Two weeks in Melbourne

After a lot of thinking and searching and waiting, I decided to buy flight tickets to Melbourne together with my other friend. Rental cars were so expensive and there seemed to be no one traveling to Melbourne or Darwin with the same schedule. My friend was working in a farm in Donnybrook, and the season was ending. She still needed to work more to finish her 88 days in Australia, so she decided to go to Victoria, where there seemed to be more work available now.

We booked a night flight, which was the cheapest one, but in hindsight also very exhausting. We reserved a hotel for the first night just to get some sleep after arriving to Melbourne 8AM in the morning. Because of the time difference, we just lost 3 hours during the 3,5 hour flight.

I had already been in Melbourne twice before - it was the city I first arrived to when I traveled to Australia in 2018 and again traveled back home from in the beginning of 2019. Melbourne for me had been a good city to visit but not to live. However, as 5 years had passed, I thought maybe both me and Melbourne had changed, and I would feel different in the city.

On the first week we explored Melbourne. We went to the South Melbourne Markets to have breakfast and lunch, and walked in the suburbs of South Melbourne just to roam around. I took pictures of all the job posters as I wasn't sure if I was going to stay in Melbourne for longer. I even sent a few applications.

We also visited the Library of Melbourne, which I had not done before, which I thought was a bit odd that I had missed it. It was marvellous. After visiting the library we tried to find cafeterias to sit at with our computers. The hostel we stayed at wasn't very cozy and its common areas were always super noisy and full of people. It wasn't the same atmosphere as we got in Hostel G in Perth.

But we were faced with the same problem that we had in Perth - all the cafeterias close early. We also needed places that would have plugs, so we don't run out of power. We tried to stay in the library, but it closed as well. We kept on roaming around but couldn't really find places. One evening, we went to 24/7 McDonalds. Best place to work during late evenings.

We went to so many cafes and restaurants in the upcoming days and they were all so delicious. My favourites were Ichigo and Hikari, Japanese style cafes that differed from each other a lot. I also tried to go to a cafe called Little Rogue at least 4 times. It is located on a small alleyway in the CBD and there were always people waiting outside for their coffees to go. The cafe only had around 8 seats in a very small space, so I would need to be super lucky to get a seat.

I could've taken a coffee to go, but I really wanted to have time and enjoy their matcha cake as well, as I had read online that it was one of the best. And luckily, on my last morning in Melbourne, I made my way there and enjoyed both coffee and a matcha latte AND a piece of a matcha cake, which was amaaaaazing.

I mentioned earlier, that I sent a few job applications in Melbourne. They were to different cafeterias and booths in the markets. I got a response from a place that sells cannoli's, from a cupcake cafe and from a Vietnamese food truck. As the last one was specifically looking for workers to join them in different events during the weekends, I decided to take the job.

The first event was a heavy metal festival KnotFest in the race course near Melbourne. I had only exchanged a few messages with the food truck owner, who seemed super nice. When I arrived to the festival gates, I still had no idea, what I was to do at the truck, but I was certain I would soon found out.

Kathy, the food truck owner, came outside, gave me the ticket to the festival and ushered me to run to the food truck, as only the chef was left there to handle everything. She couldn't join me immediately, as there were still a couple of other workers who were missing. I went to the food truck and met my co-worker, who had already worked at the food truck for a while. I took a picture of the menu we were offering and tried helping him with being the cashier.

After some time, Kathy and two others arrived and I learned, that I was to make food instead of being the cashier. There were many customers still waiting for their portions, so we got to it immediately. She taught me, what are the different options we have (bánh mì, bao buns and noodle bowls with different fillings), and what sauces go with what meats and tofu. In the beginning I felt like my brain was having a hard time catching up and remembering, but as it was so repetitive, it started to get easier.

We also got to eat the dishes on our break and after shift had ended, and everything was super delicious. I ended up working the next weekend as well at the Melbourne F1 Grand Prix event, which was quite exciting. I did have some exciting times in my own life during that weekend as well, because the event had caused all the hostels and hotels and airbnb's from the closest 70 km to be full. There were hostel beds, one night in a 16-bed-dorm was around $160 (100 euros). Couple of days before the event I got a message from my friend saying, that I should go to the reception now, as they had freed some cheap beds from the 16-person dorm. So I got a bed for $55 a night.

After the first week, my friend had decided to move to Tasmania, as there was work possibility for her. She left and I was left to roam around the city alone. I decided to go to a museum or art exhibition at least once a day, and Melbourne had so many to offer. And most of them were for free!

Imaginator

This one was the first one, and also the only one that wasn't free. Imaginator in Melbourne had just opened again (previously as Imaginarium), and it was around $20 for one person. It was worth it. I think I spent around one hour just walking around the place, trying to immerse myself in everything I saw. There were also two different tasks to do. One for kids and one for adults. The kids one was just to go around and collect stamps into a leaflet. Apparently at the end you would get something, if you found all the stamp stations. For adults, the task was to find around 7 or 8 red circles. That's it. You could use the mobile application to mark what you had found. I found... maybe one or two, but in truth, I have no idea if they were part of the task or not. I did find all the stamp stations!!

Graffiti and street art

Melbourne is definitely a city for cool graffiti and street art. I took so many pictures from around the city.

Food

I don't even want to know how much I spent on eating out. But... well.... I do, because my bank application after a certain sum started telling me every time I ate something in a cafe or a restaurant. I have to do some research how to turn off those notifications. I don't need that kind of negativity in my life. Melbourne had some great restaurants, but none of them topped my favourite restaurants in Perth.

Melbourne Now

A cool free art exhibition that showcases everything about Melbourne. In addition to many halls of different kinds of art from traditional aboriginal art pieces to modern 3D experiences you can also find a hall filled with things that people from Melbourne have invented.

ACMI - Australia's National Museum of Screen Culture

Another great free exhibition right next to the previous one. Tells and shows the history of Australia's TV, movies and games. You even got to play some of the games, if you wanted to. I have seen on TikTok multiple times the Unpacking game and I am really feeling the urge to buy it. But though it has gotten very good reviews, people tell to wait for discount periods, since the game is quite short and a bit expensive.

National Gallery of Victoria

Also amazing and free of charge. I roamed around for a couple of hours and even found some Finnish design among the art pieces!

I did visit St. Kilda beach as well on a a one very quiet day, but I didn't end up taking any pictures. I remember feeling very tired of the constant rainy and cold weather. It was nice to walk in the places that I had stayed at on the first time I arrived in Australia in 2018, but I felt it was time to move.

I had placed my future planning on the hands of fate. I wanted to get a ticket to a concert that was held at the end of May in Indonesia, and the ticketing was held while I was in Melbourne. If I would get the ticket, I would stay in Melbourne and work. If I'd end up not getting a ticket, I was free to leave to Sydney or somewhere else. Unfortunately and luckily, I did not get the ticket, so I decided to look for alternative solutions.

I found a transfer car to Canberra. If one wanted to, you could drive to Canberra in around 7 hours from Melbourne. But the car company gave me 3 days of time to do so, so I could actually see around Victoria and NSW a little bit. There were some questions though, since I would not know the type of the car before picking it up, so I couldn't really plan on doing anything. But I was fine with that, and prepared for anything.

I'll tell more about my road trip on the next post.