Melbourne

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Arriving in Melbourne late in the night gave me a fresh perspective of this intriguing and cultured city. Even though I was stepping out of a ten dollar airport shuttle with a dirty backpack and a paper sack filled with the rest of my stuff, I felt as if I was stepping out of a limo into a vast romantic city, like that of Paris. It was a very special feeling though because I was reuniting with Rachel after our longest break so far, two weeks!

Rachel and I decide to explore Melbourne like we would if it was our only destination in the world. We put our worries about money to the side and put on our walking shoes. We had a great time riding the tram everywhere and investigating this unfamiliar urban city. Like typical tourists, we pulled out the travel guide and scoped out each neighborhood one at a time. In the Central Business District we were occupied by finding the hidden side streets lined with stores and cafes like those of Europe. Next we made our way over to Port Melbourne neighborhood, which was a sleepy neighborhood on the Tasman Sea, to find the best organic grocery store in the city. When Rachel and I had the energy, we would trek across town with our favorite boba tea to attend a 5 Rhythms dance class every thursday night.

Another neighborhood that we thought we were destined to live in was called St. Kilda. We loved that the neighborhod was so trendy and alive, but we didn't really want to live there. Finally we found a neighborhood and a backpackers that was perfect for us. Fitzroy neighborhood suited us because it was a short walk to the Central Business District, it had beautiful houses everywhere with New Orleans-like rod iron balconies and it had a wonderful cafe and cultural life. Rachel and I dined at the numerous Asian and Italian restaurants, went to the meditation center around the corner and of course attended the independent movie theater at least once a week. We loved the neighborhood so much and we especially loved our Guest House, The Nunnery. The nunnery was right up our alley because it had a fireplace in the living room and a cozy environment for like minded travellers to sit and mingle. We stayed at the Guest House for a month and became friends with many of the people there who were also "long termers".

One highlight of Melbourne was when Rachel and I rented a car to drive the Great Ocean Road on Australia's southern coastline. We totally lucked out, because without even planning it we just happened to be stopping by Bill's Beach on the day of the World surfing competition. Even though I don't know much about surfing, watching this event was one of the coolest things I've ever witnessed. I thought the movie the Blue Crush was mesmerizing, but actaully seeing people surf waves this big was breathtaking. A huge wave would roll in and then I would see a little spec of a person catch the wave and ride it back and forth for what seemed like minutes. These surfers were so graceful out in the water that they turned the sport into a piece of art. It was even more of a masterpeice too when Kelly Slater and his sparkling eyes was being interviewed a foot away from me after he won the entire competiton.

Later on in the month, Rachel and I were again fortunate to be in the same town as Nora Houlihan and her mom. The couple nights in melbourne were really exciting. One night we went for a beautiful Italian dinner and then to a comedy show. I had a delicious steak, something I had not tasted in over four months. We laughed, walked around the alleyways/sidestreets and we shopped around. Nora and her mom were so much fun to hang out with and it was also comforting to hang around a mother and daughter from Chicago. It started to make me sad though that they were going back to the US and I wasn't .

After Nora and her mom left, I reassessed my situation and decided I wanted to leave melbourne and move on. Rachel had already chosen to stay in Australia for six months to slow down and settle. Although I really enjoyed Melbourne, I could not get a worker's permit and I wasn't in the mood to work anymore illegal jobs, so my mom and I decided we'd meet in Hawaii.

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