Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Moving into a Brisbane Queenslander



As a backpacker you often stay in hostels or couchsurf a bit. But when you know you’ll be staying in one city for a while and may be working there it can be a good idea to look for a permanent place. So here’s a little story how looking for a place in Australia can look like:

So there I was, moving into the house of that “Wolfe Creek”-Murderer-Look-alike. It was a nice, though a little shabby Queenslander just a few miles out of Brisbane. How did I get there?

 
The famous Queenslander

Well, a few days ago I had accompanied Elvi, a girl I had met in my hostel room, to take a look at the place. She was in Brissie for an internship and looking for a permanent room for herself and her soon to be arriving friend. I was a typical backpacker with changing jobs living in a hostel for a couple of weeks now. When Elvi had seen the ad of a room for only 80 $ a week she hadn’t hestitated long and had called the landlord. Her face had shown a slight panic when the guy on the phone had told her that he’d pick her up in a few minutes to show her the place – “I’m not doing this alone!” she had screamed when she’d hung up. So Elvi, me and two other girls had courageously made our way out to meet that strange guy. It hadn’t taken long until he arrived, driving an old VW with plush-seats and crazy hair looking like that guy from “Wolfe Creek” who murdered the poor backpackers. The two other girls had backed out immediately. The guy had introduced himself as Richard. Fearlessly, Elvi and I had gotten into the car to drive to Canon Hill and look at that 80-buck-place. Halfway on the freeway, Elvi had gotten into panic and tried to rip open the door forcing Richard to leave the freeway and let Elvi call a German girl already living in Richards house to calm her.
Eventually we had arrived at the house and had been greeted by Michelle and Phil, an English couple and our new roommates. Richard had shown us around the house. It was a two story building with Richard living on the ground floor and 3 rooms upstairs of which two had been taken (one by Phil and Michelle, one by Nicola from Ireland). But it was Michelle who had filled us in on the juicy stuff of living in that exact Queenslander. She’d told us how it wasn’t even allowed to have more than 5 people living together in a house in Australia if you weren’t a family. Or how Richard loved to fill his 2-bedroom ground floor with as many German girls as possible (I think I remember his highlight being 6 girls in a 14 m² room). How he had said he was 40 but it was obviously more like 45 or 50. How he had been telling the story that his little baby grand daughter, who was allowed to (or rather had to) spend one or the other afternoon with her grandpa, was actually his daughter that he had had with a Russian backpacker (the daughter thing was a lie, the having an affair with a Russian backpacker actually turned out to be true). Michelle had also told us about the CD she had found carring Richard’s hand writing saying “Music to enhance masturbation” and about Richard’s paranoia with men. He only allowed Phil to stay because there had to be a man upstairs to look after the girls and he had had “his wings clipped” (meaning he was married to Michelle).

 Doesn’t sound like a safe place to you? I couldn’t imagine why… And yet there I was, moving into this crazy patchwork Queenslander, wondering if this might turn out to be the worst (and last) decision of my Australia-trip.
Well, obviously it wasn’t my last decision, and definitely not my worst. I had a great time with my house mates, and now I have those great stories to tell!
Hiking with the roommates

Birthday cake from the roommates

Brisbane impressions

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