Bundaberg

Well what can I say about Bundaberg there is so much! My first day I arrived I was so pleased to be there, it was the best looking hostel I had seen so far, and they were very organized for work! It did used to be a prison though and there were cameras everywhere but still I really liked it. I booked into my room, a six dorm with king sized single beds it was empty, everybody was out, but I soon met my room mate Laura. She was from England too. As I was talking to her we realized that her friend at the hostel, was also from my home town Stevenage, it was so strange and I couldn't wait to meet her to see if I recognized her. I didn't know her, but I knew were she lived and one of my friends lived close by, so I mentioned her and it turned out we shared the same friend from little old Stevenage, Sam!
Laura took me out and showed me around Bundaberg the second day, and told me that the locals didn't appreciate us backpackers very much, and they were all a little strange. The town was not so nice, but at least I knew where everything was and I could go and buy some cheap clothes for work. We also went shopping at IGA the cheapest food store around, just to get some basics so could get things together. Laura also introduced me to Dereck, a really nice Canadian guy, the only thing was we only ever had one full conversation and then we couldn't find anything to say after that, just general chit chat. Laura left after a couple of days, and I was a little bit of a larry, but it was my own fault as I didn't put myself out there and start up any conversations. One night I noticed I was on standby on the working list, so I asked some boys, does this mean I have to work if I am called or do I have the choice as I have no lunch, and need some old clothes. One of them offered to make me up some food for my lunch which was very nice and I managed to find some clothes. The guy's name was Rick, he really took me under his wing, and from then on we were friends, and I was friends with all his friends soon after (Josh, Tom, Ross and Adam).
My first day at work I was up at 4.30am in the morning and ready to go, we got outside and everyone jumped onto the big bus in all their work clothes, but the bus didn't start, half of us backpackers who really just want to sleep had to get off the bus and push! It took us around 20mins to get there, I had never seen crops in real life, they were much bigger than I had imagined. With the cold air of the morning on us and a little bit of daytime coming through, we all put on our gloves and grabbed our buckets ready to start picking Zuccini (courgets), I was actually very excited to start, until I had started. After 10mins of bending over to pick them my back was in agony with a weird sensation of being numb at the same time. We were told we would earn $2.50 per bin that we had filled, and after one hour, with a little help from one of the other workers emptying my bins for me, I managed to fill three. So in one hour I had earned $7.50 before tax. I decided sod this my back is worth a lot more, and went to stand with a couple of Asian girls who were also going home, the farmer was ok he said "no drama", and I spoke to my hostel manager about the work on the way back to the hostel.My manager was not so happy as he said the farmers can always use another hostel if people keep walking off the job! I said to him I was not aware how hard it would be on my back and didn't want to spoil his business by walking away from farmers so maybe packing was better for me if available. He was ok with me for some reason but not the Asian girls! I had work packing a couple of days later. I was in a tomato factory and building the boxes they go into for five hours, it was very boring but different!
We would never do much at the hostel unless we were working, as the town was not very nice at all. I had a lot of good nights there though. One night I went down to the skater park with the guys, and because no one had a mp3 with speakers, they took a big stereo. I had to stand back for a while to laugh as they were all strutting down the road ahead of me to the doors with their skateboards in hand. I had a go at skating but the best I could do was go in a straight line until I fell off, or sit down on it and roll down the ramps! All the guys were so nice to me and looked out for me. Except Ross, he bad new in the time that I knew him and he would confide in me a lot, I really felt I took care of him as he was only young as well.
In the mornings the manager of the hostel would always laugh at me because he knew I was not a morning person and we would have a little banter. I did like to see if anyone had been late though, because at cellblock if you were late out of bed Michael a funny German guy who worked their would come into the room and electrocute you with a cattle prod. Not many people were ever late lol! Michael was always teasing people about the prod and always throwing people in the pool. I think in one month I must have seen 20 people go in head first including myself twice, once with my mobile in pocket!
There were so many people at the hostel, I would talk to everyone and so did most people, but were a couple of big groups traveling together. There was the French lot, very nice, I mostly spoke to Leandro as from the beginning he would always pull funny faces at me and he say pou pou pou, he was a crazy French guy but he made me laugh. Then there was the Irish group also really nice lot, I mostly spoke to Martina as I worked with her for four days packing sweetcorn and it was really boring so we would play mind games to keep our brains switched on. I have seen the Irish and French have a drinking competition and believe it or not the French won by far. They had some really funny games they made up (tomato and cucumber) I also worked with Kylie a girl from wales and Elz she was from somewhere near Devon all four of us packed corn together we were a team! Elz was also my room mate along with macca who I called Maggot and Mathew another very funny French guy, we would always talk in our room to and it was so funny two English one Irish on French and a Korean girl all trying to talk to one another sometimes it was hysterical.
I also met a guy from Leeds that I really got to know, and he introduced my to his friends and his friends girlfriend, Anica was her name, and I am so glad I met her. She was from Sweden, and she was just a very beautiful person. She was older than me but we connected as friends and for me she was something else, I a m not sure what, but special. One morning I was not feeling so good, and I had slept until 2pm, because Anica was worried she got someone to let her into my room and then woke me in the nicest way, and we had a night i will remember for ever in the magic garden, we laughed so hard for so long it hurt. Anica introduced me to the Irish brothers too William and James. I never spoke to William much because at first I couldn't understand him, but James and me would chat a fair bit, he was always making jokes!
We had a pimp and ho night at the hostel too, which was a laugh, I was drinking the good ol Bundaberg Rum, and my outfit was as a police officers, as I had nothing else. It was Nats uniform she had to wear behind the bar sometimes as the hostel it was called cellblock after all. Everybody's outfits were great, all come together from old second hand store things. Every weekend people were drinking in the hostel and sometimes in the week. Or there was one club called central I went to a couple of times, it was ok, me and elz had a really great dancing night there. If we wasn't doing that it was just a case of sitting around the pool, or the outside tables by the bar, or even crashing out in the tv room.
The morning that I left TO BE CONTINUED......