Welcome to the Northern Territory - Mate!

Enjoying a few beers in the Vic!
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We arrived at Darwin around 8 o’clock in the evening. When we arrived at our hostel “The Cav” we were told that they had overbooked so they sent us to another hostel downtown instead called Elkes. The conditions weren’t the best at this hostel to be honest. Especially since we were new to Australia we didn’t know what to expect. I guess we had become used to staying in a hotel room for the week and werent accustomed to this new lifestyle yet. The next night we got to stay at the Cav in a 4 bed dorm although it really was an 8 bed dorm with 4 beds in each room (no partition). We went down to check out Mindil Beach which was noted for its magnificent sunsets and food markets. It was as good as people had said it was, the food there was lovely (especially the crepes – nutella and cream) and the sunset was awe-inspiring (see pic). That night we went to watch the World Cup final between France and Italy at Kitty O’Sheas. Paudy wore a France shirt and a couple of French fans asked if he was French to which he replied “NO!”. The match kicked off at around 4 am and although it was an exciting match we were all struggling to keep our eyes open. The match went to extra time and penalties which meant we didn’t get to bed till 7am although it was worth staying up to see Zidane’s headbutt.

Botanic Gardens
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After holidaying for the last couple of weeks it was high time we went job hunting. So we printed off our CV’s and went around to the different recruitment agencies around Darwin looking for work. However, there wasn’t much going around and it was almost impossible to find anything in IT. Padraig got a telemarketing job which involved ringing up and annoying unsuspecting locals. John had to wait 2 weeks before starting work at Woolworths which meant going down to the beach and relaxing in the baking sun. Lynda got work at the local Vic (“cheap meals”) which meant more servings for us.

We went job hunting