Couchsurfing, Party, and Penguins

At the beginning, a short addition to 27.03 .: In the evening, we went to the Tipsy Tuesday - a Couchsurfing meeting in a bar in Melbourne. Here we met many great new people, ate burgers and drank cider, and practiced our English. One thing that is still a bit challenging for us is when many people are speaking with a dialect at once and you want to follow a specific conversation... but we think we'll get better at it. ;)

On Friday, we spent our time trying to rent a campervan for the following week. However, due to the holiday and short notice, it remained an attempt. Since we couldn't find a place to stay through Couchsurfing either, we ended up booking a room at a hostel. The Elisabeth Hostel - but more on that later..

On Friday evening, we went to our hostel bar. After a while, we wanted to meet some new people, so we joined Alex, Nick, and Dave. We found out that the three of them are cousins and from Melbourne. After a few drinks together, our party mood started to rise, so we took an UBER taxi to Fitzroy to go to the club 'bimbodeluxe'. The music was cool and we had a good time there for a couple of hours. After the only female companion left relatively quickly, one of the guys also disappeared - we suspect that he might have been asked to leave by security due to excessive alcohol consumption. The third one spent his time drunk, stumbling through the club, searching for his lost cousin. So, after a while, we said goodbye and walked home. On our way, we passed a bar where live guitar music was played and sung. Afterwards, we visited a black club where we stayed for another hour. Then we went exhausted to bed at the hostel.

On Saturday, we went to the beach by bike. However, despite the blue sky and sunshine, we didn't stay long because it got quite cold due to strong wind. This time, we both didn't dare to go into the water. So, after a short time, we started our way back home.

In the evening, we had a conversation with two people from our hostel during dinner. One of them, his name is Ghani, joined us for a Couchsurfing hangout that was supposed to take place in a club. However, we were not allowed in. Whether this was because of our outfits or because the club was too crowded, we will probably never know. Next stop - Marrakech Club - here we had more luck. For 20 A$ per person, we entered a shisha bar with a club that had two floors, playing black and latin music. Here we met two Arab Couchsurfers. After a short conversation, we moved to the dance floor with Ghani.

At 2 AM, another Couchsurfer joined us on the dance floor - Mohammed. ;) At 3 AM, we headed home and the time change brought us a bit closer to Germany - there's only an 8-hour difference now.

On Sunday, we finally worked out our further travel plan. On 09.04., we will fly to Cairns in the warmer north, where we have already booked a new hostel. Hopefully, we will find a car there soon, so we won't have to book more hostels. Because the approximately 75A$ per night in Melbourne are starting to eat into our budget.

On Sunday, we also visited the Shrine of Remembrance. After some sad moments of war history, we went to the observation platform and enjoyed the view over Melbourne.

On our way back, we walked along the Yarra River and later watched the sunset on a bench.

On Monday, we also spent some time on a meadow along the riverside where we had time to read and prepare our trips in Cairns. In the evening, we went to St. Kilda again with the Couchsurfer Mohammed and a French backpacker, Killian, because allegedly there were still penguins to be seen. And yesss - we finally saw them. Quite a lot actually. They were super cute cuddling and jumping along the rocks - we even caught some of them having sex...

On Tuesday, we had to get up early. Unfortunately, it was the only day we used the breakfast at the Flinders Backpackers Hostel. Besides pancakes, they offered free cereal, coffee, and tea. Well, we discovered it too late. Then we made our way to our new accommodation - The Elisabeth Hostel. Only a few train stations away from our previous location and still in the Free Tram Zone.

Already the sign of the hostel and the tiny entrance door didn't bode well - but we stayed optimistic. At the reception, everything went smoothly as usual, and we were even allowed to check into our room at 11 AM instead of 2 PM. When we arrived at the room, we were happy at first: finally, we had a shared double bed and our own fridge. But there was also a musty smell in the air. When Krissi went to the window to let some fresh air in, there was another surprise - a tiny courtyard with a view of the hostel toilet.

It was also difficult to ventilate properly because a burnt smell hit us. And when we wanted to ventilate from the corridor, the smell of the toilet was the problem... So, we quickly packed our backpacks for the day and went back outside.

We spent a few hours at the Arts Centre and the National Gallery of Victoria. We learned about Melbourne's music history and saw beautiful art made of flowers, creatively designed chairs, and many other interesting exhibitions. After a break in the park, we went to the Botanic Garden. Here, we mainly saw plants, impressive trees, birds, and a lot of water.

For dinner, we had fast food for 28$. We had hoped for something cheaper.

Back at the hostel in the evening, we were lucky that the window could be opened for ventilation and somehow you get used to smells - we just hope that we and our clothes won't take on the smell...

We didn't really notice Easter here. Friday and Monday are also public holidays here, but almost everything is usually open. Ghani told us that most Australians are not religious anyway, but of course, they still like to have the holidays. You can buy Easter chocolate, and some shops are appropriately decorated, but we didn't really feel like it was Easter.