Melbourne

I have spent the last week in the city of Melbourne. Melbourne is very different from Sydney in many ways, it has more of an urban feel with lots of tall buildings and a layout similar to Manhattan. The plane down only took about 1.5 hours and then a shuttle buss to the hostel which took about 30 minutes. The hostel that I stayed at is located right in the center of the city with easy access to most attractions.

I spent the first day just wandering around looking at buildings and getting to know the town. That evening I checked out the local pub that was in the same building as the hostel, the elevator actually opened up right into the place. The pub had 5 dollar dinners every evening except weekends, and the food was very good considering the price range. I ate dinner there 3 times and also beer to go with it. 5-7PM was "happy hour" with beers starting from $3.10.

On the third day I went down to St. Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne located by the ocean. There was a beautiful beach there, but it was very windy so it was close to impossible to go swimming. Melbourne has an amazing tram system that gets you almost everywhere. In fact I think Melbourne has the best public transport system in the country.

On Friday night I went on a pub crawl with one of my roommates. He was from Adelaide, but had previously lived in Melbourne. He took me to some very unique places. One was located down 2 allies that I would never have gone down alone, but once at the bottom there was an old factory that had been changed into a nightclub. They played hip-hop and Drum 'n base with live DJ's. We also went to an Irish pub with some crazy drunk Irish backpackers, one which we randomly met on the street looking for the place.

On Saturday I went to the Melbourne Zoo to relax and get my strength back. It was peaceful just walking alone looking at the different animals and taking pictures. They had everything from Kangaroos to Snow Leopards and anything in between. That evening I went to a casino with my other roommate. We didn't gamble, but bought cheap food and a beer and watched the "footy" final on a big screen. "Footy" as they call it down here, is a hybrid between American football and rugby.

Now I am sitting on the buss back to Sydney. It is a 14 hour drive, but I get to see more of the Australian countryside. It reminded me of America. The highway has "exits" with food courts just like in the states. We also drove past a section where the forest fires (the ones earlier this year that where all over the media) had burned all the trees. I tried to take a picture from the buss, but it's kind of hard to see. Tomorrow morning I am going on a 4 day surf camp to learn all the basics of surfing. I will do another update after that. -Audun