Day 255! Time to start exploring the city of Melbourne! Today I went to the city and met up with my friend Immy. We had a wonderful day wandering the city and I’m looking forward to many more of those days to come.

I woke up this morning a few times to movers coming in and out of the house. I eventually fully awoke around 8:30am and started getting ready for my day!

Today Sam was in class, so I was going to go meet up with my friend Immy who just arrived in Melbourne as well! She’s staying downtown in one of the hostels until we find a place to stay more permanently.

I set out around 9:30am to learn how to use Melbourne’s fantastic public transportation system.

After a 15 minute walk, I arrived to Brighton station just as the train I needed arrived. The city is super connected to the suburbs, it reminds me a lot of the tube system in London… something the US is lacking heavily in their cities.

After a 21 minute ride, I made it to Richmond Station, where I switched trains the city loop. I took that a few more stations to Parliament Station, which was nearby Immy’s hostel.

I walked a couple more minutes and arrived at The Mansion, where Immy was staying.

Immy made us breakfast this morning. Hostels in Australia have kitchens so people can have their own pantry space and cook. So she whipped us up some oatmeal with cinnamon, sugar, and bananas.

While we were sitting, eating, and plotting our day, three other hostel stayers sat down with us. Two guys from Taiwan and one guy from the UK.

It was nice having a chance to meet new people in a hostel setting again. One of the Taiwanese guys liked to do a quick sketch of the people he meets. So here’s the one of me:

We sat and chatted for a bit while Immy finished some RSA documentation. And then we set out to walk around the city.

We started heading towards a bank for Immy to get her bank cards from. She was smart and applied before she came into the country (I didn’t realize you could do that).

On our way, we walked into the Queen Victoria Market. This was a market full of meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, and much more.

We’ll definitely be coming back here to grocery shop in the future!

We also met a guy handing out gin samples and after chatting with him for a bit, we asked if they needed any workers. There’s no distillery since it’s still run out of one of the owners homes. But they allegedly did need some help with the selling of it, so he took our numbers. I think this is how a lot of the jobs are made out here

We kept wandering around for a while until we eventually found the bank. And it was the same type as the one I tried to open. While Immy sorted her things out, I decided to inquire about the status of my account.

Im glad I did because it turns out my passport number on my application didn’t match my current passport… so it wasn’t my middle name that was the issue… it was that!

I guess I never downloaded the updated copy after I updated my visa. I applied for my visa and then got a new passport… oops!

I sent them the new visa so hopefully after the weekend I’ll get my account open.

We then kept wandering about to find some food. I googled some cheap spots to eat and I found a food court, that happened to be in China town, nearby and cheap.

We arrived at the food court and there were lots of cheap options. So I went with the Sri Lankan food which was incredible and only $12 AUD ($9 USD). More expensive than Thailand but cheap for the city!

We then wandered over to Flinders Station, where we met up with my friend Sam who was finally done with class!

We took a walk to and through the botanical gardens that is in this area of the city.

It was really nice having Sam and Immy meet! I always like bringing friends together, it makes me really happy when they get along.

We stayed at the gardens for over an hour and enjoyed the sites and chatter. There were also so many birds everywhere in the park.

We made our way back to the tram station and said see you later to Immy. I’ll be seeing her all day tomorrow.

We got back to Sam’s very empty house and hung out and played some guitar. We ordered in some pizza as well and watched the last episode of Attack on Titan. I had already seen it but it was fun watching it again. It was such a good show.

I had an early morning today and I have one tomorrow as well, so I decided to call it a night on the early side.

Tomorrow, Immy and I are house hunting… hopefully everything will go well and we can find a nice and affordable one soon!

– Elie