"Where to today?" - week 3

"Where do you want to go?" and "What do you want to see?" have been questions that I have been getting non-stop in the past few days. I am not complaining though, having family in Melbournes come quite handy.

One morning I woke up and felt like feeding the kangaroos and koalas. So we headed up to the Wildpark just an hour away. It is so amazing how kangaroos are just free wherever in the "zoo" (I think it's really more like a wild park, because its so local and "small"). Most of them were lazy and weren't really interested in the food, some were interested more in your paper bag than food and others were "jumping" around (did you know that kangaroos "can't walk?).

It happened to me 3 times that kangaroo just took and ripped the bag from me - and then they started chewing brown paper bag. I mean if that's your thing, okay haha. Koalas were the cutest, I could watch them eat for hours. In general, I think you are pretty lucky if you see them moving at all since they spend approx 18 hours asleep - good life I would say.

We briefly saw penguins but they weren't out most of the time. I think I will see enough "free" penguins in the future when we will head to the islands. We also saw snakes and crocodiles - and they are huge! I have been very keen lately to visit Cairns but now I am not sure (they have lots of crocodiles up north).

After the zoo, we went to the local “market” to buy some fresh strawberries and cherries. We ended only getting the strawberries because cherries were 12 dollars!

In the evening I went for drinks with some friends and we also went to “Australia Open” even though it hasn’t officially opened yet. It was free entry to see qualifications and we went to see one match and then treated ourselves for gin&tonic after. I was home early because I went surfing the next day.

I rented a car with my “mates” and we headed to Torquay (the beach for surfing) which is a bit more than 1h drive away. We had to rent boards and also get wetsuits because weather and water are colder here than in Queensland. Water had just 17 degrees, and the air temperature was around 20. In the beginning, it was almost raining but then the weather became a bit better. There were still clouds covering the whole sky (no sun) so I thought I don’t need sunscreen. Lol, the joke’s on me. I got sunburned so much I was peeling on MY FACE (!) for the whole next week – not fun when you have your first days of job and meet your colleagues aka other students at the clinic. Thanks a lot sun… next time, I will be prepared.

Next morning we went to Queen Victoria market – you can buy anything there: souvenirs, Uggs, fruit, fish, meat, smoothies, street food, clothes… The perfect way to get distracted for a few hours. Later we explored Melbourne and the street art… Oh and I craved acai bowl for lunch, and paid 13€ for a small “smoothie bowl” with granola. It was good but a bit overpriced in my opinion.

On Monday we went to the beach – well we came there took a picture and drove back haha. In the morning, the weather was looking good, but then literally as we were 10 minutes from the beach (it’s 1h 30 min drive) it started raining and it was so windy. But since we drove for so long we still went to the Brighton beach because I wanted to see the “cool” boxes – I need to come back when the weather is nice for sure! It’s such a nice beach to walk along and explore!

On Wednesday one of my friends had a birthday, so we went to the South Melbourne Market for street food and some drinks. Now that I have an apartment near my work, it took me “just” bit more than 1 hour to get into the city centre with the tram (still hate big cities). I think next time I will just take the bike since that will take me 1 hour also, but at least it will be productive. Sadly, the roads aren’t really made for biking. Need to figure that out.

Also yes, I have found an apartment. WOHO! I was deciding btw 2, but then chose the one that’s closer to work (literally 500 m walk). In my opinion, its way overpriced. Sure, it’s close to work BUT it’s 1h away from the city centre with public transport, it is small with bad “air” inside the house, the furniture is old and it is messy and dirty (even though I hate to admit that). And I am paying 700 dollars per month. BUT I am not going to spend that much time anyway because I will work and explore during weekdays and spend weekends with my family in the house. I guess that’s my silver lining.

When I was walking from the Market the other day I randomly saw an art class being held at one venue. It looked so good even though I was never that much into anything art related. But at that moment I felt "drawn" to join them and just try my "sucky" skills... Hopefully my schedule won't be so tight in a couple of weeks and I can give it a go.

For the end – I have to admit something….

That I hate big cities – I am not saying I hate Melbourne because that’s a strong word and it would be completely misunderstood. I think I just need to learn how to work out the whole “commuting” thing out. Still struggling to manage everything: work and get the most out of my internship, study to catch up on the things that university should have taught me and spend time with family and sightsee. But I guess the first few weeks are always overwhelming when you move somewhere new.