Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

After about 4 hours sleep in Sydney, I got up at 5am and headed to the domestic airport, which was thankfully only a 15-minute drive from where I was staying.

No matter where you travel to, or what country you are in. Airports are always really busy first thing in the morning. Perhaps it is cheaper to fly out of a country at those times for the airline itself, i.e less airport tax. I must research this.

(I’ve started to video a lot of things now … no matter how insignifcant they may feel at the time. Videos are a great way to look back at things too). Below is walking through Sydney domestic airport.

It was still quite dark when I left at 7am, as daylight savings had just begun, so I didn’t see much on the flight as we left Sydney. I flew Jetstar and the flight was only about $50, which was very reasonable. The flight took around an hour. I had looked into getting a train from Sydney, which would have been very scenic and beautiful, but it would have eaten up a lot of my travel time.

After landing into Melbourne airport, I went to find someone flying to Sydney to give my travel guide to. I love sharing travel love.

I left my travel email address (one I don’t use often, or for important things), as well as my twitter account details, to see if it will be passed along one day and someone writes to me.

My journey to downtown Melbourne included boarding the big red skybus just outside the terminal

This cost $28 for a return ticket, for a 20-minute journey and I didn’t even get a seat. There is a small TV at the front of the bus which plays information about Melbourne, on what you can do. It goes on a lopp, so I think I watched the same info 3-4 times in the one journey. It was very overcast in Melbourne, but I got excited as the city approached. I quite like high-rise buildings. Maybe as Christchurch hasn’t got any, a city like this excites me. I was dropped off at Southern Cross railway station, and for the first time in a few days I had to carry my backpack. It felt really heavy.
I did video just outside Southern Cross station, but the file was on my external hardrive, which has recently got damaged and I’ve lost it. (Importance of keeping an online backup).

In hindsight I should have jumped on a train from Southern Cross to Findlers lane station. It would have only cost $3. An important lesson from this trip and previous trips really is to do a lot more research prior to travelling.

Outside Southern Cross station. It was quite exciting to see a train station again, as New Zealand doesn’t do trains too well.

I spent roughly 20 minutes with my pocket map walking up and streets trying to figure out the direction of where my hostel was. I eventually got there. I had booked to stay at the greenhouse backpackers, following several searches on tripadvisor my major travel best friend I choose the Greenhouse, though I was almost going to switch to the Habitat HQ hostel, but didn’t. I now wish I did.

The lift area at the ground floor. The reception is on the top (6th floor)

The hostel was clean and standard enough as hostels go, but it was completely full of long term stayers. I was shoved in a room with a couple of german (lesbian girls) in bed together, a guy who I couldn’t pinpoint where he was from as he only grunted at me when I said hello to him. He spent the majority of the time in the top bunk playing computer games. Everytime I returned to the room he was on the bunk on his laptop. The other person I shared with was an older guy of about 50. He spent his time meditating on his bed every night from about 7pm and then went to sleep. The room was quite dark (very little window), so the light had to be put on. So when I got up early to go and explore I annoyed all the people in the room. Despite being woken up at 3am when they came in from partying and I said nothing.

My first day in Melbourne consisted of a lot of walking. I felt slightly jet lagged due to lack of sleep. Around 11am, I was able to get in on the pancake breakfast from the hostel, which was free. Travellers love free stuff. They also had free internet, which only worked on level 6 (dinning/lounge area and reception), but it was great for researching on the go and figuring out where I needed to be or wanted to go to.

I spent a lot of time walking along by the water, which is beautiful. I think I have mentioned it several times before, but I love walks along rivers and on beaches as I grew up on the coast.

Walking along Southbank Promenade: a view of the cityscape

Melbourne cycle scheme: like most big cities, there is one here too. It is free for the first 30 minutes after you registered, and then you are charged by the minute afterwards. Plenty of stations around. Helmets are complusory, and can be bought at 7-11 stores or most hostels hire or give them out for free. I didn’t use these bikes at all.

It was a Sunday when I arrived, so there were a few markets around, where I made some purchases. I really love buying things from markets, as you know that you probably won’t find something like that in another city. It is unique.

I was recommended and managed to find the iconic graffiti laneways, which are pretty different to see. It seems Melbourne encourages this a lot, and it is not just meaningless graffiti, it is quite arty.

Melbourne has quite an arty feel to it, and a huge cafe culture. Parts of it reminded me of London, like Camden.

I walked along by the river, along St Kilda road towards the Shire of Rememberance. This was built 1934 and is a memorial to the people of Victoria who served in World War One. I was getting toward sunset at the time of my visit there, and when I climbed to the top, I got a really lovely view of the city.

The following day I hired out a vintage bicycle from the humble vintage (www.thehumblevintage.com) this was something I found on tripadvisor when researching things to. As far as I know it is a business that started off in Melbourne, but now they have a branch in Sydney.

So I decided that I’d like to see Melbourne the way a lot of locals do, and hire one. It cost roughly $30 for the day and they provided a lock and helmet with that. I picked it up at 9am and left it back at 6pm, so got good useage out of it.

It was such a cute bike and now I am totally in love with vintage bikes.

The Humble Vintage map

I literally cycled everywhere. I was given a vintage map with it, and off I went. I did get lost a few times, and was cycling in all sorts of directions, but that is the best type of exploring I reckon. I cycled all the way out to St Kilda and Brighton and back – roughly 50km of cycling. I saw the famous painted beach huts. I say famous, I don’t know how well known they are, but I saw pictures of them when I was researching Melbourne, and wanted to track them down. They are sort of the beaten track a little, but I stumbled across it pretty easily. It was a very deserted beach, and such a wonderful day, so I just sat and enjoyed the scenery and took a few colourful photographs.

The cycle back to the city was gorgeous. There is a boardwalk cycleway along by the coast for most of the way. I was meeting a lot of commuters coming back to St Kilda and Brighton. It was such an amazing cycle and I felt as though it would be nice to live in Melbourne at that point.

I had a big wander around the city and into the shopping centre to see if I could pick up any different things, or presents for people back at home. I sent a few postcards. One to my sister of course, as is now the tradition. Then headed to Nando’s for dinner. I would normally like to dine out somewhere different, but it is hard when you are on your own. So I opted for something familiar, and something where you can sit on your own and it doesn’t look too bad.

My final day in Melbourne consisted of using the trams and public transport. I really wish I had research a little more. I was going to spend $100 on going on the Great Ocean Road tour, Road tour, or the Neighbours tour. I later decided that it may be nicer to do a self-drive to the Great Ocean Road, and I wasn’t that much of a neighbours fan to actually go on a tour.

I went over to findlers lane station which was a short walk from the hostel and wanted to buy an all day pass for the transport, but I was told that these passes were no longer being used as they were introducing the MyKi which is a transport card similar to the Oyster card in London.

I bought a card for $3 and put a further $20, definitely enough to do me for a day.

I was quite exciting being on a train and at a train station again. I miss train travel.

I had a few places I wanted to visit such as Richmond in order to get some awesome sauce from somewhere called Barbeques Galore. I was introduced to this sauce from my flatmate, who brings it back from Sydney everytime she visits. It goes well on sanwiches or to spice up beans. I got some odd looks from the man in the shop when I arrived up to the counter with 3 large bottles.

It was quite cheap but turned out to be not so cheap at all as I dropped my MyKi card on the street somewhere whilst I was browsing in a market. Gutted. Needless to say, I kept a good eye on my second one. I spent some time walking around Fed Square, which was very cool. They had little deck chairs sat around the squares and large lounging beanbags, which would be awesome for sitting out in lunch on.

Federation Square, Melbourne.

After wondering around shops, and the art gallery by the square, I went over to the Eureka Skydeck, which is the tallest skyscraper in Melbourne. It costs $18.50 to get to the top (88 floors), then a further $12 to do the edge (which is the little glass cubed area that sticks out). I decided against doing the edge as you didn’t see much more (you weren’t any higher!) and you couldn’t take your own photos there, but had to buy photos costing another $20 or so (tourist ploy!)

Tuesday night at the Greenhouse backpackers is free pasta night, so I stayed for that. It was pretty good plate of Spag bol and salad. I was going to go out but I thought it would be best to save money and be like a proper backpacker. I spent my final evening walking along by the river at night, such a pretty night. I went to bed early as I would be up at 6am.

Southbank promenade by night

Departure day was my birthday (October 10th), it felt very strange to be travelling on my birthday, and it didnn’t really feel like it at all. My flight was fairly unremarkable. I flew Jetstar, and so didn’t get meals or anything, but I ended up paying $15 to hire an ipad to watch movies. The movie selection was pretty shocking, but it passed the time.

Arriving back into Christchurch felt like arriving back home. I was wished Happy Birthday by the nice immigration officer, and was on my way to enjoying a warm and sunny (for once!) birthday. I love the southern hemisphere.

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