Notebook of a Nomad

1/12/25 Melbourne

After a few travel hiccups, I arrived in Melbourne and met up with Paul. Our tour guide, Nico, picked us up from the hotel and highlighted some cool street art on our way to a couple different spots to grab some food and cocktails/beers.

Nico graduated university in his home country Peru. After graduation he started backpacking in Europe and loved it. He continued living as a nomad until COVID hit and ended his travels, forcing him to settle where he was in Australia.

Nico works as a tour guide and surf instructor. He is turning 30 soon and expressed some concern about not having a traditional career. His friends are jealous of his lifestyle and his adventures but he worries about not having a career and the stability that comes with it. Life is always greener on the other side. Nico has lived an incredible life and I don’t think he’d change it but there is a cloud uncertainty regarding his future. 

I told Nico that I am trying to live a life similar to the life he lived for the past 7 years. I wasn’t brave enough to live that life before my accident. I was worried about economic stability and building a career and starting a family. Now I’m shifting to a mindset where I live more in the moment. I spent 35 years working hard and preparing for the future. Now I think it’s time to start enjoying myself. And I think that’s probably warranted after a few difficult years. Those struggles provided me with a degree of wealth and I think it’s ok to take advantage of the opportunity that wealth provides.

1/13/25 Phillip Island

My travel agent signed us up for a  group tour to drive us from Melbourne to Phillip Island. We walked over a mile to our pickup point, the Adina Hotel. Since I didn’t see any vans I busted out the itinerary and doubled checked the pickup instructions. Turns out we were at the wrong Adina Hotel. The Adina we were looking for was only a block away from our hotel. Of course now timing was short so we had to call an uber to get us there and call our the tour company to let them know that we’d be a few minutes late. I was clearly having a rough morning and when I checked the directions on the map app I was still looking at walking directions. It turns out that driving is faster than walking so we made our tour van on time.

To break up the two hour drive to Phillip Island we went to a zoo. It was the third Australian zoo of my trip and I was definitely zoo’ed out. This zoo was the least impressive.

Another stop along the way was a cafe. I ordered a cookie. And it was terrible. At the table Paul told me that Australians haven’t figured out that cookies can be soft and delicious.  

The day was feeling like it might be a complete bust. A lot was riding on this penguin experience. Thankfully, it delivered. Watching over a thousand penguins come out of the water and march onto the beach in order to get back to their nests that were as far as 2 km away was a really cool experience. 

Right before getting to the beach, we saw a kangaroo, complete with Joey in her pouch.

1/14/25 – Australian Open

Paul was super excited to check out the Australian Open (AO). He watches tennis somewhat regularly and had never gone to the AO. I told Paul that I bought the tickets but when the sale was rejected because the tickets could only be purchased in Australia I had to come clean and have him buy the tickets. I told Paul that I would cover everything else and he could cover the tickets to the AO but I told him to get high quality tickets.

The tickets he bought were in the Riverside Social Club which sounded upscale. I assumed it was a suite of some kind. When we got into the event we asked an usher where the Riverside Social Club was and he had no idea. He was very confused which made us very confused. So we walked to another usher in another section and she didn’t know what we were talking about either.

Thankfully another fan overheard and told us the Riverside Social Club was located outside of the arena. Turns out it was more of a pregame spot. That would’ve been nice to know considering me and Paul had just spent the past two hours searching for a spot to sit and paying high prices for our beers. I wanted to call it a loss but Paul wanted to at least see what he paid for so we watched one game and left to check out the social club. It was a really nice spot and would’ve been perfect for our two hour wait.

After we had a cocktail in the social club, we went back to our seats and watched the match. It was between Botic Van De Zandschulp and Balex De Minaur, an Australian ranked 8th in the tournament. The Australian crowd loved their boy Balex and made sure to let him know that. I wasn’t familiar with the names but why would I be? Tennis is a very international sport. About an hour into the match I realized that his name was Alex and not Balex. What I thought was a B was actually an 8, his ranking in the tournament. Whoops! That explained all the “We love you, Alex!” cheers.

2/3/25 – Ellis’s Big Game

My nephew Ellis has earned a shout out. His team won sectionals in overtime and secured a place at state for 7th grade boys basketball. He had 9 points in overtime and lead his team to victory. I wish I could have been there and watched his dominance in overtime. It’s not fun missing big events like that. The life of a nomad is a life of isolation. There are a lot of fun adventures to fill that isolation but you’re usually doing them by yourself or with a person who is just passing through.