On a 2nd night of hosteling on the way to Adelaide we were lucky enough to stay in a great little place which had two rooms with 4 or 5 beds each, plus a lounge/dining area.  I say lucky because the bathroom facilities were much better than those from the hostel the previous night.  We had two (fairly) private shower rooms which despite having FREEZING cold floors in the morning, had plenty of hot water and a reasonable pressure shower head.

On the first night of hosteling we mixed with another group of 18 who were heading in the opposite direction from Adelaide to Melbourne.  On this occasion our group of 9 + tour guide were on our own and needed to create our own entertainment.  Luckily we found a full poker set to play with!

I’m really pretty terrible at Poker and I always forget the rules and the hands each time I played.  Thankfully, I was not the only ‘beginner’, so the (relatively) professional Poker playing girls from Switzerland were happy to explain how to play and run through a couple of practice rounds to get everyone up to speed.  We also found a website with the poker hands listed which we left on screen for everyone to reference…

What better game could there be to really get to know a new group of people, in which you are required to study their facial expressions, try to understand their personality and how it affects their playing style and see how a bit of friendly competition brings out the best (or worst of people).  Of course with Poker, you also get to see how good (or bad) people are at lying – also a really valuable thing to learn when getting to know someone.

Tabya and Chantelle from Switzerland were teaching us Poker, and Tabya also completely wiped the floor with all of us.  I had not chatted to Tabya too much during the trip, mainly because she was at the back of the bus, so we had mainly spoken during a couple of bus wide games and during some of the brief stops.  Poker definitely brought out a side of her I had not seen up to that point in the trip mysterious, confident and also very patient (with us). 

I really like the idea of getting to know people over Poker – need to do more of that!

My first stay in a ‘proper’ hostel turned out really well – I wish I had booked more hostels during this trip now!

The 13th apostle was what I would call a proper hostel, because unlike the private room/bathroom we had in the hostel in Melbourne, this place had bunk beds, a shared communal bathroom and a great kitchen/dining area for socialising.

The room reminded me of being on school geography trips, mainly because that was the last time I slept in a bunk bed.  After sharing in Melbourne, I have actually gotten used to not having privacy – something which would have bothered me initially as I am used to living alone.  I am starting to wonder whether I have TOO MUCH privacy at home.  Whilst I am comfortable and actually very happy being by myself, living with other people requires a constant flow banter, a need to always think about how what you are doing effects other people and in the long run I think it installs a strong sense of team working (or playing) as opposed to a relatively selfish focus.  I definitely need to seek out more opportunities to live with and go through challenges with others rather than taking them on my self.

We had 9 people in our group, however we were joined by another group of 18.  When the other group arrive we were having dinner, so they all wondered past with their cases, acknowledging us with a few nods and a couple of timid hellos.  As the other group settled in, there continued to be a division as they started to prepare their dinner whilst we were finishing up.  We have a nice group of people on our tour, who were noticeably quieter and perhaps a little shyer than the other group. 

As drinks started  to flow, no one was really doing any cross group mingling, so I decided to have a chat to some of the Swiss people from the other group who were sitting on the sofa.  As with any apparently awkward social situation, as soon as I had just got on with it and started talking everything went fine, the people were really great and each conversation led to another, which interested more people and within no time I had met most of the other group (although not remembered most of their names – need to get better at that!).

I did remember one Dutch girl’s name very clearly – Anika.  She stuck in my mind 1) because it reminded me of ‘Seven of Nine’ from Star Trek (which I told her and she seemed a little confused about), 2) because she ended up being a really smart and interesting girl and we talked for quite a while.  Whilst the story is not that rare amongst travellers, I was really interested to hear how she had taken a ‘career break’ (sabbatical) at the age of 31 to go travelling (and I guess get to know herself a bit etc…).  She is/was a real estate lawyer, but had been travelling for a few months around Australia, and plans to be away for 9 (I think) in total.  I must admit that when I first met her she seemed a little off and perhaps slightly uncomfortable/unconfident, but perhaps that’s because she was older than most (but not all) of her group, or perhaps there was another reason.  Either way, when talking to her 1:1, she was a very confident person with strong opinions and an inquisitive attitude.  I initially read in to Anika’s relative (to the rest of the group) quietness in a negative way, shame on me.  Everyone has a different personality, and reacts in differently depending on the situation, reading in to signs which are on the surface and using them to make assumptions about a persons nature is not fair and actually often results in missed opportunities to meet some really interesting people.  I could have easily avoided talking to Anika and instead started a conversation with one of the louder, extravert members of the group, however I am so glad that I started chatting to here instead and discovered how easy it was to have a conversation with her.

Caroline and I were the only ones who stayed up ‘late’ in our group.  I put late in quotes because we went to bed at 23:30, so it wasn’t exactly a late night.  We sat at the communal dinner table chatting to various people from the other group, mostly about interesting destinations around the world, future careers options for those who were travelling and good value places to eat in various towns across Australia – pretty much standard travel speak I guess. 

I only managed to get about 4 hours sleep in the hostel, mainly due to the fact that it was so cold in our room!  I was the least organised in our room (the other 3 were girls) because I had not prepared my bed before starting drinking.  I ended up simply climbing up to my top bunk and fell alseep fully clothed with a pocket full of bits and bobs, as well as socks full of sand from the day’s beach excursions.  I tossed and turned for most of the night, managed to get a few hours sleep and then finally decided to get up at 6:15, 15 minutes before my alarm was due to go off.  My body seems to be getting very good at waking up a particular time – whether my alarm is set or not, I wish I could master that and write a book about it, it seems like a great skill to have!

I was the first of the boys to have a shower.  In fact, I’m not even sure if the other boys had a shower.  The bathroom was FREEZING, although the shower water itself was hot and had a reasonable water pressure (more than my useless home shower).  The shower door would not lock, so I was slightly conscious of someone walking to find me butt naked, so I had a pretty hasty shower and got my red flowery boxer shorts on as quickly as I could. 

Despite having very little sleep and feeling a little hungover, I must admit that the achievement of getting out of an ice cold bed and getting showered put me on a natural high, which resulted in Caroline calling me a ‘morning person’ due to the energetic mood I was in when I got back to the room.  Not a bad start to the day!

The builders of this toilet block near the Victoria/South Australia border were obviously very proud of their work (the ‘project’ the plaque refers to must have been the 2 toilets, since that was the only thing around for miles)…

Wow! We just stopped for a few hours on our way to Adelaide to hike up Mount Hollow, in the Grampians.  What an amazing experience! Definitely my favourite part of the road trip so far.

The road leading up to the mountain itself was spectacular.  As the sun came up, the fire orange sand track looked absolutely stunning in contrast to the beautiful blue sky.  It definitely felt more like Australia than some of the green and coastal areas we have driven through (some of which remind me of the UK).

Whilst our journey up the mountains was classed as a ‘hike’ rather than a climb, it was exciting enough to traverse over boulders, clamber along thin ledges, squeeze through gaps just large enough for a person and try not to slip on wet, sandy rocks.

There was a key transition for the hike where it turned from a slippery, muddy walk up the hill, in to a semi climb which required firm footing and a strong grip to get up the edge of vertical rocks.  The group pretty much halved in size at the transition since some of the girls decided it was too much for them, some because they had impractical shoes and others because they were not comfortable with the heights.

For me, it was as the transition point that it become exciting.  We were jumping over and sliding down huge rocks, squeezing through small gaps in the rock and swinging over gaps using huge tree branches.  The sun was mostly behind the clouds, but combined with the altitude and the first exercise we had in two days, was enough to get most people sweating on the way up.

Reaching the top was simply breath taking.  The feeling of achievement and bliss was almost as amazing as the view when standing at one of the highest points for miles around.  I have not experienced a feeling of being so free as I have when standing on top of a mountain.  We were so high up that the bus was very small and only recognisable because it was in one of the few open spaces in the green park below.  The 360 degree view from the peak allowed us to see beautiful rock formations, a dense forest and miles of beautiful park space.  I must be honest and say that some of the mountain views I saw in the Khao Sok jungle in Thailand were more impressive (in a Jurassic park kind of way), however the reward of reaching the peak in the Grampians along with the amazing view made it just an exhilarating as our Thai adventure.

Recently I have found rock formations strangely fascinating.  I only say strangely because most people do not seem to appreciate them that much, or at least they don’t talk about them very often.  However, crawling through small gaps in the rock which have formed over millions of years by water trickling through, or by miniscule movements of the rock, somehow puts in to perspective how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things, and how seemingly infinitely and unimaginably beautiful our planet’s history is.  At some point, I need to do ‘proper’ rock climbing, if for no other reason than to get that feeling of ‘being at one with the mountain’…I’m not sure how that feels, but how cool does it sound?!

Whilst it’s fun to try and capture moments by describing in intricate detail, visualizing colours with clever analogies, smells, feelings and other details to put whoever is reading the text in another place within their head…I am not going to do that about the Zoo.  It’s a zoo! There are a lots of zoos around the world, most people have been to one, and seen animals of all shapes and sizes.  You know what it’s all about!

HOWEVER, there is one thing which is unique to Taronga, the beautiful view of Sydney harbour which can be seen as you meander down the hill on which the zoo is set. 

When I arrived I felt a little like I was arriving in Jurassic Park, because despite the fact that it’s actually connected to the mainland, you can arrive via a boat on to the private zoo jetty which feels like arriving on to it’s own private island…

The zoo is extremely well maintained and has a huge selection of animals from around the world.  Of course, something which is quintessentially Australia is Koala bears! So I was very excited this cute little ‘critter’ resting in the trees …

The meerkats were bizarrely more exciting to see than some of the other animals.  I say bizarrely because the main reasons I was excited to see them in real life was because of the ‘Compare the Meercats’ adverts back in the UK.  I couldn’t stand there watching them with out “We did not go through all of this to give you keep deals on your car insurance!” constantly going through my head.  

The giraffes had one of the best locations in the Zoo, due to the amazing view of the Opera house above their towering heads…

Of course there were also plenty of tank based exhibits from lizards to seals, and from frogs to penguins…

OK, that’s it.  No attempt at creative language or detailed explanations of how wonderfully cute the animals were.  Great zoo though

Well that’s just great! Although to be honest it smelt a bit ‘natural’

We were standing at the red dot marked ‘You are here’, who would have thought it?!…

The Southbank region of Melbourne is full of office sky scrapers, riverside park areas and cafes/restaurants to feed the thousands of workers frequenting the area every day.  It also features a brown Charlie and Chocolate style chocolate coloured river, which would probably make the area look absolutely disgusting if it wasn’t so modern and clean…

OK, so this morning I posted about how much of a disappointment Melbourne is. The post prompted a ‘Nice read!’ response from one Facebook friend, and a worried email from my mum after she saw photos of the hostel.

I was being a little unfair, as I had only seen one edge of town at that point, and it’s not exactly the best edge.  After I had written my Melbourne damning post over a Macdonalds breakfast, I started to walk towards Federation Square, which is on the way to the Microsoft office, things got a bit better as I got further away from our hostel.

I got a little lost (which turned out to be a bad thing, so this is the rather indirect route I took…

I was pleased to have accidentally strolled in to Fitzroy gardens, as it turned out to be the first part of Melbourne which I actually found pleasant.  Whilst it was missing the flurry of people walking/jogging to work which Hyde Park had (there I go thinking about Sydney again), the grounds were beautiful, even if they were a little too quiet to feel welcoming.  I had a brisk walk through and snapped some photos as I went…

Once I had checked my iPhone phone to see where I was, I managed to find my way from Fitzroy Gardens to Microsoft with relative ease.  No matter how many cities I go to work in, and how many Microsoft offices I visit, I always feel like I have arrived home safe when I managed to find the office within the midst of a unfamiliar, foreign country.  I activated my badge, found a room to do my calls and then settled in to work mode.  The rest of the day was all about search engines, so nothing to blog about (on this blog at least) there.

We’re back at the hostel tonight, sitting in the gym chilling and catching up on mails.  We chose the gym because , catching up on mails and watching Australian news.  The hostel atmosphere isn’t exactly what I was expecting.  Rather than everyone being chatty and wanting to make friends, it feels like most are keen to avoid eye contact as they wonder around to the kitchen/shared bathrooms.  We’re sitting in an open space, and trying to make random conversation to those who come along, but it’s a bit 1 way right now .  It’s either a bad night, a bad hostel, or my expectations were well off!  The rest of the week will tell.

Perhaps it’s just because I have fallen in love with Sydney, but I must be honest and say that Melbourne is slightly underwhelming so far.  To be fair, our hostel is on the edge of the city and I haven’t seen the sites of Federation Square or the Arts Precinct yet, so I am sure it will get better.  Perhaps I was so spoilt by the city center location, next to Hyde Park in Sydney, that my expectations of Melbourne were a little too high.

Already I miss the people running/walking/cycling to work, the beautiful greenery of the Botanic Gardens and the harbour backdrop for a morning run.  Geese! Can’t believe I miss Sydney so much after only staying there 1 week!  Anyway, something about Melbourne…

The hostel is, well, a hostel.  Actually, it’s a bit of a building site to be honest!  They are completely renovating the downstairs section, so the entrance is not the most welcoming in the world…

However, once you are inside it’s all pretty modern, clean and friendly.  The ‘games room’, which is also a temporary reception is a bit of a mess, and the arcade machines are not usable as their’ all stacked up for storage.  However the workout area, TV room and other parts of the building are in good condition.  We’ve got a private room, so it’s pretty much like staying in a travel lodge.  The shared bathrooms are pretty good, all stainless steel and complete with free soap in squirty (another word which isn’t in the dictionary!! It should be, so I’m leaving it there) dispensers!

We didn’t arrive until after midnight last night and we haven’t ventured in to the communal kitchen yet.  I was exciting to be staying in a hostel and to meeting some new and interesting people, however so far it just feels like staying in a hotel .  I am out wandering the city now and on my way to Microsoft, where I’ll be working for the day.  Going to pop in to the supermarket on the way home and get some food to cook in the kitchen – hoping that will be a good opportunity to meet some of our fellow ‘backpackers’.

I am sorry to say that even my healthy eating urge has dropped since I left Sydney and I am currently sitting in Macdonalds (all be it a very modern and nice one) having breakfast and writing this blog post.

Will blog some more when I find something nice/interesting in Melbourne.  In the mean time, I’ll be a home sick (for Sydney) Chris.