A few days have passed by in Australia. I arrived here on Good Friday and it was dead here as it iwas a public holiday. Something I didn't anticipated. Good Friday it is not bank holiday in Ireland so I thought it wouldn't be here either. Luckily shops and museums are open on Easter days, the only exception was Good Friday.
It was 29C when I arrrived here. Today for a split second I thought I was back in Dublin. chilly breeze, totally changeable from sunny to rainy. In Europe Easter is a spring time, here it is the end of summer and start of Autumn. This is a huge continent and there are parts of country that are always hot. Melbourne is not one of them, you can smell, see and feel autumn in the air. Leaves have started to turn yellow and falling down.
My cultural achviments are Melbourne Museum and immigration museum. The latter one was worth seeing. Melbourne is not the most famouis for its sights but night life. bars and restaurants. When I am walking down the streets I could be in any city in the western part of the world. more or less the same shops, perhaps under different label, the same selection of items. But I must mention that I am very happy about how easily you can get a decent cup of coffee. God bless Australia for it's selections for coffees and cakes.Just I have to ask for long black instead of Americano.
I've been turning and tossing in my bed what I am gonna see here, no surprise this is dear and giant country. Some many things to choose from but time and budget are limited. Whether I am gonna take a few day trips (a way over €100 for each) or take a bus to Sydney and stop in Canberra, go to Tasmania as I planned earlier on. My head was about to expode. Well, this morning I just booked a ferry ticket to Tasmania. Since I got this far I might as well go even further down. Yes, it is costly but so is everything here. The only way to keep the costs down is to sit here at the hostel and drink local wine. I gave up an idea to drive to Sydney. by the coastline. I am not just comfortable driving such a long distance on my own, I wanna explore the edge of the world, as driving distance are shorter in Tasmania, it might be more realistic to hire a car there. On Saturday I am going to fly to Sydney from Launceston.
This hostel is pretty nice when it comes to the facilities but the people. Mostly English and Irish who have been here for a longer period time. They are very not welcoming but a clique. Anyway I am just passing by Melbourne so I guess it is understandable. besides I have made some friends here as well. I am not the only one travelling on my own. My last night in Melbourne tomorrow I am on my way to even further down on southern hemisphere. I even invested a Lonely Planet guide as this time I wanna plan my trip, out of charachter but weirder things have happened. I have all evening and night tomorrow make an itinerary for my Tasmania adventure.
