First steps in Australia: Melbourne

So my first blog entry from Australia! After another overnight flight from Bangkok to Melbourne yesterday, I was pretty exhausted yesterday. Of course, I couldn't sleep again and the time difference is still a bit tough for me... But I've generally gotten used to it pretty quickly. First of all, Melbourne greeted me not with sunshine as expected, but with a thunderstorm. Somehow I must have thought it would always be sunny here, but I had to realize that Australia is not California :D In Melbourne, you can have 4 seasons in one day, which I can definitely confirm because it was warm again in the afternoon and the sun was shining.

After arriving at the hostel at 1pm, I walked around the CBD (Central Business District) a bit, lit a candle in St. Paul's Cathedral, and witnessed a demonstration for refugees. The presence of police officers and police horses was very interesting! From the first impression, I definitely like Melbourne. It has a strong street art scene, which is reflected in some of the smaller lanes.

After participating in a free walking tour from the hostel at 10am today and breakfast only until 9am, I decided to skip getting up... The tour was really good! We passed by many places that I probably wouldn't have found on my own: we saw various street art lanes, arcades, Chinatown, Federation Square, Flinders Station (which is the train station that allegedly was originally supposed to be in Mumbai until they accidentally switched them), tried Australian chocolate (which was really good, but only because they learned their recipes from Lindt 😊), drank coffee, and visited the toilet with the most beautiful view in Melbourne! After that, I went to a rooftop bar called Madame Brussels with 2 other girls, which was beautifully decorated, and we treated ourselves to a pitcher of sangria :D Finally, we walked through Fitzroy Gardens, which I found really beautiful. The perfect place to relax, but I feel like Melbourne has a lot of them! There were 2 small cottages and a miniature house park. So cute!

Overall, Melbourne is already in the Christmas mood. Christmas decorations are hanging everywhere, Christmas trees are in the shop windows, people are singing Christmas carols in the arcades... but the weather just doesn't match Christmas, but I guess I'll have to get used to the idea of Christmas in the heat 😊

The hostel is really great, but really big. Probably 40 rooms and I don't know how many people. The rooms are huge, although unfortunately I got the top bunk, which seems very unstable and wobbles as soon as I move even 1cm... Otherwise, I've already met about 1000 other 18-year-old German girls who are here for work & travel. You really find them here like sand on the beach. But there are also people from all other nationalities in the hostel! Switzerland, Italy, France, Colombia, Indonesia, Korea, Spain, USA... A good mix!