Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

My journey through Australia took an unexpected turn this week as I made a signficant deviation from my original plans for my time in the country. After spending a little over a week on the beaches of the east coast, I decided that I have seen enough of the beach (and 30+ degree weather) and was ready to get back to a city and eventually to somewhere a little bit cooler. Given that it's the dead of summer, my options for a cooler destination were severely limited. After deciding against traveling to New Zealand (for now) I settled on traveling to Hobart. Your probably wondering why then this post is titled Melbourne. Well, in order to reduce cost of flights I had to spend 4 nights in Melbourne. Let's call it a happy little accident because I couldn't be mire thrilled to be spending 4 days here.

After arriving to Melbourne from the Sunshine Coast, I made my way to my hostel (with a substantial walk) and began exploring downtown and Southbank in an effort to locate dinner with Kari. In this brief period I could tell that I was going to enjoy myself in this city and after today, that has proven true. Melbourne is like Sydney in that it is a mixture of amazing historical buildings mixed in with some new, cutting edge towers and complexes. But where Sydney is clean, tidy and near-perfect, Melbourne has an edge to it. There is some dirt behind the ears, mud between the toes, etc. I find this the most appealing part of the city. There are so many places that have endured through time and maintained a bit of the roughness of life in the 19th century and it comes across in how Melbourne feels.

I'm given strong consideration to Melbourne being the city in which I settle down and find a job. There is still plenty more that needs o happen before I get to making that important decision, but the thoughts are now flowing through my brain.

In mixed-feeling news, I am now entirely on my own on this journey. Kari has taken off on a tour of her own before traveling back home. Unfortunately that means I leave yet another friend behind for several months, but on the bright side, I'm now all by myself, left to do whatever I want. Hopefully I don't go crazy.

Picture taking is still in progress so it'll be a little while before upload any more.