After some difficult goodbyes in Albany (our home for 7 months!), then a few short days in sunny Perth watching our first Ashes test, swimming and BBQ-ing with Alex, we took a short 3 hour flight over to Melbourne (arriving in the middle of the night- luckily Melbourne is definitely a 24 hour city so we had no problem getting an Uber, then checking into our hostel.) We had booked an 8 bed dorm in the Melbourne Metro YHA for 2 weeks ish and our first (late night) impressions were less than amazing! Our room was very, VERY small, with 4 bunk beds squeezed into it and a lot of mess on the floor and we were greeted by a monotone receptionist upon check in, which meant I went to sleep about 2am wondering if we should have stayed on the west coast! Luckily, we settled into the hostel over the next few days, with tidier and friendlier roommates moving in, and making the most of the large seating area downstairs to chat and hang out in, due to our room being so small.

The first day we treated ourselves to a lie in, as we’d been getting up so early the previous week, then decided to take an ad hoc stroll around the CBD, to get our bearings. Our hostel, though slightly out of the city in North Melbourne, was actually only a 4/5 minute walk from the free tram zone, which meant we could hop on there and ride into the centre (only about a 5 min journey) for free each time! Subsequently, we made it 2 weeks without ever having to pay for a tram ride! We discovered the culture rich centre of Melbourne over the first 3 days, exploring the laneways with tiny coffee shops and street food, as well as doing a self guided walking tour to see the Victorian (as in 19th century, not the people of Victoria- which is what they call themselves!) and early 20th century built arcades, complete with amazing Art Deco tiles and hidden heritage pieces. We also viewed some of the famous graffiti of Melbourne, including on AC/DC lane near the Main Federation Square. So many of the tiny streets are lit up with bright paint, some offering non-cohesive shapes, while some displayed large pieces of artwork. Amongst all of this, we stopped to sample some of the most popular coffee shops, including on the South Bank next to the Yarra River, where we met up with my housemate of 3 years, Kat! It’s always so good to see familiar faces in new places, even when we’ve seen Western Australian friends in Melbourne!

We decided, for the first time on this trip, to pay for some group tours, as we don’t have a car anymore and some of the things we wanted to see would have been a hell of a drive away! The first tour we did was the Phillip Island tour to see the famous ‘Penguin Parade’, when the (tiny- 1 foot tall!) penguins march up the beach to find their homes at sunset (some of them walk up to 2km! Poor little penguin feet.) This tour was not the best, simply due to the fact that the rest of the day was spent filling time until sunset and until it was time to watch the penguins- we visited various places along the route, all of which were extremely busy with tourists! Not an easy transition for us from the chilled out and empty lands of WA! The penguin parade itself made for spectacular and interesting viewing though. Hilariously, the penguins edge out the water very cautiously, and will back away into the sea again a few times until they’re sure it’s safe to walk across the beach in a large group for safety- no group seemed to want to be the first to walk, so we kept seeing groups and then they disappeared again! One group stood near the shore for a while, seemingly having a meeting about their plan of action! Then, all of a sudden, they sprint/waddle (as fast as their tiny feet can go!), up the beach to go and find their homes in the sand dunes/grassy area. The centre at Phillip Island actually build boxes for them to sleep in also, and earlier on we saw a few penguins already snuggled up in their boxes ready for penguin dreaming!

Accomodation: Melbourne Metro YHA in a teensy tiny 8 bed room!
Highlights: the penguin parade, free tram zone, night markets, walking tour of the lameways.