Fantasy

I may have told you this before but, the East Coast Australian trip I just did two weeks ago, had actually always been on my list since forever.

Well, not forever.

At least since 2014.

It was the year after I started solo backpacking. Ever since I got in touch with that method, I just couldn't get enough, and kept planning more and more trip. One of destinations that had always been on the low-fare lines was Gold Coast. And then began all the wishful plan to do this Australia journey.

I started doing research of other cities in the continent worth visiting. Sydney, in which of course I've long known, apparently were also on the same coastal line just below the theme park city. Canberra too, but I didn't really put a lot of interest in it. Unlike Melbourne, which sat gracefully at the tip of southeast Australia. And that's how I wrapped up the plan.

Plan that I had always taken for granted.
Plan that I thought I'd never accomplish so quick.

Because it's no longer just Southeast Asia, where I can just hop on and off the plane to enter each country freely. Nor it is the rest of Asia, which despite some differences, I could still spot some familiar faces and relatable culture.

It's somewhere else. Somewhere new to me.
It's not just another country. It's another continent.

I know I've been to the US, but this time I was on my own. So imagining that I'd be the only Asian among the Australians, being a perfect stranger doing uncommon stuff that could drive me crazy, it has always been only in my dream.

But then I did it.
And it seemed surreal.

I almost couldn't believe it when I stepped out of the plane and breathed Gold Coast's air. I almost couldn't believe it when I finally met a friend from Sydney I had only been contacting through chats, and when I met an ex-coworker I thought I would never see again after she moved to Melbourne. I almost couldn't believe it when I saw the Opera House with my very own eyes, and when I entered the Albert Park where my favorite driver was racing two months earlier—it all, seemed surreal.

But then, I did it.

I broke out of my bubble,
And swam away to the ocean.
Just like what this fellow of mine did.

And yea, I almost couldn't believe it when I found P.Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney,
bring this buddy to the harbor and set him free to his homewater.

Well.

As I always said every time I finished a journey: crazy trip. Crazy, crazy trip. Not only because it was my first solo trip outside of Asia, nor because it was my first big trip after Japan. Not only because I managed to do all the preparation smoothly in the midst of my crazy intolerable work life. Not even only because I could eventually put my feet upon the land down under, and met everybody all these times I could only promise to meet to.

But more because I could make it come true.

Now I believe that,
If you really work it out,
Anything can no longer be just

A fantasy