Melbourne - Yarra Valley Wine Tour

PROST!

Although I have already done a wine tasting tour in Australia (in the Barossa Valley Wine Tour near Adelaide) I thought it would be great to compare that fantastic experience with some wineries from the Yarra Valley near Melbourne. As life is too short for bad wine I didn’t decide on the cheapest wine tour and went with the recommendation of Carly to do the daily public wine tasting tour with the Australian Wine Tour company. What I especially like about these wine tours is the fact that they don’t start before 9am :-)

Melbourne - ACMI and Berlin Bar

G’Day mates,

On Saturday I slept in and only got up in time for lunch. Ahh, that’s good. After lunch I walked to Federation Square and into the Australia Center for the Moving Image (ACMI). The entry is FREE and although it is not allowed to take pictures in there lots of people did and so did I.

Melbourne - Footscray Park and Maribyrnong River

Hi there,
It is Wednesday the 19th of March. One week ago I got back to Melbourne from Adelaide and I am lucky enough to still stay with Tim and his funny flatmate while I am trying to find a job. I had a few promising phone calls and a nice chat yesterday to someone who might have the right contacts. While I have to wait for an answer back I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and went for a walk to Footscray Park which is only a 10 minute walk away from the house. And I most say: I was very surprised by how nicely done it is.

Melbourne - Formula 1 Grand Prix

Cheerio friends,
I couldn't sleep any longer as I was so excited about this day. I got up early and was at Gate 8 of the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park at 9:30am. So one hour before the gates open and there were already long queues.

At 10am it got really full and they had to form three queues and they were about 4-5 times as long as you can see on the picture above.

Melbourne - Pocket watch at Melbourne Central

Hi there,

On Friday afternoon I was by coincidence at 2pm at Melbourne Central when I heard this clock playing a melody. This was surprising especially as it did not work before. Elina told me that it would play every hour and the lower part comes down to show the birds and the two figures playing an instrument each. It was really nice.

Melbourne - Community day at Grand Prix

WRUMM! WRUMM!

That’s the all-day dominating sound of the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne and I was part of it on the Community Day which is absolutely FREE! I arrived there at about 1pm and walked along the track which is set around the lake which I hardly recognized (Markus and I have been to Albert Park two months ago).

Melbourne - Mexican food with friends - Picnic and comedy

Moin Moin to all my readers,

As I woke up this Sunday the 16^th of February 2014 it was absolutely pouring down outside. I would have liked to just stay in bed but I had to get to a supermarket to get some ingredients for my bean salsa. Elina and Karlis have invited their friends to a Mexican theme picnic in the Botanical Garden. I arrived at about 12:30pm to a blue sky like it has never rained. During the afternoon more and more friends of Elina and Karlis arrived, many with babies and little children and everyone with lots of food. We had lots of Salsa, Guacamole, different salads, lots of vegetables, chicken, tortilla and fruits as dessert.

Melbourne - QVM and free MSO concert with friends

Cheers everyone,

On Saturday morning I woke up at 7:30am to get ready to meet my friends Elina and Karlis! They are from Melbourne but living in Bremen now. As they knew I was here as well while they are visiting their families and friends they invited me to come along with them to some grocery shopping at the Queen Victoria Market. It was really busy there at 9:30am but we managed to get everything of their list by 11am. After that we walked to Hardware Lane for some coffee, cappuccino and Chinotto.

 

 Then we decided to have kind of a second breakfast instead of lunch.

Melbourne - South Market, NGV, Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine’s Day!

What did I do on Valentine’s Day all on my own in Melbourne? After breakfast I went back to bed. Yes, I slept in until about 12pm and then decided to go to the South Melbourne Market to have lunch there. It is only a 5 minute walk from the hostel. It is much smaller than the QueenVictoria Market and set up partly in a real building und not just under a hall. Also the shops are set up permanently which gives the market actually more a shopping center atmosphere than a market one.

 

Melbourne - Garden, Treasury, Organ concert, casino

Hi there,

You are probably getting sick of reading more about Melbourne but it has so much to offer. And I am kind of stuck here if you will because my friends from Melbourne who live in Bremen now are here to visit their family and friends. I will meet them this weekend. So although I have already decided to not look any more for a job in Melbourne I will stay here until after this weekend and then travel on further. Therefore I am going to make the best of my time here and discover this city which was voted several times as one of the most liveable cities in the world. You have everything: business, art, culture, sport, science, tourism, lots and lots of events in a fabulous laidback and still kind of European atmosphere.

Melbourne - Federation Square and National Gallery of Victoria

Greetings especially to my art-loving friends out there,

Today was supposed to be my shopping day to treat myself and get over the wasted time I have invested in looking for a job that I have no certificate for. But as I had to go to the Visitor Information Center on Federation Square to ask a few things I decided I could as well have a walk around the square. The square shall symbolize the red and grey colors of the outback (or something like that).

Melbourne - Going out and about

Good morning world!

In the last five days I have spent each afternoon/evening with someone else around the city which is great as I totally did not know what to do with myself. As I already wrote in my last entry I haddinner and a last walk around Melbourne with Laura on Thursday. On Friday I had to check-out of my room and check-in in the afternoon into another 4-bed-female-dorm in the same hostel (Nomads All Nations) and met three Australian girls from Adelaide. They were so nice and friendly and as I had no other plans for the evening they asked me to come along with them for a night out.

Melbourne - Docklands Dragon at daylight and at night

Howdy partners,

Melbourne is getting into yet another heat wave and without air-conditioning in our rooms it is a bit hard to sleep. So I got up earlier than intended, skyped with Markus and applied to some more jobs. After an hour I had enough of it and spent the rest of the morning looking up some information about Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. I am pretty sure now that I will fly there in two weeks.

Laura and I had lunch together and after an afternoon nap we both set out into the incredible heat at 5:30pm to drive to the Docklands to have a look at this 100 m long and 10 meter high dragon.

 

Melbourne - Australia Day celebrations

Happy Australia Day everyone!

On the 26th of January 1788 the first fleet from Great Britain arrived in Australia and marks the first European settlement and the foundation of Australia. This day is celebrated all over Australia and I stayed in Melbourne until this day on purpose. So three weeks after I first arrived in Melbourne I got up not too early but in time to witness the flag raising ceremony at the Town Hall.

Melbourne - Job interviews and penguins

Servus everyone,

It’s Friday already! Where did the time go? One week ago I started to look for a job on the internet. I have sent my CV/resume to different Facility Management companies and applied for various assistant jobs throughout Melbourne. And this week I already had two interviews!

Melbourne - Guided walking tour and meeting people

G'Day people, 
This Monday marks two weeks of me being in Melbourne! Oh my god, time has past so quickly! Through the help of friends, the Lonely Planet and the information of the Visitor Information Center (and all the self-guided tours) I already think I know my way around the CBD. Nevertheless I thought it would be a good idea to participate in a guided walking tour. So Laura and I went to the State Library at 2:30pm.

There FREE guided tours start every day and you will recognise the guides by their green shirts.

Melbourne - Waterfront and Melbourne Star at night

Good evening everyone,
On Sunday evening Laura and I decided to hit the town at night to explore the fabolous lights. Although the camera does take some good pictures it was of course much better. But this gives you an idea.

Melbourne - A walk in the garden with Laura

Hello everyone,
On Sunday morning after skyping with Markus, I decided to help my new room mate Laura to purchase a mobile phone with an Australian number as her English is not so good yet. We walked to Bourke Street and after half an hour of deciding and talking to a staff member she purchased a decent phone with a Prepaid SIM card. Then we did a self-guided walk together which is called "Walk in the garden". Laura asked me not to post the picture of her, so unfortunately I cannot show her to you. The tour directed us into Hosier Lane which is full of graffiti.

Melbourne - Job applications and waterfront

Howdy partners,

It’s Saturday afternoon and I am finally feeling cool again at 23 degrees Celsius. It’s been over 40 degrees Celsius over the past three days. The sun was burning down, the wind was as hot as a hairdryer and you were thirsty and sweaty all the time whilst outdoors. Even in our 4-bed-dorm it was just horrible to stay in. So I decided to stay in the dining/internet/meeting area of the hostel where a ventilator was supplying a bit of a cool breeze and have a look for jobs on the internet. But it was hard to concentrate with all the people around, eating and talking.

Melbourne - Keeping busy and crocodile burger

Welcome to the next level of my adventure,

Because on Wednesday morning at 6:45am Markus left the hotel to go to the airport and I am now alone in big big Australia for the more challenging work part of my Working Holiday Visa. I cannot describe in words how sad his departure made me and of course I could not sleep after that. I checked out at 10am, left my luggage at the Miami Hotel Melbourne and began the incredible task to distract myself and get ready for a real backpacker life.