We spent no less than 11 days in Melbourne because we were able to spend the holidays with Eyal and Marieke. Jochem and Eyal studied Hospitality Management together in The Hague and have remained good friends despite the fact Eyal moved down under. I also consider Eyal a friend and we were thrilled to stay with him for a couple of days. It was great to be with them during the holidays because we really missed our family and friends during this time. Moreover, Eyal and Marieke share a beautiful apartment that was a real feast after weeks of dorm rooms. Although it was cooler in Melbourne than in any other part of Australia we've been, it was still warm and sunny and didn't really feel like Christmas at all. So we just used our time to relax - no Lonely Planet, no maps, no sightseeing. Instead we slept in, drank wine and caught up with one another's lives.
On our first night in Melbourne Eyal had to work and he invited us for dinner at the restaurant where he runs the kitchen as head chef. Here he prepared a 10-course vegetarian tasting menu. I think Eyal was a little bit disappointed that he couldn't persuade us to try any of his meat or fish dishes, but we loved the vegetarian food. Quite inexplicably and surprisingly, Jochem has also become a vegetarian. You certainly won't hear me complain!
awaiting our dinner at Bomba Stuzzichini e Aperitivi
Most of all, though, we spent our time walking Eddie. Eddie is Eyal and Marieke's 10-month-old Jack Russel Terrier. We love dogs so we used every opportunity to walk him. As you may remember from some of my earlier blogs, we really enjoy the many parks and gardens in Australian cities and Eyal and Marieke took us to a couple of them to walk Eddie, which was always a lot of fun.
catching up at St Kilda Botanic Gardens
We walked Eddie so much, in fact, that during one particular, unexpectedly long and brutal walk my beloved new shoes lost their soles! But I've since been able to fix them in case I care to get into a nice restaurant, bar or club.
barefoot at Albert Park
Meeting Eddie and getting to know him better was definitely one of the highlights of our stay in Melbourne.
i ♥ eddie!
We did have one big outing during our time in Melbourne and that was our 2-day road trip on the Great Ocean Road. Miraculously, Eyal and Marieke agreed to let us borrow their car, Suzi Blue, and we were thrilled to finally explore Australia by car. We've come to find that for independent travellers such as ourselves who are a little bit older than the average backpacker, riding the bus and sleeping in hostels is more of a necessity than anything else. Were we ever to come back to Australia for another trip, we would save up more money so that we could rent a 4WD and go camping. So you can imagine our excitement at the prospect of being free to go wherever we wanted for two whole days.
between Lorne and Erskine Falls
And the Great Ocean Road is not at all exaggerated in its beauty.
between Lorne and Aireys Inlet
The Great Ocean Road starts at Torquay, which is about 67 kilometers from Melbourne, and goes on for 250 kilometers until it ends at Warnambool. We started driving on Boxing Day and made it as far as Princetown where we slept in a hostel called the 13th Apostel. The next day we drove a little bit farther to Port Campbell before heading back to Melbourne. We were so happy to be together on the road again that we even made some videos of ourselves singing along my iPod. It was cool but sunny with not a cloud in sight. It was great fun!
There were two spots on the Great Ocean Road that I loved the most. The first is the area between Anglesea and Kennett River. This is not the most spectacular part of the journey but the towns along which you drive are incredibly idyllic and pretty.
We made our first stop on the very windy (and thus: cold) beach of Anglesea.
Anglesea
We had lunch at the beautiful area surrounding the Split Point Lighthouse in Aireys Inlet.
Split Point Lighthouse at Aireys Inlet
We drove inland at Lorne to see the Erskine Falls where we witnessed these beautiful trees.
near Erskine Falls
And our last stop of the day was in Kennett River where we were lucky enough to see 8 wild koalas hanging out in the trees.
on Grey River Road in Kennett River
The next day we made our way to Port Campbell National Park and this is the second spot that we really loved. It is probably the area that most people associate with the Great Ocean Road and the many sights here are definitely of the GRAND category. The area between Princetown and Port Fairy is called the Shipwreck Coast and the limestone cliffs here are constantly at battle with the elements, which created beautiful structures along the shore. We saw a lot of them, including the Gibson Steps, the Lord Ard Gorge, the Arch, the London Bridge, the Grotto and the iconic Twelve Apostles.
Twelve Apostels at Port Campbell National Park
It was little bit sad to go back to hostel life after all that. It seems that the closer we get to Sydney, the hostels get bigger, the backpackers get louder and the booze is consumed in larger quantities. It's not exactly my kind of scene. Don't get me wrong - the hostels have excellent facilities and are generally much cleaner than our accommodation in South East Asia (though if I never find another shower clogged with somebody else's body hair it'll be too soon). I wish we could afford to sleep in hotels and go out to restaurants. But we can't. So we deal the hand we've been given.
Habitat HQ in St Kilda
Now our time in Melbourne is almost up. Tonight we board our last overnight bus from Melbourne to Sydney. Sydney seems extremely big and overwhelming, but we booked a hostel that's supposedly nice and quiet, so I hope it'll be okay. The nice thing about big cities like Melbourne and Sydney is that they're much more 'gezellig' than other cities we've been to. But still, they can't hold a candle to South East Asian cities, let alone European ones!
I guess there's only one thing left to do and that is to thank Eyal and Marieke for showing us 'their' Melbourne. It has been our pleasure!
Urban Hotel in St Kilda
If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!
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