Mildura

My time in Mildura absolutely blew my mind. Before arriving I was already considering staying two nights, but that very quickly turned into three, and even then, I didn't feel ready to leave. In the end, it took the toss of a coin to get me back on my bike, and whilst I was disappointed (curse tails!), it was probably for the best, because otherwise I could very easily still be there...

Mildura itself is a nice enough town, but when cycling away from it, the tear in my eye (wah!) was reserved for my AMAZING hosts: aka The Wolf Pack (think The Hangover, but then change the group of 4 guys on a bucks night, to 5 female med students, and double the laughs). Thank you CouchSurfing!

BIG love goes out to the VP (not a typo), who from the get-go, made me feel like just another house mate who had always been there (just a male, non-med student one). It got to the point where, a mere 24 hours after we met, I had forgotten that I hadn't always been there... “and what's this bike doing here anyway?”

I was fortunate enough to arrive on a Friday afternoon when the girls all had a free weekend ahead of them, and was initiated with coffee and the quiz... “bingalingaling!” I was immediately thinking that I must have done something right along the way to end up here.

I can't give the experience justice through my words on here, so instead, I'll just share a few memories that I feel thankful for (but this is by no means an exhaustive list): the farmers market breakfast; sand dunes at sunset; licking the most bitter thing I've ever tasted (Hatty: “Woah! That's really bitter. I mean, really really bitter!!!” Me: “Can I taste? WOAH! That's about 10 times more bitter than I expected! What do you think it is? Watermelon?” haha); quiz & coffee sessions (middle seat consequences for sissy drinkers); backgammon; introduction to The L Word (that's lee, of course); beers & wine at the pub (Georgie: “it's not …. if they're drunk”); stunned mullets (or attempts); best breakfast EVER the next morning (twice! Thanks Hatty); tangled rug hugs, my dread (still very healthy :p ); general star gazing & competitive constellation spotting; playing cards; massages; my (re)cycle(d) socks (so sweeeet); awesome butter chicken dinner including naan from scratch (happiness); actually, meal times in general!; banana cake (“why don't we just make a banana cake bowl, and fill it with icing!?” bahahaha!); my packed nutella :p; and most importantly, all the lazy rug lying laughter. BIG love!

Thinking of it now, I'm perhaps a little bit nostalgic that the social highlight of my trip is most likely behind me, and somewhat jealous that the laughs continue in the house without me, but let's face it, it was already getting too comfortable, and then it's just not ….! Hahahaha.

Swan Hill what?

Apologies for those reading this and not understanding big chunks. The important thing to know is that my time in Mildura was...well... it was ok.

Some photos :)