Melbourne

So with little happening in my ways of planning my trip any further than knowing I was going to be in Melbourne for Australia day (January 26th - my new favorite day) on Tuesday evening of last week I jumped on the train and took the over-nighter to Melbourne.

I arrived downtown Melbourne just after 7 in the morning, and to be honest, it had been a long time since I had seen this un-godly hour. I got off the train and found myself a map of the city, as unlike in Sydney, my hostel was not next to the train station and I knew I was in for a hike. I figuring I had some time to kill before having to meet my friend Mike, who I met in Sydney and chose to travel further with, rather than just taking the street car, i decided to walk the early morning streets of Sydney. It was dead! It took some time for me to process why a city that claims it will be bigger than Sydney by 2020 was not busy, but then I remembered...Australia day! Like Canada day, eveeryone has the day off. So here I am, parading around town with my massive backpack on my back and my day-pack in my my hand trying to find my hostel. While Sydney is kind of built like New York City, grid patterned, Melbourne city map may as well have been drawn up by Picasso himself! Streets criss-cross, round-abouts everywhere, what was I to do but jump on the tram and get to the hostel ASAP.

One on the street where my hostel was located, I noticed Mike walking in at the same time with some friends he made in Bondi. Seeing the three of them all groggy from being on the Grey Hound all night, I new that getting a train pass was the right move. We all checked in the hostel, and decided, that we should walk around town and see what this city had to offer, or better yet, what we had to offer the city.

AUSTRALIA DAY EVENING...

Mike and I had decided that to show Australia and Australians that we were here to celebrate their holiday as Ausrtralians and not as some laid-back back-packers, so in honor of Australia day, we bought ourselves some flags, and wore capes for the evening. At the hostel, before we went out on the town, we met an English couple, who after realizing how much fun a night with Australian Pete and Kangaroo Mike might be, joined us in our adventures to find a bar and celebrate smashingly.

We found this cool bar with live music and boat-loads of partiers, and decided that if anywhere was right for us, this was the place. Don't ask me the name of it, because I can't remember, but what I can say is I knew evvery song the band played and it was an evening sing-along. After making our way back to the hostel, just shy of 3am, we decided that we had done this country a favour and celebrated in an Aussie way.

Thursday morning (haha, not really morning) found us realizing that we wanted to perhaps stay in at the hostel and make a nice dinner, have drinks on the patio, take it a little easier and save some money. Well, we didn't spend as much money, we had a great lamb dinner with a really nice greek salad and we partied a lot harder. Only this time we did it with friends we made at the hostel. While the day went on, we enjoyed tanning on the roof-top patio at our hostel, which over looks downtown Melbourne, enjoying some beers and conversation with new friends and for some, even a 9pm jog through the parks near the hostel. The party once again went on till 3 am where we decided once again that we should make our way to bed, because checkout was at 10am and we were making our way to St.Kilda, to a new hostel, 400m from the beach.

St. Kilda

When arriving to the hostel, you can see that they have a great PR and Marketing team that build their website. Don't get me wrong, it's an ok hostel, but for the price, I would have expected a little more. None the less, in St.Kilda, there is a beach (not a great beach my any means - think Lake Ontario), there is a cool strip with shops, coffee shops and some galleries and a tram that can take you back to downtown Melbourne.

We spent the majority of the afternoon yeasterday at the beach and in the parks and I am so burnt I look like a firetruck! After realizing how burnt I was, I went straight to the Chemist, spent $25 on 100% aloe vera and a spray can of Solar Cane. Slowly I am getting better.

Friday night, Mike and I went to see a friend of mine from Toronto, Tiiu. She has been out here for about 8 years, and before last night, I don't think I had seen her since one of my epic, KJ last friday night parties from about 10 years ago. We met up with her and her friends at this cool brewery, The Little Creatures Brewery, where for the first time in a long time, I got to enjoy a proper beer at ok prices in a very chilled out restaurant, rather than being in some backpacker type club. Catching up was nice, and meeting new people was also great, we got invited to a house party tonight which sounds like a great time.

Other than that, I can't really think about anything to say. Nadal is out, Federer is out and Murray is the only one left worth seeing (in my opinion) at the Australian Open, so maybe that will be tomorrows entertainment. Hope all is well with you, I'm having a blast.

Till next time,

Peter