G'day! I am in Melbourne! Which is further away than Sydney is to Canada!

I arrived in Melbourne at about 2pm Sunday afternoon. With about 30 pounds on my back I just barely made it to the train and to the Jet Star counter on time. Actually I was quite early but not as early as I had planned. The funny thing is my backpack seems as heavy as the day me and Lindy left that lovely morning on October 4th, 2004. Anyway so my stay in Melbourne is until next Monday the 2nd.

So far it's been a nice little vacation. Once I arrived to the ghetto little domestic Avalon airport, I had to take a $14 "Sun Bus" into the city. The bus driver made small commentary and I proceeded to snore and drool. I was tired. I had stayed up until about 2:30-3am the previous night packing and just taking my time getting myself organized. ANYWAY, it was about a 50 minute ride so it was quite the power nap. Once we reached our bus depot drop off, I had to lug my backpack approximately 400 metres down the street to catch the tram. Melbourne is very efficient with public transportation. There are electric trams that go all over the city. There are also buses that run out in the suburbs as well as a train system like Sydney. It's really annoying because you can only pay by coins on the trams. Luckily some nice chick had $5 in change when I was asking around. So I continued on to the Base Hostel in St. Kilda, which is a nice beach/area just 25 minutes out of Melbourne's CBD (Central Business District). I had no problems finding the hostel as I had printed out some handy dandy directions in an email they sent me.

If you do decide to travel and hostel it while you are travelling, you will experience all sort of interesting places and smells and levels of cleanliness. The Base is a newer chain of hostels that operate in Australia and New Zealand. All I have to say is that I am well impressed with them. I stayed on the Sanctuary floor which is catered to all girls. I paid $30/night for a 6 bed dorm style room that has its own private ensuite (or bathroom as we like to call it in Canada). Compared to other hostels I've stayed at this was 5 star resort luxury!!! It didn't even smell of dirty feet or other mysterious smells! It was clean, it was new, and I had found heaven. Once I checked in, they gave me 2 small bottles of Aveda shampoo and conditioner and a nice clean white towel. They also gave me an access card which gets me through the doors. The security is pretty tight you even need it to work the elevators. The room was small not alot of area to do jumping jacks or anything but it was clean and that's all that matters really. There are 3 bunkbeds which is nice and new and don't shake and quake when someone is climbing up to the top bunk. We once stayed at one hostel that didn't even have ladders on the bunks! You just sort of had to fling yourself up there! I should have took pictures of the bathroom. Darn, maybe next time. It was comparable to a swanky hotel bathroom.

So being Sunday, there is a market along the beach where local artists go to sell their stuff. I picked up a cute little wallet/change purse with a cool graphic on the front for $8. I walked along the beach and was amazed at all the palm trees. I haven't really ever noticed any palm trees in Sydney. It looked like Cali to me. I went camera happy.

It was a bit cloudy but it was still quite nice out. I just chilled along the beach and wandered around. I went back to the hostel a bit later, took a shower and waited until Linda called me. Originally she was supposed to meet up at around 7:30...then it turned to 8:30...then 9 rolled around. So I killed some time at the local Mac D's. Did you know they have internet there now! Unbelievable! I enjoyed my Filet O' Fish and surfed for a bit. I then went for a little walk and waited...and waited...met a cute guy who was also from Sydney. He even did a little rap for me. Finally 10:30 rolled around and Linda showed up with a car full of her friends. We went for coffee and dessert at a cafe close by. Saw a guy open a taxi door and puke right in front of us. Thank god I was done my strawberry crepe or I woulda spewed right there. The girls were really funny and nice. We then went for a brief walk down the pier at St. Kilda. It was super windy and chilly so we went back to the car to warm up. Yes, I'm still a CANADIAN GIRL but I just haven't experienced winter for quite some time. It has been almost a year since I have been in colder than +15 weather. They then took me to check out the Crown Casino here. It's a huge entertainment complex with vegas style slots and tables and also, lots of eats and shopping and theatres and night clubs. It's basically west edmonton mall but more of a casino and not as big. The night ended at around 3:30am when I stumbled into the dark dormroom trying not to disturb anyone's sleep.//

Next day, Monday.

Breakfast at Mac D's again, actually lunch since it was just a few minutes after 11...which really annoys me! I was looking forward to some hotcakes and hashbrowns. Then shopping on Smith Street with Lindy. She bought an awesome pair of Nikes for $60. Went to have a smoothie at MelonHead which is a cute little juice bar owned by this Japanese couple. Similar to Booster Juice back in Edmonton but it sells sushi, fresh juice, smoothies and ice cream. I know weird combo eh? Walked downtown and stared at this half naked guy in a CK ad on the side of a building. Have to see it to believe it. Hehe.

[insert pic here]

Anyway, we walked up to Federeation Square which is this amazing architectural area where they have concerts and events outside. The buildings are very cool and different.

This is me in front of Flinders Station where you catch trains that go out to the suburbs of Melbourne. You can see the tram in the background. Good pic Lindy!

[insert pic here]

Lindy left for the train around 5 and I got lost trying to make my way back to the tram to take back to St. Kilda. I got back and it was dark and I was exhausted. Took an hour nap and then went out to Mac D's yet again. I felt like I was making a new documentary called Super Size Jazz. I probably gained about 10 pounds just from the few times I ate there in 2 days. Hung out in the common area at the hostel until about 11:30 and went back to the room to sleep.

The Lonesome Traveller...
At times I get waves of loneliness because travelling on your own is pretty tough especially if you are like me and can't make small talk and have difficulties going up to people. "hey....how YOU doin?!" But then there are other times when I am just really content with travelling on my own because I can do whatever the hell I want and not have to ask if the other person wants to do this or do that. On Tuesday I even went to see a movie BY MYSELF!!! Haha laugh it up kids but when you are bored and in a city where you don't know anyone, you tend to do stuff you would never normally do at home. And hey it was cheap Tuesday which meant I only paid $6 to see "In Good Company" with Topher Grace and that chick from Lost in Translation. It was a cute movie. Too bad I missed the end. I fell asleep. Hehe.

Tuesday...Yeah Tuesday was a boring day.
I woke up early to check out of the hostel. I had seen enough of St. Kilda and wanted to move into the city. I got a voucher to stay at any Base in Australia or NZ though as I had originally paid for 3 nights. SO I moved into a place called Hotel Bakpak and it was pretty much the total opposite of the Base. I shared a 6 bed dorm with 5 other girls. A few of the girls must have been there for a while as their stuff was EVERYWHERE. spread out on the bed, the floor...under the bed. It was disgusting and I was like ew, I am going to find another place to stay after this. It's like comparing the Hilton to a ghetto Econo Lodge. Actually it wasn't that bad but coming from a nice clean, have your own bathroom to the smelly dirty place with skanky toilets and showers was a shock to the system. I stayed out the whole day, shopping, eating viet food by myself (which has become routine since I miss my viet food so much!) and seeing a movie by mself until I stumbled in at around 12 and went to sleep.

Wednesday
Next morning, I checked out. I wanted to say something to reception about the cleanliness of the girls/room. If they had been less skanky I may have considered staying there because of the location but it was such a big turn off. I never knew girls could be so messy!! Anyway, so I had researched and came up with a new hostel called the YHA Melbourne Metro which is just up the street in North Melbourne. On Tuesday, I had decided to book a tour that goes up the Great Ocean Road which is a really nice scenic drive. [Insert "I will post pics soon" here.] So I got a YHA card which is $37 for a year membership. Anyway it's regularly $120 for the tour but it was only $80 for me! yay. What was I trying to get at again? Oh yeah so with the new YHA card I also get discounts on hostels and other stuff. So I decided to try out the YHA hostel in North Melbourne. Very nice.

The guy told me I couldn't check in until 12 so I had to wait around in the cafeteria/common room area. I splurged and got myself some poached eggs and hashbrowns with toast and an OJ. Pretty expensive at $8! Oh well I was hungry and not prepared to eat Mac D's again. I got up to my room which was a 4 share room because I didn't pre-book. It's nice and spacious compared to the other hostels. Very clean too. I don't like not having a bathroom in the room but it's okay. It's really clean for the most part. Almost like an institution or something. Haha I had to compare it to something. Maybe it was an institution before. Maybe I AM a mental patient living in a mental institution and all this is a dream...ahaha! Anyway so I spend the day walking around again until I met up with Linda in the suburbs of Melbourne. It took about an hour to get to her local Safeway and then a 15 minute walk to her house. We had a nice roasted lamb dinner with her "family" and their cousins. It was so nice to have a home cooked meal. I am still dreaming about it! I got dropped off at the Clayton train station and got to the hostel at around 11 or so....

Thursday
I crawled out of bed at around 7am and got ready to be picked up by APT as I was doing the Great Ocean Road day trip. When I got home Wednesday night after a fun night trip on the train back from the Melbourne suburbs, I saw a note taped to the dorm room. "Jasmine Joe please see reception". Well the reception desk closed at 10pm so I checked in with them at 7:30 before the coach was due to pick me up. The lady at the front desk was a little on the slow side and had no clue as to why that note was left on my door. I was getting slowly impatient and started inching toward the door just in case I missed the pick up for my tour. Luckily, she had found a phone message for me. Apparently my tour was cancelled and I had to go on a different one. I was like "oh that's lovely!!" of course dripping with my signature sarcasm. I phoned up the APT office and tried to remain calm. The Great Ocean Road tour I wanted to go on had a cool little walk on a suspension bridge in the middle of a forest called the Otoway National Park. Unfortunately, numbers were not high enough for this tour so I had to go with the normal one without the hike up in the trees. Darn. Oh well maybe next time. ANYwho, so the coach came at about 7:45 and it took about 20 minutes to make our way around to the other hotels for pick ups. Finally arrived at Swanston Street where we got off and tried to find a blue flag that said Great Ocean Road. Boarded the coach and it was off for a fun filled day of adventure!

I can't remember alot of detail about the drive up so I will have to rely on my pictures to help trigger my memory. It was a long day and I took several naps and a half. I was groggy. We stopped at several places along the Great Ocean Road.

First stop, Torquay Surf Beach. Awesome views and cute surfers to boot.

Apollo Bay followed shortly after. We had "Billy Tea" which is a type of Aussie tea that they brewed in tin cans and served with Aussie Lemington cakes which are jelly filled chocolate covered cakes with coconut sprinkles (yummy!) and biscuits with Vegemite (salty spread chock full of essential vitamins; tastes as good as it sounds!). I saved the Vegemite and maybe one lucky reader will receive it in the mail one day ;) hehe. See pics below.

I can't remember where this was but these 2 surfer boys were trying to break into their own car and jimmy the lock! haha it was funny to see so I took a picture from the bus.

Another cool pic. This is what I picture when you think about living the surfer's lifestyle...

The Great Ocean Road

A Friendly Reminder...haha had to take a photo of this sign

Nice view.

And finally folks, what you've all been waiting for. The Twelve Apostles. Beautiful! Just wish it was a little more sunny but the photos don't do it justice.

check out the hair!! ahaha it was really WINDY that day...not the most flattering of pics but I was there.

Loch Ard's Gorge. A freak wave came up and crashed a ship into the gorge. Only 2 people survived. Kinda reminds me of the place in Thailand where the Beach was filmed.

A view of the gorge from above...breath-takingly beautiful!

This is called the London Bridge. It used to be a full bridge until 1990. A married guy and his secretary were supposed to be at a business conference but were found here when the bridge collapsed leaving them stranded on top of the rock! Interesting story but hey karma's a biatch isn't it? hehe.

Okay that is it for now, it's getting dark and my time is up at the net cafe...until next time...thanks for reading.

jazzy in melbourne