The last Hurrah - Melbourne and Sydney

August 16, 2008
Tomorrow is my last day in Australia. This is sad. The trip is pretty much over. This is terrible. I have to work for the rest of my life in about 2 weeks. This is depressing. I can't believe this crap.

Melbourne was pretty nice, but actually cold. At least Brisbane got up to about 75 during the day. When I got off the plane in Melbourne it was about 45 degrees and rainy. It rained on and off the whole time I was there. Being cold isn't a big deal, but being wet and cold isn't too much fun. I have stuff for rain, but not much for the cold. I pretty much walked around the city when it wasn't raining. My hostel was nice but I didn't meet too many people. Everyone in my 10 person room decided to go to bed about 10 pm every night. Lame. I did get to see a film at the Melbourne International Film Festival the first night I was there though. Since it was cold I decided on 'A Christmas Tale'. Sounds like a happy movie right? Nope. It was about 3 hours about a French family that had all these depressing problems. To make it worse it really wasn't that interesting and it was shot in French so I had to read subtitles the whole time. The nextday I went to Victoria Market which is this huge market right near my hostel. I did a little shopping for stuff and then checked out the casino. After donating $50 in 45 minutes to the casino I went back to the hostel a little upset with myself.

The day I left for Sydney was kinda annoying. First the shuttle bus that I paid for said I wasn't outside at 8:30 am so they just decided to leave. I went outside at 8:20 to make sure I didn't miss it. This kinda made me mad and I had to walk to the station. Then the free hostel bus service in Sydney didn't answer the phone so I had to buy a $15 train ticket. Also made me mad. Then the train to the city broke for a half hour. Also made me mad. Even better, I lost my hostel voucher because I had to take it out of my bag for the phone number of the hostel so many times. This wouldn't be that bad if the hostel had my name in their system like they should. I go to the hostel and they can't find my name and I can't find my voucher. This makes me mad. Luckily there was an STA Travel agency nearby so I went to them and they got me a new one. I was in a bit of a bad mood though. I dropped my stuff in my room and went out to the city. I saw the Opera house and walked across the harbor bridge and all that then after that went back to my room.

I met a bunch of people in this hostel. There is a French kid, Loris, who I have been going around the city with. Today we went hiking in the Blue mountains. They are called the blue mountains because some oil in the trees make them appear blue in the distance. We saw some wild kangaroos and some really pretty views but it was a lot of walking up and down a mountain. When we got back to the hostel there was some old creepy Australian guy in the room. Not scary weird but just kinda weird he is there. He was talking to the English girls in the room and telling them how much England sucks but said he has never been there... so... yeah. I think now its dinner time for me. I guess I should have a big night tonight because its my last real night here. Tomorrow night I have to wake up early to go to the airport. Australia for 2 weeks is just a tease.

San Diego on Monday.

- Alex