Here's to the Night (Melbourne Part One)

So I’m back from Melbourne and I already miss it. Melbourne is a beautiful city and I think that if I could live anywhere in Australia, that I would live there. The weather is great, the city is big without being overwhelming and it’s just so full of culture. But now, I’m starting to sound like a brochure, so I’ll just tell you what we did…

5 of us (Daniel, Lauren, Steffan, and Alex- who all happen to share an apartment) left Thursday afternoon, catching TT coaches to Brisbane, where we took a train from Brisbane down to the Gold Coast to catch our flight. Let’s just say it was not the most enjoyable plane ride I’ve ever had seeing as how I was seated next to the crying baby. Great. We landed in Melbourne that night and rode the bus into the city where we checked into our hostel.

The rate we had been told for the hostel was that we paid $26 one night and get the other 3 nights for one penny. I was skeptical at first, but we called to double check these prices and they were right so when we got there and they told us that it should have been $26 per night for all of us, we protested. Luckily, they let it slide and even didn’t charge us for the one night, which left each of us paying our $2.50 deposit for our 4 night stay. However, I will say that the hostel quality matched the price we paid. Let’s just say it wasn’t the cleanest place I’ve been, the bunk beds caved in enough so that I was scared for my life every time Steffan got into his top bunk and “free breakfast” means that the staff puts out white bread and jelly every morning. AWESOME. But it just meant that we were more motivated to get out and see the city.

Friday morning we got up and walked around downtown, seeing Federation Square and all the main streets that we were close to. Daniel even bought us flowers from the street in honor of May Day! (which is an unheard of holiday down here) We went to China town and had lunch before walking down to the Queen Victoria Market where they had crafts and fruits and veggies and pretty much anything you could ever want to buy. We bought a lot of cheap fruit and I got a lot of gifts for you all back home.

Melbourne (supposedly) has the biggest AFL (Australian Football League) stadium and we were able to get tickets for Friday night’s game for about ten bucks so we all went and sat in the nosebleeds watching Aussie Football, which to me looked like a mix between NFL and Rugby. I’m sure to anyone sports-inclined, they will say that it is completely different, but whatever. We had no idea who to cheer for (Melbourne Roos vs. the Collingwood Pies) but our team (we eventually decided on the Roos) ended up winning and that’s what matters anyway, right?

We left the game, making a quick stop at Mackers and went to this British pub where Daniel had his first legal (in the States) drink at midnight in honor of his birthday. After that, we headed up to the Fitzroy District where we had heard there were a lot of great bars and clubs. We stopped at a few, ending at one that heralded “90’s Night” where we danced the night away to Ace of Base, Counting Crows and B*Witched. Perfect. At the last place, I ran into James, who I had met while I was in Sydney the first weekend for CIS which was really exciting and we talked about how we’re both going down there soon during the same weekend so we will have another reunion. All in all, it was a fun night and I was already in love with Melbourne.