Who knows where our limits lie, we won't discover 'til we push it - Melbourne / 16.01. - 21.01.2019

The last days in Australia I had a little low, because I missed my friends and family a lot.
However, I still had some incredibly great moments, for example, on 19.01. I was at the Bastille concert at the Forum Melbourne and immediately in line - which led through the famous graffiti street Hosier Lane, which I also wanted to see - I met two mega sweet girls, Chelsea, who is also from Melbourne, and Zoe, who lives on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. The two sweetened my waiting a bit and since we were also quite far ahead in line, we finally got standing places in the third row inside.
The two support acts were really good (the first one more than the second one), but when Bastille finally came on stage, the atmosphere reached its peak as expected. I just loved being in the crowd, singing along to the songs, and hearing music live, and a wide grin appeared on my face that would have sent me to a mental institution if someone else had seen it in daylight. I was really happy and Bastille was so good live! However, I missed my concert buddy Leni.

After the concert, I hung out with 2 sisters (Cailin and Annalee) from Adelaide - we somehow became friends during the first song because we were all annoyed by the same touchy-feely girl - we walked through the streets and shared a typical Australian fast food meal, whose name I have forgotten - it was fries with some meat and sauces on top - and funnily enough, we were staying in the same hostel, the YHA.

In the hostel, this morning while I was waiting to check in, I met a super cool guy from London named Nathan, who had just arrived in Melbourne, booked his flight the day before yesterday, and only his sister knew where he was. I thought it was brave of him and he referred to me as his first friend here, which I thought was cool. Unfortunately, we didn't see each other again afterwards.
In any case, Annalee, Cailin, and I said goodbye around 1 o'clock and I fell asleep sometime around 2, took a nap, and then got up around 3:15 because I had booked a hot air balloon flight over Melbourne's Yarra Valley at sunrise.

I was picked up at 4 o'clock, greeted very nicely, and then we went to the launch station somewhere in Yarra Valley. There are a lot of these launch stations in total and what I find interesting is that it can only be decided shortly before the flight which one is the right one today because wind direction, strength, and other conditions have to be taken into account.
I was somewhat afraid that the balloon flight would be cancelled again, because I had actually booked it 2 days ago - but it was cancelled then because of too strong winds.

But it seemed that everything was going well this time, so we went to the launch station where 8 balloons were already being prepared, which looked incredible in the dim light. I was led to a hot air balloon for 13 people, including the 'pilot', with a few other people, and we were soon able to climb into the basket.
Many balloons had already taken off before us, which looked amazingly beautiful, but soon it was our turn and we flew quite high pretty quickly.
The view over the vineyards and the other flyers was fantastic and when the sky around us was bathed in pink light through the sunrise, everything became even more wonderful. We flew through a few clouds, and although it was quite cold up here and in the morning, I felt warm because of the hot air above me and my yellow hat, and it was funny to listen to the walkie-talkie discussions of our pilot.
When the sun was finally high up, we went for landing after a flight of about an hour and we all had to assume the wall-sitting landing position - the impact on the field, which was contaminated with cow dung, felt only minimal because of that, and afterwards we all helped to fold up the balloon and squeeze out the air.

Afterwards, we packed everything in a small van, and for the short drive across the field, we could hold on to the edge of the vehicle, which was very funny.
Then we went to a cute winery where there was a delicious breakfast buffet with a wine tasting - there, I stuffed myself with all the goodies (bacon, eggs, fruit, pastries, sausages, hash browns, pancakes...).

The people were also nice, just not exactly in my age group - except for a clique of Asian-looking girls -, but I still felt very comfortable, but I just wanted to sleep afterwards.

That worked out pretty well in the next hostel - the Nomads All Nations - because even though I had booked a 10-bed room there, I ended up in a 4-bed room with only one other girl as a roommate. Here I took a little nap in the afternoon and then went to bed early because the last night had been very exciting and filled with great things.

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The next day I actually wanted to meet Leo from my Outback tour at a festival called Midsumma, but I just couldn't find him and when I arrived there with a new girl named Julie from my room, I noticed that I didn't necessarily have to stay there all day. It turned out to be a crazy LGBTQ event with lots of different stands, drag queen styles, and other inspiring things. Pride and everything were really cool and it was also cool to see how this community came together here and celebrated themselves, but I had hoped for great music and DJs, so we left soon.
However, at one stand you could still send postcards for free and I wrote one to Nina.

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The next day, on 21.01, my last day in Australia had come - I spent it writing postcards (because I somehow procrastinated it until the last possible moment) and in the afternoon, Julie and I visited the Sealife in Melbourne.
The animals were all very impressive, especially the huge stingrays that swam past you in a glass tunnel. There were also sharks, a giant crocodile, and penguins.

And in the evening, I headed to the airport - I'm really looking forward to new adventures in New Zealand and I'm not really sad to leave Australia, because I have seen everything I wanted and more than I could have dreamed of.
However, I want to come back someday!


Song of the day(s): Grip by Bastille, because it was incredibly beautiful at the concert and now I think it's one of my new favorite songs.