The Guest Who Never Left

It’s strange; staying in a hostel for a long period of time. I have been here for almost four weeks, and now that I’m soon to leave for Sydney, I have truely settled in. I know how to fix the Wifi, the staff by their first names and for how long they will serve pancakes. People come and go, and I tell them hello and goodbye.

My breakfast these days.

Me and the other wildlife volunteers occupy four of the six beds in our room. Until now we have had a Canadian, an Australian, a girl from the Netherlands, one from Hong Kong and right now we have one German and one from Belgium. I have talked to them all, known their names, their greatest adventures, but as I’m sitting here, in the top bunk closest to the window, I can’t remember anymore. They all came and went so fast, like a big wave that is important in the moment it is about to hit, but forgotten when the next one comes into sight.

A swim anyone? It’s 34 degrees.

It’s funny, room 113 is the only room in the entire hostel where six (nearly) strangers eat dinner together. It’s a routine for us now, it would be too expensive to go out to eat every night, so the us volunteers make dinner together. Occasionally we invite  the people currently staying with us to join. The Chinese woman’s last night we made Tikka Masala, and so the rest of the guests turned their heads as one Norwegian, four Danish, and one Chinese pushed two tables together and enjoyed Indian food. And cake afterwards, because what is a goodbye without cake?

Simple ingredients put together to make good memories.

As I’m starting to mentally prepare myself for moving on from Cairns, to Sydney, I’m both glad and sad. I will miss my new friends, the animals, and the way it is socially acceptable to talk to anyone – at any time. Like that elderly lady at lunch, the one that has lived out in the bush for several years because she became allergic to a chemical we use in most of our products. Like the two Korean girls coming back from a tour, that said I have nice skin. Like the guy at the vending machine, whom I shared my pringles with after explaining that it has been broken for two weeks. I don’t think I will remember these people in a couple of years, but I will remember how they made me feel, and when everything is said and done, that is what matters.

Cairns ❤