#12 Melbourne - first impressions

Meykel and I both found work here, so we can only go out and explore on weekends. The city itself is absolutely beautiful and there is so much to see.

A little tip for anyone planning to come to Melbourne: NEVER DRIVE INTO THE CITY WITH YOUR OWN CAR. We made this mistake in the beginning, naively thinking we could handle the traffic chaos. Once you manage to navigate through the chaos, you are faced with the huge challenge of finding a parking spot.

We paid $56 to park for 4 hours. Fortunately, that is the daily rate, so the price doesn't increase after the 4th hour. We have since learned our lesson and now rely on public transportation. It's really easy to get around and you always find your way.

When you arrive in Melbourne, make sure to get a myki card. You can't buy individual tickets as you need to purchase a myki card for $6 and top it up with money (similar to a prepaid cell phone). When boarding a bus or train, you simply tap your card on the reader and the fare is deducted. During the week, you pay $4.30 for up to two hours of travel, and after that, the fare automatically increases to the daily rate of $8.40. With the myki card, you can ride as much as you want on buses, trains, and trams.

The centerpiece of the city is the Flinders Street Station, a beautiful train station that we always go to first to transfer or walk to our destination.

During our first visit to the city, we treated ourselves to dinner at the restaurant "No.35". As the name suggests, the restaurant is located on the 35th floor and offers a wonderful view of the city. It wasn't cheap, but who says backpackers can't treat themselves? We told our waiter that we had just arrived in the city, which resulted in a complimentary dessert with the inscription "Welcome to Melbourne". Very attentive =)

The next evening, we went to the Eureka Skydeck. It's the tallest building with an observation deck on the 88th floor. Watching the sunset from there is particularly spectacular. Make sure to arrive early as the seats on the ocean side fill up quickly. Since we were late, we watched the sunset from the side facing the Botanic Gardens. It was also very beautiful :)

We watched the next sunset in St. Kilda. The main reason we went to St. Kilda was to see the "Little Penguins". If you follow my blog, you know that we already did a penguin tour on Kangaroo Island, which was unfortunately a bit disappointing as we only saw a few penguins and had to pay for the tour. In St. Kilda, on the other hand, you can watch the penguins for free on the beach. You simply walk along the pier and wait until it gets dark. During twilight, the penguins come out of the water to feed their babies in the nests. The penguins came very close to people, without being bothered or afraid of them. We liked the penguins in St. Kilda better than the penguins on Kangaroo Island - highly recommended.

One thing we like about Melbourne is that there is a Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop. It's located near the Flinders Street Station.

All of the activities mentioned so far, except for the penguin tour, require payment. However, there are also free tours in Melbourne. For example, we took a free city tour. We walked through Melbourne for two and a half hours, and it didn't cost a thing. You can book a free tour on the website https://walks101.com. Additionally, during the week, there are free tours in the Parliament building, a free exhibition about the Gold Rush in the Treasury building, and a free city tour in St. Kilda. It's also fun to simply stroll through the narrow alleys, known as laneways, and admire the street art or take a walk along the Yarra River.

Another paid activity we did was a bar tour. It was again on foot, and in three hours, we visited four different bars and learned some background information about them. These were not well-known bars, but rather hidden gem insider bars.

Other activities we plan to do while we're in Melbourne are:

- Visiting the Botanic Gardens

- Watching a cricket or football game at the Melbourne Arena

- Beer tasting at the Carlton Brewery

- Visiting the Night Noodle Markets

Maybe I will write about them in my next blog post in a few weeks.

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