So Long Sunshine, Hello Victoria

I arrived in Melbourne a few weeks ago... I'm not sure when to be precise, but a while back or thereabouts. I flew down on Virgin Blue and arrived at the YHA Melbourne Central hostel. The surly woman behind the counter seemed to disapprove of me, yet the hostel was friendly enough.

I befriended a group of cool Canadians and hung around with them for the two or three weeks I was in Melbourne. It mostly involved lazing around, walking through the city, mooching on the free Yarra Tram and Melbourne tourist shuttle, shopping in the Victoria Markets and drinking. Stacie had a birthday, so we went to Wagamamas*!!!

I also met up with a British girl I met in Hervey Bay who was traveling south at the time and ended up in Melbourne. Her, her friend and I also mooched around and lived the dream; we even went to an AFL game at the MCG.

Laura, Kate, Dan and I were walking along the north bank of the Yarra when we fell upon a reel of fishing wire. Dan followed the wire into the water, started pulling and discovered an eel on the end of it! To cries of "Throw the damn thing back! Don't touch it", he tried to unhook it. The eel wasn't so helpful and covered his hands and coat in eel slime. Eww!

The people in my dorm were somewhat weird; a bloke from the WA mines (Rio-Tinto or BHP Biliton) and a bloke who was making podcasts of weird people; he showed me a picture of a girl who was having a "scar tattoo" - ouch! They were both Olympic-standard snorers :(

Melbourne definitely has a Cafe Culture. You can't walk down a street without navigating through bustling cafes bursting onto the pavement.

For my final day, we went to a coffee shop that was recommended to me by my ex project manager friend from Seven. It turned out to be a long way from the centre, but it was filled with caek and very good cwoffee, so we didn't mind that much! :D


*The staff at Wagamama QV Melbourne were useless; they didn't know about the 250Points = Free Wagamama T-Shirt, and the night manager had to be told by another member of staff that Sydney was in Australia! The food was good, so if you find yourself in Melbourne, check it out, but make sure you don't ask them any er tricky geographical questions :P