Melbourne - travel diary

Before leaving Brisbane we put together a little travel plan to figure out how to manage our stay in Australia: it wasn't easy, especially because of the damned money. Our initial idea was grand, like true adventurers we had planned a complete loop along the entire coastal perimeter of Australia, with a little detour into the desert too, to Alice Springs and the magical Uluru... it was just a utopia. The cost of the bus ticket alone is around 1200 Australian dollars per person... are you kidding!!! Definitely beyond our reach. The least painful solution was to take a flight to Melbourne and go back up the coast by bus to Brisbane, specifically to Fraser Island.

And so here we are in Melbourne, the second city on our route, once again welcomed by the cold; and this time it was really cold: the thermometer read 14 °C. In fact there was an explanation... as per tradition we had been preceded by an adverse weather event: a flood that submerged the city and its surrounding areas, tearing off roofs and uprooting trees.

Despite this, we mustered our strength and started looking for a bed to sleep in. It turned out to be quite complicated: there wasn't a single free spot and, to avoid spending the night at the airport, we decided to trust the wisdom of a friendly taxi driver who, for the absurd sum of 42 dollars, took us to a dormitory: a temporary arrangement ahead of the move to the Nomad Inn, another hostel, the only one that gave us a room at a more than reasonable price, but only starting from the night after our arrival.

So, the next morning, up at the crack of dawn, to take care of the check-out formality, and on foot we reached our final accommodation. From there we didn't waste a minute and set off for the city centre accompanied by inclement weather. In this case too it didn't take us long to get the hang of the city: it's definitely bigger than Brisbane, but it has a simple and schematic urban grid, easy to memorise. We immersed ourselves in the big skyscrapers of the centre, and in its malls (a sort of streets closed to car traffic, where the city's commercial life develops), fascinated by the vitality of this city. Like classic tourists we took advantage of the free tram that allowed us to do the entire loop of the centre and get a first overview of the places to visit.

Back home we put our culinary skills into practice using the ever-present kitchen in the hostel; we went up to our room quite early and enjoyed a healthy evening in front of the magic box... well yes, we had a television in the room.

The following morning after breakfast we headed to Federation Square, the city's main square decorated in art deco style, then headed to visit Parliament, where they were celebrating weddings galore. The next stop was a visit to Melbourne's cathedral: St Patrick's Cathedral, a majestic Gothic-style building.

But the "mission impossible" we had set for ourselves for the day was something else entirely: our hair clipper was on its last legs, and along with it our poor hair. It was no longer a hair clipper but a hair ripper. By now for weeks the traces of this malfunction had been clear on our heads, patches of white skin popping up among thick black hair: devil of a hair clipper!!! The undertaking that to most might seem easy turned out to be titanic, so much so that we had to give up, postponing it all to the near future.

The following day, under a particularly gloomy and threatening sky, we devoted ourselves to visiting the Docklands, the city's old port districts partially transformed into a residential and recreational area: nothing special, also because they are still being fixed up.

A quick visit to St Kilda beach, one of Melbourne's most renowned, couldn't be missed. At first glance the well-mown lawns, the coconut palms and the lush greenery offered a definitely positive image of the neighbourhood, even though once we reached the sea, we were disappointed by its reddish colour and the beaches full of every type of seaweed. Anyway, we spent the morning strolling along its pier and promenade, among lots of people enjoying the hot summer sun, which had finally deigned to do its job.

Back on the tram heading to Melbourne Park, one of the facilities that characterise the city's sporting side, since that's exactly where the Australian Open had just ended: one of the four major tennis tournaments in the world. Then followed a healthy walk in the surrounding park where we had a close encounter with a bird better known as a cockatoo.

The last day in Melbourne was marked by the meeting with our historic adventure companions Brian and Laura, the two young Scots we met in Vietnam, about whom you already know everything by now; this time their stay in Australia will last a whole year, which they'll spend as excellent interns in local hospitals.

In the evening, once the suitcases were packed and with Brian kindly escorting us, we reached the bus station to continue the journey, strictly overnight, toward the capital: Canberra.