Sunny-Rainy-Sunny-Cloudy-Sunny Melbourne

12th - 21st January 2015

Melbourne was a place I had really enjoyed visiting when I came for the Formula 1 two years ago and I have always been keen on returning. I would quite like to see the Melbourne Grand Prix again so the plan was to find some work that would take me up to or past mid-March.

St Kilda Beach

I checked into a hostel in St Kilda which was one of the few places I could find free parking in the city and headed down to the beach to see the penguins which is always fun. Everything looked exactly the same as it had two years ago so I had no problem finding my way around. It was a lot busier this time around with it being mid summer. There was the usual idiots using flash on cameras which was met by much murmuring and tutting.

Penguin

Melbourne by night

I questioned my decision to book into a hostel about an hour after I arrived. I now had to share a room as well as the kitchen facilities and everything I wanted was in my car so I kept having to go back a forth to it. I had paid $30 a night and the only thing I had gained was access to a hot shower and electricity which could be found elsewhere anyway. I had already paid for two nights so I made the most of it and then I went to meet Wannes and Nele who had arrived in a car park near the port where there were quite a number of people sleeping in cars and vans and nobody seemed to mind.

Not a bad city car park to sleep in

I had orignally planned to head over to Tasmania before working and it was almost cruel when I had to watch the Spirit of Tasmania ferry leave the port twice a day! I would be very low on funds by the time I returned and I would rather not get desperate again (see Adelaide!) My look for work was kind of half hearted though. I wasn't desperate for the money at the time and I had other things I wanted to do in Melbourne before I started work. I decided to spend a couple of hours a day in the library on Gumtree looking for work and save that more thorough and more frustrating job search until I was ready. Leaving the library I went for a stroll around the city stopping off at one of the places I was really looking forward to visiting, the Australian Open tennis courts where I bought my tickets for the following week.

Gearing up

Dancing and stuff

I past by Flinders Square which is never a quite spot and Flinders Street Station and explored the small side streets of the city which have become quite famous.

Well I can do that

Flinders Street Station

Squeeze in!

Not much room

The next day I hung out with Wannes, Nele and Alicia as they explored the city. We went to Victoria Markets where I bought some socks and a curry! Random. Then we went to the Museum, decided it was too expensive and went through China Town and into a few shops.

Victoria Markets

Museum

China Town

Busker

We came across a bit of a commotion outside a big shop and we discovered that Serena Williams would be appearing to launch some sports bras so we thought we hang about to see her. She was a bit late and a busker appeared across the street who stole most of her audience. He was quite good. Eventually Serena turned up and did a speech before there was a bit of an acrobatic show.

Actual Serena Williams

After that we head down to the river where we found an interesting little bar perched on a concrete pillar bass under a bridge. The sun finally made an appearance so it was quite pleasant.

ugh that T-Shirt again!

Drinks in the sun

Wannes, Nele and Alicia carried on around the coast to Adelaide the next day and I went off to do a very special tour that gets its own blog so I'll say no more.

Eureka Tower

I considered going to the highest viewing platform in the Southern Hemisphere at the top of Eureka Tower but it was very expensive so I took a picture of the picture instead!

Its as good as seeing it for real!

I walked past a Formula 1 stand which only made me yearn to go to the race more so I vowed to increase my job hunting as soon as I can.

I wanna go!!!

Pretty city

I walked around a bit more and came across a rather impressive war memorial which I had not come across the first time I was in Melbourne so I had a quick wander around that.

War Memorial

Inside the memorial

Good view of the city

Very grand

My half hearted job searching was getting me nowhere. I had no real desire to work in a bar or be a waiter, not that I was getting any offers. I kinda fancied a nice simple job like maybe some farm work. Its ideal really. I needed short-term full-time work and was really easy to find. In fact after only a few hours searching I had a job.

So after a couple of days at the Australian Open (it warranted its own entry) I set off towards Robinvale on the NSW/VIC border for six weeks of watermelon picking, supposedly.

Goodbye Melbourne