It's true! I was back in Australia! I took the bus from the airport to the city centre and walked to my nearby hostel, the Melbourne Traveler's Connection. It was a short walk, but it was enough to teach me an important lesson. Melbourne is a COLD city in winter! Sure it wasn't less than ten degrees, but I was shivering. I know that ten degrees is still t-shirt and shorts weather in Canada, but I had spent more than four months in the hottest places I've ever been. My tolerance for cold had definitely been diminished. Brrr! I didn't have a lot of warm weather clothing; just my jeans and hoodie. It was enough to ward off the cold, though. I still I think I was doing better than the native Melbournians! Most of them were dressed up in proper winter parkas, scarves, hats, and gloves. As a Canadian, I found it somewhat funny. I guess I did still have some of my cold tolerance, after all.
I was in Melbourne for several reasons. First, some of the cheapest flights to and from Asia were based from here. It made a good hub. Also, Joe Clancy lived here, and I left some of my stuff at his house (in particular, I wanted my MacBook back!).
My future plans weren't really established yet. I had almost one month in Australia on this leg of my trip. I had until July 18 (the date of my next booked flight: Melbourne to Samoa) to wander around. I still wasn't feeling very motivated to take on work in Australia. I just wanted to backpack around and enjoy the hostel scene for a while. I spent my time in Melbourne figuring out exactly where I wanted to go. In general, I knew that I wanted to go to Alice Springs (and nearby Uluru), Darwin (and nearby Kakadu), and Cairns. I was undecided about the order I was to visit those locations and the methods of travel, though. I wanted at least overland leg through The Outback to see the desolation and country, though.
Anyways, enough waxing of philosophy. I hadn't slept a lot on the plane and in the airport on the way from Hong Kong, but I didn't feel like sleeping right away in Melbourne. The weather was brisk and I went for a walk. I quickly visited a cash machine to get money. I stopped off at 7-11 to get a top-up for Australian Vodaphone. My Australian phone number was alive again! Anyone want to call me? +61450048780. Just don't call me when I'm sleeping.
Melbourne in June feels and looks much like Toronto in October or November. The leaves were gone from the trees, the air is brisk, and the people are bundled up. It was a nice feeling to experience, for a while at least. I really wanted to be in warm places rather than cold ones.
I hope these photos give you a bit of the feeling of the Melbourne Winter:
That night I got in touch with Joe. His girlfriend, Natalie Thompson was having a going-away party that night. She was leaving her job to go to Singapore for school for a while. I met up with Joe, Natalie, and a bunch of their friends at dumpling restaurant in Chinatown. I had just left Asia, and I was already eating Asian food again! Ha ha. After dinner, we went to the Eurotrash bar for drinks. Joe and I had tried to go to this bar back in March, but the night we wandered there it was Lesbian Night and they didn't really want us there. No problems this time around, though. Good night.
June 21, 2008
I slept in. Was I jet lagged, or just sleep-deprived? It doesn't matter. Sleep is good.
It was Saturday! Joe had the day off, so I took the train to his house after lunch. I was happily reunited with my MacBook (joy!) and a few other odds-and-ends I had left at his place for the past three months. Natalie shared some of her very-garlicky homemade hummus and we made peanut butter cookies. We chatted for a while and had some tea. Joe and Natalie had a date to see the new Indiana Jones movie that night. I had already seen it, so went back to the hostel.
I had spotted an advertisement in an entertainment newspaper in the hostel earlier that day for an album launch party for The Futureheads at a bar in Fitzroy. I tried to draft a few of the people from the hostel to go with me. Some of them initially said they would go, but later decided not to go (this was actually a recurring problem with people from this hostel). Instead, we bought beers and goone (it had been a while since I had seen that stuff, that's for sure) and stayed in the hostel TV room instead.
I found myself in a new little clique of people. It was me, Gio (a girl from Ottawa, Canada), Haley (a girl from England), Alex (a guy from England), Phil (a guy from England), and a few other people (English and Irish). All of us were traveling alone, but, by the virtue of association from staying in the hostel, we ended up forming a clique. Things like that happen pretty often in the backpacker world.
The primary activity of our group was being cheap and staying in the hostel TV room watching movies and TV. The English guys in particular liked to watch this car show called Top Gear. The girls weren't so interested in it. They frequently had discussions ("fights" is too harsh a word here) about who should be controlling the remote. I didn't really care so much about what was on the TV, so I just sat back and laughed.
There were other cliques in the hostel, too. There were some other Canadians, but they were from Western Canada and I don't think they liked us Eastern Canadians. Bah. There was also the clique of people that spent hours and hours in the DVD room in the basement. Bah! DVD people! We were the TV clique.
June 22, 2008
Didn't do much today. Reunited with my MacBook, I spent a lot of time in the State Library of Victoria taking advantage of their free wireless internet. Spent the night hanging out with the TV clique in our office (the hostel TV room).
There was talk between Gio, Haley, and I about going to Coober Pedy or Alice Springs together. I wanted to go to Alice Springs and Darwin next. Gio wanted to go to Coober Pedy, which was on the way to Alice Springs. No decisions were made, yet.
June 23, 2008
Joe had lent me his City Library Card so I spent some time there to find some books to borrow. I hoped to have more selection of reading material than the meagre hostel book exchange shelves or from opportunistic trades with other backpackers. Yes, there were many more books there, but most of the ones I wanted were lost or on loan. I hadn't borrowed books from any libraries in many years... was it always this hard to find books to read at the library?
I met up with Joe for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant near his office. We spent some time talking about my next steps in Australia. He gave me some ideas about things to do in Alice Springs and Darwin and how to get there. Joe is always a gold mine of travel information. I really enjoy meeting up with him.
After lunch, I met up with Haley and Gio at the State Library, again to take advantage of the free internet. Free is the best price. I did some research into the costs of renting a car or flying. Alice Springs, sadly, is a very expensive place to get to in Australia. Haley and Gio seemed to be traveling on an even tighter budget than I was (I quickly realized, on my trip, that my budget requirements were generally more generous than most backpackers' were), and said they wouldn't be able to make the trip. Haley, however, needed to go to Cairns, next, on her way to the USA afterwards. Since I wanted to go to Cairns, too, Haley and I decided to try to see the place together. Its not that I was unwilling to go somewhere by myself, but it is usually more fun to have a travel buddy.
However, no concrete plans were made yet. Haley had her credit card and cash swiped when she was in Adelaide. She was waiting for her new credit card to come soon. It should be just a few more days.
On the way back from the library, I stopped off at the Crumpler shop to buy myself a new manbag. The old one that I bought in Cambodia (for US$9) was falling apart after only two months of use. I was used to having a bag now, and it was convenient for carrying my laptop computer around, so I decided to buy a new one in Melbourne. Crumpler is a Melbourne-based company with a reputation of making excellent quality bags that look good, so I shelled out the cash. I picked out a cool messenger bag for AU$150. Hopefully this one last longer than two months.
That night Haley and I, along with some random English guys (yes, I was back in Australia where the overwhelming majority of backpackers seem to be English) from the hostel went to an Irish Pub for drinks. We were feeling a bit pent up in the hostel and needed to go out that night. The pub had cheap drinks at the start of the night (AU$4 of the crap beer), but the price escalated through the night (AU$5 when we left, but the menu showed that it reached AU$6 or AU$7 later). The place was crowded and lively. A cover band set up on the stage and played some tunes for us. I was amused that they played Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69". Cheesy Canadian Music!
June 24, 2008
I decided that I had been in Melbourne long enough. The cold was bothersome. I had been wearing the same hoodie and jeans for four days in a row. I wanted to wash them, but they I would be cold while they were being washed. I needed to go to Cairns where it would be warm again. Haley said that her credit card was still "a few days away," and I should go to Cairns anyway. She would catch up next week.
Gio and I met up at the library at 12 noon sharp. Virgin Blue sells tickets at a discount during happy hour (noon to 1 PM), so we looked for cheap flights. She was trying to find a cheap flight to Mackay so she could visit some people in Bowen who were going to give her free room and board. To my surprise, the cheapest flight I could find to Cairns was the very next day. Any other flights during the rest of the week were more expensive. I booked it. It was decided.
That evening, I met up with Joe for some drinks. After all, it was my last night in Melbourne. Was spent a few hours with a couple drinks at a bar overlooking Flinders Lane. The conversation that I remember the most was the one where he described to me, in detail, the services (and how I should take advantage of them) that Air New Zealand would offer to me on the day I flew business class to Samoa. It was gonna be good! It was gonna be amazing!
That night, the TV clique stayed up late switching it up and watching DVDs in the DVD room. Gio had copies of Beverly Hills Cop and Coming to America. It was Eddie Murphy night!
June 25, 2008
My flight today wasn't leaving until the late in the afternoon, so I had some time to kill after checking out from the hostel. Joe had recommended the National Gallery of Victoria to me. It was a free art gallery and there was a chandelier that he recommended that I see. After taking advantage of the free internet at the State Library again, I headed on down there. There was a cool wall of water in the gallery lobby. Click on the picture below for a larger version. The fuzzy silhouette behind the wall is a security guard. The clear silhouettes in front of the wall are statues.
Alas, the chandelier that Joe recommended wasn't there anymore. I wandered around the art gallery for a while and enjoyed the art. After a while, though, I got bored and left. I took a brisk walk in The Domain and Yarra Riverfront across the street. I did very little sightseeing in Melbourne this time around, so I took some photographs.
I got back at the hostel at 1:30 to eat the last of the food I had stashed there and to say goodbye to my friends there. Gio walked me to the bus station. We promised to try and stay in touch. Soon enough, the Skybus whisked me away to the airport.
I had to fly though Sydney to get to Cairns. Even though I had only booked the ticket the day before, I was given emergency exit row seats on both flights! Sweet! It seemed that I had been booking a lot of flights lately at nearly-the-last-minute and I got exit row seats fairly often. I wonder if there's a lesson to be learned there?
I landed in Cairns past sunset. It was warm though and it had recently rained. Hopefully I enjoy the weather here more than the weather in Melbourne!
1 comment:
happy canada day!
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