03/19/2023 - Isibuyekezo esivela eMelbourne

After almost four weeks of not hearing from me, I thought it was time for a little update. I've been working for five weeks now, which means I'm almost halfway through, as I'll only be employed until April 28th before taking the night bus to Sydney on May 2nd. Overall, my daily life here is quite unspectacular, like workdays usually are. I wake up at 7am, have breakfast, go to work at 8am, usually return to the hostel around 6pm, shower, eat, and go to sleep. Fortunately, the work itself is relatively varied, so time usually passes quite quickly. Since there's not much time during the week, I try to do a lot on weekends and get to know the city and Australian culture even better - and that's what I want to tell you a little bit about now.

Three weeks ago on Saturday, I took the opportunity to go to a play that I had actually wanted to see in Germany. "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" is not only playing in Hamburg, but also in Melbourne. The play is a sequel to the seven Harry Potter novels, which begins 19 years after the last book. Together with another backpacker, I spontaneously decided on Saturday morning to buy tickets for the matinee performance. The play itself was very nice, although it was sometimes a bit difficult to follow the story. But this was not so much due to the English language, but mainly because I haven't read the book yet - but I'll catch up on that now. Otherwise, there wasn't much to do on that weekend, because while spring is gradually arriving in Germany, autumn arrived here. Although the temperatures usually don't drop below 15 degrees during the day, the weather becomes much more unpredictable and rainy. There is a saying about Melbourne that it can have four seasons in one day. And this is especially true in autumn. Sometimes it starts gray and rainy in the morning, then the sun shines at midday at 30 degrees, only to have the temperature drop to single digits in the evening and a "chilly" wind blows through the metropolis - so all-weather clothing is needed.

Fortunately, the weather was at its best last weekend. And that was good for two reasons: firstly, I needed a bit of sun after a rainy week, and secondly, and the reason is actually much more important, I had a visitor. Sandra from Hamburg, a friend of my former roommate from Lüneburg, is currently travelling in Australia and has also made a stop in Melbourne. I took two days off work, Thursday and Friday, so that we could make the most of our time together, and because Monday was a public holiday, I even had a very long weekend. After her arrival on Wednesday evening, we first went to the Queen Victoria Market, where the Summer Night Market takes place every Wednesday from November to March. The market is especially known for its international street food offerings, from kangaroo to kebab to Asian food, you can find everything here. After visiting the Queen Victoria Market, we also briefly went to the Flagstaff Gardens, the oldest park in Melbourne. With the beginning of dusk, you can observe possums here. By the way, it's super easy to find trees where the possums have made themselves comfortable. Since the small marsupials primarily feed on the branches of young elms, the city has put metal bands around the tree trunks for possum protection. Does that deter the possums? Of course not. They sit in the trees with shining eyes, chase each other, and observe the park visitors. After the short possum safari, we returned to the hostel.

We started the next day with a free walking tour through Melbourne's Central Business District. The great thing about these tours is that they are generally free. In the end, everyone can decide for themselves how much the tour was worth to them and give a donation to the guide. Since it was my second time and I could recommend the tour, I signed up Sandra and myself for it. The guide led us through the city for almost three and a half hours and told us everything about the culture and history of Melburnians. We then used the afternoon to relax, as we had arranged to meet a friend of Sandra's in the evening at a classic pub, of which there are plenty here but located a bit off the city center.

Sandra's second day in Melbourne started with a visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens. For me, it was my second trip to the huge green area. We strolled through the various sections for a full three hours and enjoyed the beautiful and relaxed atmosphere. After that, we continued towards St. Kilda. St. Kilda is probably the most famous and trendiest beach neighborhood in Melbourne. During the day, people come here to sunbathe or jog along the beach promenade. In the evening, St. Kilda becomes a popular nightlife district. We went to a relaxed beach bar, where we took a little break in the bright sunshine. By the way, on the way there we also walked across the Formula 1 track, which is currently being prepared for the "Australian Grand Prix" in two weeks. In the evening, we visited a burger joint and had a kangaroo burger. The verdict: we don't know if it was the cook or the kangaroo itself, but the meat was quite tough. I'll investigate the matter further in the coming months and check if kangaroo is really that tough or if the cook didn't have control of the stove. After dinner, we strolled along the Yarra River, where the Moomba Festival was taking place. It is the largest public festival in all of Australia. And it's really huge, it felt like half of Melbourne was spending the evening with us there.

And then the last day together had arrived. After the many activities in the past days, we wanted to take it a bit easier for the conclusion. That's why we first went to the Fitzroy Gardens for reading and relaxation, a park in the Fitzroy district. The hipster neighborhood also offers galleries and vintage shops, hip cafes, many bars, and countless restaurants. We strolled and indulged ourselves in Fitzroy until late afternoon, before briefly returning to the hostel and then heading back to Fitzroy. To end our time together, we visited a rooftop bar with a great view of Melbourne's skyline. Here we relaxed and enjoyed drinks and pizza.

For Sandra, the journey continued to Sydney the next day, while I went to the cinema in the evening with a few other backpackers. The city of Melbourne organized an outdoor cinema on Federation Square, showing an Indian silent film accompanied by an orchestra. It was a great way to end a wonderful weekend.

Let's now move on to the current weekend. After a hard week of work, I mostly used Saturday to relax. Due to the forecasted temperatures of 37 degrees - classic autumn weather - my motivation to go out was limited. I only had plans for the evening. And this brings us to a topic that is deeply rooted in Australian DNA: Australian Rules Football. Or footy, Aussie rules football, or simply footy. Australian Rules Football is the number one national sport in Australia. Thousands of fans flock to the stadiums every weekend. This weekend marked the start of the new season, and I couldn't have been in a better place for it. Melbourne has a total of ten clubs playing in the highest league, the AFL. I chose to attend the match between Melbourne Football Club and the Western Bulldogs. To not go completely clueless to the game, I watched a video explaining the rules beforehand. In short, the game is a combination of rugby, football, soccer, and somehow also handball. Oh, and it's a full-contact sport. And when I say full-contact, I mean full-contact. The action starts right from the kickoff without regard for losses. That's probably one reason why the sport is so popular here. Although I was an absolute beginner and probably only understood half of what was happening in the game, I was captivated from the first minute. The physicality, the speed, and the intensity make the heart of every sports enthusiast beat faster. Since the season is still long, I will definitely watch some more games. You can watch the highlights of the game I attended here, by the way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7CBsvgYe7o