Echuca

Despite how much everyone moaned about being in Echuca, It is a really nice place and I am definately glad I got to spend time there, despite havig faced floods beforehand!.

Echuca is about 2 hours north of Melbourne and is a small traditonal town which reminded me of a western with its old fashioned buildings. It was acutally extremely close to the bush fires, which meant some days we saw the thick smoke line the horizon. The hostel, despite being very basic, did actually become a sort of home, manly because I made lots of friends there and developed a routine after two months of being there.

I shared a room with 5 other girls, all of whom I got on really well. It was so cool because there was me, an English girl, a girl from Hong Kong, Japan, Estonia and Taiwan, I don't think you can get more of a mix of people. I also had the pleasure of spending a good 6 weeks with Holly and Oli which was awesome. Me and Holly actually felt like we were back at uni again when we spent days drinking tea from the local bakery, and when we went shopping down the one street of shops! It was so much fun! We also had the best job ever!NOT. Me Holly and Oli worked on an Orchard 5 days a week from 7.30-4, Holly and I packed either pears, plums or apples everyday, whilst Oli lifted boxes! The days went really quickly though despite being very boring, as the farmer stopped us three times a day and fed us cake! We also used to throw plums at eachother, and dreampt up the most random conversations to help pass the time!

I also managed to get a job in the local bar that is The Shamrock Hotel! It was an Irish bar, a Bistro, a nightclub (kinda) and a bottleshop all in one! I found it realy hard picking up the lingo (I will list some in a minute) as well as understanding everyones accents, but I got there in the end.

So some things I picked up:

They keep their glasses in the fridge for starters.

They drink pots, not pints (half pint glasses)

they greet eachother by saying 'How you going?'

or 'Whats the go?'

They call bottles of beer or anything that comes in a bottle a 'stubbie'

and there are fights every night, this did really surprise me!

Apart from working most of the time was spent chilling at the hostel, or in the pub. Holly and I even ventured to a local ranch to do a bit of horse riding, and eve got to pet puppies and goats. The best moment was when she held a chicken though and it flapped its wings at her for ages, quite a funny moment!

Anyway, I had great time in Echuca, because of the people I met and because it gave me a chance to see what life is like in a small Aussie town, and to be honest its pretty similar to home, except th weather is so much better!