Moving to Melbourne!

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Well....... I have arrived in Melbourne safe and sound it’s just taken me over a month to actually get round to writing this (oops)!! Just like Dubai, Melbourne didn’t actually seem to get off to the best start either! We didn’t arrive here until about 2 in the morning and couldn’t see any other option to get to the hostel other than jump in a taxi so within half an hour of being in the country we managed to spend $100! (That’s about £70 to us Poms!)

We’d purposely gone back to the same hostel we stayed in last time as we had such a fantastic time there, so we went to bed that night with very high hopes of meeting a great bunch of people the next day and pretty much recreating our experience from the last trip. This unfortunately was not the case, virtually everyone we seemed to meet was about 18 and away courtesy of mummy and daddy! One girl actually pulled a face when Rachel told her she was 23! It’s very depressing to feel like your past it at 23/24! Worried that maybe we had made the wrong decision about coming away again and that maybe we were too old for this now we decided to do what any sensible, mature, mid 20’s person would do – we got drunk. Really, really drunk! So drunk that we ended up agreeing to go for drinks with two 40 year old truckers who had stopped off in town for the night! It appeared we were that desperate to make friends,haha!! Luckily the next day we met some better people at the hostel and have not had to resort to befriending middle aged men since that night!!

As we had better people in our hostel now we decided to go out that night with everyone and one of Rachels old work friends, Dave, who had moved to Melbourne a few months ago. Ended up having a bit of a fiasco the next morning when Dave realized he had no way of getting home as he had managed to lose his bike lock keys. Determined to get the lock off we tried everything, including going to the police station to see if they had any bolt cutters we could borrow. Unfortunately the police didn’t seem that keen to help 3 hungover/possible still drunk people steal a bike! Our next idea was to buy a hammer and see if we could bash it off, after about an hour of hammering the lock and not getting anywhere me and Rachel were more than ready to give up and admit defeat but Dave being a typical man was not ready to give in! Another man had now joined our efforts to free the bike and he suggested we try getting a screwdriver and hammering it into the lock to prise it off. So off we trotted to buy a pack of screwdrivers to add to Daves new hardware collection! But finally after about 3 hours, 4 people, 1 hammer and 5 screwdrivers the bike was free!! I don’t think any of us has ever felt such a sense of accomplishment!



We spent the next few days going around looking for free accommodation and work and unfortunately that didn’t quite go as smoothly as we hoped either. The only hostel that seemed to have spots available to work for free accommodation was a really creepy, run down hostel that looked like something from a horror film! To make it even worst it was run by a very strange man who wouldn’t even let us see inside the hostel and wanted to know if we’d be willing to do anything for free accommodation! Slightly freaked out we decided to start looking for apartments instead!

Then my first job offer was technically a 90 year old man shouting at me in the street and asking me how much I charged! After that we discovered Melbourne must be an especially seedy place as I got some very strange offers after putting an advert on gumtree saying I was looking for work! If anybody reading this does ever come across to Australia to work whatever you do don’t put an ad on gumtree advertising your resume! And if you do then don’t put on a picture – you will get offers of nude modeling, $1000 for your ‘company’ and horrible phone calls saying things that I won’t repeat on here as my mum will read it and worry!! Luckily both me and Rachel managed to find full time jobs within about a week of searching so we won’t have to resort to prostitution! I’ve got a job doing recruitment/training for a sales company and Rach is working in a call centre. Not the most exciting jobs in the world but its money for a few months J Although we are a little annoyed that we’ve moved to the other side of the world and ended up in the same industries we were in back home!

We’ve found an apartment right in the city centre as well which we’re sharing with another group of travelers. It’s great as we’re so close to everything, the only downside is the fact that the bathroom door doesn’t lock which has led to some VERY awkward and embarrassing situations!! I feel really at home now in Melbourne and even have ‘a local’!! Not to rub it in to everyone back home but the weathers been gorgeous as well, even if I am still really pale as I’ve been stuck in an office all week!

Melbourne seems to have lots of free stuff to do as well, the other weekend we went to a big festival called White Night where they had lots of free events running until 7am and everyone was just out in the street drinking and listening to live music. I seem to have ended up going out quite a bit since I’ve got here but after a week being bored at work I’m usually more than ready for a drink! There's lots of nice little side streets with graffiti on and cafes in Melbourne too giving it a very quirky, european feel.

So overall life in Oz is good but I’m starting to get itchy feet already and am planning a trip through the outback as soon as I can afford it! It’s going to start getting cold in Melbourne in a few months so our plan is to make our way up towards Darwin where it’s hot all year round and maybe try and get our farm work out of the way so we can get a second year visa.

Well I'm sure I’ve probably missed out lots that’s happened in the last month but you get the gist of how it’s going over here! Hope everyone back home is ok, miss you all lots and lots xxxx

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