolutely not.  The second would have been perfect if I had a car but the bus ride is fairly long getting into town.  The third was in the city and the people living there were very friendly but I just can't commit to any longer term housing until I secure another job.  I'm looking at a fourth place today that would only be for a month which would be perfect.  It wouldn't be until January but it's much cheaper than the hostel, still close to the city, and the online pictures look nice. 

So yeah, a bit of a depressing week but rest assured, I'm doing alright overall.  It's getting better each day and I'm settling into the hostel (which is pretty nice by the way).  I got my first paycheck this week which was exciting!  I'm hoping at this point to almost completely stop using my US card and being reliant on the Australian one.  Another sign that things are getting better is while I am writing this, roommate #8 and #9 walked in from Holland and they seem very nice.

Oh yeah!  There was a pretty crazy thunder/lightning storm last week and this was the best picture I could get/I wasn't patient enough to get a better shot:

It was pitch black when this was taken.  Lightning is crazy.

That's all for now.  Bye.