the first days

The journey towards Australia was pretty boring. 11 hours flight from Schiphol to Singapore in a B777-200 (a lot of legroom) followed by a 16 hours stop over in Singapore. I've hooked up with Adriaan, a Dutch guy heading for Christchurch (NZ) who had a 14h stop over. We ended up booking a room in the Transit Hotel, where we slept 5 hours before we got into the city. 26nd of October is a public holiday in Singapore, so a lot of people on the streets! At 21:00 my flight to Melbourne left Singapore. This time it was the biggest plane in the world, the A380, but I do not recommend it if you're tall. You will not have much legroom on that plane ! Result: a red eye flight without sleep... and that's absolutely not recommended. So here we are ... in Melbourne. About 2 days without decent sleep. It hurts ! I arrived at the hostel on Saturday morning around 11:00 o'clock. Paul, the manager, immediately gave me some very good tips about getting a job here in Australia. Seems I have to apply for an ABN (Australian Business Number), so I can work as a self-employed contractor in IT. According to other guests I shouldn't have a problem finding me an IT job. And they also told me IT jobs are pretty good paid... The majority of guests in the Collingwood Backpackers are so called long-term guests. They all staying here for a longer period while working. I really hope to become one of them too :) The hostel is not really that big. About 40 guests, and they're pretty close. The day I arrived there was a party celebrating a birthday and the leaving of 2 guests. I did not party along... I really couldn't, I just needed my sleep. So I went to bed early at 23:00. After 10 hours of sleep I'm becoming human again, but we're not there yet. Tomorrow all will be okay, I guess.  Monday will also be the day to fix my administrative situation. I need to get me an Australian mobile phone number, opening a bank account, apply for the necessary Tax File Number and the ABN. I'm really curious how this will evolve... Stay tuned for more news soon !

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