Melbourne

---

---

Hello fellas. After over one month of online absence I’m finally back! I hope nobody was too worried about me xD … I finally decided to buy a small notebook. I could have kept borrowing other peoples’ notebooks or paying high dollars on gossip internet cafes. But that got annoying really quickly. Well it has been 5 weeks in Melbourne, but still, there are not too many exciting things to tell. Basically because my main intention was to get straight to full time work and save some money for further travels. And after 2 months in Asia it just felt like doing something else then spending.

Well anyhow. I arrived in Melbourne by bus and was pretty worried about everything. I had no hostel booked in advance so I was literally checking out any hostel in Central Melbourne. After carrying my luggage about 20 km around the city I eventually got lucky to find a hostel that was very central, it was a pretty good one as well. Nice 4 bed dorms and an amazing common area, huge, with a big TV, free pool and heaps of travelers from around the world. Ah yeah I do recommend that place! It’s called “Flinders Backpackers” and it’s not in the lonely planet (Well that book hasn’t been so much help anyway, it’s just heavy). Ok I found a place which gave me some peace. But I knew I had to find something else sooner or later, because at a rate of 160 $ per week it’s impossible to save some money. Ok I was worried to hell to find a proper job, as many friends had trouble as well. But it was getting summer and soon Christmas! I can’t be that hard to find some stupid job…I thought.

I started with the billing board in hostel for casual work. I called all damn numbers on those sheets and well ended up with, wasting money and time. I was actually really frustrated. Then I asked myself around and got some hints from backpackers who had jobs already. And of course, what sense does make to look for a job without having a decent resume? So I spend the next days in the city library and made hundreds of copies…the job hunt began!

Well not really, until it came to that, alcohol and community kept me sleeping until really late in the day but eventually I spent 2 days checking every restaurant and coffee shop in sight. Lucky as I was I got some help from Alicia, a girl from New Zealand, who was also looking for a job. So at least it wasn’t boring. She actually brought me to that newly constructed area called Docklands, harbor town. And me lucky bastard got a call and interview at the same day from “The Coffee Club”, a restaurant and coffee shop chain. The Interview was easy and I knew the wage was going be bad and they take advantage, because that place got really busy and there was no extra money paid during weekends. However I felt lucky. At least I got something, 15 bucks per hour not too bad, could be worse.

Although almost every night ended up in the hostels common area or the “Flinders Joint Bar” (well apart from some little clubs with terrible DJs), because of no passes out after 12 and really high cover charges for top clubs like “brown alley” , the first 2 weeks were heaps of fun. I met a lot of people I’m still in contact with and a really good mate, Steve, a Taiwanese fella who is really into techno and electro. And after learning first survival skills, like buying groceries at Aldi or Big W, changing drinking habits, meaning consuming more cheap wine, Australia turned not out not to be more expensive than Germany.

As great the nights were in the hostel the harder it was to do well at work, so Steve and I researched a while on share apartments. We checked out a few apartments in the city, but all too pricy. A few days after Steve got kicked out of the hostel for excessive wine consume (well he doesn’t even remember what happened) we (well actually it was him xD) found a really decent and share house about 35 minutes away from the city centre for only 70 $ / week. We are now living together with 3 Indians and one Vietnamese in a pretty nice area called Maribyrnong. Here we have 2 big shopping malls and a huge park close by. The room mates are all really easy going, and I could even convince one of them, Royston, he’s from Goa, India, to go jogging with me. We also had a great BBQ party and the next one is gonna be tomorrow. The fact that we are so far away from the city centre is the only disadvantage.

As far as my working goes things have changed a lot as well. I got another job and a damn good one. A German mate from the hostel found it on gumtree.com.au it’s really easy and actually well paid. It’s basically just another door knocking sales job with the exception that you are not actually selling anything. How crazy is that? Well it’s simple: The Aussi government is offering homes free Insulation as part of a stimulus plan and also to increase energy efficiency throughout Aus. The pay is commission based, but so what? Having 4 sales a day is not hard..and that’s 30 $ per sale. Well but because I gave my schedule room for this job the coffee club fired me. The sub manager was actually telling me that I was doing a good job, but I guess the fu***** boss couldn’t accept that this job was only second priority to me. Well anyhow I don’t really care. So right now I trying to find something else for weekends…and also because this insulation job is not really safe, as time approaches more and more houses get done and there is much competition. Well there is a good saying, as one door closes many new open…

Altogether Melbourne is really nice city. I love the St. Kilda Beach, with those hilarious penguins, this city offers amazing concerts, clubs and events like the Stereosonic festival with a great line up…although entry charges are high it’s always worth it. Laurent Garnier, Steve Bug, Fedde Le Grande and Deadmaus have only been a few great acts. Even the Minimal Electro influence from Berlin is undeniable!

Cheers … catch you all later!

---

Photos

BBQ Party
right: Steve Chung left: Simer, Royston

Laurent Garnier
most awesome beats

Adrian (German Backpacker)
It feels like home

Steve Bug
at Docklands