Great city of Melbourne and visit to Bendigo

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Hello all,

I didn't write a blog entry for a long time...I've been a bit busy but also a bit lazy sometimes.

I'm still in Melbourne at the moment and currently working.
Since I came back from Tasmania, I stayed at the All Nations Backpackers Hostel in the city center. The hostel itself is crap....it's old, the kitchen is too small, the pots and pans are crap, the fridges are most of the times full, the kitchen runs out of soap many times, there are no security lockers in the rooms, no soap in the bathroom to wash your hands after a....you know. But on the other hand, the atmosphere in this hostel is the best! At the moment I have some of the coolest roommates and we're all in the same room for a while. The name of the hostel is "All Nations", the name says it all. Here I've seen people from: New Zealand, Canada, USA, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, India, Slovenia, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, UK, Ireland, Sweden, Germany, Finland, France, Thailand, Estonia, Bosnia, New Calidonia, Indonesia, Turkey and me from Curacao 😉....and there are probably more countries represented here! The All Nations Bar, next door, is great they have free beer for one hour on Saturday's and that's one of the few times you'll see me in there, hahaha. During the week they have Comedy nights, Quiz nights etc. which are also fun.
There is a real Latin-invasion at the moment in Melbourne, especially from Colombia. At the moment there are at least four of them staying at the hostel and I'm speaking Spanish every day as well...and I've got many people asking where/how I've learned Spanish so I tell them the whole thing (where I'm from, how and why we speak Spanish among others etc). My current roommates are David, Rebecca, Ruari (UK), Sebastien, Michael (France), Ruyji (Japan) and Scott (USA). Ben (New Zealand) also moved in a couple of days ago but he's been in the hostel for two or three months already. The atmosphere in the room is great, we go along well with each other, we all go to the bar, we stay awake until late talking, hanging around in the common room near the kitchen etc. we're like a family hehehe. Most people in this hostel stay for a longer time and they're working, and that's what creates a great atmosphere because most people know each other. But most people are leaving within the coming two to three weeks, including me.

Melbourne is the capital of the state Victoria and the second largest city in Australia, with just over 3 million people. Host of the 1956 Olympics, it's a vibrant city with everything for everyone. It's very multicultural, I think a little bit more than Sydney. The nightlife is great, there are also Latino venues which are great. A great area of Melbourne is St. Kilda, where there is a beach (not so nice beach though) and the place is home to many clubs, bars, restaurants etc. I've been there with Luuk and I went to a BBQ there organized by Pascal. The hostel has a Work Center, where you pay a AU$30 fee and they'll find you jobs. Most of the jobs are just one-day jobs. When I got here, I signed up with the Work Center and worked a couple of times. Via a guy in the hostel I also worked for a removal company, which is specialized in bussiness removals: moving a whole office from building to building, moving furniture, dozens of boxes with documents etc. It's very easy, as everything is put on wheels and into the elevator. Doing this job (only once or twice a week) I've been into a couple of Melbourne's skyscrapers.
Since two weeks ago I'm working most of the times with Manny, a Filipino guy who has been living in Australia for 20 years already. He has a floor sanding company and he taught me how to use the machines to sand wooden floors. At the moment he's building his own house as well, for him and his family, and I've been helping the guys working there as well. Manny is a very cool person with a sense of humor, which is great.
I've met with Andrew, Jackson and George once so far, but we're meeting this week again as it's Andrew's birthday and there will be a party. I didn't meet with Belinda, I texted her a couple of times, she only answered once. Maybe she doesn't want to meet, I don't really care actually. The girl I met in Tasmania, Joanne, was texting me the whole time (long messages, like a short e-mail) saying that she wants to come to Melbourne for a weekend to meet me etc....but she never came. She said she booked a flight and everything, but two days before the day she was supposed to arrive she texted me and said that she has to attend a very important meeting at her work etc. and she won't be able to come. Strange...does she has a boyfriend maybe? lol. Well, if she's still coming, great....if she's not coming, also great!

I saved some money and bought a laptop last week. I wanted one because I think it's handy, you can put your pictures on, play games when you're bored etc. It's a great laptop and I got it at a very good price! So now I have some of my favourite games installed on it which is great. In Melbourne there is free WiFi internet connection in the city so I can use that whenever I'd like to! Because the rooms at the hostel have no lockers, I bought a small suitcase where I store the laptop, and I attach the suitcase to my bed with a lock pad...perfect!
While in Melbourne, I've been twice to the hospital already for an eye check and this week I have to go again. Due to the operation back in Sept. 2006 I'm still using eyedrops on the right eye and it needs to be checked. Thank God that my Medicare card covers everything....the Australian government pays. It's an agreement made between the governments of Australia and The Netherlands. Only backpackers from about seven or eight countries can have this Medicare card and it's completely free!

I've been for a weekend to Bendigo, where I stayed at Micheal's place. Micheal is a mate I met in Darwin and we had Christmas dinner at Pam and Grant's place, he moved back to Bendigo where he originally comes from. Bendigo is about 120 km NW of Melbourne I think and has about 200.000 people. It was founded by golddiggers back in the 1850's during the so called goldrush. We did like a "small" tour around the city which was interesting. They have a Chinese garden and museum, due to many immigrants from China durin the goldrush, and the museum has the worlds longest dragon. We went out for dinner together with a friend of Micheal (forgot her name) and the rest of the weekend we just chilled. Micheal had to work so I watched a couple of movies and did some laundry. We'll probably meet in Darwin again because he's going there in August for a week or two, and we'll meet Pam and Grant as well.

I've called the lady for the job at the hotel in the Outback, but she was always saying: "I'll call you back", call back in three weeks, it's very quiet here at the moment bla bla....so I didn't call anymore and she didn't call me anymore, so obviously they're not looking for people to work and I'm not really interested anymore to work there either.
At the moment I'm seriously considering to move back to Darwin, within about 2 weeks and work there for a while. Working with Manny is great, but I can't save the amount of money I'd like to. Besides that, Melbourne is going to get only colder, which I HATE (this morning it was 0 degrees C!!!)! I've been called last week and I can get my job back in Darwin if I want. It's good to save money there and at the moment Darwin is a good place to be: it's dry season! It's autumn, turning into winter next month in the whole middle and southern parts of Australia but in Darwin it's always summer and it's dry! That means that many backpackers are going there now and it's the place to be. Lots of people around, parties etc. Besides that, I'll probably have a place to stay in Darwin which is great and cheaper than the hostels. At the moment the hostel prices in Darwin are sky high. After Darwin I'd like to travel the westcoast and the the eastcoast. Since I was in Australia for about a week, I decided that I'm staying here for much longer, instead of just half a year as planned before. So the plans to go back to Curacao I postponed them with a year too. After Australia I want to visit Asia, and Panama.

There is not much more to say at the moment. I had a little cold last week but it's all over again (many people in here had one). Things are going good so far, can't complain. Sometimes I miss family and the "normal" life of having your own place, privacy, one ongoing job etc. but what I'm doing now is just temporary anyway and it's a once in a lifetime opportunity (you'll only get a Work Holiday Visa once in your life!) so I'm enjoying it as much as I can!

Take care all and until the next blog!

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Comments

[Arelys]

Hahaha Keep practising Spanish. Again, the pictures are wonderful. Grtz

[chito]

jealous
Tham swa ,everythime i see a new entry on your blog i become jealous of you. Bo si a sa di biba!!!!