We were welcomed very warmly by the Randolph crew. Brian, who had invited us, showed us around the house and introduced us to his room mates Mandy, Paul and Tommy, who was living in a small closet in the basement. They were such friendly and cool people, I loved all of them right away. The house also slowly filled up with other people, friends and visitors because they were having a show the night we arrived. They had set up a small stage area in the huge basement where a view local bands would play later at night and they were also recording the concert. They offered us beer and were very curious about our trip and it felt like coming home to a bunch of friends who we hadn't seen for a long time.
The show was really cool. Four different bands played and it was loud and smoky and we met heaps of cool people. The music was interesting and sometimes sounded really good, it was dominated by heavy electric guitars and had this very unique garage band sound that suited the venue very well. We had a great night and met a lot of new people, some who were new like us and some who came to the shows that were put on in the Randolph house for years.
After the last had left early in the morning we made our beds on the couches that were in the basement and fell asleep under piles of blankets that we had gathered because it was freezing cold.
We had some quiet days at the Randolph mansion while we tried to contact Bekki's Dad's friend and Bekki planned her surprise visit for Christmas. Our contact was stuck in SB (unfortunately, because he had my birth certificate) with a bad toothache which meant that we couldn't stay with him what had been our plan so far but Brian said that we could stay as long as we needed to so we stayed and enjoyed the company of our new friends. We went to the Exploratorium, an interactive museum of Science and Art (like the Phaenomenta in Flensburg), which was very interesting and a lot of fun. We had gotten there late so we had to leave before we had seen all the exhibits but it still was very worth it. After that we rode the bus back to downtown to buy the very last presents, Toms shoes for Jetti and a surprise gift for each other (we chose them ourselves but said we wouldn't open them before Christmas), and spent our last days together quiet and relaxed before I escorted Bekki to the airport from where she flew back to Germany. Luckily Deedra was so nice to give us a ride to the airport but we had to turn around and stop several times because Bekki had forgotten to prepare her board for the flight. After organizing a key to take out the fins, stopping at a postal store to get some bubble wrap and a huge burrito for breakfast we finally arrived at the airport where we had to say goodbye quickly because I was driving back with Deedra.
It had been seven months since I had joined Bekki in Australia after ten months of not seeing her and now I was staying behind again while she moved on. I was happy for her because it seemed that she really wanted to go home (which is understandable after almost 16 months of traveling) and I was also looking forward to travel on my own but it was still hard to say goodbye once again...
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