Finally Living My Dream, On My Own!

Feb 9th-11th
Melbourne, St. Kilda
Well, as I mentioned before, I am officially on my own and my nerves got the better of me. I'm in Melbourne and arrived at my hostel, which is a total backpackers joint. I felt a bit awkward at first, especially when I walked into my 8 bed mixed dorm room. I was dead tired and crawled onto my top bunk to go to bed super early when Heidi from Finland walked in, introduced herself and started chatting with me.

That night, she invited me to go with her to look for penguins by the pier and I had to take the opportunity! So we walked down to the beach where we met up with her 2 other Finnish friends and hung out. The boardwalk is beautiful and we were able to spot some beautiful baby penguins!

The next day, we hung out at the beach but the weather, yet again, turned on me and was not that great to be lying on a beach. Later that evening, Vivian, a Contiki friend came to pick me up for dinner. I will have to write more about my "shady" story waiting for Vivian when I get a chance. We got to know one another better over a great meal, and exchanged lots of teaching stories, especially the differences between Canada and Australia. Later on I met up with the girls and went to enjoy some live music in a local pub, which is part of the St. Kilda festival going on right now.

Today, Sarah, another Contiki friend came to pick me up and gave me a fabulous tour of the city! I was able to go into the Melbourne Aquarium, the Casino, St. Paul's Cathedral, some art galleries, hop on the City Tram, and each lunch in Chinatown. Again, Sarah and I roomed together in Queenstown for a few nights but didn't hang out too much, so spending the whole day with her today was great. Hopefully, she will be living her dream next year by travelling the world, and Toronto will be one of her stops!

Just finished packing up my bag and showering, as I am up early tomorrow--leaving to go on my 3 day, 2 night Great Ocean Road tour.