Hit the road Jess, the Sydney diaries.

I arrived in Sydney on Sunday night and all but immediately remembered why I'm far more of a city girl than anything else. There is public transport here, things were open after 10pm on a Sunday, and no one screamed at me in the street as I walked past them. 

It was almost relaxing. 

I KO-ed like a mother bitch in my hostel bed once I'd found my home for the next few days and woke up to free breakfast and coffee. Coffee that I would immediately chase with a Starbucks iced americano once I was reunited with the bitter Seattle nectar from which I have been rudely separated from for the past 2 years. I know it's bad coffee, but it was my bad coffee.  

Wondering around the city, I found myself returning to the area I used to live in and went balls deep into as many book and art stores as I could find. We have one book shop in Darwin city that's only marginally bigger than my apartment, and there are no art shops in sight. 

Armed with 4 books I had intended to purchase alongside the one I was actually looking for, I went to the first gallery I had been to, possibly since I arrived in Australia. I take an obnoxiously long time looking around galleries, but this one I didn't spend that long in. Not because I wanted to leave, but because I wanted to write. I wanted to draw. I wanted to carry on walking around, finally happy to feel like myself again. 

I don't know if it's the being out of Darwin, being in a city or engaging in my favourite activity, which is having absolutely nothing other than the bare essentials of what I need to survive, but I haven't felt this happy since I spent those two nights with the sailor. I feel excited about the things around me and content to keep moving without a solid plan. My itinerary for the following month is in flux at the moment, and I'm waiting on several emails to see if I can stick to plan A. When I was in Darwin, this upset me; I didn't like not knowing what was going on, but now I have plenty of other options. As long as I have my meds, passport and toothbrush and arrive in Toronto at some point over the next three weeks, I don't care how it happens. 

Two hideous plays, one day of alcohol consumption and a bunk mate that leaves her shit all over the floor aside, I've had a wonderful few days in Sydney. Next up is Vegas and being reunited with my friend for the first time since 2018. I've just got to hit a two and a half hour walking tour first. 

Promised Mumma I'd make an effort to see the sights this time around. 

Stay safe on the road

J