Oh the joys of traveling...

Melbourne has been a rollercoaster. My feelings towards the city have been, well extreme.

We arrived at about 10:30 pm and of course being ourselves, we forgot to look up the address to the hostel, so that’s what we were doing at an internet kiosk when this woman over heard us trying to figure out how to get to are hostel and offered Eve and I a ride with her family. We gladly accepted and so what would have been a nightmare attempting to navigate the city late at night with our excessive amount of luggage via public transport or an insanely large taxi bill turned out to be a free ride right to the door of our hostel. This random family saved us so much time and frustration that we were ecstatic. As far as we were concerned Melbourne was an awesome city! We checked in and the guys who check us in were also very kind and friendly, plus for that night we had our own room. Overall we were thinking highly of Melbourne. And then we woke up the next day.

The drain in the shower didn’t work well, so we ended up flooding the bathroom a bit, which the hostel people were not pleased about, but then again Eve and I woke up feeling itchy because…

we were bitten by BED BUGS!

Of course when we confronted them, they claimed that we must have brought it from our last hostel. Yah right. We spent over a week sleeping in a bed in Sydney that had bed bugs and then we brought them to Melbourne in our luggage and only then did they chose to bite us. Try again. Nonetheless, we still had to wash everything we owned and had to eave our bags outside for a couple of days. Plus, we became the lepers of the hostel. So much fun. At this time, Melbourne (or rather the hostel) sucks. We cannot wait to get out of the hostel and over to New Zealand. Despite changing rooms, the little buggers followed us and thus I was forced to sleep in a long-sleeved shirt tucked into long pants tucked into socks (which I despise wearing to bed) and then tucked into the confines of my small sleep sheet. Plus, I am now paranoid that we will never get rid of the pests, as they can travel in our luggage and they can also live up to 18 months without feeding.

Then we woke up to rain and crappy weather. Again Melbourne is not looking good, but as the day progresses, the rain clears, we visit a few art galleries and museums (all of which turn out to be free), we wander through their lush Royal Botanic Gardens and slowly things don’t seem so bad. We are far removed from our hostel (and our issues there) and so the beautiful scenery tips the scales and Melbourne once again is a lovely city.

The following day we decided to go to the Melbourne Zoo, or more specifically the Healesville Sanctuary. By the time we made it out of the hostel it was about 10:30. Not bad, we figured that we would have the afternoon to visit the zoo in the beautiful sunshine and then would come back into the city for some nighttime activities. Well, not quite.

To get to the zoo, we took a tram to the city center then an impossibly slow train to Lilydale and then a bus to Healesville. Well by the time we got off the train, it had already taken 1.5 hours. The bus dropped us off at the last stop in Healesville and then we were confused. Where do we go? After standing at the corner of an intersection looking utterly perplexed, we simply started walking towards the edge of town. Finally, a sign. Wonderful, oh no wait, why is there a 4 under the sign? Well, made this far, so we just started walking along the road (primarily in the ditch because there was no shoulder and no sidewalks) for FOUR km in the heat of the day. By the time we arrive at the zoo, it’s 2pm and the zoo closes at 5.

However, the zoo was worth the trip. The animals were all indigenous to Australia and so there were many creatures that I have never seen in Canadian zoos. Everything was there from emus to the cute koalas to the platypuses to the dingoes and the wombats. At one point, I was fortunate enough to be about a foot away from a kangaroo with nothing but air separating us. I easily could have reached out and touched it had I wished. Despite our late arrival, we were able to catch a show about the birds of prey and one on koalas. Sadly, as 5 pm rolled around, we had another 3.5 hour journey home (that’s right, we traveled 7 hours for only 3 hours at the zoo, stupid we know, plus it would have been less than a half hour car ride). Back at the hostel, we were starving and so while our pasta cooked, I went to grab a piece of bread only to find that a chunk had been eaten… by a RAT! At this point in time, I was exhausted and really frustrated with Melbourne and the hostel and the crap one puts up with when traveling. My feelings towards Melbourne were at an all time low. The fun we had at the zoo was polluted by the hostel.

Our next couple of days we spent happily joining in the local St. Kilda festival, beaching it up, going to the farmers market and taking in all their art galleries and museums had to offer. Understandably, Melbourne is known as the sporting and cultural capital of Australia. Federation Square and the surrounding city centre is full of interesting and unique architecture as well as art galleries and museums. In comparison to Sydney, Melbourne provided much more to stimulate the mind. The many gardens add a nice touch of green. Overall, Melbourne was a great city, just greatly tainted by the horrible experiences we had at our hostel and our transportation issues.

On our last day, we were able to catch the last quarter of a cricket game for free. Australia’s women’s team was playing England at the massive Melbourne Cricket Grounds. The stadium holds 80, 000 people, but of course, this being the woman’s team there were only a handful of people there. I can honestly say that I had no clue what was going on. Eve and I couldn’t even figure out who was winning. There seemed to be a lot of standing around and way too many breaks but then again, considering the game lasted from 10am to 5pm, I suppose they would need a few breaks. In the end I think England won because of the way they were cheering (but what the score was I could not tell you). My goal for the next time I go to a game, is to go with someone who understands what is going on.

And thus, our time in Melbourne and in Australia comes to an end. Eve and I are off to Christchurch, New Zealand for 5 days prior to our final destination, Dunedin where we will be going to school. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Australia (with the exception of a couple uninvited overnight guests) and appreciated the summer weather so much more knowing the miserable conditions back home. However, two weeks was definitely not enough time here. I will be back some day (soon I hope).

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