Starting Things Off In Melbourne
After getting organized at the airport it was time to figure out how to get into Melbourne and where to stay. Since I hadn't gotten good sleep for over a day I thought I would get a hotel for a night just to have some privacy and recover. After paying $6 for 30 minutes of internet I discovered that it would cost a minimum of $100 to stay in a hotel and at that rate I decided a hostel would suit me just fine!
I got on the SkyBus and was on my way to the YHA I found before I left. After the confusion created by every 2 streets sharing roughly the same name, I found free internet access at a Krispy Kreme and rerouted myself to Flinders St. instead of Flinders Ln. I got myself a room and a membership for YHA, expecting to stay in YHA's often throughout my journey. I got to my room and discovered what seemed to be an antisocial girl and decided I probably wouldn't be meeting any life long friends on this night :P.
My feelings toward the YHA quickly changed after I discovered I would have to pay $8/day for internet! Blasphemy! I used the $8 internet to search for a different place to stay in the upcoming days. After reaching another point of weakness due to hunger it was time to find dinner. I was going to eat in the cafe downstairs but soon discovered that it was only open for breakfast and lunch. Onward and upward! I walked around and found an event center that has fire shooting out every hour, though I wasn't aware of this until later.
A kebab seemed like the simplest, cheapest, fastest thing to have for dinner so I sat and ate by the water, waiting for the fire, which of course didn't come.
After the kebab I headed back for the hostel because I was more than ready to go to bed! I think it was about 8.30 or 9 and I slept straight through until morning. I woke up the following morning, packed up my belongings and checked out. I went to breakfast just downstairs in Five66 with one of my roommates, a Welsh girl named Kat. I was pleasantly surprised with my choice of granola, apples and yogurt, since I'm not much a fan of yogurt I didn't expect much but it was quite tasty! After we ate she told me a great deal about her travels in Australia and informed me of her must see recommendations.
After breakfast we parted ways and I went back to the hostel to use the rest of my internet time to look for jobs. Kat told me about the free tram around Melbourne, so I hopped on and enjoyed the opportunity to not walk around with my belongs for a bit. One of the only things I remember from the overhead information on the tram was that there are 170 languages spoken in Melbourne, which seems to me to be an exceptionally large number of languages!
I found my next hostel and happily unloaded my belongings again before setting out to find some groceries.
My first Australian grocery shopping experience was successful, though food here is so very expensive!
I was really pleased with the Australian cheese I found but a cheese sandwich without butter is quite depressing. Thins salt and vinegar chips are possibly the best chips I've ever had so they made up for the lack of butter :).
I was thrilled to have free breakfast the next morning in the hostel. My body doesn't necessarily like the whole milk after not really having milk for years but I don't let that stop me :).
For anyone who's interested, the outlets are only slightly different than the ones used in the States. Really Australians, you found it necessary to slant them enough just to make it a pain in the rump? :P
I hadn't heard of Vegemite until Dan brought it to my attention and I was pleased to see it at breakfast so I could give it a taste. I didn't expect it to look quite as disgusting as it did but it did not look very appealing.
I tried it the following day and was not all that impressed by it and I was very happy that I was instructed to use only a small amount of I would have been quite sad to have such an overwhelming taste in such a large quantity. I don't think I'll be adding Vegemite to my diet anytime soon!
Free pancakes occur each Sunday as well and considering I try to remind myself not to eat pancakes because they make me feel sick, I was really happy with how good this one was!
