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elevenhoursinfront-blog · 7 years

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21st July 2017

I woke up at 1030. I was so pleased not to have work because I was more drunk than I thought. I stumbled about getting my shower stuff ready and got in as quickly as possible. I felt disgusting. I hate that feeling when you wake up after a night out drinking. I was absolutely starving and shortly realised the reason for feeling so... I didn't have anything for dinner. There were canapes throughout the evening but it's difficult to find anything without mushroom on (aka satan).

After my shower, Steve and I went downstairs to have breakfast. We were dressed and ready when we had breakfast so we decided to go for a walk around the block in the fresh air. I needed to get out of the hostel so that was nice. We didn't have much time as Steve had work in the early afternoon. We went back to the room and tried to watch the rest of the film we've spent all week trying to watch. He got ready for work around 1330.

I got myself up and out as I had a $50 voucher to spend. I went to DFO in Southwarf which I was excited about. I had my heart set on Converse or Vans, both with a particular pair in mind. I got the tram 4 stops and walked the 10 minutes into the outlet. Converse had the pair I wanted but for $120! I am not made of money - do I look like a walking money tree to you? What a joke. I left the store pretty swiftly, after looking at all the sale items. I went into Vans and they had a good sale on except the particular pair I wanted there were $119... Fantastic. Now what? I left the stores with the slight hump and walked around checking other stores.

I came across Platypus which is where Steve and I got our Nike Slides from in Manly at the beginning of our trip. I found a great pair of Vans on sale for $49. Done deal for me! I asked for a size UK 5 and tried to pay for them with my gift card. Little did I know, Australian gift cards are very different. Rule number one, always read terms and conditions... I read the small print which said I had to register the card online before and allow until 1730 for same day use, if done before 1600. If not, you have to wait another business day. How ridiculous! I told the staff member that I really, really wanted the Vans and to keep them until I came back. He said he would.

I went and grabbed a spot to lunch, registered my card and sat around waiting. Good job there was wifi. Time went by so slowly which was annoying because I just wanted my Vans. The waiter came over to me to give me my receipt and kindly left his name and number for me. How sweet - that has never happened to me before. He was a very cheeky/cute Mexican man. I'll be sure to tell Steve about his competition. I went back to the store and my Vans were still there, hooray. Australian gift cards also have pin numbers and you have to select 'savings' not 'credit'. What a kerfuffle. I am used to just getting a simple gift card and handing it over.

I travelled home in the dark and cold. I was so happy to see my bed. I got really excited about my shoes and went to try them on. Steve text to say he was almost home. I got my Vans out and realised the guy had given me 1 shoe in UK 5 and the other in UK 8... I was fuming. I told Steve to stay downstairs and that we were going back to DFO before they shut at 2100. The guy apologised and gave me a new box with TWO size 5's. I checked the shoes before I left and see that there were white laces inside. That was well worth going back because I went into 3 different shops the first time round to try and buy white laces.

Bargain. Steve and I got back to the hostel too late for dinner. We had cereal instead and had an early-ish night. We tried to watch a film and fell asleep.

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marielledownunder · 7 years

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Livin’ like a Melburnian

It was 4 in the morning in Sydney and this means it’s time to go back to Melbourne! I enjoyed my week over there for New Year’s Eve, but I had nothing more to see or to visit and I was quite happy to go back. I came back with the 2 guys named Pachi and Ramiro from Argentina and Imke joined.

I came back in my apartment around 3, rested for a bit. Then later on Marloes from ‘Dutchies in Melbourne’ asked in the chat if anyone wanted to go to the Market in South Melbourne. I joined her and met up with her. She came with a friend named Jimmy from Canada, who she met in Asia. We walked around and got a good paella dish. Then Anatole joined us (I met him during my farmwork in Bundaberg). We walked around and after a while we were done with the market, but not with the evening yet. Haha...

We wanted to get some booze from Dan Murphy’s but Anatole didn’t have his ID or passport, so we couldn’t get any booze. Then Marloes and I tried at BWS and they didn’t accept our driving’s licence. So in the end, the Jimmy, youngest among us, got the booze in the end. We hanged out at Marloes’ au pair house. She was au pair for like 5 months and it was a beautiful house: super big kitchen with a great living room, swimming pool outside, and lots of other beautiful rooms. We were having drinks which escalated into drinking games and in the end we stayed over at that place. Well, actually, I woke up and I thought where am I?! I ended up sleeping on the sofa, with just a bikini on (not really the best size), no clothes because my clothes were in Marloes’ room and everyone else was sleeping. Then I remembered I became drunk and I was super tired from the previous short night that I went KO. Luckily I brought another short and cardigan, so I could get some breakfast.

Then everyone woke up slowly and we made some breakfast. We hanged out at the pool and it was such a nice place and vibe that we decided to stay the whole day at the same house as nobody had nothing to do that day. We got the spontaneous idea to do a barbecue and it was a super nice one!

After the barbecue we continued again with what we started the first day: having drinking games haha. The second day was more controlled though, didn’t get that drunk and we went to bed earlier. The next morning there was a lady checking while I was half asleep. I woke up and I was like, who is this woman...? Apparently she’s family from the au pair family from Marloes and they kicked us out. Some neighbours heard us and they called the owners of the house. So yeah Marloes was shocked because she had no home.. I felt so sorry for her, but in the end she managed to stay at Tim’s place and she would leave in a few days anyways.

In the afternoon I went to Brighton beach with Imke. It was 42 degrees that day. The hottest day in my life, and yes I survived! In the evening I met up again with Gabby, Josh, Anatole, Vitto, Jacob and Britt! I finally reunited with Britt again (travelled 3 weeks with her). She also brought her parents with her haha. More people were joining like Paolo, Jazmin, Miya, Goulven. They’re all from Bundaberg and half of them I just met here in Melbs. We had drinks and live music, talked a lot, I even played pingpong against Josh and I lost... guess it was too dark for me haha. After that we wanted to go out, we went to the casino first and afterwards we got food. It took us like 2 hours to go to the next bar. In the end we ended up in Loch and Key, a place where the bar is hidden and has different rooms to hang out, with a good amount of music till the early morning.

The next Monday I had my last night with Marloes and Tim. We went to naked for Satan to have some drinks and later on we went to the workers club. This place is always crowded on Mondays, and the jugs are just 8$ the whole night! That’s even better than at Asian Beer Cafe, where I used to go with them many times. So yeah we finally said goodbye to eachother at the end of the night. I’ve spend most of my time with them in Melbourne and it was lovely, but as most travellers and backpackers I’ve met, they had to move on with their travels of course.

On Tuesday I went to work from Imagine that and afterwards we went to Taco Tuesday in Vamos. I went there with Thomas, Rebecca and Ryan. Aris was still stuck in America. Ryan used to work at Imagine that but I never met him there, on the contrary I’ve met him during my Santa job. He’s a typical nice Australian dude (except the fact that he doesn’t surf haha) and he teached me some Australian slang: I only remembered rig, stubby and durries haha. The 5$ tacos weren’t really big and we were still hungry, so we continued our ‘restaurant crawl’ in Chinatown. Bought some booze and brought it to a Chinese restaurant. Thomas and I wanted to try the noodle bowl, I took too much and couldn’t finish haha.

On a Friday we went to Gabby’s place to eat the famous pizzas of Vitto! I’ve met him one day in Bundaberg, and then he went to Asia, so I just met him again in Melbourne. It was a great night, with good pizzas. After that we were having drinks and we hanged out. Paolo even made some cookies but I couldn’t eat them anymore. During my time in Straya, I started to eat less and now it’s even harder for me to finish big meals, which wasn’t a problem for me at all backhome... some people even called me a little Tyrex, haha.

The next Saturday I wanted to do something but I had no idea what to do. Lots of people I knew were heading to Elrow, a festival. I didn’t have a ticket so didn’t plan to go. I asked a Dutch girl to hang out and she invited me to her preparty and suddenly I changed my mind a bought a lastminute ticket. I gotta say that spontaneous decisions are the best decisions! Got to know lots of people at the preparty and I encountered lots of people from Bundy!

The other day Britt would come to stay at my place for one night. We cooked together and wanted to go to the Gay Pride, but we talked so much at my place that we forgot about the time and it became too late to go there. So we invited some friends to have drinks at my place. Josh and Paolo joined us, got some goon as we didn’t wanna spend much money (some of us got only 0.17 cent haha) and we played some drinking games. We ended up playing later than we thought haha and we enjoyed it a lot!

The rest of the week was just working and doing lovely things, just like what I used to do. I kept working at Imagine that and we were smashing with our daily targets which means lots of commission! About 100 dollars extra :)

One of these days I helped Britt to find a job, and she did 2 trials with us. We worked together which was pretty cool. One week later she got hired and I was happy for her. She had some troubles with finding a job, just like most people I know. Around that time I gave my notice that I would quit my job. I’m going to the Netherlands for 1,5 week and when I’m back in Australia I want to continue with my travels.

A few days later some people of Bundy organised a barbecue because it was Joey’s birthday. I joined as well and we went to St. Kilda. We enjoyed the sunset and hanged out over there till the end of the day.

I figured out that some other people who I’ve met in Bundy arrived in Melbourne this week. I spoke Liam from Cellblock (my first hostel in Bundy) and we had some drinks at the Joint bar, which is located next to Flinders Backpackers. He introduced me to some other people from Bundaberg: Louise and her friend and Lauren. We talked a bit and later on I got invited to a barbecue at Louise’s.

The next day I went to the beach with Britt. It was 40 degrees again and we were stubborn enough to go outside instead of staying at home. We got some drinks at the restaurants. In the evening I went to the barbecue, and I figured out Louise lived pretty close to my place and she had a beautiful rooftop! We stayed there till 10 and we went to the park afterwards.

The next day I invited Gabby, Anatole, Vitto, Josh, Britt, Imke, Paolo at my apartment for homemade hamburgers and friends and drinks. Rajco (from Australian Backpackers) was around in Melbourne and Britt invited him at my place. It was a lovely night. We played kingcup/ring of fire and even had tears from laughing. One moment Imke made the rule “every moment you say something, you have to sing”. It was so ridiculous and so funny and also annoying haha. Later on we went out, tried sister bella and ABC, but both were closing at 1. Therefore we ended up in Loch and Key, I came home at 5 and went to bed at 5.30. Morning already started.

The next day, on Sunday, I got my biggest hangover from Australia. I remembered I took half a bottle of Vodka, plus wine and rum cokes. My whole day was a bit clumsy and not knowing what to do. I hanged out with Imke and we were both feeling the same way. Ended up in chilling in St Kilda, with a nice picknick and a sunset.

The next week was my last week in Melbourne, or at least my last week where I stay in my apartment. I did different things, like working of course but also meeting people and enjoying the city. I even went to St kilda pier again to see the penguins. I also watched a bit of Australian Open in the free zone, a park where you can sit and no ticket needed.

I met up with Elisabeth and Stejara from ‘Dutchies in Melbourne’ again. We went to the restaurant in Southwarf and we got some burgers.

Another thing I did was visiting the Queen Victoria Market again. I met up with Britt and Imke and we stayed there till 9, and afterwards we headed to Flagstaff gardens. Oh I’m gonna miss that park! I lived there just 10 mins away and it was such a great park to stay.

Thursday was my last day and I wanted to enjoy Melbourne to the fullest so I went to different places with Imke. We went to the National Gallery of Victoria and to Hosier Lane street art. So lovely to see.

In the evening I went to tennis again with Imke and Elisabeth and it was also my last night. We wanted to have some drinks again so Britt, Josh R. and Josh W. joined. We went to ABC again and after that to Loch and Key. Came home at 5 and slept 4 hours, the day before I got my flight haha. Imagine I travelled 25 hours, had to stay awake for another 10 hours and I had 4 hours of sleep before all of that.

On Friday the 26th of January, I flew back to the Netherlands. I have a return ticket so I will come back, but first spending my time with my boyfriend and my lovely family and friends. Time flew so hard and I couldn’t believe it, but I guess my 3 months of Melbourne chapter has come to an end. I sure will come back but won’t stay for long, as I have new travel plans I wanna do. More will come the next post.

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