Winging It

Note: I have updated the album titled "Australia: Melbourne and Around" with the pictures from the past few days, including the Great Ocean Road trip and a day at Phillip Island. Enjoy!

Summary:

• Friday, 24 Dec: Made breakfast; met up with Martin to search for rental car companies; eventually booked through Thrifty online; went our separate ways for lunch and to rest; took a nap; met up again with Martin to buy food at Queen Victoria Market and then head to Port Melbourne Beach to relax and then meet people for a Couchsurfing BBQ; spent several hours at the beach, watched sunset; headed back to the dorms around 10pm.
• Saturday, 25 Dec: Got up early, showered, packed and checked out of the hostel; picked up rental car and slowly drove through the city to Martin's hostel to pick him up; we realized we had no idea how to get to the Great Ocean Road so stopped at a Holiday Inn, where they printed us a packet for the whole trip; spent the entire day driving along the Great Ocean Road, ending in Warrnambool.
• Sunday, 26 Dec: Went to Tower Hill park west of Warrnambool and climbed around a bit; hit several outlooks along the Great Ocean Road on the way back towards Melbourne, as well as national parks; got in to Melbourne where Martin's couchsurfing host agreed to host me as well.
• Monday, 27 Dec: Picked up a girl Martin had met at his hostel; drove to Philip Island, about two hours away; explored the island for the day; attempted to find a Melbourne city-view from Martin's guidebook, but arrived 30 minutes too late to get in; back to Melbourne and Rachel, our couchsurfing host. 
• Tuesday, 28 Dec: Up early to return car to rental company; walked around Melbourne Central Business District (CBD); watched street performers at Federation Square, visited information center, used internet cafe; headed back to host's house, eating Middle Eastern for a late lunch; played on computer, did my laundry and chatted with host and other surfers.

On Thursday, December 23rd, I met Martin. Martin is a student in Germany who recently finished university and is taking some time to travel before starting up his studies again. On Friday, we searched around for car rental companies, having no luck until we tried online. Even then we paid quite a lot for our car, but decided that we really wanted to do the Great Ocean Road trip, so we went ahead with it. And on Saturday, we were off! It was the beginning of a trip with a stranger, with no plans for accommodation or meals or road maps past the basic tourist maps.

The coastline was beautiful and the weather, while ever-changing, was nice enough to allow short walks on beaches and trails. We jumped in and out of the car fairly often, wowing over the views. We got along pretty well and even the highway driving was fun, if adventurous at times, since driving on the left is a bit strange to me. We did some basic grocery shopping so that we could minimize what we spent on meals. In the evening, we decided to drive another hour past the 12 Apostles, which was the last thing we saw for the day, to Warrnambool. Martin was able to get online on his laptop and found that there was a backpacker (hostel) in that town.


We found one, although not the one he'd found online, and they had dorm beds for $24AUD apiece. It was actually a really nice hostel, with a kitchen and dishes, pool table, free tea and coffee, games, maps, brochures and big tv's. The walls were fairly thin, but otherwise it was a great place.


The next day, we headed to a place I'd found in one of the hostel brochures, Tower Hill. It was a pretty mixture of wetlands and forest, just behind a crest of hills from the ocean. Then we headed back along the Great Ocean Road, taking the whole day to hit different viewpoints that we hadn't seen the day before. The weather wasn't quite as nice, but there were moments of blue sky that were stunning. We got back into Melbourne fairly late, arriving just before midnight at Martin's couchsurfing host's house.

There, we met Rachel, our host, and her other surfer, Nick from Belgium. And soon after that, I was asleep!

The whole trip was one of "winging it." It was a completely comfortable experience, but everything worked out just fine in the end. Rachel has agreed to host me for a couple nights (along with Martin and Nick) and so my last few days in Melbourne will be easy and cheap! Plus, Rachel is an extremely friendly, talkative and lively hostess. It's just too bad that she works nights at her job, because we don't get to hang out as much as I'd like.


Being a bit more "foot loose" was one of my goals for my travels. I tend to over plan, so I've been working on doing minimal planning and seeing what comes up. Usually, things turn out pretty good, or even great!
But it's a hard habit to cultivate, since there's always the sense that by doing this, I'll miss seeing something that I shouldn't miss.


I'm really enjoying Australia. Although the weather is cold so far, it's still beautiful outside. The people are friendly and engaging. And the city of Melbourne is engaging and full of personality that you can feel and see.  

--Z