Welcome to Oz!

Melbourne, Australia:

G’day friends!

After 30+ hours of travel – 24 spent sitting on airplanes – I stepped outside into summer.

Heat, humidity, sunshine lasting until nearly 9:00 PM … yep, we’re definitely not in Washington anymore!

The traveling itself was pretty uneventful. No excitement except for being able to sleep nearly 6 hours on-and-off on the longest leg of the trip, which wouldn’t be exciting unless you’re someone who can never sleep on airplanes (aka me).

Thankfully, once I arrived in Melbourne, it was really easy to find my friends, too. We made it to the hostel, dumped off our stuff and, reinvigorated by the warm sunshine coursing through our veins, set off for a walk around the neighborhood. Immediately, the huge number of open, green spaces impressed me. Parks are scattered around the city and after a walk, we just settled into the grass. Very peaceful.

And look at that sky! In Bill Bryson’s Australia book, he wrote about the enormity of the sky here, how it seems to go on forever. This is the view from the roof of our hostel.

Sandy and Stephanie are both Californians and they definitely feel the West Coast vibe. If Sydney is cosmopolitan and (as I like to call it) “London if London was in California,” Melbourne is San Diego. Really laid-back and casual but with a huge arts scene, lots of outdoor activities and an active population. Whereas I just came to eat.

I was definitely feeling the jet-lag by this point!

There are tons of young people here, many of them tourists but also lots of locals. Melbourne is Australia’s most ethnically-diverse city and that’s really represented in the people walking by. The Greek population here is the biggest of any city in the world outside of Athens! The hostel, too, is a huge mix of nationalities – unlike other places where Americans, Brits and Aussies seem to dominate, I’ve met people here from Korea, Sweden, France, Germany, Belgium, New Zealand and more. I wonder if it’s all the Northern Hemisphere travelers desperate to avoid any more winter!

Our hostel is just a few blocks from Queen Victoria Market, one of Melbourne’s biggest attractions. The food section of this massive open-air market sells everything from street food from around the world to local favorites, as Stephanie’s Outback sampler of an emu burger, crocodile nuggets and kangaroo sausage can attest.

We met up with our friend Lisa, an Irish girl who also taught in Korea who’s now living in Melbourne, to spend the evening at the market. Besides food, there are also hundreds of vendors selling clothes, jewelry, beauty supplies and locally-made crafts. It made for great people-watching!

I stuck to my faux-Asian roots with a veggie stir-fry. Aussies seem to be really health-conscious so there are tons of organic, healthy options, which is great for a somewhat-picky eater like me. For instance out of all those food vendors at the market, there were no hamburgers or French fries in sight. Which isn’t to say that everything was or is healthy but there were definitely tons of veggie options.

Speaking of food, we stopped by a grocery store to pick up a few necessities. Our hostel, like many of the cheaper ones, has a kitchen and sells food but doesn’t provide free breakfast or anything. In an effort to save money, we each picked up a few staples. For me, it was a loaf of bread, some seasoned tofu and a bag of carrots. Food is expensive here but at the same time a) I’m on vacation (albeit for almost two months) and b) I’d rather eat healthfully than cheaply. I’ll probably end up eating out most of the time but it’s not to have other options. Good thing I packed all those bars and a jar of peanut butter – a Clif bar for breakfast and PB sandwich w/ carrots for lunch. And to think some people gain weight on vacation…

Don’t worry, Chinatown is on the agenda for tonight and promises to have great food!

My new Korean friend, Jin, wasn’t so sure about her ‘roo burger. “Mashisyo?” I asked. (“Delicious?”). She shook her head and laughed. “Jogum mashisyo?” (“A little delicious?”) She laughed again and said, “Jogum.” (“A little.”)

Sitting on the sidewalk watching an outdoor concert, wearing a tank top and flip flops, it was hard to believe that last time I was outdoors, it was snowing. Oh yes, as I waited to leave Dulles Monday evening the snow started drifting down. So on the way to Oz summer, my plane had to be de-iced. How fitting is that?!

Somehow, I managed to stay awake until almost 10:00 last night, which was pretty impressive considering how little sleep I was running on. I’m hoping that, plus waking up at 6:45 this morning, means that the jetlag won’t be too bad since at least that’s more than enough sleep and kind of putting me on a normal schedule.

Our itinerary for the entire trip is really flexible (possibly renting a car for a couple of days and driving up the Great Ocean Road, which goes east toward Adelaide) but at least while in Melbourne, we have a general idea of what we want to do. A free tram runs around the city and hits a lot of the major sights, so that will definitely be put to use.

Today’s plan is to visit St. Kilda’s, a beach area a short tram ride away, and then explore Chinatown, the Western world’s oldest. I’m hoping for some good, cheap eats!

My hostel does have Internet but it’s not free. (Ah, hostel life and sharing a room with six people. Good times.) In fact, we’ve yet to find anywhere with free WiFi. Is that not common in Australia? I’m still hoping to get online daily – writing my posts in Word and then copying them over to WordPress – but don’t be alarmed if I disappear for a while.

Unless a croc got me. THEN you can be alarmed.

(And if you emailed/Facbeooked/messaged me, I promise to respond when I have access to Internet for longer than a few minutes! Promise I’m not ignoring you. <3 ) And sorry there aren’t tons of pics — hoping to upload more but the Internet is too slow here.

Aussies: Do you know of anywhere with free Wifi (cafes, libraries, parks, etc.)?