The Tea Gardens of Good & Evil

December 13, 2020 by Carlitos de Jeffers in Hostel Environment

With misty-eyed misguided sentiment perhaps clouding our judgment, we downed our pints and ambled from the leafy civilised back streets of Woollahra to the concrete wind tunnel of the Junkyard, buoyed by the delights of summer. And let me tell you, the Tea Gardens did not disappoint.

Pablo's Adventures

October 17, 2018 by Carlitos de Jeffers in Hostel Environment, The Foreigner

As they’re fond of saying in Latin America, mi casa es tu casa; and that’s very much the philosophy of The Galah. (Though not legally mine, when you’ve resided in any hostel for as long as I have it’s only natural that I think of it as mine). It’s your home away from home. Naturally, mi casa es tu casa is more something one says, rather than fact and most people tend to accept that; even so, some habits are best kept to the privacy of the shower cubicle or undercover of darkness once “lights are out” in the dormitory. Pablo will eventually learn this.

Backpackers in Need

January 30, 2018 by Carlitos de Jeffers in Employment, The Foreigner, Immigration

When I handed my CV to the bar manager I was deeply offended when he asked me to show evidence that I had (a) a valid visa, and (b) that the visa had work rights!