After making it to the airport, I already knew things were looking up. When you’re prepping for traveling you plan for having lots of down time while going from A to B. You need to have a book, a movie, music or something to keep you entertained. It’s not until you’re traveling that you realize it’s still really hard to find downtime, even with the long flights and bus rides! You end up meeting people and entertaining each other with conversation!
I met a lovely fellow backpacker, Hope, and we chatted before our flight and connected on so many levels about traveling (why get on the plane first etc.) Then, on the flight, I met sat next to someone that lived in Melbourne and we chatted for 3 ½ hours about what to do there and other random things, like how she got this tattoo:
Her best friend and her both “connected” on the movie “Dude Where’s my Car?” and decided to get the same tattoos “dude” and “sweet” on the back of their necks. I thought this was pretty funny, and had to ask how they chose which one got which word. She said her friend didn’t want it to hurt too bad, so she chose “dude” since it had one less letter than “sweet.” I don’t know about you, but as a girl, I’d take the extra letter to have “sweet…”
She also showed me the proper way to eat Allen’s (gummies) and I quickly caught on:
I arrived in Melbourne late and checked in to the same hostel as Dan. He had to work the next day so I took myself on a grand walking tour of the city, walking to his restaurant, Vegie Bar and had a delicious meal, while watching chef Dan do his work:
I liked the city – it’s all on a grid with a free tram that goes around the perimeter. There is a street/area kind of like Capitol Hill in Seattle, called Fitzroy which has a ton of hippie shops with good, healthy food, clothes etc. – precisely where Dan worked 🙂
After staying a night in the hostel with Dan, I connected with Heidi and Kev Halson – friends of my mom’s friend Cyndi Arent, who lived in Templestowe – 20 minutes from Melbourne central. They were quick to offer me up a bed and house me while I was there. They were nice enough to let me borrow their car and drive around the backcountry there. I picked up Dan the next day and we went for a drive to a sanctuary/zoo, where we saw lots of Aussie nature/animals, including a Tasmanian Devil “feeding time” and this (endangered?) bird who literally gave us “the eye”:
I enjoyed the time with Heidi, Kev, and their son Michael. At night they would usually sit down together and start playing and singing songs on the guitar, which I quickly joined in to and eventually they were teaching me some guitar chords!
I drove to St. Kilda on a particularly windy day to go kiteboarding and had a great couple of hours – wish it could have been longer as I was just getting the hang of it, but that just incentivizes me more to get all my own gear and stay in one place for a bit, savoring the wind! I gotta make that happen soon… so many things get added to the todo list even while you’re checking a large one off of it – a good thing I suppose!
The next day Heidi and Kev took me downtown and showed me the sights – starting with some free drinks on the waterfront, courtesy of Mrs. Halson and her fame (she works/owns the Entertainment coupon book for Australia/New Zealand.)
Dan met up with us and got kicked out of the nice casino for not wearing pants 😛 But onward we went to walk through AC/DC lane, a block of graffitied walls – where it all started for the infamous rock group.
There was a lot of impressive graffiti there:
After running into some cute lil elves on roller skates in the casino and getting pictures with them, Heidi had decided that it would be the theme for the day – “Dan and Steven with girls.”
And so it continued…
The “ART + MEL” girls were promoting the art gallery of Melbourne, and Kev made the slap-stick joke to them, “so who is Mel and who is Art?” – furthering the embarrassment factor. We made it to the end of the alley and spotted a restaurant that Heidi had never seen, which, in the business that Heidi is in is rare. So we made the obligatory stop at Pastuso to do some “field research” for her work 🙂 Delicious research.
Dan had to leave early to work but Heidi, Kev and I headed on for more day drinks at the bar under the bridge – a novel idea/place to put a bar, which was quite popular:
On the way home we stopped by their friends house to say meet some more fantastic Aussies, Chantal and Dennis. They talked me into staying an extra day in Melbourne so I could join their fantastic Thanksgiving dinner, and Heidi even hooked me up with a later flight on a wayyy better airline! Chantal even connected me with someone in Cairns she was good friends with that would house me for the night! People are great here! Depression/reverse culture shock quickly adverted!
Thanksgiving was delicious and it was great to have a relaxed family-ish event with good people and a pool to swim in! I want to come back soon – thank you Heidi and Kev!
I liked Melbourne. I understand now why they call it THE “most livable city in the world.” Everything just fits together nicely – it’s not too big or too small, and everything is within reach. I’m interested to hear what Dan has to say about living 6 months there!
