Melbourne - the city of graffiti and cafes

On the penultimate day, we released four of the slightly older and well-fed kangaroos into freedom, including Ernie, one of my protégés. At first, they sat in the free yard looking a bit bewildered, but once they calmed down, they ventured out through the open gate, where they were inspected by the gelding Harry. A few minutes later, they joined a larger group and disappeared. It was very difficult for both of us to leave the Kangaroo Sanctuary, and not only I had tears in my eyes. On our last day, we made a big effort with cleaning and feeding. It wasn't clear whether Manon would stay. Cynthia would return to Melbourne three days after us, and Laura wanted to work in a vineyard nearby to earn some money. Her troubled Joey, Twitch, would be taken care of by an older lady who occasionally looked after especially small and skinny joeys. Matze and I carefully wrote down advice and instructions for our more needy young joeys, hoping they would be helpful to future helpers. On our way to Melbourne, we stopped at two nice breweries. The weather was perfect, but we were both downhearted, and I kept crying. We knew we would have to be patient, as time heals wounds. We would never forget this special experience. Even now, two months later, I can still vividly see Tilly's sleepy face after she had just finished drinking, with her little mouth silently grinding. When I imagine giving her the bottle, I can feel the pressure of her small hands with their too-long nails, gripping my fingers with trust. I've put off starting this blog for a long time because I knew I would cry, and I wanted to avoid anyone seeing me and asking what was wrong. And then they could be confused that the cause of my sadness is a few orphaned kangaroos, because there are plenty of them, and there are worse things in the world. And that may be true, but these innocent, complex, and easily frightened animals have touched me deeply. Back in Melbourne, it took us a few days to process our experiences. It helped that our Airbnb had a very cuddly and fluffy cat named Lolita. It helped me more than Matze, as she also caused him to have a blocked nose. We met up with Claire and Paul, the German guy we had randomly met at a comedy show, at a nice music open-air event. We also explored Fitzroy, the paradise for vegans and environmentally conscious people, with its numerous colorful graffiti, cafes, organic shops, and thrift stores. Through the Meetup app, we found a vegan dinner meetup at an Asian restaurant, and we spontaneously joined in. The food tasted phenomenal, and we had good conversations, especially with a pretty and likeable woman named Dayna, who was our age. We exchanged contact information and were very happy to have met like-minded people. On Monday, I arrived on time at 8 a.m. at the North Point Cafe, ready to work. Ronnie, one of the shift leaders, went through the menu with me and explained the booking system, which seemed quite reasonable. By the end of the day, I had already gained speed in typing the guest orders. I liked the colleagues I spent the shift with. The team was a colorful mix of nationalities, with mainly Indians and Pakistanis working in the kitchen, two Greeks, a Turkish woman, two Chinese, and me in the service, as well as Australians, of course. During the half-hour break, we could order almost anything from the menu for free. Initially, it didn't seem very vegan-friendly, but I quickly found three nutritious and delicious options that I could rotate as desired. The fantastic barista coffee with wonderful milk foam was the icing on the cake. Unfortunately, Matze had some bad luck with the job agency Protech, which he had used in the past. The paperwork was delayed for several days, so he could only start four days after me. But we managed to find a place to stay in Caulfield North, southwest of the city, right after my first day of work. The main tenant, Charles, had occasionally rented out the room via AirBnb in the past, with mixed results, and was now looking for reliable and clean roommates. We immediately got along well in our conversation, accompanied by a few good beers, and after twenty minutes, there was nothing in the way of our immediate move-in. As the location was in a small access road, you couldn't hear much from the main road, and we could store all our clothes relatively neatly in a large wooden shelf. As expected, I worked most weekends, but in the evenings, we had the opportunity to socialize and lounge on the sofa together. And going to second-hand stores during the week was much more relaxed for me! We met up with Struan and Liz, who had hosted us for a few days in Tasmania before our trip, at a comedy show. It was definitely a great workout for our laugh muscles, which we repeated almost every week. We also went to a few slams with Paul, which were more intimate and smaller. The fact that he even performed at one of them made it even more special, and it was always nice to hang out with him in Melbourne. Paul is probably one of the most German Germans we have met here in Australia and a really nice guy. On a particularly sunny day, I hopped on the bike that Matze had prepared for me and explored some nice places further east, including the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens. It reflects the vegetation zones of Australia, and in the center, there is even a miniature version of the Simpson Desert, which we had already admired. I spent a long time on a bench, enjoying the shimmering rusty red tones of the small sand dunes. On another day, I met up with Cynthia for a nice brunch, our French comrade from the Kangaroo Sanctuary. We filled our stomachs with delicious waffles and then went for a walk in the warm autumn sun. A few days later, we were invited to have dinner with her and her boyfriend, also named Mathias (but pronounced in French). The two of them lived with their cat in their own half of a townhouse in Yarraville, located on the west side of Melbourne. He worked as a chef, not in a vegan restaurant, but it seemed like no challenge for him to serve up a wide range of delicious treats. In the end, we were so full that we could hardly walk. I unexpectedly had the Easter Sunday off work because my boss, Andre, liked me and my work and offered me the highly coveted day off without me asking. Matze and I drove south to the Mornington Peninsula fairly early and went for an idyllic hike to the so-called Bushrangers Bay and then to Cape Schank. At Cape Schank, it became evident that there were many people, but I still enjoyed the beautiful colors and the pleasantly salty breeze. I particularly want to mention Pebble Beach; it is a beach made up of many large black granite stones that rub against each other due to the movement of the waves, creating a loud clattering sound. At a local brewery with the catchy name 'Paradise Escape', we treated ourselves to some refreshing beers and even managed to take a plunge into the surprisingly pleasant sea at a quiet beach just before it got dark. With slightly salty hair, we then went to Dayna and Morgan for pizza and board games. Matze suffered from his cat hair allergy, as he did during our last visit, but he still had a good time, thanks to antihistamines. A few days after Easter, I met up with Tracy for a Japanese lunch and a few glasses of wine. We had met Tracy, an Australian, through our volunteer work. She had created a photo album from each of her two visits, and it was nice to see the babies and troubled kangaroos from my time. You could tell that despite her somewhat fancy and superficial appearance, the protection and care for the animals was close to her heart. The summer in Melbourne was slowly coming to an end, and rain started to appear more frequently, but it rarely stopped me from riding my bike to work. I enjoyed the work and my colleagues, felt valued and accepted, and some regular guests already knew me by name, so when there was time, we would often have a lively conversation. This happened quite often when the weather was bad and not many people went to the beach. On the last weekend in April, we had brunch with Paul and Claire at a fancy completely vegan Italian restaurant. Since we hadn't made a reservation, we unfortunately had to wait a bit because it was so popular. We ordered homemade gnocchis, which tasted average, but the 'swordfish fillets' and 'calamari rings' were a hit. I had never eaten such fishy vegan fish. Despite the hefty prices, we couldn't resist having dessert, and we didn't regret that decision. Due to two colleagues at work testing positive for COVID-19, I no longer had any shared days off with Matze. I filled in on a Sunday that was originally marked as a day off. I didn't feel particularly good either; my nose was running continuously, and I was almost constantly sneezing, which is why I was sent home a little earlier after a tiring Saturday during the busiest time of the day. With little enthusiasm, I took my very first COVID test, which was a real challenge due to my constantly tingling nose. A few minutes later, I received the all-clear, and the most annoying symptoms of my cold subsided the next day. I felt correspondingly upbeat until Cynthia told me in the afternoon that Tilly had died. I couldn't believe it, helplessness and despair gripped me. Why? She seemed quite lively when I said goodbye to her, and she drank her milk with more appetite. Had she suffered from the separation? Or was she simply doomed to die from a poor immune and digestive system from the start? Did I unnecessarily prolong her suffering? I can't say which thought weighed more heavily on me, but in retrospect, I am grateful for every moment with her. She will always have a place in my heart. During our last few days in Melbourne, Matze was busy with the valve stem seals in our car (just as time-consuming and laborious as the word suggests). Dayna and Morgan visited us on our penultimate evening in Melbourne, and we played games and enjoyed a good local wine. Their visit made the separation a little easier, as they planned to come to Brisbane in a few weeks, when we would also be there. Dayna bought my bike for a friend, so we had already taken care of everything for our departure. On the morning of our departure, we had brunch with Claire and Paul at a vegan cafe. Everything tasted delicious, and the late autumn weather was at its best. We left our great roommate Charles with a farewell beer and slightly teary eyes and wished him all the best for his upcoming trip around Australia. I hope we'll see him again; I really enjoyed the cozy sofa conversations over a glass of red wine. As beautiful as the sun had looked in the afternoon, the Victorian hinterland turned into a cold windy steppe landscape after the sunset, which came much too early. We spent the first night in an Airbnb about 2 hours away from Melbourne. In the morning, we visited a beautiful exhibition of crochet 3D pictures and later climbed around in a cave that we found through our camping app. Unfortunately, the coastal route to Sydney would not be worth it in these temperatures, so we took the slightly shorter inland route through Snowy River National Park, where further north the highest mountain in Australia is located, which was already covered with a layer of snow. I'm very glad we climbed it in summer. The route we had planned to take through the national park was unfortunately impassable due to storm damage, so we set up our camp in the middle of the forest. The area looked magical in the morning light, but it took some time to get rid of the cold from our stiff bodies. We admired the Little River Falls and a wallaby sunning itself by the roadside, as well as the deepest gorge in Australia right next to it. We spent the night at a free camp in a small village, and one of the locals assured us that it was okay to set up our tent under the barn roof. That spared us from the dew, ground frost, and the nasty wind, but we were very grateful that there were old ovens where we could feed the provided firewood. When I sat so close to them that my toes were almost burning, I could just about bear the cold. In the morning, we continued towards the coast and met it at Pambula, where there was a nice brewery and also a beautiful national park. The temperatures already felt much milder than in Melbourne, and I seriously considered jumping into the unbelievably turquoise water. With our somewhat tight time window until our planned arrival in Sydney, we had to drive for about 3 hours every day. For Australians, especially those in rural areas, this is a ridiculous travel time, but I'm not a fan of it, especially when there are so many beautiful places that you see rushing past the car window. At Matze's request, we made a second stop at a brewery that was called 'Big Niles Brewing' and looked rather unspectacular, but the beers and the friendly brewer behind the counter were really impressive. Because I received a message from our booked accommodation that we should check in by 7 p.m., we hadn't finished our lush glasses yet - mine still had about half left - when we had to leave. In a city brewery, we would probably have been told that we couldn't just walk or even drive off with takeaway cups full of beer, but in the countryside, they don't see it that way. We were absolutely stunned when the brewer even filled up our cups - for free! Both of us had never experienced anything like it, and we were in high spirits as we tackled the last few kilometers (maybe a bit too much). The next morning, we hiked in Beecroft Peninsula in Jervis Bay, where we had always wanted to go to see the bioluminescent algae glowing at night. Unfortunately, we were now too early for that, but it is definitely on my wishlist. If you're interested, there are great videos on Youtube. Nevertheless, we had a great time and enjoyed the friendly weather and the many colorful parrots during an extensive picnic in a park. On the evening of May 19th, we arrived in Sydney. It was dark, cold, and rainy, but our little hut in the garden of an older couple had heating. The next day, I already had a photoshoot. Funny enough, the studio was in a quirky graffiti-covered house where I had been once before during my time as a food delivery driver. The studio owner also lives right there, and her bedroom is somewhat hidden. The huge kitchen with its cozy corner sofa and ballroom-sized Art Nouveau windows made for a great backdrop for beautiful photos. I didn't know the photographer yet, but he had messaged me a while ago, and we managed to find a spontaneous appointment. Later in the evening, we went to the craft beer festival, where mostly breweries from New South Wales but also some from other states were represented. We found some particularly great products and had great conversations. In the end, they had to almost forcefully push us out the door because we were quite tipsy and sluggish. As a result, we felt hungover the next morning when the alarm clock rang at half past four, reminding us that it was time to drive to the airport: the day of the long-awaited reunion with my mom was finally here after more than 3 years.