Day 5 - New friends

Now I am getting a bit behind on my updates......I have to stop and think now what I need to tell you all. So much is happening in such a short space of time.

I moved into my room on Sunday night - very exciting. I am really pleased with my choice. My roomie is lovely and very welcoming. He had a dinner to go to so he handed over the keys and left me to it. It gave me an opportunity to settle in,organize all my stuff (not that I have much) in my room. I will have to purchase some photo frames to go on the walls in my room as looking a little sparse and impersonal at the moment.

Woke up in my suburb full of energy and ready to pull on the joggers and do some exploring. I don't know what I was thinking but I decided to go out without my phone in case I decided I wanted to jog (crazy thought I know!) so what this means is that I don't have a map, or the gps in my phone and I have absolutely no idea of my new suburb. Anyways heading towards St Kilda, went through the botanical gardens and over to Marine Pde to walk along the waters edge. All good so far.......kept walking for a couple kms then felt that I am about level with Elwood shops so start heading inland. Low and behold I pop right out at the shops (amazed myself I did)!!!! Right, now...... how the blazers do I get back home?? Well let's just try this street....hmmmm thinking this may be where my luck runs out,so decide to ask a friendly walker heading the other way. He kindly pulled up google maps on his phone (what did we do before them....oh yeah took a paper map with us!!!!) and guess what.........no he didn't ask me out :-( I was heading in the right direction, only about 4 blocks from home. Yah!!!!

So morning done and now for some lunch - I went to a place called Lentil as Anything ( check it out http://www.lentilasanything.com/ ) This place is amazing - there are no set prices. You pay what you feel the meal is worth or what you can afford. You put you cash in a big wooden box so there is no judgement about how much you pay. I had a Japanese pancake which was great.

Found the supermarket, bought a bottle of wine because I have been invited to have dinner with roomie and a bunch of friends at our place.

When I arrive home the kitchen is in full swing with preparation for the evenings meal. I meet new friend number 1,who is a chef, and is currently writing a cookbook on South American food and tonight's dinner is all about research for her and getting inside information from roomie who is Brazilian.

More new friends continue to arrive 1 by 1 until we have 8 females and 1 male (roomie). Didn't he get a hard time about that - he defends himself as best he can by stating he did invite about 4 men - wouldn't they be sorry they didn't come!!!!!

Everyone is lovely and really interesting and just my sort of people. We have a great night of food (amazing), wine (great of course) and chatter. The room was abuzz with conversation and laughter.

We dedicated the night to celebrations for a few people. Me for moving in, roomie for getting his residency and 1of the new friend just got engaged.
























And there ends my first day, in my new home, in my new state!!

What will tomorrow bring......a job I hope.

Till tomorrow

Amanda x

Day 4 - The search for a place to live

Today's priority - somewhere to live. So, pot of tea made and I start scouring the Internet and making a list of potential places. First phone call made, and I have arranged to go look at a room for rent in Elwood.

Outcome - first impressions of room mate are all good, location good - tram stop very close (tick), beach nearby (tick), city not far (tick) and restaurants and cafes of either Elwood village or St Kilda a stones throw away (tick, tick). And no, I have not developed sudden uncontrollable muscle movements, I am just justifying my decision to not go and look at any other places and take the first room I look at. Now those that know me well would probably find this hard to believe but I did just that. Normally I like to be sure of my decisions and that would always include ruling out all other possibilities or options. Something inside me just knew that even if I looked all weekend, like I had planned, that I would likely come back to the first option. So why waste my time and possibly lose the room!!! Now let me add here how happy I am with myself for this epiphany. Although, I do need to admit that I didn't say yes straight away, I walked away, thought about it, called in a second opinion and then even went a third opinion, thought a little more and then made the decision. (I am still me, after all!)

So I have found somewhere to live - Yah! So in case you missed it earlier in the conversation, it is in Elwood. Where I have since been informed my great Aunt used to live. An aunt that I used to ask whenever I saw her "tell me about the olden days". So subconsciously I may have a bank of stories about this place, maybe this is why it felt like it could be just the place for me to call home for now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elwood,_Victoria

So priority for the day accomplished, what to do now??? Explore Melbourne some more I say.

My wonderful couch surfing roomie was heading out on a date, so he offered to escort me into the city on his way. We caught the tram in and he gave me heaps of recommendations on places to go. Armed with umbrella ( yes, the weather has turned and is now cold, windy and rainy but not bothering me!) I get some walking shoes on and walk the city streets.

I am captivated by the people, the sights and sounds - I always love to lose myself in a city............and guess what.......I did just that, got lost........twice!!!!! Bahahahahahaha


















Caught the tram back, worked out which way I needed to go, which number to get on and managed to get on the right one, but "Houston we have a problem"........I can't see out the darn windows (only looking at the reflection of myself getting anxious about where to get off). Hmmmmm it didn't seem to take this long on the way in!!! Hmmm what to do, what to do......ok, hop off and catch a cab.

I interrupt this news piece with breaking news...........

I have just been taken by surprise by another male coming up in a very friendly manner.

(Pregnant pause)

Ok so this one is of the feathered variety!!!!!!! And he only wants food from me.......this girl has nothing to offer you my friend. Turn and walk away.....no.....your not going, this is your park I hear you say, ok, I will move on ( I've seen funniest home videos, I know your type!!)







So getting back to my story.....

Thank goodness I was able to hail a cab straight away.........and guess what, I was panicking for no reason, another few minutes down the road was my street!!! Oh well, you get that.

Ok so this entry is starting to get far too long, are you all still reading, if you are then thank you and I won't keep you much longer.

Final thought for the day, lady luck has been on my side since I have arrived in Melbourne. Let's just hope she is still with me when I go to the Melbourne Cup!!!!!!! I guess the saying is true, " You never know your luck in a big city"

Till tomorrow

Amanda x

Day 3 - Arrived St Kilda, Melbourne

I have had an amazing start to my Melbourne stay. I arrived into St Kilda around lunchtime on Friday. The sun was shining and there were people everywhere making the most of it.








I went for a walk down the pier and up and down Ackland street.
























Sat and had a drink with the many others at a place called Republica which overlooked the beach.







Still had a couple of hours till I was due to meet up with my couch surfing host so I kicked back on the grass and people watched for a while. Meanwhile, while I was talking to Kim on the phone, a good looking guy sat down in front of me and was taking photos. When he stood to leave I smiled at him (smiles are free so I can be generous with them!) He walked off but, stone the crows, he came back a couple of minutes later and said hello, introduced himself and asked if he could sit with me........being the friendly girl that I am of course I said yes.........after a lovely chat for about 20 minutes he asked if he could buy me a drink ( ahhhh let me think about that.....YES). So back to Republica we went for a drink until 6 pm came around and we both had somewhere to be....yes yes we exchanged numbers!!

Exciting isn't it!!! Well for me it is these things don't happen everyday!

I then headed off to meet my couch surfing host Rodney. He is awesome. We hit if off right away chatting and more chatting ( ok so maybe I was doing most of the talking!!)







My room







Lounge room









View from kitchen

He has a beautiful apartment and I have my own room and set of keys. He laid out towels on the bed and gave me a parking permit to park right out the front......how nice are the people in Melbourne!!! So he then takes me out and points out the places to go and the ones to avoid. We had a beer at one place and then headed to another........there are about 50 places to eat and drink on Fitzroy St (maybe an exaggeration but there are heaps!!!) we had a bottle of red and tapas and lots more chatting. Then a female friend of Rodney's joined us and my photography friend also joined us. What a great night......was up till the early hours of the morning but oh my goodness what a first day I have had.

p.s. Photography man was very nice, was a perfect gentlemen but I did manage to get a kiss or two! Will I see him again.....who knows because he is from Hungary, staying in Sydney and only visiting Melbourne for a couple of days. He left today.

p.p.s. Rodney's friend is an international student from Trinidad and her name is Sparkle!!!! How fun is that!! It's her real name.

So there ends the official starting day of my stay in Melbourne. If this keeps up I might not go home!

Till tomorrow and the search to find a place to live for the next month.

Amanda x

Day 2 - Yarra Valley

Was enjoying being a bar fly and chatting to 4 old local fellas at the pub last night but alas, after only 2 drinks, I walked back to camp before it got dark. Pub was choccas with groups of bikies who were all heading to the races at Phillip Island.

It was pretty cold overnight but my sleeping bag did the job nicely - although I did have to pull it up over my face so my nose didn't freeze and fall off!!!

After a coffee in town I hit the road heading for the Yarra Valley. Wasn't sure where exactly I was going to stay but I thought I would just play it by ear.

I saw areas where the fires had gone through and left the trees in a pretty bad way. I stopped at Yarra Glen for a drink (soft) at the Grand pub.





Wasn't many camping grounds around so the closest one was at Warrandyte. I will have a good look around tomorrow. It is an old gold mining town and the township I drove through looks quaint and eclectic.





So I am officially in Melbourne!!! I am about 25 kms to the CBD. I have somewhere to stay for the next 2 nights while I spend the weekend trying to secure some short term accommodation - a room in a share house.


So here is my camp set up for tonight







My friends for the night







And this is my office, with a view, where the latest installment of my blog (which I dearly hope gets more exciting!) has been created.






So till tomorrow

Amanda x

Day 1 - Cootamundra to Beechworth

Left Uncle Wayne in Cootamundra this morning at about 10.30am (I think). It was a good drive and I stopped for lunch in Albury. I spotted a Thai noodle cart on the side walk that was very busy so figured it was the place to eat......so I did (yummo)











It's now 5.30pm and the sun is still shining. I had a clear bluebird day for the first day of my road trip. I now find myself sitting in the Tanswells Commercial Hotel (terrible state of affairs I know!) I have already pitched my tent at the caravan park which is about a 15 minute walk into town. Very happy with my choice of tent (so far!) Only takes me about 10 minutes to get tent up, bedding in, and all ready to go.











The walk from the caravan park into town is amazing. There is a pathway the makes its way around a lake and then you cut through a Chinese garden. Just one or two photo opportunities!!!













































































































Had a wander around town, although about half the shops had closed which is normal for a country town I guess! I taste tested a heap of honeys and decided on a Grey Ironbark jar.
And that brings me back to where I am now - the pub. It's a great old pub with a really nice feel to it. The fireplace behind me is keeping me toasty and the wine which came highly recommended by the bar lady is very very good. Ok I forget what it is and they are too busy for me to ask at the moment.

Alright I will leave it at that for now. Till tomorrow........Amanda x