Melbourne!

Well, it was quite the process getting over to Melbourne, Australia, but I am here.
Because I am a cheap skate, I decided I wouldn't get a hostel room for the night before I left NZ as my flight was first thing in the morning. So, I tried to sleep on the sofa of the tv room in the hostel for a few hours, passed out unconscious from 12:45am-2:30am and was then awoken by a hostel employee who told me I could not sleep there. Classic.

Packed up my stuff and got on a bus to the airport and arrived at 3:30am. Brutal. There is honestly nothing worse then not sleeping and being in an airport. That, and continuously seeing your trip nemesis everywhere you go (and yes my nemisi, this tall Dutch boy, was on the bus with me and at the airport too, obv).
Flight was awful. 4 hours and they don't give you anything for free, not even a glass of water. No movies or TV to watch and screaming babies everywhere!

I finally arrived at my hostel, napped, and took a walk around the city to then meet 2 old friends from high school, Sarah and Pete, who just moved here. We had SUCH a fun night. Out for dinner in a neighbourhood called St. Kilda at Lentils as Anything, a not for profil restaurant that serves great vegetarian food and is pay what you can. They even let us drink our own wine, despite the fact they don't have a liquor license (and we started a trend, others followed suit). We then went out for some drinks and had a grand time reminiscing about high school and Ottawa etc.

 It was a blast, and I'm actually really sad I don't have more time in this city because it is proper cool. I've been trying to find a way to describe it or compare it to somewhere, but I'm not sure if I can. I would love to come back here, and even live here. You just feel comfortable and at ease in the city right away. It has he neighbourhood feel of Toronto, the natural environment of Vancouver, and the history and architecture of a place like Chicago. And top it all off with a great cafe culture, cool fashion, and a good university, this is a pretty wicked place.

Tonight I'm going to go to the famous Queen Victoria night market and just tour around. Tomorrow morning it is off to Kuala Lampur in Malaysia and time to say good bye to first world luxuries (boo!) and first world prices (yay!). I'm excited though to head back to what I feel is my traveling element.

For those of you wondering...Spike is doing well.