Melbourne in the rain!

I blame Neighbours. They led me to believe that I would be under a constant unfailing Ozzy sun while I was here, and we are now on the 4th consecutive day of rain. Although considering the state of Brisbane at the moment I dont think anyone feels they can really complain.

My days in Melbourne since I last blogged have been spent in a crazy variety of ways. Primarily I was occupied with finding a job, which was boring and confidence- destroying a lot of the time, but had the added bonus of me seeing a lot of the city as I walked through it handing out CVs to all and sundry! Melbourne is actually very beautiful, with lots of period buildings interspersed with the more modern developments. Pictured above is one of the University buildings; I spent about an hour exploring the campus. A very nice university to attend for beer and barbie studies!

Also this week I finally managed to go and see the Melbourne penguins, no, not an ice hockey team, but actual teeny weeny pingwings! The smallest in the world apparently. After dark you can walk down Melbournes 1 million metre long pier (so windy!) and see the little birds emerging from the water and waddling back to their nests. Very cute! I went down with two girls I met in the hostel, a scottish girl called Laura who gave me some really good advice about travelling the West Coast (my current travel plan!), and a German girl called Lisa who I see at breakfast every day when she tells me which of her muscles in aching today (I think she may have me confused with someone else who is perhaps a physiotherapist, otherwise this is just another wonderful German tradition I have yet to learn about).

The main bonus emerging from the current tempestuous weather is the beautiful sunsets! See right for one of my favourite photos of the trip to date! (Also note how long the blimming pier is, 1 billion miles, I'm telling you).

Also this week I've had to move rooms, as the original hostel room I was in was too expensive for me to stay in, so I took the plunge and moved into a 10 bed girls dorm. Or the room of stinking death as it is alternatively known. The problem with dorms in Oz is that people stay in them while they are working, so some of the girls in my room have been living there for ten months. Now the Loki La Paz staff room was no treat ('stinking rat hole' being the term of choice) but this is dirty like lots of young(er) girls living together and drinking too much make flith. Everywhere has a thin patina of foundation, theres spilt nail vanish and (unexplicable) maple syrup all over the carpet and yesterday I threw out 10 empty shampoo bottles in the shower after knocking them all over in a shower-based domino effect. Plus there are empty beer cans everywhere, everyone stinks of smoke and its 29 degrees OUTSIDE with 85% humidity, so you can only imagine the smell and temperature in there. But never-the-less its a travelling experience. And due to 2 days this week cleaning toilets I wont be paying for rent, so no dramas mate as they say over here. Though it does make me wish I was back in with the three scrupulously clean German 18 year olds I was sharing with before (plus Hans, Laura and Michael were super lovely, and still come and find me when the have cookies to share- I think they're incredibly brave to be so far from home at 18, speaking another language everyday. I couldn't have done it so young!).

The week to come is full of exciting things though... this week I'm travelling the Great Ocean road, and then on Monday I have a flight to Perth, hopefully to start a job and take the first steps on my great West- Coast adventure!