Exploring Melbourne: A Personal Story
Arriving in Melbourne, I was exhausted and disgusting from my two overnight flights. Unfortunately, I arrived too early to check into my hostel and my phone was dead and I lacked the proper adapter to recharge it, so first order of business was to go find an adapter.
From there, I also picked up lunch at a delightful sushi shop just a few doors down and settled into the downstairs lounge of my hostel until check-in rolled around, and I could shower. A couple of hours later I was showered and ready to go exploring.
Getting around Melbourne
One of the first really awesome things to note about Melbourne is they have a free tram system that covers the very center of the town with a special “tourist” line that goes around the city center including commentary. I had picked out a number of spots I wanted to check out, but occasionally would hop on the tram to expedite my arrival.
A favorite would definitely have to be the Queen Victoria Market which offers an array of fresh foods from fruit to cheese to some ready-made snacks. Another exciting part, Friday’s it has a special food fest where food trucks line up offering all kinds of food.
Another pleasant part of the day included walking around the waterfront which appears to be very new with fancy apartment buildings and restaurants. While I wouldn’t necessarily say there are a lot of “must see” destinations in downtown, the whole downtown is well put together with wonderful surprises along the way, not to mention super easy to get around!
I called it an early night to recoup from my two nights of short airplane sleep and woke up to a grey rainy day. I once again picked up some food for lunch and decided to plot out my time in Australia.
How to Plan Tours and Time in Australia
To see how to best plan my future time in Australia, I stopped by the hostel’s Peter Pan tour desk to find out about my options to explore the Great Ocean Road the next day and also to find out more about my upcoming time traveling from the Gold Coast to Cairns. I spent a quantity of time talking with the agent who, if I had to guess ,was doing a working holiday.
That is extremely common in Australia and New Zealand. In fact, I would guess almost half of the hostel was full of people who had been working in Australia, were currently working and trying to find a more permanent housing situation, or were looking for jobs.
By the time we wrapped up our conversation, I had booked a trip on the Reverse Great Ocean Road trip through Wildlife Tours for the following day. I also had a giant stash of flyers about tours up North since it appears many areas on the coast are islands meaning it’s not really possible to “do it yourself” – darn!
Venturing to St. Kilda
Having waited out the rain, I headed out to St. Kilda by tram. St. Kilda is a beachside area featuring lots of cafes and bars along with of course the beach and a wonderful pier. The unfortunate part about my trip out there is I had to purchase a Myki card at $6 in order to buy my true tram tickets by putting credit on it, but even so it was worthwhile.
For one, it was a special day so people watching was at its best. It was Halloween which caused costumed characters to appear everywhere, it was the Melbourne Cup creating a large population of fancy black and white dresses, hats, and heels, and lastly, it was the night of the Rugby World Cup with Australia playing New Zealand.
The adventure out to St. Kilda on the tram was met with the late afternoon sun on the beach facing the absolutely freezing cold ocean (of course I had to stick my toes in!). As the sun started to sink further down, I made my way to the pier in hopes of spotting the penguins that hideout in the rocks surrounding the pier. I was in luck as I spotted quite a few of the cute little critters and even was able to snap a few photos. Wild penguins! It was really very exciting to me.
After watching sunset and admiring the skyline of Melbourne, I started walking through the streets of St. Kilda lined with restaurants and bars everywhere, all of which were packed. I slowly worked my way back up the tram line before eventually jumping back on having had my fix of drunk groups of black and white dress clad women stumbling all over themselves.
Back in Melbourne, Halloween was definitely in full swing as characters rushed around from point to point in a wide variety of costumes. I personally did not have a costume nor was I planning to attend the Halloween party hosted by my hostel as honestly, I was feeling pretty relaxed and had an early morning to explore the Great Ocean Road. All in all, Melbourne was truly lovely, and I would guess a very livable city – in many ways, I think more so than Sydney which I visited years ago.
