While the rest of the family is still on vacation, I have been adjusting to my new life in our Melbourne office. And part of that adjustment is my daily commute.
The first major change to the Netherlands is that I am back to using the available public transportation system, which is in this case ptv – Public Transportation Victoria. They run the local trains and busses here, and that with pretty high frequency and reliability (knocking on wood as I write this…).
In an attempt to make like easier (mostly for ptv, I guess) the myki pass was introduced a few years ago. It’s a contactless card that comes in two flavours: a “prepaid” version that you load with money and where the trip fare is deducted after you sign out at your destination, and a timed version, which you buy once and which is valid on the entire network for a certain amount of time. I have chosen for the latter one, as we are planning to also use the train to get into town on weekends.
A lot of my colleagues take the car, but I just don’t feel like dealing with the traffic or the high parking fees. I much prefer to sit in the train, listening to music, reading a book or watching Netflix.
…or I get into conversations with people. About my trusty bike that I use to get to the train station and back. Or the weather. Or footy. Anything realy. This is one of the things I like about this country. Its people are open and friendly and do not shy away from casual conversations in the train. Why would I ever want to take the lonely car?
europe2australia.com 
Weiterhin entspannte Fahrten zum Dienst mit netten Begegnungen (..wir haben dort die gleichen Erfahrungen gemacht). Hoffentlich sind die Kollegen auch freundlich, hilfsbereit, kooperativ.. und was Du Dir sonst noch wünscht. Wir hoffen, Du hast eine interessante Arbeit, die Dir auch Freude macht (..nicht nur Stress, was manchmal wohl nicht zu verhindern ist) und die Dir noch Spielraum lässt für die Familie und die Erkundung der “derzeitigen Heimat“.
M-D und H-W
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