I've finally flown over from Singapore and arrived to Australia. I will be starting my travels in Melbourne. It's very nice to be back to a more westernized world, and it is very similar to being back home in Canada around here. I will now have to get used to staying in dorms rooms again with rather than having my own luxurious room/chalet as I had in Asia.

Melbourne: I arrived to Melbourne early in the morning and since it's their winter, I was surprised at how cold it was. Despite my expectations of a slightly cooler climate, I was freezing since I have yet to buy warmer clothing. The weather was not very cooperative the first few days as it was cold, windy & raining most of them so it wasn't very encouraging to go sightseeing.

There is so much to do in Melbourne so I stayed for about a week to get a good feel for the city. The city is really nice, with tons of cafes, great restaurants/bars, and lots of shopping. They have many free attractions and a free bus/tram for tourists which is fantastic for us budget travellers. Wandering the streets can take days & it's just nice to see the alleys/arcades and cool architecture to all their buildings. I also had the opportunity of being shown around town by Sophie (Ed's sister-in-law who lives in Melbourne) & we walked around the small suburb of St. Kilda & on the boardwalk of the beach. It was the first nice & sunny day since I've been in Oz. We also had a few other locals show us to some of their cool bars, and we were surprisingly allowed into some despite our backpacker attire. People in Melbourne tend to dress up quite a bit so we still stand out as backpackers. I do blend in a bit more in Australia compared to Asia though. The markets of Melbourne have also been fantastic. As I now have to cook, many of us would take daily trips to buy fresh meat, fish, produce & cook together...I've been eating great food & it's kind of nice to have something other than rice & noodles. In order to get away from the city, a group of 4 of us decided to rent a car to go to a National park & drive down the great ocean road. Myself, 2 from Germany (Marieke & Fabian), & 2 Belgian girls (Stephanie & Sandrine) all took off for a 3 day roadtrip.

Great Ocean Road: Very beautiful, road that follows along the ocean with many spectacular views along the way. We stopped off to see the various beaches (Bells Beach), where many of the surfers are out on the powerful waves, the 12 apostles rock formations & to many other areas on the drive. I also got to see my first koala and kangaroo on this drive!! We did have a few moments of sun in the morning but unfortunately weather wasn't great in the afternoon. We had to drive about an hour to find accomodations since most backpacker places were full. When we finally arrived to Warnhambool, they were having a wildlife display for the tour group at our hostel so it was great to see some of the other Australian wildlife. I even wanted to take home a few pets

Grampians: We went out to the mountain area to do some hiking as well. We did a hike up to a pinnacle on the first day to get a good view but it was a little too cloudy but the walk was great! On the next day, we used the bikes from the guesthouse to go do some mountain biking in the Grampians. They had 5 bikes, one which would not adjust in seat height so we all had to rotate using that one as you could only last about 10 minutes of biking uphill before you'd be exhausted! Thank goodness most of the trip was downhill b/c the short 5 km uphill journey was plenty with the bikes we had.

The entire road trip was great! We saw some amazing stuff & had a good group of people to travel with so I'm looking forward to more roadtrips like this as I travel through Australia. I will be heading off to Sydney tonight after my 1st week in Melbourne.